If You Want it Done Right

They say that if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. Nowhere is this truer than in China. Friends working in quality control would agree - this is not a place where you can offer simple instructions and expect to know the end result. Although I should say its a great place to get a copy made. I could hand someone a photo of the plate above and get a replica which looked just as tasty. But nothing that tasted nearly as good.

I'm a Kansas City girl, and we've been importing our Arthur Bryant's and our Billardo Brothers for years now. But as our stock dwindles, the time has come to man up and make out own. Here are the photographic results of our day of barbeque.

the makings of the sauce

the makings of the bacon -
you could still feel the piggies little back hairs on the skin!

Believing ourselves to be in China only temporarily,
I never bought a food processor.
Enough is enough!
This machine is loads of fun!

the beans, after a 14 hour soak

the beans, after an hour of boiling in sauce

after 4 hours of boiling

after sitting in the coals of the grill for 2 hours. yum!

the grillmaster and his assistant,
cooking late into the night

and once again, the final product

We need to keep refining. The beans were still a bit tough, the Root Beer was too expensive an ingredient, and something about the ribs just wasn't right. We think it might have been the meat itself, which we've got no power to fix.

But the best part? I shredded the leftover meat into the beans, and boiled it all with the rest of the sauce the next day. Poured the whole mix over fresh corn bread. Oh, heaven!