Big Apple BBQ Block Party....

I have a few NYC traditions....one of them is to go to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party every year. Pit crews from all of the country come to Madison Square Park for the event. It is pretty cool because you can sample so many different kinds of BBQ various parts of the country. One of the event sponsors is Rachael Ray. I stopped by her tent and watched the 2 editors from the Everyday magazine do a cooking seminar. It was funny because they were demonstrating the recipes that I had just read in the June/July grilling issue.The lines were LONG as usual....I walked around and watched the pit masters and pit crews sweat and smoke themselves out by the grills and smokers.....I decided on a pulled pork sandwich from a Black Jack BBQ from Charleston, South Carolina....yum!

Then I walked around to people watch and see all the TV and magazine crews talking to the pit masters.I then grabbed an order of salt and pepper beef ribs from Blue Smoke...delish!

This guy was pretty cool. He told me that they were smoking WHOLE hogs. They just split them down the middle like a chicken breast and lay them in the smokers. They had smoked and sold 3,000 pounds of pork n 2 hours and had to close down WAY early because they ran out of meat. That is craziness!!!