Mmmm...Ribs *drool*

This post marks the first one about food, and it's about time too! My story for today starts a few days ago, when I was looking online for some new cheap restaurants to try for when the urge hit. I came across something that made the rib lover in me get very very happy: The East Cambridge "Smoke This" Rib Fest. At $15 a ticket, which allows you to try ribs from restaurants all over the town, this was an exciting deal. In Boston, let alone the Northeast, a barbecue competition is not a very common happening. There is one every summer in Government Center that I always seemed to miss, so I couldn't pass this up. My brother, who is also a big fan of anything barbecue, has a birthday coming up next week, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take him for his birthday. However, the plan had a flaw: by the time I found out about this event, the tickets had already sold out. I figured we'd head on over anyway just to check it out, and maybe get some food while we were at it.

He came to my dorm at noon and we set off for Cambridge. Two T rides, and the most annoying street performer to whom I would give $10 just to shut up, later, we were walking around Kendall Square looking around for this festival. We finally came across it, after getting lost, and walked around, looking at all the different stands and checking out our options. Barbecue is one of the most amazing smells ever. It just makes me hungry. I don't know if it was the smokey smell in the air or the sight of all the people eating ribs, but the whole atmosphere of the festival was really comforting. I also saw this huge black smoker that looked like it used to be one of those iron lungs back in the 20s. We decided we were going to see if there were any tickets left, but sadly, the website was correct. After a quick discussion, we decided to go get barbecue somewhere else a few Red Line stops away in Davis Square.

Redbones is a really cool place that you would only be able to find if you just happened to look down the right street at the right time. It's a pretty famous BBQ place in the city, and I think it even has a catering service (good to know). They have a list of more styles of ribs than I knew existed. St. Louis, Memphis, Arkansas, Texas, blah blah blah, the list goes on. The server brought us over jugs, and I mean jugs, of water and took our order. I went for the Memphis ribs, and my brother got some double platter of St. Louis ribs and pulled pork. The food came within 5 minutes, and I am not lying. I pictured this enormous slab of ribs in the back that they just cut up whenever they need them. In reality, that is probably what it is.

The Memphis ribs were super smokey and had that pink line around the edge of the meat that needs to be there if it's considered a good rib. You didn't really need sauce to give them flavor; it was all in the meat. This smoke, added to the fact that the meat pretty much melted off the bone, equaled a really good rib. And there were a lot of ribs! I got a small, which had 6 fairly large ribs, a side of beans and cole slaw for only $11. Add in some cornbread, which comes free with the meal, and I was a happy camper.

So even though we didn't end up at the festival, which I will try to get tickets to in advance next year, I still got my barbecue, and my brother still got his birthday present. And I'm pretty sure he was happy with that.