Many years ago, before I met Barbara and got involved in mysteries and publishing I did many, many things. I used to refer to myself as “a jack of all trades and master of most.” In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m a Gemini that also has Gemini rising – a double Gemini, in other words. At any rate I love to cook. It has been a lifelong passion (I started when I was eight years old) and I’m pretty good at it. So I made the classic mistake of thinking that because I love to cook I’d love to be a restaurant owner and for a year I was the owner of Moe’s Ribs in Santa Fe. We served good barbecue but BIG MISTAKE. Owning and operating a restaurant is a very different thing than cooking. Regardless, I still think that good barbecue is about the best food in the world. And when I mention barbecue I mean PIG. When a Texan says barbecue he means beef. Now a barbecued brisket of beef can be damn tasty, but it ain’t what I consider to be barbecue. Every state in the South has what it considers the best barbecue. My daughters insist that Tennessee barbecue is the king. I, having eaten at Arthur Bryants in Kansas City when Arthur was alive, contend that Kansas City leads the way, though KC sauces can sometimes be a little sweet. So I took a little walk around the web and came up with a few places that anyone who’s a vegetarian should avoid but you, gentle reader, might enjoy. An excellent essay on Tennessee barbecue and an interesting discussion of Carolina barbecue. There’s a great deal written about Kansas City barbecue. And South Carolina and Georgia barbecues are represented at the above links. And just in case you’re wondering how I got to this subject, I smoked a very well-seasoned pork butt earlier today, made a Carolina style sauce and am finishing the butt by braising it in a slow oven as I write. Tonight we’re going to have a pig pick (pulled pork) for dinner. Sorry you can’t be here.