eNewsHound

For many years, every celebration of my friends took place at Honey Bears BBQ.  This is a small business located in Phoenix, Arizona.  A small business that relies on age old recipes of Tennessee Barbecue.  Whether it was to celebrate a friend’s decision to quit being a lawyer, or a meal found after spending a day at the lake, we all just had to get to that spot, to get to those barbecue pits.  Years later I moved to Chicago.  Chicago and BBQ, hand in hand right?  Yes, for great barbecue, the city of Chicago is a great place to be.  You can go out, or you can have it delivered…it is everywhere, tasty and plentiful.

But still, I missed those flavors of Honey Bears.  My roommate, who had also lived in Phoenix and knew of this establishment.  She and I tried to recreate the flavors.  Our outdoor kitchen was stocked, complete with a sink, a grill, a work space and a few small outdoor refrigerators. We made a few special dishes, a few tasty ones, but nothing ever could compare.  One day in Chicago, my birthday actually, I was feeling a bit homesick when a UPS man pushed our bell.  He had a special delivery.  I buzzed him up, signed for the delivery, and took a look.

My roommate had arranged for a rack of ribs, with that incredible sauce, to be delivered at that exact moment.  The ribs were sealed and set on dry ice, we had a container of that sauce…and I had to wait for her to get home from work.  I called up Catherine, the Wicker Park neighborhood BBQ guru who lived next door, I told her to prepare.  When the time came, we heated up the ribs, went down the stairs and over to Catherine’s porch.  As we took our first bite, my eyes were on Catherine, I wanted her to dig these ribs.

She did.  We had a great time that night, and Catherine memorized the flavors much in the way a sommelier can memorize the obscure flavors of fine wine by simply smelling.  She promised to transcribe this recipe, from her taste buds to the grill, and she did.  Our outdoor kitchen was never the same after that day.