New Jersey State BBQ Championship - Wildwood, NJ

Whoa whoa whoa whoa those wildwood days

Wild wild wildwood days my baby

Every day's a holiday and every night is a saturday night

Oh those wildwood days wild wild wildwood days

And then those party lights wild wild wildwood nights

Even Bobby Rydell would have had sticky fingers and sauce on his cheeks at this event, maybe it would have inspired a new song! This is a great competition organized by the Anglesea Fire Dept. and held in north Wildwood, NJ in conjunction with the Anglesea Blues Festival. BBQ'n right next to the beach with the sounds of the ocean and seagulls... it doesn't get much better!

Friday...
I rolled in at 10:30am on Friday and set up camp. Having a condo 5 blocks from the event is awesome. I spend that 1st night there so I can get some rest before the long nights of cooking. If you have followed any of my blogs you know I've not had a dry competition yet this year...  and this one was no exception. The rain started around the same time as our cooks meeting, 7pm, and it was hard! When we left the fire hall after the meeting the streets were flooded... I mean shin deep, too deep for cars to pass through! We waded back to our cooking site and there was not much we could do - everything was wet. One of our neighboring competitors had their tent collapse under the weight of the water. With the rain lightening somewhat and our tent intact, I hit the condo for some sleep, 9:30pm.

Saturday...
At 9am I headed back to the cook site to access the water damage from the night before. The sun was shining bright, yes, the sun! I put all the wet chairs and charcoal out in the sun to dry, and it did not take long in that heat. There were some competition categories to be turned in on Saturday - Iron Chef, which was a 12lb. turkey, desert, and sauce. I handed in sauce but chose hanging out with some visiting folks over the other categories. It was a damn good decision too, lots of people came to hang out. We cooked up some burgers and dogs and went through lots of brews - the buffalo trace even made an appearance a few times! Before I knew it the time came to start cooking the brisket and pork for the KCBS competition, It was a long night!

Sunday...
We have turn-in day, all the rain and partying is in the past - time to get serious.

This chicken took 3rd place! This came as a surprise, I thought it was our worst turn-in. Goes to show you never can tell - hail the chicken!



Ribs were slightly over cooked - 23rd out of 66 teams.

Pork - 22nd.

Brisket - a disappointing 49th.






Overall this was a great competition, lots of rain, lots of libations and one bathroom for all the competitors. Hell, we were at the beach, who can complain? I'll be back next year!

          And then those party lights wild wild wildwood nights


Cheers!