Gothamist is so jealous of the Times' Julia Moskin, as she gets to write an article about how real pit barbecue has made its way to New York. The vagaries of what barbecue is are touched upon (even a statement like "barbecue is meat cooked by indirect heat and smoke" causes a lot of debate) but the focus is on the New York restaurants that do offer pit barbecue. According to Moskin, Daisy May's, Blue Smoke and the upcoming Pearson's Texas BBQ on the Upper East Side are the only BBQ restaurants that cook "exclusively" with wood. And while barbecue authority Robb Walsh says, when asked if NY's barbecue can go head to head with Texan 'cue, "Let me put the question in New York terms: If you filtered Houston city water so it was the same as New York tap, and used the same flour, and brought in the same ovens, could you make authentic New York bagels in Texas? Yes, and no," we say, who cares - we'll take what we can get!
Daisy May's Adam Perry Lang uses complex sauces, and a lot of them, which, for some barbecue purists is cheating (the meat needs to stand on its own), but it's part of his background as a former chef at Daniel. Lang also scoffs as food snobs, by saying, "I hate restaurants. Great barbecue is just as good or better than anything you eat in a restaurant." Sigh, Gothamist would like to marry you, Adam Perry Lang, as long as you have your pit cooker. In the meantime, we need to get to Daisy May's - Paul has been telling (taunting) us about his visit and we're still drooling.
Jeffrey Steingarten's chapter, "Going the Whole Hog," in The Man Who Ate Everything is extremely helpful in understanding barbecue. Steingarten also kindly gave us some ribs.
Gothamist loves BBQ.
