How to Pick the Best Watermelon; Ribs Pigs Watermelon BBQ Contest at Westminster, CA.

By Dru Chai

Watermelon is probably my favorite fruit of all time. It's the perfect way to end a BBQ meal and it just makes you want to go pee every other minute. Plus, it's fruit, and everyone could stand to eat more fruit these days. I also take pride in going to the local grocery store or Costco to pick out the best one. Everyone wants a watermelon that's super juicy and sweet, but how do you know without slicing it open?

Well, everyone has their theories and own way of doing things -- but I like to tap the watermelon several times like a congo drum. If the result is a deep sound, then that means it's more ripe and juicy with a higher water content. In all my years of picking out watermelon with the congo drum method, I would say my success rate is about 90%.

At the market, I get the occasional weird look, but surprisingly not very many people do the congo drum method when picking out watermelons. I see people just randomly selecting one, thinking that they are all good. Also, you should also pick the watermelon up -- you want the biggest and heaviest watermelon you can get. If you have leftovers, no big deal -- just blend it up and make a slushie or granita. 

I'm talking about watermelon because I attended and judged the first annual Ribs, Pigs and Watermelon Summer Festival and BBQ Competition in Westminster, CA. It's a 3-day event organized by American Family Housing, which helps those in need with much-needed shelter. I thought that the event had some very reasonable prices, of which the proceeds go to a very worthy cause. They even had free watermelon throughout the event!

For their first event, I thought it was well-organized -- the layout was good, and I liked how everything wasn't completely spread out too far from each other. It just felt like a cozy, hometown BBQ event -- just a very hot one! Since it was in the parking lot at the Westminster Mall, it was scorching hot during the afternoon hours, so mostly everyone took refuge in the shade from the large tent nicknamed the "Watermelon Zone."

As always, it was good to catch up with familiar faces. OC Weekly's Shuji Sakai gave me plenty of tips and recommendations for my planned trip to Austin and Lockhart, TX next year. Mr. Slap Yo Daddy himself, Harry Soo, just returned from a competition and training students in the UK. He's got some awesome giveaways on his website, so check those out. 

As far as judging, it's always fun meeting new people because you always sit with random people at random tables. Everyone may be quiet strangers at first, but after several hours together -- it's the common bond and love for BBQ that has everyone talking. It was even cool to find out that the person who sat next to me at the judging table was one of my blog readers. This competition marked my 5th competition that I judged -- hard to believe it was only a few months ago that I was a BBQ judging rook. 'Til next time!

The Big Beef Rib at the OC Fair '12

By Dru Chai

Last year at the OC Fair, I wrote about deep fried kool-aid. It was alright, but it just didn't provoke any excitement. I'm not really a dessert kind of guy. I'm all about the meat. Call me a BBQ snob -- but generally when it comes to BBQ at the fair, I just have to shake my head. It's all the usual dry, lifeless BBQ plates and sandwiches. But when I first read about the Big Beef Rib on OC Weekly and OC Register, I just knew I had to check it out for myself.

With a name like Biggy's Meat Market, the new guys in town for the OC Fair wanted to create something that would stand out other than the usual giant burgers and fries. Hence, the Beef Rib (or La Super Costilla, if you want to say it with some latin flare) was born, and from speaking with owner Dominic, he's one proud papa.

The Big Beef Rib isn't an actual, natural rib commonly found in restaurants (for my money, my favorite restaurant beef rib is from Phil's BBQ in SD). Dominic's beef rib is "engineered" to basically look like a giant meat lollipop. He wouldn't divulge any details, but he has assured me that there is no meat glue, chemicals, or anything artificial into the making of the Big Beef Rib. One thing's for sure -- there's something satisfying about waving an enormous meat club in the air while grunting like a caveman.

It's 2 lbs of USDA Prime meat wrapped around a 17-inch bone, forming a giant meatsicle (yeah, I just made that word up). According to Dominic, they are initially smoked for a couple of hours at a little higher temperature than the usual low and slow -- around 280 degrees F over oak wood. Then it's finished off over an open mesquite fire before being slathered with sauce.

At $16.95 a pop, these suckers aren't obviously cheap. But we're at the OC Fair, and just about everything is overpriced. When I first ordered the Big Beef Rib, I was given a choice of how I wanted the meat cooked -- best at either medium-rare or medium. Then I had my choice of sauce -- smoky, zesty garlic, or spicy. I chose medium and the smoky sauce.

So how did it taste? I could taste a smidgen of smokiness, but I would've liked more. I was expecting to gnaw on some tough shoe leather, but the meat was actually tender -- especially the outer meat away from the bone. As far as the flavor, the meat itself could've used more of that "beefy" profile, and perhaps more seasoning. The slathering of the BBQ sauce definitely helped provide more flavor to the meat. I had to ask for more after eating about half of the rib.

As a BBQ guy, I obviously would've loved to have more smoky flavor in the meat and some more char on the exterior. It looked like the open mesquite fire was really low -- if the rib was finished off on a larger open flame to give it those awesome, blackened, grill char marks, that would've really elevated the rib. When it was all said and done, I had to put the leftover bone into the custom doggy bone bag for... who else? My dogs. They sure were happy!