We all love our BBQ. All across the country you can smell those grills cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, BBQ and all kinds of delicious things during the official grilling season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Calling that time of the year the official grilling season doesn’t apply to most because there are people out bundled up in winter on their deck grilling a juicy steak. Those are hard core BBQ fans. Even those hard core grillers can’t match the enthusiasm of the BBQ lovers in Florida. They have the Florida Bar-B-Que Association. That’s right, an official association for BBQ.
I need to tell you, this association is serious! They hold competitions for the best BBQ. When checking their calendar, it appears there are events every weekend. The competition takes place over a 2 day period. They have sanctioned and unsanctioned contests. The meat used in these competitions is inspected and only certain cooking fuels are allowed. There are approved types of cookers. There are grilling teams and they have to adhere to a conduct code. They hold judging seminars. They even have a cooking school! Oh, yeah, these people mean business.
The website for the Florida Bar-B-Que Association is chock full of all kinds of information about BBQ in Florida. I never knew there was such a following for BBQ. There are all kinds of links to information about BBQ organizations and magazines. There are links for recipes. There’s a link to a BBQ judge website (I’d love to join that group!). And best of all there is a link to Operation BBQ Relief. This group mobilizes teams to go to areas that were affected by natural disasters across the United States. Once at the location they use their expertise to cook meals for these folks. There is a compassionate side to BBQ.
If you are visiting Florida or live there and are looking for a great BBQ experience you can find a list of all the BBQ places in Florida that people have been to with addresses and restaurant information. Now, mind you, they don’t recommend any one of the places over the other, but is sure is nice to know where to go if you have a craving for BBQ. And if you find a place not listed, you can add it to their list. After all, as this organization will tell you, you can never have enough BBQ.
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