Malden Salt Fest was held this weekend at J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works to celebrate the history of salt making in the Kanawha Valley. The event featured artisans, live music and food trucks. I stopped to check out SweetGrass Granola, which is based in Kentucky. And, I had one of my most favorite pepperoni rolls in recent years from Karen's Pepperoni Rolls. The dough was sweet and not too thick. But the roll itself was huge and had a ton of pepperoni and pepper jack cheese. If you know where to find these rules outside of the festival, please let me know. Finally, I went to Little Jimmy's Italian Ice and had a mix of green apple, watermelon, blue raspberry, and cherry. The super fine ice and fruit flavor just heads different on a really hot day. Here is who else was there:

MUSIC
John Inghram Band
Kanawha Tradition
Chance McCoy & Tessa Dillon
The Chucktown Allstars

VENDORS
Angelos Italian Sausage
Appalachian Botanical Co
Autumn Sky LLC
Bean Theory coffee
Charleston Bee Works
Clairice Hemme Art
East Wheeling ClayWorks
Hill & Hollow
Karen's Pepperoni Rolls
Little Jimmy's Italian Ice
Made by Meish
Mady's Stichery
Manna Meal
MoonStruck Maple
Mountain Juice WV
Mountain Studio
Mountiques
Mrs. Mel's
Parties and Peonies
Soul Purpose Healing
Splinters Country Crafts
Sugar Bottom Farm
Summer Kitchen Books
SweetGrass Granola
Terra Fate Exotics
The Auber House
The Wild Ramp
Uncle Frankie's
Villa DiTrapano INC
What Nots Galore
Wick & Woodsy LLC
Wild & Wonderful BBQ
Yarn.Over

Charley West BBQ Fest is an annual event benefitting the Bob Burdette Center afterschool program. I was lucky enough to be able to serve as a judge - my first time ever for BBQ! Attendees were able to purchase meals from commercial BBQ vendors and tasting tickets to sample BBQ from competition and backyard BBQ cooks. Live entertainment featured local musicians performing throughout the day on the main stage. $10 would be good for 10 tasting tickets and gave the chance to vote for one’s favorite commercial, competition and backyard BBQ with winners being named “People’s Choice – Best BBQ.” In addition, the panel of judges did a blind taste testing - for me, it was the competition division. Competition BBQ entrants competed in 4 categories: best pulled pork BBQ, best ribs, best sauce, and wild card. Competition Division is voted on by thr following: People’s Choice Best BBQ – voting by public; Blind judging - Best ribs, best pulled pork, best sauce, wild card. Here was our schedule for the day:

12:00 PM: Ribs (6 bones of ribs in any 1 sauce or glaze)
12:30 PM: Pulled Pork (8 oz. in any 1 sauce)
1:00 PM: Sauce (4 oz. of any 1 sauce)
1:30 PM: Wildcard – any item you wish to BBQ (6 portions)
We were tasked with judging based on appearance, taste, and tenderness. So, I looked up what I should be looking for when it comes to ribs. Here is what one website suggested:

APPEARANCE
Competition BBQ judges look for a deep mahogany finish on ribs - a thin dark gloss of caramelized BBQ sauce and smoke that coats ribs. This is often achieved by regular mopping, spritzing, or saucing the ribs throughout the smoke session. Another factor in the presentation is that the ribs are evenly cut with no jagged edges on any singular rib, every rib needs to look consistent and uniformity is key. Clean-cut ribs come from sharpening your knives before the event and using the proper type of knife.

TASTE
Smoky sweet BBQ ribs with just a touch of heat or bite in the aftertaste seems to be the flavor profile that has been producing BBQ rib champions.

TENDERNESS
Myth: If rib meat falls off the bone it is tender meat. This is incorrect! The perfect tenderness for competition BBQ ribs is determined in just one bite. Judges hold each end of the bone and bite in the center of the rib if the rib meat freely releases from the bone only in the area where the bite is taken then they’re perfect. Judges should never have to pull or tug at the meat with their teeth. Tender ribs often come from hours of low and slow smoking in conjunction with a flavorful rib foil bath. Here are some more from Weber:

Appearance
Some competitors will display their meat on leafy greens. While this is not mandatory, the contrast of the green leaves against the often-amber BBQ makes the meat pop. It also helps the meat stay steady in the box, so it’s not all jumbled around when the table captain first opens the lid. Requirements: Make sure you turn in the right meat, only use leafy greens. Red-leaf lettuce, lettuce cores, kale stems and other objects are a no-no, don’t sculpt your meat, ensure there are six equal portions – one for every judge, only sauce the meat. A pool of sauce is a penalty.

Taste
This is all about flavor. From seasoning and rubs and sauce and a nice bark. It just needs to be tasty. Big time barbecuers include three versions of pork in their boxes: money muscle, pulled and chopped.

Tenderness
Tenderness really equals texture and making sure the meat is not overcooked. If you’re smoking chicken thighs, it’s best not to serve the judges a slimy, fatty piece of skin. Some competitors go to great lengths to avoid this. They remove the skin, scrape off the excess inner fat and then replace the skin over the meat. Their goal is to create a nice snap of texture when judges take their first bite. Ribs – believe it or not – should not fall off the bone. If all of the meat slides off with the first bite, they’re too tender. Judges are looking for a bit of bite to the meat. Watch out for fat. While fat is flavor, you don’t want to give judges a big bite of chewy pork fat with their chopped or pulled pork. Remove the silver skin from your ribs before smoking. It will help them pull from the bone more gently. My favorite categories were actually the sauce and the wild card. You kind of know what you're in for when you're judging ribs or pulled pork. But the latter two categories can be a free-for-all. My personal favorite sauces are thick, sweet with a nice bit of peppery heat. The wild cards included an apple tart with ice cream, a meat lollipop with vanilla icing and BBQ chicken.

Ellie May’s is located at the Elk Springs Resort & Fly Shop, where farm fresh trout is raised on site at the hatchery and cooked daily.



The restaurant features traditional breakfast options, classic lunch fare and homestyle dinners. Though, on this particular visit, I was here for the dessert.



The inn is in a lovely, secluded space by the water with a gorgeous wraparound porch and an interior made top-to-bottom of wood. There is plenty of decor dedicated to fishing, as well as a gift shop.



I ordered the pecan caramel brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It came with caramel and chocolate sauce. I don't think you could really go wrong with this. This was a super fudgy, brownie and pretty rich. Tasty, but just a touch of bitterness from the cocoa.



Next time, I would love to try all all of the fish dishes from the tacos and midges to dip and more.



Grade: B

When I decided to take a mini trip to Alabama in order to check it off my states-to-visit list, I instantly knew that I needed to try some Alabama-style barbecue.



Alabama has various barbecue styles and dishes and is noted for hickory-smoked pork and chicken prevalence. White sauce, a mayonnaise-based barbecue sauce, was invented in Decatur, Alabama in 1925, according to Wikipedia.



SAW's BBQ has been named as the best BBQ in Alabama by Southern Living Magazine. I visited their "At the Backyard" location, which features an arcade, pool, mini golf and more.



SAW’s (an acronym for “Sorry Ass Wilson”) features Carolina style smoked pulled pork, chicken and ribs, served with one of three styles of sauce. Sides include baked potatoes, beans, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw and banana pudding.



I ordered a combo plate with pulled pork, chicken, deviled eggs, and macaroni and cheese. Plus red sauce and white sauce. Lemonade to drink.



The red sauce is a Carolina style with a good bit of vinegar. The white sauce is a mayo-vinegar-black pepper concoction that is tangy. The meats themselves had good flavor, and the sides were decent as well. Nothing too out of the ordinary on that front - but I was very excited to try my first authentic Alabama style white sauce.



Grade: A

Little's Cafe in Madison has made a reputation for itself as being not so... little. Big portions, big appetites and big expectations.



After walking through a cloud of smoke rolling off the grill, I stopped inside with my friend Whitney. I took a quick look at the menu and easily settled on the pulled pork mac & cheese.



This dish had a pile of mac & cheese that was on the cool side, but a giant heaping helping of pulled pork drizzled in BBQ. Flavor was OK. Proportions were a bit off though - and it was all the same texture. Some crunchy green onion would have taken this over the top.



Grade: B