The Unvegan

So for my final truck on the Haiti Fundraiser day, I decided to visit an old truck that I still haven’t gotten the chance to try out. This was Barbie’s Q, “A Rollin’ BBQ Joint.” The idea of getting BBQ from a truck has always sounded kind of suspect, but my buddy told me it was pretty good, so I trusted him. I also trusted the looks of the man taking orders outside the truck that looked like he had just walked out of a Willie Nelson concert or a shootout at the OK Corral. Or both.

I toyed with getting ribs or a chicken, but my eyes kept drifting to the BBQ Beef. The eyes also kept drifting to the “Cheezy Grits.” The menu said I could order BBQ over the grits, so that’s what I decided to do. This ran me 10 bucks, but good BBQ is never cheap. Unfortunately, I soon found out that this was not good BBQ. I’m not sure if I just got a bad batch or what, but this was truly some of the worst BBQ I’ve had in a long time.

To start off, the BBQ sauce was ice cold on the beef and it sure was loaded on it. This brought the core temperature of each bite way down. I usually prefer BBQ sauce over the dry rub method, but this left me craving some dry rub beef. Then there was the beef itself. Stringy, chewy and dry would be the nicest way to describe it. Sure, it had some decent flavor, but that was mostly covered in freezing sauce and hard to enjoy while battling arid beef. Finally, below the beef was the cheezy grits. I’m no grits expert, but I know enough to say that they shouldn’t be spongy. Sadly, these grits were.

This experience saddened me and further emphasized the fact that these food trucks are not meant for selling food you can buy in a restaurant. Especially food like BBQ, which requires some good smoking that I just can’t see outfitted into a truck. Although Barbie’s Q left me disappointed, the overall fundraiser seemed to be a great success and at least I know some of that money I gave to Barbie’s Q will be heading towards Haiti.