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Barbeque Lover's Paradise

Contributed by: Buffalo.com/YourHub Lindsay Schwab on 9/29/2008

Meat smoked, special sauces simmered, and mouths watered this weekend at Oinktoberfest. The barbeque cooking contest kicked off the fall festival at The Great Pumpkin Farm on Main Street in Clarence.

Nearly 50 restaurants and individuals came from all over Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States in hopes of dazzling the judges of the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), with their best barbeque recipes. Contestants perfected their recipes in hopes of taking home the Grand Champion title and a chance to go to an invitational national championship competition.

"People will drive hundreds of miles just to enter the contest," said Bill McKibben festival spokesperson.

Barbeque enthusiasts can enter the contest under six different categories, but in order to be considered for the Grand Champion title, contestants must enter in these four: chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder/butt and beef brisket. The two other optional categories are side dish and dessert.

Donnie and Racine LaVelle, of Donnie's Smokehouse in Buffalo, started to learn the art of barbequing 12 years ago on a kitchen stovetop; since then they have been to competitions all along the east coast and in Canada. They have won seven New York State Grand Champion titles and have also appeared in two, national championship competitions.

The quest to earn the title can often be intense for the contestants. "Competitions have a tendency to get a little fierce sometimes because people want that honor," said Racine LaVelle.

LaVelle cooks and believes in the true barbeque method. This means that the meat is slow cooked and not grilled, allowing the smoke to penetrate the meat to the bone. "It is a natural way to cook food and there is a big difference in taste and texture," LaVelle said.

Barbeque aficionados from the Lafayette Tap Room in Buffalo were first time participants in this year's contest. The Tap Room hoped to tickle the taste buds of the judges with their specialty, smoked BBQ chicken wings. This past summer, the recipe won in the creative BBQ wing category at the National Chicken Wing Festival in Dunn Tire Park.

Marc Alfieri, from the Lafayette Tap Room, was really excited to compete in this year's cook-off. "It's been great [the competition]. We are hoping to get exposure, and trying to make famous our smoked barbeque wings; our specialty," he said.

Not only did families get to taste some of the best local barbeque while the competition was underway, but they also were able to partake in a plethora of other activities The Great Pumpkin Farm had to offer. People could search through thousands of pumpkins to find the perfect one, enjoy cider and baked goods and take a hay ride.

The Pumpkin farm is home to different events every weekend. This includes the great pumpkin weigh-off October 4-5, in which larger than life pumpkins will be weighed in hopes of winning top prize, and the Pumpkin Olympics October 11-13.

McKibben believes that coming to events like the Oinktoberfest and enjoying the pumpkin farm are fun for the whole family. "We try to make it a tradition where people feel like they can come back every year," said McKibben.

Click here to learn more about Oinktoberfest or to see a list of events at The Great Pumpkin Farm click here. The farm is open daily through October 31.


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Submitted By: Buffalo.com/YourHub Zachery Martinen
posted on 10/27/2008 @ 10:40:02 AM
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MMmmm...This is my favorite one of your pieces.
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Buffalo.com/YourHub Lindsay Schwab has posted 7 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/10/2008. Buffalo.com/YourHub Lindsay Schwab's average story rating is 0.
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