The last time I visited Mr. P’s converted school bus in the back of a Safeway parking lot, the aging senior responsible for this mobile barbecue operation was nowhere to be found. Perhaps that’s not unusual for a 74-year-old pitmaster trying to quit the smoke business. But if I know anything about barbecue, it’s this: [...]

Jim Shahin at work If you didn't read Jim Shahin's debut barbecue column, Smoke Signals, in yesterday's Washington Post, stop whatever you're doing right now and check it out. It's funny, it's well-reported, and it has to be one of the best Food Section debuts in years. I'd say that even if Jim weren't my [...]

This week's Young & Hungry column checks in with three different barbecue houses, each with its own method for smoking ribs, brisket, chicken, and sausage. Blue Ribbon BBQ uses a Southern Pride unit, which combines smoke and gas; KBQ relies on a J&R Manufacturing pit that kicks on an electric element when the temperature drops [...]

You experience sort of a reverse Wizard of Oz moment when you enter Capital Q BBQ. Rather than waltzing into a surreal, Technicolor world, you leave behind D.C.'s pictogram-heavy equivalent of Oz and strut into a smoky, two-fisted, virtually black-and-white version of central Texas at this Chinatown haunt. No Munchkin could ever hope to survive [...]

When is potato salad not potato salad? When it's a symbol for universal health care.

You've been Spiked. Y&H Nation couldn't get enough of Spike Mendelsohn last week. The news that Herr Burgermeister was close to opening his We, The Pizza enticed hundreds of you to read more about his Big Apple pie plans — and to re-read about his past troubles with a Capitol Hill landlord. Take a look [...]

Earlier today I did something that's all too easy in this steal-information-wherever-you-like era: I cribbed a factoid from a June 15 item on Zagat (itself likely drawn from WaPo's report from a year ago) about Hill Country's opening date in D.C. It turns out to be incorrect. Mea culpa! I should say that I did [...]

If your Independence Day weekend was anything like mine, you ate a lot of smoke: smoked brisket, smoked ribs, smoked sausages, smoked corn. By the time our Fourth of July feast was ready on Sunday afternoon, I smelled like a crank shaft in an overheated Ford on a lonely stretch of Interstate 15 between Los [...]

Sweet nothings: The Top Chef franchise may have jumped the shark (pie) with the ham-fisted (if I may mix my metaphors this morning) cross-promotion with Top Chef: Just Desserts, hosted by Gail Simmons and Elvis. Sorry, I mean Jean Georges poser/pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. Always a good time to pie: The quick-fire challenge to bake [...]

Maybe you don't have an obnoxiously large barrel smoker with an off-set fire box that virtually demands seasoned hardwoods. Never fear, the recipes for smoky pecans and smoked cheddar, which come from the Southern Living Big Book of BBQ, are designed for smaller smokers that need only wood chips and a full water pan. If [...]