SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

HOWDY, PILGRIM

If you haven't yet found your way to meeting the BBQ Pilgrim, you really should stop by the site.

Photographer and former professor Mark Dolan is criss-crossing this great land of ours on a sacred mission: to find the best stories that barbecue chefs have to offer.

Full disclosure: Mark and I worked together in Alaska at the Anchorage Times, where he was photo chief and I was a columnist. Mark helped throw my bachelor party, in fact. And we went sledding down a trail with a bunch of co-workers at the Arctic Valley ski complex that was, how should I put it, testicle-shrinking in its ferocity.

That's Mark in the middle. He brought what we later called "The Bat Sled" to the party. Not satisfied with the Mach 1 speed, we sprayed it with WD-40. That mutha flew down the hill like a Stealth fighter.

But I digress.

Mark's sold everything and gone on the road, staying with friends, driving to various places in pursuit of barbecue's holy grail. Whatever that may be. And since he's a Gator and warm and friendly man, he's never without a place to stay.

His approach to the Web site: to mix video and stills and text in a Ken Burns-ian kind of way. What you get is a multimedia experience that is powerful and, well, mouth-watering. You can almost smell the smoke.

My favorite: Curtis Tuff.

As Mark writes:

Curis Tuff has been cooking and serving up BBQ in Putney Vermont since 1965. "After 39 years I’m starting to get the hang of it," Curtis joked. "another five more years and I should have it down pretty good," he added. Curtis said the part of his business he most enjoys is being able to meet and talk with his customers. Curtis, along with his pet pot-bellied pig C.J. are known to people from all over the country who make his barbecue a regular stop when they visit Vermont between April and October, the months they are open for business.

It's worth the click just to hear Tuff talk about his "supervisor," an 80-pound pot-bellied pig, C.J.

Posted by Jeff at May 2, 2006 08:54 AM | TrackBack