The Caribbean BBQ Association has all the latest info on the most important BBQ events in and around the Caribbean...
Caribbean BBQ Association on the road again!
On December 4 th Western Bank had their annual company Christmas party in Joyuda Puerto Rico. This year's gala event entitled, Pasadia Familiar, took place on the grounds of Club Deportivo just South of Mayaguez on highway #102. This is one of the most impressive undertakings and largest private parties I have ever seen with nearly 5000 people attending the event.
Chef Manuel Diaz Pifferrer, one of our CBBQA members and the organizer of this massive undertaking for the past 8 years, invited the Caribbean BBQ Association to join the ranks of nearly 20 other catering groups to feed this enthusiastic and hungry crowd by serving up ½ a ton, 1000 pounds, of BBQ spare ribs.
The list of gourmet delights included paella prepared in 5 in 4-foot pans, fresh oysters flown in and iced down in a yola, 8 whole hogs on roasting spits, pastas stuffed with lobster, pinchos, churrasco, burgers and dogs, 9 tons of fresh tropical fruits smothered in Grand Marnier and whipped cream, a chocolate fountain for dipping fresh strawberries, bananas and other fresh fruits in, and criollo delights like sorrullitos, empanadillas, and morcilla. The list of gourmet foods just goes on and every booth was putting out the highest quality, and most beautiful treats you can imagine. 
Congratulations and thanks are in order for CBBQA members, Garry Howard, Mike Thomas, Raymond Escudero, and Hector Rivera for and outstanding effort in turning out a great batch of ribs, or should I say a boatload of ribs. The best news is that the money we earned for our hard work and efforts went into the CBBQA Smoker fund. Many thanks gentlemen for your outstanding performance and dedication to helping The CBBQA.
The CBBQA crew departed San Juan Saturday morning at 8:00 am and arrived in Puerto Real at 11 am and promptly started applying a fine dry rub prepared by Hector Rivera. If you are wondering just how much 1000 pounds of spare ribs really is, it breaks down something like this. It filled 6 huge coolers packed to the top, about 60 to 65 racks of ribs to a cooler with each rack weighing about 3 pounds or roughly 350 racks of ribs.
Applying the rub started bring back recent memories of the BBQ Training Camp we had in November. We had about two and half hours of rubbing pork before we were done and then we packed them all into the coolers and trucked them up to Mayaguez where we placed the whole batch into two giant ovens and baked them for 3 hours.
Man oh man, I have got to tell you that those ribs were looking so good when we took them out of those ovens that they had to put three armed guards on us to be sure we didn't start eating them right there on the spot. Just take a look at those pictures, doesn't that kind of give you a case of the munchies?
Well ,we were behaving and didn't sneak even one bite but did pack them all back into the coolers for holding overnight till Sunday, party day.
On Sunday December the 4 th we arrived at the party site at 7:30 am and started building out fires and getting the coals ready to cook, just like Garry Howard taught us in training camp, and started cooking and serving ribs at 8:30 am, yea that's right 8:30 am.
We were fortunate to have assistance from about 10 chefs in training from Instituto De Banca Culinary School located in Mayaguez. The CBBQA manned the grills and fires while the culinary students cut, plated and served this delightful mouth watering example of fine BBQ Ribs.
The ribs were served dry, without sauce, but Hector Rivera had also prepared several gallons of Guava BBQ sauce and regular BBQ sauce for the Western Bank guest to apply at will or as desired. During the process of finishing the ribs off on the grill they were sprayed with a secret mixture of apple juice, vinegar, and water to give them a nice shinny glaze and generous amounts of soaking wet Mesquite wood was applied to the fire while the ribs were cooking to add that good smoked flavor. By 4 pm all the ribs were gone, a half a ton of pork ribs prepared and served by the CBBQA without a hitch or glitch.
Do you have a company party or function coming up that requires feeding a group of people? Keep the CBBQA in mind we still need some more money to accomplish our goal of obtaining that BBQ Smoker.
Coming November 12th
Ok Caribbean BBQ Association members
Listen up!
The mission of this BBQ Association is to celebrate, preserve, and teach the art of slow smoking BBQ, to promote BBQ as a culinary technique, a competitive sport, and a culinary art form.
We present!
Caribbean Barbecue Association
World Class BBQ Training Camp
Class Schedule
Saturday, Nov 12, 2005
9:30 10:00 Get acquainted over coffee and pastries
10:00 10:30 Start fires in cookers
10:30 11:30 Prep ribs and put ribs in cookers
11:30 12:00 Theory of BBQ
12:00 12:45 Lunch
12:45 1:15 Cookers (horizontal offset, vertical, water smokers, homebuilt)
1:15 2:00 Building a signature rub (sugar, salt, spices, herbs)
2:00 2:45 Prep chicken and put in cookers
2:45 3:15 Meat selection and preparation
3:15 3:30 - Break
3:30 4:30 Building a signature sauce
4:30 5:00 Fuels (charcoal and woods)
5:00 6:00 Competition barbecue secrets
6:00 6:30 Prepare team entries (ribs and chicken)
6:30 Judging
7:00 Awards and after class dinner and party
This class will be offered to any member or non member for $50.00, if you have a team we will offer you a special rate for up to 5 members of your team, just call me at 787-319-9410 or send me an e-mail bigmacjdbbq@yahoo.com
and make your special arrangements now. Tell friends, or bring a buddy.
This world class traing camp will teach you how to compete on a higher level, how to smoke and serve better BBQ for you and your friends at home, the in's and out's of making great bbq sauces (your signature sauce), and dry rubs, how to prepare your fire, select your fuel ( wood & charcoal), how to get a better cut of meat, how to treat your meat, and how to slow smoke a hunk of beef or pork so fine you might want to slap your mammy. Whether you're a serious competitor, a judge, or the back yard BBQ King of the Block this training camp is a must; your certificate of graduation will confirm it!
On 9 out of every 10 CBBQA applications, members checked the box in favor of having a BBQ smoking class. Now we have a world class competitor / instructor in our ranks. We have several teams and competitors who have participated at The Jack Daniel's World BBQ contest, and other prestigious world class competitions. All of whom are here and at your disposal for one powerful, information packed day. We need a good turnout, one that says we are interested in the future of BBQ in the Caribbean. Lets Rock!
If you are not registered yet contact us today and get registered, download the application and fax it to 787-721-7854, or e-mail it, or call me, just do the right thing with it. Confirm by Monday Nov. 7th.
Mail your $50.00 to The Caribbean BBQ Assoc. Condado Park Suite #303, 1301 Ave. Magdalena, San Juan, PR 00907. If that's not possible, pay at the door on the day of the class, but do confirm your plans to be there for one exciting lesson in BAM! BBQ Smoking!
We need to purchase the meats, spices and other condiments, and need to know how many people are attending in order to accomodate you with enough supplies and materials. Remember that there is no meeting the last Tuesday of November but, there will be a party right after The World Class BBQ Training Camp.
Ok what are you wait'n for ? This is what you have been wait'n for,
sign up now!
If you have a smoker please bring it.
Thanks
Keep the grill fired up!
Michael Compton / President
Caribbean BBQ Association
The Fifth official meeting of the CBA will be coming up on Oct. 25thth at the Bamboo Bay in Pinones. Bring some of your favorite recipes and BBQ specials
The place is called Bamboobei and it is in Pinones, two doors down from the Waterfront Restaurant. The white house with blue trim, wood decks and an ocean
front view are easy to see to your left, on the ocean side of road #187 going towards Loiza.
Bamboobei, ( Bamboo Bay ) and owner Carlos @ 787-627-1192 bamboobei@hotmail.com are giving us the back deck with a gas grill and a bar and some drink specials, we are bringing what ever we want to grill and share.
This month is a Chicken Fiesta extranvaganza
We will have tons of chicken prepared several different ways and excellent sides and salads to complete the meal. Don't miss it...
We'll fire the grills and have them ready at 7pm and anything goes in the food
category. Meeting will get started at 8pm.
We will have two other charcoal grills but could use a few other small or medium size grills, if you have got one please bring it along and any cooking tool.
You can grill it or we can help you do it.
Our BBQ Ambassador & member Robert Matta from Carbon De La Matta is suppling all the charcoal we can burn so don't be shy bring it on baby, we be cooking!
This is a great place for our kind of BBQ meetings and I know your going to enjoy the atmosphere, the food is from us so how can we go wrong.
Call or send an e-mail to Carlos at Bamboobei if you need any directions, casual dress is the attire for the evening. Be a good BBQ Ambassador and bring a friend.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
The first ever BBQ competition on the west side of the island was held on Saturday, July 16 at Mendez Company in Añasco. Mendez is an importer of fine wines. Teams competed in the categories of churrasco (steak), ribs, and chicken. Sweets & Cuisine from Ponce was crowned the Grand Champion. read more
Info on the Jack Daniel's BBQ Competition for 2006 coming soon
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