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Mardi Gras & Fat Tuesday was a hit with the Caribbean BBQ Association members Tuesday evening, February 27th at Soleil Beach Club. The pictures are here to prove it.

Party Masters William "Bucky" & Kathy Tervo, Adria & Carlos Estrada, Edna Maloy, Scott & Sharon Humbert, Mike & Tania Esparza were assisted by Victor Merced & Mike "BigMAC"  Compton from the Chef’s Round table and they did an outstanding job with this months BBQ Party.This was one Cracker Jack team of Party Masters and they have set a new standard for what a Party Master is with Fat Tuesday & Mardi Gras in Puerto Rico.

The Party got started 4 weeks earlier right after last months Big Chinese Fight Night when the Party Masters had the first organizational meeting and started mapping out the strategy and game plan.  Every good party starts with organization and a good plan.

The ladies had a theme in mind, Mardi Gras & Fat Tuesday and the men had brisket on the brain.  Two rock solid ideas that quickly fell into place and took shape. With catalogs in hand Adria, Edna, and Kathy started selecting decorations while Carlos and Bucky started scheming on where and when to start prepping the Certified Angus Beef Briskets.  Mike "BigMAC" Compton, and Victor Merced took a long drive out to Morovas Puerto Rico to the headquarters of Provimi de Puerto Rico where we secured two cases of Certified Angus Beef Briskets, the best beef on the planet. Nothing but the best for our BBQ Association.

The Party Masters got together on Sunday afternoon, the 1st party, two days before Fat Tuesday, and started constructing the dry rub and mopping sauce.  Then they applied the dry rub to the briskets and bagged those babies and put them on ice for a good long, slow 36-hour marinating period.  The longer it marinates the better it tastes and the proof was certainly in the pudding so to speak. Ask Annie-Jo about the pudding!

Party #2 was Monday the 26th, the night before Fat Tuesday, at a secret beach side location somewhere on the North coast of Puerto Rico.  I have it on good authority that this has been the secret smoking location of many a good BBQ and if the location were to be revealed it would mean certain death to anyone outside the CBBQA. The secrets of authentic slow smoking BBQ are practiced religiously and with strict regimen there during all hours of the night.

The smoker was fired up at 7pm, fueled by Carbon De La Matta’s commercial grade all natural wood charcoal, man what a great BBQ product, and by 8:30 the smoker was ready to receive the briskets.

Now hear this, the Party Masters showed up totally prepared for the night’s work with marinated chicken breast & pork chops, churrasco and a slab of fresh Salmon.  Sounds like more fun than work. Fresh bell peppers of red, yellow and orange color, and mushrooms were marinated in olive oil and basil, salt & pepper along with red and yellow onions, asparagus, and grilled on the back of the smoker’s fire box in a grilling basket while the briskets were starting to take in the hickory chips smoke and the magic was starting to happen.

The dinner was excellent and consumed with gusto, frosty cold beers, good red wine and enthusiasm.  These Party Master were no slackers my friends.  Much can be learned from this savvy group of BBQ enthusiast. Just a note to the wise, they have graduated from both the CBBQA training schools of BBQ Smoking and Judging, need I say more, darn good training pays off!

As with most of us that still slave at some regular job for a living most of the Party Masters had to go home by 1:00 am but Bucky and "BigMAC" were there for the long haul. Bucky taking the midnight to 6am shift with some small assist at 3am from "BigMAC" to start slathering the secret mopping sauce on the briskets. At 6am Bucky headed to the office and Mike took the controls of the smoker, pretty much on autopilot by now, and finished the smoking at 2:30 pm.  Victor arrived at mid afternoon and we packed up the briskets, shut down the smoker, slammed a few more cold ones and started the Gumbo.  I darn near ate myself to death that afternoon after Victor left me alone with the Gumbo.

At 6 that evening, Fat Tuesday, The Party Masters were there and decorating the restaurant and it was a thing of BBQ beauty.

The members started rolling in and side dishes from Cajun Country were everywhere.  Kudos to our members, I believe you are getting the idea of what a side dish is all about and the food was great. Keep up the good work; just get better at the RSVP thing!

Many of our illustrious BBQ Association members were in costume and ready to party, as we always seem to be, and the costumes were right off Bourbon Street complete with the beads and a Hurricane drink in hand.

Our side dish winners for the evening were;

Best Appetizer; Annie Jo / Kielbasa in whiskey sauce.
Best Dessert; Annie Jo / Bread Pudding

Last month I called her a "Ringer" with all due respect and she is living up to the title.  Annie Jo was entered in all the side dish categories and shooting for a clean sweep, something no other person in our history has done or even attempted to do, and Annie-Jo won two of the 4 categories.  That is the sprit Annie Jo.  So as far as I’m concerned there is no reason anyone can’t bring one side dish if Annie Jo can do 4 in one night

Best Salad;
Annika Arre / "With what I had in the fridge!"
That’s really telling it like it is Annika.  Congratulations on your first big win. The dish was short on description but long on taste where it counts. Delicious!

Best side dish;
Randall Butts / Mardi Gras Rice;
Man this guy can cook and has been a big winner two months in a row. Can any one stop his freight train of food rolling down the guy’s track? By the way Randall is Head Party Master next month and cooking ribs so you don’t want to miss this one.

Well gang this is Scoop "O" Compton your smoking reporter signing out till next month.

God bless BBQ!