Barbecue Heaven

One of my favorite parts of our vacation happened the first day of the trip. Driving past St. Louis, we stopped off in the town of Eureka, MO and found “Super Smokers Barb-B-Que.” See?



Iwanski and I loved Super Smokers. The first thing we noticed when we got out of our car was the SMELL. A thick cloud of delicious hickory BBQ smoke was being pumped out of the restaurant and into the air. Talk about a great way to lure in your customers—after smelling that, there was no turning back. We had to gets us some Super Smokers.

When we went in, we ordered at the counter and sat down to wait for our food to arrive. We both ordered the pulled pork, which came with a couple of side items (i.e. corn bread, baked beans, etc.). I, of course, being Miss Healthypants, also ordered a side salad, while Iwanski—not being Mr. Healthypants—also ordered a third of a slab of ribs. At the tables (which, of course, had red-checkered tablecloths), there were six different bottles of barbecue sauce, mainly named for the region of the US where they came from. The BBQ sauces were: St. Louis, Tennessee, Kansas City, Texas Hot, Carolina Sweet, and “Championship.” This is where I learned that:

1. I do not like Texas Hot BBQ sauce. Anyone up for spicy ketchup? That’s what it tasted like to me.

2. The “Championship” sauce wasn’t my favorite, either. (I guess it won some contest, but my taste buds gave it a thumbs down.)

3. The rest of them were just okay except for the Kansas City BBQ Sauce. That was absolutely wonderful, delicious, tantalizing, etc.

4. That’s when Iwanski informed me that most BBQ sauces that are sold in grocery stores today are modeled after the Kansas City BBQ sauce. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. This is a piece of knowledge I had not picked up on over the years.

Well, one thing’s for sure: there is a reason why Kansas City is known as the Barbecue Capital of the U.S. That sauce is tasty! And Super Smokers also made a wicked-good pulled pork. It turns out the smell wasn’t lying—it really was great barbecue.

Oh, and lest I forget—there was also a pretty unique item on the menu at Super Smokers—Frito Pie. This is a Southern “delicacy” that Buck had told me about from his Texas upbringing.

According to my research (i.e. googling “Frito Pie”), there are generally four different ingredients in a Frito Pie: Fritos corn chips (of course), chopped onion, cheddar cheese, and chili—all melted together into a gooey mess. Super Smokers, of course, took it up a notch by also adding pulled pork to the mess. This sounded like a heart attack waiting to happen, so I avoided ordering that.

Because I’m sure that the pulled pork, barbecue ribs, and jalapeno cornbread that I sampled was all 100% healthy.

Not to mention the side salad slathered in ranch dressing. But at least I ate some vegetables, right?