who knew Texans were BBQ foodies?
being meat-free, gluten-free and dairy intolerant (I refuse to eat plastic cheese) it has never really been an issue for me to find a great or even a mediocre meal  to enjoy. Texas has and continues to test that quest/search ..especially given it’s high dense love of the B-B-Q – everything. And the small towns cater to the locals, so a salad with more than a tomato slice has been a challenge to find, let alone fruit or gluten-free bread. I digress though…

I am married to a meat-loving carnivore – so the discovery in Crowell, TX of the “WILD HOG” cook-off confirmed our staying over in nearby Copper Breaks SP for a few more days. The cook-off is the 1st weekend of November, every year….so plan accordingly if you want to visit.

The competitors start arriving as early as Thursday evening, the entry fee is $100.00, but if you want to be judged on your BBQ “beans”…you’ll have to toss in another $10. (Excuse me? vegetables are more??? – being me, I was curious, because that is just <cough>insane<cough>)

So, for that entry fee, on Friday evening 1/2 of a wild hog is delivered to your site and you spend your evening butchering it. Sound like fun, eh ….apparently it takes a while as these beasts are tough and because they are considered a “nuisance pest” these cowboy cooks grinned talking about the prep – apparently they are perfect for the BBQ…the longer they cook, the more tender and tastier they become. Since no samples were available to Mike, we can’t verify that here.

The entire block around the county courthouse is surrounded by RV’s, trucks and the assorted grills. Mind you, there are no food carts here selling what they are cooking, nope, they are just cooking and about every hour or so, they grab whatever is being judged off the grill and run it over to the judging area. A missed opportunity to pay some expenses, given the anyone can sign up to judge the competitors skill at b-b-q-ing food. At some point in the past a national beer company was a sponsor, no longer….more missed opportunities. Maybe it just got to rowdy, after all it’s a competition. There is a small monetary prize, however if you are a serious competitor you would need to win every time to cover expenses.