Burn Baby Burn: National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show ignites taste buds

This past weekend’s National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show in Albuquerque, N.M. ignited taste buds with three days’ worth of gourmet foods, sauces, spices, sweet-heat treats and rubs at the Sandia Resort and Casino. The 25th incarnation of the event was a massive success, breaking all previous attendance records with a whopping 21,000 people in attendance.

We were slammed the entire weekend and sold out of many Smokin’ Texas Gourmet products. Guests couldn’t resist the opportunity to buy our products, particularly the Scovie Award winners- Texas Especial Steak Sauce, Texas Gold BBQ Sauce, Jalapeno Honey Mustard and Texas Dry Rub.

For the first time ever, we created dual tasting stations to handle the massive crowd of tasters. We sampled grilled steak, chicken and brats all weekend at the stations. People lined up from wall to wall to sample our products and meats, which were pre-seasoned to perfection with our Texas Dry Rub and Garlic, Salt and Pepper.

On Saturday, I participated in Round 1 of the Great Grill-Off competition. Similar to the Food Network’s TV series Chopped, the Great Grill Off features chefs battling to create a delicious meal using mystery ingredients in one hour. My mystery basket included flank steak, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, goat cheese, lemon, papaya and mango. I knew the butternut squash would take a little time to cook so I started prepping it for the grill right away when they started the timer.

My final dish was flank steak three ways, grilled red potatoes drizzled with chipotle lemon oil, sweet potato with goat cheese and raspberry compote, and grilled butternut squash with mango papaya salsa. For the steak three ways, I used our dry rub, mesquite fajita rub and tomatillo salsa for a chimichurri  sauce. The judges said my dish was outstanding. Dr. BBQ (Chef Ray Lampe) won the Great Grill-Off in the final round of competition on Sunday.

We know many of our customers couldn’t make it to the show, so we’re offering a special 25 percent off coupon to take advantage of our show specials. Simply enter in the code FIERY25 at checkout to receive your discount. The deal expires March 31, 2013. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook to stay updated on specials and our upcoming events!

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. We really enjoyed meeting the attendees and vendors and can’t wait to return next year!