(Another) Weekend at Nikki's /

Oshawa Ribfest Sept. 8-11 2006

Gee, seems like forever since my last post huh? Anyway, last weekend I was off to Nikki's in Oshawa for another visit, and to drop by and see the sights, sauces and smoke of the 5th annual Oshawa Rotary Ribfest at beautiful Lakeview Park (on Lake Ontario).

On Saturday afternoon, Nikki, her son Franklin, his girlfriend Julia, Nik's friends Trevor & Jen and I dropped over to Bobby C's for lunch...

And from there it was on to Ribfest!

Ribfest is a real hoot. Just a huge crowd out to have a blast + tons of awesome food. There were nine different rib outfits from Canada and the US competing for Best Ribs and Best Sauce: Bad Wolf Barbecue (from Kansas City MO); Camp 31 (Castleberry AL); Crabby's BBQ Shack (London ON); Silver Bullet BBQ (Fort Erie ON); Billy Bones (Sanford MI); Turtle Jack's Muskoka Grill (based in Brampton ON with several locations around the province); Gator BBQ Co. (Everglade City FL); Thirsty Cactus Cantina & Grill (Dundas ON); and The Purple Pig (Toronto, Aurora & Bracebridge ON).

[ Click here for a quick video-clip of the boys at Crabby's cranking out the goods. ]

[Note: Later in the week I learned from Nik that Billy Bones took top honors for the second year in a row.]

http://www.oshawaribfest.com/

More photos: Me and Trev enjoying a nice-cold Rickard's Red...

Nik checkin' out the band...

...and of course, the back of Jen's head and the rest of the crew. :)

After walking around for a while, we each got into a separate line and grabbed a full rack apiece from Billy Bones, Crabby's, Gator's and Bad Wolf (I went for Gator's; they use fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice to make their sauce -- sounded intriguing). We took the ribs along with us and that night, Nik and I dropped over to Trevor & Jen's in Bowmanville, tossed the ribs back on the barbecue and tipped a few drinks. (Trevor and I didn't bother to keep the ribs separated on the grill, so we couldn't tell one brand from another -- d'oh! -- but it made little difference. They were all awesome.)

And naturally, later in the evening Trev and I got out the geetars and kicked a couple of tunes around.

And, basically, there you have Brian's first visit to Ribfest (these things happen all around Ontario in the summer; looking forward to next year to hit a few more). Stay tuned for pics from Bud's and from our upcoming "even bigger bang" in Halifax. :)

Later all
Brian