Mrs P: You know, you might want to talk about the food rather than just posting a load of pictures of you having a laugh with Stu. People would be interested, that's why they read the blog after all.
Me: YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I'M TIRED. I'M GOING TO BED.
30 minutes later.
Me: I'm sorry babycakes. I think I may have over-reacted back there. Can I do anything to make up for it?
Mrs P: Never call me babycakes again. Ever.
Oh Kay... and with that point well and truly made, I bring you Grillstock London, through the eyes of Rob's Ribs and Mr Johnston:
Hi there!
A grand entrance into the event stood imposingly and directed us round the side and into the field itself where the party was starting to get under way. Understandably, we started with a burger and pulled pork:
On the recommendation of this man:
or at least, at the time I thought it was his grill. He was certainly standing next to it, but in retrospect he was handing out fliers advertising Oxford charcoal and on closer inspection, his T-shirt should have given me pause for thought. So, quite frankly who knows who this guy is and why he was there but he certainly gave me a good burger.
We wandered past a stretch of various food vans and stalls - of which there were an unsurprising number selling burgers and pulled pork,
but there were, thankfully, a few notable exceptions though:
The bloke selling jambalaya convinced us to try a pot but unfortunately it only delivered in a limited capacity. Warming, soft rice, a prawn and a couple of sausage scrapings for a fiver. Ugh.
A chip stall with four different chip flavours was also unexpectedly welcome, we had the garlic and rosemary version which was totally over powered by the garlic powder which had been shaken like a polaroid picture all over the top.
Most surprisingly though was the toastie stall.
Is this a 'thing' in London? Really? I mean really really? The best part of six quid for cheese and toast. I can understand the need to charge a fair price for quality ingredients but surely this is something that even the most hipster of hipsters gliding along in their skinny jeans, beards and pony tails couldn't take. But no, apparently the residents of London live to prove me wrong as these guys were chocka.
I also saw this fella:
He was on the telly with Jamie Oliver last year, he seemed nice.
But we were really there for the competition, and there were plenty of contestants. I would love to give you a full run down but I was hoping the website was going to keep track of the results. However, I've been checking and unfortunately they have not been that quick with their updates. So, while we wait for the official results, here are a few photos of us wandering around checking out the teams as they prepared for their chicken, pork ribs, pulled pork and beef brisket categories:
I took a few notable shots, such as this one:
a bloke in a dress cooking and serving BBQ = winning.
How many guys does it take to cook a chicken thigh?
A couple of serious custom made grills.
The judges came from a selection of invited guests and also members of the public who applied through the website, we caught up with a couple of them later on and they confirmed that in a sea of meat, there were only a handful of teams that really shone out.
A well cooked but soggy chicken thigh covered in way too much sauce. While all the sauce here was, of course, homemade, it seemed to Mr Johnston and I all far too generic. The key differentiator between teams seemed to be not the quality of the sauce, rather the presence of the sauce at all. A team with the confidence to stand up and be counted with a rub that gives you everything you need; deep, deep notes of sweet, savoury and a hint of smoky chilli versus the use of the vinegary twang of a sauce that is all too often used to cover overcooked meat and inevitably just leads to too much sugar, too much vinegar and way too much disappointment.
Lazy Jack's cider from the Woodshed Brewing Company. This was such a massive hit with Mr Johnston that he went back no less than three times and was only denied his fourth cup of thirst quenching, sweet apple flavoured nectar because they had literally ran out and were packing away. Lazy Jack's is described as 'American style cloudy cider'. I was intrigued by this and asked the staff what about it's style could be unique enough as to be attributed to the America's, as opposed to the hundreds of years of cider making we have in England. The reply of 'Umm, they use American apples' came back with a less than convincing air of hope as opposed to authority. But, however they make it and whatever they do to give it a US stylee, they certainly won Mr Johnston over and sent him scuttling to the inter webs attempting to source it closer to home. High praise indeed.
I feel bad about not getting enough photos of the meat we tasted but we really only got scrapings as we made our way around the field speaking to the teams, discussing their techniques, equipment, highs, lows and general impressions of the weekend. You have to wait until the end of the day, about 5pm, to claim your meat picks because as I learned, the organisers who supply the meat actually give the teams far more than required to submit for the competition. The teams can then distribute the remains as they see fit ensuring that the members of the public can taste decent competition BBQ grub which is, as I see it, a genius plan with winners all round.
All in, Grillstock festival was a great way to spend an afternoon. Next year, though I will certainly try and get along to the Saturday because as we had to cut the Sunday short, we missed out on seeing the Headline act of the evening in 90's superband Razorlight, which for such diehard Razorlight fans as both Mr Johnston and I, was clearly a crushing blow. Unsurprisingly, there was also a huge amount of food to be had with vendors of all types on hand to take your money and if you are lucky, you could also get a taste of proper smokey, backyard BBQ inspiration.
Finally, on our way back to the car, we were amazed by the confidence, glamour and just damn straight sex appeal that a simple hair cut can give you. I have found the man I want to be, and he wears a jerry curl.
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