Bar BQ Grills

The pool is tranquil but nothing elseis. Six floors down the sidewalks and streets are alive withboisterous folks, bustling cars, and the occasional siren.

Funny but true fact....we are stayingin room #666. They changed the outdoor room # to 668 but it is rightnext door to room 664 and the interior sign on the door clearlyshows.....

I told Alexis, quit worrying, it's notlike it's room 237 at the Overlook Hotel. 

Excuse the lack of photos in this post but I left my SD card AND my back up SD cards in the hotel room.  I blame that on room 666.

So yeah, I'm at the Nashville Food BlogForum. A bunch of my BBQ buds might laugh and picture me at aseminar about how to take the best picture of a cupcake with frillsand ribbons and stuff.

I could understand why someone whofocuses on grilling and BBQ like I do might seem out of place here. But I actually found a lot of smoke here on the first night. So allyou smokers out there, quit knocking cupcakes, truffles, and latestfood trend....because you are becoming a food trend. Smoke is thenew black.

Local Yazoo Brewery has added a kickbutt brew to their line up. Meet Sue, a dark deep bodied beer thatuses malt smoked with cherry wood. Any bbqr that reads my blog knowsmy love for cherry wood. It brings a nice color to smoked meatswhile giving a light smoke flavor. The flavor of this beer deliversand I can't wait for it to arrive here in Knoxville shortly. I haveseveral ideas in mind for using it as an ingredient.

Southern artisan chocolate magiciansOlive and Sinclair Chocolate Company sampled their products including a smoked chocolatebrittle that was specfreakingtacular. This company already grindstheir own cocoa for their chocolates but for this one, they haveBenton....YES the famous East TN bacon folks....smoke the “nibs”first. I don't like sweets and was skeptical but dayum, this stuffwas off the charts good. I won't tell you how many times Alexis wentback to their table.

Corsair Artisan was on site with theirmicro brewed spirits and I sampled the Triple Smoked Whiskey. Themellow charcoal flavor comes through and I asked if they sold theirused barrels for smoking wood. Not yet but you can buy the wholebarrel (a mini costs $70). I am going to buy one to convert to be mycold smoker.

Top Chef contestant Arnold Myint gave acooking demo for us tonight and we bought a jar of hickory smoked saltfrom him. Yeah, I smoke my own during the winter but I'm out rightnow.

This specialty jam maker makes“prohibition era jams” and this was one she incorporated into amini tart with caramelized onion, roasted tomato, the jam, and someartisan cheese that was very good. But my immediate thought was howgreat this would be used in a BBQ sauce for pork. 

Tomorrow the actual forum begins and Ihave a lot to learn from some incredibly successful and wicked smartpeople.

I might leave a light on in room666......just in case :)