ongegingernowgrey

I am visiting Texas in October/November this year with my daughter and son-in-law and we would like to sample some good old Texas BBQs, and hog roasts, The kind of hog roasts where they split the hog down the spine'butterfly style'.

Could anyone help please with some ideas of where to go and what your favourite dishes are?

We are in the food business in Ipswich UK doing bars and catering for weddings and events and have recently seen a huge upsurge in people asking for new and informal ways for their wedding breakfasts. We are therefore looking for ideas so we can offer 'Southern Style' informal dishes on our menus, We have not yet set an itinerary so are totally flexible.

Any ideas or info would be very well received!

Ian.

RoamsAround

Where in Texas will you be visiting? It's a VERY LARGE state - 267,000 sq. miles (that's almost 700,000 sq. KM for you metric fans) - the state is 800 miles long and about 775 miles wide. Since BBQ is a stable there are literally tens of thousands of places serving great BBQ - every village, town, and city has BBQ.

So, let's us know where you'll be and contributors will steer you in the right direction.

sludick

Texas is more of a beef state, whereas North Carolina is what I think of first for "pig pickin" (hog roast). Any chance you can visit both areas? They are very different in terms their BBQ sauces and preferred meats.

stumpworks73

I agree with previous posters that Texas BBQ is traditionally beef brisket, ribs, and link sausage with many BBQ joints offering smoked turkey. Texas BBQ is served with tomato based sauce.

The Carolinas specialize in pulled pork BBQ and ribs served with vinegar sauce in NC and mustard sauce in SC.

A hog roast is not relative to local BBQ style. If you travel to Texas and research local BBQ's who also cater, you will find some who offer hog roasts.

If I were making a food tour of Texas, I would travel the Texas Triangle of Houston to San Antonio to Dallas. Austin is a mandatory stop in the line up as Austin and more importantly the Austin area have some of the top ranked BBQ restaurants.

You can find abundant articles on a Google search on Texas best BBQ. I particularly recommend you visit Texas Monthly's web site and Southern Living as well. Inside the triangle you will find 50 BBQ joints that are on somebody's top 25 list.

Additional benefits to your visit are that Houston has fine Cajun restaurants, Gulf seafood, and Mexican. San Antonio has one of the largest Mexican populations in the U.S. All the cities have superb steakhouses. Texas is a local food paradise. Have a great trip.

Houston and Dallas have excellent direct flights to the UK. Possible that you could arrive one city and depart the other without penalty. If not, you are only 3.5 hours between cities.

BigRuss

Never had a hog roast down here. The Carolinas are the largest pork producers, Texas is cattle.

Check out Guidelive.com and D Magazine for Dallas restaurants. Guidelive will list places in the DFW area. Dallas has more restos per capita than New York. This site lists all the places in Texas featured in Diners, Drive-Thrus and Dives - a TV show highlighting small restaurants below to far below the $25/entrée price point: http://www.flavortownusa.com/states/texas

And Texas food is far more than BBQ. Tex-Mex, steaks, anything that can be fried, Southern/Gulf with some additional Southwestern accents (courtesy New Mexico and its own style), and more.

ongegingernowgrey

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the info you've posted. It's really helpful. We are now thinking of flying in to South Carolina (Columbia?) to have a look at the pulled pig roasting then down to do the Texas Triangle in a two leg trip.

We like the idea of Cajun/Mex as well as your traditional Texan beef dishes.

Think we are leaving London on Tuesday Oct 22nd and will come home about 3 weeks later.

If anyone has more ideas I'd love to hear them!

Thanks to all who have helped so far. Really appreciate your info!