Buffalo Wing Cook-Off Was Tasty

This weekend I was able to participate in the Buffalo Springs Lake 7th Annual Buffalo Wing Cook-Off. I was asked to be a judge in the pork ribs competition. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.

To be 100% fair, I was a judge at the semi-final table, so I didn't get to taste all 80 or so entries in the rib category. I was only able to sample 17 different entries and it was a tough job, seriously. First, congrats to the folks who tasted 80 of them. You guys did a fantastic job of making my job hard. Why? Well, none of the ones I tasted were horrible. Of course there were some that were better than others. I didn't give anyone a perfect 10 (yes, I'm that kind of judge) but I did give a few 9's and a few 8's.

The cook-off had a lot of areas to grade in. Texture, Smell, Appearance, and of course Taste to name a few. I also graded on how well the rib fell off the bone. The one's that got 9's all had meat that I didn't have to cut into.

It was tough to decide who out of the 17 had the best, but somehow I took on the challenge. It was my way of giving back to the community this weekend.

Remember how I said the cook-off had a lot of rules? Those rules also included:

• No cellphones out. That's why I don't have any pictures of me eating ribs, though I'm sure we will see some later.
• No sunglasses. Yeah, they told someone to take off their sunglasses.
• No talking to other judges.
• Use new forks and knives for each entry
• Only eat small amount. (I thought this was extremely unfair to ask of us.)

All in all Buffalo Springs Lake put on a great event and those who cooked did a fantastic job. Can't wait to judge next year.