Brisket catch up

Three or four times a week I drive past a barbecue joint on the edge of the Gabba, tucked in under a freeway on-ramp, as all of the best barbecue joints in the world are. I’ve always meant to get in and check it out, and with Sir Havoc visiting Brisbane yesterday, I finally achieved my dream.

This was the brisket plate, which doesn’t really have the right brisket-to-sides ratio to claim full plate status for me, but it was very good brisket. A helluva lot better than the pastrami disaster I created the last time I tried to make brisket.

This feed cost $48, which might seem an ask, until you remember that someone had to be up at 2 AM to get this bad boy into the smoker. And remember too how easy it is to mess one of these up. It’s not high-end French cuisine, but there’s more than enough craft in smoking a brisket to justify a high-end price.

It’s always a temptation for me to pile into the chippies, but I restrained myself and ate the meat and coleslaw first. By the time I’d necked down all of that protein and fiber I didn’t really need those delicious salty carbs anymore.