Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country

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Summary: Smokestack Lightning
Review: "Smokestack Lightning" is both a great guide to current bbq food and culture, and a terrific travel guide to the south. I come from east Texas, and practically wept over the writing and photos of Kreutz Market, and the Luling joints. The book even seems to smell like the smoke and grease coming out of the pit --

Rating:
Summary: Buy it now
Review: Great book, not for recipies but for a trip through real barbque country. The book is part travel literature, part regional cooking essay and part American social essay by two guys who show a love for the history and lore of barbque. If you consider yourself a lover of Barbque, not grilling mind you, you will love reading this book.

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Summary: Waste
Review: I was excited to buy this book but very let down when I got it. Don't waste you money.

Rating:
Summary: Waste
Review: I was excited to buy this book but very let down when I got it. Don't waste you money.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it now
Review: Mr. Elie has written a book that cuts a wide swathe through the regional barbecue landscape. While some of the information is good, and the book does provide a curious read, the regional nature of barbecue lends to the book's inadequacy. What any student of regional foodways should understand is that food traditions cannot be subject to a single standard. Especially a standard levied by an outsider. Unfortunately, Elie proceeds to "damn" local barbecue joints for their poor food, despite the high regard the restaurant holds in the local community. Mr. Elie's culinary arrogance extends not only to judgments on food, but he extends a patronizing attitude towards many of the people he meets, including a truly offensive treatment of the speech patterns of the Gullah in the SC lowcountry. While a moderately curious read, it will not remain on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Good read....if you ignore the opinionated tone....
Review: Mr. Elie has written a book that cuts a wide swathe through the regional barbecue landscape. While some of the information is good, and the book does provide a curious read, the regional nature of barbecue lends to the book's inadequacy. What any student of regional foodways should understand is that food traditions cannot be subject to a single standard. Especially a standard levied by an outsider. Unfortunately, Elie proceeds to "damn" local barbecue joints for their poor food, despite the high regard the restaurant holds in the local community. Mr. Elie's culinary arrogance extends not only to judgments on food, but he extends a patronizing attitude towards many of the people he meets, including a truly offensive treatment of the speech patterns of the Gullah in the SC lowcountry. While a moderately curious read, it will not remain on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: A trip through barbeque country
Review: This is one great book. I love it so much, I bought another copy "just in case". The writing is superb, the photography is amazing, and from a Q-fanatic with literally hundreds of barbeque books, this one is my very favorite.

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Summary: The best armchair account of BBQ and its culture
Review: While the book serves as a chronicle of a cross country trip in search of the perfect barbeque, it does much more than that. We are introduced to a variety, and I do mean variety, of people from across the southeast and the heart of America. This book celoebrates these people and their lives. The barbeque almost serves as a metaphor for society and culture as they change and evolve. The book examines how traditions, generations, and diversity impact our barbeque and our lives. A well written narative that took me places I have never seen and introduced me to people I had never met. All of them interesting.