Wildwood BBQ Festival, Wildwood, NJ

last time i went was 3 years ago, by accident. wasn't prepared, just happened to saw it. planned on going the next year but completely forgot. the following year also slipped my mind. what's fucked up was my boy was like, "you went to the Wildwood bbq fest yet?" i'm like, "i wanna go. when is it?" motherfucker said last week. like bitch, why you asking now?!

this year i was hella determined. even gave everyone a month's notice in advance. the fest usually last 3 days. Friday thru Sunday. i couldn't go Friday because i am normal and work. but i wanted to go with my buddies. of course, everyone's schedule is all fucked up. some can go Saturday, some Sunday. luckily, being fat minded that i am, i split my time up and went twice.

Saturday i was with my sister and a couple friend. on the way we went to picked up her sister sporadically, which was fine because she was good people. my sister and i went swimming, because we're Asians so it's embedded in us to swim in any body of water that's clean. they didn't, which was fine. but man was i stuffed.

i stopped at the first spot i saw. it's the one in the picture, called Rib-Bins. their ribs were delicious. sweet, fell off the bone. can't complain. had half a rack cuz we split it amongst us. tore it down and moved on. the next one was i believe Smoke-N-Bone? they're a wood pit style bbq joint. their ribs were also falling off the bone. texture was similar to the first place. only thing is they use a sauce that's a bit tangy. i wasn't too fond but my friends' sister liked it. it wasn't bad by no means, just not my preference. the 3rd place was Butch's

i snapped this quick pic because i didn't get a chance to take any. i wanted to but couldn't bring myself to look like these douchebags that were taking pics of everything they ate or at least had in their hands. i just wanted to enjoy some fucking ribs. and i did that at Butch's. they had a long line, for good reason. their ribs were amazing. it fell off the bone but has a bite to it still. not like brittle, pot roast soft. they used a dry rub first and sauce on the side. listen, a rib is good when it's by itself and even better when the sauce is on it, you got yourself a winner. i remembered Butch's, or at least a single name place i went 3 years ago. glad i found it again.

onto my 4th place. this stand called Sweet Annie's. i walked right up and ordered a teaser.  i should've known from the lack of lines. it was mediocre at best. they used like a  molasses, honey type glaze that they seemed to spread on while cooking, in return making the ribs hard and crusty. it didn't fall off the bone. it felt like i could've, and do, make better ribs at home. yea, highly disappointed. with that one out the way, i had room for 1 more. this place called Jack's. theirs were delicious. i don't remember distinctly what stood out but i remembered it being good, similar to the 1st spot. maybe because i was too full lol

anywho, i had my taste. i ranked them:
1 - Butch's
2 - Rib-Bins and Jack's
4 - Smoke-N-Bone
5 - Sweet Annie's

i liked Butch's so much i bought a rack home and their wet sauce. my buddy got the dry rub. we oughta be cooking ribs soon! also like i said earlier, i went again on Sunday. it was supposed to my 3 boys and 1 female friend. ended up with just the 2 of us. bro'in it out. sall good. we did our thing. this dude funny though. when we got there, i told him Jersey don't be making good brisket. they're either chopped and dried or big and too lean. i had brisket at the Smoke-N-Bone yesterday and it was ok. so this guy, decided to try. i told him, but he wouldn't listen. ended up wasting his money because he said it was disappointing. that he made better brisket at home with cheap meat. of course he didn't stopped there. even though it was a bbq competition, they had like cheesesteaks, fries, chicken fingers, kebabs, and even beignets. so he wanted to try the crabcake. i told him my buddy had it yesterday at this spot and she said it was good. i didn't so i couldn't verified. sure enough he tried it. he said it tasted like all butter and no crabs. he too was disappointed again. lol coming to a bbq fest and eating crabcake is a no-no.

we did stopped by Butch's first and got a whole slab as i polished off 70% of it. that was all i needed that day. we wrapped it up by hittin the beach where i was ill-prepared with no swimming trunks. luckily i had my basketball shorts in the trunk i changed into. he just ended up rolling up his sweatshorts and stood where the tides come in like a proud mom. i was swimmin and swimmin. it was fun times though.

we headed off but i can't come to Wildwood without stopping by my favorite seafood joint, Junior's on Rt 47 in Cape May Courthouse. i was expecting to get some soft shell crabs but they said it wasn't in season. like, que? can't you buy a bunch and keep em there? nevertheless, i wasn't gon leave empty handed. got me a fried seafood platter, which had shrimp, scallops, crabcake, and tilapia. note: fried seafood should be eaten immediately because they'll lose it's crispness and end up all soft then hard. i still like Junior's though, and my boy got a key lime pie, which he said was...too limey? lol i'm not a fan of citrusy dessert so i took his words for it.

overall, awesome day. awesome weekend. nothing like hanging with friends, family, and food. can't wait for next year!