BBQ in NH

We had a huge weekend. One I shall divide among multiple posts. For now, I shall focus on the front half of Jon's days off.

So let me first say that Jon was suffering from a serious barbecue jonesing. This led us to try to most reputable bbq joint in Portsmouth, Muddy River Smokehouse. Now, knowing this area is not known for barbecue, nor really has any barbecue restaurants, we proceeded with caution. Mistake #1, Amanda assumes they will have real ice tea. There is no such thing as fresh brewed, ice tea here. It just does not exist, even, apparently at a bbq joint. It was Nestea with lemon...eww. Our first good move was ordering the Gator Eggs as an appetizer. The jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, battered, deep fried and served with a sweet vidalia sauce were a hit. As an entree, Jon ordered a pulled pork sandwich. Muddy River uses a whole pork shoulder and a tomato based sauce that they put on the pork post smoking. It had a hickory, smokey flavor. (Our favorite place in Lexington, NC also uses only the pork shoulder, but also uses oak chips and is smoked for 3 fewer hours than that at Muddy River). Jon said, "The meat was very tasty. There was too much sauce. The sauce was very sweet and very tasty, but there was too much of it. But overall, I give it a positive."

Jon, how does is compare to Lexington? "It doesn't."

The sauce totally hid the flavor of the meat.

Because I very seldom will even eat bbq if we aren't at my dad's or in Lexington, I played it safe with a catfish sandwich (after the tea incident), which was really good. The batter was described as "seasoned." I describe it as delicious.