Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Scott Jamama's BBQ

I love good BBQ and it was pretty nice out last Saturday, so I decided to try and squeeze a few last drops out of summer and grab a nice BBQ sandwich. You could drive past Scott Jamama's BBQ in Tangletown and not even realized you missed it - good thing I know what I'm looking for. The place is a classic dive with only two tables and a little register to order at, but it's swimming with character and the appearance of a serious BBQ joint. I walked right in and all the seats were taken as usual, but since I live right down the street I had already decided to take it home anyways. I ordered the pork sandwich and Scott asked if I wanted mild, medium or hot. No brainer - hot. Scott reappeared a few minutes later and told me I owed $5 and he handed over a foam container that felt like it had a small dumbbell in it. If you pair the enormous sandwich with the cole slaw, bag of chips and soda he gives you, you realize you are getting a crazy deal.

I took the sandwich home and soon realized the generous allotment of pork and sauce quickly overcame the inconsequential bun, and I decided to attack this with fork and knife. The sauce was rich, sweet and hot at the same time. You definitely got the heat in the finish, but the rich pork flavor was sort of lost. I managed to get a few bites that weren't overloaded with the robust sauce ad it was really good. The pork really was pull apart and was cooked to perfection. The bun, as mentioned, was nothing special and was essentially an attempt to organize the pile of swine and sauce.

My Rating: Good, not great. You literally can't beat the deal, or the convenience, but I think you can beat the execution. I would have liked about half the sauce I received so I could get a little more balance in the sandwich. I think over saucing is a common mistake in BBQ and getting less sauce would greatly help the cause here. I'll head Back to Scott Jamama's, but probably not until a very cold day in the winter when I need a jolting reminder of warmer days to be savored.

Happy Eating,

-Teddy

2 comments:

kat said...

This is right near our house & on many mornings when I go out for a walk I can smell the barbecue already but we have yet to go in for a sandwich yet. I wonder if you can ask him to go light on the sauce.

HungryinSW said...

That's the plan for next time, I think it would greatly improve the sandwich. I think he doesn't add the sauce until he builds the sandwich, so I would definitely recommend doing that.