Kansas City Barbecue

So says Carolyn Wells, executive director of the 5,000-member Kansas City Barbeque Society. She lives in a city as nuts about barbecue as Memphis. October's American Royal Barbecue competition draws around 400 teams, while residents can dine at some 85 restaurants in the metropolitan area.

Kansas City speaks its own language to identify cuts of meats and styles--snoots, burnt ends, brownies, rib tips, long ends, and short ends. Diners dress up for Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue (which serves prime rib on the bone with a wine list); dress down for Danny Edwards Famous Kansas City Barbecue (with the motto "Eat It an Beat It"). Feast on beef and fries at the shrine Arthur Bryant's Barbeque. When Bryant passed on, The Kansas City Star honored his memory with an illustration depicting St. Peter at the pearly gates asking the famous cook, "Did you bring the sauce?"

Love barbecue? You'll find dozens of delicious recipes in our Bar-B-Que special issue, on newsstands now!