In the fall of 2008, I spent twelve days in the Midwest and Midsouth in search of good barbecue. Along the way, I saw a baseball game in St. Louis, caught a couple of bands, visited a couple of casinos on vastly different parts of the Mississippi, and got to see a competition barbecue team at work. The trip began in St. Louis before heading south to Memphis and on to the Mississippi Delta. I returned to St. Louis for a couple of days before taking a train to Kansas City to drop in on the American Royal Barbecue, the largest barbecue contest in the world. While in Memphis, I was joined by a ... full info