The 53 Best Things We Ate This Year: Food + Cooking : gourmet.com

Food + Cooking

Published in Gourmet Live 12.19.12

Gourmet Live and Epicurious staff and contributors name their most savory, succulent, sweet, and all-around stellar meals of 2012

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Barbecue Pork Ribs, Colorado BBQ Challenge Frisco, Colorado My barbeculinary focus this year was ribs: beef, bison, lamb, mutton, and pork. I love them all, but the best thing I ate this year were the barbecue pork ribs made by Doug Pierce [above, at his Arapahoe Café] at the Colorado BBQ Challenge held each summer in Frisco—my own backyard BBQ ribs ran a very close second. Pierce's ribs were lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and sauce. The delicious crusty bark on the outside gave way to smoky, tender pull-off-the-bone meat inside. At first bite you'd be down on your knees, saying, "Take me, Lord, now, if this is what they're eating in Barbecue Heaven!" —Ardie A. Davis, PhB, coauthor, with chef Paul Kirk, of America's Best Ribs PHOTO: Ardie A. Davis, PhB

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