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Outstanding, excellent, exceptional, great!  All good adjectives to describe the meeting party we had on March 28 at Bamboobei. I have to hand it to Garry Howard and Raul Gonzalez for making that happen. I have taken calls from members all day and I say Hats off to Raul and Garry for great one. They earned the title of Party Masters. Now I have to hand it to our members and guest that brought in such delicious side dishes. It was so difficult to pick a single winner that we honored 3 great dishes.

Elizabeth Blanc won the dessert category.   W. Paul Gundry got top honors for his world famous Baked Beans, always a hit with me when Paul has me over for ribs, and who let the dogs out? Ole president himself won the King of Sides official crown, pig nose and beads. I guess he really can cook!

Side Dishes included:
Hot Spicy Jamaican Rice & Peas, Tabole Arabic Salad, Bob?s bean dip and home grown Banana bread, Yuca Mashed, Jack Daniels coconut flan, Habas a la Criolla, Fudge cake, bean salad, Ten Layer Salad, Potato Salad, Ice Cream & Chocolate fudge topping, Layered potatoes, w/ cheese & cream, Manakish, Cheese Corn Bread, Spinach parmesan balls, deviled eggs, Cole slaw with blue cheese, Grilles vegetables.

We had 89 guest and members of 96 who had confirmed and served an additional 16 meals to the truck drivers, the police, & the wait staff of Bamboobei with a few racks of ribs going home with a few folks at the end of the night.

We also had a few very nice and interesting guests from the British Common Wealth Society came. We have several new members join that evening too. 

Please welcome our newest members Luis Rubio and family, Michael Holland & Randall Butt owner of the Brick House Restaurant in Old San Juan.  Look out people I here Randall is fielding a team this year in the BBQ Competitions and I know he?s pretty good. Carlos Lsalde, Alexis Arroyo, Kamil Assad, John & Connie Emery & David Kenwery.

I have got to say it was a pleasure to stand around all day and watch the master at work getting those ribs ready to eat.  We started at 8am.  The truck pulling Raul's Southern Yankee concession trailer arrived and the generator and smoker trailer were put into place. We fired up the A/C unit and got "Ready to Rumble baby!"

Hey how about those two guys from Carbon De La Matta! You couldn?t ask for two better BBQ loving people to back the association every month with great carbon, say thanks to Edwin Cruz and Elvin Pagan by picking up a couple of bags every time you need carbon for your fire and don?t forget those fire starter candles without the disgusting lighter fluid odor and flavor. We put the Carbon De La Matta in the firebox and Raul fired it up. While the box heated up we stripped of the membrane of the backside of the ribs and then rubbed those puppies with Garry?s famous award winning BBQ dry rub.

When the smoker reached 275 degrees we started packing in the ribs and throwing in some Hickory wood for smoke flavor. There were so many ribs that we had to do it two batches. Garry cranked up the heat a little to 300, I know he would have rather super slow smoked them but time was his enemy Tuesday and we pushed it a little.

 About 3 pm we got a chance to slop on some sauce and get a sample of the ribs to come that night.  We found some that were fairly tender and after sucking those rib bones clean decided that another hour was better so we let it smoke till 4pm.

At 4 pm we had a change of guard so to speak.  We took out the cooked ribs and refilled the smoker for batch #2. Garry slathered on some Love Potion #9 BBQ Sauce and stored the cooked ribs in containers while the second batch smoked on.

We all owe a great amount of thanks to CBBQA members Raul Gonzalez and his wife Maggie. Raul has always said he was there for the CBBQA anytime we needed and when we saw that 100 people had confirmed we knew this rib fest wasn?t going to happen unless Raul and Maggie could give us a hand and bring out the big smoker.

Well as soon as Raul got the call he was all over it like sauce on ribs. He came through like a storm trooper.  Raul & Maggie, from all of us that enjoyed that dinner we owe it to your generosity and sprit of giving for the BBQ Association.  God bless BBQ & Raul & Maggie too.

There was a lot of information to be put out at the meeting.  Two BBQ competitions on the schedule for May and June and of course the Judges Certification class May 6th at Bamboobei. Hey don?t forget space will be limited and certified judges will be used this year at all competitions so register early. Get an application off the web page or contact Hector Rivera Hector@BBQPR.com and he can get you and application and meeting outline.

Most important we have appointed a Board of Directors who is all dedicated to seeing that the Caribbean BBQ Association accomplishes it?s short and long term goals. You can expect to see some real cool things happening over the next 90 days.

• President / Mike Compton
• Vice / President Dave Bennett
• Secretary / Helen Jo Ivy
• Sergeant at Arms / Colin Bengall
• Treasurer / Diane Forsythe Gundry
• Membership / Joselyn Villarroel & Colin Bengall
• Web Page / Garry Howard
• Hector Rivera / Director &Team Liaison
• Mike Thomas / Director & Meat Inspector
• Julio Sanchez / Director of Food / Health & Safety
• Paul Gundry / Director & Meat Inspector
• Josue Merced / Director of Marketing

A huge thanks to our fellow member Paco Morales, owner of the Scented Candle, who has volunteered to serve as the committee head in charge of decorating our CBBQA booths at Anesco and The Jack Daniles competitions. Paco needs some help with this project.  Remember you get out of this association what you put into it.  We need a few more members to step forward and assure that the Caribbean BBQ Association has the best damn booths ant any competition, always. Contact Paco. Morales, Guillermo   pacomo@coqui.net , 787-765-3621 (h) , 787-753-4129 (w)

I also want to thank all the new guest and new members that joined Tuesday evening.  We had a nice group of people from The British Commonwealth Society that attended and they commented how much fun this BBQ Association was to be with.  Man they have great taste in people and BBQ!

Mike Compton
President - Caribbean BBQ Association