Pit stops: barbecue is nothing less than the national food of Texas, and--from a mom-and-pop joint in Eagle Lake to a temple of brisket in Taylor--we've searched out the best. On your mark, get set, dig in!

Texas Monthly, May, 2003 by Joe Nick Patoski

THIS SMOKIN' THING IS GETTING OUT OF HAND. The custom of cooking meats over wood fires has been going on since before there was a place called Texas, but in recent years the concept has gotten so refined and peculiar that--aside from the basic truth that Texas barbecue is superior to every other regional style--nobody here can agree with anybody else about anything. * We learned this the hard way six years ago, when Texas Monthly first weighed in with our picks of the state's top fifty barbecue joints. We thought we'd covered the territory and then some, but we should have known better. The insults started coming fast and furious, via letters, telephone calls, and e-mails, the general drift being, "How on earth could you have missed [fill in the blank]?" Frankly, we're still...