This is my entry for Graham’s monthly pho­tog­ra­phy hunt. The theme for July is “food”.

Every year, Sparks Street in down­town Ottawa is smokin’ hot. For five days in June, about twenty teams from Canada and the United States com­pete for the top rank of best rib choice, best rib sauce, best chicken choice and best chicken sauce.

The flashy trail­ers are lined up from Elgin street to Kent street, in one of Ottawa’s busiest pedes­trian street, in the heart of the busi­ness dis­trict. Line-ups are long but worth the wait.

All the ven­dors are part of a sum­mer cir­cuit of cities and they all pride them­selves in sell­ing tra­di­tional South­ern BBQ: ribs, pulled pork sand­wiches, chicken, beans and coleslaw — your usual veg­e­tar­ian night­mare. Each trailer boasts numer­ous tro­phies on dis­play out front, and man-size ban­ners over­head pro­claim­ing their meat supe­ri­or­ity, as well as some coun­try pride: the Texas lone star, the Cana­dian flag etc.

Damn, the pulled-pork sand­wich was good.

Related arti­cles:

1. Texas Style
2. Ottawa’s Gay Pride
3. A Foodie’s Day in S’pore
4. Pic­ture of the Week: The Contortionist
5. Foodie Review: Taste Ramen+Fusion