Spare Ribs from Jim 'n Nick's BBQ - $20.50

1908 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL - (205)320-1060

I tried to order their popular baby back ribs, but they were sold out. Instead, I ordered their spare ribs, and I definitely wasn't let down.

They're everything you'd want from ribs - tender and flavorful. I wish more places would follow suit with the pickles, but I'm pretty sure that's just a southern touch.

McRib from McDonald's - $2.19

1520 North Naper Boulevard, Naperville, IL‎ - (630)505-0220

The McRib is a limited time sandwich that consists of a boneless pork patty covered in BBQ sauce, onions, and pickles on a six-inch bun.

It's a very good sandwich, but the corporate big wigs at McDonald's like to toy with people's emotions so they discontinue the sandwich on occasion, but simultaneously talk about making it a permanent menu item. I heard people were die-hard about this sandwich to the point where they would travel to different cities when it was discontinued in their own city. While I wouldn't say it was THAT good, it was still tasty. The BBQ sauce tastes like the same sauce provided with their nuggets - a sweet, slightly tangy, sauce and the pork patty resembles rib meat fairly well. This would be a fine addition to their permanent menu to give it more variety.

Half-Rack Baby Rack Ribs from TGI Friday's

650 South College Avenue, Newark, DE - (302)737-3700

I'm feeling lazy today, so I'm ganking the description from the fridays.com site:

"A half–rack of tender baby back pork ribs fire–grilled, glazed with your choice of original or new Tennessee BBQ sauce from the Grand Champion of the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbeque. Topped with onion rings, served with fries and a side of barbecue sauce."

Now that I'm reading the description, I don't recall getting a choice of BBQ sauce so I'm not sure which one I tried. I didn't try any of the sauce provided to me on the side either since I was sharing these with my dog and I didn't want him to get the carpet messy. The small amount of sauce that was already drizzled over the ribs leaned on the sweeter side with hardly any tang. The ribs could've stood to be a bit more tender, but they were still yummy to my tummy.

Just like the fried Oreos I recently posted, the fries and onion rings became a bit soggy by the time I arrived home. Both of these taste much better while they still have their crispiness so I recommend you eat those first.

Spare Ribs from Oxford Farmer's Market - $3.99

193 Limestone Road, Oxford, PA - (717)283-5183

There's a lot of things I don't understand about the Amish. Like, how come they have a phone number? How come they accept credit cards and have their shop air-conditioned and lit up with electricity? Aren't all these things against their beliefs?

Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that they have a reputation for good barbeque. And the BEST part is that it's all pretty cheap! The spare rib itself is $3.99 but you can get the combo for $6.75. The combo includes BBQ potatoes (picture below), coleslaw, a small bag of chips, a roll the size of my fist, and a drink.

Personally, I like my BBQ with more tang, but this was still a good find. The meat's texture was so tender that it fell right off the bone with a little bit of fork jabbing.

They also sell deserts for very cheap (the CD-sized pies were only $1), furniture, produce, ice cream, and soft pretzels (these were fantastic!), but unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of them.

My biggest complaints about the place are that 1) it's a bit hard to find since you have to drive through very rural areas and 2) there's nowhere to sit to eat your food, but both of these complaints have nothing to do with the quality of the food. All in all, I was happy to try Amish barbeque, but the location is too far away (40 min drive for me) to make it worth the effort to get their food again.

XXL Ribs from Famous Dave's - $22.99

100 West Main Street, Christiana, DE - 302-737-0300

Since this was my first time at Famous Dave's, I decided to go with their "Award-Winning" St. Louis style ribs. After all, if their best can't impress me, why bother with anything else?

The description on the menu is: "Hand-rubbed with Dave's secret blend of tongue-tingling spices and pit-smoked for 3-4 hours over a smoldering sweet hickory fire. Then they're slathered with sauce and flame-kissed to seal in the flavor and caramelize the sauce for just a touch of crispiness. Served with corn bread muffin, corn-on-the-cob, and your choice of two sides."

The XXL Ribs, aka the "Big Slab" is the serving size with 12 bones. The ribs were good, but the meat didn't really fall off the bones like they do on spectacular ribs. As for the sides, the fries were soggy, the mashed potatoes were good, and the corn on the cob and the cornbread muffin are standard.

Baby Back Ribs from Balan's Produce - $18.00

851 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, DE - (302)292-2606

Here's the baby back ribs I spoke of yesterday. As you can see from the shininess, these suckers are soaking in BBQ sauce. The sauce is a lot thinner than most BBQ sauces I'm used to - I'd say even thinner than A1. Also, I didn't detect any tang that I usually do with BBQ sauces either. The best comparison I can make right now is the sauce that gets coated over orange-flavored chicken.

This particular batch was charred a bit more than I would've liked, so they were not quite fall-right-off-the-bone tender but they were still fairly tender. As with the pulled pork sandwich (pictured in the back), these ribs carry the same smokey flavor, perhaps even moreso because of the slight overcooking.

Overall, these ribs were a great add-on to one of the smaller sandwiches and the portion is large enough to split with two or three other people who also order a sandwich.