| Taino Barabicu In his book The American Language (1919), H.L. Mencken states that the word barbeque came from the Spanish word barbacoa, which had its roots in the word boucan from the language of the Taino people, who were natives of the islands in the Carribbean. "Ba" from baba (father); "ra" from Yara (fire); "bi" from Bibi (beginning) and "cu" from Guacu (the sacred fire). Thus the phrase "Taino Barabicu" means the "Sacred Fire Pit"
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| This is the luxurious interrior of Jay's BBQ restaurant. |
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| The stainless steel island in Jay's BBQ ghetto restaurant. The island was 15 ft. long and 4 ft. deep. It had fully functional warming drawers and a heating well already built into it. |
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| This is my backyard and the original concrete frame that would have been 18 feet long to hold the full island. Tru Lite Gas Products ran the gas line before we poured the concrete. I later shrunk this concrete frame down to 9 feet long and 5 feet deep with the help of Corey Harrison. |
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| Texas Steel Supply did the first round of modifications to my lump of coal. When they had made it into a rough-cut diamond, they brought it out to the house along with the BBQ sign that hung outside the building. |
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| Texas Steel Supply inserted the DCS grill into the island and chopped it down to 7 feet long, they added panels on the sides and brought it out to the house. The Jay's BBQ sign was sent to get refurbished. Tom Regan helped us load it onto the concrete pad. |
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| Phase Two- Things Get Smokey |
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| When you need a job done right you call in the pros. I did a lot of research around H- Town and found out that there was one man who could make my BBQ dreams come true, Shannon Lauve, owner of TX Pitmasters. Mr. Lauve and his wife Denise had seen the website and knew my friends the Wares. He accepted my special request to transform my warming drawers into a working smoker. This picture is T Hard Texas hauling my new smoker back from TX Pitmasters. |
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| Well here it is, at last. This is my BBQ playground completed. |
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| Moving left to right on the grill, I will explain each part. The cavity on the far left is my storage space for my cooking tools, charcoal, and cleaning supplies. Texas Pitmasters created the custom fit door and Aztec Castings, Inc. installed it with latches. The built in DCS grill reaches temperatures well over 1000 degrees Farenheit. Behind the grill is a horseshoe that my friend, Tripp Claxton, gave me from our trip to the Grand Canyon. He and I walked to the bottom of the canyon and back in one hot summer day. |
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| In the center of Taino Barabicu is the electric heating well. This well is used to warm marinades, side dishes, or whatever I want to keep warm while I cook meat in the other parts of the pit. |
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| Now, lets talk about the smoker at the far right end. This door was made by Texas Pitmasters and installed with latches by Aztec Castings, Inc., as well. The Longhorn star door handle came from Expo. Behind the smoker is my coat rack that came from the original Chicken Shack in La Grange. |
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| The three drawers inside the smoker are pulled out in this picture. The bottom drawer holds wood and charcoal for the fire. The middle drawer acts as a heat shield and holds a water pan. In this water pan I put orange peels, beer, and water which evaporates into the meat above it. This pan also catches drips that may come from the slow cooking meat. The top drawer has a metal grate for the meat. The smoke makes its way up from the fire pit, through the sides of the heat shield, to the meat, and out the black chimney in the back. |
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| Oh yeah, things would not be complete if the sign did not make it out to the backyard. It lights up at night. |
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| So there you have it. It took a lot of time and hard work to complete the pit, but its my pride and joy. |
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Click here to see the pit's conversion to an outdoor kitchen with wet bar.
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