If we have to put up with New Orleans-style mugginess this summer, we should at least do so in the company of NOLA-style cuisine and bon temps.

Both can be found at Tchoup (“chop”) Shop, a pop-up party that throws down Sunday afternoons at d.b.a. Brooklyn. There, chef and NOLA native Simon Glenn prepares a dozen or so dishes each week on his makeshift grill.

The chef’s down-home touch has attracted a cadre of regulars and Louisiana ex-pats. Some come for Glenn’s more contemporary creations: A recent Sunday brought a memorable grilled boudin sausage (shipped in from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana) topped with his homemade pickles and Cajun mustard; sweet-sour chicken wings coated in homemade Cajun pepper jelly; and divine duck-fat-roasted asparagus punctuated with Chinese sausage, walnuts and blue cheese.

And there are others who just want to grab an above-par burger and some peel-and-eat shrimp accompanied by a sweaty mug of beer and listen to the tunes of a live Louisiana band.

Is it Sunday yet?

Tchoup Shop takes place every Sunday through October from 2:30 p.m. until the food runs out (usually around 8 p.m.). d.b.a. Brooklyn, 113 N. Seventh St. (between Berry St. and Wythe Ave.), Brooklyn; 718-218-6006 or tchoupshop.com

Photo: Alex Solmssen

Read the original story on Tasting Table.

Brisket blowout! Top pitmasters keep the ‘cues smoking and the crowds coming.

As the 17 pitmasters at the Big Apple BBQ demonstrated, there’s no right way to cook a pig—or cow, or sheep. Barbecue mavens rolled in from 13 states, including NYC’s own Blue Smoke, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Rack & Soul. And, as Charles Grund—who presided over Hill Country‘s1,500 pounds of brisket—explained, ”Barbecue is a thing where everybody does something just a little bit different: their own flavor, and their own different technique. There’s not a whole lot of people doing it exactly the same way, so there’s not a whole lot of cutthroat.”

Indeed, the 125,000 atendees who were expected for the two-day festival chomped on barbecued brisket, whole hogs cooked up two ways, ribs done in myriad technqiues, a smorgasbord of sausages, and even that Owensboro, Ky., special, barbecued mutton. Everyone had set up the night before, and some stayed up all night tending fires and preparing meat.

But it was all worth it the next day, when the hungry crowds showed up toting kids, dogs and Wet-Naps. “Taste the meat, taste the spice, taste the salt,” exulted ‘cue granddaddy Mike Mills, of 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro, Ill., gesturing at his baby back ribs. “You’ve got a rodeo in your mouth.” …

Read the rest and see more photos on Metromix.com.

Photos by Gabi Porter