The great state of barbecue

By Greg Morago / Houston Chronicle

Daniel Vaughn says he’ll pretty much stop under any sign in Texas that says “barbecue” or “smoked meat” on the off chance of finding “that diamond in the rough.” Sometimes the barbecue is just OK; he keeps driving. And then sometimes he hits a pocket of gems that sends a shiver through him. It happened recently when a Houston friend steered him to East Texas in search of a particular style of fatty beef links that hail from the black-owned barbecue joints of Beaumont and Port Arthur.

“It was like stepping into history,” the Dallas-based barbecue fan said of the juicy, fat-oozing sausages. “It was like finding an endangered species.”

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