If you were looking for an excuse to drive down to Compton on a Saturday afternoon, you could do worse than to head to Bludso's, a puffing barbecue pit whose dining room doubles as a church on Sunday mornings, although its takeout line is a pretty good cross-section of that segment of society that might consider selling their souls for the right combination of hot links and strawberry pop. The chewy, smoke-intensive spareribs aren't bad, but Bludso's is the local embassy for Texas barbecue, which is to say, various cattle parts cooked long and slow, with malice aforethought. If the fires are burning high and you turn up at the right time of day, the brisket at Bludso's can be as good as barbecue gets — less meat than a damp vapor you inhale so fast and so unconsciously that you barely remember you were... More >>>