Texas is the Argentina of the United States.

Not only for its pride and passion, but also because it's the top beef producing state in the union, which explains the appearance of two cities from the state on our list.

"They still parade longhorns down city streets," explains Texas Monthly magazine's resident Barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn of how Fort Worth earned its "Cowtown" sobriquet. "It's a civic symbol of history, but also of how much they love beef."

But it's not just beef.

"There's a culinary safari just between the menus of local chefs Tim Love (Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, White Elephant Saloon) and Jon Bonnell (Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine)," says Vaughn.

Staged publicly for the first time in 2012, Meat Fight is fast becoming a premier annual barbecue competition over in neighboring Dallas (yes, we know Dallas isn't Fort Worth and definitely vice versa), where one of the most recent darlings among meat elites, Pecan Lodge, can also be found.

Says Steven Raichlen, author of the "Barbecue! Bible" cookbook series, "The beef plate ribs may well be the largest bones in North America."

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