There's just not much we shove in our mouths we Americans can claim a clear title to. Sandwiches? British and, concurrently, Russian. French fries? Belgian (but see how tricky those French are?). Meatloaf? French, though they'd call it something like le galantine de boeuf and probably wouldn't have a problem ceding that one to Betty Crocker, anyhow. Even breakfast cereal comes from somewhere else - probably Scotland - although it did take an American to come up with frosted SpongeBob Squarepants fortified oat cereal with Plankton-shaped mini-marshmallows.

And thank God for that.

So what does that leave us?

Barbecue.

When done properly, it's stamped with the true mark of obsessive American ingenuity we're so proud of. And it's done properly in the most modest and unlikely places, like Doyle's Public House's parking lot.

Doyle's is hosting its first annual "Smoke Off" Saturday. It has nothing officially to do with Initiative 502. Rather, it's a smoked meat competition with 100 percent of the proceeds benefitting F.I.S.H. Food Banks of Pierce County. Anyone can enter, and everyone who attends is a judge. For $20 you may sample every cook of ribs and other meaty categories and help pick the winner. So shove your pockets full of moist towletts and help support an organization that fed 140,000 families in Pierce County last year.

DOYLE'S SMOKE OFF, 4-7 p.m., Saturday, July 20, Doyle's Public House, 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, $20, 253.272.7468