Delicious sizzle amid the salad

AAAAHH. Wednesday morning at Westchester farmers market. We’re here for the produce, right? Fresh black-eyed peas and sprouted lentils from the legume guy, sweet strawberries from Oxnard -- sure we are. But it’s 11:30, and from one end of this small one-block market, the tantalizing aroma of wood-fire smoke and sizzling meat has drawn a crowd. There’s a line at Red Oak BBQ Co., and no fools, we get into it.

Two grill guys work the massive trailer-turned-barbecue pit, the kind of custom rig seldom seen outside the Central Coast (where every street fair and soccer tournament draws a portable tri-tip vendor). You see smokers from time to time, but this is something special.

The fire -- yes, it’s red-oak wood fueling the flames -- was started soon after the market opened at 8:30 a.m., and already a few batches of spice-rubbed beef ribs, pork ribs, tri-tip, chicken and sausage have been slapped on the grill, expertly monitored, cooked to a friendly char outside, sliced to reveal still-juicy meat within and dispensed to early-bird lunchers.

Produce can wait. This place regularly sells out of some items halfway through the lunch hour. Though the grill guys are replenishing the stock as fast as they can, some folks order up a couple of slabs or a whole tri-tip or pieces of chicken, and there’s only a certain amount of real estate, even on that big grill.

On a day when you need to feel as if you’ve accomplished something, scoring the last spicy sausage at Red Oak is an exhilarating triumph.

Of course, you’ll have to eat in your car or standing with your friends on the nearby sidewalk. Or take your brown bag back to the office. At Westchester, the market managers haven’t provided tables and chairs which are available at the other three markets Red Oak’s proprietors Deborah and Rick Roquemore frequent: Wilmington (Thursday), San Pedro (Friday) and Menifee Valley (Sunday). But that doesn’t daunt the hungry hordes.

We watch as counter workers grab ribs, sausage or slices of tri-tip, wrap them in foil, nestle them in paper trays, add little containers of garden-variety potato salad and beans. When the supply of, say, pork ribs gets low, three or four people form a second line of folks who’ve ordered but are waiting for the next batch to come off the grill.

The gents behind us in line have their hearts -- and stomachs -- set on the tri-tip plate: five thick slices of chewy-tender beef rimmed with char and a sweet line of fat. Each bite hits the tongue crusted with a sharp salt and spice rub.

“Whoa,” says one of the guys happily as his order is sliced from a hunk of beef just removed from the grill, “That meat’s smokin’ hot and it’s rare -- that’s good!”

I get beef ribs a la carte -- who needs side dishes? -- and take a hot foil package to my car. The ribs are rich and smoky, very meaty and moist. There’s no sticky sauce, just smoke-permeated meat with a gorgeous crust. On other visits, I’ve picked up the St. Louis-style pork ribs, which are even better, smoky and juicy with a lovely dusting of salt, pepper and spice.

The chicken’s popular, with crispy skin and tender meat, and it’s great to take home to the kids for dinner. But my favorite Red Oak offering is the simple sausage sandwich: a spicy beef sausage (even the so-called mild ones have a full-bodied kick) on a soft but substantial French roll. The aroma wakes up something primal; it connects me to those meat-based campfire meals humans have enjoyed since the dawn of time. There’s a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage, and the spice, while potent, builds slowly and doesn’t overwhelm the flavor of grilled meat.

Which is what we’ve come to the farmers market for, right?

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Red Oak BBQ Co.

Location: Westchester farmers market (Wednesday), Wilmington (Thursday), San Pedro (Friday) and Menifee Valley (Sunday).

Price: Beef ribs: slab $16, plate $6, side $5 for two; St. Louis pork ribs: slab, $18 plate, $7 side, $5 for three; tri-tip: whole $30, plate $7, side $8 ( 1/2 pound); chicken: plate $5; side $4 (leg, thigh); sausage: plate $4, sandwich $3.

Best dishes: Tri-tip plate, sausage sandwich, slab of pork ribs.

Details: Open for lunch Wednesday through Friday and Sunday from about 11 a.m. to 1 or 1:30 p.m.