Year of the Pig

I have been back home in Louisville for my Grandmother’s funeral this weekend, and despite the unfortunate circumstances, it has been a real nice time seeing all the friends and family. I always love spending time with my cousins Brian and Robyn when I am home. They are great people, and I must say Brian is an excellent cook, and that even extends to Barbeque. Robyn and Brian know of my recent addiction to pigs and graciously invited me and Alissa and some other friends over for a night of good barbeque, sitting in the backyard enjoying the nice Kentucky spring.

Brian busted out the well-used charcoal “bullet” water smoker, and loaded it with a rubbed pork shoulder, getting it started around 9 am. For those of you unfamiliar with this type of smoker, there is a lower pan behind the hatch in the front that is where you build your charcoal fire. Above that is a water pan that blocks the direct heat from the charcoal, helps stabilize the temperature, and keeps the smoking chamber a little wet. Above the water pan are 2 racks, where the meat goes. These smokers are simple, effective, and a great bargain at about $35.

Alissa and I came over at about 5 or so. I checked out the butt, which was looking and smelling great. Brian used some water soaked hickory and mesquite chunks on charcoal fire for the smoke. In case you don’t know, Brian was cooking a “Boston Butt” which is actually a cheap cut of pork from the shoulder, more appropriately called a Pork Shoulder. Apparently the name Boston Butt comes from the way less desirable cuts of pork were packed in barrels called “Butts” in pre-revolutionary New England. The cut is tough and loaded with fat and must be slow cooked to break it down and make it tender, hence making it popular for barbeque. It is the cut that is used for “pulled pork.”

After we got there, Brian had us prepare the mop sauce, which we applied a couple times during the last hour or so of smoking.

We brought the butt in, and Brian finished it off in the oven at 300 F for about an hour. In the meantime we hung out and had a fine time. There was a cute baby, Anna, to play with. She obviously takes after me in her fashion sense:

My cousin Robyn is a vet, and does not hide her love of animals. In addition to her 4 cats, they have a Redbone Coonhound with more than a little energy. Some of their friends brought over their dogs as well, including a Golden Retriever and last but certainly not least, a Great Dane named Zeus.

But you aren’t really here to read about dogs and babies, right? This is about Pigs! So, while the Pig was in oven, we whipped up a nice simple coleslaw, and some delicious potato salad (small golden potatoes with mayo, olive oil, scallions, and the bacon makes all the difference)

Soon the Butt was done, and we let it sit for awhile to cool. We removed the fat cap and Alissa and I picked it apart into nice chunks, getting rid of any chunks of fat. The butt had a nice deep red smoke ring, was moist and smokey, melting in your mouth with smokey intensity. Love it! I could still smell it on my fingers this morning, and it made me suck on my fingers like a baby. Brian added the pulled pork to a little bit of bottled bourbon BBQ sauce, and some chicken stock, and kept it warm in a crock pot.

Brian thought that it could have smoked longer, and been a little more tender and easier to pull apart. I thought it was just fine. You just can’t beat the smoked butt. Yum, yum, and more yum. Thanks again Brian for smoking!

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Man, I hate air travel these days. I had a 6:30 am flight from Laguardia this morning, and that meant I set the alarm for 3:20 am. No human should have to get up at 3:20 am and schlep luggage. Anyway, at least I got to the airport on time, onto the plane, AND to my destination, Louisville, via a quick layover in Memphis.

I know that Memphis is one of the big BBQ meccas of the USA, but I didn’t expect BBQ signs to be plastered all over the airport. I am not complaining! Now I have to confess, I got to the Memphis airport at about 8 am (9 am EDT) and man, I was hungry, having been up 6 hours already. First thing I saw walking out from my gate was this big neon pig, a sign for “Interstate BBQ.” However, they were only serving breakfast, and I was really thinking about some ribs. I probably would have felt a little self conscious chowing down on ribs at 8 am in the airport, anyway, so that was probably for the best. I settled for a bagel and an apple I had packed with me, and stood in the long line for a Starbucks coffee (sorry, yes, I admit it). I would like to say that the airport Starbucks employees were shockingly chipper and friendly, and I really liked the hard-to-type Memphis pronunciation of the word, “cowfee,” drawn out long and dramatically like something that will really get your day going, “cooowwwfee.”

Memphis! That’s right. Alas, that I could not leave the airport. I got a quick airport tour of the city, and I am sure that is not fair, but judging from what I saw represented, including Sun Records, Elvis, the Stax Museum, and lots of BBQ, I realized, I owe it to myself to make a visit to Memphis one of these days soon. (Not to mention that I have very sweet cousins and an aunt and uncle I would like to visit there. Hi yall!)

This guy did not like having his picture taken, so, I thought I would post it.

A trip to Memphis for some Graceland and some BBQ, it must happen.

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I am not exactly sure what all is going on in this series of images forwarded from long time reader, Pork Pie Hat. It’s a great series though. This little piggie probably helped the ruskies get ahead in the space race. Another great piggy contribution! He appears to like his wine too (or whatever it is–can anyone read that label?)

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R.U.B.: Righteous Urban Barbeque!

Yes, one geek offered to take another geek to lunch, and where did that geek wanna go? You got it…to R.U.B., for some Ribs. We invited a third geek, and so it was that the three geeks, ended up at a table for three, with three orders of ribs, three sides, and till about three o’clock before I had to be back to work.

But that was plenty of time for the mission at hand, and BloggyMcBlogBlog, the Crushinator and myself ordered up a platter each of Rub’s “Long End” and “Short End” Spare Ribs as well as an order of their Baby Back Ribs. To accompany all that piggy goodness, we ordered Hush Puppies (I think those are fried in Lard, btw), Greens, and their damn fine Beans.

I have eaten at R.U.B. a number of times and have had their Brisket, Pulled Pork and I usually get their smoked chicken, which I highly recommend. This is the first time I have had their ribs, and they did not disappoint!

The restaurant opened a couple of years ago, and the co-owner Paul Kirk, the self-proclaimed “Baron of Barbeque” is a well know Pitmaster with many BBQ books, and even a BBQ school. It is a no frills looking place with a menu boasting a great selection of smoked meats and even a $250 bottle of Dom Perignon to take advantage of those high falutin’ Manhattan types. The meats are served on wax paper on metal pans, and garnished with wonder bread and pickle chips.

As for the ribs today, I would say, I enjoyed them awfully well. Definitely worth the time and money for anyone who likes some excellent smoked ribs. The meats were warm, not hot, and are smoked daily. They are not covered in sauce, but R.U.B. on the side sauces are good if you care to drown your food in them. The ribs were deliciously smoky, the meat firm and tender. As crispy and dry, and at the same time juicy and succulant. These are ribs that I like. Yum!

As for the various cuts of Ribs, it seemed like the overall table favorite was the “Long End” Spare Ribs, which were the meatiest ones. I, however, cannot really say that I preferred one over the others, they were all excellent.

Also a word about the sides. The greens were fine, but nothing to choke your chicken about. The hush puppies, well they are lard fried cornbread balls. Fine again, but not my favorite. The beans, however, are rich and dark, and smoky as HECK, with big chunks of their Burnt Ends. Delicious!

I am proud to say that I was able to enjoy 8 of these ribs today, and thanks to BloggyMcBlogBlog for picking up the bill. That’s 53 Year of the Pig Ribs. I would have just eaten 7, but I couldn’t just leave that last rib there all rejected and alone, and who wants to waste a styrofoam box on one rib. By the way, that reminds me of my one criticism of R.U.B.: I know they are going for a “low rent” feel with the pie pans and white bread and all, but I still don’t get off on a restaurant serving all their sit-down customers in styrofoam and plastic and paper. I just get sick of trash, that’s all. Sorry about being preachy. I will stop now.

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In honor of our patient non-suing vegan artist friend, here’s a report on the vegetarian ribs I had recently. The restaurant, Red Bamboo, is a small West Village vegetarian joint popular with the NYU crowd. While being a guiltless omnivore, the past decade has seen, in my opinion, the flowering of excellent vegetarian restaurants in NYC, and good food is good food. Red Bamboo has good food. I got their ribs, which were delicious. They didn’t, of course, taste like real ribs, but I’ve found that the best feaux-meat doesn’t; instead, it is a tasty dish that is simply inspired by its more-bloodily-slaughtered cousin. They were served with a side of collards which were fantastic, too; they had a toasted taste which was new to me, collards-wise-speaking. Based on this, and my slightly impolite tasting of every other plate at my table within grabbing distance, I give a hearty YUM to the Red Bamboo. My fave veggie restaurant, however, remains the Vegetarian Dim Sum place on Pell Street.

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I was back in Ann Arbor, MI this week, to see my girlfriend Alissa’s dissertation recital. Fortunately, it all went well, and afterwards we headed out to celebrate at a local Brew Pub, called Grizzly Peak. We were planning to just get some beer and some dessert, but looking at the menu, I noticed the Pulled Pork Sliders: “pulled Heritage pork shoulder, slow-braised with barbeque sauce and served on fresh mini potato rolls, $1.95.” Suddenly I was hungry! We ordered 3, they arrived, and as you can see, we dug in. They were delicious. Grizzly Peak is a recommended Brewery, with great beer, and above average bar food. I recommend the Cherry Bread Pudding as well!

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Last weekend we got out the ol’ “1000 Blank Cards” Deck, a real wiki of a card game, with no reals rules to speak of. Basically the fun is in making up interesting or ridiculous cards, and lots of doodling. Some people think that an altered state of consciousness could help this game.

Wikipedia on 1000 blank cards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_Blank_White_Cards

How does this relate to the Year of the Pig? I noticed in our deck that there were many great pork related cards, including “Shakespeare in the Pork” above. Another good one that our vegan reader(s) may enjoy is “Ham Penalty” (-27 points to all players who have eaten Ham today).

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I had some really yummy boneless spare ribs from a cheap chinese
takeout the other night. I’d never bought boneless before because the
bone — holding the bone, chewing little bits off the bone — well
that’s all part of the fun, right?

I only delved into this boneless unknown because I was about to get
on a bus, and decided I didn’t want to deal with the mess.
I must say I was happily surprised. The little rectangular chunks of
rib allowed every bite to have that yummy scorched-edge taste, and
the meat was thoroughly infused with the sweet sauce. I found myself
wondering how they’re de-boned, whether the meat is a different cut
or not (despite the name) and how they’re cooked.

In fact, the sweetness was my only criticism: sweet in nice, but too
much is a subtlety blanket. You know, a blanket, like, covers up
things. Like subtlety.

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