col klink

Tried four new sandwiches from Saigon Deli (88 was closed before the game) and although all are delicous, one particularly stood out as simply the best, the grilled pork. It is the closest to 88's bbq pork that I've had and REALLY good with their own bbq sauce and a couple dabs of their own mayonnaise. Also tried the veggie sandwich which, not surprisingly, had two big tofu patties as the base. Certainly the lightest of all the banh mi I've tried. The other two sandwiches were the meatball and the shredded pork. I believe the meatball was an olio of various pork products. I didn't sense that beef played a roll. Quite tasty, if it wasn't for the shredded pork and the grilled pork, it would be my favorite from Saigon Deli. The shredded pork (I'm eating it right now, envious?) has garlic and possibly tripe mixed in. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's translucent, a little rubbery and it goes well with the pork. Actually, I don't know what I like better, the shredded pork or the grilled pork. Alas! the angst has overcome me.

MsRamsey, I've been pushing Mashiko's for a while and if you'd like to read more here's both a professional and a personal review: For the professional there's Michael Hood's article in the PI (for which I started a topic on): click right here. Then there's a review by yours truly from February: clickity, clickity, click click.

I can't believe he didn't give you the sawagani! That and the very fresh sweet shrimp are the best reasons to go to Shiki. Have you had the crab before? They're pretty tasty and totally cool to eat. I think it's just amazing that you eat 'em whole: shells, legs and all. If it makes you feel any better, the place was almost empty when mamster and I went and he had plenty of spare time to waste on artisnal pieces. I think he's just more of a tradionalist. The best omakase in town is Mashiko's although I still haven't tried Nishino. There's a little more variety at Shiro's than Shiki's but I find Mashiko's much more enjoyable. They have a more relaxed atmosphere and they've come up with very memorable experiecnes for me. Don't get me wrong, Shiro's quality is fantastic and you'll definitely like the experience, but after going to Mashiko's, it prefer the later. If you're lucky, they'll have the baby octopi! They're so cute and tender. If you squeeze your eyes tight, you can imagine that you're a big fish and one of 'em floats by and you inhale them. But if you had them raw, I bet they'd be chewier. I was at Mashiko's last week (and I'll be going again on Saturday) and they had both the baby octopi and the sawagani but we had to ask for them. The one new item I had was golden trout, deep fried whole and served on a bed of vinegared vermicelli and seaweed, very tasty. The scallops served in the shell were also quite scrumptious. MsRamsey, when you go to Mashiko's make sure you get their albacore, it's my favorite item they serve and I'd almost go so far as to call it their signature dish. Welcome UnemployedBum! eGullet is a pretty cool site so watch out, pretty soon you'll be addicted.

One of the larger messes I've made was when I was in high school and I was at my grilfriends house. They didn't have much Hershey's chocolate left in the squeeze bottle so I thought: "Hey! I can use centrifugal force to get my chocolate!" Of course I thought that by just closing the top I'd be safe, but I was wrong and chocolate sauce went all over the kitchen, including the overhead fluorescent lights with the grill diffuser that was nearly impossible to clean. Of course I've destroyed many-o-cookware by putting them on the stove and forgetting. Currently there's an aluminum dutch oven in my back yard with a melted bottom and bubbled non-stick coating.

I envy you kpurvis. I grew up in Michigan and almost every fall my folks would take me to apple orchards and not only would we pick our own fresh apples, but get the most fantastic fresh cider. Now that I live in Seattle, none of the stores in my area carry anything fresh. Oh wait, Washington has one of the largest apple crops in the country on the other side of the mountains in Eastern Washington. Guess I'm too lazy to drive a couple of hours these days. Where the hell are my folks now when I truly need them?

I imagine soft cider as hard cider still really isn't prevalent as a popular beverage here in the states. With a little speculation here, I would wager that the soft variety would imbue the pork with more apple flavoring due to its more piquant apple bite. Assuming of course that one would be using fresh apple cider and not the powdered doppelganger. Nice idea kpurvis and welcome.

At first my homebrewing was for fun but what I ended up liking about homebrewing (besides the alcohol, and the concept of making your own) was giving it away and getting great responses from my friends. It was the sheer act of giving and enlightening. Now that need is filled through bbq which I am much better at and have "quicker time to market." Also, since a friend of mine does 10 gallon all grain batches that taste better than anything I could do, I can enjoy the process vicariously through him.

I've thought about using garbage bags but nowadays a lot of manufacturers line them with odor reducing chemicals and I'd rather not have them in the brine.

I agree that Shiki's is not the best I've ever had although the quality of his fish is top rate and he keeps a tank full of sweet shrimp right on the bar. That was really cool. Shiki's was the first place I've been to where a nigiri piece (sweet shrimp) actually twitched in front of me. I have nothing less than superlatives (good ones) for that experience. Yes, Yamamoto is the fastest chef I've had omakase for but I didn't find it too distracting. My only grief, and it is only a minor one, is Yamamoto's lack of originality. He served ONLY nigiri. MsRamsey, did you find that as well? After going to Mashiko's (I'm also going there tonight) and seeing what the vast array of talent behind the bar can put out, I like seeing a lot of variety. But damn, everything that Yamamoto put in front of me at Shiki's was really tasty.

Yup, Le Gourmand is on my list as well as Herb Garden and Nishino. I also want to try Le Pichet, Salumi and whatever suhi restaurant I haven't tried. Lucky for me, I'm going to Mashiko's tonight in between viewings of the new Star Wars movie. Man, I love sushi.

For those with a backyard and an inkling to try smoking yourself, there's a great starter smoker from Chargiller (click me) in Georgia for $199 and free shipping. It's not the best smoker out there and I had to make a modification, but I've gotten a helluva lot of use out of mine and I love it to death. I can't possibly imagine going back to anything else unless I'm doing a steak or some dogs. It does require a little more maintenance than a pricier model. After six months I needed to tighten the bolts down but you'll probably have to do that with any smoker you assemble yourself. The real maintenance lies with spraying the side firebox with vegetable oil after every smoke so it doesn't rust out. But really any bbq'er should have a bottle of that around to begin with. The modification necessary was the the grill for the fire. It came with a flimsy small gauge wire grill for the fire and within six or eight uses it quickly got bent out of shape. Luckily a friend of mine welded a new one out re-bar with 1" spacings and it's been a performer ever since.

The first Thanksgiving I decided to brine my turkey I realized that I had nothing to put it in. Luckily though I remembered from my homebrewing days that the primary fermenter was a 5 gallon food-grade bucket, perfect for holding a turkey. I was also lucky that it was cold enough to keep it outside. "old" bbq smell relates to the bbq of my youth, where my father would slather bottle after bottle of grocery store bbq sauce over the chicken. As a matter of fact, he still does.

I just realized that I put sugar in my brine out of habit from when I grilled most of the time, before I bought my smoker (the best thing I have ever bought in my life by the way). For grilling, it gave the meat that old bbq smell. I think I'll try taking it out in future brines destined for the smoker. With my thanksgiving turkeys and the rest of my poultry in the smoker, the smoke flavor overpowers the herbs in the brine. So I find it is much more effective to put fresh herbs like basil and especially rosemary straight in the cavity and/or under the skin.

For the weekend nights I've always managed to get there before 6 so I'm not sure. But with so many establishments serving banh mi, there has to be at least one open. It is my understanding that the banh mi venders are quite aware of the games and plan on being available at least before. However, smaller outfits like 88 may get tired. I'm not sure where at Sa-fee-co it is, but supposedly there's a health conscience food stand with granola, yogurt and other non-meat related items. How vegetarian is he? There's always the sushi stand by the bullpen. I can already hear the cries: "blasphemer thou!" But, Man cannot live on garlic and oil alone.

Except for one Monday game, they've been open every day I've tried. I guess you have to take a day off every once in a while. I haven't tried on a Thursday night before, but I can't imagine that he wouldn't be open. But if he is closed, go to Saigon Deli, kitty-corner to 88, on the North-East corner of 12th and Jackson (if that isn't Saigon Deli, the location is right). They have more variety and have the second best sandwiches. I enjoyed the chicken and their bbq pork wasn't bad.

You can always save a sandwich or two for dinner . . . PerfectCircle, good work on getting the recipe! I've found it difficult to exchange more than a couple of words with him, but I would bend over backwards for him and would be happy to kill for that man. His bbq pork is still my favorite.

Oh, I used to add a whole bunch of herbs and other seasonings but I had to add so much and let the meat brine for so long (like a week!) before you could notice them that it was it was no longer economically feasible or enjoyable. So now it's pretty simple: salt, sugar, vinegar, hot sauce and maybe lime or lemon juice.

I used to heat up my brine to accelerate the salt and sugar disolving, but now I don't even do that. I just use warm tap water and let it set for a half-hour, then it's ready for the bird or pork. You bet. I've done side-by-side comparisons of brined vs. un-brined ribs and the brined ribs won hands-down. They were more tender, juicier and more flavorful without being salty. You can brine 'em for an hour or up to three days. After that they start getting really salty.

Indeed!

It depends on how much sugar is in the sauce and how hot the smoker is. If you're grilling or smoking at a high temperature (above 250 degrees F), then the sugar will burn and you'll be unhappy with the outcome. If you smoke at a lower temperature though you won't have any problems with it. I've found that if you use tomato-based sauces, it dramatically hides the smoke flavors. At which point you end up asking yourself: "Why did I go through all of the trouble of smoking it then?" It's not that I don't like tomato-based sauces, but they're more suitable for grilling rather than smoking and to sub-par cuts of meat. Or occasions where you don't care about the taste of the meat.

I don't serve my ribs with sauce, but I do use a "mop" that some would call a sauce. Basically it's a mustard, vinegar/hot sauce and olive oil sauce to keep everything nice and moist. Sometimes I'll through some brown sugar in for good measure, like the last time. If y'all are interested, you can read about that bbq here (click me). re edit: one's a man, the other is a prison. Of course that man did run a prison of sorts.

I just smoked up some ribs last Thursday and they turned out pretty well. The most important thing you can do is brine them first and don't throw them in an oven. I always brine my ribs for at least an hour before I smoke 'em. It's a simple brine of a cup of salt to a gallon of water. That's all you need. However I also add a bottle of Crytal's extra hot hot sauce, a cup of brown sugar and a cup of vinegar. Occasionally I'll also add a cup of lemon or lime juice too. I've fooled around with all sorts of brining like adding coffee and bourbon and a litany of herbs, but really all you need is salt and water. If you only have time for an hour brine, you might want to double up on the salt. I don't have direct experience smoking ribs on a gas grill, but you'll want to get wood chips. Hickory or mesquite will work well. Long, slow and low lindirect heating is the way to go. My ribs are best after 4 hours and the temperature of the smoker stays around 150 to 175 degrees F but you can go as high as 200, just make sure to mop it at least every half hour to ensure they don't dry out. When I first started out with ribs, I grilled 'em on the weber for about 45 minutes and they came out really tasty. If they were brined, they were juicy and bursting with flavor. They just weren't falling off the bone. Now that I have a smoker though they're almost as juicy, smokey and falling off the bone. Here's a look at my ribs (and me). Mrs. Fat Guy took the picture. There are three racks of back ribs, one in the front left, one in the back left and one perpendicular in the middle. Man do I love ribs.

Actually it makes a lot of sense that it was chowhound because we haven't been recommending Thanh Vi. Maybe if she had read our thread, she would've been more excited about banh mi.

D'oh! Monday mornings are not kind to the klink.

Friday night I tried the caesar from A New York Pizza Place and it was nothing special. Just store bought, mayonnaise-based dressing. Definitely go with the house salad with the house dressing.