Visit to the Burnt End Mecca

Yesterday I had a meeting in KC at the Grainger 408 Branch, which happens to be right next to the original Arthur Bryant's Location on Brooklyn. I don't eat much bbq, let alone restaurant bbq, but Bryant's is different. They basically invented burnt ends as we know them today- chunks from the point section, re-seasoned and returned to the pit covered in sauce, to cook down. I met Rod Gray of Pellet Envy at Bryant's for lunch. It was good to see Rod and get an update on his life as a traveling bbq guru. The bbq did not disappoint and the burnt ends were as good as ever.

2009 Beef Fest Blues and BBQ

Last weekend, we competed in the 9th annual Flint Hills Beef Fest- Blues and BBQ, in Emporia, KS. There were 36 teams and the weather was perfect. We arrived at 9pm, which is about 4 hours behind schedule, but I was late last year and did pretty well. I think its actually good for me to show up late at Beef Fest because it minimizes the chances of me getting caught up with my old buddies in my hometown and a bunch of beer. On the way down, I found out that one of my friends who cooks on a local team in the contest had passed away the week before. Bruce Neill was 49 and we worked together at Neenan Co. He was a great guy and will be missed. We finally got set up and meat prepped by about 11:00pm. The teams are around this square, open area and in the middle, they set up a tent with a stage where the blues acts perform. Its a good Friday night atmosphere. Another bonus about that contest is that my friend Jim Callow lives across the street so once we put on our meat, Luke and I went over and slept in the AC at Jim's. 5 hours of sleep at a bbq contest is really good... Because I was late, I missed the cooks meeting, which isn't really a big yank since the rules are always the same....right. Well, the rules were the same, but the standard KCBS turn-in times had been pushed up one hour...now starting at 11...luckily my friend Greg from Ribs 4U mentioned it to me at about 7am...as I was going to put on my ribs as usual...so I was an hour late. I ended up finishing the ribs in the foil on a really hot green egg with direct heat-set to grill my tri-tip steak for misc beef...one slab was inedible and thrown away...the other slab I literally scraped char off the backside...painted with sauce and got 5th place in a tough field...go figure. My scores were all pretty good, 4th place chicken, 7th place pork (which was my only real disappointment b/c it was the best I've ever cooked) and 7th place brisket. In the extra categories, I received 6th place for sausage and 10th place misc beef. Overall, our ranking was 3rd, which is pretty good for our 2nd contest of the year...Bart Clarke-Twin Oaks was the winner and he is one of the best in the country.

This image is one of the judges leaving the tent with their little coolers full of leftovers...nothing like eating 3 or 4 or pounds of bbq and then wanting some to take home...the guy on the right is a real overachiever...two coolers

Gun Smoke

My friend Michael Bright, Don of the "Southern Mafia" sent me this pic. Not sure who built it, but I heard Dave Klose built one once. I don't know how well it would cook but it sure looks cool.

Jambo Pits

Just in case anyone out there is looking for a top notch bbq pit, or if you happen to have some "venture capital" and would like to sponsor a KS bbq team or even get me a sweet Christmas gift...I thought I'd share a cool site with you. Jambo pits are the coolest rigs ever! Jamie Geer has built pits for many of the top teams in the country, and until recently, they were very tough to come by. Jamie is a metal fabricator from Texas and has recently transitioned from building pits on the side to building them full time. Check out his site at http://www.jambopits.com/ and trust me when I say, they are even cooler in person.

Kid Rock Hot Summer Video

Kid Rock has become one of my favorite artists, in part due to his concert Sherry and I went to in February. The tickets were cheap, he played for 3 hours with an intermission. Dicky Betts, Allman Bros. guitar player came on and played "Ramblin' Man" and kicked ass. Then, Rev Run of RunDMC came on, with Kid doing the DMC parts, I thought I was in 1986 again. The last song with RevRun was "This Little Light of Mine"...yeah...the one from sunday school. Sherry looked at me and said, "only kid rock would perform that song and have it be cool". I got the greatest t-shirt, on the back it says, "You cant teach tall, you can't sell short and you can't buy cool.

Here is his new video on you tube . Its a cool mash up with licks from Warren Zevon and Skynrd.

Cafe Nostimo

On Tuesday of this week, I visited Cafe Nostimo in Portsmouth, NH. The restaurant was very clean and nice. We had a large group and the service was great as well. I had the Beef Souvlaki (Kabobs), which were excellent. It was served with great pita bread, rice and greek green beans. I'd highly recommend this restaurant.

Chicken Practice

Last weekend I decided to practice on a few chicken thighs. The goal was taste and skin texture, so I didn't take time to trim the skin. I cooked the chicken hot ~325-350, indirect with the smoking plate and some pecan chips. The rub was a mixture of Lawry's Chicken Seasoning from Sam's and dry mango jello mix found in the mexican section of the grocery store. The rub was excellent. I glazed it with a mixture of 3 Little Pigs Competition Blend sauce and peach nectar. The end result was a good tasting product.

Southwest Airlines Customer Service

One of the interesting parts of this blog is definitely going to be the stupid stuff that I do or that happens to me. My flight last week to Chicago is a prime example of some of my genius...and fortunately very good luck...

When I fly, I always put my moneyclip/wallet in the front zipper pocket of my backpack. I was seated in the next to last row on the plane, so as everyone began exiting, I put up my iPod and grabbed my money clip and put it in my pocket. As I left, I looked back at my seat to be sure I hadn't left anything (OCD at work here) and exited the plane. I went to get my rental car at Hertz and as luck would have it, Hertz didn't have my name listed on the "board" outside, so I had to go into the desk to get my car. The nice lady at the desk asked for my driver's license and credit card so I reached in my front pocket...and to my dismay...no money clip...so know I'm starting to panic...I looked in the backpack...even dumped it out on the couch in the Hertz lobby. I called Southwest, knowing that the plane was very close to leaving for Detroit! Meanwhile, I have a meeting downtown in 45 minutes and find myself unable to rent a car, get a cab, check into my hotel room, buy a meal and get on the plane to return home! Once on the phone with the airline, the customer service agent gave me the name of the local baggage desk at Midway. While on the phone, I was running toward the baggage claim area. Once at baggage claim, the one of the ladies at the desk said, "I'm working on it"...she said to the person on the phone, "you've got it"..."and the money is there too". Relief! She told me she had to go to the security checkpoint to retrieve the money clip...I asked if I should go...and she looked at me and said, "Sir, I think you should sit down and relax"...

A special thanks goes out to Nakesha at the Southwest desk and the crew of flight 424!

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse

On Monday in Chicago, I was able to make it to Bob Chinn's Crabhouse, which is quite an experience. The King Crab Legs were very good and the signature garlic rolls were great as well. Chinn's is a great place to visit if you are up in the North suburbs of Chicago. This is a huge restaurant, seating 650 people and the volume of food and drinks they serve are incredible. Here are some of the stats:

• An order leaves the kitchen every 9 seconds


• Chinn's serves 322,400 Mai Tais each year


• 3000 guests visit Chinn's each day


• 1500 pounds of shrimp are eaten weekly


• 500 pounds of garlic are used weekly

Insulated Meat Handling Gloves

I recently tested these lined nitrile gloves from Grainger for pulling pork and shredding chicken and they work great. Unlike other PVC gloves I've tried, these gloves allow surprisingly good dexterity. They washed up quick and I highly recommend these gloves for handling meat and other hot foods.

The King of Sting

Today I finished an awesome book. It is called "The King of Sting". It is the true story of the life of Craig Glazer, who owns Stanford's Comedy Club in Kansas City. I listen to the Johnny Dare Morning Show in KC and Craig is a frequent guest and "friend of the show". I use that term loosely, because they are usually busting Craig's balls and he is affectionately known as "Guido Libido", a ferrari-driving, womanizing slickster. The book begins as he and some friends in college are broke and put in a bunch of money to buy some weed to resell (its actually Craig's last $300). The drug dealers take all their money and beat the hell out of Craig. His plan to get them back results in a series of more than 30 "stings" where he and tough guy Don Woodbeck steal money and drugs from drug dealers over a period of years. After the stings run out, he returns to KC, only to be chosen to become an agent for the KS Attorney General's Office...taking down big drug dealers...so it was the same gig...only the badge was legal. An interesting personal aside, one of the other agents Craig worked with and was named in the book, Jerry Federgreen, worked (in his retirement) at Lake Shawnee Golf Course with me for 5 or 6 years in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Jerry was a skinny little jewish guy with thick glasses...from New York...kind of a grumpy little guy...I never pictured him as a cop...turns out, Jerry was one of the agents who ended up "arresting" Craig, who was just doing what he did...setting up drug dealers. Craig moved to Hollywood, stole from more drug dealers and eventually did a couple stints in prison...but the theme of the book was that his life was basically like a staged movie, with him as the director and a crazy cast of characters around him, including movie stars, drug dealers and lots of women. I'm really not much of a reader, but I finished the book in only a few hours. This book is a must read and I give it a 5 on a scale of 1-5.

Baltimore Restaurant- The Rusty Scupper

This past tuesday, Jim Aiken and I were looking for some good food on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and across the bay, and as we walked past all of the chain restaurants, I saw the huge sign for The Rusty Scupper . We made our way over to the restaurant and were seated quickly. We ordered coconut butterflied shrimp as an appetizer, which was served with a pepper jelly sauce and they were awesome. They were sold out of the special which was blue softshell crab, so after much scrutiny of the menu (yeah, I know, if you've been out to dinner with me I always take a while to order), I ordered the Seafood Fra Diavolo, which turned out to be an excellent pasta dish packed with seafood and spicy sauce. Jim had the crab cakes, which were also very good. The Rusty Scupper is a great choice if you're spending some time on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.