New site!


Right, so back by popular demand, the restaurant review site, but in a new format. Many of these reviews are old, just haven't gotten around to posting them until now. I'll try to date them where I can. You can still check out the old site here

Unlike other foodie bloggers, I however don't own any fancy camera gear - just an old Sony digital camera that works. Maybe if it breaks I'll look at getting something else, but likely just another simple point and shoot type thing that I won't break easily!

So here we go!

"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Oh, I'll accomodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine."
― Anthony Bourdain

Friday, March 2, 2012

Holy Smoke

Holy Smoke

Location: 4640 Manhattan Rd SE, just off Blackfoot

Being a BBQ afficionado, and having relatively recently come back from Memphis, I was craving good BBQ, and had heard good things about this tiny hole in the wall.  I'd heard something about $1 for each rib, plus some good pulled pork and beef brisket.

The place is relatively small, but the aroma of smoke wafted throughout the place.   It's set up  with a few picnic tables, and I spotted quite the assortment of sauces along the wall at the order window, including several house-special sauces.   

Being the crazy person I was, and seeing as how I was going to take it home anyways, I ordered several ribs, plus a pulled pork and a beef brisket sandwich.   After a short wait, I was rewarded with a large bag of food, and decided to take a few sauces along for the ride, as they'd had small to go containers for them all.  

As I got home and checked out each sandwich, I noticed a few things - the meats, all 3 of them, didn't seem to have much of an aroma, other than smoke, and biting into the ribs, that definitely was the case.  After having had some amazing glazes and rubs on the ribs in St. Louis and Memphis, this was a bit of a surprise, considering the glowing reviews on Urbanspoon and the like. 

I also found out that unlike the traditional sliced beef brisket, this version was pulled.  While I'm sure it's a style that is preferred by some people, it is definitely not what I'd expected, nor was the texture of it quite right to me - kinda mushy.  The pulled pork wasn't much different either, though slightly jucier than the beef.   I found overall, that my hunch was correct, and that both the sandwiches required a large amount of sauce, more so than I'd expected.  Essentially, the meat was tender, maybe a bit too much so, tasted only of smoke, and nothing else.   I wish I'd stuck around to try all the sauces, and maybe that'd have done the trick.

In the end though, the other sandwiches I've had didn't need any extra sauce on them at all, and these just weren't up to par for my tastes.  



Taste:6 /10 - smoky... just plain smoky.

Ambiance: 6/10 - license plates on the walls + picnic tables. 

Plating/Presentation: N/A - takeout!

Prices: less than $10 for the sandwiches, $1 per rib bone.
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