TEXAS MONTHLY now has a barbecue editor!

From the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/us/texas-monthly-hires-full-time-barbecue-editor.html?hpw

crankin’ away

and a scene I painted taken from a photo taken by a pal of mine, Mike Farmer. It’s at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX

Altercation at the counter

Gas grill pork roast..

I’m having to learn how to use a gas grill for something other than straight grilling..  it’s not like my smokers where I can use offset heat.

Here’s a nice pork roast I did for Memorial Day.

Gas grill Pork Roast May 2012

More from LOCAL PIG

I got some of their pork/porcini/thyme sausage on Monday. And a little of their bacon. It’s all good!

Local Pig box & brussels sprouts

Pork/porcini/thyme sausage. Trust me!

I’d have more photos, but the batteries in my camera went South. Sorry folks. I poached these in a bit of home made chicken stock and white vermouth. They went fast!

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Maranitos y Panaderias

I had forgotten how lacking RVA was in regards to pan dulce. LA SABROSITA (on Midlothian) uses that horrid palm oil shortening and much of the pan dulce is shipped in from elsewhere.

Not so in KCMO & KCKS. Each panaderia has its own take on the maranito (or ginger pig). The taste is much the same, but each bakery produces a cookie with a different texture, shape, or glaze.

Here’s one from the La Reyna Bakery on Kansas Street in the Argentine (the actual name since there used to be a silver smelter here) neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas.

La Reyna's take on the maranito..it's quite thick. Some of these bakeries use lard as shortening. Bless their hearts.

 

The taquerias are also quite diverse in their takes on such fillings as carne al pastor. I shall report on this later.

Pozole 101

Before I left for Thanksgiving, I made pozole.

I used:

Stock

~3/4 lb pork bones from Belmont. (the pork neck bones you get at the regular store are often full of bone chips, which can be a PITA)
1 small onion un-peeled, cut in quarters
6 smashed cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
some salt

simmer for ~3 hours, making 1 1/2 quarts of stock. Strain. Take meat off bones and reserve.

3/4 cup dried Los Chileros white corn pozole; soaked overnight.
1 1/2 cubed pork (with some fat) 1/2″ cubes
2 tbs oil or lard or bacon fat
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
2 smashed cloves of garlic.
2 chopped Roma tomatoes
1 tbs mexican oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbs chile caribe (or real ground chiles)
half a jar of La Frontera guajillo sauce.
salt to taste
juice of half a lime

Cook the pozole in water or stock until it’s nearly reconstituted.

Sauté pork in fat, until browned nicely
add onions & garlic, saute until translucent, add tomatoes, oregano, cumin, chile, the reserved pork from stock making, and some stock. Cook this down a bit.

Add pozole, guajillo sauce, a bit of salt and the rest of the simmering stock. Stir. If you need more fluid, add beer, chicken stock or water.

Bring to a simmer and cover allowing it to cook for 1-2 hours.

Que rico!

Serve with fresh corn tortillas, a squirt of limón, chopped onion & chopped cilantro.

Tacos al pastor en Kansas City, MO.

These were all take-out orders..

Tacos al pastor from Carniceria El Torito!

And they are only a buck on Tuesdays!

Tacos al pastor from Taqueria Mejico #2

At this place one can sit down and have a Bohemia, a much better beer than Dos Equis.  I would be happy to shill for Bohemia since I am a lot more interesting than the most interesting man in the world. I’ve read he’s really from Brooklyn and formerly a lawyer.

Here’s a painting from the wall of the Carniceria El Torito (on St Johns). Nice place, nice folks.

Pintura de chancho

PANCHITO (Formerly THE HOOK)

After weeks of watching the work go on in the rehabbing of this former Midlothian TPKE fried fish emporium into a taqueria, I noticed that it was OPENING SOON!

Nearest the camera, carne al pastor, then carnitas, then carne asada..

And it was called PANCHITO Restaurante Mejicano y Taqueria (Authentic)  (or something like that) and we decided to investigate this place on Saturday. We met at one PM (I got there first and was able to find a menu and got an agua gaseosa (mineral water). We only wanted a snack, so rather than getting full plates, I decided that we should split three sopes (thick corn tortillas with a rim/edge) and chose carnitas (fried pork bits), carne al pastor (marinated pork), and carne asada (grilled beef).

After our order was placed, my brain was picked re: local ethnic grocery stores, educational background, and common acquaintances.

Our order arrived and we fell to with some salsa verde of moderate picante added to our meal. Everything tasted authentic and was approved of. The toppings were a trifle dry, but we couldn’t really see ordering fully sauced dishes at that time of the day, since we had other things to accomplish before the day was out.  I want to come back and try some of the platters; I think they had chicharron en salsa verde. I may go back by and pick up a menu.

It also seemed on the pricey side.. I would have expected the platters to be at least a dollar or so less.

PANCHITO is open most days from 10 AM to 10 PM.. Fridays & Saturdays from 10  AM to 4 AM. It could prove to be too interesting a place to visit in the early morning hours since it is right next to several transient motels. You young folks can live large, but I’ll pass.

Panchito Taqueria

And one should note that the formica booths are not for large folks.

the charm of formica and the transient motel..

KC Kiełbasa

Whilst in KCMO, I found this place..
Peter May House of Keilbasa
1654 Bristol Avenue,
Kansas City, MO 64126
(816) 231-9850
Good stuff.. about 3/4″ in diameter and better than the kielbasa at European Market out on Broad..

Sorry, this is a generic photo..

a local review from Yelp:

So I was browsing through random reviews and the word “kielbasa” pops up on my screen. That’s about all you need to get my attention; for 4 whole days I had kielbasa on my mind and yesterday had to talk myself out of driving 30 miles one way just to get my hands on some smoked sausage. It’s not surprising that I’ve never heard of this place before – it’s in the middle of a neighborhood and you have to be looking for it in order to find it. The sign says “since 1929″ and inside it looks like they haven’t thrown anything away since then – toys, tchotchkes, photos, golf clubs – for the lovers of places with atmosphere it doesn’t get any more unique. Breakfast and lunch menus (see photos) list some super cheap items. I haven’t tried any since I had to run back to work, but I knew what I was there for, so I asked for kielbasa. I paid $8.25 for about 1.5 lbs. which ended up to be about 3 kielbasa-feet.I have to say this was easily the best kielbasa outside of the farmers market in my hometown of Odessa, Ukraine. It was smoky, slightly spicy, a little sweet, overall delicious, addictive kielbasa. I ate probably a third of it on the way to work.
If you are looking for a quirky place, with cheap food and awesome kielbasa, find this place and try it out.
P.S. I’ve tried Krizman’s but it was a long time ago and now I think this one is better.

It should be noted that RVA needs more Eastern Europeans and Mexicans.

Peace, Love & Barbecue..

Our band (Leanne and the Bizarros) used to open for hers (Frieda and the Firedogs) back in Austin in the early ’70s.. get back!