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Mon Jul 12, 2010Meatopia: An Ode to NYC Barbecue For years I've always looked forward to drooling over the meaty masterpieces that come out of food writer extraordinaire Josh Ozersky's birthday parties, appropriately dubbed Meatopia. Sinful amounts of meat, each one looking more delicious than the next, it's like a long lost twin of the Meatwave. So when I first found out that Meatopia was expanding from private birthday party to all out meat festival this year, my enthusiasm was unbridled. I quickly bought two six-tasting tickets, and before I knew it, I was setting sail to Governor's Island, hoping to return with a belly full of some of the best meats NYC has to offer. Prior to arrival, what excited me most was that the event was being branded as "NYC BBQ." As convoluted as the way us northerners use the term "barbecue," so is what's considered barbecue in NYC now-a-days.  It wasn't long ago that New Yorker's best hope for good barbecue was the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Leading up to and following the first Block Party, there were only a handful of restaurants serving true barbecue, most focused on the imitation of a distinct regional style from somewhere else in the country. As we got comfortable in our barbecue skin, and with the usual ribs and brisket territories well covered, barbecue in the city seemed to quickly go to no-holds-barred—as long as it's smoked or grilled, it can be barbecue in New York. Large swaths of country probably cringe at this, but I'm in the business of embracing it, which is why Meatopia was so exciting. I thought of it as a State of Barbecue in NYC, which has room on its plate for everything from La Caja China roasted pigs to smoked duck tacos. It's unfortunate that the event ended up being a less than ideal setting for getting the best NYC barbecue fix possible, mostly due to a few shortcomings. I'm dubious of any new event, as it usually takes a couple years to really work out the kinks, and Meatopia was not safe from those first-year mishaps.  I started getting nervous about the crowds when we had to wait 45 minutes on a hella long line to board the ferry over. Once there, I was actually surprised with the organization— tickets were being handed out quickly based on last name, and much like the fast pass at the Big Apple Barbecue Block party, the Meatopia passes eliminated the need to bust out cash for que, which keeps lines rolling. After a lap around the event, where not all the stalls were exactly where the map said they should be, the three of us decided to divide and conquer. While the lines were long, it only took 15 minutes for use to reconvene and dive into our first three samplings. With a taste of what's to come, we quickly went off for our next three plates, but by this time—around 2pm—some of our must-haves were already gone. We settled on a few alternative items, then went off for round three. Now it was about 2:45pm and it seemed as if at least half of the vendors were sold out, thee-hours into the event with 2 hours to go. Those still with meat started to have lines prohibitive for the less patient. I convinced my band of now un-merry men and women to stick it out for one more round, where we waited on now half-hour lines to get food that didn't hold the most interest to us. After that round, and over two hours in the heat and a little rain, my crew was done, and I relented and headed back to the ferry with two tastings still available on my ticket. It seems that despite a great effort in organization, New Yorkers' insatiable hunger for meat was underestimated. Even so, in the two and half hours I was there, I sampled eleven different tasty meats, even if they weren't all my number one choices. So what's NYC BBQ today? Here's small tasting that was dictated mainly by supply and demand. More after the jump >> 
Fri Jul 9, 2010Sauced: Maple Mesquite BBQ Sauce Sauce StatsName Maple Mesquite BBQ Sauce Produced by Williams-Sonoma Cost $12.95 at Williams-Sonoma Ingredients Ketchup, water, brown sugar, pure maple syrup, bbq spices, Worcestershire sauce, natural maple flavor, apple cider vinegar, natural mesquite smoke flavor Color Reddish-brown Meatwave Rating More Sauce ReviewsRead the full review after the jump >>
Fri Jul 9, 2010Sauced: Barbecue Sauce Reviews I’m a DIY type of guy. As a youngster I spent endless hours constructing engineering marvels with Legos, which morphed into a short-lived stint in an extremely indie band, then into a master of darkroom chemistry, and now that spirit lives on in my barbecue and grilling. With a long history of constructing things from scratch, I’ve been a big advocate of bringing that philosophy to barbecue sauce. I can argue endlessly about how throwing a few cupboard staples together in a pot can churn out a sauce that can outdo just about anything you pick up in the store. So as my grill and I have been inseparably going on seven years now, inevitably an ocean of barbecue sauce has flown out of my kitchen. Coming with the territory of being such a barbecue nerd is the perception that I must love any gift that’s related to grilling. Barbecue sauce is up there as a top present, and as I’ve continued to crank out my own sauces, I’ve also amassed a nice collection of unopened bottles. In an effort to reclaim my cabinet space, I decided it was time to put those sauces to work, giving them some proper credit and good use in the form of barbecue sauce reviews. I will still preach that you’ll be better served making your own sauce, but I also relent, knowing that for most Americans it’s the bottle or nothing. There are some great sauces out there, and with my years of sauce making experience, I’m happy to provide some guidance on differentiating the excellent from the horrid along with some best use pointers. More after the jump >>
Tue Jul 6, 2010Hittin' the Sauce Oh, barbecue chicken, what a conundrum. First, it's primarily grilled and not barbecued, so the whole thing gets off on the wrong foot. Second, it's just usually not very good. Chicken marinated in sauce or slathered before being put on the grill seals an unnecessary ill fate for the bird, rendering a mostly burnt result. There's a secret to barbecue chicken though—for all those horrid pieces of bird you've probably endured, there's a way that it can actually be good, great even. So it's time to hit the sauce and make this backyard classic into something we can all be proud to serve. More and recipe after the jump >>
Thu Jul 1, 2010Go Go Bulgogi! It wasn't that long ago that I was answering to the stunned responses I got when I admitted that I had never had Korean BBQ. As such a meat enthusiast, it was dumbfounding to others that I had not experienced the greatness of the cuisine. I had no excuse for not trying it, it was just one of those things that never happened, until this winter, when the wait for Korean fried chicken was too long for my rumbling tummy and Korean BBQ was the inevitable back-up in an area of the city dominated by Korean joints. Maybe it's the fact that I had put Korean BBQ on a pedestal after so many enthusiastically sold it to me, but I was not totally blown away. Don't get me wrong, it was damn good, just not life changing as fabled stories had led me to expect. This rang most true for the bulgogi—marinated thin slices of steak—so much so it never crossed my mind to make it at home, but during last weekend's Korean meat feast, it made the cut, and what came off the grill was not only heads and shoulders above what I experienced at the restaurant, it immediately stole the show from all other meats that day. More and recipe after the jump >> |
 Salad with Grilled Radicchio & Knob Onions 
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