There’s a voice in my head that I hear when I’m thinking about eating at a BBQ restaurant.  I call it the BBQ Force.  It steers me away from horrible dining experiences.  Yesterday was one of those times when the Force spoke to me.  I should have listened.

I pulled into Smokey’s Kitchen and performed my normal “check list” inspection.

• Smoker visible –Check
• Smoke visible from smoker –Nope
• Woodpile –Nope
• Smell of BBQ –Nope

It was at this point the voice began whispering to me. “Larry!  Don’t go in that restaurant.  You’ll be sorry.   Larry…use the Force.”  I didn’t listen to my inner BBQ voice and parked the car and walked in.  And that’s when Smokey’s Kitchen in Truckee, California failed the final part of the “check list.”

• Smells like smoke –Nope

My Inner BBQ voice tried once again.  “Larry!  It’s not to late to leave.  You’ve got to leave now.”  Did I listen?  No, I didn’t.  Should I have?  Yes, I should have.

I checked out the menu board and chose a two meat combination.  When I do try a BBQ restaurant I usually choose pulled pork and brisket.  By having the same meats I have some basis for comparison.  I asked the guy behind the counter if the brisket was chopped or sliced.  Since he told me it was sliced I decided to go ahead with the pulled pork and brisket.  For sides I picked cole slaw and beans.  Cornbread also came with the combo.

It was a beautiful day in Truckee so I decided to sit outside.  It was a few minutes later, when my plate appeared, that I realized I had neglected to ask a very important question.  “Is the meat already sauced?”  It was at that very second I realized my Inner BBQ Voice was correct and I should have listened.

The pulled pork and brisket came covered in sauce.  Take a look at the picture you can’t really tell where the pulled pork stops and the brisket ends.  What a mess.

The meats were cold and lacked any real BBQ flavor.  No rub…no smoke…just sauce.   And the sauce was just a sweet BBQ sauce that lacked any real spice flavor.  Not much better than the generic store bought stuff people find appealing.

The brisket was sliced.  Sliced about as thin as a brisket can be sliced.  Since the slices lacked any trace of a fat cap it appears they use a trimmed flat instead of the whole packer.  There was a little smoke ring on the brisket and some resemblance of bark on the pork but not much.

I love cole slaw!  You’ve got to really screw up to serve a cole slaw I don’t like.  The cole slaw at Smokey’s Kitchen is so full of cilantro that it’s almost inedible.  I’m not one of those cilantro haters.  I love cilantro.  But cilantro doesn’t even come close to matching the flavor profile in the meat/sauce.  It I’d ordered some nice fish tacos this slaw would have been perfect with a little chipotle sauce.  But with BBQ it failed.

The beans were good but the bar, by this point, was pretty low.  They had nice flavor and appeared to have been made fresh.  The corn bread was awesome, the best part of the meal and the only thing I completely finished.

Smokey’s Kitchen has quite an extensive menu.  And there’s a good chance some of the other dishes are good.  But whatever you do stay away from the pulled pork and brisket.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Larry Gaian

“Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to repurpose the incredibily popular McRib that has reappeared in restaurants across the Country. As always, should any member of the BBQ Grail Force become incompassitated or captured the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions…”

There may not be a fast food item more loved or hated than the McRib. It rears it’s head off and onacross the country. No one really knows when you’ll get to buy a McRib, they just appear on the menu board of your local McDonalds. Every few years they appear nationwide in all restaurants all over the country. Suddenly, with little word or fanfare they appeared on November 2nd.

As is often the case a few members of the BBQ Brethren took on the challenge to either repurpose the McRib or some up with your own version. I decided to take the repurposing option. The result is The McRib Three Ways…

              McFlatbread Pizza                                                       McPigs In A Blanket                                                    McSlider

 Taste Results:

McFlatbread Pizza: Actually pretty darn good.  I ate both pieces I made.  The pumpkin BBQ sauce complimented the tomato and worked well with the Plowboys Yardbird Rub.  On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 7.  Not to bad.

McPig In A Blanket:  It was a little bland until I added the BBQ mustard.  A good dose of sweet mustard will make anything darn near tasty.  This one gets a 5 on the edible scale

McSlider “Pulled” Pork:  All I can say is DON’T foil and cook a McRib.  The texture was all messed up.  The flavor was good, again the coles slaw and BBQ sauce made all the difference.  On the edible scale a 3.

When I send out the email each month asking random participants for random ingredients I never know what’s going to come back.  For the first two months the ingredients matched much more readily.  This month though it got a lot more difficult coming up with flavor profiles that would match.

The broccoli and pomegranate  were the two ingredients that gave me the biggest pause.  I’ve eaten a lot of broccoli over the years, most of the time it’s as a more traditional veggie side dish so coming up with something  different that would go with shrimp was hard.  I mean, really, broccoli and shrimp.  Tough, tough ingredient.

My only experience with pomegranate was picking them off a neighbor’s tree and throwing them at each other.  All I knew about pomegranates was that they were full of juicy seed casings (known as arils) and the juice stained liked crazy.  Without any idea of what the juice taste like I was a little concerned about how it would match.

I decided to go with pomegranate juice from POM instead of purchasing a bunch of individual pomegranates.  After getting the bottle of juice home and tasting it I was able to start thinking about how to put all these ingredients into a meal that made sense.

A light and fresh meal was what I was hoping to come up with.  I knew I wanted to grill the shrimp seasoned with Todd’s Crabby Dirt so the broccoli and pomegranate problem still was the stumbling block.

Light and fresh, to me, means salad.  But it had to be a salad that would go with shrimp.  Since I had to use broccoli it had to be a broccoli salad.  I purchased a bag of shredded broccoli and came up with a pomegranate vinaigrette to make a nice vinegar based slaw that ended up matching well with the shrimp.

Broccoli Slaw with Cilantro Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup POM Pomegranate Juice
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoons Cilantro, finely chopped
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 2 packages Broccoli Slaw
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a small sauce pan warm pomegranate juice.  Add sugar and remove from heat.  Stir until sugar is fully dissolved.   Let cool to room temperature.

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Mix until completely combined.  Refrigerate until cold.

Place Broccoli Slaw in a bowl, pour vinaigrette over slaw and mix.  Chill for at least two hours.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

One of the ingredients was fococcia and whenever I need something baked for a blog post I turn to my favorite baker, Mrs. Grail (Celeste).  She came up with some fantastic  onion and rosemary fococcia that matched the flavors in the shrimp seasoning perfectly.  The olive oil bread dough was moist and so flavorful.  I couldn’t help but start to think of some other foods that we could grill up in the future to eat with this bread.

The shrimp was done very simply.  I skewered the shrimp, drizzled it with olive oil and seasoned with Todd’s Crabby Dirt.  The flavors in the seasoning matched the rosemary and onion in the fococcia very nicely.

Shrimp cook very quickly on a hot grill, so a great deal of care needs to be paid to them.  This is one protein you can’t put over the fire and walk away from.  A couple of minutes on each side is all you need.  By using skewers you’re able to turn them over quickly and have much less of a chance of turning them to overcooked rubber.

Another important factor in getting properly cooked shrimp is making sure your grill is not too hot.  You want a medium/hot grill with well oiled grates.  One thing you might want to consider is oiling or spraying with non-stick spray right on the shrimp.  This should help eliminate the hated shrimp stuck the grill grate problem.

We plated everything very simply.  Nothing fancy with the bread, just a nice plate of broccoli slaw with some beautifully grilled shrimp.

Additional participants in this month’s Ingredient Challenge include:

…as I drove past Sierra Smokehouse this afternoon  at lunch time I saw something that gave me hope.  First, there was the smoker on a trailer out front, a real live smoker isn’t a guarantee but it’s a good sign.  Second, there were wisps of smoke coming from a fenced off area around back (yes, I looked before I went it).  And third, there were three Placer County Sheriff’s cars in the parking lot.  I’ve come to trust the taste buds of most law enforcement officials.  So I decided this was where I should have lunch today.

Walking into Sierra Smokehouse my optimism continued to soar.  The place smelled like smoky BBQ.  The cashier area had bottles of their sauce for sale, so I knew they were proud of it.  Funny thing is though, the cashier area is as close as I got to their sauce.

Along with some of the traditional BBQ dishes the menu contained a nice selection of salads and sandwiches.  The more traditional BBQ dishes were Texas brisket, pulled pork, St. Louis cut ribs and chicken.  Sides included Sweet Potato Fries, Mac & Cheese, Cole Slaw and Baked Beans.

As I was reading over the menu I heard another good sign!  The lady behind me exclaimed to the waitress, “My parents are from Tennessee and this is the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever had.”  Now I’m always glad to hear people enjoying their food, and it’s especially good to know that having parents from Tennessee makes you a BBQ sauce expert. This just made me even more excited to try their BBQ sauce.

I ordered the Texas brisket, cole slaw and baked beans.  While I was waiting for my lunch to arrive I noticed something I had never seen in a BBQ restaurant anywhere.  There was no sauce on the table.  There wasn’t even sauce in the waitress stations.  No little side table with bottles of sauce.  This, in my mind, didn’t bode well for my brisket.  If there was no sauce to be found anywhere that must mean it was coming on the plate.  Right?  Did this mean I was getting brisket smothered in sauce?

The service was very good and I got my lunch within a couple of minutes.  And much to my surprise there was no BBQ sauce on my plate.  There was no BBQ sauce on my brisket.  Not even a little plastic cup of sauce.  Now I don’t usually sauce my brisket but I sure wanted to taste the sauce, and since I’ve never had to ask for sauce in a BBQ restaurant I decided to see what happened.   You know what happened?  Nothing.

I prefer my brisket sliced and “juicy” with a little of the fat cap left on.  As you can see the brisket came out sort of chopped and sort of chunked.  This is normally a sign of leftover, warmed over brisket.  But since it didn’t have the texture of warmed over brisket I’m not really sure if it was or not.  The brisket had a nice smoke ring, but not much bark.

The brisket had a nice texture and tasted pretty good.  It tasted of smoke, but lacked the typical brisket “rub” flavor.  It’s  obvious they don’t use much seasoning on their brisket.  It’s kind of a shame because if they had seasoned the brisket it would have been pretty good.  Instead I had a plate of brisket with a little plastic container of  au jus.  Yes, you read that right AU JUS.   And because the au jus didn’t have any smoke taste chances are it didn’t come from the brisket juices.

Often times in a BBQ restaurant the beans are one of the biggest disappointment.  Usually when beans are bad it’s because the pitmaster has taken canned beans and tried to doctor them up.  Canned beans can be doctored in a suitable manner but a great deal of care and thought needs to used.  In the case of Sierra Smokehouse the beans weren’t canned, if they were they need a new source for them, because these beans were raw.  I’m not talking al dente, I’m talking crunchy.  There’s no excuse for serving under cooked beans.  The flavor was okay, but they were not edible.

The slaw was just plain boring.  Mayo based with no seasoning.  Just a splash of vinegar would have punched this slaw up to an acceptable level, and some salt wouldn’t have hurt either.  The slaw turned into raisin salad by the time I got to the bottom of the dish.

The sad thing about my lunch at Sierra Smokehouse was that all the food was close to good.  If just a little more detail had been paid to the food it could have been elevated to a nice place.  But it appears to me that they are just going through the motions.  I gather from the comments I heard from the other tables that I was probably the only person in the place that didn’t like the food.  And this fact just re-enforces my theory that most people just don’t understand real BBQ.  Because this wasn’t good BBQ, it wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t good either.

Upon finding the address I thought we might have a winner.  The restaurant is located in an old Rexall Drugstore.  As you can tell from the picture signage is at a minimum.  Normally this would be a good sign.  A BBQ restaurant that can make itself known without garish signs has got to be good.  Right?  Well not necessarily.  Just as you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, you shouldn’t judge a BBQ restaurant by it’s exterior.  Looks can be deceiving.

It’s interesting that “Baby Blues” is a BBQ restaurant best known, I guess, for it’s hamburger.  A hamburger they were out of, by the way.  They were also out of chicken and initially out of Memphis Style ribs.  Upon sitting down we had a chance to hear the waitress explain to one table how Memorial Day was so busy they ran out of lots of stuff.  And because of how they smoke their meat it just takes too long to get it cooked.  (Come one guys, step up.  Get up early and smoke some meat) Landarc and I just looked at each other with a dumb founded look on our faces.  These two customers finished their drinks and left without eating.  While we were eating another pair of customers left when they were informed that there was no chicken.

We both ordered the “Hound Dog” combo platter.  The platter consisted of of 1/3 rack Memphis Style ribs, brisket, cornbread and one side.  Landarc chose cole slaw and I went with the collard greens.  And this is where the fun starts…

First the collard greens.  They were undercooked in some type of bitter tomato sauce stuff.  Not a hint of salt pork or ham hock to be found.  But best of all was they served them uncut in a little bitty bowl.  Check this out:

I received three or four leaves of collards just like this in a little bowl.  Pretty funny isn’t it.

As I mentioned we were initially told they were out of Memphis Style ribs and, as was proper, we were offered baby backs at the same price.  We accepted this offer.  The “kitchen” is visible from almost every table in the place so it was pretty easy to see the ribs were kept somewhere (not a smoker) and warmed on a grill.  Not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the ribs weren’t half bad.  The flavor was good, the meat wasn’t mushy and they came without sauce like they should.  They have a Southern Pride smoker and I’d like to give the ribs a try when there were fresh off the smoker.

The cornbread was a color I’d never seen before, it had more the appearance of ginger bread.  This odd color is due to the molasses they use in their cornbread.  If it wasn’t for the whole kernels of corn in the bread it would have been hard to tell it was actually cornbread.  But even though it didn’t taste like cornbread it was good.

We also got a helping of their beer braised brisket.  And what they did to that brisket was a violation of every BBQ rule I can think of.  It’s a crime to brutalize that piece of beef like they did.  I’ve eaten crockpot beef with BBQ sauce that was better.  It was cooked, shredded and obviously keep warm in the liquid it’s braised in.  The brisket was overcooked, dry and not edible.  Here’s the picture:

Just what in world are they thinking here?

The San Francisco location is the third spot to open.  The other two are in Southern California.  Don’t be fooled by all the awards they display on their website.  It appears the vast majority of those awards were earned by the other stores.

Would I go back to Baby Blues BBQ?  Probably not.  One, who wants to risk a trip to San Francisco only to find out they were out of food.  And I’d have a hard time sitting in the same room with people that desecrated brisket like they do.

I have to admit when Char-Broil first contacted me to come out to Memphis In May and do some cooking demonstrations one of the first thoughts I had was that someone was going to pay me to fly out and eat at Interstate Bar-B-Q.

For a BBQ enthusiast there are a select group of “famous” restaurants that are must eat ats.  And for me Interstate Bar-B-Q was high on my list.  And as hard as it is for me to say I’ve got to admit that it may have been one of the biggest BBQ disappointments I’ve ever had.

There are a variety of negative reasons why I don’t eat in BBQ restaurants very often.  And I don’t think Interstate BBQ missed a single reason.  Everything I dislike about most BBQ restaurants was encapulated in one meal.

Go figure…who would have thought that one of America’s most celebrated BBQ establishments was my first Memphis In May disappointment.   Dang, I’m sad writing this.  I so wanted a good BBQ experience and I didn’t get it.

As I am like to do when eating at a BBQ restaurant for the first time I ordered the sample platter.  This was one of the biggest sample platters I’ve ever seen.  It came with chopped pork shoulder, chopped brisket, pork ribs, beef ribs, sausage.  And every bit of it was drenched in bbq sauce.  There was so much bbq sauce on the plate that the plate resembled a little swimming pool of red sauce.  It must have just been ladled over the meat after it had been piled up.

I cannot even begin to describe the disappointment I felt when the plate of luke warm soaking wet meat was sat down in front of me.  Nineteen hundred miles I came to eat at the world famous Interstate Bar-B-Q and I got food that could be purchased at any local, “cook once or twice a week and reheat” BBQ restaurant.

The chopped pork and chopped brisket lacked any flavor outside of the sauce.  I couldn’t taste the smoke at all.  If I had not smelled the smoke when I first walked into the place I would have sworn the meat wasn’t smoked.  The sausage was flavorful and had a nice “bite” to it with the natural casing.

I got two pork ribs and two beef ribs with the sample platter.  The pork ribs were soft, mushy and fall of the bone.  Not the way I like them at all, but probably the way most people want their ribs.  Without a doubt the biggest disappointment of a disappointing meal were the beef ribs.  The beef ribs were not edible at all.  The membrane was not removed and there was not way you could bite into them and the meat was so over cooked you couldn’t even get the meat off the membrane with a knife and fork.

The sides weren’t all the much better.  The beans looked as though they had been kept under a heat lamp for hours in the little white bowls they are served in.  The cole slaw was average at best.

The famous Interstate BBQ spaghetti was tasty, but lacked any real reason to get excited about it.  Over cooked pasta covered in sauce with a little meat isn’t anything to I’d recommend. 

You know you’ve got problems when not one person out of 8 finished their meal.  What do you do when the only thing that tasted like you would expect it to taste like is the plain white bread served with each meal.

Some of the people in our group thought that the reason the food was as bad as it was may have been due to it being the end of the day and everything had been kept in hotel pans all day on a steam table.  Now I don’t know about the steam table, but the food sure had the texture that meat has when it’s been kept “warm” all day.  But even if that was the case doesn’t a restaurant have an obligation to make sure the food served in the evening is the same quality as when they first open?  We paid the same price, we should have gotten the same quality. 

And for the first time ever, we were denied a chance to look at the pits.  I’ve never, ever been told I couldn’t see the pits in a restaurant.  Makes me wonder about things.

So that’s my first Memphis BBQ experience.  I figure it’s going to get better because it certainly can’t get any worse than it was tonight.