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KenzSailing

KenzSailing

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Tales from the Chez:

 

I smoked some short ribs yesterday.

 

Let me rephrase that:

 

Yesterday, I cooked some beef short ribs on the smoker.  Now, the BBQ community calls short ribs "brisket on a stick" and they are not wrong.  A RoT an on-line wise man likes to say is "before you tackle brisket, nail short ribs three times."  I think this is sound advice.  This was my second attempt.  Earlier this summer I tried attempt number one.  The results were...edible.  There was much noise coming from the Chez's kitchen that day, most of it unprintable here.

 

Yesterday was pass two.  The kitchen was determined to have learned lessons, sought redemption, retained customers.  Mission accomplished.  After hours of tending the flame, fretting over temperature, dealing with the fickleness of live fire, a BBQ meal was presented to an intimate crowd that makes the Vintage Room look like Grand Central(ie, OLoPP and me.)  Having learned a thing or two, it was served Texas style(Wonder bread, pickles, coleslaw, potato salad.)  My Kansas City born and raised spouse still used the sweet BBQ sauce.  Sigh.  Love means never having to say "no sauce for you!"

 

Anyway, the meat was transcendent.  Good bark, flexible but not fall apart, moist, succulent with the fat fully rendered to liquid gold. It is intensely satisfying when one's hours of effort transform, with a little luck, into a meal that puts a smile on everyone's face.

 

I feel like the Aaron Franklin of Maryland(it's not a huge competition up here.)

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rafinmd "Live from...." Rare

rafinmd

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In 2010 I was one of the very last passengers to leave a Cruise West ship before the line went our of business.  I got to the ship by train and ferry.  On August 22, 2010, the sun came up as the Canadian was in Eastern Manitoba closing in on Winnipeg.

 

IMG_2525.thumb.JPG.cf3d00665beacc72b8f88

 

Roy

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BWIVince

BWIVince

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12 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

Tales from the Chez:

 

I smoked some short ribs yesterday.

 

Let me rephrase that:

 

Yesterday, I cooked some beef short ribs on the smoker.  Now, the BBQ community calls short ribs "brisket on a stick" and they are not wrong.  A RoT an on-line wise man likes to say is "before you tackle brisket, nail short ribs three times."  I think this is sound advice.  This was my second attempt.  Earlier this summer I tried attempt number one.  The results were...edible.  There was much noise coming from the Chez's kitchen that day, most of it unprintable here.

 

Yesterday was pass two.  The kitchen was determined to have learned lessons, sought redemption, retained customers.  Mission accomplished.  After hours of tending the flame, fretting over temperature, dealing with the fickleness of live fire, a BBQ meal was presented to an intimate crowd that makes the Vintage Room look like Grand Central(ie, OLoPP and me.)  Having learned a thing or two, it was served Texas style(Wonder bread, pickles, coleslaw, potato salad.)  My Kansas City born and raised spouse still used the sweet BBQ sauce.  Sigh.  Love means never having to say "no sauce for you!"

 

Anyway, the meat was transcendent.  Good bark, flexible but not fall apart, moist, succulent with the fat fully rendered to liquid gold. It is intensely satisfying when one's hours of effort transform, with a little luck, into a meal that puts a smile on everyone's face.

 

I feel like the Aaron Franklin of Maryland(it's not a huge competition up here.)

 

LOL about the sauce, but bravo on the production!  That advice about brisket sounds really solid.  On a basic level I think most people understand the cuts that are high in collagen and reticulin and the basic techniques that help break them down, but to really establish the same kind of muscle memory you get  from cooking leaner cuts takes some repetition...  And it's better to start with the smaller and more manageable examples before you try to tackle a bigger challenge.

 

Looking forward to hearing about pass three!

 

Vince

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May B Great Review Rare

May B

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49 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Today's sunrise is from the Panama segment of my 2018 Grand Alaska/Panama trip.  August 25 was Crystal's maiden call to Bimini, back before there was a dock there:

 

dawn0825.jpg

 

Roy


 

Yes! I had forgotten that. The tender ride was long!

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KenzSailing

KenzSailing

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The Chez takes a couple nights off: 

 

Local DC restaurant reviews(in case you're planning on visiting. Fall is lovely here.)

 

L'Avant Garde: Georgetown, French(like with a French Mich two starred chef.)  Yeah, it lives up to the hype.  They had me at the appetizer: foie gras beignet.  Sounds crazy but they pull it off.  Lovely delicate puff pastry with a decadent, unctuous, almost melting foie gras center.  Swoon worthy.  Followed by the sweetbread.  Now, it's hard enough to get sweetbreads, but here I was confronted with the largest thalamus gland I've ever seen.  I may have ordered from rich to richer, but I was brave.  OLoPP started with the smoked salmon followed by the scallops, sensible person she is.  She nodded in approval.  There was dessert.  I fell asleep in the Uber home.  BTW, French cuisine is back big time in the area.  Here at the Chez, it never went out of style. (PS: way back in my college days, when I was occasionally flush, I drank in this very same space, then a Brit themed pub called The Guards.  From The Guards to L-Avant Garde.  Clever.)

 

L'Ardente: glam Italian(that's how they bill themselves.  You can't miss it, it's stenciled on the back of the food runners t-shirts.)  Serious chef, former right hand man to the great Michel Richard, rest his soul.  Extravagant, boisterous space. Lots of young, pretty, thin customers(as OLoPP observed, we are not their target clients.).  The neon sign over the archway to the restrooms reads "Please don't do coke in the bathroom."  They're kidding, I think.  We split their already famous forty layer lasagna and the veal(yes veal, not chicken) parm.  They were very good.  There was dessert.  As we were celebrating a birthday we had to dissuade them from sticking a sparkler in dessert(we had already seen half a dozen or more lit that evening.)  Very good but a bit overwhelming.

 

Here's the interesting thing: we had plenty of food for leftovers.  A few nights later at home we polished off the lasagna and the parm.  Both of them were no longer just good, but excellent. No, it's not that they had gotten better with age, it's just that, free of the distractions of our previous "glam" environment, we could fully appreciate the food and it was fantastic. Increases my fondness for minimalist dining rooms.

 

Part two to follow.        

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