Macahaca

You may not have ever heard of Machaca, but never mind that. Here is how to make it, just in time for football season. I forgot to post this up, I made it a while ago, but football season is here, and this is the PERFECT complement to a gridiron party. The rich, smokey, layers of beefy goodness are well worth the minimal work involved. Sorry the pics aren't the best, this was put together a while ago, before I got a better camera. You get the idea.

Here is what you need:
A nice fresh brisket
Salt
Coffee, both ground and brewed
Two dark beers, one for you, one for the beef
A green and a red bell pepper
An onion
Spices
Some fresh tortillas
Anything you like on your tacos



First off, wash the brisket, and rub it with some salt, fresh coffee grounds, hot pepper flakes and anything else you like for a quick dry rub.


Get your charcoal grill hot, and throw on some wood chips. No need for a smoker, this is a quick smoke. Try to get one side of the grill hot and keep this on the indirect side. We will only be smoking it for about forty-five minutes, so don't get too stressed. This will impart an incredible layer of smokiness to the finished product. Totally worth it.


The little Aussie, smoking away. I found this grill, and it's my favorite of the four that I own.


At this point, after about a half hour, you can add some peppers if you want to make a roasted salsa. I certainly did.


I threw some tomatillos on too, but this recipe is not for salsa.


Sigh, either way, throw in some vinegar, sugar, salt, spices and hit it with a stick blender for an easy complement.




Now pull the brisket off, throw it right into a dutch oven, and add the dark beer, and brewed coffee. This will be braised, so you want to cover about the bottom 1-2 inches. Throw a lid on it and cook for about two hours at 350°, take the lid off, see if it needs any more liquid, and cook for another hour-hour and a half.


Pull it out and let it rest (twenty minutes at least). You aren't done yet.


Now shred that hunk of beef up, throw it in a pan with the peppers and onions, diced, and the cooking liquid. Cook over medium flame for about twenty more minutes, until it starts to thicken.



Wow, now that is making me hungry. The combination of smoke, beer, coffee, and veggies, is almost too good to believe. I served it with some onions I marinated in vinegar, salt and mixed with fresh cilantro, and the aforementioned, roasted salsa. Although this is time intensive, it is really not too hard to make, and the rewards are well, well worth it. You COULD skip the smoking step to make it even easier, but I can't recommend it.

Rib-off

Well, we competed. That's about all I can say. The event was fun, exhausting, rushed, stressful, and fun. I didn't put out my best ribs. Not by a long shot. I did, however, put out 21 racks of okay ribs in a pretty great sauce (homemade Korean bbq), 10 whole chickens that were spatchcocked and stuffed with curried butter under the skin and then salted and cooked under a brick, and over 100 vegetarian items which coincidentally were actually quite good (grilled tofu marinated in sesame ginger sauce). All in all it was a good time, and I will be competing again next year, albiet with more room for grilling/an additional smoker. Oh, I also pulled my propane Weber out of a two year retirement, and managed to get a pretty wicked grease fire going in the lower compartment. It was pretty interesting.

A Full Plate Rib Cook-off

Liberty Lands Park (3rd and Wildey)
Saturday, September 11
Doors open at noon
$20 all-you-can-eat
Website

This is what I will be doing tomorrow. Below are some scenes from last year. Nevermind that for an AMATEUR rib cook-off, we are expected to cook twenty(!) full racks of ribs, eight(!) whole chickens and 100(?) vegetarian options. Don't ask me why a rib cookoff REQUIRES vegetarian items, because I don't get it either. If you are in the area, you can do worse than stop by and watch all of the contestants stress about having to work at feeding a massive crowd of people. Oh and last year my shoulder was in nine pieces. So barring any insanity today, I should be in one piece this year.

Spiedie and Rib Pit

1268 Upper Front Street
Binghamton, NY 13901
(607) 722-762
Website



So what exactly is a Spiedie? Funny you should ask. Short version, it's a Central New York state specialty that involves marinated meat and a hoagie (or submarine) roll. Traditionally it is made with an overnight marinade session and the marinade is similar to Italian dressing. It's grilled, cheap, and sloppy, the triple threat as far as I am concerned.


Spiedie and Rib Pit is one of the most famous and popular places in Binghampton to grab a Spiedie, and it's conveniently located just off of I-81. They also have branched out from the traditional plain Spiedie and started offering a variety of different styles. I went for the Endwell style pork Spiedie first, which was served with mushrooms and melted cheese. It was good, although once I got a taste of the Greek style, it was hard to go back.



The Greek is served on a handmade pita, filled with chicken, lettuce, tomato, red onion, feta and topped with a yogurt sauce. Definitely an improvement. The char-grilled flavor of the chicken was delicious, and the pita was a superior vessel for delivery compared to the roll which was a bit dry on the pork version above. Fries were okay, but nothing special, however the coleslaw was definitely delicious, traditional, mayo-based slaw.


I found an opportunity to stop again on the back end of my trip and tried the buffalo chicken, which was the best Spiedi yet. A tangy, almost BBQ/Buffalo sauce, with lettuce, tomato and blue cheese dressing. I highly recommend this one.


I also got a Cesar Chicken Spiedi. It's basically the same as the Greek but with lite Cesar dressing. I prefered the yogurt sauce and chunks of feta. It wasn't bad, but I have my two picks for the next time I find myself in Binghampton. And I WILL find myself at the Spiede and Rib Pit again, trust me.

Cajun Kate's

Booth's Corner Farmer's Market
Naaman's Creek and Foulk Roads
Boothwyn, PA
(484) 947-891
Website

After what has been far, far too long (MONTHS!), I made it down to Cajun Kate's for some of their killer cajun food. I then returned one week later for more because I missed it that much, and well, it's some of the most delicious, comforting food I have ever had. Although I have written about this more than once, I can't escape the fact that Don cooks up some of the best food around, cajun or not. There is love in his recipes and an attention to detail and quality in the final product that is amazingly consistent. Two of my personal quotes from my last trip "I would want them to cater my wedding and my funeral" and " I am afraid to go to New Orleans and be disappointed in the food after eating here." It's that good.



The first week, I got the brisket po' boy special. Although I have eaten it on a number of other occasions, it never gets old. I must admit, however, I much prefer fried seafood in my po' boys. Don't get me wrong, Don's brisket is delicious, and when it's in the gumbo, well it's a little slice of heaven. I just have a true romance going on with his seafood po' boys, although I am constantly hearing the scorn of friends who swear the brisket is tops. Let's agree that you can't go wrong, okay?



After inhaling my brisket po' boy, I did some work on an order of the crispy mac and cheese with crabmeat and tasso ham. So, so good. The tomato creole glaze is so sweet and tangy that it is entirely addictive.



Now this was all well and fine, but dammit, I needed some of Don's seafood in my life. When I received the mailing list email the following week, and it highlighted that the po' boy specials were going to be soft shell crab, well I knew there was really only one option. Back I went, as I am sucker for soft shells, and Cajun Kate's soft shell po' boys are ridiculous. Seriously. I love these things (the fried oysters are another personal favorite). A whole crab goes on each half sandwich, which is about heaven on a soft roll when you factor in the sandwich spread and some crystal hot sauce.




Oh and guess what else? Don experimented with a new mac and cheese, blue cheese, bacon and chicken that was soaked over night in hot sauce. Guess how it turned out?


Well it actually turned out to be my personal favorite of his mac and cheeses, which is really, really saying something. He said it will most likely be making the rotation on his menu in future. I can only hope so. In case you haven't read my previous posts, here a couple of quick facts to make your trip enjoyable. It's cash only, it's located in a giant flea/farmers market, it's in Delco, and there will be a line. Just wait for a seat at the counter, and indicate to the people working you are waiting for a seat. It doesn't usually take very long, and people at the counter will generally get up as soon as they are done eating, out of respect for the establishment, and the amazing food being put out of a twelve foot wide store front. Just don't go when I want to go, because the line is long enough as it is!

Minado

2917 Swede Road
Norristown, PA 19401-1335
(610) 277-7375
Website

Apparently, Minado stands for "heaven" in Japanese, because that's about how it felt when I arrived there. Now I have been to MANY all you can eat sushi places, but this one topped them all, in both variety of sushi, and the cornucopia of other food available. Like an Asian Fogo de Chao, with specialty sushi rolls thrown in for good measure.



It's in a shopping mall, and next to a liquor store (they serve alcohol but apparently you can bring your own if you want, but they also serve alcohol?) and looks like a supermarket from the outside. Once you walk inside, you will realize it is much more of a casino feel, than a supermarket.


Its seriously crazy how many items are on the menu. Everything from specialty sushi rolls, to a long bar of different cold sides, sweet snow crab, raw oysters, and on to the hot bar. After that you can make your way over to the made to order hibachi and crepe area. To finish it off, a large bar of desserts, cut into small squares because they know that you have eaten well over your threshold of calories for the week (at least if you are me). You will then begin to gorge on these delicacies, and eat so, so, so much food. When I was finished, I ate another round of sushi before waddling over to the dessert bar for some green tea cheesecake. Below you will get an idea of a small portion of the Japanese delights available. Sashimi, steamed pork buns, fried oysters, teriayki beef, calamri skewers, raw oysters, shumai dumplings and coconut shrimp. Seriously. This was one of about eight plates I ate (literally).


I caught the crepe guy by surprise.


Get in line and have your every culinary desire (as long as it's Asian) granted.

The specialty rolls are made as fast as the sushi guys can crank them out, but they still took great care to make them well. The turnover is so fast due to the shear size of this place that everything was fresh. I recommend going on a weekend night, as it's easy to get a table as the place is huge, and they will be keeping all of the offerings fresh with the volume turnover. It runs $30 for dinner per person, but they were having a special where it was $25 for each of us. It's also quite fun to go with a group, as it's easy to split the checks up and you can compete for the strongest person (aka biggest pig) at the table. I handily strolled over the finish line before I even got my final plate of sushi.



The place is seriously so big inside that you burn some of the calories you take in by walking back to the buffet, or so I like to think.


As another dessert, I asked them for a handroll, after seeing the sign above the sushi area. They make them to order, and really hooked up the fish.



The hibachi and crepes like the hand rolls are made to order, with a variety of options. This place is so awesome, too bad it's in Norristown. We were all expecting them to come and say that it was a joke and we actually all owed $100 a piece. No such thing happened. Bottom line, I am not saying it's the best sushi I have ever had, but it's just as good as most of the sushi in the city, and you have SO MANY other options that it's just about perfect. I can't wait to go back.

OXOX Burger @ Frog Burger

A guest post from local food artist Rick T.:

Riding by the Franklin Institute at 20th and The Parkway the other day, I decided to stop and get an early lunch from the new Frog Burger tent restaurant. Everybody I know that's eaten there said it was a "must try." I was the only person there, since it was just opening (noon on weekdays) - so the line moved really fast. After perusing the menu for a few seconds, I decided to try the "LoVE Burger" - a hamburger sandwiched between two grilled cheeses!


To start, the grilled cheeses were cut into circles like a bun and butter-browned to perfection with the word OX branded into them twice in a row. I have no idea why it says OXOX, I was pretty sure going into it that it was just plain beef. The amount of American cheese was more than enough and quite tasty.


Meat of the story: the young lady that took my order didn't ask how I would like the burger cooked but, nevertheless, it was a juicy medium - just the way I like it! On top of the burger was their "special sauce", a mayo-based slopfest, oozing out-the-sides. And to finish it off, they include tomato, red onion (yum!), and romaine lettuce. Not really sure about the "flame-grilled backyard flavor aspect", but it was pretty darn good!


To end, the LoVE Burger was kind of small and a bit pricey at $8.50 + tax (I wish they had meal deals). I guess you pay for what you get, though...the local-ground Esposito's 80/20 beef was delicious and the calorie-count was more than generous! Next time I'll try the garlic fries and a crab cake sandwich.