BBQgeek

Grand Champion BBQ - Marietta, GA

 
 
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Pictures from the BBQ trail #1 - Pork and Hoecakes @ Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que

 

My best buddy is on a five day run on the Tennessee - Arkansas BBQ trail and has sent me back some pictures to share.  His first stop was at Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que in Centerville, TN for a serving of smoke pork and hoecakes with a sweet vinegar sauce.  This is a signature dish for Papa Kayjoe's.  The Southern BBQ trail website has a great audio interview with owner Devin Pikard and a great photo slide show of Papa Kayjoe's.  Papa Kayjoe's is a classic BBQ joint that relys on an old-school cinderblock pit complete with corrugated steel for a lid.  They burn down wood for charcoal and tend the pit by hand.  As soon as I received this picture, it made me think of Glady's Knight's popular chicken and waffle restaurant in downtown ATL.  Then I remembered a similar dish featured in the Atlanta Magazine BBQ issue in 2010.  Staq's BBQ in Smyrna had what they called a "mess" that was a waffle with a pile of pulled pork and coleslaw on top.   Smoke, savory, & sweet = slam dunk.

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Barkers Red Hots - Roswell, GA

 

Barker's Red Hots recently opened their second location on King Rd, directly adjacent to Roswell High School, in Roswell, GA.  The restaurant has been in the works for some time now and represents Barker's first step towards franchisement.  I wrote a glowing review of Barkers the first time I visited their original location.  Everything that was excellent before is just as excellent now.  The hot dogs are still the best in the city, as are the onion rings.  The loganberry juice is still the city's most interesting non-alcoholic beverage and is the perfect accompaniment to a dog and rings.

What has changed for the better is the space.  Where the original Windy Hill location was intimate and sometimes crowded, the new Roswell location is roomy and comfortable.  One of the quirky and fun parts about Barker's has been the intense effort to recreate the sights, smells, and sounds of a  boardwalk. Glenn and Vivian maintained the boardwalk theme in the new location and even expanded on it a little bit.  In addition to the sound of seagulls that has always been a Barkers mainstay, there is now the sounds of a roller coaster full of screaming people as you exit the main dining room and head towards the restroom.  Continue reading Barkers Red Hots here....

Heywood Provision Company - Artisan Meats and Foods - East Cobb County, GA

 

East Cobb has a spectacular new butcher shop and charcuterie purveyor.  Located in the former Smokin' J's BBQ space in East Lake Shopping Center on Roswell Road, Heywood's Provision Company is a chef-owned and run butcher shop offering USDA prime beef, house-made bacon, smoked meats, and USDA approved uncured sausages.  Located directly adjacent to Wild Wings and across from Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, Heywood's Provision Co is the only facility in all of Georgia that is USDA certified to offer all natural, uncured sausage and salumi for public consumption. 

Beautiful coolers full of house smoked and uncured meats and sausage.

 

The menu at Heywood's Provison Co.  Click the picture to see a larger version.

  -     Continue reading Heywood's Provision Company here..........
 

Fette Sau - Brooklyn, NY

Almost four years ago my job began to take me into the NYC area for business.   Over the years I have gotten to sample mind bending yakitori, mediocre BBQ, Vietnamese/French mashups and true fine dining in Manhatttan.  I returned today from another visit to the City and have some very good news to share.  A rose grows in Brooklyn!  After years of searching, I found a BBQ restaurant in NYC worthy of a BBQgeek endorsement.  Fette Sau is located in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn, NY.  Williamsburg is a trendy slice of the boroughs where bums and graffitti bump up against gourmet cheese shops, cutting edge music venues, high end trendy retail, and kick ass BBQ.  Unassuming and slightly difficult to locate from the sidewalk, Fette Sau strives to offer high quality, locally sourced and properly cooked beef and pork BBQ, homecooked sides, and a fully stocked bar.  From my slightly shakey and poorly shot video perspective, you can hopefully see that the masses agree that Fette Sau is bringing a quality product to the (picnic) table.  What follows is a photo diary with commentary on my Mother's Day meal at Fette Sau.  Continue reading Fette Sau - Brooklyn, NY here..... 

Double Smoked Spiral Ham

 

Double Smoked Spiral Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard glaze is a super easy BBQ recipe that you can complete in less than 2 hours and eat all week long.  The hardest part of this recipe is locating the spiral ham.  I found mine for under $20 at the local Costco (Kirkland brand).  I titled this recipe "double smoked" because just about every spiral ham I've ever bought claims to be smoked (although I certainly can't taste it).

To make this recipe you will need either a smoker or a charcoal grill set up for indirect cooking.  Since the smoke time is relatively short (2-3 hours), you will want to monitor your cooker closely and really put the smoke on heavy.  I've included a basic recipe below for a simple, Southern style brown sugar glaze, but you could take the outside flavoring in any direction you want (fruit jam, jerk, etc).  You will need a quarter or half hotel pan to put the ham in and to catch the glaze and juices so you can baste the ham.  I prefer to baste the ham roughly every 20 minutes and add more wood chunks at the same time.  I monitor the internal temperature of the ham with a probe thermometer and shoot for an internal temp of 165-180 degrees.  Since we are working with a fully cooked product doneness really isn't an issue.  What we really want to pay attention to is getting smoke on the product and building layers of flavor by basting frequently.

My favorite part of this recipe is the leftovers.  Last time I cooked this recipe, I wound up with 2+ lbs of ham for sandwiches all week.  My glaze was nice and fatty, so the chilled product had this delicious smokey, fatjelly to lube up the meat on the sandwich.  I suggest taking the glaze recipe that follows and jack it up to your taste.  Consider adding molasses, cloves, mulling spices, whiskey, cayenne.

Brown Sugar Mustard Ham Glaze

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup grain mustard (I prefer whole grain mustard)

Simply combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and heat over low heat until fully incorporated.

Double Smoked Spiral Ham Recipe

1 spiral ham

Complete the Brown Sugar Mustard glaze recipe.  Unwrap the spiral ham and place in quarter or half hotel pan as shown in picture.  Apply all of brown sugar glaze to ham.  Smoker or charcoal grill should be set up for indirect cooking with a running temperature of 225-250 degrees.  Soaked wood chunks (hickory or fruit wood) should be added to the fire every 20 minutes.  Baste the ham with the collected juices and glaze at the same time that wood chunks are added.  Monitor the internal temperature of the ham.  Target doneness is 165-180 degrees which should be achieved in two to three hours.

Here we go again

Spring has sprung and hibernation time is over.  After a few months of downtime considering whether to continue this blogging thing my need to write has fired back up and I'm ready to rejoin the Internet.  In order to stoke the fire a bit this year I am going to change up my format a little and expand my horizons.  I've tried to make BBQ the axis on which this little blog turns.  While that might be enough for some it is not enough for me.  I'm going to throw open the gates and write about whatever is on my mind with regard to food and restaurants.  This should result in a few more restaurant reviews and substantially more recipes.  Books are going to make a debut this year.  I also plan to pen a series of posts entitled "On Blogging" that will explore some of the challenges faced in running a blog and being a part of the food and foodie community.  Hopefully I haven't lost too many of you in my self-imposed Internet exile and hopefully we will pick up a few new readers with the new format.

Heirloom Market BBQ Update

 I found myself puttering around GA 400 and 285 on Friday around lunch and decided it would be a good time to check in on Cody and Jiyeon at Heirloom Market BBQ.  At 12:30, every seat in the restaurant was taken.  Cody had a couple new faces working in the kitchen with him.  Jiyeon was managing the front of the house, expediting orders and greeting customers.  The vibe was exciting and sort of Christmasy.  I really like the little faux fireplace.  As far as food, the vegetables of the day were tempura sweet potato slices and brussel sprouts.  As you see above, I got the pulled pork sandwich, brunswick stew, and tempura sweet potatoes.  The pork was smokey and had nice bark.  I really like Cody's brunswick stew recipe.  Right now it is holding in a tie for second place (Pig n Chik still has my favorite).  I really enjoyed the fried sweet potato side.  The potoato was sliced thinly, battered and fried.  I passed my plate around the community table and let everyone sample them.  All agreed they were delicious.  My advice is to always sample one of Heirloom's daily vegetable specials when you visit.  This is where you get a little taste of Cody's chef background.  Probably the greatest part of my lunch was that I opted to try the kitchen BBQ sauce.  This sauce is not put out on the table, but you can order it with your BBQ.  It is a "fresh" BBQ sauce as opposed to the more standard table sauces.  This means it is made with a thicker tomato product.  Texturally, it is closer to spaghetti sauce than BBQ sauce.  I loved it because it was meaty, smokey, and spicey.  It had a noticeable heat to it (from jalapenos according to Cody).  From now on, this is the only sauce I'll be ordering at Heirloom.

All in all, things seem to be going very well for Cody and Jiyeon.  I still have to swing by for a longer interview and try a few more dishes so I can write up a full profile.  I had high hopes for Heirloom after my first visit and everything seems to be going right according to plan.  The restaurant seems to be settling into a solid groove.  All of the people that I spoke with at the community table loved their BBQ.  Most were very surprised at the quality of the sides.  This day, the cole slaw and the sweet potato were a big hit.  I'm really happy to see that Atlanta appears to be embracing Cody and Jiyeon's cooking.  I think they make a great addition to the Atlanta restaurant scene.

Note - if you take a look at the terrible iPhone picture below (apologies), you can spot the kitchen BBQ sauce on the left hand side behind the nice slice of brisket.  You can easily see the chunkier texture.  Awesome.

 

Happy 1st Birthday to Community Q

Tomorrow marks Community Q's first anniversary since opening its doors. Happy Birthday to you Community Q!  In a very short period of time, Community Q has joined the short list of metro Atlanta's very best BBQ destinations, placing it amongst such heavy hitters as Fox Bros., Dave Poe's, Pig-n-Chik, and  Sam's BBQ 1.  One of the things that I find most interesting about eating at Community Q is the daily special list.  I snapped the picture at left during today 's lunch.  While some specials like the kitchen sink and the redneck chicken salad appear so frequently as to be near de facto menu items, there are always a few extra veggie sides and the occassional soup available to take your BBQ experience to the next level.  Often times the daily veg specials are tied in to the farm fresh veggies available for purchase right next to the register.  As far as I know, Star Provisions/Bacchanalia and Community Q are the only restaurants in Atlanta to offer natural, local farm veggies for sale as take home items for their diners.  Today I was able to sample the smoked turkey that Community Q is adding to its menu in a limited capacity for the holiday season. It was extremely moist and had just the right amount of smoke.  If it is available for lunch or dinner on your next visit to Community, you MUST try it.  It's that good.   I saw a sign on the door stating that you can order turkeys or spiral hams for Thanksgiving (in fact, Community Q will be open for pre-order pickup from 10-12 on Thanksgiving Day).  In the past, I have ordered turkeys and hams from both Dave Poe's and Sam's BBQ1 in Marietta.  I can wholeheartedly endorse outsourcing in this manner.  In fact, I'm sure Dave and Sam are offering similar pre-orders for Gobbler day.  Take a tip from me and get your name on one of their lists soon.  The lists always sell out and for good reason.  You can give your family a holiday meal that they won't forget and you can take all the credit.

Heirloom Market Fire Update

A couple days ago John Kessler tweeted that there had been a kitchen fire at Heirloom.  To slightly correct the record, there was a fire (likely vandalism) along the fenceline outside the restaurant.  There was no fire inside the restaurant or in the kitchen.  The walk in cooler outside Heirloom was damaged and is being replaced.  In speaking with Cody, he estimates that Heirloom will be back open for business by next Tuesday, November 16th.