I'm Off!

Now that it has finally warmed up in Chicago I'm taking a trip to visit the family down in FL! But the weather arrived just in time! Sunday was my first MTB race of the season and I successfully rode it like I was on training wheels. I haven't been taking my riding to seriously and it also doesn't help I haven't been on a trail since October. I was feeling pretty good about this race but like usual I gunned it off the line and was in no shape to be doing that! About a mile in my legs decided to slow down to a crawl and I watched fat men with bandannas pass me by. Luckily I grabbed a second wind a litttle later on and I was able to drop said fat men on a couple climbs. That little effort did nothing to improve my standings and I ended up placing in the high teens, possibly worse. All in all the course was a blast, fast and muddy with nothing super technical, just how I like it. The bike is still covered in mud and sadly it won't get washed till I get back on Friday, neither will my cleats!

Sorry for the lame post but I need some sleep to get up early for my flight.

It's Alive!

As I mentioned in a previous post I got some pork belly from Arnolds Farm which I decided to cure half of and make some bacon. Well, the cure is over and I took it over to Bower's place yesterday and we (read as "he") smoked it for about 3 hours till it reached an internal temp of 150. We were a little worried that a good portion of the fat would render off, in reality there was a little shrinking but almost no fat loss. The cure came out to be a little salty and I think next time I'm going to cut 2 or 3 days off the cure and just smoke it longer. The other option is to get a new belly and divide it up equally and cure each piece for different lengths and come up with a good standard cure time. Once your smoking the meat the cure isn't so much for preservation but flavor. The smoke brings the internal temp up to a safe zone, so frankly you could eat the stuff raw. My next project is going to be some air cured meats. I've been aching to do this for many years, and I think I'm finally going to take the plunge. Funny thing is I told myself I'm going to start brewing again, not really sure where I'm going to keep all this equipment! I digress. I brought the bacon home last night and showed him where he would be sleeping. I then cut some very thin slices and fried them up to make a very sexy BLT. I had some cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, mayo and sourdough toast along with the thick and crispy bacon. Nothing to say but Wow. The lettuce cut the saltiness nicely, and it was just plain yummy.


On another note I finally found a great little neighborhood bar just down the street. Archie's looks like its been there for way to long and the sparseness of the decor would suggest they are not out to impress any hipsters. Mike, Leyla and I went after a great dinner at Glunz's Bavarian Haus. The fact that there were only 10 people in there on a Friday instantly makes it great in my book, it didn't hurt that there was Pit Bull running around playing with his ball. Hamms beers were $2 and some very stiff 7&7's were the same price. Free pool and nice jukebox make this my kind of place. Dark, friendly, no attitude and empty.

Days Gone Past

Just got off the phone with Ken a very good friend from FL and he tells me the Mighty Might Bosstones are headlining Sunfest this year! I figured they might be touring (not so) so I checked the site and found this little video



I never realized how much I missed these guys. They were one of the first shows I went to in FL (Pietasters, Piestomp Tour was the first) and I'll never forget how crazy they were live and how much energy bled off that stage. Its too bad I'm the old man at the show these days. Usually just standing in the back with a beer shaking my head at what the scene has become, yeah I'm bitter, so what. I made some great friends attending shows and I would trade any of them for the world. There were days when we would hit 2+ shows a week, mind you we were driving to Ft. Liquordale at the time.

Shows may not be the same but the friends are still by my side and frankly thats all that matters.

Bad Weather and Ribs

I never expected the weather to be perfect when I moved up here but this is getting a little ridiculous! Snow showers this coming weekend?! Come on. With all this rain I have yet to get on the mountain bike and my first race is coming up next Sunday, but even that may get postponed due to this weather. My original plan was to use my days off next week to go fly fishing around Madison but if the rain holds off I may just have to use those days to get on the bike and iron out the kinks. With a new fork, crankset, chain, cassette and rear derailleur there is bound to be some issues and I'd like to find those now instead of on race day.

So whats a guy to do with all this nonsense going on? Make ribs. For some reason I had 2 racks in the freezer and the day off. I started off by making a dry rub for them consisting of ancho chili powder, cumin, black pepper and cayenne. I then wrapped the racks in foil and added a little liquid which was simply a small amount of soy, hoisin and chicken stock to thin it out. I filled the packets with the braising liquid, put them in fairly low oven (300F) and allowed them to cook for around 3 hours. The result is what you see on the right. I looked at what was left in the foil packets and with the amount of collagen floating around that I couldn't just through it away! The leftover liquid was reduced slightly and then brushed on the cut ribs and put under the broiler to make them nice and sticky. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this since none of them came out. The glaze was so shinny that every pic looked awful.

Also had a great lunch with Mike, which probably lasted longer than it should have! We went out to Sun Wah for some Chinese BBQ. We both ordered the rice bowl topped with BBQ Duck and Roast Pork Hong Kong Style. Amazing. For 4.50 this was a ton of food, best part was it came with steamed Bok Choy and half a preserved goose egg. Once again no pics, but this time it was due to the fact that food didn't last to long! The pork at this place it heavenly. Real moist with a nice layer of fat and crisp skin. Same goes for the duck which is slightly sweet but literaly falling off the rib bones. My favorite aspect of Sun Wah is the large glass vessel at the counter that if filled with crisp fried chicken skin for 3.50/lb!

Presents For The Kitchen

Thanks to my job at the Chopping Block I get some very good discounts on some very fancy cookware. This past month's promotion was for Emile Henry, Mauviel and Rosle. For those not in the know all this stuff is usually waaaay out of my price range, especially the Mauviel. Most of their copper runs at insane price points (saute pan is 260.00!). Needless to say I jumped at the chance to get some new gear for the kitchen, considering I don't think I will every be able to purchase copper at these prices again! From Emile Henry I got a shallow brassier and a tagine, both are ceramic capable of taking some real high hear. The Mauviel pieces took many hours of deliberation to choose, in the end my order turned out to be exactly the same as Bowers', odd. I ordered the thickest copper wall they make with cast iron handles, all in all the pieces weigh about 20 pounds a piece. Out of 3 very classy boxes came a splayed side saute pan, large saute pan and a med. sautoir (or straight side saute). I don't have the heart to cook in these yet! I want to do something real special but I can't figure out what that will be.

On a side note I made one of the tastiest sandwiches ever yesterday. I got a whole pork belly from Arnolds not long ago with the intent of making bacon. One of the ends was nice and meaty so I figured there was no reason not to cook that right away! I cubed up the end and placed it in my new Emile Henry brassier along with some Shoyu, Dry Sherry, ginger, garlic and water. I let this all braise for about 3 hours and then I cooled it down over night. The next day I got some a baguette and placed two pieces inside with a nice dose of Siracha. The end result is not all that pretty but it was so good I had to take a nap afterwards. The cooled fat from the belly acted like butter on the bread and the meat was falling apart. Salty, sweet, fatty and spicy. You couldn't ask for a better meal.


The rest of the belly is curing in the fridge as I write this and should be done in about 4 days. I'm curing it in a mix of salt, sugar, black pepper (alot), garlic, and crushed bay leaves. Once its finished Bowers is going to smoke it for me and we shall see what we come up with. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Life Revolves Around Food

As most of you know I did not go to Hillsboro for the race due to a stomach virus. I decided against going and completely destroying my body for a discipline I don't even really compete in. Hopefully I'll make up for it at the end of this month at the Rock Cut race. Now that I mention that I need to get start getting up early and getting on the path.

A little before my bought with the flu Mike and I headed out for our first "exploring Chicago" lunches (part one in a series). We went down Grand to Bari Foods for their famous sandwiches. As is evident from the picture this was to be a curb meal and it made the lunch all that better. Right next door to Bari is Damato's Bakery where we stopped in for some cookies. I had the lady make me up a mixed box of her favorites. I must say that they where worth the trip on their own! Not usually a huge fan of the dry Italian style cookies but these were very well made and I'd defiantly go back. Next on our agenda is unraveling the mystery of the Jibarito, a sandwich invented here in Chicago.

This past weekend Leyla and I finally made it out to Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights after hearing about it for the past year. Mitsuwa is a Japanese supermarket with a built in food court. We had a little lunch before diving into the shopping. I hate to say it but the best part wast the green tea soft serve ice cream, although the food was not bad either. The market itself is amazing. Very clean and filled with packaging that I could not decipher, lots of big eyed cartoon characters telling me to buy, buy, buy! So I did. The fish section was very nice, we bought a couple pieces of salmon, yellowtail and chu-toro for nigiri later that night. I was finally able to find some nice high end Shoyu (soy sauce) along with good quality short grain rice. My favorite find of the day was something that I thought was 100% Brazilian. I used to drink this stuff called Yakult when I lived in Brazil. Its a small shot of a yogurt flavored drink, basically a shot of lacto-basilicas, but very tasty! Turns out its a Japanese/Korean product! Needless to say I bought about 30 of them! After making our way around the market and checking out we headed over to the booze section! Always bad news for me! To make matters worse there was a lady giving out samples of different sakes. Needless to say I bought some along with some plum wine for Leyla. While looking for a bottle I found this poster towards the back and proceeded to study it and figure out how sake is made. Well, all I got from it is that a cartoon bottle runs the production line and lays out flow charts, then POOF! Sake's done!

I'm Back!

After many arguments with Comcast I finally have internet access back! I'll be posting once again. REJOICE!!