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!