BBQgeek

Barbacoa - Jamie Oliver & Adam Perry Lang (Updated)

Barbacoa opened a couple days ago and there are now links available for the menu as well as a bunch of other interesting reading.  The menu is diverse but does tend to lean in part on American BBQ staples presented in cheffed-up manner.  There is also a pretty interesting selection of seafood dishes to choose from.  I'll update this post one last time after the UK press delivers a few reviews for us to chew on.

British superchef Jamie Oliver and American BBQ guru Adam Perry Lang are just a few weeks away from opening the doors on their first joint partnership restaurant, Barbacoa, near St. Paul's  in London, UK.  Jamie has posted a few pictures on Twitter recently and it made me think it would be a good time to share them with you.  I interviewed Adam a few months ago and spoke with him about the restaurant concept.  I had wrongly assumed that Jamie had tapped Adam to bring American style BBQ to London.  Barbacoa is actually going to have a menu that offers live fire cooking styles and techniques from around the globe.  According to the Barbacoa website, the restaurant will also have a storefront selling meats butchered in-house as well as house cured meats.  Adam said that he and Jamie share the same culinary viewpoint in sourcing high quality ingredients from local, natural or organic producers and then treating those ingredients with attention and care to arrive at a delicious conclusion.  I think London has something to be quite excited about when they throw open the doors in a few weeks on Barbacoa.   

Best of the Big A 2010 results

So, there is apparently some sort of time warp/wormhole at the AJC.  I posted on Oct 2 that voting for Best of the Big A BBQ was open to the public, and I was a week or two behind in that news.  I was curious to see if results had be tallied, so I did some googling today.  Results are posted here.  I think Michael J. Fox may have posted the best of the big A results because they are dated September 19, 2010.   The people's vote and the AJC's vote have been tallied.  The people like Fox Bros BBQ the best.  The AJC prefers Swallow at the Hollow (I've always thought that the best thing at Swallow is the biscuits and honey).  Fatt Matt's continues to show up in the People's top five (clearly illustrating that there is no accounting for taste.)  Fox Bros. manages to show dominance in Internet related polls.  Garden Produce made its way onto a second critics "best of bbq" list in 2010 (they seem to be gathering momentum).  Sam Huff, Dave Poe, and David Roberts respectively claimed 3,4,5 on the critic's poll.  The interesting part of that grouping of pitmasters is that they formerly comprised the BBQ bohemoth that was Sam and Dave's BBQ in Marietta.  With 2010 on the wane and cold weather on the way, I think it is safe to say that we are done with BBQ polls.  Whew.

Daisy May BBQ Cart - NYC

 

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to NYC for the day for business.  On my last visit to NYC two years ago, I published this review of Virgil's BBQ.  I had hoped to steal out for a meal on this most recent trip to Daisy May BBQ.  Time was tight, and I only had time to visit their BBQ cart located on 50th between 6th & 7th.  Daisy May's cart has a quaint character compared to several of the other hot dog/gyro/etc. carts I saw in NYC.  I was really excited to sample Daisy May's BBQ because the restaurant is owned by one of my favorite BBQ chefs, Adam Perry Lang.  I've included Adam's cookbook, Serious Barbecue, several times on my blog because I think it is very well written and has a viewpoint on cooking and presenting smoked meats that really resonates with me.  So, I was really hoping that the Daisy May BBQ cart would blow my socks off and prove that Northerners can cook BBQ.  Continue reading Daisy May BBQ Cart - NYC here.....

Best of the Big A BBQ Voting Underway

I'm not sure how this fell of my radar, but the official voting window for the AJC's Best Barbecue opened on September 20th.  This year's field of six restaurants includes Community Q, Fox Bros., Fresh Aire, Swallow at the Hollow, Pig-n-chik, and (gag) Fatt Matt's.  You can cast your vote here.  In my humble estimation, the field of six is really a field of three, with the community's best BBQ easily identified.  Let's all band together as a community and make our voices heard.  Vote now.  Vote often.  Represent your community.

Haven's Gourmet Tailgate Party

 

Chefs Stephen Herman (Haven) and Matt Swickerath (Valenza) hosted a gourmet tailgate on Haven's patio this past Thursday, Sept. 20.  For a very reasonable $20 entrance fee, attendees could sample a variety of cheffed-up spins on traditional tailgating classics.  The menu included: roasted and stuffed suckling pig, grilled shrimp, scallops, and quail, a variety of sausages from Patak meats, corn dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, and roasted vegetables.  I stopped by the tailgate party to say hi to my friends and sampled all of the dishes.   As usual, Stephen and Matt's cooking was delicious.  If you want to receive notice of events like this put on by Haven and Valenza, you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter, or you can sign up to receive email notices at their respective websites - Haven and Valenza.

ATL Festival Weekend - ATL 2nd Annual BBQ Festival & Field of Greens

 
Atlanta's 2nd annual Bar-B-Q Festival takes place today at Atlantic Station.  This year's event is a new location for the festival.  From a quick examination of the website, it appears there will be several new BBQ vendors this year, including Fox Bros. BBQ and Jim & Nick's. Pro teams will also be competing for people's choice awards.  This means some teams will be offering up samples of their BBQ in exchange for some votes.   Last year's event had free admission.  This year's event will cost you $10 a head for adults.  Kids twelve years old and younger are free.  It looks like a beautiful day to get outside today.  If you don't have plans, stop by and smell the smoke.

The Field of Greens Festival is taking place Sunday, October 3 at Whipporwill Farm (which is roughly 35 miles east of downtown Atlanta).  It is a celebration of sustainable farming and includes a fantastic list of participating restaurants/chefs that have embraced the farm to table/sustainable ethos.  This years list of chefs is jaw-droppingly awesome.  Tastings are available from 12-3pm, as long as they last.

From the festival's website, "Bring the whole family and enjoy locally grown, chef-prepared food, live music, and green living education, all in a family-friendly, fun environment."

Entrance ticket includes:

• All-day access to the farmers' market and educational expo
• Small-plate tastings of farm-fresh food creatively prepared by Atlanta and Athens’ most dedicated farm-to-table chefs (noon to 3pm only)
• Expanded kid's learning and activity area
• Live music
• Cooking demos from your favorite chefs
• Street food tastings from the best farm-sourced food carts (3-5pm only) in partnership with the Atlanta Street Food Coalition

Fincham's Famous Homemade BBQ Sauce

Even though I've had this blog up for over 3 years, I'm pretty sure I've never posted my homemade sauce recipe.  A couple readers reminded me that I had promised to do so in my Ad Hoc sauce review.  My good friend Dave Poe hooked up me a year or so ago with Atlanta's Flavor Magazine and persuaded them to include my recipe in one of their editions.  The picture at left is what ran at the time.  Since I long ago lost my written recipe for my sauce, this picture is the easiest way for me to make it available.  I need to make a couple disclaimers.  My sauce recipe is just an amalgamation of a bunch of recipes I experimented with.  In no way did I come up with this all on my own in a moment of enlightenment.  Second - the sauce you see in the picture is not my sauce.  The pictured sauce is a commercial base BBQ sauce (hence the sheen and viscosity.)  My BBQ sauce turns out sort of orange-red and more closely resembles spaghetti sauce than BBQ sauce.  That said, if you have never made a fresh/non-ketchup based BBQ sauce, this is a great place to start.  It is so different than what most people think of as BBQ sauce that it tends to wow eaters the first time they try it.  Feel free to tell your friends you came up with it all on your own.