A Very Late Big Apple BBQ Block Party 2009 Review

Sorry guys, I should've posted these right after the event but with school and all, I just don't have the time. I know I've been MIA during these past few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't had the time to go venture off eating. I promise I will give you guys a recap of of all the good or bad food I ate during these past 2 months while I was MIA. I ate at alot of great place and I definitely want to share it with you guys.

Let's go wayyy back, back to the Big Apple BBQ event on June 13-14, 2009.

This was our first time at this event, omg it was awesome! I will make this one of my annual festival that I MUST go to each year. Just $8 a plate and we get to try AMAZING bbq food from all over the states, it's really worth it. Andy and I went to this event on that Saturday afternoon. It was raining all day but rain never stopped us from going to an outdoor event/festivals (especially one that has great food!!). Last time we were out in the pouring rain to eat at the Red Hook vendors and waiting an hour on line for tacos, that's another story...

We were prepared with our umbrellas. We thought there would be less people because of the rain but we were WRONG. It was so crowded and lines were sooo long! The average waiting time was around ~20min on the lines. I guess it would've been worst if it was sunny.

Us sad in the raining waiting to buy food....
there was an entertainment stage...

demonstration tents, this one was about wine tasting....

selling many different kinds of bbq sauce....

Everyone was eating in the rain, some even without umbrella. This group of people (picture below) were very innovated and took a garbage bag/plastic bag to over them while they were eating at the bench. We arrived at this event towards the late afternoon (~3 or 4pm). We knew we won't have time to go to each vendor but I doubt we would've been able to because we might just explode. We looked at the map and it took us awhile to decide which few vendors we wanted visit. My goal was to find the pit-master for each of the vendors we tried and to take a pictures of them or with them, let see if I accomplished that....

The first stop: Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q, Birmingham, ALHomemade Smoked Sausage with Pimento Cheese & Saltines: I love the sauce they used on the sausage, it was very flavorful! It was sweet but it also had a nice kick to it. It was definitely a nice surprise being the first dish we tasted. The pimento cheese was creamy but a little too filling, I wished they served something light, like some veggies with the sausage.

Look who I found, the pitmaster for Jim and Nick's, Drew Robinson. He was quite surprised when I asked if I could take a picture of him but he was very nice about it.

2nd Stop: 17th Street Bar & Grill, Murphysboro, IL/Las Vegas, NV Baby Back Ribs & Beans: great taste but quite dry, it wasn't fall off the bone quality. I was a little disappointed. The beans wasn't that special either...
Andy eating in the rain and is very happy with his ribs...

3rd Stop: The Pit, Raleigh, NC

Ed Mitchell-pitmaster of The Pit
We had to sneak all the way into the restricted area to take picture with him!

Andy: "Mr. Mitchell I saw you on Throwdown with Bobby Flay! I couldn't wait to try your ribs today"

Ed Mitchell: "oh wow, thank you"
Me: "Can we take a picture with you?"
Ed Mitchell: "of course!"

Whole hog and Coleslaw: This is like pulled pork but not as saucy. I topped it with the coleslaw which went really well with it. The taste of the hog was very interesting, lots of vinegar taste, which sort of over powered the meat taste a bit. At first, I really liked it but then 1/2 way into eating it I thought it was just way too vinegary and the bread became too soggy. But overall I thought it was great!
yummi....roasting the piggy!

Last Stop: We were really full but when Andy pass by Blue Smoke (from New York, NY), he couldn't resist so we got on the line and I'm so glad we did!

Andy posing with the ribs...

Kansas City Ribs & Pickles: it was finally falling off the bone quality, the way ribs should be! The sauce was sweet and delicious! so far this was my favorite of the day!

Last picture with executive chef from one of my favorite bbq joint, Dinosaur BarB-Que, New York, NY. We were just too full so we didn't get anything from them and plus they were all out of food. They were serving: Pulled Pork Shoulder and Beans. I didn't have to try to know that it was probably awesome!

Convo with me and cheif:
Me: asking a staff in the area "where is the pitmaster?" the guy points to a guy sitting on the side of the truck smoking. I went over and asked him if I could take a picture with him. He looked exhausted and shake his head no but the staff yelled out, "just take a picture with her!" so he slowly gets up and stood right next to me.
*takes picture*
Me: Oh, I love the food at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Everything is great there! (which is very true...)

Cheif: Here's my business card, maybe you could use it one of these days....

Me: *very happy* thank you! It was a pleasure meeting you! (I'm not sure what he meant but I'm hoping it means I can get a discount when I eat there!hehe...)

Us leaving the bbq festival happy and full!

I <3>Sushi in Bay Ridge: Fontana Sushi

Fresh Seafood Joint: Chef With Sole

My 2009 Restaurant Week Reviews: Butter and Lure Fish Bar

Food Critic For A Day! Metro Asian Food Magazine-Shanghai Food

Big Filipino Breakfast:

We couldn’t get enough of Filipino food so we decided to go try out some Filipino breakfast at Ihawan. This is my favorite Filipino restaurant at the 69th street area. The place is really ghetto; the first floor is a small take-out counter and the narrow stairs lead up to the 2nd floor of the dining hall which is right next to a hair salon. You can smell the chemicals when you walk up the stairs but when you sit down to eat, you won’t smell anything because the eating area is far from the salon. What’s so special about this place? I think it’s very cozy, it’s a family run place so everyone is so friendly, the food is awesome especially their bbq on the stick. We usually order alot of food, sometimes even if we know that we won't be able finish everything we'll order it anyway so we can take home!

We never tried their breakfast menu because we never got there early enough to order it. The breakfast menu is served on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from open to 11am. We rushed there (getting there is another story!) and got there at 11:15ish. We asked them if they still serve the menu and they were nice enough to give it to us! They gave us two menus, one with the today’s specials and their breakfast menu:

I didn’t know some of the items on the menu but they were so nice they explained it to us:
Longanisa = Philippine Sausage
Tocino = cured meat product native to the Philipines. It is often in strips, reddish in color and has a sweetish taste.
Daing na Bangus = Milkfish Marinated in Vinegar and Garlic
Tinapa = fish cooked/preserved through the process of smoking

So what did we order? For starters we order my favorite lumpang shanghai and avocado heilo:

It was a little too early for such oily, fried and fatten food but we couldn't help ourselves! It was so good!

I order the # 5 (I change the fish to Tinapa)
1 pork BBQ, 1 piece of Tinapa, 2 eggs and fried rice:

The garlic fried rice was really good, very flavorful with a lot of garlic taste. I broke my poached egg and ate it with the rice, great combination! The bbq pork tasted good but it was a little chewy this time. The Tinapa was awesome! It had a smoky grilled taste, the skin slightly crisp, and the fish meat was kind of creamy.

Andy ordered #1:
1 piece of Daing na Bangus, 1 tocino, 2 eggs and fried rice:

The tocino was sweet and tasted some what like their pork bbq on a stick. The Daing na Bangus was a little too crispy and dry.

This was such a huge breakfast for me sinceI usually eat little or nothing in the morning. I was so full and couldn’t move but it’s all worth it! I can’t wait to go back again to try something else!
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Ihawan
40-06 70th St.
Woodside, NY 11377 nr. Roosevelt Ave.
MTA: 7 Train to 69th Street

Labor Day and BBQ cookout!

This Labor Day weekend was just too short! I had a lot of fun but I didn’t have time to relax at all. I helped my sister do some moving, visited a relative with a parrot, went to a block party and ate alot of bbq food. On Sunday we hanged out with good friends in Long Island at a block party. It was suppose to be one of the biggest block party in LI. There were cookouts and outdoor entertainment the whole day with DJ, music, dancing, texas holdem tournaments and black jack tournament’s, volley ball, and crocket. I ate lots of home made food, bbq stuff and sweets! Someone made a homemade ice cream chocolate cake which was very good! It had 2 layers of fudge cake with chocolate and vanilla ice cream and cool whip cream on top. The night ended with beautiful fireworks and then police came to shut it down.

My boyfriend and I also went gas grill shopping this weekend. He’s been using a charcoal grill for a long time and decided it’s time to get something better and bigger (size does matter!). He wanted a gas grill because it's clean and quick, no need to hassle with the starter fluid and waiting for the coal to glow. He ended up getting a 2 gas burning for $127 which is a decent price. It took him around 2 hours to put it all together and after that we went off to the supermarket and got some meat and veggies to grill.

Things we made (we were hungry and lazy so we just kept it simple):

Green and yellow squash:
I brushed both side with olive oil and sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic powder over the squash. We left it on the grill for around 5 mins each side or until it's soften with the outside lightly char. The squash was really sweet and lightly seasoned, it was awesome!



Rib-eye steak and pork chops (oops, forgot to take pic)!
For the steak, I marinated it with garlic pepper and some salt. The pork chop I used a season salt with everything in it and some more garlic power because I love the garlic taste. Andy grilled the steak for around 5 mins on each side. I like my steak bloody so I told him not to cook it for too long but it didn't turn out bloody at all. He grilled the pork for a long time because we didn't want to get salmonella and we didn't....

Grill master chef Andy and Sous-chef Mel's creation!

I made a garden salad to go with our delicious grilled meat. The rib-eye steak was very tender, medium cooked and was not too salty. I usually don't like my meat too salty and rather not put much stuff when marinating it. If the meat turns out tasting bland then I would usually eat it with a steak sauce or add salt/pepper but this time I didn't need to add anything on it, it was perfect! On the other hand, the pork chop was very hard and chewy but very tasty. I think I almost broke the plate trying to cut it! Andy totally over cooked it! So after that I went online to check out what's the proper way to grill pork chop and other meat:

Pork chop

Marinating time: 2 hours to overnight

Grilling time: 3-4 mins/side at 145F

Pork tenderloin
Marinating time: 2 hours to overnight
Grilling time: 14-16 mins; occasional turning at 145F

oh well, we'll do better next time around and will try out other stuff to grill! Yay! Happy grilling...

Tip of the day: Use insect repellent when you know you're going to be outside for a long time. For example, like having a bbq! I got so many mosquito bites! I hate them! grrr...