Category — food_and_drink

A few weeks ago I helped Paul & Stef and their crew harvest chardonnay grapes down in Woodside at the Chain d’Or Vineyard. I posted a few pics here on flickr.

But Paul & Stef have kept their blog up to date with the progress of the winemaking. Today’s post shows the status of that same chardonnay grape harvest as it moves from tank to barrel. Go check it out.

Oh, and as in this post, they have updates on the “exploding baby poop carboy”.

Here’s a pic of Paul moving stuff with the magic pump from their blog:

I think I underestimated how many people were interested in the Francis Francis X8. The post I wrote called “Update on the Illy (Francis Francis X8)“  is one of my top-read posts and easily is tops in google search referrer terms according to my getclicky.com tracking stats.

I still get a lot of emails and questions about that post and comparing the Illy coffee  to the Nespresso coffee and questions about comparing the two companies’ machines.

But I got an email from my dad that may help some of you googlers out there who were still on the fence about which machine they want to buy.

Yes, his Francis Francis X8 machine died broke again:

If you were thinking of buying an Illy (and I don’t think you were) – don’t. Mine broke again.  Same problem, water leaking out of base instead through brew head. They are going to fix it again – however, I think that they have a design flaw and I will probably try to get rid of mine before the warranty period is up. The customer service person said that my type of machine was not built to the same standards as their more costly machines – not her words – but my inference. That one of the hoses was just fasted to another area with a clip and that pressure could force it loose

When he was speaking to Customer Service above he was speaking to Francis Francis’ Customer Service- and again, to their credit, they’re really nice and have handled his issues promptly. (I work in Customer Service btw).

He did talk to Illy’s Customer Support too:

Today I called Illy customer service (different from Francis Francis customer service that I called earlier this week, but I don’t know their financial ties) and told them that they should look into this design flaw because if my machine broke again they would be losing a customer for their coffee. Nice person, but who knows if she will pass it on or not

Again, I hope this helps any of you comparing pod machines.  I had said before that I’m still a Rancilio Silvia guy, but I do like some things about pod machines at times. (see also comment #4 ). So *if* I were buying one, I’d get a Nespresso like my dad’s, and even though the Nespresso had the slight edge before, it now has a huge gap…

So I spoke about this in the videos, but the recipe I kind of followed the most was from Homesick Texan’s Dr Pepper Sticky Ribs Recipe.

The main differences though-

1) The rub- the main difference was that I didn’t have brown sugar, so I used the cane sugar I like for my espresso, and I didn’t use too much. I’ll list my rub ingredients below.

But the main thing in the rub was that I was running out of pepper. As in, lame shaker pepper. I just have peppercorns. So I put a bunch of them down on my table and hand-crushed them using the back of a ramekin. A lot of the peppercorns weren’t too crushed because of this, they were chunky- and that carried over to the ribs – it surprisingly even added some heat.

2) I didn’t use Dublin Dr. Pepper and

3) I made big changes in the glaze/sauce. Why did I do that? Because I was about out of all groceries and didn’t feel like going shopping, so I improvised.

Her glaze (which I’m sure is damn good):
2 cups of Dr Pepper
1 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup of mustard
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of molasses
2-4 teaspoons of chipotle powder

Mine:
2 cups of Dr Pepper
1 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup of mustard
**1/4 cup of wine/rice & balsamic vinegar (I was out of almost all vinegars)
**3-4 tablespoons of Agave Syrup (I didn’t have any molasses)
**4 teaspoons of chipotle powder (I maxed out on this)
2 teaspoons of ancho chile
1 Tablespoon of Comino (Cumin)

Rub:
1/4 cup of salt
**1/4 cup of black pepper – see pepper comment above
1/4 cup of brown sugar cane sugar
4 teaspoons of mustard powder I ran out of mustard powder making this, I think I added more chipotle
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne ancho chile powder
2 teaspoons of chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon of allspice out of allspice, I used cumin

Again, I think that the 1/2 “shaker” pepper and 1/2 peppercorn mix turned out pretty well, I should think about getting a mortar and pestle though (or a much bigger pepper grinder).
And just a warning – if you don’t like spiciness, back off on the chipotle- I like it spicy and love that smoky pepper taste and smell though.

Most of you have already seen these as I put links to the vids on Facebook the other day.

But in case you didn’t get a chance, here are some videos I took quickly before going to my friend’s annual rib-off event.

I still have to edit the video from the event, I’ll try to do that tonight, but I didn’t shoot a lot of footage.

Note: I wasn’t in last place this year (according to the hostess), but I didn’t place in the top 3 (they only announced the top three this year).

Vid 1 – Quick Intro

Vid 2 – Glazin’

Vid 3 – All done

I once read a story about Chuck Norris that I’d like to share.

[Disclaimer- I can't remember where I read this story, and it's possible that I read it about Superfoot Wallace , or Master Hee Il Cho, not Norris]

Supposedly a young Chuck would show up at various karate tournaments with many extra uniforms in his equipment bag. As any good competitor, he would get there early, and scout the facilities, the locker room and the other competition.

But young Chuck would also go an extra step. He’d chat up the referees of the tournament. He’d find out about their background. Maybe one ref had come from a Tae Kwon Do background, or perhaps another from Shotokan (Karate) or another from Judo or Kyokushin.

Chuck smartened up- he’d figure out which ref would be judging his next match and wear the uniform from that ref’s background. ie -If the guy who had studied Judo for 10 years before studying Karate was judging, he’d wear a Judo uniform.

Supposedly this gave just the slightest edge to the young competior in his matches. And in closely matched bouts, you need any edge you could get. Ask anyone who’s been to Vegas.

Since then rules have been changed and standardized so I don’t think this is possible any more, but I like the story.

So wtf does this have to do with BBQ? Well, I’m going back to my friend’s BBQ Rib Cookoff event this weekend. Remember those videos from last year? (see below)

Well last year I went in blind, I didn’t get all the facts that I could have before the fun. I made BBQ ribs the way I like them- drier than normal- and clearly that wasn’t the way to go.

The fact of the matter is, I’m not particularly fond of baby back pork ribs. And I’m not a fan of bbq sauce. But it doesn’t matter- the judges ARE. The rest of the crowd is into sickly sweet sticky sauce. So I’ll adapt. I’ll float like a butterfly and sting like a chipotle. Cause I’m comin’ at ya!

Btw, I don’t hate pork ribs, it’s just that I’ve only liked a few different recipes in the past few years- Kev & Lisa’s Hawai’ian ribs, Kenny & Patrick’s Ribs, some ribs I had at TownHouse in Emeryville and that’s about it. And I’m sure Melissa C makes good ribs given her cooking skill and home state.

I’m just a bbq brisket lovin’ Texan who likes his sauce on the side.

Okay, enough ranting … here’s something fun.

After watching that Begbie (Robert Carlyle) Johnnie Walker vid the other day (wait, it looks like it got taken down…), I stumbled across Ralfy’s videos on youtube (under ralfystuff).

He’s a whisky anorak and posts a lot of reviews. They’re actually pretty damn good.

My favorite so far is this one below- It’s a bit long, so skip to 8:20 and watch it for a minute or two if you’re in a hurry. But either way, subscribe to his youtube channel.

40(!?) takes to shoot this ad:

The fog’s starting to burn off- I hope it goes away.

The tamal should help.

at the ferry building

(Bryan sent me this) If you aksed me- “how about some tacos with homemade tortillas and braised beef?” I’d say, “fuckin’ A, hand me some!”

But if I knew that there would be hentai-inspried spikes involved, I’d probably pass.

Check out this awesome vid from Foodtease called Braised Cow Lips.

The part that freaked me out is when he dragged his knife across the spikes after cooking. That noise haunts me.

Go watch it on their site though- it’s much better in the larger format.

I want some tacos now…

Cory, Jen, Jane & I ate brunch at The Kitchen Table in Mountain View.

I had a Chakchouka and it was really good.

The Kitchen Table is a Kosher restaurant and they’re closed Friday night – and on Saturday.

Chakchouka for brunch

update:

people keep asking me about the dish- It was served with a fresh (homemade?) pita bread. It’s like a Jewish-Tunisian Huevos Rancheros… and it was damn good.