Back to the Ozarks

I do spend a lot of time in the Ozarks and rightly so.  The Ozarks is filled with restaurants that claim fame to the best in "something".  So, besides going back to Fired Up! and checking out items from their new menu (which everything we tried was awesome, again), we tried what is supposed to be the best BBQ in town.
First though, here is some food porn pictures from Fired Up!.

Their new salads in a jar:

This was my pulled pork sandwich with a slice of cornbread, sweet potatoes with marshmallow and some red skin mashed potatoes and gravy.

Just pulled pork.

While not personally eating all of the other dishes, I can only tell you about what I had.  The pulled pork is awesome, in any way you get it.  My sandwich was perfectly sweet and tender.  The cornbread is their same sweet cornbread which is like crack, or another addictive drug.  The sweet potatoes were completely candied with large amounts of butter and brown sugar and then they had these melted marshmallows on top and the thing was like my own personal dessert. The mashed potatoes still had small pieces of the red skins from the potatoes in them and the country style white gravy was great as well.  A 3 and 1/2 stars for my meal.

Anyways, the place that is supposed to be the best in town, is called "Half Sauced".

Half Sauced has awards and large trophies for their brisket and their pork, from 2009 and so forth.  Anyone who was a grand champion deserves a testing of tasting.  First of all, we ordered the smoked buffalo wings.

Theses tasted like the most perfectly cooked hot wings, with a smoky-ness to them that reminds you that they were cooked in a smoker with tons of other meats.  These were good enough that I would order several plates of these for a party.  I'd give them an easy 3 out of 5 stars.

Now, after this dish, we were only expecting the best, but were sadly disappointed as the best never came out.  Instead, when I had ordered the brisket sandwich, we had received this:

The first piece I had picked up, that middle piece, was perfect.  The meat fell apart and the fat melted.  It was so delicious that if I was judging on that piece alone, I would have given a 4 out of 5 stars for tastiness. The problem was that the next piece I had picked up was tough, like biting through leather.  It didn't have as much fat and I couldn't finish the piece and went to another one.  Now, Half Sauced has several home-made sauces and just like other places, Fired Up! included, they claim to make their own.  We tried their hot sauce and when we asked about it, we found out that it was basically just store bought hot sauce mixed with store bought BBQ sauce.  That makes everything a bit disappointing.

The baked beans were beans cooked and served in BBQ sauce.  They were more of a bean chili than a sweet baked beans that you would be accustomed to, in the Mid West.

What you should avoid, when you go there, is this plate that mentions brisket and something called "burnt ends".

They describe these "burnt ends" as Chewy, smoky, bits of brisket drenched in barbecue sauce."  When you read that line, I bet you are expecting something a bit chewy, but still edible, pieces of meat.  I am one of those people who will eat the ends of things like pot roast or brisket, because it has a bit of the char, extra flavorings and so forth on it.  These little, hard as a rock pieces, were nothing like the description.  They were not "drenched in sauce" but bone dry.  They were also not chewy, but so hard and tough that they could not be bitten in two.  I'm not joking!  There were 4 adults at our table and each one tried to bite a piece of these bits and it was impossible.  I remembered that one of my acquaintances asked the server if they were supposed to be that tough and she shook her head "yes".  How tough were they?  I wouldn't give them to a dog.  They were like bricks or meat and they were merely on the plate to make it look full.  The brisket was all over the board, just like my plate.  Some were tender and melt in your mouth and some were leather.  You would think that a "grand champion" would have perfect food, all of the time, but maybe they were just off, this time.  I'd give the dish, a 1 out of 5 stars, meaning I would not order it again and it was not edible.  

PS:  The steak fries, on the menu, were frozen from a bag.  Unless I am just that incorrect, but they were still cold in the middle and looked like the ones I could have bought in the frozen food section of any grocery store.

Overall, if I had to compare the two, I would spend my money at Fired Up! and tell everyone to go there.  

Back to Fired UP! (BBQ Food Porn)

Last week, I had to run to the Ozarks for business and as such, only had one hour to eat lunch.  Where did I go?  Fired UP!  I haven't been to Fired Up in a few months and thought it was a good trip to see if anything had changed.  What was interesting, was that our server told us that there is a new, huge menu, coming out.  The new menu isn't just because it is summer time, but also because the restaurant is growing.  Good for them.

So, what should I get?  Fire Up is know for the smoker and BBQ, but if their other food was just as good?  "What if, their burgers were as good as their BBQ", I wondered.  Well, that is what I had ordered.  One of the guys I was with ordered the one pound of smoked sausage and that came out on a nice new plate.  No more plastic baskets here.

So, of course, this was delicious and we get it every time, or at least this time and last time.  If you like smoked sausage, a bit on the spicy side and cut on the bias for the best bite, then this is for you.  This is an easy 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5, so eat it up as it is Very good.

Now, what I had ordered next, just for me, I gave a 4 out of 5.  It is awesome, as in, go and try it at all costs.  I ordered a burger, I think it was called the Smokehouse Burger.  I then picked my usual sides of potatoes dripping in melted butter and cornbread.  The burger was a 1/4 pound burger, and was likely cooked and then placed in a smoker, because it did have a smoke ring around it.

This burger is freakin' delicious.  You want to see what makes it so good?

When you take the top bun off, you see this.  What is this?  That is chopped, smoked, bacon.  The burger, besides being perfectly seasoned and cooked perfectly, and smokey, has bacon all over the top of it.  How could you not want this?  Is your mouth watering yet?  Every bite was smack fun of smokey flavor, and then bacon goodness and then that perfectly salty burger.  Not overly salty, but enough salt that makes you realize that it is tasty beef, like how a good steak has a good amount of salt or how a good loaf of bread has some tasty sea salt on top.  The bacon was smokey, just that slight bit of crunch needed and then tender, not quite crispy or crunchy but almost.  The burger was heavenly.

So, make sure you go there, before they get too busy:

You can see them on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/FUTAPHOUSE/info

Random writings and thoughts and ideas....

The thing is, whether you are a huge fun of Jack in the Box or a huge fan of places like Taste, St. Louis has a large number of restaurants.  The problem of course being, is that it is impossible for me to get to all of them.  I understand that there are people asking me about various restaurants and bars and clubs, but until someone actually pays me enough that I can go to these places each night, I'm stuck getting to them one weekend at a time. 

As with any form of information being related and passed on, I know that there is a mix of readers: from the college freshman with Bluto's (John Belushi's character in Animal House) personality to the business owner who is one of those 1%.  I refuse to play to either group.  I know that there are complaints of my articles on the other site, most importantly how my articles seem to be boring, written with the level of a grade-school child or be rich with horrible syntax and grammar mistakes. To those who may say that, I respond with this: "It is better than the rest."  I always find it funny and ironic that people choose to pick on me, when I at least write in English and as a rule, do not use strange characters like "%$@##^&^%" as a general rule of thumb that needs to be imported into my writing.  I also spell correctly, so for those people who refer to things like "fiesty" as "feisty" or "sux" instead of "sucks", the joke is on you.  If you think you are so great, then write a blog, twitter or whatever and let the world see what you have done or what you are up to. I also wish to not curse in my writing.  Unless you are famous for doing so, I think cursing is not a needed vehicle to show importance or prove a point.

I would dare say that every week, a new bar, club, lounge or restaurant opens up somewhere in the whole of the St. Louis metro area.  Now, considering that there are places that have existed in St. Louis well before I was born, I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to eating there.  There are places I have tried, that have become famous: such as Roadhouse 61, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last night.  There are places that I never did get a chance to try, like Salt, which has the owner stuck in a financial battle over his lack of paying taxes to the government and may close any minute if not already.

You have to understand that I have not given up on St. Louis.  I do not wish it to become the Gotham City of America, but instead wish it to at least come back a little to the food heritage which it had sprang and grown from.  As a French fur trading post, it was the only civilization West of the Mississippi River for many years and decades, and that French influence is what mainly drives the city today.  Signs and symbols of this heritage are seen all over and most secretly on old buildings where the old iron Fleur De Leis, can be seen against the brick walls.  The 1904 World Fair or World Exposition brought so many inventors, so many chefs and so many people from around the world to see what was so special about St. Louis and America.  St. Louis started with a boom and had large companies use this city as a head quarters, mostly because of the perfect transportation it had and still has, in a lesser extent.  Whether it is a train blocking the tracks at a crossing, trucks driving 120mph on 44, planes flying loudly overhead or barges making their way slowly down the river, St. Louis still is a great hub for transportation and distribution.

Although, all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, has seen a slow decline of restaurants and areas for such.  How many of us remember going to St. Louis Union Station and eating at the many fine restaurants there?  Now, I thin the Hard Rock Cafe is it; and it is not even inside!  What about going to Crestwood Mall or the St. Louis Mall and eating inside?  Both places are closed.  Have you even driven down Washington Avenue, West past 20th Street?  You look on both sides of the street and see boarded up old buildings, some restaurants or bars and some of them industrial.  While this may not be the fault of the city, you have the allowance of people to buy these old properties under the promise of changing them into something good within a year and then leaving them to rot and make St. Louis look bad.

There are a lot of people, who are bringing food back into St. Louis and for them, I salute them.  But I worry that these restaurants and bars cannot save the city.  When you hear stories of Gaslight Square, for instance, and see how it was a center of culture in the city and then try to compare it to something now, it is impossible.   I think a fair question is:  is there anywhere in St. Louis that tourists from around the world, would travel to, exclusively to see it in person?  (Besides the Arch.) Do we have any world famous chefs?  I know that we have some great restaurants, but do we have enough?

With everyone trying to revitalize St. Louis with a restaurant, do they all succeed or need to succeed in order to make St. Louis a better place?  You know, I don't think so.  I think that as long as there are some really good places, it may help bring people to them.  The places that are lower level or even mediocre, need to improve and fight to even get close and that is good for business.  I know that people love BBQ and there is as many variations to St. Louis style BBQ pork steak as there are grains of sand on all of the beaches.  But, I find it very difficult to believe that there is one place and one place alone which is the absolute best, for everyone.  You may think Pappy's is the best and I don't.  So, I tell you and anyone else who want to know.

I'm not being paid by restaurants to write about them.  I don't get paid by insidestl.com and even have to deal with Trolls and angry people for my writing. I certainly don't get paid to write on here.  I write for fun, because I like to share my stories, photos and adventures.  I do try to get to every location, be it a place 50 years old or a new bar trying to clean up and liven up the dance scene.  I don't even have a sponsor, so I can write freely about anyone and anything.  I feel that the writers in print, who have to write articles for the likes of Feast, Sauce or even the River Front Times, can't truly express what they want because they may have had a bad experience at an advertiser's restaurant and then not allowed to comment or lose the advertiser.  I guess I'm lucky that I don't have sponsors because I can freely write the truth about anyone.  Now, if you have a restaurant or bar where I had a great time, I'd be more apt to write nicely about you.

Sure, the writers for Feast magazine get to travel to Italy and write about how wonderful the wines are there.  But, does that really concern the average person looking for where to spend their lunch money in St. Louis?  Or what about that guy looking to impress his date at a nice restaurant?  I feel some writers are out of touch with what people want.

You know what I'm looking for?  I want to read and hear from people and chefs who chose St. Louis, out of all of the other cities, and find out why.  I want to hear from renowned chefs and ask them if they have any great food memories about St. Louis.  I want to know if anyone has said anything great and fantastic about the food in St. Louis.  I know I have found some hits and misses and as much as I think people, like you, like reading my dribble and thoughts and seeing pictures of great food or drinks, I can't help but think that someone out there wouldn't mind hearing from an expert. So, with the idea of that, I will send some emails and see if I can't find some experts in St. Louis and see what they think.

Am I a prissy foodie?  No.  Or, I don't think I am.  I still enjoy a good beer (Guinness) and my favorite local fast food burger (Top Shooters), but I don't see myself nor wish to see myself as the guy in the suit, sitting at a table of $500 food, swirling my wine around in a glass. (I would have a beer instead.)  I admit that because of the Food Network, I started to watch mainstream shows and enjoy them.  That got me into watching and reading and following Alton Brown.  That then got me into not only playing with cooking, but playing with Molecular Gastronomy.  This then got me interested with how food works, not just adding baking soda to a recipe, but why do you add the baking soda and what does it do.  It is science, applied to food. Does this make me an "Anton ego"?  No.  But it does mean that if I walk into a restaurant and order some baked chicken, it should not be raw or too salty or tough as leather.  Also, working at a restaurant has taught me a lot of things that most people don't think about when they go out to eat.  People do still make fun of me by suggesting that Old Country Buffet/Home Town Buffet is not a real restaurant and they would only be partially correct.  You don't come in, sit down, get a menu, order, eat and pay.  It is an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and while there isn't 5 guys in the back working on your order, they are also working on the likes of 349 other people.  What did this teach me?  I may not know how many times a cow was massaged to produce the perfect amount of tenderness in a steak.  But I do know how that stake should be cooked.  I also know that an order as simple as french fries, if from a bag deep in the freezer, should not take more than 3 minutes in the fryer.  I also know that there is no reason that an order for a 10 minute item take longer than 20 minutes, if everything is run correctly.  This also means that I am a bitch when it comes to going into a restaurant and being told that there is no seating available when I see 3-4 tables open. 

I hate waiting.  I think I have plenty of patience, when it comes to waiting in general as even my wife jokes that she can't say things like "I have a secret" and then have me going crazy in anticipation as to what it may be.  I can wait and do wait for many things.  I have waited a long time for really good food and a short time for really good food as well.  What I don't like though, is the waiting for service.  I never understood and will never understand why servers and wait staff say that they want more money but then do a horrible job with the customer.  I was at the California Pizza Kitchen at West County Mall this weekend when I thought we had a good server, to start.  She asked us what our drinks were quickly and then we gave her the orders for the kids, so that their food may get cooking.  We waited for 20 minutes before our drinks came out.  Then 5 minutes later for the food for the kids.  Then another 30 minutes for our food to come out, after we had ordered.  This is a place where pizzas take almost no time to cook in their fire oven.  So, why should my order take so long?  One answer: cell phone.  While really getting hungry and angry as to why my food was no where to be found, I look over at our server on the computer.  I'm thinking that she is working and then as pointed out by my wife, she was texting on her cell phone.  She thought that her tip was less important than her text and so she spent a good 5 minutes, standing there and texting until the manager looked at her and she pretended to be working and walked away.  Guess what?  My pizza was cold, or luke warm to be more precise.  Likely meaning that it was cooked and sitting out for 5-10 minutes while she texted away.  There is absolutely no reason why any customer should be given bad service. 

I think I am finished with my ranting.  As mentioned, when I finish the work at my actual money-making job, I'll send some emails and see if I can get some words from some chefs.

 

The best in a chef?

What I have here is a story that every chef should read and understand and agree to.  Two weeks ago, on October 4th, I was asked to a private tasting of the food for the Capitalist Pig, which was a BBQ take-out restaurant located in the Mad Art Gallery.  The grand opening was supposed to be on the 10th of this month also and foodies and writers and bloggers were given early access to taste what Ron Buechele had in mind.  Now, I went with my wife, dressed up nicely, had beer, talked to some people and the went up for what looked like an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet.

There was all sorts of creations and while my first instinct here is to show you picture after picture of what each item was and how it tasted let me stop you right there:  I will not.

What happened that night was something so magical and so incredible and so "unlike St. Louis" that it makes me thrilled just thinking about it.  That event, this singularity of awesomeness gives me hope that there is something or can be something great in St. Louis that will draw people from around the world.  What this event was, was the head chef and owner, Ron , discovering that the food was coming out as good as he thought it would be.  That's correct, you read it right.  The food was not as good as we, the people and even the chef thought it would be.  So, while I wouldn't mind telling you that the sauces were good, or the smoked pork belly was like heaven, I don't want to get into how the chicken was flavorless and had a rubbery skin on it, because it will most likely be fixed.  There is no reason to get into any of the issues and problems I had with the tasting, because Ron already knew it.  What was so magnificent was that a chef or restaurant owner decided to put off the opening of his restaurant to fix everything.

Huh?

It may not sound like anything important to you, but there are so many restaurants in St. Louis that suck.  They are really awful and I wouldn't eat at them if you paid me to do so.  But, those restaurants, like many of those shown on shows like Restaurant Impossible, are filled with staff who believe that their food is the best and flawless.  They are so blinded by the truth for one reason or another that they do not wish to change, much less take any comments or critisezm.  What you have is a chef or owner volunteering to not open his restaurant at the specified time and date and instead make sure everything is perfect.  I was so worried because so many people have their heart in the right place and want to bring business to St. Louis and want to open up restaurants.  But, their food or service sucks.  Then they close down in a matter of years and act like it is a bigger mystery than Atlantis as  to why no one would come to their place.  It take a real chef, much less a real St. Louis citizen, to see that it is better to not open on time and do it right than to open early and ruin it.  

Fired Up for BBQ

This past weekend, I had a relaxing vacation in the Ozarks.  I went with my family and my in-laws to work on their condo and enjoy some of the great food in the Ozarks.  When I was in High School, 3 of my friends and I went on a road trip, each summer for 3 years, down to the Ozarks where we spent a few days relaxing and taking in the sights.  I do not remember that much, in ways of good food.  It is amazing how so much can change in 15 years!  (Yeah, I admit, that is a long time, but I didn't even recognize the place.)

Fired up is a BBQ joint which also has a bar section, an arcade and a dance floor.  While it may seem like any other BBQ destination, the wonderful views out of the large windows near your dining table, fool you into thinking that you are on some mountain paradise.  While the view may sound like a gimmick, to draw you in, the food is anything but fake and you should come in for it directly. Using locally grown ingredients and even potatoes grown in their own garden, Fired Up is a new place which has grabbed the "sustainable" feel for using local and farm to table ideals, whether they tried to or not.

The restaurant is simple, clean, quiet, and has no obnoxious music playing on loud speakers.  Of course with anything, the food is the real reason why I was there.  Fired Up makes their own sauces.  They had an "Original Sauce" which was like your basic St. Louis style sauce with a bit more of a mustard flavor, a "Bourbon Sauce" which had that tang and sweetness of Bourbon, a "Hot & Spicy" which was almost too hot for me to handle and finally a "Citrus Chipolte" which gave both a smokey chili flavor and a lemon citrus flavor.  I know that some of the infamous BBQ restaurants in St. Louis have their own sauce, but none of them have created four of their own.

So, I thought that if I was looking for a taste of everything, I would choose a 3 meat selection.  My plate, came with BBQ pulled pork, which melted in my mouth, some smokey turkey breast, which reminded me of a mix of Thanksgiving and a BBQ pit and finally I had a few thick slices of beef brisket.  As I just said, I took a bite of the turkey first and it was juicy and tender and smokey.  The beef was cut thick, but was so tender that it fell apart in my mouth.  And the pulled pork, literally melted in mouth.  It was so juicy and so flavorful that my 4 and 5 year old children were gobbling it up.  This plate is an easy 4 out of 5 for me.

We ordered a plate of the "Pulled Pork Sliders" off of the appetizer menu, and we expected two sliders.  What we had delivered to us was a plate of 6 (six) sliders on some sweet buns.  The same pulled pork, the exact same super juicy and tender pork which I had, was on these sliders.  My kids, my 4 and 5 year old boys, loved these sliders.  A good way of checking to see if the meat is tender or not, is to give it to a child and my 5 year old had 1 and 1/2 of these sliders.  This was also a 4 and 1/2 out of 5 for me.

Couple this with the large basket of a whole rack of ribs, which were so tender and juicy that it was impossible not to love them, you would start to get a full stomach.  When my father-in-law, reached for a rib to taste it, he pulled the bone up as the meat fell off.  It wasn't a bad thing, but a great thing.  The meat was juicy, flavorful, smokey and of course tender.  The ribs were about as tender as the super tender pulled pork. I'd give the ribs about a 4 and 1/2 out of 5 for the pure fact that they were so good that if I wouldn't feel bad about it, I would have tried to wrestle my father-in-law for portion of the ribs.

While some places in St. Louis get you on the good food, Fired Up also gets you on the great taste of their sides. We tried the "baby bakers" and they were tiny home grown potatoes, baked to perfection (not too mushy and not too hard), sprinkled with kosher salt and sitting in a cup of melted butter.  The image of melted butter in the bottom of the cup is a winner.  The potato salad is a red potato salad with a creamy sauce and a dill seasoning; tasty. The cole slaw is a great and simple creamy slaw.  Not too much pepper and not too rich and even a tad sweet.  The baked beans were very sweet, almost a dessert, with the taste of brown sugar and big chunks of that famous pulled pork in it.  This was a great cup of beans.  The big thing at Fired Up, which we all noticed, was the cornbread.  The cornbread was a sweet, moist and delicious cake.  It was very tasty that people at my table with me whom normally do not eat cornbread, were eating it.  I wish they sold the cornbread in hotel sheet pan sizes. Also, as a fan of cornbread, let me further explain that this isn't like other BBQ places and their cornbread.  With other places, every bite of cornbread has to be accompanied by a drink or a sip of a drink, because theirs are too dry.  Fire Up, has very moist cornbread in which no drink is necessary.  The sides were good enough that I'd give them all a 4 out of 5.

I want to stress and point out a couple of things:  First of all, if you like any of their sauces, they will sell a portion size to you.  What they sold to us was a large 32oz cup, for about $4!  That is a huge amount of BBQ sauce for a little price.  Secondly, I don't want you to look at my ratings and think "he only gave them a 4 out of 5!  Let's go somewhere else!"  The fact is, if you don't know it, I don't give a dish or anything a 5 out of 5, unless it blows me away in some new cooking method or something I've never seen or tasted before.  This doesn't mean that the food isn't good, in fact it means that the food was near perfect and I highly recommend it.  Thirdly, the only reason I stopped by on this time was because my in-laws had already been there and had a great time.  This means that on two separate occasions, the food and service was fantastic.          

Are there other BBQ places in the Ozarks?  Definitely.  But, I seriously doubt or even dare them to be as good as Fired Up.  Frankly, I would dare say that Fired Up has better BBQ than some of the famous St. Louis locations like Phil's or even Pappy's.  If you go to the Ozarks and don't go for BBQ at Fired Up, un-friend me on Facebook.  I can't be friends with anyone who doesn't appreciate good taste. 

The 26th Annual Sheep & Craft Festival

This past weekend we attended the 26th Annual Sheep and Craft Festival.  While mostly a craft celebration, there was plenty of "country" stuff that I am a rookie towards.  Here are a few pictures of what happened:

Here we see some sheep being herded into their pen.  Most likely these sheep will be eaten later.  Yum.

This is something new: sheep pellet bingo.  In this corral, they put a sheep for about 20-30 minutes at a time.  The point, is that you pay $1 and pick a number.  The number that collects the most sheep "pellets" is the number that wins and then that means the person wins a prize. I think it is interesting that a game has been created about an animal pooping.

You cannot go to an event without a stand selling and making kettle corn.  We had to buy a bag on our way out.

Here we have animal judging, some food from the local 4H and some random stuff.  There are some antique tractors in the distance right.

Guess what?  A buffet line for the lamb BBQ.  $10 had me a plate of a few scoops of potato salad, a large lamb brat and some baked beans.  Maybe one of those sheep that I saw was one of the lamb steaks, maybe...

I had to have this all on here.  I'm willing to bet that most of the large periodicals of St. Louis will not show anything from this festival, for even the Travel channel has to censor out any animal slaughtering for food.  Anyway, this is good food and all a good time.  I suggest everyone come to next year's as well.  

Made in Saint Louis

Old Vienna Snack Food Company is the name of a snack food company that was founded in St. Louis in 1936.  It was successful but changed hands and owners many times before finally closing in 1966.  At that same time, a group of ex employees loved the brand so much that they got together and purchased the company, renaming it to Old Vienna LLC.

Now, this company has been getting more popular with rappers like Murphy Lee writing about them and people talking all about them.  Word of mouth spreads like wild-fire.  The "Red Hot" name is associated with many of Old Vienna's products, like Red Hot Riplets or Red Hot Chips.  I tend to find my way buying their products as I do want St. Louis companies to grow.

This is what I purchased recently...

This got my attention because of two things.  First of all, it is made with ST. Louis style BBQ sauce, which I like.  Secondly, the idea of a pork steak was basically invented in St. Louis.  I know that I grew up eating pork steaks and finding pork steaks as an option at every family or friend BBQ.  The idea that potato chips can taste like a BBQ pork steak, is so interesting and fundamentally St. Louis, that I had to try it.

After trying them I have to say this, through some remarkable miracle, they taste like BBQ pork steaks.  I don't know how they do it exactly, but have an idea.  I know that I invented a recipe for a pancake ice cream, that tastes just like pancakes, but doesn't have pancakes in it.  I made a mixture of flavors which are the same flavors that one experiences when they taste pancakes.  But the large assortment of complex flavors that is inherent in a BBQ pork steak, would be quote difficult to replicate.  Anyways, go get these chips.  They do taste just like a BBQ pork steak.  They don't smell like a pork steak, but they really do taste like one.  5/5 for weird potato chips!

Best BBQ in a while

When I first learned that I was going to go to a BBQ place in Kansas City, MO, I thought that I was a traitor.  Everyone knows that St. Louis has great BBQ and I thought of myself as a Benedict Arnold, patronizing a BBQ establishment in another BBQ city.  But, this was really good BBQ.

Gates BBQ started as just a family making their own BBQ sauce and used their sauce on various meats.  This started in 1946 and  demand for their sauce grew.  Like other stories, they became successful and started to open one restaurant after another.  There is definitively something different and tasty about their sauce involving one spice that may or may not be the secret ingredient: pepper.

Here is the counter.  It is set up where you stand in line, order your meats, order and pick up your drinks and then sit down at your table.

The restaurant is old fashioned looking inside.  Nice booths, mirrors on the wall, nice sturdy tables and fans, attached by a single chord, where one spins the next and spins the next and is all spun by a single motor.

The fan is spinning and you can see two chords on the upper left and two on the right which turn the fans.

Doesn't this look delicious?  This was called the President's tray.  It was all of this meat: pork, turkey, chicken and beef, along with sausage.  This was $74 and was more food than 6 adults and two kids could eat.


As I mentioned, the secret ingredient could be pepper, because on every table there was the absence of a pepper shaker.  The sauce was peppery and truly lip-smacking good.  It was just enough spicy, from the pepper that it just made the meat that much more addictive. My final conclusion: if you are driving near KC and you see a Gates restaurant, stop in.

Is that fake or real?

For fun, when I was last in Rural King, I purchased something quite peculiar: Babyback Rib flavored potato chips.  Now, I have to wonder about a few things.  First I think about how far we have come, as food product scientists and inventors.  20 years ago, the idea of having a food flavored product was around but just didn't work that well.  40 years ago, the idea of food flavored item would be cool but would likely have tasted too much like the real thing.  I have seen many different flavors of strange flavored chips and snacks and while they exist in other countries, here in America, the idea of shrimp flavored potato chips doesn't go over too well.  So, the manufacturers have been working on ideas that would be accepted by the mass of people.  Shrimp flavored chips, no.  BBQ meat flavored chips, yes.

Doesn't that picture look delicious?  Mouth watering, tender, fall apart in your mouth BBQ baby back ribs.  Can you imagine the taste and feel in mouth as you eat those perfect morsels of food?  So wonderful and tasty.  But imagine if you could have that same flavor and experience, maybe even with just a cut of the umami, but in a potato chip.  Wouldn't that be great?

Sadly, it is not the case.  To me, these chips taste like really good BBQ chips.  Sort of like the Lays KC Masterpiece BBQ chips with a more smokey flavor to them.  I won't say that I don't like them, because I do, but they do not taste like the meat, just the seasoning on the meat.

What am I looking forward to in the future?  I want to see a BBQ steak flavored salmon.  I want to see doughnut flavored ice cream.  I want to see a fried balogna sandwich flavored cupcake.  If we are going to get creative with flavors, lets get creative, as long as it tastes like it is supposed to.