Baby's Coffee and Shave Ice in Key West

We had two new experiences in Key West today. The first was a stop at Baby's Coffee. We had a late breakfast so decided to skip lunch and go directly to coffee and snacks. We each had a frozen coffee which is just like a frappucino. Carol and I had mocha and Mary had a latte. They were very good and hit the spot just right. We each had a snack to go with. Oatmeal cookie, chocolate crumb cake (the crumbs were chocolate) and mocha chocolate chip muffin. It was an excellent mid-day snack. Apparently, Baby's is the spot for folks who are on long bicycle rides to stop. There were three who stopped in while we were there.

We were on a roll with snack foods so after taking a driving tour of Key West, we stopped along the beach at the shave ice truck. These are much like snow cones only the ice is very finely ground and mounded to where there was almost as much ice on top of the cup as there was inside. We chose dark cherry, pineapple and lemon. She asked if we wanted evaporated milk on top. I thought that was a strange concept but wanted to try it. Of course we did not get the milk on the lemon flavored one. I don't know how much the milk added and I don't think I would add it the next time. But the shave ice was very good! It was an excellent snack and quite refreshing

Craig's Restaurant - Tavernier, FL

On our way into the Keys and thinking of a place to stop for lunch. Of course, the locale and the mood says we should eat fish! Carol suggested we stop at Craig's and try their "world's famous fish sandwich." So we did!
Carol had a fried grouper sandwich with coleslaw. I had a grilled mahi-mahi sandwich with pasta salad (cost a dollar more for grilled). Mary, Carol's mom had clam chowder with a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. The food was excellent if a bit pricy. Carol's grouper sandwich was $18.95!
 The sandwiches come on wheat bread. The grouper was breaded with a light cracker crust. Grouper is a light mild flavored fish that is firm but flaky. An adult grouper can weigh up to 800 lbs. though they average 20 lbs. I will not post a picture of the fish... They are UGLY! Back to the food... The sandwich was a bit messy as fish sandwiches tend to be. There was PLENTY of fish in the sandwich. The sandwich came dressed with American cheese, tomatoes and tarter sauce. The coleslaw was chopped finely and was sweet with a nice tartness. The mahi-mahi was well spiced and plentiful. Mahi-mahi is a light flaky fish that is not so firm as grouper. Again the sandwich was quite messy. It was hard to keep all the fish on the sandwich. There was enough going on with the sandwich that it was hard to taste the tarter sauce. In this case, that was not a bad thing. I chose to have no cheese on the sandwich as all fish sandwiches come with cheese. It was an excellent sandwich. I had their pasta salad as a side. It was made with sliced banana peppers and LOTS of olives! (Olives are one of the very few foods I will not eat.) In spite of that, the salad was good. I skipped the peppers and gave the olives to Carol. Mary says the conch chowder was ok. She expected some spicy heat and there was none. It was a bit sweeter than she expected too. The grilled cheese sandwich was typical and very good. She says the fries were the highlight of the meal. Potatoes were freshly prepared and the oil was clean all of which went together to make excellent fries.
Service was average, not spectacular. We found ourselves waiting for our server more often than not. Mary had finished the chowder long before the server was available to ask for hot sauce.
Overall, this restaurant comes highly recommended!

First Time Brisket on New Masterbuilt Digital Electric Smoker!

You may have followed the progress on Facebook of our overnight smoking of a brisket last weekend on our new Masterbuilt digital electric smoker.  Here are the details:

First, let's settle the issue of charcoal vs. electric smoker.  We own two CharGriller units that use charcoal to grill or smoke.  We've been very successfully with them but there are always issues because the units are very drafty and difficult to keep a steady temperature.  The Masterbuilt electric unit is well-insulated and holds its temperature very well.  It cooks from 110-275 degrees so its great for smoking jerky and smoking other things that need lower temps.  Of course, we'll still use our CharGrillers but the Masterbuilt allows us to do things like this overnight smoke with a minimum of trouble.  Now on to the brisket!

We used a 13 pound "packer" brisket.  This is a whole brisket in its Cryovac wrapping. A whole brisket includes both the "flat", the larger, narrow, leaner portion and the "point" (also called the "deckle"), the smaller, fattier (and therefore moister) part.  We neglected to take photos of the raw brisket but you can search Google images and see exactly what we mean.  Also, if you look at the final two photos of the cooked brisket the flat and the point can be clearly seen.

First, we wash the brisket under some running water to remove blood and that "raw meat smell".  We always wash our meat before we smoke it. We then like to trim it down to 1/4" of fat and also trim a lot of the fat between the flat and the point, almost separating the two parts.  Indeed, for this cooking we DID separate the brisket into halves to fit it into the smoker although one half had point and flat while the other had just the flat.  Your tolerance for fat might lead you to trim more or less of it off.  Some fat is necessary to baste the meat as it smokes.

After trimming we coated the brisket with our special rub (you may use store-bought rubs, find a recipe, or create your own), and allowed it to warm up a bit. There are conflicting opinions about allowing meat to come up to room temperature before cooking but we do it and are always happy with the results.  The photo shows the two halves waiting to go into the smoker.

We turned the Masterbuilt digital electric smoker on and set the temperature to 250 degrees.  Once it was hot enough we added a combination of hickory and apple wood chips.  Hickory, although it's been the favorite smoking wood for most meats, can bit a bit strong so we sweeten it up with the apple.

The meat then went into the smoker with the probe thermometer placed into the thicket part of the brisket but not into the fat.  We wanted the meat to cook to 165 degrees for this first step of the cooking process, which would take about 6 hours. The time was 1:45am...time to go to bed for a few hours!

Carol woke up at 4:30am and added more chips, then woke up at 7:30am.  The meat was at a perfect 165 degrees and so she removed it to wrap it.  We used a wrapping mixture created by chef Adam Perry Lang for his "Serious Barbecue" cookbook.  Combine 4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter, 1/2 cup of honey, and a 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar to make this mixture...try not to taste it or you might end up finishing it all before you get it onto the meat!  It's delicious!  Here's a photo of the ready-to-wrap brisket, the two halves stacked...

Using a double layer of heavy duty foil, Carol placed the brisket onto it, partially wrapped it, then poured the wrapping mixture on and completely closed the foil.  The probe thermometer went back into the brisket and the brisket went back into the smoker to cook until it reached 200 degrees.  This took about 2 1/2 hours.

Advocacy Trip to Tallahassee, FL Nets Great Meals!

Every year we assist the Friends of our libraries in their advocacy efforts by joining them on a trip to Florida's capital city, Tallahassee. Although we certainly don't go hungry while we're there, as a college town Tallahassee is full of chain restaurants, bars, and pizza places. We're staying at the DoubleTree near the Capitol, and they have a restaurant, Jacob's On The Plaza, that leaves much to be desired. We told you about Jacob's in our post of Monday, February 15, 2010, "The WORST Restaurant Experience Ever!" Let's just say that Jacob's hasn't changed much in a year... Lisa noticed a restaurant right next door to the hotel...Avenue Eat & Drink. We decided to try it with the small group that was left here. What a terrific decision! Avenue has only been open about 6 months. The owner, Chris Clark, used to own what was (according to friends who live in Tallahassee) an excellent restaurant, Cafe Cabernet. Avenue Eat & Drink celebrates Southern Fusion cuisine that showcases many locally-sourced ingredients. We started with an Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Mozzarella Salad that featured both red and yellow tomatoes and soft, lucious burrata. For the unitiated, burrata is made just like the regular firmer mozzarella except that instead of throwing the formed balls quickly into ice water to firm up, burrata is formed into a pouch and filled with cream and scraps of mozzarella. It's a rich treat! Lisa had the Park Avenue Chicken Pot Pie as her entree, which was a different take on one of the most popular comfort foods. Avenue tops theirs with a corn souffle crust. Lisa thought there was more gravy (darker than any other chicken gravy we've had) than filling and would not order it again. Since we likely won't be back in Tallahassee until next year, we had to try other dishes. We tried the Anson Mills Grits with Smoked Cheddar and Stripling's Sausage. Anson Mills is an organic mill in Columbia, SC, and Stripling's is a family-owned sausage producer in Cordele, GA.. The grits were creamy, cheesy and rich, although they weren't very hot when they arrived. The small bowl of sausage crumbles tasted of sage, thyme, and mild pepper. Carol's entree was the Grilled Cheese and Pulled Short Rib Sandwich, served on sourdough bread with carmelized onions and horseradish mayo. Cheese was smoked cheddar. Short Ribs are the darlings of many restaurant chefs right now with their rich beefy flavor. All the ingredients in this sandwich work well together but again, it would have been better if it had been hotter. The side was sweet potato chips and they were good! A fun item that another diner ordered was chick pea fries...ground chick peas (garbanzo beans) blended with spices and formed into little logs before being rolled in chick pea flour and deep-fried. Dipped into Avenue's special ketchup, they were different and tasty. We HAD to try at least one dessert, and all shared the Bourbon Banana Pudding with Glazed Pecans. Avenue's version adds toasted angel food cake to the ingredients in the name. No one didn't enjoy this dessert! Strange as it might seem, we returned tonight for dinner! We had plans with our local friends to eat at another restaurant but we suggested Avenue since we knew they'd enjoy it and they also didn't know of its existence. We started with the Artichoke Spinach Dip with Tortilla Chips. Avenue changed the ratio of artichoke & spinach to creamy cheese sauce for a chunkier appetizer. The bowl was emptied pretty quickly! One of the reasons Carol wanted to return to Avenue was to try their appetizer of Braised Pork Belly With Cabbage. Yeah, she knows, pork belly is fatty...it's the cut used to make bacon. She thought having a small portion in a restaurant might prevent her from wanting to cook a whole piece at home. She decided to order it for dinner, along with a side of roast potatoes. The small chunk of pork belly was braised then deep-fried and served with spicy (VERY!) cabbage along with a vinegary dressing that cut the richness of the pork belly, although it was still unctious (Carol has always wanted to find a place to use that word!). Lisa's dinner was the Risotto with Boursin Cheese, Rainbow Kale, & Shitake Mushrooms. It was creamy and rich, but didn't have a lot of kale or mushrooms. On to dessert, again...tonight we had Mike's Reese's Peanut Butter Pie. Although not made in Avenue's own kitchen, it was delicious and surprisingly light, as the peanut butter filling was whipped. Before we close, we need to mention the service...at lunch we were served by Frankie and at dinner J.C. took care of us. Both gentlemen were extremely knowledgeable about Avenue's menu and were professional and pleasant. We're planning to return to Avenue Eat & Drink next year with our whole crew! Avenue Eat & Drink 115 East Park Avenue Tallahassee, FL 32301 850-224-0115 www.avenueeatanddrink.com

Smoking a Pork Butt & Brisket...YUMM!!

OK, I'll be honest...we actually smoked these meats a few weeks ago but have just gotten around to posting.

Here's a photo of the smoker we have, a CharGriller. We own two of these terrific smokers, which are really charcoal grills that have a firebox attachment added. This is the newer one; the older one is about 13 years old. (Yes, we know the firebox needs a new coat of paint).

We like to use fruitwoods such as apple & cherry for most of our meat and it always tastes great. Oak was recommended for brisket but we've found it to be too strong.

Here you see Carol applying rub to the meat. For the pork we use a rub Carol created that has a bit of sweetness, and the sugars create a nice bark (crust) on the meat. The beef rub has some spices that are also used for making pastrami.

We allow the rub to soak into the meat for about the time it takes to start the fire and get the coals ready to place in the firebox.

We spray apple juice on the meats while they smoke, spraying every 1/2 hour after the first hour of cooking. Here we've raised the cover to spray.

We loosely follow a method proposed by Adam Perry Lang in his book "Serious Barbecue" and it works great! Once the pork butt reaches 165 degrees and the brisket 175 degrees we place them on two sheets of heavy-duty foil and pour a sauce of melted unsalted butter, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. Then we wrap the meat and place it in a cooler for about 30 minutes.
After removing the meat from the cooler we open the foil, pour out the drippings and mix a new sauce of some of the drippings and our homemade barbecue sauce. We brush that onto the meat and then wrap the meat in new sheets of foil. The wrapped meat then goes back in the smoker until the pork butt reaches 185 degrees and the brisket 195 degrees, and we remove the foil and allow a crust to form the final 30 minutes.

Barbecue in Boynton Beach, FL

Today we stopped by Bedner's Farm Market in Boynton Beach, FL. Our goal was to have some lunch from the Rolling Stove food truck that's become so popular in our area but we played golf this morning and got to Bedner's too late. So we "settled" on having barbecue from Porky & Beth's. We were pleasantly surprised!

Because we barbecue ourselves, we're a bit fussy about the barbecue we eat in restaurants. Porky & Beth's is definitely high up on our list of places we'd choose! They cook & serve from a brand-new beautiful trailer, and there are many picnic tables under a large canopy for you to sit and enjoy your meal. "Porky", whose given name is Robert, stops by every table and asks how you like the food. He's very proud of their product and he should be.

We had a "Three Meat Plate" which comes with two sides. We chose beef brisket, pulled pork, and ribs, and our sides were macaroni & cheese and collard greens. We also got an ear of grilled corn, husk attached. The brisket was good, although Carol would have preferred the "point" rather than the "flat" section that we were given...we'll have to ask next time if that's an option. The "point" is a bit fattier and more tender. The pulled pork was very good but we wished it had more "bark" (crunchy outside crust). The ribs were the best-tasting of the three meats and were so tender they had fallen off the bones. Paying customers like ribs this tender although judges in barbecue competitions are a bit hard on contestants who turn in ribs like this. Sauce options were sweet and hot, tomato-based, and were very tasty! The mac & cheese was just OK, and the collards were a little bitter. We liked the corn.

We talked a bit with "Porky" afterward and got a close look at their Lang smoker. Lang calls their smokers the "#1 BBQ smoker" and they do manufacture a great product. Porky uses oak for all his meats, and while he uses a bit of restraint so that his meats don't taste too "oaky", we prefer oak for beef and fruitwoods like apple & cherry for pork.

We'll go back to "Porky & Beth's BBQ" to see if we can't get a little of the brisket "point" and talk more barbecue with Robert!

http://www.porky&bethsbbq.com/

Bogart's Bar & Grill

Bogart's Bar & Grill is housed on the second floor of the Cinemark Palace 20 Theater here in Boca Raton. It is a great place to go for dinner just before or after a movie. We often pair this with the Premier movie experience at the theater. Tonight the Premier was booked so we went downstairs to see Secretariat. Great movie by the way!



We called early for reservations and they had none at the time we needed so we were quite pleasantly surprised to find we had only a 10 minute wait for a table. Ryan was our server and he was excellent. He was very attentive to our needs.



Carol had the Barbecue Chicken Pizza. She thought it was great. It had cheddar-Monterey jack
cheese, roasted peppers, fresh tomatoes, red onion and house made barbecue sauce.



I had the Organic Lemon Roasted Chicken which came with wild rice pilaf, broccoli and lemon thyme jus. So often when you get roasted chicken it comes quite bland. This had a ton of flavor. The rice pilaf was nutty and quite good as well.

We have frequented this restaurant in the past and we always find the food exceptional and the service great. Since it is a restaurant in a theater, they are always mindful of when your movie starts and get you out in time for the show.

We got there early thinking we would have quite a wait to get a table. Since we got in rapidly, we had enough extra time to have dessert so we shared the Turtle Ice Cream Sandwich which is layers of chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, Heath Bar pieces topped with hot fudge and caramel sauce. The portion was enormous so we had more than enough to share. It was quite wonderful!

We think this is an exceptional restaurant that may be missed by many because of its venue. It is a wonderful treat to go with your movie. Do not miss it.

http://www.bogartsofboca.com/