Rib Results

Well, they didn't come out good. I cooked them for about 3 hours and they probably could have used another 30 min to an hour. They were a bit tough and quite fatty. It could just be the cut we got. They seemed to taste OK, but I have a thing against eating fat (can't stand the texture) so I didn't eat much. Luckily Tara spiced up some baked beans and that made a good dinner along with the cole slaw.

A Rib For All Seasons aka Pork Fiction

Last week before I went to sleep, Good Eats repeated it's pork ribs episode, A Rib For All Seasons. They looked really good, but with Tara still looking for a job, we decided to wait until she finds one to try them. Today after my first day back at the gym since before we hit triple-digits, I stopped by Fresh & Easy. They actually has a couple slabs of baby back ribs 1/2 off, so I snagged one. I wanted to get two, but in case they come out badly, I didn't want to risk it. So I printed out the recipe and mixed up some rub. I deviated from Alton's rub since we lacked some of the ingredients. Instead of cayenne pepper, jalapeno seasoning, and Old Bay, I used ground mustard, barbeque seasoning, and Mrs. Dash. He said you could cater to your own whims for the remaining 1 of the 8:3:1:1 ration anyways. I just finished applying the rub and stashing them in the chill chest for the night. I've never done ribs before at home, so this should be interesting. The recipe looks really simple, so it'll be interesting to see if it's a keeper or not. I'll post an update tomorrow night.

Oh, and if you left comments recently and haven't seen them appear, it's because I completely forgot I was moderating comments on here... Sorry. :) They should be on here now. :) Thanks Geggie and Andy for your patronage. :) We really need to hook up sometime for dinner (A) or when you're in town (G). I know Geggie and Tara can compare their Camrys. Andy and I could probably trade Audi North Scottsdale service horror stories. :) I'm still baffled as to how they broke your windshield installing a TCU...

Little Saigon Restaurant - Glendale

Vietnamese is one of my favorite cuisines. It's not very flashy, like Thai or sushi can be, but there are some solid dishes that I love. Pho goes without saying. It's one of my favorite soups. The Vietnamese version of egg rolls, when done right, are like crack for me. Ditto for fresh spring rolls. I also like the bun dishes with pork, both shredded and roasted. And of course banh mi. I used to be able to get them for $2 at a place near my last job in Dallas (technically Carrollton).

Unfortunately, Tara had a bad experience at Avina's old location once when she went without me and generally has a hard time finding something she will eat at most Vietnamese places. Usually I'll go by myself at lunch or if she's got other plans on a weekend day, I'll try to plan something. She was working on Saturday, so I decided to get me some good old VN food. I was torn between hitting Davang's and getting a banh mi or trying someplace new. Fellow blogger and Audi-phile Andy has had many positive posts about Little Saigon in Glendale. I've seen it the few times I've been in Old Town Glendale but have never been. Since I had nothing else planned, I decided to make the trek.

It's about a 20 mile trip one-way and when I got to the 19.7 mile mark, I realized my wallet was somewhere still at home. So I headed home, found it, and headed back. Luckily gas is cheap...

When I finally made it, I parked across the street and entered the restaurant. I was directed to sit anywhere, so I sat in the room with the main counter and kitchen. I looked over the menu. I had looked at it online before I left and knew they didn't have banh mi. I thought about getting an order of deep-fried egg rolls, but at six to an order, I wasn't sure if I could finish them all. Instead, I got fresh spring rolls (grilled pork, shrimp, rice noodles) and a rice vermicelli bowl with grilled pork and pieces of Viet egg roll. I stuck with water for a drink.

My spring rolls came out so fast I thought they'd been pre-made, but they were very fresh. The rice noodles were still warm. I really enjoyed them. They came with the usual peanut sauce and hit the spot.

My bun bowl came out in a few more minutes. Due to a server miscue, I got two of small bowls of sweet fish sauce (nuac mum, I believe), which is fine with me. I love the stuff. I tried one of the egg roll pieces and immediately wished I gotten them for an appetizer. Dipped in the fish sauce, they were perfect. The pieces of grilled pork were sweet, again something I love. It may have been the two helpings of fish sauce I dumped over it, but it was all nice and sweet. Exactly how I like my bowls.

Service was good. It was basically just me in the one room and I could hear another party or two in the other room. The owner(?) waited on me and checked in often by basically talking to me from behind the counter.

I really liked my meal and hope I can make it back in the near future.

Little Saigon is at 7016 N 57th Ave. It's just north of the Glendale Ave/57th Ave intersection, on the west side.

Back To The Grill

After procrastinating for months and months, I finally got around to refilling the propane tank for our gas grill. I managed to miss all the great Winter and Spring grilling weather, although the first night we used it was unseasonably cold, around 50 degrees. Still, you can't beat the taste of hot dogs on the grill. Unless it's Jordan's natural casing hot dogs cooked on sharpened sticks over a bonfire on a frozen lake in the middle of Maine, but I digress...

We've slowly ramped up our outdoor cooking. I started simply with hot dogs and hamburgers to get my grill legs back. I grabbed Tara a couple 1/2 off New York steaks at F&E last week with mixed results. The first one was good, the other very gristly. This past weekend I was down at VonHanson's and grabbed some cooked brats for only $2/lb, since they were out of their awesome hot dogs. I also got Tara a ribeye steak. We hadn't tried their ribeyes yet, so this was a leap of faith. The previous ribeyes I'd gotten at MidWestern Meats and they were very good. I'd planned on stopping by there, but they were still closed for Memorial Day week. So it was VH for ribeye, brats, and a little over 2lbs of their meat candy (aka double-smoked bacon).

I cooked up some of the brats for me tonight and the ribeye for Tara. It was nice not having to boil the brats first and just slap them on the grill. I used some of our leftover VH store-baked hot dog buns and they were really good with just a little honey mustard. I cooked Tara's steak on each side for six minutes and it came out perfect. She seasons her steak with a good dose of salt for 1/2 hour before washing that off and applying fresh-ground pepper. The steak had great flavor. I'm not a huge beef fan, but this was some really good moo flesh. Tara was in heaven.

I need to find some more grill recipes to branch out a bit, but I still love the basics.

F&E, take two

A couple weeks ago, Tara picked up some Fresh & Easy Hummus, along with a package of their garlic naan to have it on. It turns out that we really like it. There might be just a touch more tahini in it than we'd prefer, but overall, it doesn't last long. It's only $1.99 for a 10 oz container, and it's the best store hummus we've found. With our two favorite restaurants to get hummus (Shish Kebab House in Peoria and Mr. Greek on Indian School in Phoenix) not exactly close, this is especially a boon. We grabbed some more today, along with a 1/2 off pork loin (for some more root beer pulled pork) and 1/2 off shrimp that Tara's got some plans for.

Another fun fact. I grabbed some relish there last week for $1.18. The exact same bottle at AJ's at Central and Camelback? $2.40.

Scott's Generation Deli - Phoenix

Tara and I were trying to decide where we wanted to go for lunch today. After lots of head-scratching, I suggested trying a place our fellow CHer AZHotdish had mentioned in a thread about where to find the best corned beef sandwich and matzoh ball soup. He mentioned a place called "Scott's". We had to look at the thread to find the full name and location: Scott's Generation Deli, located in the shopping center on the NE corner of 7th Street and Missouri.

The restaurant is a huge seating area divided into two long, narrow rooms. They were slow at 3pm, so we were seated in a large booth in the main room. We ordered a couple of Cokes while we looked over the fairly extensive menu. It took us quite a while to decide what to get, as there were a huge number of items that all looked equally tempting.

We ended up each getting an item from their Specialty Sandwiches section. Tara got the "James Cagney": Brisket of beef, melted swiss cheese, grilled onions, served on a toasted garlic onion roll. I got "Scott's Own Monte Cristo": Batter diped egg bread stuffed with grilled, imported ham, fresh roasted turkey breast and imported swiss cheese. Both sandwiches were served with a small dish of cole slaw, fries, and pickles.

After a very short wait, they sandwiches arrived. Each came on a large oval dish, over-stuffed with meat, topped with a huge mound of American-cut fries. The small bowl of slaw and three pickle spears were also under the mound of fries. I asked for a couple of small plates so we could off-load the fries to make room to maneuver our sandwiches.

My Monte Cristo was excellent. The sweet egg bread had been grilled perfectly and had a great sweet flavor that contrasted nicely with the saltiness of the very thin-cut meats. The amount of meat on the sandwich was daunting and I could only finish one half of it. The fries were nicely fried as well, of various sizes, and great taste. I put a pretty good dent in the huge pile that came with my meal, but was unable to finish them all. The slaw was served in a very small portion, but was quite good. It was on the sweet side, which is how I like it.

Tara really enjoyed her sandwich as well. She loved the grilled onions and strongly flavored bun. The brisket was very good. Like me, she was also unable to finish the whole thing.

We really liked Scott's and plan to return. There are so many other things we really want to try. I have my eye on the Hash Mash skillet scramble, among others. After sampling the bread on my sandwich, their version of American Toast (read French Toast) has me intrigued as well.

Our waitress told us that a lot of people will split a sandwich and we can certainly understand why. We both left stuffed, but still managed to stop by Karsh's Bakery a couple doors down. :)

One way to lose weight

Last weekend (the weekend of the 9th), Tara and I tried a host of new places. All of them were quite good. Sunday afternoon, however, we both started feeling a bit off. Upset stomachs and associated symptoms. Tara got over hers by Wednesday, but I was still out of commission through this past weekend. I was living off toast, Gatorade, ginger ale, and on a good day, some chicken noodle soup. My system seems close to normal today. I weighed myself and I'm a good 13lbs less than I was the last time I checked a few weeks ago. Luckily as Homer put it, "I'm drought and famine resistant." It's not a diet I'd recommend.