Mussels with Spanish Chorizo - $16.80 (4.20/serving)

Felt a little adventurous this week, so branched out and went with a recipe from DadCooksDinner:

Recipe

This is one of those ridiculously simple dinners you can whip up in roughly 20 minutes (prep and cooking) that looks far more impressive once you plate it.  And be sure to get the bread to sop up the sauce. 

Quick side note - C actually requested and ate a few mussels.  I was amazed.

4 servings
Total Cost - 16.80
2.2 lb Mussels - 10.98
Chorizo - 3.16
Onion - .60
Loaf scratch bread - 1.50
Cilantro - .28
Parsley - .28

A shift in content

So here I sit, almost a full year since my last post.  I know, all 7 of you following have imagined the worst.  Truth is, we've been cooking the last year, quite a bit actually.  What used to be sporadic trips to HEB whenever food ran low has now become a weekly, planned, well organized and effective Sunday event. 

The top 1/4 of a sheet of paper is devoted to the list of meals being prepared and the corresponding day.  The rest is a list of ingredients grouped in a way that I go through each as I move across the store in sequential order.  I'm not OCD, I just efficient, dammit.

What has changed, thanks to our now 2 year old daughter, has been time.  I barely have time to get the meal on the table, much less take pictures of every step, before C morphs from cute toddler to raging hulk-smash-feed-me mode. 

I've also begun to track spending a bit more than I used to, which has led me to the following blog-shift.  There are hundreds upon thousands of food blogs out there with better pictures and recipes than mine.  In fact, most of my recipes are rip-offs of other food bloggers (DadCooksDinner is my hero).  So, a majority of my posts are going to focus on the cost of each meal.  I'm a stats person, I like numbers.  This gives me a documented tally of what I've cooked, how much it has cost and how that compares to other meals I've done in the past.

A couple of small rules:
1. I don't count spices.  Most of it I have on-hand and breaking down the cost of 3/4 teaspoon of cumin seems a little too detailed.
2. One of my dirty secrets, I'm not counting garlic either.  I used to mock those that bought the pre-minced stuff.  No longer.  90% of the stuff I cook has garlic, and it now comes out of a squirt bottle.  Shameful, I know.  But the time savings is worth it.
3. For now, I'll include the cost of herbs.  We have flowerbeds, we have several potted herbs.  Those will be migrating to the new beds and will be joined by a myriad of other herbs soon.  However, if I have to buy cilantro at the store for turkey wraps or mussels with chorizo, it's included in the cost.  If I'm making a mojito and the mint we have on hand is sufficient, it doesn't count.  Hopefully, this drives me to get our herb garden going instead of throwing down 2.50 a pop for sprig or 2 of rosemary.

So, there you have it.  This is as much for me as it is for anyone reading this, but I hope you enjoy it and it proves useful in some small way.

Tartine Trial 2 - Chocolate Almond Toffee

I'm clearly skipping Tartine Trial 1, but I promise to come back and post about the Lemon Bars with Shortbread I made a couple weeks ago.  But, this recipe is fresh on my mind and stuck in my teeth, so here we go.

Working my way through the Tartine cook book, this looked like a relatively simple recipe yielding delicious results.  A and I have both been on a pretty severe dessert kick the last....well, year or so.  Cooking at home more often than not, we'd finish dinner, look at each other and try not to be the first to flinch and ask "what's for dessert" (typically, 10 seconds was as long as we went).  Last night, as I was working on stuffed bell peppers (another post coming soon) I quickly realized that we had polished off the remaining "birthday"sherbert the night before.  The Girl Scout cookies were obliterated, the ice cream destroyed, and now, the sherbert.  It was time to take decisive action:

2 c. sliced almonds
1¾ c. granulated white sugar
3 T. water
½ c. unsalted butter
1 t. Blackstrap or other dark molasses
¼ t. sea salt
1 t. vanilla extract
¼ t. baking soda
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips)

Heat the oven to 350, spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast for 7-9 minutes.

Let them cool, then spread half on a parchment lined baking sheet, covering as much of the parchment as possible.

Prepare the toffee.  Combine sugar, butter, water, salt and blackstrap in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir occasionally until the candy thermometer reads 295F.  This takes anywhere between 7-10 minutes.

Take it off the heat and quickly add the baking powder and vanilla.  Mix both in quickly, then pour the mixture over the almonds.  Work quickly as it will begin to set immediately.  I tried to get a perfect rectangle, but quickly gave that up to the misformed blob, which ended up being perfectly fine.  The shape doesn't matter as you'll be breaking it into chunks soon enough.

Once the toffee is no longer too hot to touch, spread the chopped chocolate over the blob-o-toffee.  It will begin melting, at which point I used a spatula to spread the choco-love around.

Cover with the remaining almonds and allow it to completely cool.  My batch finished around 10, so I let it cool overnight.  If we had available space in the fridge, I likely could have sped this up.  Woke up this morning, hacked it into pieces and......behold.

Rotisserie Pork - Char Siu Edition

First, man created fire. Then, man created a device to spin animal carcass over said fire.  I procured a rotisserie accessory for my grill last week and as soon as it arrived, put it to work on a recipe ripped off from my favorite blog Dad Cooks Dinner. 
http://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2010/02/rotisserie-pork-shoulder-char-siu-style.html

The nomBlog is a big fan of the pork shoulder.  While the pulled pork sandwich recipe proved to be a quick and easy project, this one took a little longer.  The roto (I'm not spelling out rotisserie more than I have to) took some tinkering to get the "universal" brackets to work just right.  Despite being a CharBroil product, like my grill, the parts were anything but.  Nothing a little creativity couldn't fix.  The meat itself marinated for a day (original plans to cook Saturday night ran into a sick wife who needed chicken soup, not a chunk of pork) and then I had to learn the basics of trussing.  I tied a bunch of knots that seemed to work.  Whether or not that can be called trussing, I'll let someone else decide.

The Marinade (or Brinerade as DCD calls it):

• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (or 1 tbsp garlic powder)
• 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated (or 2 tsp dried ginger)
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or dry sherry)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil

The Glaze:

• 2 tbsp reserved brinerade (or 2 tbsp soy sauce)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce

Split the pork, stab the pork, marinate the pork (anywhere from 2 hours to overnight), truss the pork, throw it on the spit.

For my 4 burner grill, I turned on both outers to full blast, placed a drip pan in the middle and let it spin for 30 minutes.  Lowered heat to medium for the remaining 45 minutes.  After 45, I took the glaze and basted it as it turned, letting it cook for another 10 minutes.

Off the grill, rested for 15 minutes, sliced.  Paired it with some stir fry bok choy.  Outstanding results.  I may try and tweak the grill a little bit next time and do the long cook at a slightly higher heat as it was slightly undercooked.  The meat thermometer registered at a nice 175 internally though, so I'll call it a success.

 

Chicken with Cannellini Beans and Tomatoes

What's that?  Two blog posts in one week? Thank Adrienne, who after hoarding piles of Realsimple magazines, dug through her collection and found two recipes that were both....well, real simple and real good.

This week of cooking has made me realize 2 things:

1. Adding fresh herbs is a must for just about any dish made at home. The flavors we got out of basic pork and chicken with nothing but salt, pepper and a few herbs was incredible
2. I need to grow my own herbs.  HEB has everything you need, but at 3 bucks a pop for a bundle of herbs, I'm paying more for that than the meal itself.  My hope was to wait for a new house, but this may be a porch project in the near future.

Ingredients

• 2 15.5-ounce cans cannellini beans, rinsed
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 sprigs fresh oregano, plus leaves for garnish
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds total)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425° F. In a 9-by-13-inch (or some other large) baking dish, toss the beans and tomatoes with the thyme and oregano sprigs, garlic, red pepper, 1 tablespoon of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.
2. Pat the chicken dry and place on top of the bean mixture, skin-side up. Rub with the remaining tablespoon of oil; season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.
3. Roast until the chicken is golden and cooked through, 35 to 45 minutes. Sprinkle with the oregano leaves.

 Recipe can also be found here

Final product (again, no prep shots):

Roasted Pork Chops, Sweet Potatoes and Kale

We finally sold the condo and moved into an apartment out close to Oak Hill while we wait on our dream house to hit the market. I was a little concerned that moving away from a downtown setting where everything you need is a walk or quick drive away would have spoiled us for suburban living.  Turns out, there's just as much, if not more, readily available in our new hood and we've taken full advantage.  Plus, less homeless people dying in our bushes or Rockabilly musicians dying around the corner.  So we have that going for us, which is nice.  New posts coming on Jack Allen's Kitchen and Cyprus Grill and maybe a few others we discover here soon.  However, now that we're settling in, its time to return to the kitchen and try and get those eating expenses down a scosh (Adrienne, sp?)

I made a much needed grocery run yesterday after work.  We tolerated the Oltorf HEB at our old place b/c, frankly, it was right across the street.  We knew it wasn't great, but it was convenient and made for good people watching at any hour of the night.  I tried out our new HEB...the mecca of HEB's on Escarpment.  Holy hell.  This is what a grocery store should be.  Wide aisles, carts with working wheels, extensive selection, great produce,wine tastings...are you f'n kidding me???  Ghetto HEB's, we're done.  I'm home now.

On the menu last night was a meal with actual sides...something I tend to forget to do when I find a main course I really want to try out.  This was ridiculously simple, and relatively quick on turnaround time.  I substituted sweet potatoes for the butternut squash.  Nothing elaborate or worth taking pictures of until the final product, but here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash (about 2 pounds)—peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1⁄2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup fresh sage leaves
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 bone-in pork chops (each 1 inch thick; about 2 pounds total)
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 large bunch kale, thick ribs removed and leaves roughly chopped (about 14 cups)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400° F. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the squash with the sage, 1 tablespoon of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast, tossing once, until tender, 30 to 35 minutes.
2. When the squash has cooked for 20 minutes, heat 1 teaspoon of the remaining oil in a large skillet over high heat. Season the pork with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook until browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side.
3. Transfer the pork to the baking sheet with the squash and roast until the pork is cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes more.
4. Meanwhile, return the skillet to medium heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the kale, ¼ cup water, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, tossing the kale and scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the skillet, until the kale is tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve with the pork and squash.

A microcosm of my evening. Dinner, cocktail, bumbo, play mat

Pork chop was cooked perfectly, sweet potatoes jived well with the sage, kale was delicious.

Stared while I devoured my meal.  Jealous a little bit perhaps?

Asian Orzo Salad - A return to blogging

So, it's been 9 months since my last post and coincidentally, the reason for my hiatus was largely a result of another life event taking place over 9 months.  Charlotte was born in February and the months leading up to her birth and especially after her birth have been a blur.  There was minimal cooking going on.  Nothing that stands out too much.  However, I knew if I didn't get something up soon, I'd likely lose all 6 followers so I'm diving back in.

A new baby is a miraculous thing.  She'll make you smile, she'll make you love, she'll make you eat just about anything you can get your hands on in the brief 5 minutes you have to eat a meal.  Burgers, pizza, endless lists of takeout food were consumed over the last 5 months.  While Adrienne has a nice breast feeding diet going on (and looks AMAZING), yours truly has ballooned in size.  The task at hand is to cut back on the junk, produce something healthy and produce it quickly....en masse.  The other trick is making something dairy free that'll keep mom and baby happy.

Enter, asian orzo salad.  If you time it right, you're looking at about 30 minutes including prep and cook time.  Simple ingredients, enough to last 3-4 days and nutritious.

    1 (9-ounce) package frozen sugar snap peas

    1 (16-ounce) package orzo, cooked and drained

    1 cup water chestnuts, drained and chopped

    3 cups diced cooked chicken

    3 green onions, chopped

    1 medium red bell pepper, diced

    1/2 cup vegetable oil

    3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

    2 tablespoons soy sauce

    2 teaspoons hoisin sauce

    1 (2-ounce) package slivered almonds, toasted (1/2 cup)

Cook up your rice while you bake your chicken, mix in the veggies, add the almonds and top it off with the sauce.  I cut back on the vegetable oil to about 1/3 cup and upped the hoison to 3 teaspoons.  Serve it right away or put it in the fridge to chill.  Low-fat, easy prep, easy meal.  Just in time to take over baby bouncing duty.

No shots during production, but here's the final product.

Risotto al Funghi - Adventures in Stirring

I've likely mentioned it before, but my favorite show on the tube is Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations.  Great writer (just finished his latest book, Medium Raw) and great TV personality.  His latest episode documented his first trip to Rome, shot in black and white.  The final scene was he and a friend on a beach in the Mediterranean cooking up a feast for family and friends.  Among many amazing looking dishes, was a simple risotto, cooked in a big pot over a grill.

I've always wanted to try making my own, but have heard countless horror stories of how long it takes, how patient you must be, etc.  These are things I'm not necessarily good at.  I like to cook, but if you look at most of my posts, its simple and its usually pretty quick.  Time be damned, I found a recipe that looked great and decided to give it a go.  End result: 5 noms out of 5.

Recipe can be found here

The major players:

 Get yourself a saute going:

In a new pan, sear the Arborio rice:

Begin adding the warm broth, 1 cup at a time:

Stir till the rice soaks it up:

Repeat 7 more times and trust me when I say, with time and stirring, that rice will soak it all up no matter how disheartened and skeptical you may be.  Finished product looks a little something like:

Closeup:

Now mix in your mushroom/truffle magic:

Add some Parmesan and a splash of additional truffle oil (mmmmm, fungus):

Plate and destroy.  You too can cook risotto.

Few notes:
1. This yielded a ton and we'll be consuming leftovers tonight with enough left for at least 2 more servings.
2. The recipe called for dried Porcini mushrooms.  At 49.99 a freaking pound, I didn't bother to do the math to figure out an ounce...I skipped and compensated with more portabella.
3. Truffle oil, also not cheap but I plan to make good use of it going forward.  Great flavors.












 

Your Mom's Burger Bar

Not much to write as I'm climbing my way slowly out of a burger coma.  Met a few friends for lunch today at a new burger joint called Your Mom's over on East Cesar Chavez.  If you haven't been following the 104.9 burger bracket, they selected 64 of Austin's best burgers and put them into a NCAA tourney type faceoff.  Your Mom's had been getting a lot of love, so we gave it a go.

Food A+
I went with my favorite genre of burger and got the Buffalo Bill:
1/2 Lb. burger tossed in Buffalo's Don't Fly Sauce, stuffed with blue cheese, jalapenos, wrapped in bacon with a touch of ranch and a sauteed green chili on a toasted wheat bun.

To quote Ken Griffey Jr's one show stint on The Simpsons "Its like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited".   Unreal.  Cooked to perfection, perfect amount of add-ons, so so good.  The fries weren't bad and had a unique seasoning to them, but they could have been crispier.

Service C-
Its a small place and its not really clear when you walk in if there's a line or just people standing around, let alone where you're supposed to order.  Once you do, you wait for your burger to be brought out.  You wait....and you wait, and you wait.  Casino El Camino looks like Junior at the Union Wendy's in comparison.  By the time mine came out, I'd blown through my lunch break and had to take it to go.

If you have some time to waste, definitely go check it out but if you're looking for something quick on your lunch break, don't bother.

jittery hands + iphone = craptastic photos

Max's Wine Dive

Since the Greece trip, its been slow goings in the Huebner food world.  Some homemade pizzas will be appearing soon on the blog.  In the meantime, Adrienne and I decided to head out and treat ourselves.  I suggested a long overdue return to Max's Wine Dive downtown (mostly b/c I drive by it everyday on the way home and I was dying to get back). 

We'd been once for a birthday celebration and ended up buying (and drinking) a case of wine with a group of friends last time and figured we'd give it a romantic go just the two of us this time.  No cases were ordered, but the wine and the food were outstanding.  One of the local news crews was there doing closeups with plated dishes under some nice lighting with their cameras.  Sadly, iPhone was my only option.  Here's to the idea that iPhone 4 is necessary for pixel improvement for unplanned blog photos! Ok, maybe not.  Onto the amateur food porn:

Adrienne had Max's wrap:  Grilled spinach wrap stuffed with roasted seasonal vegetables and provolone cheese with a house salad with a '06 Domaine Carneros Brut (Napa).

As for me, I couldn't pass up the special of the day: Wagyu beef with grilled mushrooms, black truffles and spring salad with a Martin Fierro Cabernet.  The meat, my God, the meat.

This is one of my favorite places to go as the food is always amazing and the wine selection is hard to beat.  Houstonians and San Antonians, don't be jealous....they've got locations there too.

Sammich shop - Food Heads

Met Adrienne for lunch today at a sandwich place on 34th just off the drag called Food Heads.  She got the rec from a coworker who has a finger on the pulse of the Austin food scene.  Despite being 10 blocks down the road from me, I'd never heard of it but the menu looked solid.

Parking was a little suspect as any pseudo West Campus location suffers from, but the sandwiches....oh the sandwiches.

Adrienne got the Grilled Portabellas & Bleu Cheese ($6.75)
Served on toasted sourdough with fresh spinach, tomato and blackberry balsamic vinaigrette.  My inner carnivore prevented me from ordering this, so I was glad she did.  The combination of portabella, bleu cheese and vinaigrette was outstanding.  Crisp sourdough worked well.

I had the Spicy Apple Pork Tenderloin Sandwich  ($8.25)
Marinated and grilled pork tenderloin on toasted baguette with smoked gouda, spinach, spicy apple relish & honey dijon. With all those ingredients, surprisingly it was the honey dijon that really made the sandwich.  The spicy apple relish wasn't all that flavorful and the flavor of the pork was just kind of meh.  But the dijon along with the bread really saved it.

I overheard a customer talking to one of the waitresses about where they got their bread.  Everything they have is local (nice touch) and we may have to pay a visit to Panaderia Chuy soon.  This is about the 3rd recommendation I've gotten for this place and I love me some bread.

Final verdict, great sandwiches and great location but a little on the pricey side.  There are a few other items on their menu I'd like to try so I'll be back but it probably won't make the regular sammich rotation.  Jimmy John's has nothing to fear.

Spaghetti with fresh tomato and basil

This is my second attempt at a recipe I caught on my favorite food related tv show, No Reservations.  The show usually takes Tony Bourdain to far off lands and showcases the foods and culture of the area.  This episode took a break and focused on basic cooking techniques; things every cook should know how to do.  The one that really caught my eye was chef Scott Conant of Scarpetta and his take on spaghetti.

Recipe

Growing up, spaghetti was a staple at home, mostly for its simplicity.  You boiled some noodles, heated some pre-canned sauce and added a meat if you were so inclined.  It was never something I craved...until I caught Conant's version.  Fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, garlic and spaghetti.

Adrienne and I have been hitting up the local farmer's market the past few weekends and this Saturday I loaded up on locally grown tomatoes, a bunch of basil and decided to give this another go.  Prep time is the toughest part.  The tomatoes I got were heavy on the seeds and needed the skin removed.  The easiest way to pull this off is to score an X on the bottom of the tomato and toss it in boiling water for 20-30 seconds.

   
 Take them out, let them cool and the skin should peel right off.

Cut the tomatoes, get out as many seeds as you can and place them in a saucepan with some heated olive oil.  Allow them to heat up for 10 minutes or so then use a potato masher to break them up.

Let the sauce simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  While that's going, get a small saucepan and put ~1/3 cup of olive oil on some heat.  Once it begins to heat up, add a couple cloves of garlic and some freshly cut basil.  This is where the magic happens.

Get your pasta going and once its close to al dente, move it into the tomato sauce and add your garlic/basil infused olive oil (everything is better with something that's infused).  Make sure to strain out the garlic and basil.  Toss the noodles (this is where you can work on that nifty wrist flip thing the pros do) and make sure the sauce really coats everything.  Add tablespoon of butter, some more chopped basil, plate and serve.

BBQ (and Words) With Friends

BBQ is not just a food, it's an institution.  In the states, you've got Memphis, North Carolina and a few other areas that serve up something resembling BBQ.  But if you want to do it right, you come to Texas.  And when you get to Texas, you head to my neck of the woods.  We are surrounded by some of the best bbq restaurants in the world and as much as it pains me to admit, I'd only been to a handful.  It's like living in Athens and never having visited the Parthenon.  This is no way for a supposed food blogger to live.

So, I did something about it.  Many would plan several weekend trips to capture all the area has to offer.  Not I.  I wanted to do something grandiose.  I wanted to be able to compare each and every one, come back here and post my findings.  I gathered a small group of warriors and we departed Austin at 730am Saturday morning.  These are their stories /Law and Order Voice.

Snow's - Lexington, Tx
2008 Texas Monthly Best BBQ
Open once a week on Saturday, this had to be our first stop, despite being the furthest out of the way.  They open at 8am and close when they sell out (often before 11).  We arrived just after they opened and dove in.  Brisket breakfast? Absolutely.

Louie Mueller BBQ - Taylor, TX
30 minutes later we arrived at Louie Mueller in Taylor.  We got there about 15 minutes before they opened but upon walking in, you knew this place had been there for awhile (51 years at this location).  5 decades of smoke residue and haze never smelled so good.

City Market - Luling, TX
For full disclosure, this was the only one of the 6 that I'd ever been to before so I already knew what to expect going in, greatness.  Probably my favorite BBQ joint not served out of a trailer.  The plan was to do Lockhart first, but upon arrival the collective vote was to postpone eating another 20 minutes by driving to Luling first.  The realization that portion size matters when visiting 6 different joints finally caught up to us.

Black's Barbecue - Lockhart, TX
There was a painful sigh when Brendan pointed out we were now halfway through.  The strategy evolved at this point into a group buy.  Sampling from here on saved the trip from certain doom.  We had officially hit the meat wall.  We followed the giant yellow arrows and found Black's.

This picture really doesn't do justice to the mammoth beef rib they dared us to take on.

This was not for the faint of heart. Meat nap after Black's

Smitty's Market - Lockhart, TX
Recently, the Travel Channel aired an episode of Food Wars pitting Smitty's against Kreuz Market.  Kreuz was originally located in Smitty's current building but some family splintering resulted in two outstanding BBQ joints instead of just 1.  The show declared Kreutz the winner.  Though I'm waiting until the end to post my rankings, I'll say right now, they got it wrong.

 Slowest moving line....ever.  This is where the meat sweats really started to kick in.

Jordan explains the intricacies of roller derby using rocks as jammers.

They've been smoking meat for awhile.  The truth is in the film.

Kreuz Market - Lockhart, TX

This was it.  The final stop.  Another long line but this one went a little quicker.  There was one section you waited in line for meat.  Then another section for sides, drinks, ice cream, etc that surprisingly was almost as long as the meat line.  No matter, sides have no role in determining good bbq and outside of some bread and several brave orders of cobbler, it was all meat, all the time.

Pretty sure she was giving me the stink eye.  

Various victory poses (note Brendan still playing Words W/Friends)

Final Standings
Food blogging, whether through this type of medium, Yelp, bulletin board, whatever is to say the least a bit subjective.  The idea of doing all 6 in one grand tour was to be able to compare each and come up with some arbitrary nomBlog rankings.  After attending all 6 places, it was clear many factors would play into the results so it's difficult to definitively state A is better than B without doing this again on a different day.  However, to avoid giving myself (and my lovely wife) a coronary, I'll simply throw up my rankings as of right now with the understanding that some time down the road, this will be attempted again for an accurate judgment.


Brisket (the true measuring stick of any good BBQ)
1. Smitty's - just look at the pics.  great cut and the fat just blends into the meat for a tender, buttery bite.
2. City Market
3. Louie Mueller
4. Snow's (I've convinced myself we just caught them on an off day with a leaner, drier cut)
5. Kreuz
6. Black's

Sausage
1. Louie Mueller - Tough to pick a clear winner as I thought all 6 had solid offerings
2. City Market
3. Smitty's
4. Black's
5. Kreuz
6. Snow's

Pork Ribs (not my thing so this may be better judged by others on the tour, I didn't try one at Snow's)
1. Smitty's
2. City Market
3. Kreuz
4. Black's
5. Louie Mueller

Overall Winner
1a. Smitty's - Extremely impressed and now realize why people wait in that line.  Will be back soon.
1b. City Market - Just as I remembered it, solid all around. I would really like to compare them to Smitty's heads up for a final call.
3. Louie Mueller - Traditional and an A+ for "this is what a bbq joint should look like"
4. Snows - Again, I feel like either the cut I got just wasn't great or maybe it was just an off day.  Based solely on reputation, it's the one I most look forward to trying again.
5. Kreuz - For the record, it rhymes with "lights".  I fear this got lower rankings simply b/c it was the last stop.  Would certainly go again for a getaway lunch.
6. Black's - Not to say that it was "bad", just didn't really compare well with the others.  That said, if it was across the street or near work, I'd happily dine there frequently.

Big thanks to everyone that came along and best of luck to your digestive tracts these next few days.