Smoke ‘Em If Ya Got ‘Em!

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Val

Smokin’ Willie’s BBQ Truck

San Fernando Valley, California

The bright yellow BBQ truck is coming your way

The bright yellow BBQ truck is coming your way

Gourmet food trucks are popping up like diesel-powered weeds in southern California, so although I was gracious about having been offered the opportunity to preview one of the newer BBQ-themed trucks, the prospect wasn’t registering very high on the TrippyMeter®. This was before showing up at the home of owner/operator Bill “Smokin’ Willie” Kelley (sorry to disappoint anyone picturing a ganja-toking, pony-tailed country songwriter from Texas) and witnessing “the blessing of the fleet” along with his closest friends and family. In this particular case, the fleet consisted of a sole, bright yellow truck. Kelley has retrofitted this Urban Assault Vehicle with all the tools necessary to quickly and reliably cook and serve items featuring his signature Classic, Shanghai and Chipotle BBQ sauces. His family recounts with pride how almost 40 years ago, Bill’s mother crashed a neighbor’s family reunion after smelling the irresistible aroma of their barbecue sauce cooking away on the smoker. Unable to pry the recipe from their clawed death grip, she worked on reverse engineering the sauce to her own specifications. The sauce became a family treasure, and when Kelley became disillusioned after a long career in the music industry, he devoted himself to creating a marketable version of the family matriarch’s legendary sauce. After a few years, multiple attempts and some collaboration with Chef Michael Acuna, Bill found a market for the three variations on the family recipe as bottled sauces. Since then, he’s conducted classes and has published a grilling guide (with recipes, mouth-watering pictures of the grilled food items and pairing of the food with music suggestions), but recently he has chosen to diversify and peddle cuisine featuring the three blends. Continue reading →

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Mystery Date

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Val

Dates

Shields Date Gardens, Indio CA

Like you could miss that?

Like you could miss that?

I drove up to a fruit stand in Indio, California and asked the proprietor if he had dates, to which he replied, “No”. I then asked if he had nuts – he responded with, “If I had nuts I’d have dates”, then sent me off to Shields Date Gardens (where they have more dates than Sheryl Crow). You like blonde? They’ve got blonde. You like brunette? They’ve got brunette. Ever make a date shake? They do, hundreds of times on a daily basis. And porn? How about continuous showings of the film, “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date” What is this place, Val, a gentlemen’s club in the middle of the desert? Of course not. But everything I’ve said is true (except for the part about the fruit stand, and I don’t know whether or not Sheryl Crow owns a date orchard). Shields started from humble beginnings – in 1924 Floyd Shields and his wife Bess drove out to the desert with the impossible dream of growing dates. Dates are tricky – they require considerable water but no rain, take over a decade before bearing fruit and reproduce with such difficulty that it’s a miracle they produce fruit at all. Floyd used to take time from the arduous work of dating to lecture people who stopped by on the how-tos of date growing. After a while he incorporated a slide show which became affectionately known as “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date” (which is oddly family friendly). This has evolved into a constantly running film in a tiny, slightly dark theater; there’s no sticky floor here, even though dates have high sugar content (you knew where that was going, didn’t you?). Continue reading →

Posted in Trippy Trips (On the road and overseas, things to see along the way), USA | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Selling Brazil by the Pound

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Val

Brazilian buffet

Libra By The Pound, Culver City CA

Libra, the Brazilian youngster in Culver City

Libra, the Brazilian youngster in Culver City

When I received an invitation to try Marcelo Ahn’s new Brazilian eatery, it was described as “Brazilian buffet”. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of a mutant cross between Fogo de Chao and Golden Corral or a Souper Salad with animals staked out over flames behind the sneeze shields. Fortunately for my sanity and my stomach, my fears were unfounded. Once inside the modern, gleaming eatery I was introduced to Marcelo who told me that he wanted to introduce people to the way people eat in his native São Paulo. As I stood near the front door speaking with him, my eyes caught a shallow sink with a hinged steel spigot next to where the plates are dispensed. Marcelo explained that in Brazil, sinks are placed at the front so that patrons can wash their hands prior to eating, a custom that seems to be lost to Americans. I was grateful to find out it was not there to wash your dish prior to use (not that I thought that, even for a second). The “buffet counter” runs the length of the restaurant, and there is an incredible variety of food that gets rotated on a regular basis. Brazilian cuisine is heavily influenced by European, African and indigenous cultures, and so I am told that it is not unusual to find items such as potato salad, couscous and insalata caprese on the menu. The food is served by the pound, and Marcelo states that the healthy amount of food intake is a decent mix of meat and buffet items weighing in at about a pound and a half. Latin scholars will have no problem linking the name (Libra) with its English translation (pound) and its abbreviation (lb.) which is an integral part of the logo and found throughout the restaurant, but I’m sure they still get asked what the restaurant has to do with astrology. As much as I am a big fan of a well-made potato salad, my unusual tastes lead me more towards poke salad, but the food was presented so incredibly beautifully that I had to try their take on some of the “normal” selections. The food was artistically arranged in clay bowls, and it was so attractive that I wanted to deliver a sharp smack at the back of the head to anybody who simply heaped the food on their plate. I would have done it, too, I swear. Continue reading →

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The Bird’s The Word

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Val

Ostrich
Africa and elsewhere

The original Ostrich Land sign in Buellton CA

The original Ostrich Land sign in Buellton CA

The ostrich is a laughable bird, with wings too weak to lift its body and a light-bulb shaped head on the end of a fuzzy snake of a neck. Of course should you choose to laugh at it, you run the risk of getting kicked into tomorrow. Although they are the world’s largest bird, they generally prefer to avoid confrontation. They can run about 45 miles per hour and will lay down flat to avoid detection (contrary to popular belief, they do not bury their heads in the sand to hide). It’s hard to imagine that an animal this size would need to worry about predators, but the maned cats in their native Africa could make a bucket of Original Recipe out of one in short order. It is for this reason that the ostrich has been armed with a deadly clawed-toe Kung Fu kick. They also have mankind to worry about, having been hunted and farmed for feathers, hides, oil, eggs and meat for centuries, if not millennia.

Manager Sonny Cabrales shows his ostrich offerings

Manager Sonny Cabrales shows his ostrich offerings

Ostrich farms were lucrative businesses, but towards the end of the 1900s the cost of raising them led some farmers to simply let them go; it was not unusual to hear of a hunter in Texas running into one face to face. One ostrich farm that has managed to keep in business for the past 20 years by introducing their livestock to tourists is Ostrich Land in Buellton, California. You may have seen some of their ostriches in the film “Sideways” but you don’t need a Hollywood camera crew to see them up close. Ostrich Land has a small gift shop that sells eggs (yes, they make great omelets), feathers, oil and other ostrich products. They do have some meat for sale, but they maintain that it comes from a nearby ranch. For 5 dollars, you can go out back and get a large dog food bowl attached to a metal dustpan filled with what looks like rabbit pellets to feed the birds (ostriches as well as their diminutive cousin, the emu). The ostriches saunter up to a railed platform and jam their heads in the bowl like a feathered cobra, emptying the bowl in a few minutes. The two-handed death grip is recommended as they will steal the whole contraption given half a chance. Oh, by the way, important safety tip – keep your face well out of their reach. Sure, ostrich feeding is fun until someone loses an eye.

Nothing but meat and bun, my friends

Nothing but meat and bun, my friends

If all this ostrich talk is making you hungry, fear not – ostrich is lean, high in protein and makes a delicious alternative to beef (that’s right, it tastes like cow, not chicken). Ostrich appears frequently on the menu worldwide – I found a place that features ostrich steak prominently on their menu in the hills overlooking Bogotá, Colombia. You don’t have to look far – at many (if not all) Fuddruckers, you can order their ostrich burger for a few dollars more than the hamburgers, and take my word for it, they are thick, juicy and delicious. There is a slight pungent taste that helps differentiate it from a beef burger, but it is far superior to the hamburgers available in most fast food stops and burger joints. If you’re thinking of getting exotic with the family dinner, many large and specialty grocery stores carry the meat (mostly in ground form for burgers or chili). One of my favorite meat markets in La Crescenta, California (Harmony Farms) carries not only ground ostrich and ostrich patties, but “ostrich mignon” as well as ostrich roast. Manager Sonny Cabrales will answer questions you have about which cuts work best, etc., as well as helping you find other game as well (they’re well stocked with bison, kangaroo, alligator, elk, antelope, boar, frog legs – hell, they have turducken).

The next time you’re in the mood for red meat but want to walk on the wild side, try ostrich. More than just an alternative protein source, ostriches can be fun, and if you don’t believe me, check out the Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Arizona, where the high point of the event is the ostrich races. With human riders. No kidding. Bird, bird, bird, bird, bird’s the word!

The Annual Ostrich Festival
Tumbleweed Park
2250 S. McQueen Road
Chandler, AZ
GPS coordinates: 33°16’24.08″N 111°49’36.00″W

Harmony Farms
2824 Foothill Boulevard
La Crescenta, CA 91214
GPS coordinates:  34°13’28.25″N 118°14’26.94″W

Ostrich Land
610 E Highway 246
Buellton, CA 93427
GPS coordinates: 34°36’22.13″N 120°10’35.44″W

Punta Ingles Restaurante
Km. 9 Via La Calera
Bogotá, D.C, Colombia
GPS coordinates: 4°40’25.14″N 74° 1’14.40″W

GALLERY: See more images of Val eating and feeding ostriches

Posted in Africa, Colombia, Trippy Food (Tasty flora and fauna), Trippy Trips (On the road and overseas, things to see along the way), USA, USA | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

There’s A Fungus Among Us

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Val

Wild Mushrooms (worldwide)

This is a nice example of the sweet tooth (mushroom, not me)

This is a nice example of the sweet tooth (mushroom, not me)

There are a variety of reasons mushrooms aren’t universally prized for their incredible flavor – for starters, commercially grown mushrooms are generally cultivated in soil rich in animal manure (and no, they don’t “taste like crap”, although I don’t have a point of reference). There are those who turn their nose up at mushrooms based on their lower class family members (molds and fungus), and the understandable fear of psychotic reactions, illness or death from toxic mushrooms. Mushrooms have been harvested, cultivated and eaten for millennia and harvesting them in the wild can be a delicious adventure. That having been said, I would caution (with big, bold, red letters) to only do this with someone who knows what they’re doing. Nothing ruins a meal of sweet, delicious mushrooms more that vomiting and paralysis.

On a recent trip to northern California, we took a trip to the coastal county of Mendocino to visit a family friend who has a beautiful cabin up in the woods. The house is surrounded by cool, damp forest, which Robert informed us is the perfect climate for wild ‘shrooms. When he suggested a nice walk through the woods, coupled with a mushroom harvest, I was immediately onboard. He gave us a general idea of what to look for, but we always deferred back to his judgment call before collecting any. As it turns out, the most beautiful ones are the ones to watch out for – after awhile it was easy to identify different types along the trails – black trumpets, sweet tooth, coral, pig’s ear, etc. If there were any that Robert wasn’t sure of, we wisely passed them by regardless of their taste potential or lack of toxicity.

Pig ear mushroom, edible but too old

Pig ear mushroom, edible but too old

We came back to the cabin with a considerable amount of black trumpets and sweet tooth mushrooms and decided to cook up some of the black trumpets. Robert sautéed them in a little butter and garlic and presented the hot plate of mushrooms on the table, which we savored bite by delicious bite. The black trumpets gave of a slightly earthy, pungent flavor, but were also quite sweet. The texture was different that biting into the white button caps found at the local Stop & Shop – they were firm, yet delicate, requiring very little chewing, and each bite released more of the wild flavor.

Black trumpets prior to cooking

Black trumpets prior to cooking

There are a plethora of edible varieties of mushrooms, and not all are grown worldwide. Before deciding to forage for your own, it isn’t enough to look at pictures and go for “close enough” – be sure to take an expert along, or at least have them identify them before you eat them. Also keep in mind that even though there are many edible species, some have a short shelf life, require special preparation, or don’t taste very good once they’ve gotten “old”. Trust me, you wouldn’t want me to keep you in the dark and feed you a load of bulls**t.

GALLERY: See more images from Val’s mushroom hunt

Posted in Trippy Food (Tasty flora and fauna), USA | Tagged , , | 8 Comments