My good friend Chad of Whiskey Bent BBQ sent me a bag of Kebroak lump charcoal to try out so being the friend I am, I gave it a whirl.
As soon as I opened the bag, I was impressed with the uniformity of the pieces, there were no large chunks or several pounds of dust in the bag. You could tell that care was taken by the manufacturer to sort the pieces unlike some other manufacturers (yes Best of the West, I’m talking about you.) I loaded up the medium Spicewine and discovered the one thing I didn’t like about this charcoal. It sparks like crazy! Now I light my charcoal with a propane torch and it’s very possible that other lighting methods might produce less sparks but I was ducking sparks like I was in the Matrix.
Once they were lit, the smoker settled in at about 275. I cooked a 12 racks of ribs, 12 lbs. of tri-tip, 10 lbs of chicken and 2 turkey breasts all with one bag. The heat was consistent with no temperature spikes. This was an error free cook.
When I finished cooking, I discovered there was very minimal ash. I could have loaded another bag and cooked again before having to dump the ash tray.
I was impressed with Kebroak lump charcoal and if it was available on the West Coast, I would use it again in spite of the sparking issue. I’ll just get bigger gloves and a long sleeve shirt.
I apologize for the website being down. Apparently we had so many new visitors that we exceeded our bandwidth limit. Never expected a response like that but I’m glad that everyone is checking us out.
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, we were the cover story for the L. A. Times Food section on July 1, 2010. It was written by Miles Clements and edited by Russ Parsons.
I cannot begin to convey how impressed we were by the article. It covered our history, our business and our BBQ in great detail and you can tell it was crafted by someone who really got who we are and what we do.
Because of this story our business has gone crazy! Our lines were longer than they have ever been with people anxious to try our food. The best advice I can give is PRE-ORDER! Call us. Email us. Hit us on Facebook or Twitter. But if you want to insure that you get your order of fantastic BBQ before we run out, PRE-ORDER!
Thanks to everyone who came out and I hope to see you again soon!
It’s summertime and I am once again teaming up with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets to share some great grilling tips with folks all over California, Nevada and Arizona. I’ll be making tv appearances as well as grilling up some tasty treats at a Fresh & Easy store near you.
So grab your friends and family and come out to try some burgers, Italian Sausage and chicken from the Grill Pack when I come to your town. We’ll have a lot of fun at Fresh and Easy. Check out the pics from our first events here.
And please check out the TV spots and let me know what you think!
I will be on FOX 5 in Vegas on Tuesday June 15th and I will be in Clovis/Fresno on Friday June 18th. Keep checking back here for details on when I will be in your area. You can also follow Bigmista’s Barbecue on Facebook or @bigmistasbbq on twitter to keep up with me and Fresh & Easy.
Mrs. Mista and I decided we wanted to do something different on our day off since they are so few and far between. She had heard about a new luxury theater in Pasadena, CA called Gold Class Cinema so she looked it up on the internet. After browsing the site we knew this was something we had to try.
Now I was a little stunned when I heard that the tickets were $29 each but we found out that if you become a Gold Class member (membership is free) you can get your tickets for $22 each when you make reservations online. That’s right reservations. Each theater (there are 6 total) has a maximum of 40 seats so I advise you to plan ahead.
When we arrived at the theater, we collected our tickets and we were guided down to the Lounge area where we were greeted by a hostess. She seated us at a table in an area the rivaled the swankiest of night clubs and introduced our waiter. He took our drink orders and left us to peruse the menu while he gathered our drinks. The menu had a wide variety of offerings Portabello mushroom sliders to Surf & Turf. We decided on the Charcuterie platter as an appetizer. Mrs. Mista ordered the Hamburger Sliders and I had the duck tacos.
When the waiter came back with our drinks, he escorted us to our seats in the theater. The seats were the most comfortable theater seats I have ever been in. Full reclining with a footrest, a large storage area in the arm for your things, a table between the two seats and button to ring for the waiter if you need him. They also offered us pillows and blankets but we declined because the temperature was quite comfortable. If you ever see a bad movie here, you will be quite comfortable as you sleep through it.
The food was delivered at different times during the movie by very unobtrusive waiters. The service was impeccable and the food was delicious. About halfway through the movie we got some rocky road popcorn and a brownie and cookie platter. Let me tell you something, if Mrs. Mista ignored the brownies and ate up all of the popcorn, that was some damned good popcorn.
All in all this was a great experience but here are a few tips if you decide to go.
1. Order tickets online. Seats fill fast and it’s unlikely that you can just walk up and see a movie unless you are by your self.
2. Stick to beer and wine. The signature drinks weren’t that tasty and they were expensive.
3. If you can, go on a Tuesday. Food is half price and beer & wine are only $3.
I highly recommend Gold Class Cinema. It is our new theater of choice.
We all know that Oatmeal is good for you. We also know that it is bo-ring!
So I wanted to find a way to make it a little more exciting. It’s strawberry season and we get some of the best, sweetest strawberries in the world here in SoCal so I decided to throw in a handful of sliced strawberries in my bowl. Then I got to thinking (always a dangerous proposition), my favorite way to eat strawberries is drizzled with GOOD Balsamic Vinegar. It brings out the sweetness in strawberries.
So I grabbed my precious bottle (the grapes were aged 25 years) and drizzled it on the strawberries in the oatmeal. EUREKA!!!
This oatmeal was so tasty, I had to take some to Mrs. Mista (Luckily I caught her before she brushed her teeth. Toothpaste would have ruined it.)
I highly recommend you give this a try. It will shake up your mornng!
Tomorrow we will be cooking at the Second Annual Faded 420 BBQ & Show at the Rhythm Lounge in Long Beach. It promises to be a great party and I hope all of our friends come out to join us there. We will be serving MOINK Balls, Pig Candy, Perfect Pulled Pork Sandwiches and lots of other goodies. There will be some great live music and lots of merchandise vendors selling their wares.
Come on out for some great Barbecue. We’ll be the ones with the legal smoke…
What a great weekend! We three great reviews in 2 days!
The first one is by Jeff Greene of The Taste Place. He reviewed the Valentine’s Day special that he and his wife got from us. Lots of great pics of the Atwater Village Farmers Market and our food.
The next review is by Tammy of TruckTraq.com. She called early Sunday morning looking for Pig Candy and got lucky. I made some for a catering job and had a few orders left over. So she drove up from West L.A. just to get some. She ended up getting a lot more and enjoying it more than she expected.
The last review came from gourmet caterer & photographer Louise Samora-Mellor from ArtofCuisine.com. She writes a blog called “Satisfied” and I think she was. My favorite line from her review was, “First bite and I realized that although I have been here and there, really … everywhere for BBQ, this was the first time I had ever eaten REAL BBQ.”
All of this blog posts have great pics for those of you who are addicted to food pron like me.
Now for the announcement:
Bigmista’s Barbecue will be competing for the first time as it’s own team at the Que’n for Kids BBQ Festival put on by Kristie’s Foundation, one of our favorite charities. It will be on June 12th at the OC fairgrounds and I hope yo uall will come out to support us and the Foundation.
Just a quick video about breakfast in the Bigmista household. There will be a lot more videos in the future because…well…I’ve just gotten too lazy to write as often as I should. Any who, enjoy the video and let me know what you think!
Just a quick video about breakfast in the Bigmista household. There will be a lot more videos in the future because…well…I’ve just gotten too lazy to write as often as I should. Any who, enjoy the video and let me know what you think!
