Springfest 2012 CicLAvia, Rib Eating Competition

The first Springfest was held in Chinatown this past weekend in conjunction with CicLAvia, the LA event that closes streets across town to promote a car-free environment. To kick off the festival, Chinatown closed off select streets and set up a stage for live music and a rib eating competition hosted by Spring Street Smokehouse. My friend was emceeing the event and knows the owner of the restaurant so we made our way to downtown for the festivities. Since we anticipated a parking mess in the downtown area, we took a train from my friend's place in the valley. First time taking a train in the city and I have to say I was quite impressed with the cleanliness of the stations and trains.

After a 30 min train ride, we arrive at Union Station. The smokehouse is only a short walk from the train station.


If you're going to feast on some BBQ, alcoholic beverages are necessary. Even though we got the giant PBRs, note that the restaurant actually offers a nice selection of craft brews.

We started off with one of our favorites - the pork rinds. Fresh from the fryer, the pork skins were still warm and crunchy. The cracklings were seasoned with sugar and spice - great combination.

Cup of chili was filled with chunks of meat as well as ground meat.

Our sides included baked beans and sweet potato fries. I've also tried their collard greens and corn bread.

Burnt ends are the ends of smoked brisket. Looked dense but was actually rather tender.

The Cajun Stuffed Chicken comprised of chicken thighs which were stuffed with jalapeno, onions & cheese, and wrapped with bacon. It had just the right amount of cheese, not over gooey or dripping out of the chicken. The choice of juicy dark meat over white was a good one.

The star of the meal was the baby back ribs. The slab had 12 large ribs and were tender with nice chunks of crunchy cartilage and slathered in smokey tangy BBQ sauce. Good BBQ sauce is really all about preference. When I first tried this sauce, I wasn't too keen on it - I was more a fan of the sweet tomato based BBQ sauces. But I have really come to enjoy Spring Street's version. It's vinegary and spicy, akin to the Carolina style

After lunch, we headed over to the stage area where the bands were playing. Have to say I was quite impressed with the selection of rock music. To the side of the stage was the "biergarten" which was essentially a parking lot with a couple stands offering kegs of beer from Karl Strauss, Stone & Lagunitas.

When the rib eating competition started, everyone gathered to the front of the stage. It was quite a sight to see contestant of all sizes participating. The winner actually ate over 3 slabs of pork spare ribs (smaller than the baby back ribs but still a lot nonetheless).

The Springfest wasn't crowded at all, it seemed more like a neighborhood street party. Perhaps they could have done more advertising or set up the stage facing Cesar Chavez road instead of away from the main street in order to draw a larger crowd. Still a fun time especially when there are beer and ribs involved.

Springstreet Smokehouse
640 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-0535
www.sssmokehouse.com

BBQing in Siem Reap, Cambodia (frogs, croc, snake, galore!)

While travelling in Asia this Fall, my favorite city was Siem Reap in Cambodia. After getting scammed in Saigon and Bangkok, I realized that the safe, quaint, friendly city of Siem Reap was my most memorable stop. I spent many hours sitting on the sidewalk patio of bars, sipping wine, people watching and munching on food. It all felt very Indochine. It is very tourist friendly yet has the charm of an old French colonial town. It's also convenient that almost everything is priced in USD, so you are not left with a bunch of foreign currency at the end of your trip. Even ATMs dispense USD.

My favorite part of the town is its popular Pub Street which houses a bunch of bars and restaurants. It caters to an older crowd, and did not seem like a collegiate scene.

One of my favorite Cambodian street food is their BBQ. There are many makeshift stands on Pub Street that serve up freshly grilled fare. It's the perfect post-boozing food.

I went with a chicken wing and frog which cost only $1 per piece. Definitely a steal. I was very surprised that they served the whole frog! I was expecting only the legs. Even though I've had my fare share of frog legs and other exotic meats, I was actually a bit terrified to take the first bite. But once I got over the the fact that I was eating frog that actually looked like a frog, I realized what a delicious piece of grilled meat this was. Tender, juicy with lots of bones to chew around.

When we were on Pub Street, we noticed a lot of Cambodian BBQ signs, so we decided to check it out for lunch the following day. There were many options but we opted for the restaurant with a nice patio seating area and fans (it's humid there!)

Cambodian BBQ Restaurant also caught our eye because of its exotic menu. It was also very affordable at $15.50 for two people, and you are allowed to substitute two meats.

Garlic bread to start.

A bottle of Sauvignon Blanc goes with anything.

We were koo-koo for spring rolls on our entire trip in Vietnam and Cambodia, so this was a requisite order. Freshly fried with pork and vegetable filling. The nuoc mam dipping sauce is always such a great compliment.

Being the adventurous souls we are, we opted for the snake, kangaroo, frog, crocodile and squid. Ok, the last one wasn't unique but how can you pass up on grilled seafood? I liked the little pictorial signs that show you what meats they were.

They also served fresh yellow noodles, vegetables and pumpkin, which are cooked in the chicken broth.

The waiter actually started to grill these for us, so we just sat back and enjoyed our wine.

A slab of pork fat was used to grease up the grill. The snake was surprisingly a bit tough but fell apart easily.The crocodile was also a tad chewy. I've definitely had better croc in Oz. My favorite was the frogs leg which was juicy. Love chewing off that tiny cartilage between the bones. The kangaroo tasted like beef but much leaner. Finally, the squid grilled up nicely but it kept slipping off the grill and falling into the broth. The meats were served with an array of sauces. Seafood paired the best with the cilantro sauce, which was my favorite. The tamarind and pepper sauce were also pretty good.

After all the meats were gone, we moved to the noodle and vegetable soup that was infused with all the meat juices.

The best part of our meal was the bill, at $40 for two which included wine. Overall, the meats are not of the best quality, but it was a fun experience to sample some grilled exotic meats.

Cambodian BBQ Restaurant
Le passage Alley and Pub Street,
Siem Reap, Cambodia 855

Stubbs (Austin): a great BBQ option for the car-less

Dining on BBQ is an absolute must in Texas. Unfortunately, to sample some of the state's best BBQ, you'd most likely need a car. Since we were vehicle-less during our weekend vacation to Austin, we couldn't make the trip to famed Salt Lick, and instead had to settle for a BBQ join in downtown Austin. Stubb's BBQ is an icon in Austin, known for its live music and BBQ. Any joint that serves BBQ and has showcased awesome bands such as Silversun Pickups, Muse and Band of Horses, wins in my books. It was about a 30 minute wait for a table on a Saturday, but we were lucky enough to grab seats at the bar.

The beef brisket and ribs combo plate was quite delicious. The meats were smokey and tender. The mac and cheese was as traditional as it comes. No fancy cheeses, no bacon or other fixings. It also had a nice consistency- a bit on the fluid side and not too thick. It was also adequately seasoned.

My pork spare ribs was a tad cooked inconsistently, some portions were juicy and tender while others were dry. I opted for the more interesting sides on my rib plate. The fried okra was mealy and crunchy on the outside. and nicely cooked inside. No slime here, thank goodness. I also went for the mashed sweet potatoes which were silky and sweet. I thought the real winner were the sides.

An extra side of cornbread was absolutely necessary. The cornbread had a nice sweetness and was crumbly.

The food was pretty standard, but I think most people go to Stubb's for the shows and the ambiance. It's definitely a good alternative to driving 20 miles out of the city. Stubb's really capture the important features of Austin: BBQ and live music.

Stubb's BBQ
801 Red River St.,
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 480-8341
www.stubbsaustin.com

Rib Eating Competition @ Spring Street Smokehouse

This past Sunday, Spring Street Smokehouse held their 2nd annual rib eating competition. A $30 entry fee gets you into the contest, where the winner had to eat the most ribs in 20 minutes. We weren't going to participate but we were present to support the owner, who is a good friend of a friend. The Smokehouse is located in Chinatown and very popular with the lunch crowd. In an area that's swarming with dim sum restaurants, the Smokehouse stands its ground.

It's casual inside with a industrial feel. They also have a few TVs which makes this a great place to catch some sports. Each table is set with condiments and a loaf of bread.

The Smokehouse got a face lift a few years ago and added a great selection of craft beers to their inventory.

Smokey ribs fresh off out of the kitchen for the competition. They were actually really massive slabs.

The contestants were hard at work, breaking down the slab. Apparently, the key is to eat it slow and steady. We saw one guy plow through 3/4 of a slab but halfway through the competition, he started to sweat profusely and looked like he was about to gag. Many contestants couldn't even get through half a slab and gave up even before time was over.

The winner (who is a friend's husband) was last years runner-up. This year, he ate 16 ribs FTW. In addition to having his name on the board, he also received a tour and tasting at Firestone Brewery, gift certificate to the Smokehouse, and t-shirts and hats.

Love this contestant's shirt - People Eating Tasty Animals. Very apropos.

After the contest, we sat down for lunch and ordered a few items.

Smokehouse Chili. A hearty portion with chunks of beef and beans, and top with shredded cheese and zingy diced onions. The chili was served with fresh crusty french bread.

Cracklins. If you've only had the packaged kind from the gas station, you're missing out. These cracklins were warm and airy, and seasoned with pork rub which had a sweet and salty flavor combination. But beware, they are very addictive.

Smoked hot wings. I'm not much of a BBQ sauce fan so we ordered this with the sauce on the side. The chicken wings were finger licking good. They had a nice char to it but the meat was tender and smoky.

This was what's left of my chicken bones. If there's a competition for cleanest bones, I think I'll win.

Pork Spare Ribs - Select lean, juicy pork ribs, seasoned with the Smokehouse special rub, slowly smoked and served with homemade BBQ sauce.
The full rack has 12 ribs, the photo was taken after a few of us had grabbed some ribs. They also serve ribs in a 4 rib basket or a half rack. The BBQ sauce is more of a spicy vinegary sauce (Carolina style) vs. tomato based. The meat was moist and tender. I prefer to eat my ribs sans sauce so that I can get the full flavor of the pork. Thankfully, the ribs at the Smokehouse were smoky and flavored well so it was tasty on its own. I was quite impressed with how juicy it was, and how it tasted great even with minimal sauce. The portion was also very large. Initially I thought it'd be easy to eat a whole rack but the ribs were very meaty and filling.

Sampler Plate - 2 Spare Ribs, Hot Link, Chicken & Brisket, and a side. This is a great way to get a flavor of everything.

Burnt Ends - Crispy trimmings from a Beef Brisket.

The next time you're in Chinatown, walk away from the Chinese restaurant. You can get that any other time. Instead grab a brisket sandwich or some ribs at the Spring Street Smokehouse. And wash all that down with a frosty glass of Abita.

Spring Street Smokehouse
640 North Spring St.,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-0535
www.sssmokehouse.com

Bandera- always consistently good, just like The Simpsons

The Simpsons is one of those shows that I never think to watch but every time I stumble upon an episode, I enjoy it and wonder why I don't watch it more often. Bandera is my restaurant equivalent of The Simpsons. Whenever anyone asks for restaurant suggestions, I always forget to mention it. Yet I have always enjoyed every meal and vow to return sooner than later, but quickly forget. Perhaps it's because I'm always on the lookout for new places to try instead of my neighborhood joint. Bandera is owned by the Hillstone group (Houston's, Gulfstream, R+D Kitchen) and is the upscale chain of the lot. The menu is relatively similar to sister restaurant Houston's and focuses on American fare with good steak, ribs and fish selections. And the best part is, there's no corkage.

Bandera is always crowded and waits can be up to an hour. Few people know that you can make reservations (oops, maybe I should keep this to myself...) because Houston's doesn't take reservations. If you forget to make a reservation or if you're at Bandera at a whim, it's still fun to grab a seat at their wraparound bar which is a great spot for people-watching. The clientele is older, sophisticated Brentwood crowd but I did see Josh Duhamel sitting at the bar once, waiting for his takeout order. *swoon* It's dimly lit inside with dark wood interior and wood beam ceilings. They have a pianist and live jazz playing on most nights.

Their menu focuses on rotisseries and grills and entrees are not that cheap and will run you in the high twenties to mid thirties. It's pretty tough to make a decision because I have so many favorites. I like their french dip, ribs, and their prime rib which is cooked perfectly but MASSIVE. Of course, I can never stray from my favorite dish, the BBQ beef ribs ($28). It's not listed on the menu but they always offer it.

BYOB and no corkage. Love it!

Nice Little salad was a simple salad that was dressed with citrus vinaigrette and topped with avocado, tomatoes and goat cheese. It really is a little side salad and resulted in only a couple leaves between the three of us. I enjoyed the dressing which was made in-house, and was light and refreshing. The croutons were made with cornbread so it added a sweetness to the salad.

BBQ beef ribs, we ordered two to split between three of us
While Houston's offers pork ribs (which are tender and delicious), Bandera offers beef ribs. I typically prefer pork over beef ribs because the latter can tend to be tough, but Bandera does a great job with it. The meat was luscious with fatty pieces still attached. It literally fell off the bone, breaking into pieces when your fork scraped it ever so slightly. The meat was basted with a nice coating of BBQ sauce. There were about 4 ribs in each serving which doesn't sound quite filling but it was sufficient since the meat was heavy. The cole slaw wasn't your typical generic mix of mayo. It was more of a crunchy cabbage and peanut salad. And those fries are always good. Skinny and perfectly salted.

We had to order another side of fries because they were gone in seconds (my fault).

The downside of a busy restaurant is that they try to hurry you out the door. When we were done with dinner and were still finishing up our wine, our waiter had already cleared our water glasses (no refills? I was parched) and on numerous occasions, someone came to clear off crumbs on the table. Basically trying to tell us "time's up, we need your table". This wasn't the first time that it's happened. Quite a poor way to communicate that they need our table. A simple "Sorry, but would you mind finishing up your wine at the bar?" would suffice. And we were only there for 1.5hr, a short amount of time for a meal. Usually service issues can leave a bad impression but I thought the food made up for it. I just can't get enough of those ribs and fries. And the best part is, because there wasn't a corkage fee, our bill came up to about $30 each including tax and tip. Bandera has to be added back on my list.

Hits: food, no corkage
Misses: rushing you out of the restaurant, busy
Rating: ***1/2

Bandera
11704 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 477-3524
www.hillstone.com

A day at the beach w/ surf and aussie BBQ

June 20 is International Surf Day, a day that celebrates surfing and the ocean through beach clean-ups and restoration projects, followed up a surf. There were multiple events organized around the world and in Southern Cali including Surf 24 in Huntington Beach (with surfers in the water every hour for 24 hours + an event filled weekend of movie screenings and live music). We decided on the lower key Santa Monica event instead. Before the beach clean-up at 9am, we had some home cooked breakfast.

My usual weekend drink of choice, mimosas.

My favorite breakfast dish, the french toast. Try to select good bread such as brioche, French toasts or Texas toast. The batter included eggs, milk, allspice, sugar, salt and pepper.

Asides from using the right bread, you should top the french toast with the real deal such as real maple syrup and Plugra butter.

Homemade breakfast of french toast and hash brown is a great way to start the day.

In Santa Monica, we started clean-up of the beach and found some disturbing items in the sand such as a broken tequila bottle, plastic bottles, lots of plastic bags and cigarette butts. If you'd like to help clean up your local beaches, contact The Surfrider Foundation.

After clean-up, we suited up and hit the waves. Aquasurf was there to offer free lessons, ZJ Boarding House provided free board/wetsuit rentals and Arbor offered Firewire demos. The waves in Santa Monica in general are less than ideal but it was still fun to be out there and be a part of the event.

After surf, I was starved and went in search of some meat. We ended up at Bondi BBQ in Venice Beach. The restaurant offers BBQ fare and is named after the famed beach in Sydney, Australia.

It's a casual spot with surfboards hanging on the ceiling and had a rustic feel inside with wooden tables. Bondi has a lovely front and back patio that makes a good alfresco dining spot. This joint is supposedly run by Aussies but no one there seemed to be from down under. In addition, they do not serve alcohol.. which IMO is kind of un-aussie-like.We decided to split the BBQ for Two for $33.95 that includes a half BBQ chicken, half rack ribs, shrimp, two sides and garlic bread.

The baby back ribs were pretty good. They were tender and coated with a BBQ sauce that had just the right amount of sweetness. I liked that the BBQ sauce wasn't lathered all over the ribs. I prefer ribs that are cooked and seasoned well, instead of masked by too much sauce. The half chicken was a bit of a mix. The dark meat was soft and flavorful, however the white meat was dry.

The garlic bread seemed to be made from a hot dog bun. One of our two side was shoestring fries but these were definitely thicker than shoestring fries. It's a pity because I was really looking forward to some skinny fries.

Our other side was the creamed spinach which was rather bland and definitely needed some salt. Thankfully, the shrimp was delicious. There were ten shrimps and they were grilled with a nice char and cooked with butter, herbs and topped with a squeeze of lemon. The shrimp was nicey cooked and juicy.

The ribs and dark chicken meat were the winners but the white meat and tasteless creamed spinach were a let down. I would return for the ribs and perhaps the meat pie. However, it's hard to eat BBQ ribs without beer, by the beach, in an Aussie joint no less.

Hits: ribs, chicken leg, location
Misses: no booze, dry chicken, spinach
Rating: **1/2

Bondi BBQ
46 Windward Ave.,
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 392-3809
http://www.bondibbq.com/