Oh just a little production still.

Don’t think I’m a qualified food blogger?  Think my reviews suck?  I know you naysayers are out there, but that didn’t stop Eat Street (a program airing on the Canadian Food Network and American Cooking Channel) from contacting me about appearing on their show.  Not only did they want me on the show, they even referred to me as a “Food Expert.”  Boo-yah!

So I answered the call and a few months ago I headed out to the Grill ‘Em All truck to give Eat Street my opinion of their burgers.  I had tried them once before and delighted in their Behemoth, so I was excited to experience Grill ‘Em All again.  At the truck I met fellow burger lover, Rev, and we instantly bonded over our disdain for pickles and our mighty Michigan roots.  Rev not only manages Grill ‘Em All, but is always conquering burgers for his blog, Burger Conquest.

I also got to meet Chef Ryan, his burger partner, Matt, and the rest of the crew working for Grill ‘Em All and Eat Street.  They were all fans of Unvegan (obviously) and they were all cool to hang out with.  When it came down to eating, I wound up with their Molly Hatchet.  Made with seared fennel sausage gravy, maple syrup and bacon, it was a perfect unvegan burger that didn’t even require a special order.  But how was it?

Tune into the Cooking Channel at 8:00 on July 5th to find out!

Related posts:

1. Eat at Joe’s (American Bar & Grill)
2. A Brunch Burger at Rush Street
3. Grill ‘Em All Makes a Behemoth

Don't struggle, you'll just make it worse.

It was a perfect day on July 18th, 2010, the kind of day on which the Manifest Destiny that led us to Southern California seemed determined to fulfill its promise, unfurling a crisp blue sky unmarred by cloud or haze.  There was heat, sure, from the brilliant sun lighting every corner of the sprawling pitch, fresh and newly restored green after an early-summer blight brought on by prolonged dog-sitting, but it was tempered by a cool breeze bearing that distinctively salty sea air.

It was a day made for joy, for leisure, for flying a kite or laying out on a brightly-colored towel along with that Victorian-era novel you always meant to read but for which you could never quite find the time until now.  But today was not a day for joy.  It was a day for battle.

On one side: us, twenty-something twentysomethings celebrating (for some reason) the birth of a narcissistic and overbearing writer.  On the other side: them, seven dozen steamed Chesapeake Blue Crabs, flown in from Maryland the night before.

The crabman himself.

We were confident in our moral superiority.  Like any unlikely group of heroes we were a motley crew made up of men and women, tall and short, fit and also fit, beautiful and also beautiful, from all walks of life that included upper-middle class suburbia.  We were a United Colors of Benetton ad of warriors: united in our quest (to eat), colored in our hue (ranging (mostly) from Betty Draper to that one time Icarus forgot his sunscreen), Benetton in our apparel (probably more like H&M).

There were a handful of us from Maryland – veterans as seasoned as the crabs we now faced. We had known victory in Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Baltimore and Easton but were now far from home, on unfamiliar ground.  And while we had seen our share of battles many of us – too many – had seen too few or none at all.  How could we expect to fare when we were but twenty and counted amongst our ranks those who were vegan, kosher and just plain cowardly?

And our enemy…does a more perfect foot soldier exist in nature than the crab?  Armed with dual pincers and quick to use them, too.  A solid exoskeleton lined with fearsome spikes to cover the soft flesh within.  Alien eyes peeking out from the shell, surveying the enemy with black dispassion.  The crab is mindless, aggressive, marching inexorably forward (well, sideways).  Their bright red shells invoking the indestructible British infantry at the height of its power.  All this and they outnumbered us more than 4 to 1.  What were we to do?  But then there was no time, the clock struck one, the masses assembled and the battle was under way.

There is no escape.

In the end it was no contest as we were humans, righteous and ravenous and armed with mallets while they were just crabs – and dead ones at that.  And so, unopposed, we ravaged their corpses, rending them limb from limb, dunking their white flesh in vinegar and butter, and piling the discarded detritus high upon the benewspapered table.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

How Does One Destroy a Crab?

Assassinating a crab is a difficult process, and not for the faint of heart.  Here is a quick primer.

Cooking
Step 1: Combine vinegar, water and beer in a steamer pot.  Use a cup each or enough to cover the bottom by about an inch.

Step 2: Bring the mixture to a boil then fill the steamer pot with live crabs.  This is important.  The meat of dead, uncooked crabs spoils incredibly quickly and is not safe to consume. Cover and boil for about 20 minutes or until bright red.

NB: During cooking it’s likely you will hear a high-pitched wail emanating from within your steamer.  This is merely gas being forced from the crabs’ shell as the steaming increases their internal pressure, but if you want to pretend it’s the shrieks and cries of your enemy as they boil alive, feel free to do so.

Step 3: Place crabs in a large bowl, douse with Old Bay* and toss until well coated.

Consuming

Destroyer of exoskeletons everywhere.

Now comes the most fun – and difficult – part of eating a crab.  This is a beautiful and labor-intensive process.  You will get dirty.  You will get messy.  You will probably be grossed out.  Your reward for this will be about two tablespoons of meat if lucky.  You will never have worked so hard for so little in your life (gastronomically, of course; our paychecks are certainly reminders of that) and you will be overjoyed with the results.

Step 1: Tear off all appendages.  Set these aside for later.

Step 2: Find the apron on the belly of the crab that looks like a penis (note: it isn’t).  Pry it up using your fingernail and rip it from the main body.  This should result in a large hole at the bottom of the crab.

Step 3: Stick your thumb in the crab’s anus and tear it in half, separating the shell from the belly.

Step 4: Clear off everything that is grey and yellow (brains, lungs, general gunk etc.).

Step 5: Crack the body in half again to get at the pure white lump meat on the inside.  A pick can be helpful but most can be reached with just your fingers.  Dip in either vinegar or melted butter to your preference (I, for one, think that vinegar has a nice tang to go with the salty Old Bay flavor whereas butter complements the richer (both in taste and price) lobster).

Step 6: Snap the legs and claws at the joints to get as much meat as possible.  Use your trusty mallet to get the rest.

Sides and Dessert

Crab must be served with beer, and in our case we went for the old standby of MGD augmented with a few variety packs of Flying Dog, the award winning microbrew from Maryland.  For those wishing for something a bit stronger there was also a Pikesville Rye and ginger ale mix that is wonderfully sweet on a hot summer’s day.

This being Unvegan I don’t wish to waste any more space on fruits and vegetables than I have to but needless to say, grilled corn and watermelon both fresh from the farmer’s market are excellent palette cleansers between rounds of crab.  Another must-have side is either homemade fries coated in Old Bay, or Utz potato chips.  There’s no bad choice here, and we opted for the latter offering a selection of plain, BBQ, salt & vinegar and crab. If you’ve never had crab chips, order some online NOW.  You won’t regret it.

A variation on the crabcake.

Finally, to top off the meal, a farmer’s market strawberry-rhubarb crumble with whipped cream, a Baskin Robbin’s mint chocolate ice cream cake and some homemade peanut butter balls dipped in dark chocolate that put anything Reese ever did to shame.

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Empty shells and broken crabs.

With the sun dipping behind the lemon tree as we entered the six o’clock hour, the survivors surveyed the battlefield and the carnage we’d wrought.  Victory!  But at what cost?  Priests administered water and antacids to the fallen among us.  Of the desserts, corn, chips and watermelon, none remained.  The crabs had fared little better.  A few staunch warriors performed clean-up duty, finishing off the hold-outs, forcing themselves into double digits for the good of the whole.  There would be no prisoners taken today.

The proprietor of this blog turned towards the writer, weary with the weight of the day’s struggle and the lives lost.  He opened his mouth and a low, grim voice emerged: “Happy birthday, man.”  Happy birthday, indeed. It had been, in spite of all the death and dismemberment, a day of joy.

*For those of you who are unfamiliar, Old Bay is the essence of all that defines humanity, what separates us from the beasts and creatures with which we wearily roam this planet.  It is the lifeblood of the Chesapeake, of Maryland and of the world beyond.  It is Birth and Love and yes, it is Death, too.  Old Bay rises from its roots in the sea, the offspring of Gaia, Mother Earth, Tiamat.  It blends the power and fury of the Old Testament with the redemptive and purifying spirit of the New.  It is the balance and calm of the Bodhisattva, the illogic of Scientology.  Old Bay is Truth.  Old Bay is All.  (The atheistic among you may point out that Old Bay is, in fact, seasoning salt – a blend of mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaf, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and ginger.  Those of you who say this have clearly never experienced the miracle that is homemade French fries with Old Bay and so you are wrong.)

Thanks to Dave Koll for the guest post.  You can follow him @davekoll on Twitter.

No related posts.

Let's get biblical.

This year I got biblical for Valentine’s Day.  No, not like that you sicko.  Instead of having a boring, fancy meal with my girlfriend, we decided to get cooking.  And not just any kind of cooking, we decided to use Lobel’s Meat Bible, which was sent to me by Chronicle Books a few months ago for free.  I knew this book would be incredible just based on the cover, but the back cover really sealed the deal for me because it says, “Armed with Lobel’s Meat Bible, carnivores will find themselves with more delectable meaty choices than ever before.”  Mmmm meaty choices.

Just a couple ingredients.

It would be a disservice to call this book a recipe book, as it carries loads of information about our most common meats like beef and chicken, but also delves into game meats and organ meats.  All of this information coupled with the recipes makes this a true unvegan bible.  After a quick flip through the pages of the bible, I found the perfect Valentine’s Day meal:  Carbonade of Beef in Belgian Beer.  I must admit that the beer was the first thing that caught my eye and after a quick glance at the ingredients, the girlfriend and I decided this would be grand.

That one looks like Africa.

Since the recipe was coming from a bible and the feast was in celebration of St. Valentine, we decided to balance out the obvious Christian undertones of our meal by buying Kosher ingredients (to see the full list of ingredients and recipe, see image at the bottom of the page.  The recipe was made to serve 6 people, so we toned down the ingredients a bit in the hopes that we could still cook the meal correctly.

All together after 4 hours.

Then we began following the recipe.  Duvel was my Belgian ale of choice, and I hoped that using it for a recipe would be even better than drinking it.  I won’t get into all the details on how to prepare this dish, but suffice to say, it started out with a whole lot of meat.  About 40 minutes into preparing the meat and the other ingredients, I reached a part of the recipe that made my mouth drop.  It read:  “Cover and cook at the barest possible simmer for 3-4 hours.  Wait what?  This sounded insane to me, but apparently it wasn’t.

So our romantic Valentine’s dinner became a late-night feast, but it was so worth it.

And the recipe.

When the three hours were up and the carbonade was ready, it was an amazing dish.  The beef was so tender and flavorful, packed with Duvel’s flavoring, along with the other yummy ingredients.  The only thing that was disappointing was that we hadn’t prepared something to accompany it.  The recipe said it would go nice with potatoes, but when we started eating, we realized that the dish would go even better with something like rice or couscous.  Nonetheless, it was quite the dish, quite the Valentine’s Day and it showed the the Lobels know quite a lot about their meat.

Check out Lobel’s Meat Bible yourself and have a meaty existence.

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The Unvegan supports Haiti. With food!

As everyone knows, almost two weeks ago, Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake.  Other than donating by text message or contributing in other small ways, a bunch of the food trucks of LA banded together for a huge fundraiser at T-Lofts in West LA.  I headed out there with a buddy on Saturday to check them all out and to do our part to help the Haitian cause.

After a week of rain, the clouds had broken for a beautiful day of truckery.  There were a ton of trucks represented there, including many I have already reviewed.  The Grilled Cheese Truck and Buttermilk Truck were by far the most popular trucks there, drawing huge lines that might be worth waiting in if there didn’t happen to be another 20 trucks with great food right next to them.  Some other trucks there were the Nom Nom Truck, Flying Pig, South Philly Experience and Don Chow Tacos, who was sporting a stylish new paint job.  You might think those trucks would be plenty to keep the fundraising masses happy, but you would be wrong.  Rather than grabbing food from these trucks that I have already reviewed, I had the opportunity to try out three new trucks, which mostly left me satisfied.  Check out those reviews here:

Getting Balls with the Vesuvio Truck

Further Fusion at Kabob Express

Subpar-BQ at Barbie’s Q

And if you’re looking to donate to Haiti, text the word “Haiti” to 90999.  It’s the easiest thing in the world to do and will automatically bill 10 bucks to your cell phone bill.  The money goes to the Red Cross, so you know it’s good.

***Update:  According to Lisa Redmond, one of the organizers, over 5,000 people attended and more than $7,000 were raised.  Hooray for food trucks!

Related posts:

1. More Food Trucking with Don Chow Tacos
2. Getting Balls with the Vesuvio Truck
3. Subpar-BQ at Barbie’s Q

If your mouth isn't watering, you may be dead.

December 4th was a very momentous day.  You may be wondering, just as my people do during Passover, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”  Well, friendos, prepare to be shocked and possibly appalled, as I have done something completely reprehensible.  I…ate…bacon.  And I didn’t just eat bacon, I threw a BACON BASH — complete with a six course menu.  Yes, if it existed, I would probably be going to Jewish Hell, which likely consists of strapping me to a chair and making me watch Joan Rivers television shows on repeat with a bagel, cream cheese and lox slightly out of reach.  Hopefully this is a Hell that few will ever have to experience.

Here's how it all started.

So how did this bacon bash nonsense come to be?  Unvegan.com’s expert food blogger, Zacku, decided to buy me The Guide to Better Bacon from Zingerman Deli’s Ari Weinzweig (who will also probably be going to my special Jewish Hell).  This was a difficult gift to accept for a few reasons.  Growing up in a Jewish household and going to a Jewish day school for 8-years, it was a bit inappropriate to ever eat the sinful swine.  As such, I was baconless as a child and continued avoiding the meat only because it was something I never did and felt no need to explore.  However, after reading a bit of the book, realizing I don’t keep kosher and often break the Kosher rules of Kashrut (eating shellfish, eating milk and meat together, etc.), and talking about the forbidden meat with several Jews who enjoy it thoroughly, I decided to throw myself in…full force.

I'm kind of crying while taking this picture.

I’ll admit it, my roommate Danny and I are Food Network junkies.  After watching countless hours of Iron Chef America and Top Chef, we like to fancy ourselves expert amateur chefs.  Using our self-proclaimed expertise we decided the only proper way to explore bacon was to go crazy and try cooking dishes that were interesting and different.  The results were the six following dishes:

Menuery:

1.  Bacon Hash on Crostini
2.  Bacon Wrapped Dates
3.  Bacon Wrapped Plantains w/ Mustard Sauce
4.  Bacon Wrapped Scallops w/ Brie Sauce and Fried Sage
5.  Bacon Candy
6.  Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Strategery:

Cured and ready.

Planning this bash was no easy feat and required several days of preparation and an entire cooking schedule for party day.  After reading the book I decided on three different bacons to import from around the country.  These were Benton’s smoked country bacon, Nueske’s smoked bacon, and Broadbent’s hickory smoked bacon.  They all had a certain flavor and history that made them most appealing for my initial foray into bacon.  Mind you these aren’t your normal types of bacon, they are the elite bacons, procurable only through online retailers and select gourmet shops.  With the menu set, the guest list confirmed at about 35 people (oy!), the cooking supplies bought, I set out to order 12.5 pounds of bacon.

Prepery:

All wrapped and ready for cooking.

Thursday was by far the most intensive cooking day as two sous chefs (Danny and Gaby) and I spent dedicated the hours of 7 PM to 2:30 AM to prepping the dates, plantains, hash, candy, and cookies.  Friday was still intense, but much more focused (thanks to my nerdy schedule).  Since everything had to be out at a certain time and different dishes had different cook times and preparations, it was a bit of a madhouse in the kitchen.  Thankfully several people helped out, even sous chef Zacku helped when he wasn’t busy snapping photos or shmoozing the guests.

Resultery:

Bacon Hash/Glop

1.  Bacon Hash – The hash turned out like nothing we had expected, it being a bit mushy/creamy and all.  I initially intended it to be finely chopped and more bacon laden but alas, the recipe I had didn’t provide much in that area.  Being the only dish with a vegetable in it also scared us.  Despite our wariness toward the dish (I thought we might crash and burn before the party barely got started) it was definitely a favorite and several people told me they enjoyed it the best…phew!

There could never be too many of these.

2.  Bacon Wrapped Dates – Gaby spent the entire evening removing pits from the dates, stuffing them with almond ricotta and wrapping them with bacon.  The recipe called for 50 dates, by night’s end, there were at least 100.  And readers, it was well needed, those dates got eaten so quickly you wouldn’t even know I took them out of the oven.  People raved!  In fact, one raver came up to me and told me if I wasn’t so busy at the moment they’d ravage me on the spot.  Good thing that didn’t happen.  First off, this was a dude, but more importantly it would have thrown my entire schedule off.

Them sure is purty.

3.  Bacon Wrapped Plantains – These guys were tricky to plate but they looked beautiful (pre-cooking).  In the future I’d prefer the plantains to be a bit more ripe and the mustard to be a bit less intense, but they were fun to prepare.  I’d recommend putting toothpicks through the wrapped plantains because the bacon will naturally curl off the plantain if not properly attached.

Burning the Kosher away.

4.  Bacon Wrapped Scallops – The scallops were by far the hardest thing to cook but it’s a dish that after you’ve done it once you’re a pro.  I got 5 pounds of scallops from the Costco Seafood Road Show (which is a great place to get fresh seafood, trust me, I did lots of research).  After pre-cooking the bacon, Danny wrapped the scallops and then I sauteed them to a golden brown sear.  Danny made the brie sauce as I sauteed the sage for garnish.  It was labor intensive but I think it was the best dish of the evening and the one which broke the most laws of kashrut — bacon (pig), scallops (shellfish), brie sauce (milk and meat), eating with your hands (just a general no-no) – all in one delicious hell-bent bite!

The bottom is candied. The top is just awesome.

5.  Bacon Candy – I kid you not, as soon as I put the bacon candy on the table it was gone.  Good thing I didn’t serve everyone the first batch I made, which when Danny taste tested he immediately spit out.  My only regrets are that I didn’t get a chance to try it and didn’t make enough.  Note to all, do not burn the sugar!  [As a side note, The Unvegan himself tried the bacon candy and loved it.]

Just like cookies in milk.

Why not bacon in a cocktail?

Without a doubt, this was the most successful party I have ever thrown.  People were so excited to come, sheerly on concept alone.  So many compliments on the cooking and such a good group of people to share my bacon virginity with.  I guess it’s true, people LOVE bacon and you know what, I agree, bacon is damn good.  Be it crispy or chewy, I will forever be a fan.  It’s even good in a martini!  My friend Dave, a fellow bacon fanatic, had brought his own version of a Bacon Manhattan for everyone to try and it was

The first bite!

quite delicious (complete with bacon vodka!).  I must say though, as much as bacon is awesome, it is damn greasy, you have no idea how much bacon grease I have sitting in my fridge (I’m gonna make me some bacon fat mayo, yay for heart attacks!).  Lastly, if you ever attempt to throw such a bash I’d recommend keeping your doors and windows open as much as possible.  My house still reeks of bacon and every time I walk down the stairs I hit a certain step and the smell hits me like a wrecking ball…a wrecking ball of deliciousness.  It’s like there’s some layer of bacon air in my apartment that refuses to leave.  I guess that’s the price we pay for loving bacon.  It’s not a very high price and it could be a lot worse; I could be stuck in Jew Hell with Joan Rivers.

Related posts:

1. Bacon Beats Sex
2. It’s Not Always Time for Bacon
3. The Bacon Brothers: Unvegan Heroes

Try them out tonight!

The newest food truck to roll out onto the streets of Los Angeles will be Frysmith and their official launch is none other than tonight at 6:30 at the Brig was November 20th.  I haven’t had a chance to test out their offerings yet, but what I’ve seen on their website looks pretty impressive.  I did catch up with owners Erik and Brook to get a few questions in.

Check out the interview below.

Unvegan: First off, what took you so long?  I was beginning to think your truck was an elaborate hoax.

Frysmith: Basically, the main hold-up was that our builder drastically oversold their finish time.  That was compounded by some crazy random hold-ups like the truck breaking down the night before a health department appointment that we then had to reschedule.

Unvegan: What was your inspiration for starting a fry truck?  Deep fryers in a moving vehicle sounds dangerous to me.

Frysmith: The fryers have lids attached, which is a must seeing as you can hear the oil sloshing around when you turn.  The inspiration is pretty much that I really like fries.  And Brook and I have always wanted to own our own food business.

Unvegan: What are the best fries you ever had, aside from your own truck?

Frysmith: That’s like asking a mother to choose her favorite child, but at the moment what comes to mind are the pommes frites Brook and I had at Bouchon in Las Vegas last year.

Unvegan: For a totally unnatural city in the middle of the desert, it is amazing how good the food can be in Vegas.  I see that you have chili fries on your menu, but for some reason, there are onions on the fries.  Can this be remedied to fit my dietary restrictions?

Frysmith: Onion removal for dietary restrictions or religious concerns are not a problem.

Unvegan: Hmmm I wonder if Unveganism can become a legit religion…You also have vegan chili fries, which may be offensive to some of my followers or disciples.  Do you have plans for any sort of unvegan specials?  I’m thinking some Montreal-style Poutine topped with steak and bacon.  Those would be some fries I’d love to get my hands on.

Frysmith: Oh, there’ll be a lot of un-veganation going on.  We’re definitely doing a poutine special, but I hadn’t considered putting bacon on it until I read that question.  And you know what they say, everything’s better with bacon.

Unvegan: So so true.  Sweet potato fries are all the rage right now, but what do you think is the next step in french fry evolution?

Frysmith: The fried rutabaga is going to take the world by storm!  Actually, I don’t know what the next fry craze is, but fried parsnips are pretty tasty.

Unvegan: Damn, I was hoping taro or ube for something both purple and fried, but that’s why I am not in the fry making business.  Thanks for your time and good luck!

As you can see, Frysmith looks to have fries for just about everyone.  They’ll be launching at the Brig tonight from 6:30-10:00 They launched on November 20th and can now be found on the streets of LA.  I can’t make it that early, but would love to hear some preliminary feedback.

Related posts:

1. Finishing Up at Frysmith

The deal runs through the end of August and the only catch is that you can only go once, as they will be checking IDs and putting your name on a list (more incentive to finally get that fake ID?).

This sounds like an awesome deal to me.  I’m still awaiting confirmation on whether  Dinah’s Family Restaurant near me will be participating, but it may be worth a drive to Glendale just to take advantage.

(via LAist)

Related posts:

1. Free Meat Alert: KFC
2. Free Meat Alert: KFC Part 2
3. Free Meat Alert: Texas de Brazil

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1. Celebrate National Hot Dog Day!
2. Celebrate Roasted Leg of Lamb Day!
3. A Late-Night Mess at Norm’s Diner

The lines were long, but not endless.

On Saturday, my friends and I headed down to Koreatown for the Korean BBQ Festival and Cook-Off.  Korean BBQ is known to be heavy in meat, so I felt this would be a great opportunity to tackle my daily meat intake.

The festival ran from 12:00-5:00 and although we arrived around 1:00, the lines were already getting pretty long.  I wasn’t too surprised by the long lines since the event was free, plus $10 per plate.

Assuming the longest lines had the best food, I jumped into one of the lines without

Tubs of meat roll by.

even knowing what it was.  This was one of the areas in which the festival could have improved.  If they had put the signs above the booths rather than on the table, I would have really been able to decided where to go.  Instead, I (and likely a lot of other people) just jumped in a random line.  Eventually a friend joined me and held my place so I could find out.  I went to the front and saw that it was called the Beverly Tofu House.  The name scared me a bit, considering tofu is typically the unvegan enemy, but the food I saw being unloaded was plenty meaty.  I went back to my spot in line and devised a plan:  My friend would hold my spot in line while I went to a different booth with a shorter line and brought the food back for us to eat in line.  The plan was genius, and I set off.

So Hyang? More like so hungry.

One key component to my plan, which I neglected to tell my friend, was that I was also looking for a place without kimchee.  I know it is almost sacrilegious to like Korean food without liking kimchee, so I was afraid to announce my disdain for the strangely pickled cabbage out loud for fear that I would have been kicked out of the event.  But now that I am far removed from Koreatown, I feel comfortable announcing that kimchee might be one of the worst foods I’ve ever accidentally tasted.  Luckily, I quickly found a place called So Hyang with a short line and no kimchee.

After five minutes, I returned to my place in the other line again, but this time with a plate full of meat and salad.  Luckily my friend was not of the unvegan persuasion and ate the salad while I ate most of the meat.  The meat was from a cow, but damned if I could say which part.  I had watched as one of the workers cut little slices of beef with meat scissors, but I still had no idea what to call the cuts .  There was also a massive bone on the plate, probably meant to say where the beef came from, but I’m no cow scientist.  The beef slices were really tasty and although I could see the fat glistening in the sun, the fat didn’t distract from the tastiness.

While waiting in line, we got to watch an eating contest that was put on by the event organizers.  Apparently people had signed up without knowing what they would have to eat.  I secretly hoped it would be dog or some sort of organ meat, but instead it was a dry Korean snack called Choco Pie.  This was a little disappointing, but still somewhat entertaining.

Koreans dishing out at Bevery Tofu House.

About 30 minutes later, we finally arrived at the front of the line at the Tofu House.  There we were given a plate full of short ribs, pickled vegetables, rice and potatoes.  Once again, I allowed my buddy to have his way with the vegetables while I concentrated on the short ribs.  These were definitely worth waiting in line for, but probably not for as long as we just had.  The meat was deliciously seasoned and perfectly cooked.

Finally, my meat from Beverly Tofu House

.

When I was done, I still wanted to try more Korean food.  Unfortunately, the lines had grown too long to be worth it.  Even the previously short So Hyang had gained a huge following.

For the first year of an event, I was pretty impressed by the outcome, but they definitely have some kinks they need to work out.  Better sign placement and preparing meat ahead of time would have gone a long way in making the Korean BBQ Festival and Cook-Off an even more memorable event.

Related posts:

1. LA BBQ Festival
2. Kogi BBQ
3. Unexpected Fruitiness at TnB BBQ

Related posts:

1. Free Meat Alert: Dinah’s Fried Chicken
2. Free Meat Alert: White Castle
3. Free Meat Alert: KFC