Troble

Looks like a nice score! 

So shutdowns have commenced in San Diego this week. No more outdoor dining, take out only. The nicest steak restaurant in the City is selling these butcher packs to clear generate revenue so I ordered this bad boy to pick up next Friday 

Had a bunch of leftover pork butt and also happened to stumble upon the chili thread this morning when I was up before the rest of my house so I made some chili today 

recipe included 

ground beef, dark red kidney beans, black beans, corn, green & red bell peppers, sweet onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, beef bone broth, Worcester sauce, jalapeño & a chipotle Chile in adobo sauce

Made some homemade cornbread with my secret ingredient (sour cream) to keep them moist and creamy

simmered over low heat for 6 hours 

@Tyrus I’m a fan of the Bavette  cut . Looks like you cooked it about perfectly 

@RokDokalways been a fan of Lonely Planet country guides https://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico

they do a good job of providing historical info as well as budget, moderate abs high Eve accommodations and dining for all places. I used this extensively on my RTW trip and I still purchase an updated Lonely Planet book to this day if I’m going on a big international trip. It’s a excellent starting point and resource

i don’t know how you survive that couch fabric experience that would drive me nuts 

Made a care package of pulled pork sandwiches for the 11 teachers at my kids preschool. Each bag had a bottle of BBQ sauce, bag of cole slaw, bag of pulled pork and bag of Hawaiian rolls. 
 

cooked 3 bone in pork butts on my 32 KK. Took a lot longer than normal and had double drip pan on lower grate. Started at 215 for 6 hours, then took it up to 245 for 7 hours, then wrapped and finished at 275 for two hours. Finished in broiler for extra crispyness 

@tekobo that is an excellent idea. You can fly from Tijuana to just about any place in Mexico, Central & South America. In fact many smart travelers in Souther CA fly internationally out of Tijuana because it is so much cheaper than flying out of LAX. They actually have a parking garage/escalator that takes you straight from San Diego to the Tijuana international gate, 

perhaps a sojourn down to Tulum, over to the Caribbean then back home to the UK? Lots of possibilities there. From TJ to Carribean there a lot of possibilities and it’s relatively cheap (or at least was). When you start planning I’d love to help. The best thing to do in CA is drive the CA 1 from SF to Santa Barbara. I’m sure there’s direct London to SF, drive down the coast to San Diego, head to Valle de Guadalupe, down to Tulum, over to the Caribbean, then back to UK.

Geez! You got my travel bug juices flowing again!

@Braai-Q yes the number is irrelevant and highly subjective, anything on the list is great. But yes it was Central & Maido. And I was planning on taking a Peruvian cooking class, but all those things will happen in time.

The real fear is restaurants closing. Here in the US they are not getting any Federal support abs now with another wave of closure many of the great independent restaurants that have lasted this long are closing. I drive around San Diego the other day to parts of the City I used to live in but haven’t been too in awhile and was shocked at how many of my favorite craft beer bars and restaurants had closed down. 

@RokDok the food is nice looking but it’s not a setting like fancy restaurants. It’s more outdoor, more communal but still high quality. That’s what I like about it abs truth he told if I go to a nice dinner with my wife in San Diego I’m spending $100 with food abs wine. For a little bit more abs a drive south I can have a mini vacation and dine world class

@Braai-Q I also believe that travel will be restrictive when things open up. People will have to show vaccination cards etc potentially. My wife is Peruvian and we had a trip schedule for March 26 of this year to go to Peru and we were gonna get married there civilly so I could get a Peruvian passport, but that got cancelled (airline still hasn’t give me my money back either) and I had reservations at the worlds number 5 & 10 restaurants in Lima that also got cancelled 

Central https://www.centralrestaurante.com.pe

Maido 

https://maido.pe

https://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50

https://www.theworlds50best.com/latinamerica/en/list/1-50

@tony b I thought you’d be happy to have something to sink your teeth into, a good distraction from this crazy world we’re in right now 

the Anthony bourdain episode is worth watching. I looked for it on YouTube and couldn’t find it but it’s on the Apple store for $2.99. Worth investing in that episode prior to planning a cross country or international trip

@tony b flat iron is one of my favorite cuts. They say it’s second most tender after filet. Looks great as always 

Here some more reading material 
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/foodies-can-find-mexican-culinary-oasis-just-south-border-n788116

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/travel/travel-mexico-baja-california-wine-country.html
 

and Anthony Bourdain visited in 2012

https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/anthony-bourdain/episodes/baja

Here are the last two itineraries I made for our trip in 2018 and for my 40th in 2019. My wife likes to know where we are going so she can look up the places on her phone to see the pictures of the food so I started making these the last two trips. These couple pages represent many hours of research so please enjoy. You literally cannot go wrong if you utilize these

Valle de Guadelupe 2018.docx Troy’s 40th Itinerary_2019.docx

1 hour ago, Braai-Q said:

Sounds pretty ideal. I showed my wife and I think we'll be visiting post pandemic. 😁

Being a petrolhead, I frequently find excuses to 'nip out for milk' and that's about the length of a good milk run. 

Yes the wildcard is the border crossing coming back. It takes 90 minutes to get there but it can take hours coming back. It’s not uncommon to wait 4 hours at the border on a Sunday to come back to the US. If you have Global Entry it can be a 15 minute thing (provided you find the right lane) but it’s also dependent on how much Trump has offended Mexico that week. When he says something derogatory about Mexico border wait times go way up. With the pandemic confusion there have been wait times of up to 12 hours on a Sunday to cross back. Hence why we have not gone this year, but weekday or timing it right it’s no issue 

I actually had an office in Tijuana for 2 years and I would drive down to the border, park on the US side, walk across take an Uber to my office and do all that in 35-40 minutes. There are also services in San Diego that will pick you up at the airport and drive you from the airport to the Valle 

the proper way to do it though is to stop in Tijuana for $1.50 TJ tacos on the way home so you get the best high end food in Mexico as well as the world famous Tijuana tacos

everything you see me cook here is basically stuff I’ve seen in Mexico 

57 minutes ago, Braai-Q said:

 

Geez @Troble.. You might have put a little warning on those pictures. I'm now walking around hungry trying to approximate some of that in my next meal. You live 90 mins away?

Yes sir. 90 minutes and across the border. I’ve done day trips there before where I dropped my kids off at school drove down for a 1pm lunch then back to pick the kids up from school but usually my wife and I go there abs stay a night or two, during the weekday and we literally have the place to ourselves. It’s magic. Truly, the only other place I’ve found in the work like it was Cape Town where I could do wineries, beaches and mountains all in a day 

28 minutes ago, AJR said:

Thanks @Troble that’s what I’m going to have to do, and maybe even throw it in the oven to reheat. What stall??  Already at 185, and feeling pretty tender in a few spots.  Who says you can’t do a Brisket in 5 hours?!  SMDH. My last one, a smaller one, wasn’t ready after 13 hours.

That is crazy. I started the wrapping thing by accident when my brisket got done early once and it stuck with me. I usually wrap and rest my brisket for 2-4 hours with 2-3 being the perfect timeframe and 4+ starting to dry out. I’ve done a few when it’s rested for 5 hours. 
 

you’ll be fine 

@Basher yesterday’s breakfast was for the parents. Today’s breakfast is for the kids 

may I present homemade Mickey Mouse pancakes from scratch served with crushed bananas, sliced blueberries and chocolate chips inside....pancake batter also contains hints of vanilla extract

52 minutes ago, AJR said:

Man...never know what your going to get with a Brisket. Dome temp hasn’t gone above 300, but four hours in and the deepest part is already at 160.  Going to try to drop the temp to 225 (which will take a while with the KK), and maybe the stall will last 4 hours like I need it to...

@AJR if you get done early just wrap it in foil, wrap in a towel and put in a cooler. You can store it for up to 4 hours with minimal impact on the meat 

@Basher I probed it and it was about 140 everywhere I poked. When I carved it I found some medium pieces his I like it (I’m not a rare guy I like pink and juicy but not rare, red and gushy) my wife likes her meat well done so it’s always a challenge cooking a big piece of meat to find the right balance. I think I achieved that this cook

fkavor were great especially on the outside bud as I found with my adobada cooks this summer and with some of my lamb/gyros attempts this summer I think I prefer to slice the meat into 1/2 inch - 1 inches thick pieces and have that marinate overnight then take those pieces abs stack them on the spit. It allows for more flavor penetration deep into the meat, although I’ve served it previously by slicing off the outside as it gone done, so I’ll continue to experiment. I appreciate all your advice @Basher but as I mentioned in our last message I can’t utilize the lower grate abs rotisserie at same time there’s not enough space, seems that’s an advantage of your 23 over my 32. I would have liked to have done the potatoes in the KK but I had to put them in the over since the rotisserie was in use 

really liking the lamb though. Kids like it cause it’s tender, wife likes it causes it’s not too fatty and I like it so next time I’ll try your balsamic marinade @Basheri was shocked I didn’t have any in my pantry yesterday 

@tekobo @RokDok all sounds good to me I love to travel and that what got me into cooking really. At the end of 2006 I sold all my possessions (including my house before the market  tanked) and I bought a one way ticket around the world 

my ticket took me from San Diego to Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires. Auckland, Sydney, Bangkok, Paris & finally NYC. I spent 11 months traveling around the world by myself when I was 27 years old. I’d generally stay in an country a month abs tahr trains and busses all around surrounding areas and if usually know someone in that country that I’d stay with for a week to give me a lay of the land. To say thank you for hosting me I always cooked a last meal for my hosts, people would want “American Food” but we dk t really have that outside BBQ. So I would cook “Mexican food”, I’d get skirt steak and make a carne asada marinade, and if research a place to buy tortillas and beans abs I’d make refreshing beans, and somehow would find a package of tortillas somewhere in the city I was in, but the hot was always guacamole. Everyone in the world had avocados usually but they had not experienced guacamole which was my speciality, so it was always a hit 

I’ve since realized how much I show my affection abs appreciation for people through serving them food. 
 

when I discovered this region that’s so close to my house abs this place Bruma that is so serene it was the first time I had that feeling of being in a magical far away land, but conveniently it’s only 90 minutes from my house so now we go every year. They say Valle de Guadalupe is like Napa in the 70’s or 80’s, up and coming but the locals are already starting to complain about how crowded it’s getting 

its being written up in NY Times, Conde Naste etc and the restaurant that’s on site at Bruma called Fauna (which is absolutely amazing but indoors and dark/not great for photo taking) was recently listed on the Latin America 50 best restaurants lists in the world this week. So the region is getting wide acclaim. It’s a very special place that I firmly believe is one of the true special regions of the world, based on my travels. I would love to share it with you. I’ll will dig up my itinerary and post it when the wife wakes up 

Bone in leg of lamb on the spit over mesquite wood. Marinated in olive oil, garlic, mint, rosemary, cumin, Peruvian salt & black pepper 

served with pearled olive oil & garlic cous cous with lemon zest & thyme 

as well as cast iron Yukon gold potatoes with salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary & olive oil. 
 

finished with homemade Tadziki sauce 

34 minutes ago, tekobo said:

What an inspiration.  I can feel a Californian road trip coming on when all of this COVID stuff is over.  

Do it! Just remember this is in Mexico 90 minutes south of San Diego. But there are 10-12 restaurants down there on this level. It is my source of cooking inspiration and my wife and I usually make the pilgrimage at least every fall and occasionally in spring to sample.

when you get ready to plan I have a full on OCD itinerary I put together for my 40th birthday last year I’ll share with you 

@tony b that’s the one I sent you that’s my favorite local San Diego beer

This is the place we stay at it’s called Bruma 

http://www.bruma.mx
 

@tony b next time you come to CA pop down to San Diego and I’ll take you down there. You’d love it