blumbergk Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 About a week before getting married (4/29/06) I get this email from a local BBQ store (Ft. Lauderdale) letting me know that my friend Chris has bought us a grill called a Primo Oval for a wedding present and that I should call about having it delivered. I'm thinking what am I gonna do with another grill, I have this top of the line SS gas grill at the house and it's big and makes great burgers and steaks etc...Then we Google the Primo and I think "CHARCOAL!! what a PITA, he must be kidding, gas is so much better/easier!!" I actually thought about not taking the thing but Chris is one of my best friends, I feel bad and then I figure well maybe we can use it in the Keys, at a place where a bunch of us fish all the time and the grill there is getting old in fact it is a rusted heap that occasionally hisses gas during use and sombody's gonna get blown up so I call the BBQ store guys and say, "Can you deliver to Big Pine Key?" Of course there is no way because this thing is heavy, long distance from the store etc... So a few weeks after the honeymoon when things settle down I get a call from Chris who got a call from the BBQ store guy who didn't know what to do. A fishing trip was the only solution so Chris loads this thing into his pickup and says "man, you're not gonna believe how awesome it is to cook with charcoal and you can 'low and slow' cook meats such as pork shoulder, BBribs, direct/indirect etc... and the coolest thing is that you control the temp by adjusting the airflow at the top and bottom of this thing thru airvents..." And I'm thinking what a total waste of time. OK, so I throw out the hissing gas bomb and we carry this 300lb thing up the stairs (most of the homes remaining in the lower keys are up on stilts, Wilma took the rest) and put it together and stoke it with some lump that Chris brought down with the grill and direct some porterhouse steaks that he rubbed with who knows what and I realize this could be the best steak I've ever had and WOW, you actually do control the temp in the grill by adjusting the airvents and man this is really cool. So, I'm hooked and over the next few months my new bride(Anita) and the kids (Eric 15 and Emily 13) and I cook some awesome pizzas, ribs of all kinds and pork for pulling and chopping, steaks, burgers, chicken, veggies etc...Then, I'm looking at the SS gas grill in Ft. Lauderdale thinking how am I gonna get rid of this thing, it's valuble and actually a nice grill for what it is but no way I can cook on or eat from anything but ceramic from now on. So, Happy Birthday Dad, and it gets boxed and shipped to Solomons, MD and he thinks he hit the lottery or maybe I have and neither of us can believe our luck. And I still had no idea.... Chris calls and invites me to a July 4th BBQ and he cooks a great meal for a bunch of friends on his Primo and I tell him I gotta get another one for Ft. Lauderdale and he says "don't do it, check out komodokamado.com." He says he has never seen one but just look at it and he wants one so bad he can't stand it. What????You must be kidding. Are you sure?? He says "check it out, it's real nice, but don't let me influence you." Uh huh. So I start emailing Dennis and the obsession grows and my wife is wondering how she lost me so quick to a grill. I order a black tile supreme OTB, paypal without any risk or trouble, wait a while and it hits California, gets fondled by customs for a week and then trucked xcountry to Ft.L. The delivery guys can't get it around the side of the house with their forklift on wheels and leave this beheamouth boxed at the front door. And my son and I dive in and open up one slat on the top and all I want to know is how in the world Dennis knew I didn't own a crowbar and there is one mounted inside the crate in order to take the rest of the crate apart. The casters on the OTB allow us to EASILY roll it around the house to the backyard and I send Eric to the boat for a set of sockets to adjust the hood spring that was left loose during transport. We get it perfectly adjusted, opens like a DVD door and start to unwrap the rest of the packaging to find a homemade 19mm socket with wrench handle welded on just in case we didn't have one already. I'm thinking this is unbelievable. I have never purchased a product so well thoughtout with such amazing customer service. So...time to accessorize. But charcoal, a grill scraper and a meat thermometer is all I got because we already have a fork and everything else comes standard with the KK. So we have been having a great time cooking all kinds of stuff on this new grill, still working thru some requested breakin requirements and planning a Xmas party for Anita's coworkers this weekend. Got a call from Chris' wife yesterday, she says Chris is going nuts over my KK and she wants to get him one for Xmas and I say well let me contact Dennis and lets see what we can do... Uh Huh...no influence at all. PS, Last night I got a phone call from Dennis, that's right, from freakin Indonesia, he said he was worried about me and wanted to make sure my grill got here OK and was I happy. Man o man, I told him I need another one for a friend. Pics to follow. Kal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samantha Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Kal, Great story Kal. It sounds as though you and your friend Chris are in for some competitive cooking. Welcome to the forum. Even though I'm not good with pictures, they are greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Obsession is right...once you've gone ceramic...you can't go back can you. Great story. Speaking of the wondeful SS you gave away, here's my version. My neighbor in Atlanta had a huge top of the line SS grill with the natural gas hookup and all, he was learning how to cook on it and rather proud. He saw the new tiled grill I had and made funny comments about it. Then one day I went and picked up a couple of chickens. I rubbed them down with some Charcrust amd spatchcoked them. So after cooking them I took one of them over to his house and gave it to them....it was dinner time and they were gonna try to throw something together and now they had an entree. He was very happy after seeing how juicy it was and smelling that wonderful charcoal cooked smell. Anyways, the next day he made a special effort to tell me that it was the BEST chicken he and his wife had ever eaten from anywhere, restuarant or home...and he had to know what spices I put on it. I told him it wasn't the spices it was the cooker, but he continued to talk about the spices. So I gave him a package of Charcrust and he used it on chicken on his high-dollar SS grill...and he had the same ole chicken he always had...except with a little different spices (prolly dried out in comparison). He just couldn't understand. He got to where he NEVER used that grill anymore...ever. What a waste, maybe he could send it off to your dad...cause once you taste food from a ceramic grill...you do get obsessed, yes you do By the way, welcome...and yes we expect a lot of pics, I'll be posting some tonight and tomorrow cause I'm cooking a couple of pork butts I prepped last night. Be sure and get Chris out here at least lurking until he gets his KK. The more people, the more pics...and the pics are what matters...believe me the pics are golden. Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words must have been part of a bbq forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 ...and the pics are what matters...believe me the pics are golden. Leaddog's pics are certainly golden! hehe Hey Kal, welcome to the forum! Yes, we definitely love pics here; though we do occasionally make fun of some of them, it is still all good! I am anxious to see some pics of your black tiled in a home setting as that is the color I am getting! -=Jasen- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samantha Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Kal, Maybe you better not feed your dad anything from your Komodo....he might want you to get him one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruz-in Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Solomons Island, MD... Small world, noted you sent your SS grill to Soloms Island...that is just over the bridge from where I live....My KK will be here by the end of the year...If you are up visiting Dad and missing your KK...give me a shout and come use mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blumbergk Posted December 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Dad Well I figure that Dear ole Dad(DoD) will be here soon enough cuz he's from FLA and this is his first full winter in a long time anywhere near the MD line. He should be nearing hypothermia by now. I can remember growing up and grilling just about every night on a Weber with pressed briquettes lit by an electric starter, often used to chase my brother around the yard, scary to him even when it wasn't hot! So it shouldn't be too hard to convert DoD to ceramic, lump and low and slow. He might be visiting even before I do, Thank you greatly for the invite. Kal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemonkey Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 Small world indeed... I am living in Central FL now, but I am an Annapolis native (lived there 22 years and enjoyed many visits to Solomons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmer John Posted December 9, 2006 Report Share Posted December 9, 2006 And the world is getting smaller I grew up in Arnold, went to Severna Park HS in the 70's, live on the Eastern Shore, and since I deal with the military, I visit Pax River often! Heck it sounds to me like a family of Q's! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemonkey Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Indeed it is Farmer John! My family is still all around the area. My sis is in Arnold, Dad is still in Annapolis, and I have family on another local island (Gibson Island), plus lots more around the Baltimore 'burbs ...and not a one of them appreciates the value of ceramic grills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rorkin Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Not faraway (by boat) here on Tilghman Island, Md Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
