BBQ Roadtrip, part 3 - The Timing is Everything edition

For those of you that have read my previous blogs about my BBQ road trips in Minnesota, you know that I'm always comparing anything I taste to what I love about Central Texas BBQ. If you haven't read them, they can be found here:

http://hartoftexas.blogspot.com/2013/12/minnesota-bbq-road-trip-12-12-13-my.html

http://hartoftexas.blogspot.com/2014/06/minnesota-bbq-roadtrip-twin-cities.html


For road trip #3, my friend Darren and I headed north this time and really the route only took us North and West.

Smoke-In D's BBQ, Sauk Rapids

http://smokeindsbbq.com/

As is the case most of the time we visit a new place, we have a hard time convincing them of what we want. We ask for a sampler platter of all the meats, and they think we want something for free. Then when they realize that we're paying, the never can figure out how to just give us meat without the sides. The final issue we have is to get them to leave any sauce OFF of the meat. That is the one thing that trips them up most of the time. They are proud of their sauce and use it to help flavor the meat. That is why I love some Central Texas joints - they don't even offer sauce at all!

We ended up with a sampler platter that included chicken, ribs, and pulled pork. Of course, everything had their "liquid gold" sauce all over it.

The chicken was very dry. Sometimes when you visit a place when they first open, they are serving meats that were smoked the day before. I'm pretty sure this was the case, thus the chicken was dry. The taste was good however.

The pulled pork didn't have much smoke flavor and any other taste was probably covered up by the sauce. This would have made a good sandwich.

The ribs were the best thing we were served, but they were overcooked. They fell of the bone when you picked them up. I'm from the camp that there should be a "little chew" to get them off the bone.

If I lived in Sauk Rapids, I would visit there again, but I won't be going out of my way to go again.

I was able to find out that they use hickory wood, but they couldn't/wouldn't tell me what kind of smoker they used. The owner kept telling us how busy he was, but of course he kept coming out to see if we liked it.

 

Louie's Bucket of Bones, Ironton

This is where our timing issues began. I was under the impression they were open from 11 - 6. It turns out they are open 11-1 and then 4-6. We arrived at 1:20. Darren was able to get someone to come out to talk to us, but she wouldn't serve us and she did give us a skewer with some smoked pork on it that was good, but left us disappointed. Oh well, some other time.

The Piggy, Walker

Here's where our second timing issue came into play. By the time we got to Walker (3:15), they were sold out. We didn't even see anyone to talk to.

Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ, Battle Lake

http://www.elmersbarbeque.com/

Here's place that went out of their way to welcome us and accommodate us. As soon as they found out what we were doing, they took us back into the kitchen to show off their Oyler smoker. They told us they use oak (I think they said white oak).

Because we hadn't eaten that much because of having two places closed on us, we decided to order a full meal including sides.

We ordered The Duke, a dinner for two that included:        
1/2 Rack Pork Ribs, 4oz. Pulled Pork, 4oz Beef Brisket, 4 Jumbo Shrimp. and sides.

We also ordered 1/2 chicken which is cooked rotisserie style and then finished off in the smoker.

The brisket could have used some more time in the smoker, but was good overall. We did get a slice that was very dry, but the others were moist and tasty.

The ribs were good, but like I often find at too many places, they fell off the bone, meaning they were overcooked.

The pulled pork was shredded nicely, but the smoke flavor had not penetrated the inside of the pork shoulder. It still had a good taste though.

The shrimp (not BBQ) were very good.

The chicken was good, but could have used more time in the smoker was a little more taste.
As for the sides, the slaw was light and crunchy, they had good hushpuppies, the cornbread was too sweet and the beans were canned (they even admitted that.)

Because the food was good and that they offered great hospitality, I would definitely come here again.

*****************************************************************************

480 miles for two meals...the scenery was pretty, the company good and the tunes were blaring.

Minnesota BBQ roadtrip - Twin Cities edition

My friend Darren and I undertook our second Minnesota BBQ roadtrip - this time staying in the Twin Cities. We chose places that either neither of us had been to, or that only 1 had been too. Places such as Famous Dave's, Market BBQ, Rudolph's, or Q Fanatic were avoided as we do not like their BBQ. We also didn't visit Dickie's (not a favorite) or Baker's Ribs (which is a favorite of both of ours.)
While we go into these visits with an open mind, we certainly recognize that we are comparing them to what we were/are used to in Central Texas. When ordering, for the most part, we stayed away from sides so that we wouldn't completely fill up before day's end.

Pastor Hamilton's BBQ, St. Paul

Pastor Hamiltons' is a place adjacent to St. John's Church where he is the pastor. All proceeds benefit Project Fresh Start which helps send kids to college.

When we go into a place, we try to explain that we are on a roadtrip and would like to get a sampler of all the bbq meats that are offered. Pastor Hamilton said he didn't give free samples, misunderstanding that we would pay for it. He finally put together boxes of ribs, pulled beef and pulled pork for us.

 

 Unfortunately, we didn't impress on him that we didn't want sauce on anything. But, because he evidently is more known for his sauce, he slathered it on everything. The sauce was very tasty, but overwhelmed the meats.

The ribs were falling off the bone, which some people like, but I think it shows they are overcooked. They tasted ok, but there was no smoke ring or flavor what so ever.

The beef was bland for what we could tell under all that sauce.

The pork was better than the beef, but still no smoke.

After we ate, the pastor came out to see what we thought. When I said that I couldn't taste any smoke and thought everything was grilled, he got defensive and stated that no one can tell the difference and that the meats had been smoked. When asked what kind of smoker and wood he used, we basically told us it was a trade secret.  He insisted though that we should come back when he "cooked outside" and he would call me to let us know when.

Big Daddy's BBQ, St. Paul

 



I had been to Big Daddy's before, when they were in Union Station and when they were only open on Saturdays. They wouldn't put together a sampler plate for us, but the menu had small portions available so we tried the beef ribs, pork ribs and smoked chicken.

 

The first thing we were impressed with was that sauce was served on the side. Also, they offered plain white bread to accompany the meat (which is a big Central Texas thing.)

The beef ribs had the proper smoke ring, the meat had a good bite to the bone and were the perfect size. Often beef ribs are the size of the brontosaurus ribs from the Flintstones and are just too much everything. They had a good smoke flavor, but could have used some pepper rub on them.

The pork ribs had the same great smoke ring (not pictured) and had a good bite. Very flavorful, but could also use a little more pepper rub.

The chicken had a slight smokiness, but great flavor and was very moist!

Smoker:  Southern Pride
Wood:  Hickory

Interlude number 1 - Mears Park

The disadvantage to staying in the Cities is that there isn't much time in-between stops. There was no way we could taste and digest everything back-to-back. So we decided to make a couple of stops between the BBQ visits. The first such stop was Mears Park in downtown St. Paul.

 

 

Mears Park was a perfect place to enjoy the beautiful sunny day that we had and to walk off our first two stops.

 

Rack Shack, W. St. Paul

 

After our break, we were ready to resume our meat adventure.

 

 

At the Rack Shack, we chose brisket, ribs and pulled pork.

.

 

The brisket was the worst of the bunch. It had no smoke ring and no fat (I don't like it completely trimmed). It basically tasted like roast beef. They told us that it had been smoked for 14 hours, but I couldn't even taste that it had been smoke for 1.

 

The ribs, however, were very good. They had a nice smoke ring, a good bite and a very nice flavor, although still not a lot of smoke penetration. I'm guess they wrap their meat in foil pretty early in the process.

 

The pulled pork had a good crust and a nice smoke ring. It had good flavor as well.

 

Smoker:   Southern Pride

Woods:  Hickory, Apple, Maple

 

Interlude number 2 - Centennial Lakes Putting Course, Edina

 

From their website:

 

Not miniature golf, it's golf in miniature! Centennial Lakes Park's 18 manicured bent grass greens range in length from 57 to 125 feet and are surrounded by sand traps, ponds, boulders and planter beds.
Players use only a putter to negotiate these heavily undulated greens. This par 51 layout is 1,662 feet in length and takes approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes to play.

 

It was so nice to be outside of the first nice sunny day in a long time. I'd like to meet the people that can actually be at or below par on this challenging course.

Ted Cook's 19th Hole BBQ, Minneapolis

I would like to be able to report on the quality of their BBQ, but we never ate there. When we went in and explained what we were doing, they had no interest in accommodating us with a sampler platter. They also had no interest in selling us anything but full portions of their meats. In particular, when we wanted to order less than a pound of beef or pork, they said we had to order a minimum of a pound each. Needless to say, we decided not to give them any of our money.

Scott Ja' Mamas, Minneapolis

 

Scott Ja' Mama's was a late addition to our agenda. After the issues at Ted Cook's, Scott Ja' Mama's was a complete 180 degrees in accommodation. They went out of their way to fix us a nice sampler of baby back ribs, chicken and pulled pork. With sauce on the side, we dug in.

 

We quickly found out that the meats there had been grilled, not smoked. So while not BBQ in our minds, it really didn't matter as all of the food was very good. The ribs had a nice pepper rub on them and the chicken had a nice crispy skin and was very moist. The pork was tasty as well. About half-way through the meal, the owner brought out some beans for us to sample. And then to finish everything off, he brought us each a cupcake.

 

 

The price they charged us was ridiculously low and I would definitely recommend this as a spot to try and will go back myself.

 

Interlude #3 - Minnehaha Falls

 

We had some time to kill before our last stop, so we headed over to Minnehaha Falls. The line for Sea Salt Eatery was long as usual. The thing to see, however, was the falls.

 

The amount of water rushing over the falls in staggering. Especially since I've been there when there is no water running at all! The massive amounts of rain are making this a sight to see!

 

 

C & G's Smoking BBQ

 

C& G was supposed to be the first stop on our first roadtrip back in December. Instead it was our last stop of this tour and we were joined by Darren's wife and some other friends. We ordered brisket, ribs, smoked turkey and pulled pork. As it was our last meal, I finally ordered a side!

 

The brisket barely had any smoke flavor and no smoke ring but was at least better that the Rack Shack's.

 

The ribs, like the brisket, lacked any discernible smoke flavor, but had a light rub on them that was good. I would have like to have seen a heavier application of the rub.

 

There was nothing special about the turkey and in fact, it was dry,

 

The pulled pork was the best of the bunch and was a little sweet, but again, no smoke flavor.

 

They were very accommodating to provide us with the sampler platter that we requested. Some in our party also ordered the banana pudding and it was very good.

 

Smoker:   Southern Pride

Wood:  Hickory

 

Overview

 

Maybe it's a Minnesota thing, but these places seemed to be afraid of putting much smoke flavor into the meat. If they would do that, they would have a much better product. Big Daddy's seems to "get it."

 

Hopefully, we will travel north sometime this summer to sample more places around the state.

The Texas Trip - part 6 (final)

Day 9 ended with a viewing of Frozen with my niece Jemma. This precious 5 year old proceeded to sing every song and to dance and move just like her favorite character, Elsa.

Day 10

The final day of my trip began with playing games with my niece and nephew. Then it was time to leave and start the drive back to DFW to catch my flight. All went well until I turned in my rental car. On the shuttle back to the terminal, I realized that I left my cell phone in the car. I didn't have time to make it back to the rental car center, so I went ahead and checked in and went through security. I guess I was so flustered at having left my phone, I put all my bins through the scanner, but forgot to put my roller bag on the conveyor. I only realized it after going through the micro-wave scanner. A friendly TSA agent went and got it for me and put it through the scanner. She was very nice, unlike the first TSA agent I asked - who couldn't be bothered to help me.

I then had to find a pay phone to call the rental car company. After finding one and getting some quarters, I reported my error. They had me send an email (luckily, I had my laptop) so they could reply with a lost item form. I sent it back in with all of the details and they say it will be a minimum of 7 days to process. Are you kidding me? The form went to the office at the DFW rental car center for Alamo.

I then had to contact my IT department to have the phone disabled (company phone). I have a new phone on the way already.

The flight back to MSP was a little bumpy, but we arrived 20 minutes early! The best part of the flight was seeing NO SNOW on the ground as we approached the airport!

Day 10 - 209 miles.

Trip totals

2137 miles

7 Jalapeño Cheese biscuits from Whataburger.
6 Tex-Mex meals
2 chicken fried steaks

The Texas Trip - part 5

Before moving on, I wanted to add a comment about day 5. When you're in the valley, you can't help but notice the fields and fields of vegetables. We saw onions, cabbages, lettuce, carrots, and broccoli being grown.

Day 7

Before leaving Kerrville, we headed to the James Avery headquarters and visitors center. James Avery is a master jeweler and is well known in Texas and beyond. My sisters, of course, made a couple of purchases.

From Kerrville, we headed north through Fredericksburg to the Willow City Loop. The Loop is well known on the bluebonnet trail for having vast fields of bluebonnets among the cattle ranches and homes. The road cuts through active ranches and the livestock roam free in-between cattle guards that keep them on each ranch's property. While, the fields were disappointing this year, there is plenty of wildlife to see. We saw turkeys, a great blue heron, several tangiers, and other common birds.

The question of what happens to old boots was answered: they are used to cap fence posts.

 

 

From the Willow City Loop, we continued north until Llano and then headed east to Marble Falls to the Bluebonnet Café. Our late lunch was capped by a slice of their famous pies.

After lunch, we ended our day in Cedar Park / Austin

 

Day 8 & 9

 

Days 8 & 9 were spent in the Austin area. Restaurant choices included Matt's El Rancho and Pappacito's. I love Tex-Mex! I caught a Longhorn baseball game against TCU on Friday night and spent a lot of time with my niece and nephew.

 

Saturday morning began early as we went down to South Austin to get in line at End of an Ear for Record Store Day. We were #9 and #10 in line at 7 am for a store that didn't open until 11 am. This is the third year my brother Lee and I have done this, and it's fun to meet up with friends from the two previous years.

 

I was able to get 5 of the 6 records on my wish list:

 

Centro-Matic

Bob Wills

Brain Jonestown Massacre / Magic Castles

Deco / Flaming Lips side by side

Big Mama Thornton

 

The only one they didn't have was the Lydia Loveless 7"

 

Days 7, 8, & 9: 320 miles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Texas Trip - part 4

Day 5

Day 5 began with a visit to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center

They take in injured sea turtles and nurse them back to health. I some cases they have to keep the turtles there for life as they cannot be put back in the wild.

After a visit to one of the numerous souvenir shops, we headed down to Brownsville and out to the Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge. While driving through the refuge and to Boca Chica beach, we learned that the last battle of the Civil War was fought in this area: The Battle of Palmito Ranch.

From Wikipedia: The Battle of Palmito Ranch, also known as the Battle of Palmito Hill and the Battle of Palmetto Ranch, was fought between Union Army and Confederate States Army forces on May 12–13, 1865 near Brownsville, Texas. It was the last land battle of any size or significance of the American Civil War.^[1] The battle was fought on the banks of the Rio Grande about 12 miles (19 km) east of Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago, which was located on the present-day ship channel of the Port of Brownsville.

On the way to the beach, we passed several prickly pear cactus in bloom

Some of the birds we saw:

Laughing Gull

Cattle Egret

Blue Heron

Blue Bunting

 

 

While taking a break at a convenience store, we learned of a good lunch spot:



Dora's (Brownsville.) It was delicious Mexican food and very inexpensive.

We then began the drive up the border on US 281. We quickly noticed the border fence. It seemed to be intact from Brownsville to almost McAllen, but we noticed several spots after that where it was incomplete or missing altogether.

My friend, Laura Lee, sent a text to me and to a friend of hers saying that we should get together for a beer. Of course, she said I was in the Valley, which didn't exactly narrow it down. After calling her friend, I found she was in Mission, TX and we were heading to McAllen, which is next door. So all of the sudden, the Valley shrunk. We ended up meeting for dinner at a Mexican Restaurant and then headed out to Sofie's S.S. Saloon for a nitecap.

Laura Lee should now be afraid as I have some good gossip on her!

We ended the day at a hotel in Edinburg.

Day 5 - 174 miles.

Day 6

We left Edinburg and headed to Kerrville via back roads. We had to stop for the second time on the trip for a border patrol inspection station. After stopping, all they asked is if we were US citizens. When we said yes, we were on our way. I guess we didn't look like smugglers.

We were back in the land of oil/gas fields and the many, many trucks. We stopped in Poteet for lunch and had DQ Dudes. This is a chicken fried steak sandwich, which seems to only be available in Texas. Poteet is known for its' strawberries and they have a big festival annually. We missed it by about 10 days.

After driving through celebrated Texas towns of Hondo and Bandera, we arrived in Kerrville. For dinner, we headed up to Waring, TX for Steak Nite. The Waring General Store holds this every Wednesday and offers a complete steak dinner for $25. The dinner includes appetizers, a 10-oz steak, potatoes, salad, and dessert. They also have live music each Steak Nite. Tonight's entertainment was the Texas Renegade band.

Back to Kerrville for the night

Day 6 - 388 miles