Grand Rapids for one night 11/25 (tomorrow)

Looking for a place to eat in GR tomorrow night. I've been plenty of times and usually hit San Chez bistro when I get the chance. Looking for something new. Same atmosphere would be nice food should be great without being pretentious. Open to just about anything...well, I am, not sure about my pregnant wife:-). Maybe italian, french, spanish, greek, south american - or some sort of fusion.

Thanks

nielubow in Great Lakes

Pig Roast - Question on doneness

ricepad....You are right! Traditional pulled pork is roasted over indirect heat for a long period of time. Now you see my dilemma. If pork shoulder is part of a whole pig and should be cooked to 190ish degrees, how ,then, will I get away with cooking a whole hog to 160.

KiltedCook - traditional BBQ'd pulled pork is NEVER braised. And I can tell you from experience that a pork shoulder cooked low and slow to 190 degrees renders a very delicious piece of meat.

I plan on cooking using method instructed by "3 Guys from Miami"....http://cuban-christmas.com/pigroast.html
They use a homemade outdoor oven made of cinder blocks and splaying the pig out flat.

nielubow in Home Cooking

Pig Roast - Question on doneness

Going to do a pig roast of 40-55 lbs next weekend. I have read multiple posts instructing that the pig is done when the meat reaches 160. I am wondering how a bbq'd pork shoulder requires at least 190 degrees to reach the desired state of texture while a full hog (including the shoulders) can be cooked to only 160. Every time I have roasted/bbq'd a shoulder, at 160 the meat is nowhere near a state in which it could be pulled. On the flip side, the tenderloin and rib sections are best at medium (150 ish). Can anyone explain to me how reconcile these opposing ideas of doneness when cooking a whole hog? the only thing I can come up with is that a pork shoulder I get from a supermarke comes from a much larger and older hog and therefor may have more connective tissue while a 40-55lb pig is younger and naturally more tender.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

nielubow in Home Cooking

Where to buy Suckling Pig in Detroit Area

Great Info guys! thanks!

nielubow in Great Lakes

Where to buy Suckling Pig in Detroit Area

will do - thanks for you efforts. I may try an asian grocer too.

nielubow in Great Lakes

Where to buy Suckling Pig in Detroit Area

thanks fritter - look forward to hearing back.

nielubow in Great Lakes

Where to buy Suckling Pig in Detroit Area

Anybody have any idea where I could get a whole suckling or baby pig in the Detroit area? I am trying to recreate the Cochinillo I had in Spain - best pig I have ever had - didnt have anything but salt and the flavor of the wood oven for flavor.

THANKS!

nielubow in Great Lakes

Angelina's Italian Bistro - Detroit

you make some very good points. Good idea about using Molly's reports as a reminder - I guess I see it that way too.

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Angelina's Italian Bistro - Detroit

I did not have much to go by, but decided to give Angelina's a try yesterday for a b-day dinner with a party of 11. The only information I could find was a review by Molly Abraham (more on her later). There were some good things and not so good things in regards to Angelina's. Let's Start with the good:

The service was very friendly and attentive. SOME of the food was good - the clam linguini, Salumi plate, strip steak skewers, gnocchi (although it could've used a few more mushrooms), and housemade mozzarella.. These were all fairly good. Their beer is a nice touch for those who like tasting different sorts of beer. Although I am not a gelato aficionado (hey that rhymes) it seemed very good.

Now, the not so good. 3 of the dishes were very poorly seasoned, as in very little to ZERO salt. I am a firm believer that I should never have to season with salt at the table. The Minestrone soup, Mushroom soup, and chicken marsala were all in this way. My biggest disappointment was the parpardelle bolognese. I have studied this dish enough to know what it is not - ground beef, tomatoes, and some cream added at the end. I was hoping for something more in the traditional style - beef, pork, veal, slow simmered for hours in milk and wine with a hint of tomato. The pasta seemed old, or underdone - just did not have the luscious melt in your mouth feel. Although the linguini seemed to have a better texture. Might just be a problem with quality control. The portobella polenta stack seemed bland and hard to cut. The pizzas were ok but nothing special.

To sum up - I probably will not be returning. Some of the food was decent and the prices were very acceptable, but nothing I ate will bring me back.

Question for you fellow Detroit chowhounders: does Molly Abraham ever give an honest review? I do not follow her writing religiously, but have come across some of her articles and this is the second one she raved about that I have been unimpressed with. Thoughts?

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Best Eats in Windsor?

Looking for some recommendations for b-day dinner in Windsor Ontario for a group of 8. Spanish, Italian, Asian, Eclectic...one of these would be nice.

nielubow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Split 18 lb rib roast or cook whole?

Well, its over. The 18.55 lb beast has been cooked and eaten! Here's how it happened....I let the roast sit at room temp for about 3 hours. I removed the boned then tied back on for easy removal and carving. Rubbed with 1.5 sticks of butter mixed with a lot of salt and pepper. Only problem here was that I always seem to have a problem with the butter having trouble adhering to the meat. I tried to dry the surface with paper towels hoping to get better sticking but its still difficult (any tips here?). I did the best I could and it seemed to create a nice crust. I dont think you can add too much salt to something like this!

Cooking method: Since the roast would not fit in a standard roasting pan, I used a 20-22 inch disposable aluminum pan, doubled up. Turns out it was the just the right size. 425 convection bake for 15 minutes. Then convection bake at 250 until the thermometer read 125 (I went a little higher than normal since my cooking temp was pretty low and did not expect too much carryover cooking). I would have cooked at 225 convection but the oven would not go so low. I used 2 insta-read thermometers about 8 inches apart near the center of the roast. The roast rested for about 40 minutes. Total cooking time was about 3 hours ( I didnt really pay attention to time, but the thermometer).

First few cuts came from the end for the babies :-). Then I went right for the center for the rest of us. Nearly the whole cross section of the meat was medium rare to rare with the exception of the outer 1/2 inch. It was a thing of beauty and it tasted great!

Thanks everyone for your help and have a pleasant holiday season!

BTW - one poster above assumed that I was female, while in fact I am a 30 year old guy. What was it about my original post that may have indicated otherwise:-)?

nielubow in Home Cooking

Split 18 lb rib roast or cook whole?

I am wondering how much quicker the convection setting will cook the roast?

nielubow in Home Cooking

Split 18 lb rib roast or cook whole?

Unfortunately, I do not have the roast in my possession, its at my parents' place. I had my dad take a measurement and it look like its 17 inches long. My roasting pan, as it turns out, is only 16.5 inches long. I may have to split into two no matter what! Maybe take a few ribs off one end for the people that cant stand the sight of rare meat, and leave 14 inches for the rest of us? obviously, the smaller piece will cook in a shorter amount of time.

I do have a probe thermometer, actually I will be using a couple.

Also, would anyone suggest using convection bake?

For sure I will have the roast out of the oven at least 2 hours prior.

nielubow in Home Cooking

Split 18 lb rib roast or cook whole?

I am making a 18 lb standing rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner. Wondering if I should split into 2 more manageable pieces for quicker cooking or leave whole? Any ideas how long a 18 pounder would take if I choose to go that path?

Thanks

nielubow in Home Cooking

Recommendations For Grand Rapids

Going to GR this weekend. We've been to San Chez Bistro numerous times and love it but want to try something new. Looking for something in the same pricerange ($80-100) with the similar atmosphere.

Thanks

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Toronto trip this past weekend - Impressions

Hello Toronto Ch'ers,

Because you were so kind as to give me loads of advice on my "Toronto eats and things to do" post last week, I thought I would return the favor and give you my impressions of your wonderful city. (Sorry this might be kind of long)

We LOVED the place! Not just because of the food, but I'll start with the food since that is what this site is all about.

Arrived in Toronto on Friday about 11am. Promptly visited the concierge to get a map and received a little lesson on how to get around.

First order of business was DIM SUM. So, off the China Town we went. After reading up on CH, I decided on Rol San. It was a great choice. Although I have never had Dim Sum (I have had dumplings and wonton wrappers, etc) before in the traditional sense, I could tell that these were something that had to be on the right track. Full of flavor and fresh, our assortment was darn good. We had pork and shrimp dumplings, beef tripe (a first for both of us), shrimp dumpling, short rib in pepper sauce, mushroom dumpling, fried eggplant, some kind of white puffy thing with some kind of meat, and hot cakes. We ordered way too much. Which is a shame because we were still a little full at dinner at 8:30 (plus the heat and all the walking decreased the appetite as well).

For dinner we dined at L'unita. All in all it was pretty good. I had the seared tuna with lemon watercress and my wife had the truffle risotto (which was the first time either of us has tasted truffle as the main ingredient) with a side of asparagus. The tuna seemed fresh, seasoned nicely, and perfectly cooked (rare) and the grilled lemon on the side was a nice touch. I don't know if everyone is going to hate me for saying this but, the risotto was just ok. Everyone gets so excited when they talk about truffles. In fact we sat in the side dining area and saw the chef and another coworker smelling the truffle when they brought it out of its "vault". They seemed giddy! Anyway, the risotto seemed a bit under-seasoned and not worth $30. Getting picky here, but some of the the asparagus still had the woody part of the stalk, a place charging ~$50/head should get this right. For dessert we had the cannolis - these were GREAT! All in all, pretty good but slightly overpriced compared to what we got at Jamie Kennedy for about the same price (but we'll get to that later).

On Saturday we wanted to go to Wish for breakfast upon one of the CH'ers recommendation. But, what do you know, it wasnt open until 10:30. We didnt want to wait that long for fear of ruining our appetite for lunch. So, we wandered down towards the lake as we were heading to St. Lawrence Market. We couldnt find a place to eat so we just decided on a Second Cup, and I hated myself for it after seeing all that I could have been trying at the market if I had been hungry! Seriously folks, your St. Lawrence Market is amazing! I am JEALOUS!

Anyway, back on track. Another CH'er recommended Rose's Cafe on Broadview. So we stopped in on our way to Greek Town. Rose's was a neat little place, a tiny cafe/market. We had both the fresh and fried spring rolls with 2 kinds of sauce. What a great deal, $7 including drinks a some great rolls. Only wish the fried rolls were freshly fried. She had them sitting at the counter and were room temp. Still very tasty. Our mid afternoon snack consisted of gelato at a place in St. Lawrence area (dont remember the name). I am no gelato aficionado but it was pretty good.

Now for Saturday dinner...Jamie K wine bar. Great restaurant! We had the yukon fries, grilled sardines, encontrote of beef with mushrooms, duck confit with sweet potato puree, and filet of grass fed beef with baby carrots. I know the menu probably changes so some of these might not be familiar, but they were all excellent! This was my favorite experience of the trip. I'd go back a 1000 times!

Sunday breakfast consisted of Tim Hortons egg sandwich, have you heard of the place ;-)? Again, because we didnt feel like finding a place to eat at 9am fearing nothing would be open. We headed back to Greek Town for lunch at Pantheon (after reading some CH reviews). We had a very nice lunch before heading home. We ordered the Combo Plate consisting of grilled squid, grilled octopus, sausage, grape leaves, spinach pie with a side of the Greek Village (Horiatiki??) salad, and the the honey cake for dessert. Everything was wonderful and a great way to end the trip.

So, in summary, WHEN CAN WE MOVE TO TORONTO? HAHA. It truly was a pleasant trip and hope to return many times. I also liked the fact that "Going Green" seems to be a mainstream idea that the government supports, where we in the States have to do whatever we can on our own - I applaud you for this. Also loved the public transit system...something we have ZERO of in Detroit (oh wait, we have the People Mover). Had a conversation with a few Torontans and all seemed very nice and truly happy to have us visit.

Thanks for your help.

nielubow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Toronto eats and things to do this weekend

Thanks...These are all great tips!!

nielubow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Toronto eats and things to do this weekend

am I doing something wrong....nobody has replied???

nielubow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Toronto eats and things to do this weekend

HI Everyone - I am traveling with my wife to Toronto this Friday thru Sunday from Detroit Area, MI. We are staying at the Marriott Bloor-Yorkville. It was a last minute thing and we did not know about the Summerlicious festival going on and I hear it may be difficult to get into some restaurants. We need some recs!

We like to try just about everything. I'd like to find something in China Town. Maybe some good authentic italian- around here it is hard to find something without being loaded with tomato sauce. Anything else that I HAVE to try while in town?

Does anyone have any thoughts about Vagabondo for brunch? Bb33 Bistro?

Is Bloor-Yorkville worth a trip for shopping, eating, sightseeing?

One more thing - is there any place to get high quality Asian tea (loose leaf)?

Thanks in advance for any information.

nielubow in Ontario (including Toronto)

Ideas for interesting ethinc dinner in detroit burbs

Never heard of Fiddler and have I never had Russian food. I'll have to keep it in mind. Is it similar to polish food?I have been to Zinc and really enjoyed it. Yes, I have been to La Shish - very good. But I have heard similar accusations about that place.

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Ideas for interesting ethinc dinner in detroit burbs

Looked up a review on Metrot Times from 1999 - looks like a cool place. Still put out good food? It seems like there is/was a Royal Kubo in Oak Park. Has it closed?

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Ideas for interesting ethinc dinner in detroit burbs

I am looking for an neat ethnic place to go to with my wife, mother in law and her husband. We are very adventureous! I've been to the Blue Nile (Ethiopian), Bi Bam Bap (Korean) in Novi, various sushi places around town, Indian, Mexian, quite a few more. Looking for place thats not necessarily fancy but rather not go to a "hole in the wall" (although I know some of these places offer great food) - something that has a fun atmosphere is preferable. Anywhere in town (from Ann Arbor, Rochester, even Windsor).

Thanks

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Fun Restaurants in St John USVI

HI - we will be going to St. John tomorrow. Looking for good restaurant recs with fun atmosphere, great food, that wont kill a budget (less than 100$/ meal for 2). We like everything, but would like to go to restaurants that we cant easily go to at home (Detroit). Looking for spanish tapas, seafood, carribean...etc.

Thanks

nielubow in South & Central America & the Caribbean

Driving from MSP to East Lansing, MI

Not sure if you will be going through Grand Rapids, but if you are there is a place called San Chez bistro which is downtown. Very good spanish style tapas, and a fun place. Sorry no recs for old fashioned butchers.

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

hungry in detroit

Try Zinc Brasserie and Wine Bar in West Bloomfield. Bastones in Royal Oak is also a fun place with good food and wine (and beer if you are into it - they brew their own Belgian Beer). Also, next door is a wine bar owned by the same person as Bastones.

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Buying Green/White Tea in Northern Detroit Area

HI All - Tea supply is a little low and will be doing some shopping today. Anyone have any suggestions on where to shop for Organic White/Green teas? I usually go to Whole Foods Market for the Rishi brand, but was wondering if there were any asian markets or anything else that provided a large selection as well.

Thanks

nielubow in General Midwest Archive

Pre-Searing Pork Tenderloin

I am going to be cooking a lunch for people I work with (about 20), and will be grilling on a community grill at work. Most of what I will be serving will be made before hand but I will be grilling the just meat before serving. I am making grilled pork tenderloin medallions (roughly 1.5-2 in think) with chimichurri sauce and mojo marinated chicken. Since the grill at work is not the best at getting high temps for searing the meat, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to season and sear the meat on my grill tonight and then chill until ready to finish cooking on the grill at work tomorrow. There are two reasons that might deter me from doing this: 1) by starting the cooking process I have warmed up the meat into the "danger zone" without going al the way through to kill anything harmful and 2) I may end up overcooking the meat tomorrow since I am already exposing the meat to a very high temp before hand.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

nielubow in Home Cooking

Pulled Pork in Oven - Lessons Learned and Questions

Thanks for the replies folks! I have reallized, too, that the mop isnt bringing much to the party. If you've got the right cut of meat for low and slow cooking I shouldnt really need a mop.

Romanmk - I like your suggestion of cooking a few dozen more. Even when they dont turn out PERFECT they are still good eats! And I like your analysis of the the tougher muscle section. Now that you mentioned it, I did take it out of the fridge to come up in temp before I began cooking. But, it was still sitting in the cold pan which I suppose was keeping the bottom chilled for a longer period of time.

Woodburner - did not really know that about the plateau but I saw first hand what its all about.

Rich - You put the butt on a charcoal grill when you go to sleep - dosnt the grill lose temp quite a bit by the time you wake up (I am assuming you sleep at least 6 hours).

Thanks again

nielubow in Home Cooking

Pulled Pork in Oven - Lessons Learned and Questions

HI All,

Yesterday, I created a post asking for advice on the topic of pulled pork in the oven (thanks for the advice!). Now that it is complete, I thought I would share my "Lesson Learned" and also to pose a few questions. This is probably going to be long and boring, but I thought I might give it a try for all of you Alton Brown and Cooking Illustrated fans.

Here are the steps I took in preparation:
1. Made a paprika/brown sugar based rub and applied to the meat (6.2 lb boston butt from Sam's Club) the night before cooking and wrapped in saran wrap.
2. Placed meat on roasting rack and cooked at 250 for a total of about 10.5-11 hours.
3.For the first 3 hours I did not touch the meat or open the oven (in fact I left my house for that time so as to not fidget with it or worry about it). I did this to create the beginnings of a nice crust.
4. After 3 hours I applied a mop sauce containing apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, red pepper flakes and salt. I did this every hour for the next 3 or so hours.
5. When the Interior Temp reached about 155deg (after about 6 hours) I tightly wrapped the Butt in foil and added a little bit of apple juice. I am not sure why I did this but I had remembered a technique used on pork ribs called the Texas Crunch, which I thought should produce similar results since I am aiming to break down the fat and collegan in the meat. I think I left it in the foil for about 1.5-2 hours (now up to about 8 hours total) and the meat reached a temp of about 180deg.
6. I removed the meat from the foil hoping to crisp the outside again to finish the crust/bark. Something interesting happened - the temp started to decrease from 180 deg down to around 175 after about 30min . This confused me! I thought that maybe since the macro structure of the meat was being changed so much that maybe an air gap had been created at the location of the sensor. I changed location of the sensor and it still read the same temp. So, after about 30 min of seeing the temp drop I decided to re-wrap in foil (without juice).
7. In the foil, the temp started to increase steadily and finally got up to around 185 at which point I opened the foil to again crisp the crust.
8. Finally, 190 deg and done. I removed the meat a section at a time in order to break into small chunks. Each section seemed to have the correct texture and moisture level until I arrived to the last section on the bottom. This section seemed to be tougher and not as easy to pull than the others. This also confused me. Either it had cooked way to long or it had not cooked long enough for the connective tissue to break down. Or, it did not have the same level of fat and connective tissue as the rest of the meat.
9. Added sauce to the pulled pork for service today.

Questions-
1. Why did the temp of the pork drop from 180 down to 175 after removal from the foil the first time? Was steam creating a more efficient cooking environment? Should I just have left it int he foil until about 185 and then remove from the foil for the last few degrees in order to crisp the crust?
2. Why did the one section of meat seem to have a different texture that the other sections?
3. Recommendations (besides doing it on a smoker or grill)??

Enjoy and have a good day

Thanks

nielubow in Home Cooking