Dizzy Pig Rub Review

When I first started barbecuing I would get all geeked up about experimenting with sauces and rubs. From time to time I still do some tinkering with rubs but as things get busier it’s nice to have an off-the-shelf product you can rely on that’s not full of MSG or high fructose corn syrup. Enter the The Dizzy Pig Rub Company.

Dizzy Pig has exploded on the BBQ scene recently and for good reason. Their products are fantastic. I personally know several people who use them, professionals and amateurs like me, and they all get great results. So when Dizzy Pig offered some free samples I was all over it.

For this cook I used two products: Dizzy Dust and Red Eye Express. Dizzy Dust is their all-around rub which fits very nicely with pork and the Red Eye is a coffee infused rub best suited for lamb and beef (it works for pork but is very bold). The Red Eye Express is on the left and Dizzy Dust on the right.

After the ribs soak in a brown sugar and salt bath they get rubbed down and go on the smoker.

The finished product. No sauce.

Blogger confession: I cooked them a little long but they were still juicy due to the brine solution.

Another blogger confession: The rub from Dizzy Pig packs a huge punch so you don’t need a lot. I over-seasoned my ribs but now you’ve learned from me and yours will be much better. Pro tip: For those locals wanting to buy it you can find it at HomeCrafters Spas and BBQ if you want to get cooking this weekend.

Tako BBQ

There’s a new truck in town. This one isn’t too concerned about local organic (judging by the Kraft shredded cheddar cheese on every item) but they are concerned about flavor. Tako BBQ started rolling a few weeks ago and unless you’re living in an area with no Internet or newspapers, you’ve likely heard about them.

I scoped them out with some fellow foodies (fat people) and we all agreed the truck was worth finding and going back. They’re being added to the rotation.

I enjoyed the meats in all of the tacos as well as the sliders. One minor gripe was that the meat was somewhat indistinguishable under the humongous side salad served on top. I really couldn’t tell if I was eating the rib eye, pork or beef short-rib. It’s a very minor gripe because the salad is nicely dressed with Asian vinaigrette and the bulgogi marinade is awesome. The often overlooked and under appreciated corn tortillas were perfectly grilled.

The sliders were also pretty tasty but I’d recommend sticking with the tacos. If you do order them, ask for light spread because the mayo mixture was a little thick and heavy handed in proportion to the slider. While this wasn’t ideal it’s certainly fixable.

It’s nice to see Fresno getting some more local options and even a mobile one at that. Now if we can get @tastekitchen rolling maybe we can start a truck hop. You can follow Tako BBQ on Twitter for their daily stops and spot them for a few hours at the Friday farmers market at Manchester Mall.

Pat E. Wackers

Post Super Bowl I thought I would go at least one day on a food detox. By lunch I still had about a half pound of rib-eye left to digest. Then I realized that was a horrible idea. I made my way down to Pat E. Wackers, a newly opened burger joint that replaces The Cheese Steak Shop and some nasty Mexican restaurant that closed. Bethany Clough wrote a nice article recently documenting the owners background and the meaning behind the ridiculous name. It’s nice to have a great background story and all, but in the long run it’s all about the burger.

I wanted a bacon cheeseburger but didn’t see one on the menu. My mistake. I was informed to order the “Wacker” burger, “Mobbed Up”. Apparently mobsters used to eat bacon, which costs a buck extra (avocado spread, grilled mushrooms, and chili are also a dollar extra, EACH!). No big deal. Here’s the lowdown:

Pros:

Fresh patty grilled to order with a nice crust
French fries perfectly cooked in peanut oil
Minimal produce

Cons:

Patty was bland and sort of rubbery
Cheese wasn’t melted (rookie mistake)
Bacon was flavorful but hard to bite through
Fries weren’t salted, at all
9 bucks plus for a combo (I’d rather get Dari-Delite, Triangle or even In & Out, for the price)

I love to support local places and I’ll probably go back to try something else (deep-fried hot dog), but the flavor needs to go up about 15 million notches in order for this combo to be worth 9 bucks. Maybe when the griddle gets some seasoning on it they’ll improve. Better yet, try throwing some seasoning on the patty itself. In the meantime, take down the lame slogans, “Come Get Wacked” and “I got my wack on”. Really?

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Burger King Delivering “Fresh” Food

According to the Los Angeles Times, Burger King is testing delivery of their nasty food. I imagine this will be a huge success for all sorts of people… that like gross food and have zero motivation to accomplish anything in life.

Just imagine waking up at noon, launching your trusty Burger King app, ordering two double whoppers with cheese and a bag of fries, all before doing anything productive.  That’s what I call a win win.

I know what you’re thinking though, “How will they that keep that goodness hot?”  The greatest quote in the article is from the spokeswoman at Burger King.  She says that new packing will keep the food “hot & fresh”.  Since when is anything at Burger King fresh?

What irks me the most, why didn’t they make Fresno the test market? Taco Bell sure likes us.

 

Paula Dean Has Type Butter Diabetes

The news hit the Internet today that Paula Dean has type-II diabetes. Shocker of all shockers. Did this really need an announcement? Is anyone surprised? I’m sure all of my readers would simply be stunned to find out that Fresno Bites has a little bit of a weight problem (said in my Chris Farley voice) as well.

When every recipe calls for 15 pounds of butter, deep-fried in lard, crusted in fruity pebbles, topped with sugar, and then chased with a sweet tea, are we really supposed to expect anything different? Like I said, I’m not one to talk and this is a serious subject, but as the article explains, Mrs. Dean has had diabetes for over three years. It’s not like this is something new.

Of course, this announcement coincidentally is connected with her endorsement (cha-ching) of a drug company that treats the disease with expensive pills.

That’s not the only gem in the article too. Like the fact that Paula always eat in moderation. Yeah and so do I. Can’t you tell. The other zinger is the statement that diabetes is like “russian roulette”. That might be true for some but if you’re eating chicken fried steak like there’s no tomorrow you’re pretty much playing with a fully loaded revolver.

The Honey Badger Don’t Care and Neither Does Kijima

Kijima is like the honey badger.  They don’t care.  They don’t care if your urinal is shaped like Steven Tyler’s mouth.  They don’t care about your fancy crucifix jean pockets.  They don’t care about your expensive tile floors and granite counters.  They don’t care about your twice battered sushi rolls with a Twinkie in the middle.  They don’t care if their restaurant is outdated.  They just don’t care.

Kijima is a hardcore, traditional sushi bar.  They have a basic sushi roll menu, nothing fancy.  Their focus is on sashimi and Japanese entrées.  This isn’t a bad thing unless you’re looking for rolls drizzled in mayo sauce.  I ordered one of those rolls and the sauce was straight mayo.  Not good.  It’s a shame because the fish was expertly sliced and fresh.

Mayo Roll

Apparently what they do care about is their tempura.   The calamari tempura was fantastic, with buttery calamari and perfectly light and flaky tempura batter.  The tempura onion rings were right up there with the best I’ve had too.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve had better rings.  Which reminds me, why don’t more places make tempura onion rings?  They’re way better than their cornmeal counterparts.  Burger bars take notice.

Calamari

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Yard House Has Your Dunkel

Fresno landed a hugely successful restaurant when Yard House opened this Sunday. Not only did it bring several hundred jobs to the valley, it also brought over 118 beers on tap (this number includes the American light beers which I don’t recognize as beer, so the number is less in my mind). Honestly, I wasn’t that excited when I first heard they were coming. Call it pessimism or a loathing of chain restaurants, but I just didn’t think much of it.

Photo courtesy of @JohnisAmazing20

Nevertheless I asked for an invite to the launch party Saturday. Cut me some slack. Food blogging isn’t cheap when you focus on eating out. For the party they served samples of select dishes served by an endless amount of servers. It sort-of reminded me of Costco but they brought the sample to you. I kept wondering if the server would tell me that I had already had a sample, just like Costco. Confess people. We’ve all been there.

I realized, even though they were small samples served on plasticware, the quality of the food was several notches above the other sports bars in town, even one in the same shopping center. Not only was it better tasting, it was more creative and fresher. One of the corporate trainers that served us explained just how much of their food is made from scratch on a daily basis (pizza dough, sauces, sushi rolls, burgers, etc). That was nice to hear and proved to me that I can’t paint chain restaurants with such a broad brush all the time.

Was the food worth the impending wait that the restaurant will have for the next year? Definitely not on it’s own, at least for me. But with an endless beer list and an upper-scale atmosphere, I can imagine most people won’t care about the wait.

Speaking of beer, I stuck with Hefeweizen for the evening. I don’t expect you to be able to pronounce the names but they sure were good.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Franziskaner Hefe-Dunkel

I contend that you have to order a beer with the name “Dunkel”, just because it’s cool.

Yard House beer list is here.

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