Viewing entries tagged
BBQ

Wood Ranch - Burbank

June 12, 2016

I attended a media event for Wood Ranch the past week at their newest location in Burbank. If you are familiar with this area, it is where the old Elephant Bar used to be. Shocking to see that they closed, but having Wood Ranch in the area made more sense. The location will officially open for dinner at 4 p.m. on Monday, June 13 and for lunch on Wednesday, June 22. So get ready to mark your calendars.

110 N. 1st Street Burbank CA 91502

Here are a glimpse of the food items we had that evening:

You have your fresh guacamole, salsa and chips. Killer wings (both buffalo and fiery). Their famous shredded onions which you can literally put on everything. There's absolutely no way your hands will be clean after this round.

We had a few salads to try. From their sides, a mountain of original peanut coleslaw. Their Tuscan Kale Salad composed of watermelon radishes, chives, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, golden raisins, toasted pumpkin seeds, shaved Parmesan, and tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Natalie's Salad - mixed greens, candied pecans, avocado, Gorgonzola crumbles, cucumber, balsamic vinaigrette. And their BBQ chopped salad with your choice of chicken or tri tip - Mixed greens, corn, black beans, Tillamook® Monterey jack, tortilla strips, tomato, carrots, scallions, cilantro, ranch, and Original BBQ sauce. Which one would you get? I liked the chopped salad because I'm a meat salad type of girl.

St. Louis Ribs are sweet & spicy, dry-rubbed & smoked. Served with a side of Original or chipotle-cherry BBQ sauce. I loved these ribs the most. I'm a huge fan of dry rubs and these were definitely fall off the bone tender.

These were center cut and hand trimmed, served with the original BBQ sauce. Sweet and tangy. These were also fall off the bone. You can see it by the shreds.

Wood Ranch Tri Tip and Fire Roasted Chicken.

They had some premium sides like grilled asparagus. Also signature sides like sweet potato mash, and Mac & Cheese.

At the Burbank location, there are a few exclusive items you'll find here, and only here.

The Ultimate BBQ Sandwich. A stack of Carolina Pulled Pork w. Carolina Slaw, Double RRanch® Brisket topped with Tillamook Swiss®, wood-grilled premium kielbasa (spicy smoky sausage), charred jalapeño, Famous Shredded Onions on a freshly baked brioche bun. Choose any barbecue sauce on the side. Good luck taking a bite of this. I had no problem... but a warning in case your jaw gets stuck.

Premium, juicy chicken thigh, brined overnight in buttermilk and spices, then coated with their specially-seasoned mix.Fried to order and topped with their Peanut-Cilantro Slaw on a freshly baked brioche bun. A large sandwich. Crispy and delicious. Good luck headed towards the gym after.

Bar Area Special during Happy hour, Momday-Friday 3-6pm. These are their Smoked Pulled Pork Nachos. For $6, this is definitely a steal. Carolina Pulled Pork, Tillamook Monterey jack® and cheddar cheeses, black beans, chopped jalapeño, salsa, house-made guacamole and sour cream.

Save room for dessert:

Graham Cracker crust cheesecake with raspberry sauce and their Oreo Cookie crunch - Vanilla bean ice cream rolled by hand in ground.

Make sure you check them out!

110 N. 1st Street Burbank CA 91502

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Tacos Tu Madre - Westwood

March 13, 2016

LA has definitely been a taco staple exploding into different counties. What I find is there are more contemporary fusion tacos than what you would find the past decade. Tacos Tu Madre not only offer your fusion tacos like Korean BBQ or Duck Mole, but also stays within your comfort zones by offering Asada, Carnitas, Al Pastor, Lengua, and Chorizo Egg which I HIGHLY recommend.

Tacos Tu Madre - 1945 1/2 Westwood BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90025

This menu was taken a few months ago when I first visited the restaurant. This menu is located outside their take out window, but they also have one to look through for more in depth options. I've included their most recent menu to the left.

As you see, besides the tacos being more sophisticated, so are the prices. But, there are also more component to each taco that you order here. I brought John with me. Like myself and many of you who grew up with $1 tacos, find it blasphemy when a taco costs $1.25.

But as the economy is growing, so is everything else. That's right, a bundle of cilantro can cost 99 cents. Avocados are expensive as hell. And lemons are only used if it's a special occasion. You catch my drift.

This is my favorite from everything I've had. For $4.75, this is totally worth it. Served on a crispy tortilla shell, the ahi tuna is cut in chunks and mixed with avocados, spicy citrus yuzu ponzu sauce, chives, sesame seeds and seaweed flakes.

The only thing I can say, is I can't extract the yuzu flavor. For some reason, I tasted a lot of ginger. Maybe I have poor taste buds. Maybe they don't even have any ginger in house. But it's extremely fresh and something I would never complain about. I would definitely order 2 of these and be content.

There are options to order this in a Burrito or a Bowl for additional charges. A burrito or bowl will supplement as a meal.

In other words, the Darth Maul version. How can you not think about that just by looking at these colors. Or maybe even Deadpool. Each chip has a helpful amount of salt, but not too much. Just enough to balance the guac. I couldn't help but dive back into this from time to time. Avocados are the good types of fat, and I will keep telling myself that everything it touches will become just that.

In the platter above, there's Duck Mole, Korean BBQ, Crispy Fish, Carnitas, and Lengua. The tortillas is not your standard 2 sheets, but one presumably hand made. You gotta eat these fast because the tortillas does break apart if it sits for a while. All the tacos were packed with flavor. I ate these tacos not keeping in mind with what I've grown up eating, but to keep an unbiased opinion based solely on flavors. So yes. I will pay over $3 bucks for a taco.

Street corn is my thing and something I love to make at home. This is not your elote you would find on the streets. Mayonnaise was missed, and it seems they use red chili flakes instead of cayenne. This does make eating a lot easier, and less messier than it would be on a cob.

They have desserts like red velvet churros and frozen horchatas to help you move on with your day. The red churros were interesting and definitely had no resemblance from a traditional churro. These are much more dense. I would love the cream cheese frosting to be sweeter as well has the roll out of the cinnamon sugar that is coated.

Putting everything in thought, I would be back. Space is extremely limited, but tables turning over is fairly quick. It does help there are 2 Starbucks within a 1 mile radius. They do have street parking with meters, a lot where you need to pay, or residential which is just around the corner which is what we did. Trust me, after these tacos, you should take the walk.

Tacos Tu Madre is snuck away, but has a giant colorful mural. If you are lost, but close, it's in between to 2 Starbucks I mentioned.

Good luck.

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Smitty's Grill

November 18, 2015

My supervisor took me with her to a Vendor lunch today for new partnership opportunities in our broadcast department. I love going to Smitty's for a good cocktail, shrimp cocktail, more cocktails, and endless conversations.

Glancing through the menu, I really didn't feel all that hungry. But for some reason, I ordered a burger. I should've ordered a salad, or seafood. Something that screams I'm not that hungry. A burger? What was I thinking?

In no time, our food came in a snippy.

Applewood smoked bacon, grilled onions, white Vermont cheddar, and rattlesnake bbq sauce.

Umm hey guys I know it's the first time you are meeting me... And I should've ordered something cleaner.. But. BURGER! Get in my BELLY NOW! Of course these guys have no idea what a foodie I am. And I only got lucky with this photo because my supervisor brought up my love for food (thanks Kathy!)

The burger was not just big, it was juicy, good greasy from the cheese and bbq sauce. Each bite that I took needed to be followed by licking my fingers. Extra napkins is mandatory. White or beige pants especially, should have a napkin over, with the dirty on top of that.

The burger had no chance. Even though I wasn't that hungry as I said, I can never leave a burger half eaten. It's just not in my character. The burger itself was huge. Had a nice smoked charrrr. Delicious smoked bacon with crispy edges. And the sauce was finger-licking good.

When I got back to the office, I went straight to the kitchen and poured myself a big cup of Joe, and chugged it like vodka.

Until next time Smitty's. When I am there to guzzle myself with endless martinis and talk like a pirate.

daisy

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BBQ PORK HAWAIIN ROLL

November 9, 2015

With the 8 hour slow roasted pork I had left over (click here for recipe) I had enough to make 8 BBQ pork sliders. I just can't even begin with what you can make with leftover slow roasted pork. Even though my kitchen was a literal mess, the finished product was definitely worth the clean up.

I went to Ralphs grocery store after work today since it was just up the street to pick up the ingredients I needed to make this into another dish. I purchased a bag of original Kings Hawaiin rolls and a bag of "Dole Sunflower Chopped Salad" - tastes like sweet coleslaw.

In the bag of salad, it comes with a pack of bacon and sunflower seeds. I mixed the chopped salad with the sweet onion dressing that came with it, and set the sunflower seeds to the side (not used in this recipe). With the pack of bacon, I heated a hot pan to crispy the bacon up a bit. I then threw in the leftover pork butt, and watched it dance in the pan a little bit. It gets a little mesmerizing watching the cold fat slow render and melt around like lava. Now, the spices.

I added 1 teaspoon of Ancho chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cayenne, and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika. There is no need to add any more salt since the pork is already salted. When the pork is heated through and starts charring up, add in your favorite barbecuesauce. Make sure you don't over sauce your pork.

yes. I have a pork chalk board. I love pork, what can I say.

I toasted the Hawaiin rolls on the inside until it gets nice and crusty. Now, start layering. Beware if you are very hungry like me. You will want to pile as much of everything as you can. The crispy onions strings you see were leftovers from The Counter Burger that I reheated in my Breville convectional oven.

I'm not a huge sandwich gal. But if I were to order a sandwich, I would want it to have a lot of meat. No turkey. No roast beef. I want it hot and heavy. Give me a steak sandwich or non type of deal. I die a little when people want to get sandwiches for lunch. But, most sandwiches I do have are the ones I make. Just because I can put whatever the F I want and no one can say otherwise. Besides John. John will give me a hard time later when he sees this. 4 humungo sliders that I devoured. Was full after the 3rd but I kept going.

There you go with 3 pounds of pork but. That's 4.5 plates of carnitas and rice, and 8 bbq sliders. Not bad at all. Though I am a bit depressed seeing all these Victorias Secret models in their "Train like an Angel" mode. And here I am. Making pulled pork, laying on the couch watching the Matrix. What is this life? What is this life.

But at the end of the day. I cannot give this up. I cannot go on any diets, because I would die early from depression. There are things I need need to have: white rice, hot cheetos, french fries, burgers, steak, tacos. Beverages is all the above minus diet sodas.

Now. Going to not do anything but brush my teeth and head to bed. And dream about BBQ pulled pork. I deserved it. I've been winning on this low and slow game.

Sincerely your pork lover,

Daisy

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Chinese BBQ

August 23, 2015

I remember in our household, we would have the items above weekly. Everything of course tasted better with an egg. What I loved most about this, and you may not believe it, but it's a penny savor. What makes this meal cost efficient is the rice, a hunka hunk of it! My favorite parts are the duck leg, the fatty sections in the char siu, and the charred parts from the BBQ Sausage. I remember eating a ton of this when I was younger, but not as much when I was on my own. It is something that I've forgotten, but I've found my way back to remembering the best foods from my childhood.

This screams comfort food to a lot of Chinese People! In LA, you can find BBQ chinese meats in San Gabriel Valley and a few in Chinatown. Remember, most places are cash only... or so they say.

If you have left overs, I recommend making fried rice with the char siu and BBQ sausage (or scrambled eggs, MMMMMmmMMMmm!) . I like using the roast duck in noodles.

I can't wait to devour this for dinner. What are you having tonight?

Cheers!

Daiisies

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Wine & Dine

Wood Ranch - Burbank

Tacos Tu Madre - Westwood

Smitty's Grill

BBQ PORK HAWAIIN ROLL

Chinese BBQ