Editor’s Note: Joe Bob of Denver CO, our ace reporter out standing in his field, checks in with this most awesome taco lead.
After commenting on the Ice House in Ozona, TX I had to run down the street to Tacos Tijuana for a end of 2009 Meathenge review.
This joint has been here about forever and has the best tacos in Denver. I grabbed 4 pork units to go and it cost me all of $4.28. They serve all kinds of other great Mex food which I have had but for a quick lunch this can’t be beat. The usual double corn tortilla with pork and required pork lube, grease, flowing everywhere. Topped with onions etc.
I provided the hard cider which has a fancy label but is bottled over in Modesto by E.J. Gallo. Taste more like Gallows though. Yikes. Tijuana is open 7 days a week and often runs an outdoor spit under a pop up tent for quicker taco fixes. Complete with ethnic jukebox. A must stop when in NW Denver.
Joe Bob
Tacos Tijuana
4406 Sheridan Boulevard, Denver, CO 80212
(303) 477-0121 (West 44th. at Sheridan)
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Applewood smoked, nitrate free bacon! A review: U.S. Wellness Meats
By “review” I mean that I got this bacon for free to see what Meathenge Labs thought of it. Pretty cool, huh? I spent some time reading through U.S. Wellness Meats web site, there’s tons of decent content in there. Wellness was founded by John Wood, a fifth-generation farmer. In the beginning he used traditional ranching methods, but over time took a sideways look at how he was doing things and thought there could be a better/different way. Starting in ’97 he raised a few of his cuties on a 100% forage diet, rotational grazing and making sure they had the best forage action on a daily basis. By 2000 it was in full swing, the tests proved he could make a better product this way.
I read in their FAQ page addressing how come their not certified organic, made me sick to my stomach. They state it better than I do, so I lifted this from their page without permission:
“All U.S. Wellness Meats pastures and animals have been maintained with organic principles in mind since 2000. Unfortunately, the state of Missouri dropped a state-run organic-certification program and turned it over to a private certifier several years ago. The private certifier wanted 3% of the gross income of the preceding year to maintain the license. We politely said no, and felt if Thomas Jefferson were still alive he would concur. Sadly, greed has infiltrated a noble cause. 50% of the Missouri organic producers have let their certification lapse since this situation was created by the Missouri legislature.”
You read that correctly, ranchers have to give up 3% of their income to maintain certification. Sigh.
Anyway, enough of that it’s making me mad. I had to take another look at the bacon to make myself feel better. Listen up, they got good bacon! The meat is substantial and the fat is creamy, very mild & clean odor upon opening up the package. I preheated an old 14″ cast iron fry pan and set to cooking, used a bacon press. It’s nice and thick, so it takes a bit to brown and finish. Once it was patted dry with paper towels, it went in to my mouth. Excellent meaty texture on the teeth, low on the sweet cure, a good clean finish. For my package, I noticed it was quite lacking in smoky flavors, kinda surprised. A while back I had a chance to get two packages of bacon to try, one was smoky, one was not. So, I can’t say whether the lack of smoke flavors is typical or just something that happened. Maybe it wasn’t rotated and/or flipped in the smoker, that could have been it. I just don’t know.
In any case, I’m going to give this pound of bacon 3.85 out of 5. With good smoky flavors, I would have given it a 4.75 out of 5.
xo, Biggles
‘The Settler’s Kitchen Company’ – The New Frontier, ‘a hybrid outdoor kitchen”
For years Meathenge has attracted a very nice collection of human beings. From readers, enthusiasts, families making food products in their basements and not the last of all inventors who bring their product to market on their own. The latest and greatest would be Rolfe of Craycort who sent me a cast iron replacement for the Weber kettle for review.
Well, this time I wasn’t offered free stuff (costs the guy too darned much), but I was so impressed with his creation I wanted to stop by and give you a view in to what’s going on in the world of portable cooking pits, The New Frontier.
Gareth Noble of The Settler’s Kitchen Company stopped by a few weeks ago and asked, “Hey Biggles, what do you think of this?” I grilled him about smoker temps (can it hold it at 200F?), available work surfaces, cooking in decent winds, fuel types, build quality and types of metals used. Gareth knows his business, knows key points of metal designs and execution. And dangit, a very fine fellow indeed.
It’s got a hand-driven spit by jiminy! MmMMM, spit roasted meat. The fire is held in the black portion, more to the left to fire up the smoking chamber. Over this one is able to set fry pans or hang dutch ovens over. You can use pre-burned fireplace sized wood for fuel and the smoking chamber gets hot enough to make bread without a thought. Cook, smoke, grill, bake, rotisserie? Portability? Yup, it’s got it.
Check this out, the black portion of the machine slides underneath the powder-coated smoking chamber, bits and pieces are put in the smoking chamber and the shiny legs are used as handles and you can walk out of camp with it using the rear wheels behind you, pulling it! There’s tons more cool features and would offer you go visit his web site to check out the details. Nice shootin’ there Gareth, good luck.
Gareth Noble
The Settler’s Kitchen Company
Westport, CT
203-216-3439
Biggles
It’s Saturday, what do you have in your oven?
Meathenge Labs is up to a nice pot roast in the oven. What do you have?
xo, Biggles
Pictures look great in Photoshop, but when I upload to web, all funky?
Editor’s note: This is a poorly written, almost no real technical specificity, only meant to springboard you in to your own exploration on the subject. But the impact was so impressive, so huge that I have to say for me it’s as big as the actual implementation of the world wide web.
First off, I’ve been digitizing 35mm prints and negs, since 1994. I still consider myself a middle of the road kinda guy when it comes to the “magic” behind the scenes both in hardware and the inner workings of the internets. I can say that I just stumbled head long in to something that really needs bringing to the forefront for us huddled masses.
Have you ever been sitting at your computer, monkeying around in Photoshop or similar, working on your precious images? Getting them just right? Then uploading to your blog or something like Flickr only to view them online and find they’ve lost their luster? Cute little white babies now have grey skin? The reds don’t have the intensity they did only moments ago? I sure have and figured these online photographic web based communities must be compressing them to some degree and they lose their punch. I mean, I have my ICC monitor profile loaded! Heck, have even used a Spyder to calibrate my monitor in the past.
I was wrong. My brother inlaw, Darkleynoone has been voicing this same concern. While in Photoshop, his images are great, but then when he uploads to Flickr, the intensity is gone. Lighter skin tones turn grey, the immense reds are toned down. I’ve noticed the same thing and gave him my best explanation, “I got no idea. Compression and you lose your color bits?”
I was wrong. It occurred to me this morning that really sounds like a color space issue. I spent some time on google and I was on the right track. Then, I read it. I felt like such an idiot, I’d known it all the time and not realized it. I knew the answer and didn’t apply myself. When you’re editing your images in Photoshop, it’s managing your color space, this would be sRGB if you have it correctly. Your DSLR should be set to sRGB if you have it correctly. But you know what? Your goddam browser is showing you some ilk of RGB. That’s right, different programs show you different color profiles. From your image editing software, operating system viewer to your browser, different color profiles even if you have your ICC profile loaded.
After spending all day discussing this with the two brother inlaws I work with Organtitus says, “Firefox prolly has a plug-in for that.”
They do! I did a search for the Firefox plugin by typing in color management. It wasn’t until I got home that I was able to download it, configure it to my i-mac, and restart firefox and go check out Flickr.
I felt as though I’d been punched in the face, kicked in the groin and tossed to the floor. Just using Firefox on my mac, viewing Flicker, it was just like that. Cracky, KuFlup and a Crunch. The ICC embedded images on Flickr jumped out at me like a 3 legged wolverine on acid and a cup of hot joe.
It’s an entirely new world. I’m here to testify!
Of course this is all pretty much fluff here, but supported by web-based fact on solid ground. You’ll need to search for WEB BROWSER COLOR MANAGEMENT or some such in google and do some work on your end. But I’m telling you, you’re missing 30% + of the web’s intensity by NOT doing this for your browser.
Here’s a link regarding Web Browser Color Management that helped a lot on my travels forward. The approximation is maybe 90% of the world wide web cruising community knows nothing of this and they carry on just fine. But if you have the discerning eye, this is critical. It’s changed my life.
This software and technology was tested on a 2 month old i-mac and a PC running XP sportin’ a Viewsonic P810.
xo, Biggles
Big Ass Hotdog – No really
I, um, well, er, um, yeah it’s like that. Kelly Williams the marketing & pr coordinator in Chicago for Big Ass Hotdog sent me a press release a few days ago. I just sent the link to my sister who immediately poo pooed it. I sent her the press release and stated this must go up immediately.
I, um, well, er, um, yeah it’s like that.
STATS:
7 Lbs +/-
16″ Long
4″ Diameter
100% veal, beef, pork
50 servings per dog
Made to order every Tuesday
It’s a real hotdog that feeds 50 people and it’s only 30 bux! Don’t believe me? Click through to read the press release!
The Grub Shack – Terlingua Ranch Road in West Texas
Editor’s Note: Ya know, nobody has ever accused me of being current. Here we find JLee, on her birthday (over a month ago), at the Grub Shack in West Texas. Joe Bob is doing all the fancy shootin’ with his electronical camera rig. Check it out, it’s a trailer with an awning out in the middle of fricken nowheres! JLee says:
I had been reading about this place on a blog, The Field Lab and then I saw Betty Doyle on youtube and knew we’d have to come here. A tiny place out in the middle of 360 degree desert eye candy, serving up hearty, filling food. This was by far the best breakfast of the trip. Egg, sausage & bacon on Texas toast, mmmmm. A couple of the ‘regulars’ were having biscuits and gravy, cracking on each other and life in general. Not a hipster or laptop in sight, aaaah.
JLee
The Grub Shack
Hwy 118 & Terlingua Ranch Rd
Editor’s Note:
If you’re interested, or not, you really should visit The Field Lab link up there. I’ll bet it’s a lifestyle in a place you ain’t at or livin’ in. Here’s one of my favorite links on The Field Lab, it’s labeled Poop. I find it pretty humbling when I feel so high and mighty about buying locally grown and ranched food, then read about how someone has taken it about 10 steps further to do well by the planet. Cheers!
Annnn, since this picture was taken, Betty has packed up and headed out to take care of some sick relative. The Grub Shack has new people serving up the food action today. I don’t know yet if Betty plans on returning any time soon.
Biggles
Cottage Pie – Meathenge used ingredients to actually cook something!
Yeah baby! I cooked something! Even got a few pictures worth posting too. Sure, it’s no Bacon Tamales like Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius just did. But I was so inspired by Jerry of Cooking by the seat of my Pants recpie for Cottage Pie that I couldn’t resist.
I ran across the post a few weeks ago and thought to myself, I could totally cook that. Brown ground beef with goodies, make mashed taters, assemble, bake in hot oven. Yeah, it took me a few weeks before I would attempt such a feat, but I did it. Now I own its soul.
You already know how good they are and how easy it is to prepare, so I won’t go in to the gory details. It came together in a few minutes and I jacked the oven’s temp over Jerry’s version to 450. Z and I ate the entire pie it was so good, so perfect. I’ve always been a fan of the saying, “Less is More.” But now I’ve proven it yet again to myself, it’s true!
Oh boy, I can still taste it, smell it crisping up in the oven, ungh. Wanna see that again?
POW !!!
xo, Biggles