Ternera a la Llanera -- Wherefore Art Thou?

Photo courtesy of http://blog.shankbone.org/

The above photo was taken at a Lower East Side of Manhattan street fair, sometime in the past. I don't know which fair. I don't know when. All I know is I want to be at that fair and I want one of those grills.

According to Wikipedia the guy in the picture is preparing "Ternera a la Llanera," a dish from the Colombian marshlands. From what I've found on the web, thank you Chrome's instant translation service, Ternera a la Llanera is the cooking of an entire veal. Now, it they're cooking an entire veal on the streets of NYC - I NEED to be there!

Here's the process....

Preparation of Veal llanera or "Mammon" is itself a party, this will kill a calf of approximately one year. The most important preparation are the cuts. There are four classics that are the bear, the eels, rays and the heron.

The bear is the part that covers the neck, throat, jaw and tongue, cut from top to bottom, so that will be taking down the dam.

The Shakers are breast meat, which are extruded in long strips.

The line includes the hindquarters, which, cut from the top (legs), including the tail, and part of the thighs. Cut trying to maintain a round shape with the tail like a bay.

The Heron is only the udder.

The cuts were made by cutting the extra skin, wrap the meat with it are exposed. Strips are sewn with the same skin, so that the meat is completely covered in the oven. Once LSTA and only seasoned with salt (including the head) is roasted in clay and brick oven at medium temperature (250 ° C) for 8 to 12 hours.

One way to know when the beef is ready, when the lips, head, shrink, giving it a cheerful expression.

Where this at? Someone, please tell me!

Shrimp and Sausage Po' Boy

Photo: Daily News

You may have recently seen your favorite blogger written up in the The New York Daily News with his Shrimp and Sausage Po' Boy Recipe. The article rightly focused on Grillin' On The Bay, New York's only sanctioned BBQ Contest, but they wanted a recipe from your's truly to give the piece a more human touch. They wanted something simple and not very complex. So on the morning of the photo shoot, I came up with a quick recipe for Shrimp and Sausage Po' Boys.

I thought my recipe was very straight forward and simple, but the powers that be at the Daily News proclaimed the original recipe far too complex for the average reader. They then claimed it was much too long for the allocated space in the paper. "You're giving me 6 inches. I can only handle 2." said Ben Chapman, the uncredited author of the news article. Leaving all sexual innuendo aside, we chopped up the recipe, changed ingredients and removed enough steps so that Ben could handle it. It didn't change the final product too much but the original is much better.

Since you're all barbecue cooks or aspiring barbecue cooks, I assume you can handle the true unedited, full of obscure and hard to find ingredients, uncensored recipe. Here's the real deal.

Photo of the original recipe courtesy of the New York Daily News.

Grilled Shrimp and Sausage Po' Boys (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 1lb sweet luganiga (Portuguese sausage) or your favorite link sausage
• 1lb jumbo shrimp, cleaned and de-veined
• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 cup limeaide
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 1 tbsp Old Bay seasoning
• Baby Lettuce
• Mayonaise
• Chopped sundried tomatoes in oil.
• 6 - 6" crusty Italian rolls
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cooking Directions:

In a large bowl whisk together the olive oil and limeaide. When emulsified, whisk in the garlic, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Add shrimp. Marinate shrimp for one to two hours. Do not marinate for more than 2 hours or the acid in the limeaide will begin to cook the shrimp.

Prepare a charcoal fire. When the fire is hot, grill the sausage until cooked through, approximately 15 minutes. Set aside. Drain shrimp from marinade. Do not dry them. Grill shrimp until pink and opaque for approximately 3 minutes per side. Do not over cook.Set shrimp aside. Slice bread to open, grill bread approximately one minute.

To assemble the sandwich. Put mayo on one side of the roll. Top with baby lettuce. Cut sausage into slices. Alternatively place sausage and shrimp on the lettuce. Top with chopped sun dried tomatoes. Serve.

Who Do You Trust? - AOL/City Search Names New York City's Best Barbecue

This came into my email today....

City's Best Winners - Barbecue - Restaurants and Nightlife ...
Spanky's BBQ, 6th. Pig'n Out Barbeque, 7th. Bone Lick Park, 8th. Pies-N-Thighs, 9th. Sawa BBQ, 10th. 617 9th Ave,New York ... m.aol.com/citysbest/.../citysbestResults.do?...

OK - I'm always interested in what others think about the New York BBQ scene, but looking over this little email notification, something was clearly amiss. Spanky's came in at number 6? Spanky's has been closed since early 2009 as I reported back on January 28, 2009! Sawa is also closed - and I don't think they ever were a barbecue joint. Bar BQ is also long gone as is Pig'n Out.

WTF is going on here? I've always heard that the "leaders" in the review world could be bought. Is this evidence? Why would AOL/City Search list FOUR closed restaurants as part of the top ten and leave out NYC's current leaders like RUB, Wildwood, Hill Country, The Waterfront Ale House etc? I call shenanigans!

In case you're interested, here's AOL/City Search's top 10 BBQ joints of New York City - for what it's worth. And that ain't much.

1. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
2. Virgil's Barbecue
3. Blue Smoke
4. Bar BQ
5. Daisy May's BBQ
6. Spanky's BBQ
7. Pig'n Out Barbeque
8. Bone Lick Park
9. Pies-N-Thighs
10. Sawa BBQ

PS - That rib picture that leads this post is from the incredible RUB! You need to check them out whenever you're in Manhattan.

Turkeys Terrorize New York City

Out in Staten Island, a large band of wild turkeys have taken to terrorizing the neighborhood. Protected by law, all the residents can do is squirt them with hoses and pray. Damn. Would anyone notice if a couple of birds found their way into one of my smokers? Honestly, officer. I have no idea how it got there.

New York City's Best Barbeque. Says You!

City's Best has just launched a new poll to find New York City's best barbecue restaurant. Here's the list of nominations in no particular order. You can vote for you favorite by clicking on the restaurant name. Be sure to check out my thoughts about each establishment. Of course your thoughts may vary.

• Three Brother's Butchers (My review is here)
• Plataforma (Brazilian BBQ? What are they doing on this list?)
• Virgil's Barbecue (My last visit is here)
• Blue Smoke (By this time you should know the drill)
• Daisy May's BBQ (Here)
• Pies and Thighs (Sorry, I haven't been here yet.)
• Dinosaur BBQ (My visit)
• Brother Jimmy's (My last visit)
• Bone Lick Park (My take)
• Hill Country BBQ (Not a full review - but some comments.)

I'm really disappointed with this list. Where's RUB? Where's Wildwood? Rack and Soul? The hipster darling Fette Sau? The Smoke Joint? Where's another media darling Fatty Cue?

I wonder if this is a real poll or just an advertorial. You know - an advertisement that is disguised as an actual article. Hey, it happens.

Best BBQ in New York City?

The Zagat survey is out for 2011 and as usual it has some surprising conclusions. Brooklyn's restaurants have stepped up in a big way, but none so surprising, is that Fette Sau has been crowned the best barbecue in NYC. I am shocked. It's been awhile since I've been out to Fette Sau, but to me, it barely squeaked in to the top ten. Looks like a road trip is due.

Some other interesting items from this year's Zagat...

• The Health Department’s new letter-grading system is popular, with 83% of our surveyors approving of it. (New York recently switched to a letter graded system for the cleanliness of restaurants instead of the old numbers based ratings)
• 42% of surveyors think that the government should require restaurants to reduce the amount of salt in their dishes, but 49% oppose a tax on sugary drinks. (the Bloomberg administration has toyed with requiring restaurants to lower the amount of salt in their food and the Governor's office floated a tax on sugary drinks this year.)
• 81% of surveyors feel it’s acceptable to take pictures of their food, but 64% say it’s “rude and inappropriate” to text, e-mail, tweet or talk on a mobile phone at a restaurant. (FANTASTIC NEWS! I always feel uncomfortable taking pictures of food in restaurants. Now I know it's OK and I'm not bothering the other diners. Whew!)
• Surveyors rated overall hospitality in the dining scene a 17, up from 15 during pre-recession times.
• The average cost of a meal in New York is $41.76, a marginal decrease from $41.81 last year. That’s the first decrease since the post–September 11 slump in 2002. (I don't see this at all. Maybe food costs are down in the upper echelon, but in the restaurants I visit prices have been creeping up steadily.)

Photograph of a Fette Sau platter courtesy of Pig Trip - Your guide to BBQ joints in Boston New York and everywhere in between. Not used with permission but I hope Pig Trip won't mind.

Corporate BBQ?

Holy Shit! George Soros owns Dinosaur BBQ? Wow. I had no idea.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/dinosaur_inc.html

BBQ Thoughts: Pig Roasting in the Big City

Everything is in motion. There's no turning back now. Last night Kevin Lincoln of the New York BBQ Lover's Meetup Group and Ned Berke of Sheepshead Bites and I your humble blogger drove up to Norwalk Connecticut and borrowed an Ed Wilson Ed Mitchell designed, not to be confused, as I had just done, with the esteemed Connecticut based pitmaster Ed Wilson, constructed by Wilmington Grills pig roaster from Nancee and Greg of Purple Turtle Catering Company, one of Connecticut's best catering companies and award winning barbecue chefs, in order prepare for the bacchanalian orgy of food and drink that will be served this Saturday in a private yard in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn.

Scott Smith, pitmaster extraordinaire of New York City's premiere barbecue joint RUB has ordered the 60lb or so sacrifice of pork for me that will be roasted and smoked by us and I'll be picking it up Friday.

Now the work falls on my shoulders. How will I prepare said hog? Will it be injected? Rubbed? Cooked skin up or down? Butterflied? Stupefied? Testified? Will we be doing a pig picking where all you need is a beer in one hand and a fork in the other? Or will the pig be removed from its fiery grates and its body parts carved up into more, shall we say "acceptable" presentation serving pieces for the less squeamish?

I got some thinking to do as this will be my first pig cooking done solo. Well, not really solo as I will be turning to the ever talented Kevin Lincoln for assistance and RUB's Matt Fisher for his chefly advice and counsel.

Pray for good weather. Pray for sanity. Pray for properly cooked swine. As the bible says...

"There were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings. So the service of the temple of the LORD was reestablished."

Now I don't know about re-establishing the temple, but a good time is guaranteed for all.

Photo of the pig roast above courtesy of A Brooklyn Life, whom I've never met and from whom I stole this picture and whose blog I enjoy even if it is so focused on the hipster side of the borough ignoring its heart, but am inviting to this pig roast nonetheless.

PS. Do you think I got enough links into one post?

Grilling In The Big Apple

With the Fourth of July rapidly approaching and the barbecue season about to hit the high water mark, it's time to answer that age old question, "Where can I barbecue in New York City?" And the answer is, "Lots of places." NYC has over 30 parks where grilling is legal.

Some of my favorite spots in Brooklyn include:

• Manhattan Beach, which has two grilling locations, Oriental Boulevard & Hastings Street and Northeast of Promenade, median adjacent to parking lot (no amplified sound permitted)
• Red Hook Park, Bay Street near Columbia Street
• Prospect Park, which tops all the Brooklyn parks with six locations, but my favorite is by the band shell

In the Bronx, I recommend:

• Crotona Park, Crotona Park East & Charlotte Street (Indian Lake)
• Ferry Point Park, at both the north and south ends of the park
• Van Cortlandt Park, with two locations, my favorite being In front of the pool, Broadway and 242 Street

In Manhattan check out:

• East River Park, Along FDR Drive at East 10th Street but a special permit is required, but I've never seen it enforced.
• Wards Island Park, East River & Hell Gate (near the children's playground)

In Queens pay a visit to Alley Pond Park, Winchester Boulevard & Grand Central Parkway and in Staten Island I frequent Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk and Beach at Midland Avenue and Lincoln Avenue

Of course these are just some recommendations, you can check out the entire list of grilling spots in New York City at the Park's Department webpage.

Remember; barbecuing or grilling is allowed in designated areas ONLY. No barbecuing permitted under trees. All coals and litter must be disposed in trash receptacles. Please remember to extinguish all coals before dumping them into a trash can. No extra fires please. And if you're going with a group of 20 people or more, the city requires that you get a $25 permit 21 days in advance.

Mac and Cheese at The Waterfront Ale House

I still have a lot to talk about with our meal from The Waterfront Ale House, but today I'm going to skip around a little in our menu and talk about what was probably the most controversial dish of the night - the Macaroni and Cheese. Que scary stabbing music now.

Yes folks, the macaroni and cheese was the most talked about dish on the menu at the Ale House. "Why?" You ask. Simply because it wasn't your traditional orange powder cheese sauce. As mac and cheese go, this is a very light version which works perfectly as a side dish. Its flavors won't overwhelm the main entree.

Sam and Ralph's Macaroni and Cheese is a home made version using Adams Reserve New York Extra Sharp Cheddar and elbow noodles. This ain't nothing like what you get out of that blue box and it ain't nothing like your mama used to make. Hence the controversy. Either you love this or you hate it.

But you know what? This mac and cheese is exactly like MY momma used to make. And my wife still makes it this way. I love it. It's nowhere near as gooey or chessey as what you get from the box, it doesn't involve a bechamel sauce and it comes together relatively quickly.

Here's what you do - dump one pound of cooked elbow macaroni into a buttered baking dish. Stir in one can of Campbell's condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup. Stir in one teaspoon dried mustard. Add in one pound of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese. Add up to one half pound of an additional easy melting cheese - use whatever you have on hand. Mix thoroughly. Top with flavored bread crumbs. Arrange pats of butter on top and bake until bubbly.

Now I don't think that's Sam and Ralph's recipe, but it sure is a good copy. Enjoy.

Dinner at RUB: We're Done

Let's finish up our dinner at RUB. There's "Q"ing to do!

Deep Fried Oreos - nothing like the greasy state fair staple. At RUB they rock.
The recipe for this is available in Paul Kirk and Ardie Davis' new book; America's Best BBQ.
It's right there on page 177!

Next up was Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies. These were interesting and the bacon provides a saltiness to counteract the sweetness of the chocolate, but if I didn't know there was bacon in them I would never have guessed it.

After dinner Celeste gave tours of the kitchen. Here some folks check out the action.

Take a look at the inside of the holding pit. Meat is cooked in one of the 3 other J&R Pits and transferred to another J&R Pit for holding before it is sliced and served to the guests. One thing I learned during this tour is that everything at RUB is sliced, pulled or chopped to order. There's no pre-portioned baggies of pulled pork or chicken. That's a lot of chopping!

And I leave you with a picture of the point, or deckle or the fatty upper muscle of the brisket. This sumptuous meat will be cubed, re-seasoned and re-smoked to become burnt ends.

Dinner at RUB; Part 2

Let's talk about dinner. I think we had everything on the menu except for the duck.

The Pickled Pig made the trip with us to visit RUB

In-house Pastrami, in-house Sausage and Pulled Pork.

The sausage is very similar to Kreuz, but better. The pastrami could give Katz a run for its money and the pulled pork was simply fantastic.

Turkey, Brisket and Ham.

I love ham anytime and this didn't disappoint. The turkey was moist and flavorful and a vast improvement from the last time I had it. It has inspired me. I'm smoking a turkey this weekend. And what can I say about the brisket? As I've said a few times in the blog, brisket is not my favorite meat. A long time friend and former chef once told me that if you don't like something, you've never had it cooked properly. Well, I like brisket now.

Ribs - Sorry but I don't have any pictures of the chicken.

What can I say about the ribs - perfect as presented. No sauce. Moist, tender and flavorful. As Eric Johnson from Mr. Bobo’s Traveling BBQ All Stars says,"These ribs would take any competition."

Sides: Collard Greens, Cornbread, Onion Strings fried in lard, Potato Salad and Baked Beans.

The onion strings are fried in lard and totally addictive. Sweet, salty and crispy; how can you go wrong? I didn't get any cornbread, but my wife and a long time friend raved about how it was more cake like than the traditional gritty bread. Celeste, manager and hostess for the evening, told us that she sometimes uses it for French Toast. The potato salad was one of the best I've had in a restaurant. I even liked the collard greens.

I tell you folks, you gotta get to RUB soon. Everything was so good.

Dinner at RUB

Another great meet up with the New York BBQ Lovers Meetup Group at RUB. Great bunch of people. Great fun and fantastic food. If you're looking to learn about NY BBQ, join us.

Owner Andrew Fischel and Pitmaster Scott address the group explaining what we're going to be eating and how it's prepared. It was a great start to the night.

I can't tell you how good this meal was. Andrew, Scott, Matt, Celeste, Molly and all the rest of the staff outdid themselves the other night. You have to get to RUB. Trust me.

Let's start with the appetizers..

Frito Pie or WhiteTrash Nachos


Burnt Ends - By FAR the best in the city

And some chicken wings. A great start to an auspicious meal.

Photos used in this post are used by permission of Kevin Lincoln, founder NY BBQ Lovers Meetup Group

Dinner at RUB

OK, boys and girls, tonight we feast! MY wife and I are heading into Manhattan to meet up with members of the NY BBQ Lover's Meetup Group for a night of bacchanalian revelry at RUB BBQ!

Look at this menu which will be shared family style...

Appetizers:

• BBQ Chicken Wings
• Bacon Chunks; house cured and triple smoked Berkshire black pork belly bacon
• Frito Pie
• Burnt Ends

Dinner:

• The Taste Of The Baron; tasting of beef, pork, ham, pastrami, turkey, chicken, sausage and topped with racks of ribs.
• Onion Strings
• Beans
• Greens
• Potato Salad
• Corn Bread

Desserts:

• Deep Fried Oreos
• Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photgraph of RUB courtesy of Pigtrip. Used with permission.

New York City's Best Barbecue

Today, I want to talk a little about New York City's best barbeque restaurants. I recently received a copy of the Zagat Guide to New York City Restaurant's for 2009.

Naturally I immediately checked out the barbecue restaurants, because I'm a BBQ guy don't you know, in New York. I was surprised to see how many didn't make it into the book. Places like Mo Gridder's, Waterfront Ale House, Georgia's East Side, Duke's, The Hog Pit and Jake's aren't mentioned anywhere.

While I don't expect Zagat to cover every restaurant, it would be nice to read how they make their selections. I have no idea how a restaurant qualifies for inclusion in the guide. In my neighborhood, only 2 restaurants are listed, even though in my mind they're nothing but take out joints. Why aren't the sit down places included? Sheepshead Bay has a large concentration of restaurants along the water. But that's another post and would require some research on my part.

This is the list of the barbecue restaurants included in the Zagat Guide to New York City Restaurant's for 2009 and their ratings. Zagat's rating system are - 10 to 15 fair to good, 16-19 good to very good, 20 - 25 very good to excellent.

So here goes (in alphabetical order)...

1. Blue Smoke... 21.
2. Brother Jimmy's... 16.
3. Daisy May's BBQ USA... 22.
4. Dallas BBQ... 14.
5. Dinosaur BBQ... 22.
6. Fette Sau... 24.
7. Hill Country... 21.
8. Johnny Utah... 13.
9. Lookout Hill Smokehouse... No rating.
10. Rack & Soul... 19.
11. RUB BBQ... 20.
12. The Smoke Joint... 22.
13. Spanky's BBQ... 15.
14. Virgil's BBQ... 20.
15. Wildwood BBQ... 17.

My ratings on Monday. As you'll see, I don't always agree with the fine folks at Zagat.

Photo of New York City - Manhattan, courtesy of New York Skyline.

Events: NYC International Pickle Day

The 8th Annual
NYC International
Pickle Day
A Pickle Event that Can't Be Contained
Hosted by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District and the NY Food Museum

Sunday, September 14th 2008, 11 am-4:30 pm

2 Locations side by side! Orchard Street between Broome and Grand Sts.
and Parking Lot on Ludlow and Broome Sts.

RAIN OR SHINE

The Eighth Annual NYC International Pickle Day is a free, fun street festival all about Pickles held on in the heart of the old Pickle District of the Lower East Side.

Pickle Day will feature:

• Music
• Cooking and home canning demonstrations
• Children's activities
• Neighborhood walking tours

And of course

• FREE PICKLE SAMPLES!

For the first time Pickle Day has Expanded!

There is a 2nd Pickle Day Location at the Parking Lot on Broome Street and Ludlow with:

• An interactive Best Buy Pickle Day Lounge
• Special Pickle Day Green Market
• A full-length production of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, produced by The Drilling Company (3pm)
  

And much much more!

For the second year in a row Pickle Day is offering free valet bike parking supplied by Transportation Alternatives, so pedal on down with the whole family.

Sponsored by Best Buy in Noho (622 Broadway) and Whole Foods. Media Partnership with Metro NY.

For more information go to www.LowerEastSideNY.com or call 212-226-9010.

The Pitmasters: Big Lou Elrose

What a great way to start the day. This article from today's New York Times came into my inbox. Lou Elrose is a giant of a man and one of the nicest folks on the New York barbeque scene.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

On the Crest of a Food Wave
By LOUISE KRAMER

Published: December 9, 2007

Lou Elrose overseeing barbecue at home in Queens. He has moved quickly from running a food cart to being pit master for a start-up barbecue chain.

LOU ELROSE, a retired police officer with a passion for barbecue, is suddenly a hot commodity.

In the past year, Mr. Elrose, who has won barbecue competitions, has gone from selling pulled pork and slow-cooked brisket from a food cart in Ozone Park, Queens, to a job as deputy pit master at Hill Country, a new barbecue restaurant in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

After only three months, Mr. Elrose, 55, was recruited for another job, as head pit master at Wildwood Barbecue, a restaurant set to open in March a few blocks south of Hill Country. With this new post, Mr. Elrose is commanding his highest salary yet — approaching six figures, he said. He is also eligible for a stock purchase plan.

“Anybody who has anything to do with the meat will be reporting to me,” he said.

It is a good time to be a barbecue expert in New York. The city has long been stuffed with Italian, French and Japanese restaurants, but barbecue spots were in short supply for many years. Now the landscape has changed.

Tim Zagat, co-founder of the Zagat Survey restaurant guides, estimates that there are about 20 notable barbecue restaurants in New York, up from just a few five years ago.

The 2008 Zagat Guide to New York City restaurants, published in October, notes six new spots, including Hill Country, which specializes in Texas-style barbecue; Southern Hospitality, on the Upper East Side, with the pop star Justin Timberlake as a co-owner; and Fette Sau (“fat pig” in German) in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

The trend is prompting demand for well-trained cooks. “Most people think that with barbecue you throw it into a smoker and 16 hours later you have wonderful food,” Mr. Zagat said. “A really good pit master has to be a talented person and technically has to be fairly sophisticated.”

Pit masters create recipes (including those for secret spice rubs for their brisket and ribs), order and butcher meat and preside over pits in the restaurants. While a pit conjures an image of a hole in the ground, in this case it is actually an oven, sometimes burning mild fruitwood like apple or cherry, or other hardwoods.

Some pit masters, including Mr. Elrose, earn their stripes as serious hobbyists who have smokers at home and who travel the thriving national circuit of cooking competitions. Others are classically trained chefs, like Kenny Callaghan, executive chef of Blue Smoke, which was opened in 2002 by the restaurateur Danny Meyer.

Meat experts aren’t the only people in demand in city restaurants. Despite the troubled housing market and recession fears, employment at full-service restaurants in New York City reached a record 98,600 last year and is on track to exceed that this year, said Jim Brown, labor market analyst for the New York State DepartmentricaLabor.

At the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., job postings are plentiful, said Wendy Higgins, assistant director for career development and employer services. “It is a very good market,” she said. The school has not had specific requests to fill pit master jobs, she said.

Mr. Brown said there was some concern that the financial industry’s slowdown would start to affect restaurants. But he said foreign tourists enjoying favorable exchange rates were likely to fill seats vacated by locals. Moreover, the city’s growing population is adding more diners to the mix, he said.

“Employment growth has been quite strong, and skilled staff, especially as you move up the ladder to the higher-end restaurants, has been in short supply for a while,” Mr. Brown said. “For most restaurants, the only way you’re going to get an experienced worker is to lure them from someplace else. We don’t track it in hard numbers, but there certainly has been a pickup in poaching.”

THE creator of Wildwood Barbecue, Stephen Hanson, founder and president of B.R. Guest Restaurants, a New York company with 16 restaurants, acknowledges poaching talent.

“Poaching is just part of New York,” he said. “Everybody always takes the interview.” He said demand has pushed up salaries for pit masters by 50 percent during the last two years.

Mr. Hanson hopes to open five Wildwoods by the end of next year, including locations in Las Vegas and Arizona. All will need pit masters, who will report to him.

Before joining the Police Department, Mr. Elrose worked for Landi’s Pork Store in Brooklyn and owned a deli. He often cooks for his wife and three children.

Some retired police officers contemplate fishing trips, but Mr. Elrose, known as Big Lou, is expecting a busy second act. “Working for Steve Hanson is like being attached to a rocket,” he said. “Every time I see him he says, ‘Lou, you don’t know how big this is going to be.’ Maybe I don’t, but I’m on for the ride.”

Where can I grill or barbeque in the city of New York?

I get this quesiton on a regular basis. Where can I grill in New York City? Ok folk's here's the definitive list about cooking in NYC's parks. Parks not owned by the city of New York (Federal or state lands, ie: Plumb Beach, Jamaica Bay etc, have completely different sets of rules. I'll work on that for you next.

Where can I have a barbecue in Manhattan? Do I need a permit to do so?

Yes, you need a permit to barbecue. You may barbecue in designated areas within the following parks: Alfred E. Smith Park, East River Park, Highbridge Park, Inwood Hill Park, Marcus Garvey Park, Randall's Island, Riverside Park, St. Nicholas Park, Thomas Jefferson Park, and Wards Island. For more information, please visit the Designated Barbecuing Areas page.

Designated Barbecuing Areas

• Barbecuing is allowed in designated areas only.
• No barbecuing allowed under trees.
• All coals & litter must be disposed in trash receptacles.

Bronx
Crotona Park - Crotona Park East & Charlotte Street (Indian Lake)
Orchard Beach - North & South Lawn
Pelham Bay Park - Arnow Place & Bruckner Boulevard
River Park - 180th Street fence line and along Boston Road entrance side
St. Mary's Park - 146th Street & St. Ann's Avenue
Van Cortlandt Park - Jerome Avenue, South of 233rd Street

Brooklyn
Coffey Park - At Verona, Richards, and Dwight Streets
Kaiser Park - Bayview Avenue (near Neptune Avenue), westernmost part of the park
Manhattan Beach - Northeast of Promenade, Median adjacent to Parking Lot, Oriental Boulevard & Hastings St.
Prospect Park
- Surrounding Picnic House (Park West & 5th Street, East side of Park Drive)
- South of Bandshell, off 9th Street
- Nethermead area: South Lawn at Wollman Rink

Manhattan
Alfred E. Smith Park - Catherine Street at Cherry Street
East River Park - Along FDR Drive at E. 10th and E. 6th Streets
Highbridge Park - At 175th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Inwood Hill Park - Dyckman Ballfields at Dyckman Street & Hudson River
Marcus Garvey Park - 124th Street at 5th and Madison Avenues
Randall's Island - At the far end of Sunken Meadow ballfields
Riverside Park - Above 145th Street
St. Nicholas Park - St. Nicholas Terrace at St. Nicholas Avenue & West 128th Street, and at 133rd Street
Thomas Jefferson Park - At 112th Street
Wards Island - East River & Hell Gate (near the children's playground)

Queens
Alley Athletic Field - Union Turnpike & Winchester Boulevard
Alley Pond Park -Winchester Boulevard & Grand Central Parkway
Brookville Park - Brookville Boulevard & South Conduit Avenue
Cunningham Park - 193rd Street & Union Turnpike
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park - Jewel Avenue & Van Wyck Expressway (Meadow Lake)
Forest Park - Woodhaven Boulevard & Forest Park Drive
Springfield Playground - 147th Avenue & Springfield Boulevard (Behind Park House)

Staten Island
Clove Lakes Park - Clove Road & Victory Boulevard
Willowbrook Park - Eaton Place Entrance

BBQ Masters: Matt Fisher

I can finally announce to the world that my buddy and one of my inspirations has decided to follow his dream and enter the world of professional barbeque.

Matt Fisher, aka The Hampton Smoker, is about to kiss corporate America behind and take up the tongs as pit master of B.R. Guest's newest barbeque restaurant; Wildwood BBQ. Wildwood BBQ will be located at 225 Park Avenue South New York City.

Wow. Congratulations Matt! I can't wait to review your food!

Barbecue New York - A Look Back

Internet feeds are a great thing. So are mailing lists and news feeds. But you need to be skeptical of what comes into your in-box.

The article below came into my in-box last night and says it was published last night by AM New York. I think I've read this article before, because it's certainly out of date. Since the article was published, Josh is editing New York Magazine's Grub Street, the Long Island Grill Kings contest has been canceled, BBQ-NYC wasn't held this year, Brooklyn has hosted two Grillin' On The Bay BBQ contests, and Hill Country, regarded by many as NYC's best BBQ restaurant, has opened.

Shame on AM New York for pushing such old material as today's "news."

But it's still an interesting read and look into yesteryear. Here ya go....

Barbecue New York

By Josh Ozersky

Barbecue is booming in New York these days. The perfume of the pits wafts from Woodbury woodpiles and West Village meeting places, from mobile pits in Rego Park and Staten Island to multimillion-dollar restaurants all over Manhattan.

Purists have debated whether any of it is truly authentic. But when Kansas City's legendary "Baron of Barbecue," Paul Kirk, opened a Manhattan restaurant earlier this year, no one could doubt that barbecue had truly arrived.

It was a long time coming.

Those who love barbecue as babies love milk can remember all too well what it was like just a few short years ago. "English Bob" Pearson, as he was sometimes called by his fans, was the only game in town, with restaurants in Long Island City and Jackson Heights, both now closed.

He set the standard for the genuine article - no dry rub, no glaze, sauce on the side - and continues the tradition at his new place, Pearson's Texas Barbecue, 170 E. 81st St. in Manhattan.

It wasn't, and isn't, the sticky-sweet, mushy dish soaked in a cloying sauce that is served in so many franchise restaurants. This was true barbecue, cooked for many hours in a transforming bath of hardwood smoke.

Classic pit smoking changes meat, rendering some of its fat and flavoring what remains, tenderizing the meat as it shrinks and giving the final result a pink ring meaningful to pitheads.

Today, a new barbecue restaurant seems to open every month, with the wildly successful Daisy May's BBQ U.S.A., Blue Smoke, Dinosaur BBQ and now Paul Kirk's R.U.B. (Righteous Urban Barbecue), all in Manhattan, being the most notable.

Smoking, or nonsmoking?

But few have adopted Pearson's no-frills aesthetic: most of the new barbecues are as ambitious about their sauces, marinades and spice rubs as they are about the smoking process itself.

"The way I look at it, barbecue doesn't just cook itself. It's a real craft," says Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May's BBQ U.S.A., a classically trained chef who was once a protégé of Daniel Boulud. Perry doesn't like an overly smoky barbecue and so uses wood fuel that has already burned down in his secret, self-designed smoker.

For others, like Pearson and John Stage of Dinosaur, the smoky taste is the essence of barbecue. Indeed, as soon as you walk into Dinosaur, the unmistakable smell of hickory smoke hits you like the remembered face of an old flame.

The smell is the first giveaway that barbecue, in the traditional Southern sense, is something different from what New Yorkers are used to. Says one of the area's best barbecuers, Rick Anselmi of Poppa Rick's Fine Foods in Woodbury, "If you're born here, you have no conception of what barbecue is.''

It's not backyard grilling

For Anselmi, the barbecue epiphany happened 10 years ago on a trip to Houston. "Being from Long Island, I thought barbecue meant grilling in the backyard," he says. "But when you get down there and consider what they consider barbecue, it's a revelation.

"This old man stood by a hinged oil drum for hours and hours and let me taste the brisket he was cooking. It was as tender as a pot roast, but it didn't have a boiled taste. This is a piece of brisket? It was a fascination to me, it really was."

Barbecue hits New York

For many New Yorkers, barbecue is something they've heard about but possibly never had. That is, many never had it until three events in the summer of 2003 helped the current barbecue explosion reach critical mass.

On June 2, Danny Meyer's Big Apple Block Party, sponsored by Blue Smoke, was the Woodstock of New York barbecue. It brought some of the country's most famous pitmasters from their homes in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and other trans-Hudson barbecue capitals. A couple of weeks later, on June 21, the first annual Grill Kings Long Island BBQ Cook-off was held in Eisenhower Park and Will Breakstone of Islip emerged the winner.

And on Aug. 16, on Ward's Island, Travis Mills and Robert Richter, two young local barbecue enthusiasts, threw BBQ-NYC, a cult event as memorable in its own way as Meyer's extravaganza.

All three events were repeated last year and are planned for this summer as well. It's June 11 and 12 for the Big Apple Block Party, July 23 and 24 for Grill Kings Long Island BBQ Cook-Off. No date is set yet for the BBQ-NYC event. (Last year's Big Apple Block Party was a riot scene, with endless snaking lines and barbecues pressed to capacity, featuring smoked brisket, hot links, pulled pork, and, of course, spareribs.)

Barbecue in New York is still experiencing growing pains. Many of the restaurants that are opening struggle, both with the cooking process and with the expenses involved in slow-smoking and the air-cleaning technology it requires. And not a few home barbecuers have spent 12 to 15 hours on a brisket, gathered a crowd of friends and neighbors around, only to find a bitter, sooty piece of meat to show for it.

But at the end of the day, most everyone bitten by the barbecue bug seems to think that the trouble is worth it.

Al Horowitz, of Smokin' Al's Famous BBQ Joint in Bay Shore, sums it up like this: "It does take special time and attention. Anybody can flip some meat on a grill, but the TLC, the patience and time barbecue takes is what makes it worthwhile. You're really doing something special."

WHO MAKES THE BEST?

Like anyone else, I have my biases when it comes to barbecue, and this list reflects them. I prefer more smoke to less, and I tend to give short shrift to even the most artful sauces and seasonings. I also like fat - the more the better. This list of my favorites includes only established barbecue restaurants: Just-opened places like Paul Kirk's R.U.B., Spanky's BBQ in Times Square and Brooklyn's Jake's are at a disadvantage. It also takes no notice of side dishes, desserts, decor or service. Barbecue alone determines order.

1. Dinosaur BBQ, 646 131st St., Manhattan, 212-694-1777. If the taste of smoke is your thing, this is the place; a simple glaze at the end complements without getting in the way.

2. Blue Smoke, 116 E. 27th St., Manhattan, 212-447-7733. Four different kinds of ribs, all executed on a very high level by Kenny Callahan, earn Blue Smoke special credit.

3. Poppa Rick's Fine Foods, 1130 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury (no phone). Crude, simple and magnificent, these smoky monsters fairly burst with pork-fat flavor. Also makes the best cornbread on Earth. OK, so maybe I do notice side dishes.

4. Daisy May's BBQ U.S.A., 623 11th Ave. at 46th Street, Manhattan, 212-977- 1500. The pork ribs are undersmoked and over-rubbed, as is the pulled pork, but the big beef ribs are magnificent - as is glorious prime rib that comes out as an occasional special.

5. Waterfront Ale House 155 Atlantic Ave. (between Henry and Clinton), Brooklyn, 718-522- 3794; 540 Second Ave. (corner of 30th Street), Manhattan, 212-696- 4104. The pork ribs aren't world-beaters, but extraordinary pulled pork and game come out of Sam Barbieri's Southern Pride smoker.

6. Pearson's Texas BBQ 170 E. 81st St. Manhattan, 212-288-2700. Uneven at times, but the minimalist approach pays off when it's at its best.

BARBECUE IN YOUR BACKYARD

Most everyone has some kind of experience with cookouts. And some ambitious backyard barbecuers even have cooked with indirect heat, the secret of real barbecue.

But what about those special times, when you want real barbecue, slow-smoked by a master, at your party? No problem.

Big Island Barbecue, a competitive duo headed by Rob Richter of Rego Park, is the only team from the area to have ever competed in the Jack Daniels World Championship, the so-called Super Bowl of BBQ in Lynchburg, Tenn. For about $40 a head, Big Island will bring its 19-foot-long Lang cooker and slow smoke brisket, pulled pork, baby back ribs and chicken over cherry wood, or even prepare custom-grilled items like salmon or vegetables. Check for local outdoor cooking regulations.

Smokin Joe's BBQ, of Staten Island, doesn't cook on-site, but has a more elaborate menu that it will prepare, then bring to your home. Along with brisket, ribs and pulled pork, it offers a wide range of sides, tapas, crab boils and numerous grilling options, from $22 a head.

Both companies have the added bonus of being run by native New Yorkers with an abiding love of barbecue cooking.

Big Island Barbecue: 718-997-8572; Smokin Joe's BBQ: 718-948-3340, or online at www.smokin joesbbq.com.