Great Lakes State of Mind (BOI-GRR)

The picture above was taken on I-84 in Idaho just west of Boise. If you can't read it, it says: "Trucking Ain't For Sissies". Priceless.

I booked a flight to Grand Rapids, MI to see my friends Scott & Mark in Muskegon, MI. In the meantime, we spent some time in both cities and various reaches of Western Michigan. Here is a synopsis of the week that was a miniature "Summer of Squalor". "Summer of Squalor" is a name given to the Summer of 2002 when Scott, Mark & I along with a whole cast of ever-changing characters shared a townhouse in Ann Arbor, MI for the summer. I will leave it up to you to determine the meaning of squalor here.

Saturday, February 19, 2011: I arrive a bit late to GRR. Scott picks me up, and we drive to his Brother's home. When I arrive, I am served home-made cinnamon rolls with left-over thai fried rice. Missy, Scott's Sister-In-Law gives us some home-made bread and a bottle of salsa to take with us to Muskegon. We meet her friend Tracie, chat for a bit, and get on our way. After arriving in Muskegon, we decide to head to Holland, MI to visit New Holland Brewery. The maker of one of my favorite beers: Dragon's Milk. We drank there for a bit, and headed to Grand Haven to bar-hop. We ended up having a few at a place called Tip A Few Tavern. It was during this stint that we decided to go back to Scott's Brother's house to hang out with Missy and her friend Tracie. We headed back to Grand Rapids and played marbles,laughed our asses off at a viral video of LaSarah and generally headed home late at night with Mark as our designated driver.

Sunday, February 20, 2011: I woke up somewhat hung-over at around 9 or 10 and start cooking breakfast. I had raided Scott's refrigerator the night before and all I could find was the following: eggs, tortillas, ground beef, asparagus and the salsa we had received from Missy. I made really thin egg pancakes and laid them on top of heated tortillas. Added the browned ground beef, sauteed asparagus tips and the salsa before rolling this mixture into a really jank-ass burrito. It was gross, but it did hit the spot. I think the rest of the day involved a couple of movies and a half gallon of R&R Canadian Whiskey. By 3:30 a.m., I was keeping Scott and Mark awake with my rendition of every song from Tom Brosseau's Grand Forks. It was ugly. Oh, yeah...it snowed about 10 inches during the day. Some idiot with a White Sox hat on posed for us during the snow storm:

Monday, February 21, 2011: Woke up in a haze. Our plan was for Scott to drive me to Grand Rapids to meet up with my Sister. She was in town visiting my nephew, Ethan. He is a student at Grand Valley St. University. We cleaned up and made the drive. Lunch was very pleasant. We went to a pizza joint that doubled as a sports bar. Pizza was good, as was the company and conversation. Got to see my other nephew Logan and my niece Addison as well. I really enjoyed being able to make this happen. After lunch, we headed back to Muskegon. I took a position on the couch and crashed hard.

Tuesday, February 22, 2012: Pretty chill day. We went bowling.I actually bowled my second best game ever: 198. After this, we decided we needed a board game. Monopoly it was. Played a long game that night and called it a day.

Wednesday, February 23, 2012: Scott was really restless from being in the house the last couple of days. We decided to make another trek to Grand Rapids. Our plan was to go to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Vertigo Music (new Low Anthem was out on the 22nd) and then visit Founder's Brewery. I really think Founder's might be top 5 in the U.S. when it comes to making not only standards, but innovative, smart beers. The plan went well. The best part came as a surprise, though. We were hungry for lunch and we had just left the record store. We drove into a Latino neighborhood looking for a good taqueria. Instead we found "Tortas Gigante".A tiny, dirty, friendly place that specialized in a favorite of ours: the torta. The torta is basically a Mexican sandwich that can have any filling, but is usually topped by lettuce, tomato, guacamole or avacado, mayonnaise, cheese and refritos (refried beans). Two different kinds of bread can be used on these sandwiches: Bolillo or Talera. Tortas Gigantes uses Talera, which is the thinner bread that is much better for the flat top. It gets a nice crusty edge when grilled and tastes great. Scott got his favorite, Al Pastor (marinated pork) and I ordered the Milanesa (breaded steak). We were the only ones eating there, but there were several younger kids that came and went via the basement of the joint. Not sure what was going on, but we were only focused on the tortas. It was an amazing find. Beers at Founder's were great too:We retired to Muskegon to play more Monopoly and then we played a Hold 'Em tournament before we ended the day.

Thursday, February 24, 2011: Scott talked Mark and I into helping him shovel the neighbor's driveway. His neighbor is older and not able to do this herself. We agreed and after about 45 minutes, it was cleared. It felt good not only to do something nice for someone, but to get some excercise! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching television until Scott and I decided to go get some food and drink. We ended up at a brick oven pizza place drinking beer from Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company (our old stomping grounds). We drank more at home, and then dug into Missy's home-made bread. Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, and then we just buttered the bread and grilled it. Add some salt and it was ridiculous. Simple but amazing. It marked the end of the trip, because I had to go to the airport for my flight out Friday afternoon.

Here is a link to a drunken FaceBook note I wrote about the trip Thursday night: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/benjamin-barker/great-lakes-state-of-mind/149142341812639

Meatcutting Week 15: Actually... Remodeling Week 15

The week of Feb. 14-18 was the last week of work before the shop was shut down a week for Jeff and his family to go skiing in Utah. I took advantage of this and booked a flight to Michigan for the next week to visit friends in Grand Rapids and Muskegon. In the meantime, we cut a few beef and then built a door for our walk-in freezer. I was supposed to work Friday helping to slice bacon, but I felt like ass all night and in the morning. I wanted to rest so I was good to go for my flight Saturday morning, so I called in sick. I rested Friday and left for Boise that night. My flight was leaving at 5:40 a.m., so I did not want to wake up at 1:00 a.m. and leave La Grande to make my flight. I will detail my trip in the next entry.

Meatcutting Week 14: Hogs, lambs & goats, oh my!

Week 14 (Feb. 7-11, 2011) brought some new "critters" to the cutting table. "Critters" is actually a term thrown around our shop to describe the animals we cut. The new ones this week were a variety of lambs and goats. They are very small and actually very easy to break down compared to a beef, of course. They are basically like mini-beefs. Most of the cuts are exactly the same. Their 30-50 lb. frames were a welcome relief to the 325 lb. beef halves we usually work with. It may sound weird that we are cutting goats, but this meat is getting more popular in the U.S. I would venture to say that more people in the world eat goat as a regular part of their diet than any other animal with the exception of chicken and fish. The meat is pretty lean, but it is usually a little tougher than lamb, etc. Because of this, most cultures have created dishes that involve very slow cooking with lots of liquid and spices. If cooked properly, it becomes a very flavorful protein.

Speaking of tough cuts of meat. I recently got my hands on a beef neck roast. This is a quite unusual roast, but Jeff did not want to use the neck for soup bones, so he took the neck with the surrounding muscle tissue and slow cooked it like a roast. There is a large amount of connective tissue in this surrounding muscle, so it has to cook for quite a while before it becomes gelatin and the meat falls from the bone. The resulting roast is just as good as any pot roast. I really liked it.

We also spent an entire day cutting hogs! This was the first time we were able to make a whole day out of cutting pork. I need this repetition to get the routine memorized. When we have cut them in the past, it was limited to a handful each time. I think I have mastered the basics of breaking the hog down for the saw. Exciting.

Unfortunately, this work did not leave us with a whole week of cutting. We put some finishing touches on the walk-in freezer and called it a week.

Spent the weekend shooting an AK-47, flying a kite, playing disc golf and drinking heavily. My buddy Mink got officially ordained as a minister somewhere in the chaos. I couldn't make this up.

Meatcutting Week 13: Butcher's twine & Good times

Last week we cut one beef all week. This sucks, but we are still working on the finishing touches of our walk-in freezer. However, I was able to learn how to tie our london broils and roasts with twine using a knot that made me feel like I was learning how to tie my shoes all over again. I am now practicing on bananas, my remote controls or anything semi-round. I was not a Boy Scout, which became quite evident to Jeff immediately. Jeff calls it a Cinch Knot. Actually pretty basic once you are able to practice for a bit.

On Thursday, I was invited to a strategy meeting held by a community organization called Oregon Rural Action. Check out the link...http://oregonrural.org/. Ours is the Blue Mountain Chapter. I was anxious about what to expect, but it was very interesting. Not only did I find out where to get chicken feet from a church's food bank, but I also found out there were a number of young people in this area that are very passionate about local/sustainable food, and local enery conservation, etc. It was very interesting, and after the meeting, I was invited to hang out with some of the community organizers at a bar in La Grande. I had a great time chatting about lots of things, and it was parlayed into a Super Bowl party invite. The Super Bowl party was much more laid back than I am used to. My memories of them are quite hazy, but usually they involve me not showing up to work the next day. We had good food and beer and rooted for the Steelers (I thought the Steelers @ +2.5 was the smart $, unfortunatley).

One quick note about beef: Since I had the carne asada at my rental in FL last year, I have been looking for a particular cut of meat that our crew got from the mercado. I had no idea what it was, but it was one of the best flavors of beef I had ever tasted. Last week, a customer ordered flanken-style ribs. These are about 3/8" thick and they are basically small circles of rib bone that are surrounded by a strip of meat. It looks like flank or "fajita" meat, but it has these rib bones in it. Jeff said they are also called "Asian-style ribs". If you have a meat shop nearby, ask them if they can cut these for you. Marinate them in beer (preferebly Mexican), fresh lime juice and salt for about one hour. Lay them on the grill and cook them on a very hot flame for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Ridiculous.

On another amazing food level. I had a top 5 meal this past weekend. I have become friends with the proprietors of Golden Crown restaurant in La Grande. I happened to walk into the place on my first night here to get some food after imbibing heavily. I was not dissapointed. They had a very low-key sushi bar (the only one within 60 miles), and I was at home. I met Franky, who along with his family owns this place and another in Baker City, OR. We had great rapport, and talked about food, hardcore. I have since been to Golden Crown on a weekly basis to enjoy their fresh salmon sashimi and an occasional TG IPA. The staff behind the sushi bar is great too. Polo and Francis take care of me well, along with Franky, his Mother and his wife, Angela. I will keep this short: I was invited to partake in a staff meal at Golden Crown consisting of pork belly and lotus root. Obviously, I was in. 9:00 p.m. Saturday night, I showed up with a empty stomach, drool crusted on my lips and a curious mind.

Every night, the employees of Golden Crown cook an authentic Chinese dinner for all the staff to enjoy before the joint closes. One of the regular dishes contains a top 5 ingredient of mine: pork belly. This is basically bacon that has not been cured or smoked. It has multiple layers of fat and muscle tissue and really needs to be cooked low and slow to create the desired texture. This shit can chew like shoe leather if left to an amatuer (see Brugge Brasserie in Indianapolis). Luckily we had Franky's Mom cooking for us tonight. From what I can gather, she starts cooking the pork belly in a stock with unknown spices, etc. Very soon after, she adds the Lotus root after it has been stir fried in oil. Lotus root is an authentic Chinese vegetable that is grown and harvested under water. It can grow up to 4' long, and is very fibrous. This is why it has to cook slow with the pork belly.

Basically, when all is said and done, you have food texture porn. Seriously. If you haven't eaten slow cooked pork belly...do it immediately. I guess the only thing I can compare it to is the hot cracklins I had in Marksville, Louisiana. Although the craklins are a bit different in texture, but you can still feel the pork fat melt in your mouth like roasted bone marrow. Next, if you have the ability to buy imported Chinese produce at your local International market or your city's China Town, pick up some Lotus Root. It may be a bit pricey, but do yourself a favor. This shit is life-changing. It is a starchy root vegetable, and it picks up all flavors it is cooked with. But the texture...the texture is unexplainable to me. I want to say potato, but it is firmer. Firm, but as you chew it, it also melts in your mouth dispensing all flavors/seasoning that Franky's Mom decided to throw in the pot. It is cut into discs that are about 1/4 inch thick. I could not get enough. The great thing about this meal was that it was basically the protein and the veg served over white rice. No over-sweetened sauce or ridiculous flavor-enhancers that are often added to the American version of Chinese food. This was a taste of home for their kitchen staff. It was no frills, home-cooked food. Cantonese-style. The ingredients were cooked the way they should be. There were 2 stars in the movie, and they were unimpeded by an over-priced set or special effects. It was pork belly and lotus root cooked exactly the way they should be. Simply amazing, really.

Quickly: We just sold a beef to the owners of Terminal Gravity. Here is part of our payment. I was lucky enough to bring 6 cold ones home last night.

We are currently cutting meat this week, and it has been great to get back to practicing. Next blog will contain details about a nice meatcutting surprise.