You gonna eat that? Random musings on food and life in Orange County, California » 2004

October 30, 2004

Irvine farmer’s market

Filed under: Orange County — Professor Salt @ 1:13 pm

Saturday mornings in Irvine mean there’s probably something interesting to taste over at the farmer’s market near the University. Our market compares feebly to Santa Monica’s or San Francisco’s Ferry Building market that I wrote about in September. Sadly, the UC Irvine farmer’s market remains the largest one we have in Orange County.

My four year old cares nothing about exotic produce or how much better things are at other markets. The important thing is all the free samples of fruits in season. Today’s tastes featured Fuji and Pink Lady apples, Fuyu persimmons, pomegranates and the last of this year’s yellow peaches.

Homegrown

Irvine’s hyperplanned development over the past couple decades means that most of its former farmland and wild grasslands have been paved over into the über-suburb that you see today. While there are large plots in Irvine still being farmed industrially for tomatoes and strawberries, these too will be developed over the next decade.

So it’s nice to talk to real farmers who work the earth every day and buy carrots that smell of rich, fertile soil, even if it’s trucked in hundreds of miles from California’s Central Valley. Here, a young boy in the midst of Southern Californian suburbia can learn that apple season starts as melon season ends, and taste how strawberries have no flavor or sweetness in October.

UCI Farmer’s Market
In the shopping center parking lot across from the UCI Campus
Campus Drive, cross street is Bridge
Look for the In n Out Burger or Steelhead Brewery
Saturday mornings from 9a-1pm

Some folks on Chowhound wrote about Strickland’s Ice Cream, a mile east from the farmer’s market in yet another strip mall. This is an Ohio based chain that dates back to 1936. Here, you’ll see large churns dispensing old fashioned soft-serve into freezer bins. The soft serve feels smooth and rich on the palate, with no discernible ice granules. Vanilla and chocolate are always on the menu, and two other flavors of the day constantly rotate on the menu of soft serve. Hard-frozen pints and quarts of other flavors are available to take home, too.

The folks on Chowhound described the soft serve as a frozen custard, and I asked what that means. Technically, any ice cream base that has egg yolks in it can be considered a frozen custard. The lady I spoke with said that eggs were in Strickland’s original recipe prior to WWII. Since eggs were too precious during the war, they changed to an eggless recipe and nobody seemed to mind. Their recipe remains eggless to this day, and is no longer called frozen custard.

I’m told they add real fruit purees to their base. Today, we tried vanilla and pumpkin, since it’s Halloween and all. Both tasted like the real thing, and were pleasantly sweet. For soft serve ice cream, I think it’s the best game in town. Far, far better than the frozen custard at Kill Devil’s in Lake Forest.

Strickland’s Ice Cream
4523 Campus Drive (next to Jimmy Z’s)
Irvine, CA
949-387-9955
http://www.stricklands.info

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Barbecue Beginner

Filed under: BBQ — Professor Salt @ 8:39 am

So I tried my hand at real barbecue last night in my Weber Smoky Mountain (WSM), a charcoal and wood burning smoker that I bought at my buddy Buddha’s behest. He travelled from San Diego last weekend for the Los Angeles Chowhounds’ fundraising potluck, and showed me how to use my WSM. There’s a way to fire the charcoal so they burn steadily for over 12 hours while keeping the temperature in the sweet spot between 200 - 250 degrees. Last night at 1:15am, the temperature inside the smoker stabilized at 225 degrees F, and in went the ribs. Charcoal fires will spike up in temperature, but the temperature never went above 275 by the time I went to bed at 3:30am

The results you’re seeing are overcooked. I should’ve pulled these out after about five hours, instead of the seven hours they cooked. Though they have a beautiful pink smoke ring and plenty of smoky flavor, they’re dried out. You can tell the meat’s shrunk too much by how much of the bones are exposed. Anyway, a positive experience in controlling the heat inside the smoker and a lesson learned about timing.

My first ribs of many, many more to come!

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October 25, 2004

Food void

Filed under: Orange County — Professor Salt @ 9:42 pm

Lake Forest, CA

Black holes exist, and I have proof. Somewhere in this quiet inland town, an ominous vortex sucks any compelling dining experience into its massive, swirling void. If someone has eaten at a really good Lake Forest restaurant, please tell me about it. Nory’s Peruvian - tried about 3 dishes there once, and wasn’t excited enough to return. King’s Fish House at the El Toro mall - merely ok for a chain place. I cut Peppino’s some slack - I actually like their New York style pizza. Most places I try in Lake Forest just disappoint me.

Case in point: Kill Devil’s, a West Coat franchise of a North Carolina chain that sells pulled pork sandwiches and frozen custard. I suppose it’s possible in the Carolinas to sell a pulled pork sandwich that doesn’t taste at all of smoke. I suspect a place like that would shut down pretty quickly where pulled pork is king.

Note to Kill Devil’s Lake Forest franchisee: pulled pork = barbecue = meat smoked for long hours over wood embers. Perhaps a visit to the home office in Kill Devil Hills is in order. If y’all came to the Chowfiesta potluck put on the Los Angeles Chowhounds this past weekend, our man Buddha would’ve shown you how it’s done. Kill Devil’s cold, shredded pork is meekly schpritzed with a vinegar based sauce and piled on a hamburger bun with some uninspired coleslaw. Interesting? Not.

Kill Devil’s also sells frozen custard. I didn’t grow up with this stuff, so it seems like soft serve ice cream to me, and it doesn’t lift my kilt. I admit my ignorance. However, if you appreciate this stuff, they have an extensive menu of their custard desserts painted onto a surfboard.
Frozen custard menu

The surfboard menus showed up in the past month. Prior to that, they sold a sandwich made from the best Italian sausage made in our local area, from Sabatino’s in Newport Beach. It’s no longer on the menu. Go figure - they get rid of the one really interesting item on their menu. Damn you, black hole of Lake Forest!
Kill Devil’s
23842 El Toro Rd
Lake Forest, CA
949-462-0690
http://www.killdevilsfrozencustard.com/

Epilogue: As of summer 2005, Kill Devil’s Lake Forest location ceased to exist.

Want a good pulled pork sandwich in Orange County without tending a wood fire for 8 hours ? Head up to Huntington Beach and give Smokin Mo’s Barbecue a shot. Their pulled pork has just a faint taste of smoke, and it’s the one thing on Mo’s menu that I really recommend. Their excellent coleslaw is based on a highly regarded recipe from The Pantry in downtown Los Angeles.
Mo’s Barbecue
301 Main St. #107 (across from Avila’s El Ranchito restaurant)
Huntington Beach, CA
714-374-3033
http://www.mosbbq.com/

Want to try that Italian sausage I mentioned? Go to the wharfs of Lido Peninsula and try it at the source. Take home a big coil of Italian sausage studded with cubes of cheese and flecked green with parsley. It’s on the salty side, but damn fine if pan fried then simmered in a tomato sauce!
Sabatino’s Restaurant & Sausage Company
251 Shipyard Way
Newport Beach, CA
949-723-0621

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October 17, 2004

TJ’s alert

Filed under: Ingredients — Professor Salt @ 8:19 pm

My favorite new item at Trader Joe’s: Wasabi Cashews. Nuclear wasabi flavor. The 12oz bag comes with about a pound of wasabi powder. We’re talking armor-piercing potency.

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