My friends David Vindiola from Smokalicious BBQ and Ryan Chester of The Rub Company are teaming up again this Saturday for their monthly residence at Irvine’s Tanaka Farms. I stopped by last month to check in on my boys, and they’re turning Tanaka’s farm into a delicious place to get schooled on summer cooking. With better attendance, this might happen more than once a month.

David is a cooking instructor from San Diego, and this week’s topic is a kids’ cooking class. See details on his site. Last month’s class was gazpacho and grilling. Check his site for a rotating schedule of topics.

Ryan and his family make BBQ seasonings in Buena Park, and I’m all for supporting local BBQ guys that make a good product. At Tanaka Farms, they set up a Santa Maria style grill and sell tri tip smoked over  oak, just like they do it up in California’s Central Valley. Stop by and get a lunch plate, and take home some of Tanaka’s great produce, grown right there.

The Chesters use their Santa Maria Style rub, a kicked up garlic salt blend with lots of black pepper. While you’re at Tanaka Farms, pick up a bottle of that Santa Maria rub and also their brand new, Competition rub. It’s so new it’s not on their website yet, but I used it last weekend on pork ribs to great effect, and recommend it wholeheartedly…

Tanaka Farms
5380 3/4 University Dr. (corner of Michelson Drive)
Irvine, CA 92612
949-653-2100

Season 2 of TLC’s BBQ Pitmasters show premiers this Thursday August 12 at 10pm / 9pm in CST. I’ll be on the Rib Throwdown episode cooking with Bigmista’s BBQ.

The schedule on TLC’s website is a little confusing – it looks like the Pork Shoulder episode is leading off, so “my” episode may not be first, even though it was shot first. Tune in anyway readers, because lots of familiar face are featured this season.

UPDATE: Danielle Dimovski of DivaQ.ca informs me that our Rib Throwdown episode will air on September 2, 2010.

Here’s a terrific HD video made at the recent Que’n For Kids BBQ Contest by Deep End Diner Eddie Lin:

The Bacon Explosion from Ed Lin on Vimeo.

I never thought that bacon can actually “lighten” a dish as calorically dense as the bacon explosion, but it does. In case you don’t know about the Bacon Explosion, it’s a mat of woven bacon wrapped around the sausage encasing a core of crispy, cooked bacon. It was an internet phenomenon a couple years back and I’m finally getting around to making one and blogging about it.

Listen – if you’ve ever seen an uncooked Jimmy Dean chub, it’s a fat cylinder the diameter of a soup can. If I were to cook this chub as is, sliced it into rounds, and served it, it would be a dense, 3 inch disc of meat, fat and gristle. The way to lighten this dense disc, ironically, is to press out the sausage into a thin layer first, wrap it around a core of crisp, coarsely chopped bacon, and reform it into a log. The bacon in the center actually breaks up the dense texture of what would be a solid slug of sausage and makes it much more pleasant to eat.

Now that we’re clear on the definition of “light,” do these jeans make my ass look “fat?”

It’s time again for my hometown BBQ contest – the 2010 Que N For Kids BBQ Festival in Costa Mesa on June 12, 2010. My team, Four Q BBQ, won the People’s Choice championship here two years ago, and we’re looking to take back the title with our very special People’s Choice menu.

This is the fourth edition of the best organized contest in Southern California. Why best? The public gets to sample the contestants’ barbecue and vote for their favorite in the People’s Choice contest. For competitors, the organizers lavish us with all the cook-friendly amenities we could ask for.

All proceeds go to Kristie’s Foundation, which supports families of terminally ill children. The $10 gate fee, and funds from selling the People’s Choice sample tickets go toward a very worthy cause.

This year, there’s a rib eating contest. I’m not sure how that works, but if you’re interested, check out the details on the event website. It’s a very family friendly event with lots of activities that the kids will enjoy – a butterfly release, a car show, and a carnival atmosphere with many vendors taking part.

For the foodies, I suggest getting there by 11am so you don’t miss out on the meat. Teams start turning in BBQ for the official judging at noon, and shortly thereafter, we sample our leftovers to the public. The last meat category is at 2pm. So while the event runs through 6pm, the best time to eat is from noon through 2pm. Once the meat’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Enter the Orange County Farigrounds on the northwest corner, off of Arlington Drive.

View Orange County Fairgrounds: Que N For Kids location in a larger map