So the barbecue competitors’ websites are abuzz with tons of negative feedback on the TV show I appeared on with my teammates Bigmista and Sylvie. Tons of gripes about how unrealistic and contrived this contest format is.

Granted, this is a made-for-TV game show, not a real world contest. If it served to make the American public aware that there are things called BBQ contests, and that real people like my teammates compete in them, then I’m all for the PR good deed we took part in. We had a ton of fun, made new friends and that’s what matters most to me.

But it’s not apparent how well the audience received it outside the fishbowl of the BBQ community. In Nielsen-rated teevee land, it apparently scored well.

TLC’s summer of premieres, dubbed TLC Summer*, garnered more original new and returning hit** series vs. the competition with 17 averaging 1.1M P2+ or more!

Whatever the hell those numbers mean, we (yes, I feel a sense of  ownership in the TV show), were beaten by other TLC shows Little People, Big World and LA Ink, but we kicked the living crap out of Hoarding: Buried Alive and Mall Cops: Mall of America. Which means we might see a season 3 of BBQ Pitmasters before Mall Cops: Asian Garden Mall.

But I don’t really  know anything about the working the TV business, so don’t quote me on that.

This story is also published on the OC Weekly’s food blog, Stick a Fork In It. Difference here is I have more photos.

Sprinkles!!

Let’s say you somehow got talked into baking the cake for your little niece’s birthday party. You were thinking of a Betty Crocker box, and icing from the supermarket. Then you find out Niece would just adore you if you’d bake a cake in the shape of a certain Disney princess. You can’t buy that at Costco, and that luxe cupcakery you indulge yourself with can’t help out either. Now what?

Rent a character baking pan and get it done yourself. ABC Cake Decorating Shoppe in Orange sells and rents scores of cake pans shaped like cartoon characters, and other random molds like a palm tree or a beer mug. Problem solved!

A small bit of the cake pans for rent

Well, problem solved if you know how to bake already. ABC is a large specialty store with a wide selection of ingredients, pans and tools for the expert baker. Candy making stuff? Sure. Need a brown paper cupcake liner so your home baked treats look like the ones at the chichi cupcake shops? Yup. Rental equipment like multi-tiered wedding cake stands? Got that.

The best artificial flavor essences New Jersey ever devised

Wait, you don’t have the slightest idea how to bake or decorate cakes and cookies? Then take a class. In the four decades that ABC has been in business, battalions of Scouts, shoals of schoolkids, and droves of DIY-ers have learned to squeeze colored goo artfully from a piping bag.

Still flustered by your lacking cake skills? Have ABC bake you a custom cake in their production kitchen–and why not use that princess cake pan for your niece. I could have told you in paragraph one that their pros will bake and decorate just about anything you want, but then you’d miss the work fun in doing it yourself.

I've driven past this strip mall a hundred times before I spotted ABC

ABC Cake Decorating Shoppe and Bakery
429 N. Tustin St.
Orange, CA 92867
714-633-2055

Tell you more? It’s halfway over already. Each Saturday this August, there’s a party going on in Los Angeles Chinatown. And it’s free to attend.

If you’ve ever been to a trade show in Taichung, Hong Kong, or Guangzhou, you know nobody parties harder than the Chinese. The LAPD might put the kibosh on epic partying, but still…

There will be food trucks (not free), KCRW DJ’s spinning tunes on the iPods, and my pal Eddie Lin from Deep End Dining leading us into who=knows-what sort of exotic Chinese food with chefs from local restaurant Golden Dragon (5pm – 6pm) and Hop Woo BBQ (8pm-9pm).

I’ll be there for the earlier Eddie show. Come out and rediscover Chinatown.

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