Truely Stanley’s Famous: 2010 Texas Monthly Barbecue winners – Pork Ribs

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I had the great pleasure to be invited by my cousin Nick to come help out when Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue from Tyler came down to participate in the Texas Monthly 2010 Barbecue Festival. I am tired, sweaty, smokey and incredibly honored to have been working with these guys here today.  They sweated, smoked, cut, cooked, cleaned, hauled and, for 4 guys plus me (not sure really how much help I was), they put out a ton of food.  More racks of ribs than I think I’ve ever seen in my life came through this pit, and it was great stuff – they won People’s Choice Best Pork Ribs.

A lot of hard work went into it.  Lets say I just happened to be near by while it was happening.  Along the way, I got to have a blast doing stuff I love – talking about food, talking with people who are passionate about food, and of course, eating great barbecue.  Congratulations to Nick, Jonathan, Will (Chief), and Will.  Again guys, thanks for letting me be a part of it.  And, if anyone happens to have a picture of me out from behind the camera… please share (grin).

More photos of the festival, some more awesome barbecue folks and more winners are here.

Austin Foodie Evening… The Tigress and Foreign and Domestic

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We had a very fun Austin foodie evening with great friends last night (I won’t go all food bloggie over it, as that faux critic food blog Austin chic style became a point of conversation last night).  Anyway, we hit The Tigress first (a tiny pub style bar, open since May).  There we tried a variety of different classic cocktails (French 75, East Indies, Moscow Mule)- need to come back for a Pimms cup) and enjoyed a visit with the bartender.  I’ve also found now Fever Tree Ginger Beer – getting a stock of that in my bar-fridge will be high priority!  We then ambled just about 2 blocks east to Foreign and Domestic.  We were too late to get a table, but were seated at the bar (think sushi bar style food prep).  We sat right in front of the salad, plate-up guy and watched him work his ass off.

We had great conversation and really amazing food.  Well balanced stuff and interesting things.  This is not a place to just wander into though if you aren’t a foodie.  First courses shared were pan fried beef tongue with arugula and horseradish, Gruyere popovers… and fried green tomatoes.  Main courses were ditalini with cheese (think high end mac and cheese) with oxtails, roasted octopus and diver scallops, mangolitza pork steak with a flavorful sauce and a wagu beef hanger steak.  We split and shared and passed and mmm’d and chatted as we could with the cookstaff, who were arms flying and seriously moving in a very small kitchen. Desserts were a coconut sundae, a fried blueberry pie, and a chocolate parfait.  Amazing desserts.  We then walked back to the Tigress for a few more drinks.  I finished with a Blood and Sand and another drink with applejack…

In finishing, if anyone wants to be in the kitchen in a higher end restaurant, they should go and have a dinner at the counter here – one, it will show you chefs with a definite vision for what they are doing in the kitchen – well balanced dishes which are innovative and two, it will show you how bloody hard you have to work – 6 hours a day kicking ass to put out dinner.  The Tigress was quite full in its small space – it looks to me like they’re doing well, and I hope to be able to frequent them more often…

The Tigress

and a review from Austin 360

Foreign and Domestic

aside – Foreign and Domestic has had some off reviews at Yelp, and some of that may be growing pains, or overly sensitive reviewers… we were a little tentative with our foray in after reading about it and we were well pleased for our efforts.