Friday, May 15, 2009

Smoke smoke smoke

Josephine the 1938 Buick has been at Ronnie's for weeks with mysterious electric female problems. The generator charging at times like a racehorse, and at others not at all. We tried everything except the simple stuff. After cleaning the contacts on the generator she is back to her perfect self. Its the little things you know.

In the excitement of having a running 1938 Buick again, I deceided to celebrate by going to one of our favorite places, Robin's down in Pasadena. Robin's as you probably know by now is a great Bar B Que joint, good food, fair prices, excellent staff. As I entered I was met by the Q master Robin Salzer his own self. Robin's face was lit up like Hasting's Ranch on a December night. "What's up Robin?" Before he could answer a waitress said while rolling her big brown eyes "Robin has a new smoker, he's like a eight year old with a new bike on Christmas." He did, I had to admit, look about that happy.

"You wanna see it?" Robin asked. While I wasn't quite as eager as he was, I hadn't ever seen a genuine modern day industrial smoker, so yeah, I followed Robin back behiend the counter, into the baking areas of the kitchen and into a room of white enameled metal walls that would shame most hospital operating rooms.

At the West end of the room was a box big enough to put a 1913 Model T touring car in. When I say it was one BIG piece of kitchen equipment, I'm not telling half. Robin said it was time to empty the ribs and he opened a big heavily insulated door. There in all the glory one could imagine were racks and racks of suculent lovely looking ribs. Amazingly enough, there was only the faintest smell of cooked meat. This smoker has filters, scrubbers, fans and even a grease evacuation system that constantly drains the fat out of the machine as the ribs rotate in hot smoke. Wow! Smoking juicy meat with a reduced fat content. Tasty and better for your diet than anything you could cook at home. The moral high ground of Bar B Que....

We chatted about Altadena and Pasadena politics for quite a time and then I mentioned to Robin that I was here for some meat. I had a rib combination and as excellent as Robin's Q has been for many years, now it is smokier, more excellent, perfection. I get mine without the sauce, and enjoy the natural meat and smoke flavor.

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