Holidays are here.....Time to pull out the sweats!

I am the guy who believes the holidays are officially kicked off the day of Thanksgiving....No sooner!!

So I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving becuase I sure as hell did. My lovely wife went insane with the dinner. She seriously did everything from scratch minus killing the turkey herself....SO MUCH FOOD!!

Now we are getting ready for Christmas. Our family does Christmas Eve with my in-laws and then we do Christmas day with my family. When we lived in Washington we would have a Christmas dinner with us and all of our friends....plenty of food, plenty of booze and just a good time with your friends.

Tell me the stories of you and your family for the holidays and give me your favorite holiday recipe!!!

I know...it has been a while!!

So I know that I have not posted anything in a while. I have not left Fresno in a while, my experiment with trying to candy pork belly did not go as well as I would of liked it to.

Today I hit the bookstore becasue the new issue of Lucky Peach is out. If you are not familiar with Lucky Peach it is a food magazine from Momofuku and David Chang. I love this magazine and I can not wait for the chance to go to New York to eat at Momofuku or Milk Bar. there is something about the way David Chang's brain works....He is kind of my hero!!!

So I am working on a really interesting post....hoping to come soon.

have a great week.....eat for the love of food!!!

Yeah I know, it has been a few weeks!!

So my pork belly is cured.....I will be posting some pictures later in the week with ideas on what to do with.

So today I remembered that the new book connected to David Chang's MOMOFUKU is getting ready to come out called "Milk Bar". The "Milk Bar" is a sweets restaurant and there are three locations in Ney York (east village, Brooklyn and midtown). For Christmas last year the wife and kids gave me book "MOMOFUKU" (which is the noodle restaurant). "Milk Bar" comes out this week and you can order it on Amazon or get to your local bookseller.

Momofuku Milk Bar Avail. Oct.25

You may be asking why am I talking about David Chang or "Milk Bar"? This is why....Today I was looking at the website for "MILK BAR and was really excited to find out that some of the items that are on the menu you can order and have sent to your home!! My next payday I will be ordering some goodies from the MOMOFUKU website.

Listen, I am still trying to work the kinks out of the blog...so be patient. Thanks!

Pork Belly...What to do with it!!

    So recently my father-in-law was involved with the butchering of a 350 pound pig (do not ask the kind of pig because I have no idea). With him slaughtering the pig meant he got half the pig and I made sure I got a few pounds of the belly.Cut the skin off of it and put the pork on hamburgers.

  If you are looking for pork belly you may have to search for it. I found it originally at a carniceria. I was able to get it with the skin on but you can ask the butcher to cut the skin off.

    I got my hands on curing salt (yes it came from William-Sonoma and no they did not appreciate the bags of change!). I have learned that if you do not have curing salt you can used kosher salt. I have found curing salt is not as east to find as you would think.

   So I started digging around my cupbourds to see what I had for my rub. So I made a rub of brown sugar, Hawaiian pink salt, black peppercorns, dry mustard (for a little spice) and bay leaves.
    
After putting the dry rub on I bagged and tagged it and stuck it in the bottom drawer of the fidge for the the next 7 days.......To be continued in 7 days!.

   If you read this and have attempted to cure pork let me know....any ideas or advice post comments!!

3 lbs of pork belly

Curing salt or you can use Kosher salt

Experiment,experiment,Experiment!!

Bagged and Tagged for the next 7 days

Oh Yeah.....

3 pounds of pork belly and got my curing salt....watch for more post to come!!

What the PHO (haha!)

Yesterday the town of Dinuba,Ca. got it's first PHO restaurant called Saigon Garden (Pho Saigon Garden. 1401 W El Monte Way, Dinuba, CA 93618). So what better way to celebrate my wife's birthday then a huge bowl of noodles with the family!! I really love PHO, I love the rare pieces of steak in the hot bowl of broth and noodles. All I really have to say is that I hope the restaurant works hard to keep good standards for there food and the longer they are open there service will tighten up....Good luck.


Starting this week watch out for three pounds of pork belly!!

Todays thought

So I am new to the whole food blog trend and am still trying to make heads and tails of what to put in as content so please be patient. In the mean time here is a question. "Is culinary school really worth the time and more importantly money you are going to spend/ Or is it better to work your way up the ranks in a place you want to be?"

 This has actually been something I have thought long and hard about. I personally have a history in the kitchen but I left thinking I was making a better decision for my family (think i was wrong).The last chef I worked for was not a "classically trained" chef but he is damn good. The employer before that was trained with many years under his belt and involved in the culinary program at the community college in the city I was living in at the time. They were both great employers.

Now the reason for this question. The other day I am sitting outside the DMV with Lindsee (my oldest daughter) and there is a guy wearing his coat from the cullicary school in Fresno and I star asking him about the shcool and he was saying his hope was to become and head chef somewhere but was working at the Hilton in there kitchen making fruit platters...FRUIT PLATTERS! I do not want to spend 25 grand to make a fruit platter. Do not get my wrong I know you have to do the time after you get out of school but to be doing something that a off the street employee with basic kitchen experience can do is a bit on the lame side. You might as well start as a dishwasher (which I did!).

This is just a thought...if you disagree then let me know....I like to get hate mail!!

Din Din A Go Go....part 2!!

ALOHA FRIDAYS

LARDON Menu

LARDON

LOBSTA TRUCK

Sunday Night....Food Truck Night

So it is Sunday night and that means family time in front of the t.v. watchng The Great Food Truck Race (Sunday at 9 pm on the Food Network). So I figured that tonight would be the best night to post tonight blog.

On Tuesday as already written @BethDoesHair and I were in Los Angeles and we were going to head home but made a change of plans when we caught wind the Grill Em All truck was going to be in Northridge,CA at what is called Din Din A Go Go.

BEAST- Grill Em All Truck-Northridge,CA

So we got to Northridge a little early (Din Din A Go Go started at6:30) and the trucks were already showing up  but none had opened yet. Tables and chairs were being set up as all the trucks were pulling in (I think I counted 10 trucks setting up). As son as we go parked went straight for the Grill Em All line and as the line grew all I see are people showing up and hanging out like it is a weekly ritual for some of these people. I told beth what I wanted and then wandered around just to get an idea of what kind of trucks had shown up.....I was amazed!! I told Beth next time we come down to LA I am going to bring enough cash to eat at as many trucks as I can.

MOLLY HATCHET-Grill Em All

This was the second time Beth and I had eaten at Grill Em All. Our Valentine's Day Dinner was spent in LA at a food truck meet up (romantic huh). My goal is to get through their whole menu but I could only get dinner for Beth and I. This time around I had the Waste Em All with fries and a garlic aoli. So the bun reminded me of a potatoe roll, onions were soaked in beer and really sweet and had these green chili's and a pepperjjack cheese. The burger was so good. Then there was the Molly Hatchet.(beth ordered this)....It is like breakfast in a burger. Same kind of bun but it had bacon, mape syrup and a seared fennel sausage gravy. You heard me correct..Seared Fennel sausage gravy!!! I was so full but I will be honest I could of eaten more because there was so much good food in trucks.

Enjoy the pictures of some of the other trucks that were there. This is a trend that I am hoping will not fade away because the idea of suck good food coming out of a truck makes me very happy!!

WASTE EM ALL-
Grill Em All

Grill Em All Menu

   

Inglewood and a damn good Po' Boy

So on Tuesday the wife and I took a drive down to the City of Angels ok so we had to be at The Forum in Inglewood,CA. So while Beth was doing her thing there at The Forum I sat in the car reading the LA Weekly seeing what bands were going to be in the area that I were not going to get to see (Agnostic Front was on this list of bands!)x

Bourbon Street Fish & Grill

So around 1:30 II finally was done and needed something to eat so and there was a yellow building calling my name so I walked over mainly to get a soda and stared at the menu and realized a srimp Po'Boy sounded really good...so I ordered!

So you can go into a lot of restaurants and find a Shrimp Po' Boy sandwich but this sandwich was probably one of the best shrimp sandwiches I have had. The bread was a french roll that had a nice bit of crunch, not a ton of mayo (which is good cause I hate sandwiches with tons of mayo), lettuce, pickles and shrimp that was well battered and crunchy.

The sandwich came in two sizes a 6 inch and a 10 inch. I opted for the 6 inch and it was just enough to get me through the day.

Shrimp Po' Boy.....Next time I get the fried Chicken

There are several soul food joints in the area and I am glad hit this one up.....Next time I tried the fried chicken. Bourbon Street Fish & Grill is located at 601 South Prairie Street-Inglewood,CA 90301

So why FBHC?

So once upon a time my friend Bryan Gray (The Blamed and Left Out) and Joey Belville (The Echoeing Green) had a meal iin Oregon during Tom Fest at a rib/bbq joint. The legend goes Bryan and Joey ate so much they were asked to leave. This is where Fat By Hardcore got it's start.

So I have been kicking the idea of doing this blog for sometime now and last night as Beth and I sat eating dinner in Northridge,CA. I really decided to just do it and Fat Boy Hardcore made perfect sense.

This blog is about food and I am not talking about snooty, pretentious writing but about everything that makes food cool and fun. I want to share what chefs I respect are doing and I really want to share what bands are eating when they are on the road and there favorite joints in there home towns, recipes and stuff that I am learning!

If you have any idea, things you want to see....hit me up.

Frankie

FBHC is getting ready to launch

Yeah you heard me right...FAT BOY HARDCORE!!

So keep your eyes peeleed for the first full blog in the next few days. Your gonna find food reviews, recipes and down right food porn!!!

Frankie