Pulled Pork :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for Pulled Pork

Holy Cow!

Mar16

Restaurant: Holy Cow

Location: 264 26th Street. Santa Monica, CA 90402. 310-883-6COW

Date: November 24 and December 1, 2014

Cuisine: American BBQ

Rating: Great meats

I’m always excited about anything new this close to my house (15 minutes), and seeing as we have absolutely no good BBQ closer than maybe Culver City, the opening of an up-to-date smoked meat place at the Brentwood Country Mart is great news.

The frontage is right next to The Little Door and across from Sweet Rose.

The interior is fast casual, you order at the counter. While I hate that for dinner places, I’m a big fan for lunch joints like this that one might tend to visit alone.

The menu.

I ordered a three meat combo.

BBQ Brisket. Dense, but tender. Delicious with the sauces too.

Pulled pork. This is where it’s really at. Great stuff, with a soft texture and nice smokey flavor.

Hot links. Spicy porky fatty goodness. Can’t complain.

Tri tip. Tasty and tender. I have mixed opinion about those fatty bits at the end, but hey, that’s just me.

THE HOG. Smoked pulled pork, Carolina sauce, slaw, crispy onion, B&B pickles, brioche bun. Pretty superb sandwich. Like a great slight update to the Carolina classic.

Mac & Cheese. Vermont white & yellow cheddar, munster, gruyere, béchamel. This was okay, but could have been more intensely cheesy.

Fried cornbread. This was the only disappointing dish I ordered. Basically these are hushpuppies. They had a chewy texture but didn’t give me that soft cornbread goodness that I was looking for.

Overall, this was some great BBQ. I’ll have to return and try more stuff, like the baby back ribs! BBQ is all about the meat and the main meats were all fabulous. Very modern presentation and nice selection of sauces and pickles. It all reminds me of The BBQ Joint in Easton MD, which is only a good thing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Barbecue, Barbecue sauce, bbq, Brentwood, Holy Cow, Pulled Pork, Santa Monica

Eastern Promises – BBQ Joint

Jul15

Restaurant: BBQ Joint

Location: 216 East Dover Street, Suite 201. Easton, MD 21601. 410-690-3641

Date: May 24, 2014

Cuisine: BBQ

Rating: Some of the best BBQ I’ve had

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is usually considered a seafood zone, being known for its awesome blue crab, but local residents don’t turn their nose at any Southern American favorites.

Located in quaint old Easton.

The menu.

The house made sauces (mostly a choice of sweet or spicy).

Sawdust floors.

Some sides, like applesauce, mac & cheese, and cornbread.

A pulled chicken sandwich and collard greens.

Salad. I like the “paper” plate.

This side plate has a roll and slaw.

Part of our BBQ sampler. featuring ribs (wet), BBQ chicken, chopped beef brisket, and pulled pork.

A pulled pork sandwich (front right). The pulled pork is a Carolina style. In the back are ribs “dry” and in the front baked beans (with pork of course).

The BBQ joint is as described, pretty straight up BBQ, but wow, was it tasty. This was some darn good smoked meat!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Barbecue, Barbecue chicken, bbq, BBQ Joint, Easton Maryland, Maryland, Meat, Pig, pork, Pulled Pork, ribs

Ford’s Filling Station

May03

Restaurant: Ford’s Filling Station

Location: 9531 Culver Blvd, Culver City. 310-202-1470

Date: April 28, 2011

Cuisine: Gastropub

Rating: Always great for lunch.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

It was a gorgeous day (again) in LA, so I headed out to find another good lunch spot with outside dining. We ended up in Culver City with its rather large selection of good lunch spots and specifically at Ford’s Filling Station, which is run by Benjamin Ford, son of Han Solo. The place has been around awhile but before this he had another place in Beverly Hills which was very good — but I can’t remember the name.

Notice the “pig country” sign. They offer on the menu a 8 person minimum whole pig dinner with a whole roast pig!

Outside, there are two different patios. In general, Culver city has a lot of outside dining which is nice. For some mysterious reason LA restaurants often lack al fresco. This makes no sense given our weather.

The menu.

“Bacon wrapped dates, stuffed with cheese.” Um yum! I love this dish, and I’ve had it at many places (like recently at Upstairs 2). These were as good as any, showing off the sweet and salty.

“Shrimp Curry, jasmine rice, marash pepper and applewood smoked bacon.” Also a really great dish. Very similar to the one I had at Gladstones. The bacon made it even better.

Sliced serrano peppers in has you want to spice it up.

“Pulled Pork Panini, melted gouda and spicy pepper relish.” The beans were awesome too, with a nice smoky porcine flavor.

A close up of the sandwich itself. I had expected something like a North Carolina pulled pork sandwich. That’s kinda tangy. This was more the succulent roast pork with cheese. Yum.

The dessert menu.

“Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich, chocolate chip cookie and mint chocolate-chip ice cream.” The ice cream was great, very similar to the mint ice cream I had at Sweet Rose Creamery, tasting as it did of fresh mint leaves. The fudge was good too. The cookie needed more butter, it was a little dry. Not bad, and the overall dessert was still very good, but with a really awesome cookie, it could have been… really awesome.

Inside, the stripped down old-school culver city building provides a nice deconstructed interior. I’ve never been here at night but I bet it’s a good watering hole.