Foodie - The Food Thread - For Our Food Lovers!

Kapea

@Smaug said: Large Jamaican community here. The jerk is off the chain.

OUCH!

Kapea

Got a 10# box of king crab legs as a Christmas present from a client. Russian ones, 6-9 size. Fuck me are they good! One leg has about 1.5lbs of meat. One leg is enough. Rich stuff, but soooooo good!

Eating handfuls of dried cherries for desert, hoping the gout won't flare up...

Smaug

King Crab and stone crab are definitely the shit.

All those other varieties are just not my bag.

Moonshine

Oh wow, I wish I had one of these, they must be really tasty!

Smaug

Just picture eating a piece of crab meat the size of a banana.

Kapea

Dipped in melted butter...

Kapea

In the telescope business this is called "First Light"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtMVMNST_g4

Higgo

Our seafood starter on Xmas day ... Cray, prawns, smoked salmon and some bogan seafood sticks DA:O

punkin

Coles had some whopper huge green ocean Tiger Prawns @ $20/kilo on special yesterday.

Split and marinaded in garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper with some chilli flakes and then grilled over charcoal (and brickettes) with a piece of atlantic salmon for the Bourbon Girl.
Served with home made salt and pepper squid, prawn toast and salad. Made for a great BBQ meal and i'll be going back today to see if i can get a couple kilos of them.

Kapea

At that price I'd take all they have. Those ones are huge. Did they swim over from Fukushima?

punkin

Normally that grade of seafood is marked for export. We aussies won't pay the prices that good seafood fetches so we send all our premium prawns out live to Japan or dead to many other Asian countries and we import tonnes of crap farmed freshwater Vannemi Prawns that aren't worth the ice they use to keep them cold.

It's a pretty sad state, but it's economic truth. When i was a kid there was very little OS market or capability of fulfilling it if there was. We used to see cheap lobster, bugs, prawns etc as well as A grade fish in the shops. Only ever see A grade at the capital city markets where the restartaunts shop or in the local area (Qld) where it's caught now.
Ican't whinge about it though cause i won't pay the $60-70 a kilo these prawns are probably worth either.

FloridaCracker

Kinda like Florida; the closer to the coast that you get, the higher the price of seafood. Go figure.

Kapea

Fish I catch myself or get from friends. We eat fish here most days of the week. Buying fish here is much like buying citrus in Florida. No need.

Shellfish I buy when it's on sale and store it in the chest freezer. Local waters are too deep for most shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels... Local lobsters (slipper lobsters) are a delicacy. Not so easy to find these days though. Leastways, not as easy as it used to be.

punkin

we call them bugs here.

Ibacus peronii @ Wikipedia

They get pretty pricey sometimes but are cheaper in Qld port towns. Great feed but not much meat per weight.

Smaug

Reminds me of the citrus here in Florida. California oranges are cheaper than Florida oranges. Even after trucking them from 3000 miles away.

Well, it used to be that way. Not sure it still is? May have to do with the hurricanes of years past?

jacksonbrown

California oranges are cheaper here in Aus. Now that is is fuct up.

punkin

Just went back up there and they had them for $15 a kilo. I bought the 2 kilos they had left at that price. :D

Kapea

@punkin said: we call them bugs here.

Ibacus peronii @ Wikipedia

They get pretty pricey sometimes but are cheaper in Qld port towns. Great feed but not much meat per weight.

Ula papapa have plenty of tail meat.

FloridaCracker

@Smaug said: Reminds me of the citrus here in Florida. California oranges are cheaper than Florida oranges. Even after trucking them from 3000 miles away.

Well, it used to be that way. Not sure it still is? May have to do with the hurricanes of years past?

Probably because the Florida citrus industry is being killed by citrus greening. Most citrus groves have been hit to some degree. Huge problem for a huge industry.

Kapea

In 2005 the Florida Citrus Nazis came and cut down all 28 citrus trees at my home in Orange Co. They claimed they had the power to do it because citrus canker had been found within a 1,900ft. radius of my property. They brought sheriff's deputies with them the second time they came, after I refused to allow them on my property. Even though I was supposed to be compensated for the loss of my trees, I never received a penny of compensation.

punkin

Boned out some chicken thighs and did them Diva Q method in a deep muffin pan i bought for the job.
Marinaded in honey and teriyaki with some soda stream cola syrup for 2 days and then the skin patted down and sprinkled with homemade rub before baking.

This is the second time I've cooked these and definitely won't be the last.

FloridaCracker

I used to compete with a lot of the BBQ guys on BBQ Pitmasters. Myron Mixon, Tuffy, Johnny Trigg. All nice guys, even Myron. The muffin pan chicken method caused quite the stir when everyone found out that Myron did his chicken that way. Now it is a standard way in competitions. Keeps the chicken bathed in the butter and makes a nice uniform shape which looks good in the comp box. I'm also a certified KCBS BBQ judge but would rather compete than judge.

@punkin, you would get nice scores for presentation.

Smaug

Wait,,, don't change the subject yet.
Talk about this more please.

Repeat that post again @punkin please. And pretend your talking to a 3rd grader.

punkin

Thanks mate but you are just being nice. There's no butter in these, just the marinade and the chicken juices them selves.

Wow you have a lot of hobbies, the BBQ scene over there is pretty full on from what i see on the telly. Is there money in it or only right at the top few comps? I see sometimes a team travelling for a couple days to set up and cook a stack of meat all weekend and the prizemoney is like $200 for a place in a category etc.

I'm guessing you sell BBQ all weekend to spectators and that is where the dosh comes in?

FloridaCracker

We only competed in the 3 local competitions, all within 20 miles. Best we did was 1st in ribs out of 73 teams. Took 4th overall that year. Pulled pork we scored top 5 a couple of times. Chicken and brisket were our weakest categories. We started in 2007 and retired in 2013. Too much work.

As far as money, you pretty much have to be top 3 to see much coin. The guys that do it every weekend definitely get GOOD at it.

We would sell but it was a major pain in the ass; need people to prepare it, sell it, etc. I liked the competing but the sales covered our entry fees which are pretty high. Averaged about $500 a comp.

Yeah, I have a lot of interests. I'm VERY easily bored. Once I master a hobby, I get bored with it. The distilling thing keeps me interested because it can never truly be mastered; it can always get better.

Smaug, I can give you some killer pointers on ribs, pulled pork, chicken and brisket. I didn't really master brisket until after we stopped competing. If I had just gotten decent scores on brisket we could have gotten a couple of Grand Champion trophys. It always pulled down our overall score.

Smaug

@punkin said: Thanks mate but you are just being nice. There's no butter in these, just the marinade and the chicken juices them selves.

Wow you have a lot of hobbies, the BBQ scene over there is pretty full on from what i see on the telly. Is there money in it or only right at the top few comps? I see sometimes a team travelling for a couple days to set up and cook a stack of meat all weekend and the prizemoney is like $200 for a place in a category etc.

I'm guessing you sell BBQ all weekend to spectators and that is where the dosh comes in?

And you just plop em into the muffin pans and bake is all?

Chicken thighs are a favorite on the menu here.

punkin

Yes mate, boned out and then wrap the skin around it.

Smaug

Cook temp?

punkin

Dunno 160-180 C in the oven? Slow to moderate anyway.

punkin

I haven't done it yet, but there's no reason you couldn't stuff them. Maybe with bread seasoning, but bacon and cheese or apples and blue cheese some jam and jalapeno or something? Anything could go in there.