POU-POU CHEESECAKE

Ms. Goofy made this lemon curd topped cheesecake in honor of the victory of Mathieu Van Der Poel victory of stage 2 of the Tour de France. What makes this so special is Van Der Poel's grandfather was a bicycle racer in the Tour in the 60s. His name was Raymond Poulidor. His nickname was "Pou-Pou". Pou-Pou was a popular racer but never wore the Yellow jersey. What a great win. What a tasty tribute.

OPEN OPEN OPEN

 California is open for business; finally. Our state has been on lockdown for over a year and that includes the Italian Social Clubs. The orders have been lifted and the clubs are open once again; cautiously. I use the term cautiously because the clubs are still under the constantly changing rules and regulations by the bureaucrats. With that said, this Thursday night I attended my first sit down Spaghetti & Meatball dinner at the Colombo Club. It was so good. How wonderful it was to reconnect with old friends and break bread together. I raise the Mad Meat Genius virtual toast glass and proclaim; "Here's to good times to come".

GREAT PIES

I am one lucky sonagun. Ms. Goofy loves to bake. This past year she has outdone herself with sweet treats. This was her first attempt at Boston Cream Pie. She is a perfectionist and for some reason she was not happy with this rendition. She also said she would have to try again. I thought it was perfect. It is a tough job being her official pie taster but somebody has to do it. If it gets any better I will let you know.

 

SMOKIN AXE BBQ

Smokin Axe BBQ is a competition barbecue team from El Cerrito California. They competed a couple of weeks ago in Murphy's. It was after our judging duties and I was walking the grounds. I noticed this table set up with bbq sauce samples and sales. I sampled a couple and picked this sauce; Mango, Apricot & Habanero. Pitmaster Dave Gibson is a retired fire fighter who runs Smokin Axe BBQ operations. I always want to support the bbq teams and purchasing this sauce was a small gesture.

  When back home we fired up the bbq to cook some chicken thighs. I cooked the chicken and in the last five minutes I coated the thighs with the sauce. The sauce set and it was time to eat. This sauce is heavy on the influence of fruit flavors. The Mango and apricot flavors shined to add a sweetness. The habanero pepper flavor was there with a gentle warmth to round out this sauce. It made for a pleasant dining experience. This sauce is on the sweet side which for my personal preference is a little to much. We were happy to support our teams. 

 

SAY IT IS NOT SO

The news that my favorite Mexican restaurant may be closed, has saddened this Mad Meat Genius. This news was relayed from the most reliable source of news today; Facebook. La Estrellita, for forty plus years,  has been my go-to all time favorite establishment to enjoy the 'Gold Standard' dish of chileverde. At one time in my life, I sampled all 150 tequilas offered at the bar. I have my fingers crossed this news is not true. One can only hope. 

 

THROWDOWN IN THE VINEYARDS

 

Yesterday we had a fun day judging bbq at the Throwdowns in the Vineyards KCBS bbq competition held at the Ironstone Winery in Murphys Ca. It was a beautiful day with 29 teams compositing. What made this day very special my wife Ms. Goofy achieved a milestone in her judging career. She achieved the number of judging 100 sanctioned KCBS contest. This was a fun day with a little celibration   honoring her achievement. Here she is pictured reciting the judges oath. She is the only women in California and possible the  Western states to have achieved this honor. Congratulations.

LITTLE CITY MARKET

Sometimes you just stumble into a Meat Adventures. I was in San Francisco to visit Dago Bagel and procured a coveted parking spot in North Beach. Little City Market just so happened to be right across the street from my parking spot. “And Away We Go”…Jackie Gleason.

This is an old school butcher shop located in the North Beach area of San Francisco. The retro red sign is a beacon inviting you to step back in time. Mike and Ron Spinali, father and son owners make more than 30 types of sausages, and make guanciale and meatballs in addition to stocking a full butcher case. This is living meat history. They do not have all 30 sausages available at a time but I did pick out two; Calabrese and Puccini. There were lots of other cuts of meat that sparked my interest and will return at a later date.

 

We cooked up the sausages and were pleased with the flavors. The Puccini is an Italian style sausage that does not have the traditional fennel as an ingredient. It was mild with lots of garlic to keep the vampires away. The Calabrese was my favorite. It was aggressively seasoned. I would not say it was hot but this pork sausage got your attention. It did have some wonderful pepper flakes throughout. We plan to return to Little City Market. Hopefully our parking karma is intact.