The Wandering Glutton

A week and a half ago, I found out that my friend, Jason Osburn, passed away suddenly. While the unexpected death of any person is unsettling, Jason’s passing left me speechless and lost in thought about how fortunate I have been to have him be a part of my life.

I met Jason in 2015 at a workshop called the Charcuterie Jam. It was a great event at which Jason and I learned the differences in seam butchery between the French style (taught by Kate Hill and Dominique Chapolard) and the Spanish style (taught by Jeffrey Weiss). As I looked through my collection of photos from the event, I found several with Jason in the background, focusing on the particular technique being demonstrated.

The next time I recall doing something with Jason was an epic road trip including Jason, John Patterson and me driving to Flushing, New York, for the 2016 Charcuterie Masters competition. I learned how much of a novice I am regarding my knowledge of creating food and how simple my experiences are based on conversations I had with Jason or that I witnessed him having with some of the chefs we met there.

One of the highlights of that trip for me was walking through a grocery store with Jason there in Flushing. If you don’t know, Flushing, New York, has an enormous Asian population, and the grocery store we walked through was not your typical Safeway or Kroger. From the variety of seafood (including exotic crabs, geoduck clams and fresh frogs) to the plethora of produce I had only ever heard of (durian and dragonfruit), Jason described the flavors and textures before explaining how he would use them in a dish if they were available back home. It was like a culinary class on how to develop a menu.

Another highlight of that trip was listening to conversations Jason had with several of the chefs we met. He and Michael Pardus talked for a couple of hours about how fish sauce is fermented. He and Matt Fisher chatted about the pickles and collard greens that Matt served as sides to his BBQ and then spent the rest of the time we ate discussing the process Matt followed to make his Char Siu Pork. Jason and Michael Ruhlman conversed about charcuterie and bread making.

The ultimate exchange was between Jason and Will Horowitz. We stopped at Harry & Ida’s to meet Will and I overheard them riffing back and forth about the wonders of lactobacillus in pickling vegetables and making sourdough bread. Will took us to his fermentation room in the basement and showed us where he transformed the raw vegetables to the delectable additions to everything on the menu. He followed this up by inviting us into the kitchen to see the preparation of a shipment of eels that had just arrived. After watching one of Will’s kitchen staff prep a couple of the eels, Will asked if one of us would be interested in trying it. Without hesitation, Jason stepped right up, grabbed a live eel and went to work.

Over the years since the trip to Flushing, I kept in touch with Jason. I went to several of the pop-up dinners he did at the Canton Brew Works. I found my new favorite sandwich on his menu at Rappourt. I joined his team to compete in a BBQ competition. I even made it to his house for a holiday party.

In the time I have known Jason, there are a few things that I learned about him. His greatest love was for his family. You could see the parental pride he had for his daughters and the bond he shared with his parents.

Secondly, he loved to learn. As a fellow lover of knowledge, I appreciated that. What I can appreciate even more though is that Jason’s love of learning was always for the sake of applying that knowledge in making something or sharing the knowledge with others. While talking with some of Jason’s other friends at the luncheon after the funeral, one noted that Jason loved the talk to text feature on his mobile phone. The rest of us chuckled as she said that whenever you were with Jason he would pull out that phone and talk into it. Whether it was making a note about an order for a new menu item or reminding himself to tell someone something that he had figured out since they last spoke, you knew he was sharing his knowledge. It was difficult to feel like he was ignoring you when he did it too, because you knew that he did the same thing to someone else when he messaged you that he figured out the question you had posed to him.

Jason’s passing has hit me harder than those of others in my life. I think a lot of that comes from having seen him make his way through some very difficult times and be living his dream, happy in his family life, enjoying the partnership of someone he loved and making memories for friends and strangers alike with the food he created. Having seen the others at the funeral and luncheon, I know I am not alone.

I am glad to have known Jason, as he challenged me to think in different ways about the World and my place in it. He taught me about food and life. Through his friendship I have met and befriended others. Ultimately, like the song that was played at the funeral, I am proud to be included in his “Company of Friends.”

Rest In Peace

I recently spent a week near Asheville with my family. As it was a vacation, I tried my hardest to relax and enjoy myself as much as possible. Being in North Carolina, I knew it would be an excellent opportunity to try some authentic BBQ.

We stayed in an amazing AirBnB cottage just outside the town of Swannanoa. It is the first town you come to if you go East out of Asheville on I-40. Our location made it easy for us to try restaurants in the city, as well as out in the neighboring towns.

The first BBQ restaurant that I tried was Phil’s Bar-B-Que Pit in Black Mountain. Phil’s describes itself as “Alabama BBQ,” and upon entering the restaurant it is easy to see they mean it. I’m not certain of the style of BBQ that comes from Alabama, but the larger than life sized poster of Nick Saban and a wall of other University of Alabama paraphernalia made it obvious that ‘Bama is certainly favored there.

As for the food, I chose a three meat combo plate. I had chopped pork, a red hot, and sliced brisket with sides of vinegar slaw, onion rings, and hush puppies. The chopped pork had good flavor and texture, and I could taste a hint of vinegar from the mop sauce they had applied during the smoking and chopping process. The red hot had a nice smokiness, but lacked any distinct flavor beyond that. The sliced brisket was a complete fail in my opinion. It was very dry and lacked any distinct flavor either.

The sauces helped each of the meats, but I am a firm believer that great BBQ needs no sauce. At least the meats each came without sauce, so I was able to sample each of the sauces with each of the meats. Their sauces included a Classic Red BBQ Sauce, an East Carolina BBQ Sauce, a White BBQ Sauce, a Mustard BBQ Sauce and a Hot BBQ Sauce. I did not try the White BBQ Sauce, but each of the other sauces seemed to have a single flavor note – Classic Red was mild and slightly sweet, East Carolina was heavy on vinegar with a hint of heat, the Mustard was tangy with a bit of sweetness and heat and the Hot was like the Classic Red with a slight hint of heat. The Mustard paired best with the red hot and the East Carolina was best with the chopped pork. Nothing could save the brisket.

The second BBQ restaurant that I tried was Buxton Hall, located on the South Slope in Asheville. Buxton Hall was the one place that I had heard from before going to Asheville, and I was certain that I wanted to sample what they had to offer. A visit like this means I had higher expectations regarding what I was going to eat, but I have to say I was not disappointed at all.

I ordered the BBQ & Hash Deluxe Plate. This included chopped pork that came from a whole hog, South Carolina hash, slaw, pickles, hushpuppies, rice & one side. I chose a side of the slaw after the waitress told me that the slaw that came with the plate was essentially a garnish.

The chopped pork was everything I hoped it would be. The fat that rendered during the time the hog spent in the pit made it moist and flavorful, and there was a nice hint of vinegar from what the pitmaster mopped on it while it smoked. That vinegar helped cut through the richness of the fat, making it unctuous but not greasy.

The South Carolina hash was something new to me. I had an idea what it was, but I’d never had a chance to try it. SC hash looks like a thick gravy that has bits of shredded meat in it. It is made of many parts of the hog, including offal. There was a noticeable taste of irony liver in this hash, but it didn’t overpower everything else. Mixed in with the cup of rice that came with it, it was perfect. The starch of the rice thickened the gravy even more and the taste of the rice blended with the minerally meat to temper the flavor and make it an excellent option for a side dish. The only things I added to it were some black pepper and a couple splashes of hot sauce.

My only regret regarding the food at Buxton Hall was my choice of side. That is not to say that the slaw was bad, but there was nothing special about it. While I was eating it, I noticed that one of the other sides available was Green Beans Cooked Under the Hog. Reading the name of that dish made me want to try it. Typing it now made me want to try it. One last thing to mention about Buxton Hall was the dessert that I shared with my family, the Peach Cobbler. If you ever get the opportunity to try it, take that opportunity. You won’t regret it.

After leaving Asheville and spending a relaxing week with my in-laws in Myrtle Beach, we returned to Asheville for an overnight stay on the way home. The social media person for another Asheville BBQ restaurant had engaged me via Twitter regarding a photo and tweet that I had posted while eating at Buxton Hall, so I decided I would give them a try. This took me to Luella’s Bar-B-Que.

I went to the South Asheville Luella’s location at Biltmore Park. I placed my order to go and talked with one of the employees while I waited. He was a bit cocky when I told him that I had eaten at Buxton Hall and filled me in on a bit of the history of Luella’s. It is a restaurant that has been around since 2007 and espouses a family atmosphere regarding its employees. Hearing the story of Luella’s made me glad that I took the chance to try it.

I chose the chopped pork and smoked andouille sausage. My wife had the BBQ Chicken Salad. The chopped pork was ok, but not as good as that from Buxton Hall. The andouille was advertised as medium spicy, but in addition to being bland in its spices, it was lacking any taste of smoke. With sauce they were ok, but I mentioned earlier my thoughts on the quality of BBQ that requires sauce. The best thing that I had was some of my wife’s salad. The smoked chicken was pulled and tossed with Romaine, Tomato, Cucumber, Lue’s Pickled Corn Relish and Fried Onions. The dressing was creamy buttermilk with basil. The flavors combined perfectly to meld the smoke of the chicken with the tanginess of the relish and the creamy, acidic buttermilk of the dressing. As I had my order to go, I knew it was possible that the quality might suffer. That may have affected my thoughts regarding the meat, but the taste was just not what I hoped it would be.

Overall, I would highly recommend that anyone eat at Buxton Hall. As for the other two, they are definitely better than no BBQ at all, but neither are in the same league as Buxton Hall.

I have always been a lover of cornbread, but frequently am dissatisfied because the texture ends up too dry and very crumbly. To remedy that, I recently sought out a recipe from one of the food blogs that I read. A quick search resulted in a wonderful recipe from the Sweet Savant, for this Vidalia Onion Upside Down Cornbread.

The first time that I made this recipe we were hosting friends for dinner and I wanted to make cornbread to go along with a smoked tri-tip roast. As I read the list of ingredients, I noticed two things that stood out. 8 ounces of frozen broccoli-thawed and 16 ounces of 2% cottage cheese. I have never been a fan of frozen broccoli, so I determined that I would break not just one, but two of the cardinal sins of hosting someone for a meal at your home (1. Never try a new recipe for the first time; and 2. Never alter a recipe the first time you make it). I decided that fresh corn, cut off the cob, and some chopped peppers (bell, jalapeno, or whatever I had on hand) would be good substitutes for the unwanted ingredient.

I prepared the corn to be added to the batter by cooking it on the smoker briefly, just long enough to get a bit of char on the kernels from them touching the grate. From there I cut the kernels off the cobs and mixed them in with the rest of the wet ingredients. I also added the chopped peppers (poblanos in this case) to the chopped bacon as I browned it in a separate skillet.

I think my favorite part of this cornbread is the golden Vidalia onion slices that provide a stunning display on the top once the loaf is inverted and removed from the frying pan. In addition to the stunning visual they provide, they keep the bread moist and contribute some subtle sweetness.

My second favorite part about this cornbread is that I get to bake it a cast iron skillet. One lesson that I learned the first time that I made it was that I needed to bake it in a skillet with taller sides, as the butter that the Vidalia onions saute in will flow over side and make a big smoky mess of the oven if the sides are not tall enough. The second time I made it, I used the cast iron Dutch oven that I got from my Mother. Any time I get to use one of the kitchen tools I got from her is a good day. The tall sides of the Dutch oven successfully contained the butter, and that made everyone in my house much happier.

The bottom line is that this cornbread is moist and packs a lot of flavor in each bite. I think the cottage cheese is responsible for the moisture and some of the subtle dairy taste. Because it has sugar in it, my Dad would have called it Johnny Cake, but I am more interested in eating it than debating what it should be called. What I do know is that I have never had any leftovers when I have made it. That is always a good sign.

Vidalia Onion Upside Down Cornbread

Derived from the original recipe of Demetra Overton – http://sweetsavant.com
Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 8

Requires a 10-12 inch cast iron skillet, but I used an 11 inch Dutch oven that has 3 3/4″ tall sides and that worked very well.

Ingredients

• 2 Vidalia Onions
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/2 Cups of cornmeal
• 1 Cup of AP flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt
• 1/3 Cup white sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 Cup diced poblano pepper
• 3/4 Cup fresh corn kernels, cooked and cut from the cob
• 1/2 Cup bacon, chopped and cooked
• 4 eggs
• 16 ounces of cottage cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cook the corn (still on the cob) for about 3-4 minutes (over an open flame will char some of the kernels and will provide great flavor and color inside the finished loaf).
3. Saute the bacon in a separate pan and add the diced pepper for the last minute or two so it softens.
4. Slice the Vidalia Onions into rings, leaving the rings together if possible.
5. Melt the butter in the cast iron skillet (the one to be used for baking).
6. Place the onion slices close together in the the butter, filling in any spaces with smaller bits of onion.
7. Finely chop any remaining Vidalia onion and reserve it.
8. Let the onions cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
9. While the onions are cooking, mix the batter.
10. Add the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
11. In a large bowl beat 4 eggs and mix in the cottage cheese.
12. Add the reserved chopped onions.
13. Add the bacon and diced peppers.
14. Add the cornmeal mix and stir to combine.
15. Pour batter over the onions.
16. Bake the cornbread for 20-25 minutes or until done.
17. Let the cornbread cool for 10-15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan.
18. Place a plate or breadboard over the pan and, using oven mitts, carefully flip the pan over and remove cornbread from the pan.