I never planned to publish reviews of eating establishments but at the request of one Theresa Overby, @TheresaOverby, of Doe's Eat Place I'll throw this into the mix.
I just finished gulping down a Brisket Plate from Sweet's Outdoor Grill , 2504 Government Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sweet's is a pretty simple place, a storefront with a large roof thrown out in front to cover the area where patrons order food and some plating occurs. No seating. No reservations. Get in line Brother. The menu is pretty much standard BBQ fare- chicken, rib, brisket, sausage plates or sandwiches make up its bulk. There are options for 1/2 pound or full pound meat only plates, which I almost considered. Side dishes include smoked beans, potato salad, rice dressing, and cole slaw. Sweet's also offers Italian Ice, a shaved ice or snowball like product and cookies as well as bottled cold drinks.
I was already on my way to campus so I packed my brisket plate and found a seat near the BRCC admin building. There I opened the black foam container to find my brisket, rice, potato salad, and cole slaw. My first impression was, "Wow the brisket looks great, but there just doesn't seem to be enough of it." How much brisket was there? I can't say. I imagine that it was somewhere between a quarter and a third of a pound. For ten dollars I wanted more.
Sides: The Cole Slaw- This reminded me of Waldorf Salad. A traditional cabbage cole slaw with rasins, walnuts and a bit of red pepper added kick. It was different for certain. People who know the Red Stick food scene will already be familiar with TJ Ribs cole slaw with peanuts. This is not as creamy or a dense with crunch. Walnuts are more of a solid bite through and offer different mouth feel. The raisins are a nice touch adding some sweetness that the acid in the dressing can be balanced with. The red pepper on the otherhand was not as obvious as the other ingredients. The first bite was surprising. Where did all this heat come from? It is unusual, but not a bad idea. I think that this could be incorporated a little better with some slight changes.
The Potato Salad- Sweets offers a standard Mustard Potato Salad. It is quite creamy both in mouthfeel and in taste. Plenty of paprika gives a good smokey flavor to this dish.
The Sauce- This is a vinegar and ketchup based sauce. There is a good bit of vinegar bite and quite a bit of sweet added from an unknown source. I'd hazard the guess that they use straight white sugar not a molasses or brown sugar. It is most definately not a bastardization of Cattlemen's.
The Rice- While I've lived in Louisiana for ten years now, I just cannot fathom why Sweet's plates with rice. This is plain white rice and butter, not rice dressing. Perhaps the idea is that it, like the white bread many BBQ joints serve, is to sop of grease. If so, I still don't understand why it is on the plate because they sold me a piece of white bread as well.
The Meat- The brisket was well done. Cooked through. No food safety issues to think of. Bark lovers rejoice, there is bark, nice crunchy black bark on this meat. Those of you who measure a man's meat by the depth of the smoke rings he leaves: One eigth to one quarter of an inch deep depending on the piece of meat. Plenty of smoke seasoned the brisket. It seemed that the rub stayed on the outside of the meat as only a few of the pieces in my container had much more than a smokey flavor. I could discern the standard rub ingredients, cumin, paprika, sugar, garlic powder, and salt. I did like the brisket, but I wanted more.
Unfortunately I did not catch Sweet's Outdoor Grill's hours. I was aware enough at the time to see that they do take three kinds of plastic- Visa, Master Card, and Discover. Plates are between 9 and 12 dollars.
Summary- I'd love to try more of the sides. If Sweet's other dishes were crafted with the same kind of imagination that went into the cole slaw they must be interesting and worh the time and money to try. I would love to trade the rice for more meat on my plate. I do plan to drop in again. And when I do I will try the rib plate with a different set of sides. Good barbeque, good low and slow smoking cooking methods do take time and while the cuts aren't always the most expensive, that time is a cost. What does that mean? I don't think the price I paid was out of line- if only I had a few more pieces of meat. Please Mr Sweet, ditch the rice. I will be back.
Sweet's Outdoor Grill
2504 Government StreetBaton Rouge, LA 70806
(225) 308-1414
Links-
UrbanSpoon Review
Sweet's Outdoor Grill Facebook Fan Page
Showing posts with label BBQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBQ. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, November 21, 2008
Late in my chili, Thanksgiving
1- I'm behind in my chili making. I know. I have plans to rectify that this weekend. My plans to serve chili this last week to a captive audience at work fell through because my roofer had an opening Tuesday. This leads to-
2- Nobody hates Satsumas. My father-in-law gave us a large box-full of the citrus last weekend. I ate a good few before Tuesday when I gave most of the rest to the roofing crew. A goodwill gesture. They disappeared within minutes. I'm looking forward to more when we visit next month. If you've never eaten one you're missing out. Satsumas, or Mikans, are incredibly easy to peel by hand and to me they taste like tangerine lifesavers- except better and like real citrus. I could eat a bushel without stopping. We also ended up with ten grapefruits. Those also usually turn out really well. I have yet to try one, so we'll see.
3. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I'm not going to cook much at all this year, so my comments on T-day will have to be limited to tastings. The last 2 years I've used a Weber Grill recipe for BBQ turkey. The bird is brined first and I believe that step makes all the difference. Using the BBQ and some smoke from apple wood makes for an incredible flavor. It takes some time but it is well worth the effort.
I did once suggest to my parents that we try a Turducken or Tur-duck-hen. My folks used to catch a lot of flack from the family traditionalists who had nothing better to do than to critique the way everything was prepared and served. The idea was to throw the lot of them off guard. They wouldn't have a clue what it was supposed to taste like, how to cook it, how to serve it, or even how to properly eat it. Screw 'em. It worked to a degree. The item came stuffed with an awful green onion stuffing and the turducken came out dry. To my credit- no one gripped in the usual ways. My folks were spared from the needling that some of our stuffier kin would have heaped upon them.
Fried Turkey is something I'd like to try to make. I've had it a few times since moving to Louisiana and it has always been great. I'm really turned off by the Cajun Injector- think really large gauge syringe and horrible flavored marinade the color of burnt umber. From what I've heard the trick is to stab the Turkey like you're trying to kill Freddie Kruger- a thousand times over. Eeeww. No thanks. Please just season the fowl well and fry. The skin is really great. The investment in a decent burner and stand also serve well for boiling seafood- shrimp, crabs, and crawfish. Just a few months longer until crawfish season starts again.
Hopefully I'll have another post on chili this weekend or early next week.
2- Nobody hates Satsumas. My father-in-law gave us a large box-full of the citrus last weekend. I ate a good few before Tuesday when I gave most of the rest to the roofing crew. A goodwill gesture. They disappeared within minutes. I'm looking forward to more when we visit next month. If you've never eaten one you're missing out. Satsumas, or Mikans, are incredibly easy to peel by hand and to me they taste like tangerine lifesavers- except better and like real citrus. I could eat a bushel without stopping. We also ended up with ten grapefruits. Those also usually turn out really well. I have yet to try one, so we'll see.
3. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I'm not going to cook much at all this year, so my comments on T-day will have to be limited to tastings. The last 2 years I've used a Weber Grill recipe for BBQ turkey. The bird is brined first and I believe that step makes all the difference. Using the BBQ and some smoke from apple wood makes for an incredible flavor. It takes some time but it is well worth the effort.
I did once suggest to my parents that we try a Turducken or Tur-duck-hen. My folks used to catch a lot of flack from the family traditionalists who had nothing better to do than to critique the way everything was prepared and served. The idea was to throw the lot of them off guard. They wouldn't have a clue what it was supposed to taste like, how to cook it, how to serve it, or even how to properly eat it. Screw 'em. It worked to a degree. The item came stuffed with an awful green onion stuffing and the turducken came out dry. To my credit- no one gripped in the usual ways. My folks were spared from the needling that some of our stuffier kin would have heaped upon them.
Fried Turkey is something I'd like to try to make. I've had it a few times since moving to Louisiana and it has always been great. I'm really turned off by the Cajun Injector- think really large gauge syringe and horrible flavored marinade the color of burnt umber. From what I've heard the trick is to stab the Turkey like you're trying to kill Freddie Kruger- a thousand times over. Eeeww. No thanks. Please just season the fowl well and fry. The skin is really great. The investment in a decent burner and stand also serve well for boiling seafood- shrimp, crabs, and crawfish. Just a few months longer until crawfish season starts again.
Hopefully I'll have another post on chili this weekend or early next week.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wind, Beans, and Headcheese
Well, I sit here at work late this evening contemplating several things.
Hurricane food: Gustav and Ike passed through earlier this month. For a number of days we were without power so cooking became a little more exciting. I went through a ton of PB&J crackers. Not exactly gourmet, but easy and no worries about refrigeration. Two nights before Gustav I found a piece of what I thought was a large pork loin in the freezer. Once defrosted I liberally applied my BBQ rub and left it in the oven for about six hours at 280 F. I shredded it like butt or shoulder and put it into the fridge- then ice chest. It came out rather well. My wife was impressed with it. I can only imagine that if I had taken the time and effort to smoke it, that it would have been that much improved. I was surprised that I didn't do more grilling during our power outage. We prepared a decent amount of food before hand easing our work load.
Work food: As I write this I'm eating a ham sandwich. (I just realized that almost everything I write about has something to do with pork) Crackers, an apple, soda. Basic easy work food. I'm fortunate to be able to use a refrigerator here. I can store several items like condiments, bread, soda, lunch meat and cheese so that I can make a sandwich here instead of getting up earlier to pack a lunch. It seems to me that the more a man works with his hands on the job, the more likely it is that his wife has set aside left overs for his lunch the next day. I've noticed that a lot of the engineers I've worked with tend to bring frozen dinners, eat popcorn, or have a vendor buy them lunch as often as possible. We've been making more meals at work recently as well. Being the designated Yankee, am am being educated as to the ways of Southern Men and cooking. Lately it's been about dry beans and sausage:
1 bag of red beans
2 Onions
4 large links of green onion sausage, andouille
Water
Tony Chachere's
in a decent sized slow cooker- over night
Rice- cooked separately.
Serve the beans and sausage on rice.
One of the guys in for the start-up from Alabama made a "stew":
1 head cabbage
1 16 oz bag of carrots
2 lbs of hard sausage like used above
1 Onion
4 Potatoes
Water to barely cover
Simmered until potatoes, cabbage, and carrots have softened.
Headcheese: We've also been into headcheese. I was first introduced to headcheese 7 years ago in Chalmette. Sliced thin served on a saltine cracker. The guys mentioned it last week. I made an attempt to hit a small hole in the wall place just north of town. No dice. I make a wrong turn and I didn't want to fight traffic more than I had to. That weekend I found headcheese made by Veron's at the grocery near the house. Hot and regular. Brought that along with some saltines. Not bad. One of the guys brought some in from a small town closer to the plant along with Tiger Sauce. Not bad combination. Tiger Sauce and captain's wafers isn't too bad either. Headcheese was supposed to have been originally made with muscle and organ meat from the hog's head. Gelatin would help hold it all together. Today it is more likely scraps. I'm not sure what legislation was passed, but supposedly it is illegal to make headcheese the old way anymore. As they say- they used to use everything but the oink. Now- is it good? If you let yourself forget exactly what it was made of and you don't mind the texture- not too bad. It can be seasoned differnent ways, so it will depend of course upon where it came from.
Enough for now. I have to decide if I'm going to stick around the plant until 3 AM or not.
Hurricane food: Gustav and Ike passed through earlier this month. For a number of days we were without power so cooking became a little more exciting. I went through a ton of PB&J crackers. Not exactly gourmet, but easy and no worries about refrigeration. Two nights before Gustav I found a piece of what I thought was a large pork loin in the freezer. Once defrosted I liberally applied my BBQ rub and left it in the oven for about six hours at 280 F. I shredded it like butt or shoulder and put it into the fridge- then ice chest. It came out rather well. My wife was impressed with it. I can only imagine that if I had taken the time and effort to smoke it, that it would have been that much improved. I was surprised that I didn't do more grilling during our power outage. We prepared a decent amount of food before hand easing our work load.
Work food: As I write this I'm eating a ham sandwich. (I just realized that almost everything I write about has something to do with pork) Crackers, an apple, soda. Basic easy work food. I'm fortunate to be able to use a refrigerator here. I can store several items like condiments, bread, soda, lunch meat and cheese so that I can make a sandwich here instead of getting up earlier to pack a lunch. It seems to me that the more a man works with his hands on the job, the more likely it is that his wife has set aside left overs for his lunch the next day. I've noticed that a lot of the engineers I've worked with tend to bring frozen dinners, eat popcorn, or have a vendor buy them lunch as often as possible. We've been making more meals at work recently as well. Being the designated Yankee, am am being educated as to the ways of Southern Men and cooking. Lately it's been about dry beans and sausage:
1 bag of red beans
2 Onions
4 large links of green onion sausage, andouille
Water
Tony Chachere's
in a decent sized slow cooker- over night
Rice- cooked separately.
Serve the beans and sausage on rice.
One of the guys in for the start-up from Alabama made a "stew":
1 head cabbage
1 16 oz bag of carrots
2 lbs of hard sausage like used above
1 Onion
4 Potatoes
Water to barely cover
Simmered until potatoes, cabbage, and carrots have softened.
Headcheese: We've also been into headcheese. I was first introduced to headcheese 7 years ago in Chalmette. Sliced thin served on a saltine cracker. The guys mentioned it last week. I made an attempt to hit a small hole in the wall place just north of town. No dice. I make a wrong turn and I didn't want to fight traffic more than I had to. That weekend I found headcheese made by Veron's at the grocery near the house. Hot and regular. Brought that along with some saltines. Not bad. One of the guys brought some in from a small town closer to the plant along with Tiger Sauce. Not bad combination. Tiger Sauce and captain's wafers isn't too bad either. Headcheese was supposed to have been originally made with muscle and organ meat from the hog's head. Gelatin would help hold it all together. Today it is more likely scraps. I'm not sure what legislation was passed, but supposedly it is illegal to make headcheese the old way anymore. As they say- they used to use everything but the oink. Now- is it good? If you let yourself forget exactly what it was made of and you don't mind the texture- not too bad. It can be seasoned differnent ways, so it will depend of course upon where it came from.
Enough for now. I have to decide if I'm going to stick around the plant until 3 AM or not.
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