13 August 2011

The Most Epic Day Ever III

This past Friday was supposed to be spent eating and bar hopping our way through NYC, but due to some excessive celebrating the previous night, one member of our party (Chris) was ridiculously hungover the next morning so we ended up cancelling the trip.  After getting a couple more hours sleep, we decided to make the most of the day by getting breakfast and then smoking some ribs.  It ended up being a damn fine day all things considered.

Aside from the horribly slow service, our breakfast at Open Door Cafe was quite good.  We chose to dine al fresco and after our hostess seated us, she mentioned she was the barista and that they had a fully functioning espresso bar so I ordered my usual decaf soy latte.


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It was alright. I guess I should've ordered a cappuccino as I was disappointed in the measly amount of foam. After getting our drinks we had plenty of time to browse the menu. 20 minutes went by before our server even made an appearance. She was lucky we weren't pressed for time since our next stop didn't open till 11am, otherwise her face would've become very familiar with the business end of my pimp hand.

I ordered the smoked salmon and red onion eggs benedict with a side (hah!) of grits. A still very hungover Chris ordered the BELT (BLT with a fried egg).

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Side of grits? More like a gravy boat of grits. Holy shit that was the largest serving of grits I've ever seen. While the flavor of the grits was quite good, they were extremely undercooked, one step above crunchy and seriously pasty. I likes my grits creamy, damnit! How come the only person who seems to know how to cook grits properly is Bobby freakin' Flay?

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Luckily, the benedict itself rocked. My only complaint here was that it was served with melted butter instead of a freshly made hollandaise. I won't go over the components that make up a great eggs benedict, as I'm sure you're all quite familiar with the dish.

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The salmon had a strong smoke flavor, and they didn't overdo it with the red onion. The english muffin was the perfect balance of soft and crispy and it was obvious that the chef had seasoned it with salt and pepper before putting it up.

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The BELT earned Chris's approval. The egg appeared to be cooked over medium, and, although ripe, the tomato slices were pretty small, but he appreciated the lightly toasted fresh bread.

Due to our extremely slow service we arrived at Broom's Bloom right as they opened. I nabbed some sausage and bacon for my baked beans and then perused the day's available flavors.

I ended up going with half Cinnamon Honey Vanilla half Coffee topped with hot fudge. A damn fine flavor combination if I do say so myself.

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I like my ice cream melty, one step above drinkable, which is why I love hot fudge so much. I overheard one of the employees utter the phrase "Damn, skinny white boy can eat" You're goddamn right I can. Best recognize.

After running around town picking up stuff for the smoke, we got back to my place and started cooking. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

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While letting the smoke do it's thing we went for a little tromp through the woods out back. Sadly no goblins or ettins were found.

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Lightning hit this tree right behind my house during a raging midnight thunderstorm last week. It scared the shit out of both of us and showered our house in shards of bark and splinters. Crazy stuff.

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We got back and temps were holding steady at 255*. Chris still wasn't 100%, but I wasn't hungover at all so I cracked a 90 minute and we chilled in the basement giving my SNES a good workout.

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R-Type 3 all up in your facehole. We also played Super Punch-Out and Final Fantasy III (of course).

And now I present to you the main course. I'll leave you with these lovely pictures. Honestly, if I keep up my current upward trend, I truly believe I could make a living off of my cooking. These ribs were outstanding.

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Who wants leftovers?

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This day turned out to be as good if not better than if we'd gone to NYC.  It just proves that all you need in life is great food, good friends, and a high quality beer or two.  Oh yeah, and videogames.  You gotta have those.

Thanks for reading, but I gotta jet. We're going up to Susquehanna Bank Center to see Journey. Not without stops at Tony Luke's and Franklin Fountain first though. Woot.

Brooms Bloom Dairy on Urbanspoon
Open Door Cafe on Urbanspoon

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2 comments:

theminx said...

Ribs look terrific. And I thought the grits we had at Bluegrass during that Chowhound dinner were pretty darn good.

Mr. Micro said...

Honestly, the main thing I remember about that dish was the mouth-scorching hot sauce. If the grits were that good, I'll have to take your word for it.

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