Squeal Barbeque: It's No Barbeque Town (but this is good)

Squeal Barbeque
8400 Oak St
New Orleans, LA 70118-2046,
(504) 302-7370




New Orleans is no barbeque town. This comes as a bit of shock to many who assume that everywhere in the South boasts an abundance of smoked pig products, but NOLA is (as it is with most things) an exception to the rule - here, Creole and Cajun food and crawfish boils are king, not smoked-meat-in-your-backyard, and that's how it's been for a very long time.

Thankfully, Squeal Barbeque opened up on Oak Street in New Orleans a few years ago, providing a respectable outlet for smoked BBQ to an appreciative audience. Tulane kids love it, mainly because you can get enough food to surfeit yourself and a friend for like two days here (if you supplement with ramen and jello shots).

The menu has the expected selection of pulled pork, ribs, beef brisket, and chicken, as well as some more ambitious stuff - there's tacos, fried boudin balls, the house's take on shepherd's pie, pulled pork nachos and some other stuff that is switched out on a regular basis. There's a bacon brownie for dessert, as well as bread pudding. Bacon desserts are, to no one's surprise, a huge hit in New Orleans.

I like the experimentation these guys perform within the remarkably diverse world of smoked animal products. This is, needless to say, not the place to take your vegetarian hot date. Well. You can order the nachos sans meat. Also they have a salad. There's totally a salad.

I always get the combo plate with chicken and beef brisket, mostly because I like beef brisket and my North Carolina father refuses to make it for reasons of ideology. The chicken is also tasty and more importantly they give you half of a whole entire animal, which is great for reasons of both frugality and sheer gluttony.



Pretty good ribs here as well, although could be a bit more tender and juicy - don't know if this is a batch thing or what. There's only one sauce here, a thick tomato based variety, and you do have to ask them to bring it to you on the side which is a bit of an oddity. They should get a few more BBQ sauce varieties in here - mustard sauce, vinegar, maybe some of that white, mayo based Alabama stuff - and give you some options, says I. There's no shame in doing that in an urban setting. Also, I just really like regional variants on BBQ sauce.

They also pay attention to the side dishes here, which is a good thing, as they are often sorely under-utilized at some BBQ places. They have absolutely superb cheese grits here. I went here for my first dinner in New Orleans after about a year and almost got misty-eyed over the cheese grits and hush-puppies. It was a profound moment. The collard greens are also excellent, primarily because they put a LOT of pork in em'. They double-fry the fries for maximal crunchiness. I always make sure somebody else orders them so I can eat theirs. That's thinking ahead.

It's nice to sit outside on a tolerably breezy day at Squeal - watching the Oak Street evening traffic go by is always fun, and there's the Maple Leaf right up the street. One of the servers last time I was in had in fact just got back from Cambodia - we had probably overlapped in Phnom Penh - and pointed out his Angkor Beer shirt to me when he overheard me discussing Angkor with my friends. It's a small world. A small world that, in my experience, is extremely fond of grilled meat.

north carolina style barbeque from our very own backyard!

My dad likes barbeque. My dad really likes barbeque. My dad really really likes to make barbeque.

Clarification: my dad likes to make North Carolina style BBQ. North Carolina style BBQ revolves around the pig in all its various incarnations. My dad possesses a very large smoker, which lives in the backyard. We use it most often in the summer, but my dad will happily fire up the smoker whenever the whim strikes him. It's a Zen thing for him, I think. Some people cultivate topiary, some people do watercolors of covered bridges, my father smokes pigs. And we are all the better for it.

For this particular meal, Dad smoked a pork shoulder, racks of baby back AND spare ribs, and a whole chicken. Indeed, I sometimes suspect my dad is setting back for a nuclear holocaust when he fires up the smoker. (I am always happy to know that when and if the End Times come, I will be able to eat pulled pork for at least a few months before the zombies arrive.)

A note, if you will: North Carolina BBQ sauces are far removed from the ketchup based concotions popular in other regions of the country. At Chez Greenwood, we home-make two typical N.C sauces: vinegar and mustard. Although my dad has a SECRET RECIPE for vinegar sauce, the base ingredients include vinegar, red pepper, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice.

We usually have coleslaw to accompany the feast, prepared with more vinegar and less mayo in the general fashion of tarheel BBQ. If you're eating a pulled pork sandwich, the coleslaw is required to go on top of the sandwich: it does not belong anywhere else. It is also required by law to serve pulled pork sandwiches with sliced dill pickles. Defy these regulations at your own peril. Hushpuppies go beautifully with North Carolina BBQ but we are attempting to be healthyhere. (Hahah!) If you are really going for broke, make blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I can't talk about that anymore because I might burst into tears.

This is a story best told in pictures.



Here are our lucky participants in the midst of the smoking process. As I recall, my dad likes to do his pork shoulder for 6 or 7 hours to attain a texture that is truly "pulled." I have no idea exactly how long the ribs and chicken take and should probably ask.



Since we are health-minded individuals, we had a light appetizer of pork spareribs. Here's the slab pre-carving.



And here they are sliced. If you are not licking the screen, I can only assume you are Jewish, Islamic, Jain, or lacking a human soul.



After that delightful interlude, the pork shoulder was ready. Here it is in the midst of the chopping process. The shoulder wasn't done enough for real pulling but we were hungry. Dad put half back on the smoker for another go to achieve the desired texture.



Here's the chopped pork all finished up. Yum.



For dessert, we had this smoked chicken. This chicken came out just plain divine: perfectly juicy with tons of soulful smoky flavor, thanks to the flavorful spice rub. I ate this for about two days straight after this particular dinner. It was a difficult task, a trial, let me tell you.

Next time: I show you how to make cheating-ass Southern collard greens. That still taste delicious.

OZ Again

Oz Korean BBQ
3343 Bradshaw Road Sacramento, CA
95827
916-362-9292



I love Korean food. Some of my earliest and happiest memories involve it: dipping crisp-fried yakimandu into soy sauce full of floating green scallions, chewy strips of spicy squid, fermenting kimchi tossed on top of almost anything. California has proved to be a Korean food afficinados dream: even Sacramento brims with Korean joints, small and fancy, fast-food and grill your own, endless purveyors of kimchi! (Yay!) You can buy kimchi at the grocery store here. I eat it often.

My favorite Korean place here in Sacramento is OZ Korean Barbeque. Located somewhat outside of town, it's a big restaurant in a big edifice of a building, adorned with big scary looking smoke-stacks to let off the smoke - coming from the tabletop grills inside. The entry way is dramatic and rather gorgeous - a brush painter came in to produce a gigantic painting of Tahoe in the Asian style that snakes up the walls. The dining room itself is big, stone and wood paneled, and noisy. Eating Korean food is not a quiet or austere art. It should be done in groups and you should order beer. (OZ is happy to hook you up.)

Panchan or Korean side-dishes appear quickly. The selection changes often, but you'll usually get at least five dishes - expect kimchi, squid strips, seaweed salad, marinated bean sprouts, pickled cabbage and jalapeno, radish, and other such delectables. You're in luck - refills are free and endless. (I ground through three on my last visit. I like kimchi.)

You should sit at a grill-table. It's fun to grill your own meat, and OZ's galbi (marinated short ribs) and bulgogi (marinated beef sirloin) are high quality and delicious. Don't miss the Tokyo X, which is the polite name for marinated pork belly, that fatty and delicious food. You can also get chicken and seafood to grill on the tabletop,but both strike me as unnecessarily healthy.



However, you should also order off the menu, for one needs accompaniments for the orgy of meat you are about to engage in. Japchae, or sauteed glass noodles with beef and vegetables (pictured above) are just plain wonderful - slippery, beefy, easy to eat. Stone Age Bi-Bim-Bap, a dish of sirloin, egg, vegetables, and pickle served over rice in a crackling hot stone bowl is also excellent. The rice caramelizes merrily away at the bottom of the stone vessel, and once you mix up the slightly burned rice with the toppings and the bean paste....perfect.



Don't miss the soup. Korean soup tends to be red hot, literally and figuratively, and filled with delicious silken tofu, vegetables, and the protein of your choice. I love OZ's Korean "cioppino" filled with various unlucky creatures of the sea, floating in a super spicy broth with tofu, garlic, and enoki mushrooms - scrumptious.



Seafood is a winner here. Begin your meal with the seafood pajun, an eggy pancake filled with squid, shrimp and crab along with vegetables, dipped in a sweet soy sauce. Finish with the squid pan fry as pictured above - a burbling cauldron filled with spicy hot bean paste, vegetables, and squid tentacles. It's absolutely addictive and tastes distinct from anything other cuisines might offer.

If you're in the mood for Asian food and are growing increasingly sick of eating Thai food again again again, you owe it to yourself to try Korean food. Experience the wonders of sticky bean paste and glass noodles and grilled beef. Eat some kimchi and be unabashed about the toxic garlic breath you will provoke. OZ serves food that is worth social censure for. (Or bring your friends to eat kimchi with you, and then no one will be bothered. That's a good plan.)

OZ Korean Barbeque

Oz Korean Barbeque
3343 Bradshaw Road
Sacramento, CA 95857
(916) 362-9292


(All photos from Oz's website here.)



OZ Korean Barbecue serves excellent Korean food in a beautiful space. If you love kimchi, bulgogi, and other Korean flavors, you owe it to yourself to drive out to Bradshaw and grill some meat.

Korean meals begin with panchan, an assortment of delicious side dishes, usually focused around kimchi and other incarnations of pickled vegetables. (And it comes free with your meal!) The selection changes daily, and OZ is no exception, bringing out seven or eight different little dishes for your eating pleasure. I enjoy the spinach cooked in sesame, the spicy dried squid in red bean sauce, and the bean sprouts - and the delicious, spicy kimchi, infused with lots of garlic and chili pepper. This may not be the best date food.

OZ features a variety of appetizers. We like the fried pot stickers or yakimandu for $7.99, which are filled with beef and vegetables then cooked to an appetizing crisp - and the order comes with 10 pieces, so there's more then enough to go around. I especially love the vinegary dipping sauce, covered in a raft of crisp green scallions. If you're into noodles, jobchae ($8.99) is a great option, featuring sauteed rice noodles with beef and vegetables. Jobchae takes on a distinctive smoky Korean flavor very distinct from other Asian noodle dishes, and it's totally addictive, especially with the juicy chunks of beef. It's even better the next day, which is good to know since the portion is huge and you will probably have leftovers. Finally, I dig the seafood pajun ($9.99), a "Korean style pancake with green onion and assorted seafood" as the menu describes it. This is delicious and also bigger then your head, filled with crisp green onion, squid pieces, fish cake, and bits of crab. Dip it in the included ponzuish sauce and life is pretty good.



The standout entree here is meat you grill yourself at the table grill, and OZ offers a wide and very high quality selection. We like the OZ Galbi ($20.99), which is marinated beef short ribs cut in the Korean style. Another favorite is Bul-go-gi,($17.99), which differs from galbi primarily in that there are no bones. We've also tried the decadant but delicious Tokyo X pork belly ($17.99), which is swimming in tasty, tasty fat. OZ provides lettuce, red bean paste, and jalapeno to wrap up the meat in, producing awesome lettuce wraps. Have at it.




There's more then just grilled meat on the menu, though. I love the Korean-style crab "ciopinno" ($14.99), which bears no resemblance to ciopinno other then the red color, and is in my opinion far tastier. This is a bright red seafood soup full of various unshelled sea creatures, ripe for dismemberment. I happily chowed down on crunchy prawn heads infused with chili soup, finishing with the spicy tofu chunks left at the bottom of the bowl. It's pungent and delicious, like most Korean food. The sirloin bibimbap ($11.99) is another popular Korean dish, composed of various vegetables and mushrooms, covered in meat, egg, and red bean chili sauce. This is served in a hot skillet, which browns the rice to a wonderful consistency (and cooks the included raw egg.) If you like Chinese fried rice, you'll probably love this.



OZ's outside might look like a giant intimidating UFO (due to the smoke stacks off the grills), but the interior is lovely and expensive looking, with beautiful wood walls and a massive mural spanning the entrance way. Service is usually prompt and efficient, and our servers are always happy to recommend dishes to us or bring us refills on the kimchi. A lot of families frequent this place for various events, so the volume level is fairly loud - but Korean barbecue isn't exactly an austere kind of dish anyway. Loosen up and enjoy yourself. Korean food is worth it.