It has taken me much longer than I had planned to get these photos up, but here they are: My BBQ Photos.

As a bonus, here’s BBQ coverage from other sources:

• Photos from Aryeh Samberg, ASBEE Cantor and Youth Director
• Photos from Katherine and David Weingart
• Local news coverage

A quick word on the Weingarts - David and Katherine quietly came from Virginia to ‘observe’ the BBQ. Over Shabbos they were adopted by the ASBEE Community. We became friends, and they became honorary members of my team. You can see the “I (heart) NY” pins I stuck on them. When the BBQ committee was short one judge for the ‘ribs and beans’ category, Katherine got drafted. Aren’t you jealous? They’re planning to come back to compete, next year.

Also, here’s the list of the winning teams at the BBQ:

• Best Beans - The Cattle Menshes
• Best Ribs - The Meat Machers
• Best Brisket - The Baron Hirsch Men’s Club / BBQ Railroad
• Best Booth - Memphis Area Jewish Young Couples / Harry Potroast and the Sorcerer’s Sauce
• Best Name - Kollel Torah Metzion / Abe & Sarah’s Bed & Brisket
• Grand Champion - The Meat Machers

My favorite team name? Beans Make You Sphard.

Staff at the kosher Dunkin’ Donuts in Brookline’s Washington Square informed customers today that they’d be shutting their doors at end of business — no reason given.

SWB New England of West Bridgewater, MA, suddenly closed its doors two weeks ago leaving 140 employees out of work. Media reports are clueless as to the reasons for the closure, except noting that “SWB was struggling for a long time.” A source close to the Kosher Blog indicated that SWB was involved in serious buy-out negotiations with Kedem’s food distribution branch, HKS Marketing, which was interested in expanding into New England market. In the end, they couldn’t agree on a purchase price, the deal fell through abruptly, and SWB could no longer sustain itself.

R & J Seafoods is a new addition to the mail-order kosher marketplace this year. Their Kenai Select Wild Alaskan Salmon as well as wild halibut now have OK certification, after two years of inquiries about going kosher. R & J, a small family company, has been in business almost twenty-five years in Kasilof, Alaska, just a few miles south of the Kenai River — famous for its salmon sportfishing.

We were sent a full order of R&J’s sockeye salmon, which was shipped FedEx Priority Overnight and arrived by 10:30AM. The thorough packaging kept the fish in excellent frozen condition through its trip and until it reached the kitchen. The three beautiful filets which emerged from the box weighed approximately five pounds total.

After a quick thaw, it was ready to cook. Even in its raw state, the fish had a fresh, clean smell, the flesh was firm and deep red — a distinctive characteristic of sockeye — and the skin shiny and smooth. Their local salmon season runs from late June to mid-August, but attentive and prompt cleaning, packing, and freezing of the fish ensures high quality in the off-season.

We prepared the salmon two ways, on the grill and served with a garlic-lime sauce, and pan-seared with a lemon-balsamic reduction. In both cases, we cooked the fish medium-rare, leaving the interior abundantly moist. The sockeye had a very rich flavor, with none of the off-putting qualities of lesser products that tend to keep people away from salmon, clinging ignorantly to “safe” pale-fleshed fish. The skin crisped up nicely, providing a fine contrast to the salmon’s smooth texture.

As is the tradition with our mail-order reviews, a word about shipping costs is in order. R & J’s overnight shipping costs — a surcharge of about $9/lb. — are in line with other online purveyors of fresh Alaskan salmon. Additonally, their price for sockeye, at about $13/lb., is very competitive.

In short, R & J’s salmon has made me a believer: a high quality ingredient, cooked gently in an appropriate manner, can’t help becoming good eats.

The winners of the 2007 ASBEE-Kroger Kosher BBQ Competition were announced at 3:15pm. I didn’t win. I didn’t place. That’s OK, because I had an amazing time. I made many friends - the ASBEE community is comprised of some of the friendliest, most welcoming people I have ever met. This weekend, I discovered that my self-taught, NY-style BBQ is at least as good as BBQ that you’ll find in Memphis, Tennessee - and I tasted lots of that delicious BBQ today. Hopefully, this won’t be the last they hear of me. Incidentally, my team of one was called ‘I flew in from Brooklyn, NY for this BBQ and boy are my arms tired’. We’re looking for recruits for next year. I’ll be back home tomorrow night, and I’ll work on getting some of my photos up as soon as I can.

As I write this, teams around me are preparing their briskets, ribs and beans. Luckily, ASBEE has wireless internet. Last minute adjustments are being made, tasting and seasoning is going on all around. The cooking starts at 6:00am tomorrow - don’t expect any live-blogging tomorrow. My beans are done and in the cooler. My rib-glaze is done and in the cooler. I’m eating some of the left-over ingredients (pineapple), in lieu of dinner. Wish me luck….

I have a few hours free before Shabbos, so I’ll tell you a little more about what’s going on here. As a side note, I did what will likely be my last bit of sightseeing in Memphis (The Mississippi River Museum and The Memphis Cotton Museum). I also took a few minutes to stop by the kosher aisles at the local Kroger - the major sponsor of the BBQ.

There were no BBQ related activities today, but I’ll elaborate more on what happened last night. (Again, when I get home, I’ll provide photos to make it all clear.) When registering for the BBQ, everyone had to submit an ingredient list that covered all the ingredients you need, for all your recipes. (The categories to compete in are brisket, ribs and BBQ beans, in case you forgot.) The $125 application fee covered the purchase of all your ingredients - minus the meat. Upon entering the shul social hall, each team’s supplies and ingredients were set out on tables. First order of business was to insure that all your ingredients were present. A community table contains some of the more common ingredients (spices, sauces, juices, etc.) and each team is expected to take from that to fulfill their needs. Any shortages or missing items are reported to a volunteer, and it’s on to meat selection.

Teams can pre-order as many briskets and rib racks as they want when they sign up. On orientation night, a team representative lines up at the outdoor, walk-in cooler, where they will get a chance to choose which briskets or ribs they want. As I said, meat isn’t included in the application fee, so at this point teams pay the shul for the meat they have chosen.

Cooking is not required on orientation night, but many teams do. The most common preparation that takes place is the marinating or dry-rubbing of meat. I threw together my dry-rub, covered my brisket and ribs with it, then sealed them in foil and put them back in the cooler, with a team-name tag.

I wasn’t expecting to do any cooking last night, but I got caught up in the frenzy. Unfortunately, the shul kitchen doesn’t expand when more teams apply to compete - and this year has the largest number of teams, ever. Fortunately, many people are working on tasks that don’t require cooking, so they can work out in the shul social hall. I put together some of the ingredients for my grill-glaze. I’ll combine the components tomorrow night and finish their cooking. Before signing up, I was concerned that I wouldn’t know the right-way to prepare/cook for the competition - not anymore. Every method was represented. Some people were pre-cooking their meat, so they could just put a char on it on the day of the event. Some were slathering meat in marinades or dry-rubbing (I was one of them) and leaving them raw. Whatever preparing was done, at the end of the night every team wrapped their product in foil and put it back in the cooler.

I get a lot of questions about the BBQ-beans category. Each team is given a large can of Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans. The trick is to improve the beans by adding things - spices, seasonings, fruits, vegetables, whatever. You’re just trying to offer the judges the best baked-beans they even tasted.

There’s so much more to discuss, but it will have to wait for my next posts. I’ll leave you with a question - I seem to be marking myself as a fanatic, by traveling from NY to Memphis, just to cook in a BBQ competition. Are there more nuts like me out there? Would you come out here to compete? Next year will be the 20th annual BBQ, nudge, nudge. Thanks to all my supporters out there and have a good Shabbos.

I wish I could post some pictures for you, but my laptop doesn’t have the software for photo-editing. I’ll work on it when I get home. Sorry.

Anyway, my first full day in Memphis has come to an end. I started my day with some sightseeing (Graceland, The Peabody Ducks, The Rock & Soul Museum and the Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art). At 6:00pm, there was a BBQ Orientation, followed by our first cooking session. Before I go on, I need to clarify that I am working this competition alone - unfortunately, Jabbett wasn’t able to make it. Let me also explain that working this competition alone is sheer lunacy. Especially on your first time competing. I am so overwhelmed. As long as we’re all clear on that. (I won’t start whining here - the BBQ staff read this )

By 9:30pm I had selected my meat, insured that I had all my ingredients, put my dry rub on my meat and stored it in the fridge, and done a small part of my food prep. I still have much work to do. I’ll go into more detail when this weekend is over - right now I need to catch some Z’s.

New York’s Le Cirque restaurant has just paid $7,000 for the largest truffle unearthed in years, weighing in at a whopping one pound.

Even at $65/ounce, one pound of saffron would total a paltry $1,040. It’s status as priciest spice is truly in jeopardy.

While we’re on the subject of truffles — has anyone else tried kosher truffle oil? There are at least a couple brands out there, but never having had truffles before, I have no basis for evaluation. Smells faintly of garlic…

The 19th-annual ASBEE/Kroger Kosher BBQ Competition takes place this Sunday, and I’m in Memphis to cover the action! I will be competing as well, so wish me luck. Stay tuned for updates….

This just in — Ruth’s Kitchen, at 401 Harvard St. in Brookline, will be changing hands in the next few weeks to Edna Ben-Zion of Ora Catering. No word yet on the details, but the thought of home-cooked Sephardi food is pretty exciting.

I’ve just published my collection of reasonably high-resolution photographs of Boston’s kosher establishments, past and present. I’d like to do an update sometime, with new shops and better versions of some of the old shots, but a free Sunday to drive around and take pictures doesn’t come around so often anymore! If anyone else out there has photos to add, let me know.

The Kosher Wine Society, an organization that arranges public and private kosher wine tasting events in the New York area, has recently begun publishing original articles on their website, kosherwinesociety.com. They’ll be focusing on wine reviews, interviews with winemakers, and wine pairings, along with other pieces of general viticultural interest.

I am truly sorry for dragging my feet so long before posting about our kosher experiences in Paris. In short, we had a fantastic time, and I can’t wait to go back, but hopefully with less rain and fewer student riots next time. We enjoyed one of our best dinners at Le Chateaubriand, tucked away on a dark side street in the 17th Arrondisement.

You’ll need a little luck finding Paris’s Le Chateaubriand — at night, rue de Tocqueville is very dark, and very quiet, and Le Chateaubriand is a small restaurant, with few exterior markings. Once we
entered, though, we were relieved to see their elegant, modern decor. We didn’t have a reservation, but we arrived early by local standards (7:30 pm). The staff didn’t speak English (and my wife’s umpteen pre-collegiate years of French hadn’t really kicked in yet) but they provided us a translated menu.

Brief cultural note! If you don’t know French, it helps immensely to ask, in French, if one speaks English, rather than using English off the bat. At Les Ailes, a Sephardi restaurant, we did so, and our waiter proceeded to regale us, in English, with tales of his travels across the US.

They started our meal with a delightful amuse bouche platter, which included olives, smoked almonds, mock crab sushi wrapped with rice paper, tuna mousse, and basil crostini. For a first course, we ordered pumpkin soup, which was served with a poached egg, and a smoked quail and cold duck salad dressed with a sweet sauce that complemented the fowl very well.

My wife’s main course was a large chicken breast rolled with duck pastrami, served with basmati rice and mushrooms. I enjoyed 3 perfectly cooked lamb chops in a savory sauce, served with roasted tomatoes and mashed potatoes.

For dessert, we had crepes Suzette — made table-side with candied orange peel — and molten chocolate cake topped with tangerine ice cream. A delightful ending to the one truly decadent meal during our stay. In all, it set us back 150 euro.

Another cultural note! Our guidebooks weren’t clear about the tipping practices in France, and the receipt didn’t make it clear if a service charge was added by default. A friend who lived in Paris for two years has since told me that a service charge is always factored in, and tipping a slight amount is nice to do when the service is excellent. (Locals or those with additional first-hand experience should feel free to leave a comment.)

Jeff, a Kosher Blog reader, was in Paris this past New Year’s Eve with his wife, and sent in this report of his meal at Le Chateaubriand:

Based on your recommendation, we went to Chateaubriand for New Year’s Eve. We figured it would be a prix fixe menu, but had no idea what we were in store for! We got there at 8:15 and were the only ones in the place. We were served Kir Royal and the various amuse bouche you described. We looked at the menu and there were the standard two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts, etc. We figured we had a choice of each. Well, out came an appetizer of foie gras and fruit chutney. Why didn’t they ask our preference? We soon found out, because later the other appetizer arrives, a duck salad. The menu wasn’t in English, so we mistakenly thought this was our entree and ate every delicious bite! We were wrong again, as after a long wait (about an hour or so), our first entree came out. Not sure what kind of fish it was, but it came served on a plate in a tin foil bag that we had to dismantle, with a nice creamy sauce and various winter vegetables. We soon figured out that they were making us wait so that every else would catch up, and the courses would be served all at once.

Next came a palate cleanser, a ball of ice citron vodka that was delicious and woke us up a bit (it was almost 11pm!). After another wait, we were served with a huge portion of veal that we couldn’t believe we had room left to eat. But we did! At midnight they passed out hats, noise makers and confetti, and we counted down. Then came the first dessert of coconut sorbet and some sort of hot apple pastry. After that was chocolate cake, and then finally the last course, coffee and petit fours.

I was pretty scared about how much the bill would be. Though we probably wouldn’t have agreed to pay this much if asked in advance, our four and a half hour meal came to 300 euro. We left at 12:45!