Gotta Go to Mo’s

Happy Independence Day!

Hope everyone enjoys a great day with family and friends with terrific food, and perhaps some fireworks to light up the night!

We had a great early celebration with friends yesterday on a sailboat on the Long Island Sound, accompanied by some delicious BBQ, terrific fireworks and a very comfortable, clear evening!

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Yesterday the Bully provided some BBQ demystification; today let me share a few recent experiences and recommendations.

Over the past 10 days, I’ve eaten barbecue (ribs and pulled pork) at two local BBQ joints, Dinosaur BBQ (www.dinosaurbarbque.com) and Mo Gridders (www.mogridders.com). In addition, I’ve cooked my own Memphis Style Ribs, and Carolina Pulled Pork.

While all were quite good, Mo Gridders was clearly best and provided some excellent St. Louis Style Ribs.

We went to Dinosaur for my son’s birthday. I had eaten at the Rochester, NY Dinosaur restaurant on a business trip and enjoyed the food and ambiance. The place has a honky tonk feel, with all kinds of stuff hanging on the walls, writing and newspapers above the bathroom stalls and of course very good BBQ. In addition, there’s blues at nights, although timing has never worked out right for me.

I had never been to the West 131st Street location in NYC, but was planning to couple this with a bike ride along the Hudson River (note: if you’ve never done this, you can ride along the water from 125th Street to Battery Park along an easy, flat bike path. You get terrific views, and there are place to stop for drinks and snacks along the way. It’s about 16 miles round trip to the Battery and back). As I was the only willing biker, the trip was BBQ only.

Anyway, we arrived at two and the place was packed. For whatever reason our Opentable.com reservation was not received, but we were seated within 20 minutes. (Note: there can be long lines of up to 2 hours on weekends, so reservations are recommended).

Between our family of four, we ate ribs, brisket, and pulled pork, as well as some delicious sides of Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Slaw.

The Ribs were quite tasty, with several excellent Dinosaur sauces to choose from (including ones that are commercially available), ranging from sweet tangy to very spicy. The meat pulled away from the bone, had a nice smoky taste, and was pretty tender.

The pulled pork also had a good flavor, but was not memorable.

The best meat we sampled was the brisket. It was moist and very tender, with a nice smoke ring. My son had a sandwich with brisket, pulled pork, slaw, cheese, and jalapeños that was delicious.

Two days later I cooked my own Memphis Style ribs (dry rub based). They are styled after The Rendezvous restaurant in Memphis that makes a mean, heavy paprika based rib. If you’re ever in Memphis, check this place out http://www.hogsfly.com/TheRestaurant.php!

The recipe I use is quite simple (see below), and relies on the BBQ principles shared in yesterday’s article. The flavor on these ribs is really excellent, I prefer them with the dry rub only, but my family like to put some Sweet Baby Ray’s (or Dinosaur) Sauce on them, and so I usually add a bit of their favorite sauce during the last 15-20 minutes of cooking to suite their taste. (Note: any sauce works, so you should feel free to add your preferred choice, whether sweet, tangy or spicy).

My ribs were excellent flavor wise, but were a bit tougher than I like, due to cooking them a bit too fast, at a higher than desired temperature (my bad, I didn’t keep close enough watch, and opened the vents a bit too much). The ribs finished in about 1.5 hours, and for best results, a slower cook completing in about 2 to 2.5 hours produces a more tender result. But, they were still Very Good, and were judged to be better than the Dinosaur ribs.

Then last Thursday, my son and I decided to go to the Yankee game. Joba was pitching and we hadn’t seen him live (think that’s all we’ll say about this game). In order to get ready for the game, we decided to try Mo Gridders BBQ. We had seen Mo’s on the Food Channel’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show with Guy Fieri (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_dv ).

Mo’s is a true dive, located near the Hunts Point Market, about 4 miles away from the stadium. It’s in an industrial area with food distributors and wholesalers, as well as auto repair and body shops. While the area is a bit funky, it’s safe.

Mo’s is an Auto Sales & Service Shop that also offers BBQ from a food trailer which is located outside of the auto shop. He has a Southern Pride 500 barbecue pit that serves up some mean meat.

For my meal, I took advantage of the $34.95 Ribs, Oil and Filter special which included the oil and filter change (while we ate), and a ribs platter. My son had the pulled pork sandwich. Sides we sampled included rice, beans, and mashed potatoes.

While everything was delicious here, the clear winner here was the ribs, which were prepared St. Louis style (center cut ribs, smoked with a dry rub, and finished with a tangy sauce). They were nicely smoked, very tender, and easily pulled away from the bone. The sauce was excellent, with a good kick. I’d put the ribs above any that I’ve eaten in NYC, and they brought up memories of Oklahoma Joes in KC http://www.oklahomajoesbbq.com/ which I’d put at the top of my list (look for a future best ribs top 10 list). And these ribs were better than what I can deliver (better equipment, slower smoking process…) even when at the top of my game!

To top it off, my car was nicely serviced, with a paper foot mat left under the drivers set.

We also spoke with Mo a bit about his BBQ passion, and he let us know that he’ll soon be opening in Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. While this is logistically more convenient for us, I’m a bit conflicted about this development, as we typically head to Arthur Avenue for NYC’s best, and most authentic Italian food.

Anyway, you Gotta Go to Mo’s!

As promised, here’s a link to a Memphis style BBQ rib recipe from Steve Raichlen (more about him in a future blog) that I love. And while your results are unlikely to match those of Mo, they’ll be very good. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/MEMPHIS-STYLE-RIBS-242248