Text 2360, 148 rader
Skriven 2010-10-03 08:22:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: at Dave's (old news) 630
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Some stray stuff from my last visit to Clean Dave's that I think
I didn't post before, to bring this up to 5. I'm out of here
for a while in a while.

Dave is pretty high on Backyard BBQ, which is way up the other
end of town. So we went with high expectations. When we arrived,
we looked kind of askance as the only rack of ribs on the
steam table was kind of ratty-looking, and the brisket was
presliced (kiss of moribundity) and in a bath of "au jus"
(kiss of death).

For the four of us I got a rack of ribs and a pound of pulled
pork, with half a pound of brisket to try just in case.

We got approximately 1/8 off because of Dave's being an
extra valued customer.

The good news: the pulled pork was pretty decent - not as
terrific as Dave's experiences had led us to believe, but
certainly as good as one can get outside the Barbecue Belt.

The less good news: the ribs were old meat, slightly fishy-
tasting, and undersmoked.

The expected bad news: the brisket tasted like cardboard.
Soggy cardboard, Whatever smoke and flavor had once resided
within had been washed out of it by the liquid in which it
had spent its last day. I once wondered why people serve
brisket in this way, and here is my conclusion: over the
years, we've come to want lean meat, because of some bogus
concern for cholesterol or something. Lean brisket unless
radically overcooked is tough and nasty, so why not slice
it thin and soak it to make it tender? Why not indeed:
the reason is that it doesn't work. In order tho make this
stuff tender, it would have had to have been microtomically
sliced, and even that might have failed. Even a liberal dose
of the (tasty but way too sweet) signature sauce didn't help.

I didn't try any of the sides; the garlic mashed were said to
be terrific as usual, cornbread good, and I forget what
else there was.

--
As we were going to Johnny Appleseed's Orchard anyway (nice
local peaches), I suggested we take a break and lunch at Rein's,
in Vernon. It's acquired a bit of cachet, having been discovered
by pundits from the Sterns to everybody, but I remember it as
the obligatory stop on road trips to New Haven or New York back
when I was in college (I was at the original location across the
street the year it opened if not before). Brash and noisy, with
lippy waitresses and a bar billed as "Way Way Off Broadway," it
does its best to bring a slice of midtown to the hinterlands.

I got a chopped liver appetizer for the table; this went over
surprisingly well, despite its being made with beef liver and
being overcooked and underschmaltzed. It was a tad on the sweet
side, and I wondered whether that was because of lots of onions
or if they hadn't cheated and put in a pinch of sugar. This
went well with the light rye that comes gratis along with a
plate of pickles (not the enormous plate from back in the olden
days but rather one apiece - I'm guessing that before, what
wasn't served went back in the barrel, but they can't do that
any more).

My mixed deli platter - tongue, pastrami, corned beef, potato
salad, and mac salad (substituting for cole slaw - I didn't want
to fart for an hour in the company of ladies) was pretty good in
the order listed. The beef tongue, though salty, was of perfect
texture and good flavor. The pastrami could have been fattier
and smokier but was quite acceptable. Corned beef was deficient
in fat. The salads were made with Miracle Whip and thus were
sweet and cloying. Portions: good but not great - this is
Connecticut, many miles from the Great White Way, after all.
Prices - a little bigger than they should be, but this place was
always like that; quite a bit lower, though, than the Carnegie
or the Stage. Dave had a full dose of the pastrami in a sandwich;
it too was good. Both the ladies had what looked like an ordinary
turkey club.

Beers (a local pale ale, name forgotten) went well with. Lynnie,
reveling in her new 21ness, got some alcoholic mocha drink.

More things tasted at Clean Dave's -

Hoo Roo Rok ramen - I believe this is a Korean brand. Pretty
good noodles, lots of bits of vegetables in the broth, which
was kind of fishy. Not bad.

Mighty Malts - sort of inferior version of Whoppers. Pleasantly
malty but a bit cardboardy stale. This made me kind of sad as
they are made by Necco, and I like to buy local.

A sampler of Harpoon products
UFO Hefeweizen - very clean tasting, without the weird clove and
tropical fruit esters that beset most wheat beers.

Celtic ale - a little sour, pretty decent; hoppier and better
than the Killian's that it is supposed to imitate.

Chocolate stout - very chocolaty up front, then coffee and fruit.
A little more bitter than an English stout. Pretty good.

IPA - less dense and sweet than the modernly fashionable IPAs,
this is the standard quite hoppy version that Harpoon made its
reputation on. Good.

Spaten - I don't know why this is available everywhere now in
its various versions from the Pilsner, which is clean and
quenching, medium hops, medium malt, nicely made, to the 7.2%
malty rich sweetish Optimator. The Pilsner was what was in
the fridge, so I drank it happily.

Blue Moon - better than I remember. Slightly citrused and with a
distinct coriander cardamom taste, it too lacks the objectionable
flavors that beset Belgian whites. A quaffing beer for summer.

Bruce Cost ginger ale - the regular version was, though too sweet,
nicely gingered and kicky, sort of between the Jamaica Old Tyme
style and the Vernor's/Blenheim style. Less vanilla, though. The
pomegranate hibiscus incarnation was flowery and nasty and didn't
taste like ginger ale but rather like the trash tray at a bar.

Foco pennywort drink - smelled like clean compost; tasted
like dirty compost (sweetened). Later I discovered that
pennywort is gotu kola, known for contradictory effects of
anxiolysis and stimulation. It didn't do a whole lot for
me. The reason I got it was it was sitting next to the
guanabana drink but was 10c cheaper.

Canyon Creek Ranch duck tenders - thin thin strips of jerky,
rather gamy ducky aroma, quite tough. Pleasant livery ducky
taste, sweetish, not too salty. I'd buy these in a jiffy.
These are marketed as dog treats, by the way, and are quite
inexpensive for what you get. I don't know how the company
gets off selling it for the price, but Dave suggests that
these are trimmings or offcuts from human-destined duck breast
products and would be discarded otherwise. Also, they're made
in China, which makes me want to rethink my statement that
I'd buy them in a jiffy.

Herr's baby back rib flavored potato chips (wavy) - a
credible smokiness and a slight tomato tartness distinguish
these from your ordinary crappy bbq chip. I'd not go out
of my way for them, but they were above average.

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