What are you eating?

Huh??

He told me countless stories. He loved that town.

I was attempting irony. If it’s anything like me and my children, he bored you to tears. It was a great place to grow up.

Were your grandparents there?

Got ya. That flew over my head.

No, actually my Dad’s parents moved to Pampa when he was a Jr in high school. He lived with his grandmother his senior year and then went off to college. I had a great Aunt and Uncle that continued to live there for years but the rest of my Dad’s family settled in the Panhandle.

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So…HEB had snow crabs legs on sale for $7.99/lb. Bought a few pounds along with some fresh, wild-caught Gulf shrimp. Gonna smoke the crab legs and boil the shrimp with some taters and fresh corn. Strawberries for dessert. Crab was always a tradition on July 4th. There is a thing around the Tampa area called crab chilau, which is basically blue crabs cooked in a tomato sauce with an obscene amount of Bell pepper. We always had that on this holiday as blue crabs were plentiful mid-summer. It’s messy as hell, but the food of the gods. I don’t know if blue crabs are as plentiful as they used to be (I suspect not), but they are ridiculously expensive around here now. This will have to suffice. Still, there is nothing as good as fresh crab. Gonna watch some fireworks later. My mother loved crabs and fireworks. She died July 9, 2021, but got to watch the fireworks a few days before her passing. I’m glad she did.

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Got a pork butt on the smoker now. It’s gone longer than I expected, coming up on 9 hours, but you can’t rush greatness I guess.

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What temp are you smoking it at?

I think pork butt can finish at a bit higher grill temp than beef, and can come off a bit lower. You don’t have to worry about connective tissue.

  1. Wrapped at 160 after five hours. It’s been been wrapped an additional five hours and is at 192

Pork butt is almost entirely filled with connective tissue. You can eat it at 145, but it don’t pull apart until around 200.

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If it’s at 192, if you pull it and let it set it’s going to continue to cook, and it’ll be tender. If it’s not you can drop it off at my house.

I’m going to pull soon. Mrs Hawk is getting hungry.

It’s off at 198. An hour’s rest, and I’m eating around game time. I have King’s Hawaiian rolls. I love those.

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I’m cider brining a turkey breast to smoke tomorrow.

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This popped up in my google feed and now I need a definitive-half-assed-quasi-expert opinion from you guys:

You recall that HH is from Tampa, and expect discussion? I’ve got little experience with Cubanos, but I know the answer to that question.

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I’m sure that HH will have no opinion on this matter.

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/highlight, select, create macro

Yes, I was trying to rile up HH and Ty, and whoever else has opinions

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Uh…it’s not even a contest really. Tampa is the original and the one true sandwich.

After reading the article, I can comment on a couple of places. Indeed the Columbia makes a top notch sandwich, and its uses bread from La Segunda Central, which is the only option really. Interestingly, while their bread is the standard, La Segunda’s sandwiches are…fine, but not the top of the heap, IMO. And while Olé Tampa’s are good, they are not even the best in Plant City. Go to the Strawberry Hut on Wheeler St.

And another thing, if they serve a sandwich with mayonnaise, run. As fast as you can. If they ask you if you want lettuce and tomatoes, you may want to consider calling the cops.

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