DD BBQ

Chowhound CW and fellow bloggers Lynne Goldman and Rich Baringer over at Bucks County Taste reminded me that the Duck Deli BBQ in New Britain has the Best BBQ in Bucks County. They aren’t the only ones, the other reviewers below and readers of the local newspaper have voted the Duck Deli the Best BBQ in Montgomery and Buck Counties. I have to agree they have great Pulled Pork Sandwiches, BBQ Wings and BBQ Ribs.

Donna and I visited the Duck Deli a few years back with the boys and had a great meal so when we drove thru New Britain last night I knew we should stop and get some take-out to confirm our impression.  I got a Pulled Pork Sandwich, 2 orders of BBQ Wings and a rack of  Baby Back Ribs.

 The Duck Deli positions itself as the best North Carolina BBQ in Bucks County and although has local ownership it keeps true to the North Carolina BBQ traditions. Knowing that, I had to try the North Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich.  I was reward with a delicious sandwich with the a generous portion of Carolina pulled pork made moist with their apple vinegar dressing. I had the Coleslaw on the side because it was a take-out order but I added the crunchy slaw to the sandwich before eating it thus giving it some crunch and some sweetness from the slaw dressing.

The Duck Deli offers it’s BBQ Wings in orders of 5, 10 or 15 in either Buffalo, Honey or Western sauces. I got 5 of Buffalo and 5 of Western. These wings were a little different than the other hot wings reviewed here on the blog. These were BBQed over a wood fire as opposed to deep fried and you get the whole wing including the tip as opposed to just the two smaller sections. Both types of wings were fall off the bone tender and the different sauces either brought some heat or a sweet smokey flavour to the already mosit and tender chicken meat. The small slivers of Celery were crisp and perfect for dipping the creamy Blue Cheese Dressing. The dressing had nice chuncks of blue cheese making the mayo based sauce tangy. Very good BBQ wings.

 The special that night were Baby Back Ribs with a choice of sauces. I went for the Western Sauce which the waitress said was a tomato brown sugar sauce. I ordered a full rack to go and they were the best ribs I have had since I left South Carolina.  These ribs had obviously been slow cooked on a wood-fire pit for a long time. Each rib had the remnance of slightly spicy dry rub. The almost fall-off-the-bone ribs still maintained some density making each bite a good chew as opposed to just falling apart. The western sauce brought some tang to the ribs contrasting nicely to the sweet moist pork flesh. One rack was not enough as the boys quickly smelled the aroma of the BBQ as we tried to secretly (LOL) unpack the take-out meals and the decented like locusts and ate up the ribs.  We will have to go back soon and we hope to see you there. 

I have added Duck Deli to the Best of Bucks Co – Top 5 BBQ. To see the orther making the list check it out here.

You should also know that the Duck Deli is offering All-You-Can-Eat BBQ on Monday nights for $17.95 for adults and half price for children. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Read other reviews about the Duck Deli here, here and here.

Duck Deli – 524 E Butler Ave, New Britain, PA 18901-5304             (267) 880-1190

Homemade Ribs

Got the craving for ribs yesterday, so we went to BJ’s and bought three racks of Baby Back Ribs  in a ryovac pack for $2.99 a pound. I like to slow cook my ribs with a dry rub and then finish with a sweet BBQ sauce, so we started by making our dry rub by combining Paprika, Black Pepper, Sugar, Salt, Dry Mustard, Cayenne pepper, Cumin and Chili, Garlic and Onion powder.

We then rubbed the ribs and placed in the frig for 3 hours so the rib and rub flavours could mingle.We have a Weber Grilland no smoker so I pre-heated the grill to the lowest settings and placed the ribs on to slow grill for 3 hours. 

It was hard smelling the ribs slow cooking and not opening the grill and start eating but we waited the full time and were rewarded with three fine racks of ribs.  Each of the ribs had Serious Barkon them from the carmelization of the dry rub.  The aroma was great too, Intense Roasted Pork with slightly smokey chili background notes.

I cut the racks into individual ribs and you could see the layer of dry rub, the moist ribs and charred under layer.  The dry rub had actually turned into a very flavourful crispy coating that actually crunched when I cut through it.

I coated the individual ribs with warmed KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. The BBQ sauce was sweet with a mild tang and a nice match to the sweet rib meat.  The crunch of the Dry Rub was a good contrast to the heated BBQ sauce.  The Cayenne pepper brought a nice heat to the ribs but did not overwhelm the rib meat taste. Donna thought the ribs were “nice and spicy” with a good rib taste. Not bad for homemade dry rub and a backyard grill. LOL.  I can’t wait until we do them again.

I used KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce to finish my ribs but what’s your Favourite BBQ Sauce.  Take the survey here.

I am still looking for recommendations for the Best of Bucks Co – Ribs Top 5.  Take a look at the list so far and recommend your favourites.

Omaha Burgers

Finally got around to BBQing the Omaha Steak Burgers from my shipment last week.  It was a quiet Friday night so Donna and I pulled the frozen burgers from the freezer to thaw.

Each Four Ounce Steak Burger comes indivudally wrapped in supposedly easy open plastic wrap.  The first one opened easily but the rest had to cut open with sissors. The thawed meat looked denser than other frozen burgers I tried before.  They also looked leaner but that maybe a result of smaller fat pieces rather a regular grind.

The burgers grilled quickly as we both like our burgers medium rare. Medium High Heat a couple of minutes, 90 degree turn, flip, a couple of minutes, 90 degree turn and a couple of minutes and taadaa – medium rare burgers with nice grill marks.

I like Lots of Fix’ems on my burger. I think they make the burger messy but that half the fun.  The burger was favourful, moist and very meaty. The grill marks gave the burger a charred taste making it an Authentic BBQ burger.

The Omaha Steak Burgers were good and a great addition to your freezer for lazy days and when unexpected friends turn up but not the Best of Bucks Co – Burgers. Check here for that list of burgers.

Omaha Steaks

We usually screen our phone calls to avoid the telemarketers seeking donations for all kinds of charities but for whatever reason I picked up the phone last week. On the other end was Cathy from Omaha Steaks. Seems they were having a special on Bone-In Strip Loin steaks and since we bought from Omaha Steaks in the past we were eligible for the special. So in a moment of weakness, I went for it. Long weekend coming up, you can never have enough steaks in the freezer and I like bone-in steaks.

Four days after talking to Cathy, a big styrofoam box arrived on my front door complete with dozen Bone-In Strip Loin Steaks, a dozen steak burgers and apple turnovers (more about the burgers and turnovers in a future post).  The box also contained some dry ice that keep the goodies frozen during their trip.  It always a good sign when there is some dry ice left over from the journey.  It’s also good fun. Using tongs, cause the dry ice will burn you if it touches your skin, I threw the remaining chunks into our fountain.  The warm fountain water causes the dry ice to go from solid to gas very quickly making the water “boil” and leaving thick vapour that always reminds me of Halloween every time. So I’m a big kid, LOL but try it if you ever get dry ice it’s fun.

The individually wrapped steaks were pretty good sized, each weighting in at about 14 ounces. The steaks appeared to be well marbled which usually mean a moist steak. The amount of bone was smaller than I thought there was going to be. Ryan doesn’t like bones in his steak so these small bones were not going to be a big problem for him. The general appearance of the steak made me start thinking about when we could fire up the BBQ and grill me some steak.

I didn’t wait too many days before we fired up the grill. To go along with the steak Donna halved some Red Bliss Potatoes and placed them in some foil with some onions, olive oil, salt and pepper. We had already defrosted four of the steaks in the frig from the night before and had them coated them with some olive oil, salt and pepper. As we allowed the steaks to come to room temperature we grilled the potato and onions. I grilled the steaks about 3 minutes, turned 90 degrees-3 minutes and then turned over 3 minutes and then turn 90 degrees. I than brushed on some Cattleman’s Sauce on both sides for about a minute and then placed on a platter to rest. As the steak rested Donna cooked some Green Beans and I dressed a couple of Tomato slices in some oil,balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to make a tasty garnish.

The Strip Loin steaks were very good. The grilling resulted in a nice pink medium rare flesh that was flavourful and moist.  The bone was very manageable with most of it located near the edge of the steak so I cut it out with my first knife cut. The meat had a nice density to it that you needed a steak knife to cut but was tender enough in you mouth to give a great mouth feel.  Donna did find a tough section in her steak, some silver-skin perhaps but mine, Ryan and Robbie’s were perfect. Ryan said his was one of the best steaks he ever had and given our recent visit to BLT Prime, that it a high complement for a frozen steak. Great home grilling steak dinner.

Still looking for recommendations for the Best of Bucks Co – Steak Top 5 list, so help out by leaving a comment here on the blog as to where I should go.

If you haven’t already take the surveys on what is your Favourite Cut of Steak and your Favourite BBQ Sauce.

Oink Johnson’s Southern BBQ

I recently found the Bucks County Taste blog and contacted Lynn Goldman to see if we exchanged links as we were both blogging about food here in Bucks Co. Lynn was kind enough to link back to my blog and comment on what I was doing.  She liked a few things about the blog but was quick to point out that Big Bob’s BBQ was not the Best in BucksCo. -  BBQ but rather Oink Johnson’s was. So today Donna and I jumped in the car to try out Oink’s.

Thanks Lynn for the tip, we liked Oink Johnson’s Southern BBQ a great deal.  The simple menu, three mains and three sides are executed with a passion for authentic BBQ.  Oink makes Ribs, Pulled Pork and Beef Brisket as mains and Green Beans & Potatoes with Ham Hocks, Baked Beans and Coleslaw. The prices are reasonable as well with a Rack of Ribs being only $20.  Donna and I got our meals for about $20 and still took home food for the boys.  Good value here.

Donna went for the Pulled Pork Platter with Miss Shelley’s Baked Beans and Sonia’s Slaw. The Pulled Pork was very good with the Homemade BBQ Sauce poured over it. The pork was sweet but still maintained a meaty pork taste even with the strong BBQ sauce.  Sonia’s Slaw is made from Jack’s Mom’s old family recipe.  It’s a cabbage only slaw that needed a bit more crunch and little less dressing.

I went for the Ribs Platter. I got a half dozen ribs covered in the Hickory BBQ Sauce. The ribs were smoked for 5 hours and had the classic smoke ring on each one. The ribs were moist, lightly smoked and sweet to taste.  They had a nice density to the texture, not the overrated fall-off-the-bone but rather enough of a texture that you need to bite into them to get the meat off the bone. My only concern was that there was some extra connective tissue that should have been cut off by the butcher or cook before I got it. Not bad but I would rather not have that if I don’t have to. Miss Shelley’s Baked Beans were very good. Donna and I both like the sweet rich taste of the beans that obviously had been baking for hours. But despite hours of baking, the actual beans maintained their shape not like the mush we had been served just down the road and at a more permanent restaurant. The Green Beans & Potato with Ham Hocks were my attempt at getting some vegetables, remember my doctor reads this too, LOL. This side had one bite-sized potato with decent green beans but a great deal of pork hocks. A nice side with all three components cooked well and blending into a savory side order that help cut the sweetness in the ribs and beans.  A good combo that I highly recommend.

Both combos come with Corn Bread that is actually very good.  A nice light bread, good corn taste, good balance of sweet and salt tastes but slightly dry and little crumbly. Actually it was the second best corn bread I have had after Derrick’s I mean Naylon’s. LOL. BTW Oink Johnson’s is open only Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

Sorry Lynn, I still think Big Bob’s BBQ is still number one on my Best of Bucks Co-BBQ but I think Oink’s is number two. Perhaps we can go together to both places on the same day and compare.  That would make an interesting post for both our blogs.

Read other review about Oink Johnson’s here.

Oink Johnson’s BBQ, Route 611, Pipersville, PA                 215-518-2056

5,000 Views – YeeHaa!

Seems like it was just yesterday when I posted about breaking the 4,000 Views barrier and the blog just broke the 5,000 Views level. 

So far 88 posts, 177 comments and 5,000 views so we are averaging 62 views a day and 57 views per post. Not bad at all but would love to get more comments. Please let me know on the Blog what you like and where else you I should eat.

The Top 5 Posts are Best of Bucks Co – Burgers, Pork Wings, Survey Says, About Peter and There a Bubba’s.

The polls are attracting attention with a total of 195 Votes cast. The newest polls Favourite Appetizer Type and Favourite BBQ Sauce could use some help so get in there and vote.

Thanks to Chowhound, my Facebook Friends, Sherman’s Food Adventure, FoodBuzz and Endless Simmer for being the Top Referrals for the blog.  Thanks for all the views.

Cactus Grill

Facebook friend and co-worker Deb suggested that we try Cactus Grill in Pipersville as part of our Memorial Day  Best of Bucks Co Burger Search.  We didn’t make it that weekend but we made it today.

It was a beautiful sunny day for a change so we opted to sit outside on Cactus Grill’s deck over looking pastoral Bucks County.  With an name like Cactus Grill we figured the Margaritas would be good so we ordered one.  They did have mango margaritas on the specials board but we didn’t see that until after we ordered drinks.  I liked the presentation of the margarita; a special cocktail glass, ice-cold lime green liquid, white foam head and a lime garnish. The first taste was the classic tart-sweet mix of a margarita bar mix with a Mild Tequila flavour coming thru.  I was hoping for fresh fruit juices but the bar mix was actually Refreshing on the warm afternoon.  So net-net not a bad drink.

Donna went for the BBQ Chicken Special and I went for the Cactus Angus Burger as Deb suggested.  Donna’s special came with baked beans, corn-on-the-cob and potato salad.  The rustic presentation of BBQ dish was a little too rustic for me but it was ok. The Baked Beans were a little mushy in texture but the bean flavour along with a smokey bacon taste came thru in the dish.  The Potato Salad had nice chunks of red potatoes and crisp celery in a vinaigrette dressing.  Donna and I are both fans of mayo-based potato salad. The Corn actually photographed better than it was.  In reality it was slightly dried out and not fresh.  A couple of bites confirmed the less than fresh status.  The highlight of Donna’s dish was the BBQ Sauce on the chicken. It had a nice smokey sweet taste with a thick consistency.  The sauce made the slightly dry BBQ Chicken pieces enjoyable.  The generous portion of chicken made the meal a good value.

The Cactus Angus Burger comes with American cheese, grilled onions, mushrooms and bacon.  The Burger was good with the 8 oz patty of ground Angus Beefgiving the burger a good meaty burger taste.  The first bite came thru with a smokey-bacon cheese flavour.  Despite only two pieces of bacon, bacon flavour seemed to be in every bite.  The American Cheese actually tasted more like provolone and was a good addition to the burger.  The Caramelized Onions were  cut into serious sized chunks that were sweet with a little bit of char.  The Mushrooms were heated thru but unfortunately placed on top of the bacon and onions allowing them to escape with each bite.  Put them under the cheese people it will reduce the “drop-age”.  Other than that it was a good burger and worthy of an Honourable Mention on our Best of Bucks Co – Burger list.  The fries are also worthy of note. The unique shaped fries were crispy on the outside with a creamy potato filling inside. They were also well seasoned with some garlic salt and pepper. Very nice.

Outside on the patio, we were sitting beside a sign bragging on their “Best BBQ Ribs” so we had to try that too.  Since the burger and chicken were so filling we got them to go knowing that ribs in our home refrigerator have a “life expectancy” of 3-4 hours at best once Ryan or Robbie know the ribs are there. The to-go ordered featured the same half-moon seasoned fries and a Half-a-Rack of Ribs for $8.99. Good value for the order but most importantly the ribs were very good.  They used the same BBQ Sauce from the BBQ chicken and it really worked with ribs too.  The ribs were meaty and had a dense texture to the flesh.  Many people like the a fall-off-the-bone texture but I prefer a cooked rib that holds to the bone, tender to the bite and covered in thick BBQ Sauce.  Cactus Grill’s rib gave us that.  The flesh was moist with a sweet taste that matched well with the tang of the BBQ sauce.  These are excellent ribs and worth the trip to North Bucks.  In fact the ribs are so good, I have placed them in the Best of Bucks Co – Ribs Top 5  list here on the blog.

Read other reviews of Cactus Grill here, here and here.

Cactus Grill, 7200 Easton Rd, Pipersville, PA, 18947        215-766-9840

Giant Steaks

As the weather improves and the nights get warmer, I tend to grill more and more.  We grill all year but the warmer weather just makes it a more enjoyable activity.  A couple of nights back, when it wasn’t raining, we decide to fire up the grill. But what to grill? Since it was late, we went to our local grocery store Giant, and picked up some steaks.  I like a nice one inch thick New York Strip with a nice marble of fat flowing thru the meat. (Tell us what cut of steak you like here.)  Sure enough they had some nice choice cuts in the display case and off I went home.  Sometimes you can actually get the prime cut at Giant but that wasn’t happening that day.

Once I got home, I prepared a marinade of garlic, teriyaki sauce and ground black pepper.  I let the steaks soak for about an hour in the frig and then brought them out to raise to room temp just before grilling time.  While the steaks were soaking, we took a package of those almost bit-sized potatoes and coated them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and crusted garlic.  In a double layer of foil we place the potatoes and half of a sliced onion.  The foil poach was placed in the hot grill (500 F) on the top rack.  About 20 minutes after the potatoes went in, we started grilling the steaks.  We like our steaks medium rare, which to me means pink in the middle with little or no blood, so I did my usual 12 minute grilling plan that I have been doing for years. It’s pretty simple;  grill 4 minutes, rotate the steak 90 degrees for 2 minutes, turn over grill 4 minutes, rotate 90 degrees for 2 minutes and rest the steak for 5 minutes.  The rotation give you those nice grill marks on the steak and a 1-inch steak at 500 F for 12 minutes should give you medium rare.  And sure enough it did.

We plated the steaks with the grilled potatoes with some tomato slices to garnish and we were very satisfied.  The marinade did the trick  flavouring the meat with the asian flavours of teriyaki and garlic, the sweetness of the onions and the little potatoes picking up the garlic and the olive oil from the coating.  Very simple but very nice.

I am sure we will revisit grilling again soon but in the meantime tell us favourite cut of steak (shameless plug for new poll) and let us know where you like to eat steak in Bucks County (second shameless plug this time for Best of Bucks- Steak comment opportunity).

Pork Wings

Earlier this week I attended a digital marketing course with a co-worker who had recently relocated to Doylestown from Mississippi.  Naturally the conversation moved to food and I asked him what food he missed since he moved north.  Being a true southern gentleman, he said he missed his mother’s and mother-in-law’s cooking the most.  I pressed further and he admitted missing BBQ. Since I lived in South Carolina and was introduced to BBQ down there I could see how he could be missing that.  I know Mississippi BBQ is different than Carolina BBQ in terms of flavours and sauces but the experiences are similar.  So when I asked where he went for BBQ around Bucks County he surprised me by describing a “real pit” BBQ  just up Route 313 beyond Dublin. He said they were only open for about four hours on Saturday so go early.

So when a man from Mississippi tells you where to go for BBQ, you go and today we went.  It was really worth the trip. Straight up Rt. 313 from Doylestown, past the Dublin Star Diner, past Dublin, make a left at the Wawa and take 113 for about four miles til you reach Blooming Glen Pork and Catering.  I almost don’t want to give the directions so that I can keep this to myself but once again I give some much for my craft. LOL.   The Moyer Family operates Big Bob’s BBQ Pit each Saturday but have a retail store Wednesday to Saturday that offers a complete suite of pork related products.  There is a great deal of heritage with the family owned business that started in 1856 and included a run in the famous Philadelphia Reading Market until 1997.

We got there shortly after 12:00 and the Pit was going hot.  The staff was kind enough to let me go out back and take a photo of the actual pit and some ribs.  The pit master warned me the pit was running hot today at about 300 degrees F and not to get burned.  He was also curious as to why someone wanted to take photos of food.  I am starting to get that more often but I am enjoying it too much not just to explain the blog thing and offer a link to the site for them to read about themselves and their food.  The smoke coming from the pit along with caramelizing sauces made the trip out back worth the trip.  I think the wood burning had some apple-wood in it but could get that confirmed before  it was our turn to order.

But what to order? It all looked great and prices were decent, actually great prices considering the quality of the product being served to the patrons in the line in front of us.  Donna and I couldn’t make up our minds so we got the staff to create a sample pack for us.  A little bit of everything.  We ended up getting some pulled pork, Texas BBQ beef, half a rack of pork ribs, a pork roll sandwich and a set of pork wings.  Wait,  pork wings? Yip pork wings.

Big Bob’s BBQ Pit serves an excellent pulled pork that is moist and flavourful. You have the option of three different homemade sauces, Carolina (mustard -vinegar based), Old Fashion (sweet tomato) and Cajun (spicy tomato based) to go with your pulled pork.  But what are those pork wings? 

Come to find out they come from the pork shoulder and they were very nice.  You can see them in the bottom left of the combo food photo. Although even though they look like chicken wings they actually tasted like a BBQ ham.  The meat was so tender almost falling off the single ham bone. Very nice. Definitely a recommendation if you take the trip to Big Bob’s.

The third treat at Big Bob’s was the pork ribs.  We purchased a half a rack of the pit smoked ribs and they were the best ribs I have had since leaving South Carolina in the early 80′s.

This photo shows the classic smoke ring on the rib that all the BBQ shows on the Food Network point to during the judging sessions.  You should also be able to see the moisture on the inside and the bark on the outside also classic signs of a great rib.  The bark usually comes from the carmelization of a dry rub but I couldn’t get the staff to reveal the rub ingredients. The meat of the rib has a great mouth feel, not falling off the bone but rather a moist soft sweet meat.  The addition of one of the three homemade sauces make this rib a contender for best rib ever.

Big Bob’s also sells homemade corn bread to complete the BBQ experience. I have found corn bread to be dry but their freshly baked bread was flavourful and moist reminding me of the corn bread Derrick use to make and bring to our group’s summer picnics at Diane’s.  We did learn that it was Naylon that was making the corn bread so Derrick was “out-ted”.

So the combination of BBQ delights made for a great lunch myself, Donna and the boys with left overs for a snack later today.  BTW I found out that Big Bob’s BBQ Pit is open 10-4, so six hours not four but I would go early as we arrived a little after 12:00 and they were already out of half chickens. Bottom line – Great BBQ.

I think I will add a Best of Bucks – BBQ page and put Big Bob’s at the top.  If you have suggestions for other places in Bucks County or other places please use the comment link or the reply box to let me know where they are.

Blooming Glen Pork and Catering, 1248 Rt 113, Blooming Glen, PA 18911  215-257-2710