A crazed butcher or crazed grill meister? Either way Rick’s customer’s walked away this drizzly Friday afternoon with a belly full of smoked pork shoulder sammiches. If you have a few moments to make your way into El Cerrito on Fridays you’ll be rewarded with a smoked meat treat.
That’s right, Rick brought in his smoker from home (the one I sold him last year), had it modified a bit and started smoking his fresh meats for special lunches. Each week features another beast carefully brined, rubbed and/or smoked with real hard woods. I know, I went by and smelled the exhaust from his smoker and I have to say I was impressed. I smelled NO creosote spewing forth. We’re talking barely visible wafts of lightly blue meat heaven. Just as it should be. I believe it was two weeks ago he brined a load of chickens in a apple/cherry blend. That right there, was one of the best tasting birds I’ve had, and that is saying something. I believe this man won’t make it as a pro because he spends too much time and care cooking these food stuffs to make a profit.
Rick’s Quality Meats of El Cerrito is lurking inside Giovanni’s Produce. If you look close you can see the little smoker way off to the lower right, see? You wouldn’t know it, but he has 24 lbs of pork shoulder packed in that pit.
Since he clearly has plenty of fresh pork, the smoked versions will be even better than normally expected from a standard bbq establishment. At least that’s my take on it. I’ve been served some pretty nasty old fat pork pieces in the past. Just staring at this photograph gives me ideas …
And here we have the final product.
It went down just fine, but Rick and I spent about 20 some odd minutes discussing presentation and that dumb sour non-descript roll of some ilk. It was too much bread to deal with, got in the way of the meat action. I didn’t like it at all. No sir. However, the meat was outstanding. I say, dump the meat & sauce on the paper and let me eat it with my fingers. That would have been the way to go. So maybe next time we’ll get a styrofoam container with the meat & sauce piled on some old white bread, some nice bright green lettuce for color and given a fork. Put the meat up front and center stage. Because man, you know it’s all about the meat. It’s all about the meat.
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Rick’s Quality Meats
510.233.9390
1600 Liberty Street
El Cerrito, CA 94530
i’m drooling.
YEAH, you have every right to. It was AWESOME. Part of that was the fact it was raining today and knowing it was real meat cooked right there with real wood. Almost like it was July or something.
Hmmm… I wonder what other well crafted, expertly designed, crispy, yummy, sammiches Rick has up his sleeve?