It’s quite the process requiring some patience and attention to a few details. However, if you don’t mind such things, the end result will be a fine meal for you and your loved ones.

Here is what you need (see recipe suggestions below):

1. Pork butt – It’s actually from the front shoulder, and comes as bone-in and boneless cuts. Bone-in is preferred but either will do. It’s a fatty piece of meat with lots of connective tissue. With low and slow cooking, this will result in juicy and tender meat. Sometimes it is called Boston Butt, or pork shoulder. It should look something like this.
2. Rub
3. Sauce
4. Slaw
5. Wood chips (hickory, apple, cherry, or whatever you have on hand)
6. Buns – you can make your own or buy a good Kaiser bun that has a nice crisp crust

Rub:

• Paprika – several tablespoons
• Oregano – a bit less than paprika
• Garlic and/or onion powder – a bit less than oregano
• Cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, ancho/chipotle/chili powder in about equal quantities but go with taste here. Make a rub that you like the taste of. Rub this into the meat several hours before you’re ready to cook. Rub hard.

Sauce:

This is a free for all – do what you like here but maintain some sort of balance between sour, sweet, and spicy.  I used:

• Juice (orange, mango, pineapple, apple, or anything else, maybe even a mixed cocktail – even some beer) – about ½ cup or so
• Apple cider vinegar or any other vinegar – same amount as you use for juice
• Ketchup – about ½ cup
• Brown sugar – 1/3 cup
• Onion and/or garlic powder – a few shakes
• Tabasco – a few shakes
• If you want, add a few squirts of your favourite store bought BBQ sauce

Whisk well. It should be a pretty runny affair so it can absorb into your pulled pork. It won’t be like a store bought BBQ sauce.

Pork:

I started my pork on a Weber charcoal grill with all the coals put on one side and the pork up on a rack on the cool side. I let that smoke for 1 and a half hours. After that I could have added more coals to the Weber, but instead I transferred to my propane grill for several hours until tender. I cooked it at about 300-350 degrees, allowing the fattiest part to drip down into the meat.

When done, don’t bother letting your meat rest as you normally would. Throw it into a bowl and tear apart with two forks, or your hands if you can stand the heat. Mix with the sauce. This will allow the dry parts of the meat to absorb the sauce (this is why I asked you to keep it runny). Let sit in the sauce for several minutes and then serve on a bun with slaw.

Slaw:

• Cabbage, half a small head or full head if serving several people
• Carrot, shaved
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• ½ cup or so of vinegar, whatever type you prefer

Let sit and stir a few times over a few hours.

Strain before putting onto the bun.

Fries:

Russets are best. Cut into fry sized pieces. Soak in water while your grease heats up. A proper deep fryer is safest, but do as you wish. Double frying makes the best French fry, always. First fry is to get the consistency of a tender potato (at about 325 F or so), no colour, about 5 minutes. Make sure you put the potatoes into the grease as dry as possible to avoid your grease from “boiling over” – it can be very dangerous when a lot of water hits hot oil. After your first fry, the longer you let the fries sit, the better. 30 or so minutes is great. Then, put the fries back into hot oil (360-380 F) and cook until golden and crispy, another 4 or 5 minutes but keep an eye on things. Sprinkle with kosher or sea salt, toss, and serve.

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Yield: Approximately 1 litre of “tomato water”.

• 15 or so tomatoes
• 1/3 stalk of lemongrass
• 2 stalks of celery
• 3 or 4 slivers of anchovies
• juice of half a lime, the zest of the whole lime
• juice of half a lemon, the zest of the whole lemon
• Several squirts of Tabasco
• Several squirts of Worcestershire sauce
• 2 ounces of clam juice
• 2 chili peppers (or to taste)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• chopped parsley (small handful)

Food process everything but the parsley. Add parsley and the squeezed lime and lemon into the bowl of your processed tomato slurry. Wrap in tea towel and/or cheesecloth and let it drip into a bowl for several hours. Squeeze out remaining liquid near the end.

Rim a glass with celery salt, pour in some ice cubes, 1.5 ounces of good quality vodka, and pour in tomato water. Garnish and serve.

***

Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on Twitter: @danjjj

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The Boardwalk is always bound to have something going on and here is a sampling of what to expect:

SJAH (Saint John Ale House) is having their weekly Friday Night Social Club that’ll feature a cocktail competition. This week’s cocktail is Long Island Iced Tea. Come down before 10 PM and you may be lucky enough to be a guest judge. Last week’s cocktail showdown featured Singapore Slings, and co-owner Pete Stoddard won 4 votes over 2 against Shawn Horgan. (See Pete and Shawn in the accompanying picture.) @SJAH_NB

Lemongrass / Peppers Pub have their Friday After Work Special, from 3-7 PM. $5 Guinness & $4.75 Picaroons draught.

Grannans has its weekly Jazz Night featuring Kindred Brothers from 6-8 PM.

Boilerworks will have 90s drink throwback prices.

Elsewhere Uptown, don’t miss out on:

Saint John’s only brewpub, Big Tide Brewing Company, on Princess St, has an ever-changing selection of their own beer, brewed by Wendy Papadopoulos. This weekend they have Whistlepig Stout, Irish Red Ale, Hemp Pale Ale, and for the first time, Honey Brown Ale, all on tap.

Happinez Wine Bar, across the street from Big Tide, will have a wide selection, as always, of wine by the glass or bottle. Beer, by the bottle, is also available along with some spirits. Be sure to sign up early for some upcoming events. Check the website for full details.

Be sure to also hit up Thandi on Canterbury St. for Asian fusion, Saigon Noodle on Union for some Pho, Sense of Tokyo for deliciously fresh Sushi, and of course there is Opera Bistro and the Urban Deli. Be sure to plug your favourite place in the comments if I’ve missed something you think other readers will be interested in. Cheers!

***

Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on Twitter: @danjjj

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This will be a ‘reserved seating only’ class with just sixteen (16) tickets available – enough to fill our communal table and to break into four groups of four. There is a cost — $12 – to help offset some of our costs. But we’ve tried to keep it as minimal as possible.

Participants will receive:

• A delicious sample tasting of Bob’s cabbage rolls that you will be making prior to making your own
• Tasting of Urban Deli’s Italian sausage (made in-house at the Deli)
• Copy of Bob’s Italian Cabbage Roll recipe
• Hands-on experience in making your own cabbage rolls
• Portions of cabbage rolls to take home for your next dinner party or keep for yourself

We’re pretty sure it will be a lot of fun. If you get thirsty, beverages will be available for purchase: beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks.

If you’re interested in what promises to be a tasty and entertaining afternoon, just give Liz a call at the Urban Deli: 652.3354.

The details once more time:

Cooking class at the Urban Deli – Italian cabbage rolls with Bob McVicar
Sunday, March 14, 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Cost: $12

We hope you can join us!

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If you missed it, you catch the podcast here: The Future Of Development In Uptown Saint John.

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I really love British-style ales and the best place to get them around the Maritimes, even cask-conditioned (unpasteurized so it is still alive in the keg), is from Granite in Halifax (check out Henry House on Barrington St). I love their Best Bitter, Ringwood, and Peculiar. British ales will normally be blonde to brown in colour due to the medium to rich dark malts, with a great hop appeal in the nose, and a moderate to heavy bitterness that invites another drink. Alcohol content normally ranges from as low as 3% on session brews up to 8% and sometimes higher in old ales and Winter warmers.

Locally, Picaroons has a couple of products that come to mind – Blonde Ale and Best Bitter although they have several ales available in bottles and on tap. I’ll often order the Blonde Ale at Urban Deli by the bottle, as it’s quite palatable for most food due to it being so middle of the road with toasted honey nut oat malt and hops and a creamy mouth feel.

The Best Bitter is much deeper in dark malts and noticeably bitter. You can pick up both by the 500 ml bottle at ANBL and at SJAH you can grab the Blonde Ale by bottle and Best Bitter on tap. Shadow Lawn Inn, Barnwood, and Pomodori in Rothesay, Happinez and Callahan’s in Uptown SJ, and Vintage Bistro & Lounge in Hampton all sell Picaroons products.

Fullers London Pride, available on ANBL shelves in a 500 ml bottle, is also a great example of British ale and it could be my favourite import because it is the closest to what I love about real ale that is available in a bottle – and is a truly balanced ale with a tad of thirst inducing astringency. Pumphouse, from Moncton, also specializes in ales but are often in the North American styles – all very excellent though and is sold at UD and other fine establishments.

Nothing beats a crisp cold lager on a hot summer’s day. Lagers are brewed differently than ales as they are brewed at colder temperatures for longer periods of time. This creates higher costs for a brewer, especially craft breweries, who have limited equipment that is tied up longer, among other things, if making a lager. Due to these reasons, you don’t see many craft brewed lagers.

However, things may be changing in this regard and soon to be brand new to ANBL shelves is Feels Good Imperial Pilsner made by Picaroons. It has been on tap in Fredericton for some time and now it is ready to be shared and enjoyed with the rest of New Brunswick. feelsgood.ca is an arts, music, and community movement and Picaroons has been kind enough to brand the beer after this organization.

At 7% alcohol this beer can be dangerous as the alcohol is well-masked due to how smooth this beer drinks starts and then the hoppy aftertaste keeps you going back for more. I know this pilsner, a type of lager, will be a regular in my fridge.

Big Tide Brewery, on Princess Street, has had a pilsner on tap and most likely will again. It was quite delicious the few times I had it. It was very clean, with fruity malts, and decently hopped but not overly so. Moosehead Breweries’ Alpine Lager is a clean drinking beer whether by the bottle or draught. Alpine has actual flavour, especially compared to the other mass-market North American lagers it competes with but could use more hops.

Urban Deli will be picking up the Feels Good Imperial Pilsner as soon as it hits the shelves and Alpine is always available at UD along with several other beers by the bottle, always from New Brunswick only.

Follow the businesses listed on twitter: @urbandeli, @SJAH_NB, @picaroons, @loveoffood (Pomodori), and @FeelsGoodMusic.

(Note: The Feels Good Imperial Lager should be on Saint John shelves very shortly. The www.nbliquor.com site shows it is already in several stores. The price will be $3.75 for 500 ml bottle, which is the same price as their other products yet it is 7% alcohol.)

***

Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on twitter: @danjjj

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Saint John Alehouse (SJAH) recently held a staff Caesar making competition between co-owner Pete Stoddart and manager Shawn Horgan. The Caesar, when done well, is a divine cocktail that crosses the line between refreshing and savoury.

After seeing a twitter update about the contest made by @SJAH_NB I quickly asked if I could help judge the event. So, by 10 PM I had made my way Uptown to take part in this fun event.

Pete’s Caesar was up first and was quite true to the traditional Caesar with some modifications. First, Pete infused celery stalks in lime rind and juice. He seasoned the drink with lemon pepper rather than regular pepper and served the drink in a hollowed out orange pepper that lent some of its fresh sweetness to the drink.

Shawn’s Caesar was basically its own cocktail inspired by a Caesar and was flavoured with soy sauce, ginger, basil, and was made with a homemade tomato and clam juice. Pete squeaked by with a win at 4 votes to 3.

Find out about the next competition by following @SJAH_NB on twitter.

(The Caesar – photo by Chinena Smith.)

***
Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on twitter: @danjjj

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The first winner of a free lunch at the Deli is Reid Southwick. Reid is a reporter from the Telegraph-Journal. His was the first card we drew from the jar.

We also had another winner. We drew Mike Hachey’s card. Mike’s from Califorina Custom Auto. Congratulations to both Reid and Mike and thank you for taking the time to visit and have a bite at the Urban Deli.

We’ve decided to do this with a bit more regularity so our next draws will be in the first week of March and the first week of every month thereafter. Also, with that next draw (early March) we’ll actually do two draws. One for a book, another for a free lunch.

The first book up for grabs is Tatya: Moscow Nights, Book I of Miron Rezun’s Tatya Trilogy. The other draw will be for a free lunch at the Urban Deli. If we draw yours, you’ll be joining Rick and Mike in the winner’s circle!

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… and in the restaurant.

Thanks to our all our guests and our staff! Together you made it a night to remember! Bonus shot:

We hope to do it again next year. (btw … you can also find us on Flickr.)

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Valentine’s Day menu

You’ll see there are a few choices, including a ‘chopping board sampler,’ as well as a couple of entrees.

Unfortunately, we have to be brief here because today’s a busy day. We hope you and your Valentine have a fabulous Valentine’s Day weekend!

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