Dear Diners, Dives, and Drive Ins.....
The place I want to tell you about is a food stand on wheels, with a smoker puffing away outside, handy to a supply of applewood. In Killingly, CT, just down the road on Main Street from Zip's Diner.
The cook is fully tattooed, with a long chin braid. He ran construction crews in Boston before the housing bubble burst. His wife (?) was a scientist at Pfizer. They always wanted to cook for a living. He was laid off. She quit. They bought a falling down food cart in NYC, hauled it home to Killingly, rented space in a car lot, and stuck out an OPEN flag.
It's called Gut Bustas. 860-933-8615. The cook I've noticed has a close, personal relationship with his meat. He sings to it. He pours sweet nothings over it.
I've eaten there 3 times now. It took a long time to stop and get past the ramshackle appearance, and the outdoor-only eating under an unheated blue tarp. I didn't think they'd make it through the winter, to be honest. But they've now celebrated their one-year anniversary. And the church of the barbecue has begun to find them.
I ate there today, ordering a succulent meatloaf sandwich wrapped in bacon, plus a side of blue cheese fries. There was a family there from out of state. And a young couple who'd grown up eating "real" BBQ down south. Both of them had "heard about it" and come to try. The talk was about contest-winning BBQ techniques. There's good crack, as Irish say. Non-stop chatter, if you want it, through the order window into a kitchen no bigger than the bed of a pick-up truck.
Today: lousy, cold, rainy. Yet the orders at Gut Bustas hadn't paused for 8+ hours straight, from breakfast through early dinner. When I showed up at 5 PM they were out of almost everything. But there was more on the smoker.
Love the show, Tom Ahern
May 11, 2012
May 10, 2012
April 23, 2012
Laramoops Return
In truth, we thought this friendship hung by a spider's well-worn thread. But then it resurged! Thanks to Bananagram, in part ... and a STRONG cocktail (the Count Negroni; equal parts of 3 ingredients). Laura brought the ketchup. Simone wore her "#6" T. (Bio note: she was #12 on the same list of "top" North America consultants.) Click any image to enlarge and improve your experience.
March 10, 2012
A strange joy...
...awakened in him as he handwashed the ceramic paring knife. It was fun he realized to cook for people and try to delight them. There were a lot of moving parts, and yet it had only one real secret: tactical butter. Bart and Jessica were on their way. Were they special guests? Tonight he'd even destemmed the grapes -- for the grapes and caramelized sausage buttons in a wine reduction fry. Usually stems would be roughage.
March 02, 2012
I highly like CLT
Click an image to enlarge and savor the pretty airplanes and their micro-dramas. That's a sushi bar below.
February 24, 2012
January 05, 2012
January 03, 2012
Keeping safe the ducks
At the Cornell-Feist-ies, for New Year's Eve, in Harvard, MA, on the medlar farm, putting away the susceptibles: minks like ducks. The alpacas can fend for themselves.
A guy tried to buy the boots off my feet
We were in a thrift store in Benton Harbor, MI, a coastal town of 11,000 with a per capita income of about $10,000 a year. It used to be the manufacturing hub for Whirlpool appliances, but all that's long gone. The guy in front of me at the cashier liked my boots and began making me bids. He got up to $100 for the pair before he quit. He was in town, helping rebuild a church. What he didn't know was, these are my lifetime boots. They're not for sale at any price. You buy them once, make the investment, and you're buried in them. They cost $400 in France a few years back, made by a company that got its start in ski boots. You want to see the wrinkles? Click on an image to enlarge.
December 05, 2011
This is a medlar fruit (view at your own risk)
And that is Libby's hand. She recommends eating this obscure Shaker fruit raw. She's right. The processed versions so far have been tougher than radials.
