Montana's - Kelowna

The first time I heard of Montana's was back a few years ago when I was up in Kelowna for a car show.  They were supposedly famous for steaks and ribs so I had to try it.  Up until then, my only reference to ribs was Tony Roma's, Dem Bone's, and Cactus Club (which has a pretty mean Jack Daniel rib rack). 

We waited forever to get seated, and once we got a table, it took us forever to get our food.  I have no idea why, it didn't seem that busy.

The atmosphere was interesting, trying to go for a real country-style look that I suppose worked, but it looked a little cluttered and messy.

The cornbread tasted pretty good.

The milkshakes were terrible.  There wasn't enough ice cream in the mix, or maybe it was just melted.  It just tasted like chilled thick cream.....kind of gross actually.

The caesar came with a stalk of celery and a pickle.....a bit wierd, considering most places us the bean or asparagus.  It was a bit watered down.

Then there were the ribs...the world famous ribs from Montana's.  It was a bit of a let-down to say the least.  The meat was chewy and did not just slide off the bone like what I was used to.  I had to work hard to get the bone clean, and on top of that, the meat was bland and flavourless.  Were my expectations too high or were the ribs just bad?  Yep, they were just bad.

On the bright side, we stayed late enough to get this awesome picture of some of our cars. 

Montana's is defintely crossed off my list of places to go for ribs.  Of all the places within a similar price range, I'd say Cactus Club is infinetly better.  Montana's might have other items on their menu that are good, but I can't be bothered to give them the time or my money to find out.

Migz BBQ

Not exactly the trendy place it tries to be, Migz BBQ is just a regular bar in a fancy wrapper.  In terms of service and quality of food, it's comparable with The Pit Pub at UBC.

We ordered a sampler platter that looked like it should have been served on a paper plate.  Anyway, it included a couple of hot wings, french fries, onion rings, and some cheese bread.

Someone thought they would be clever and ordered a veggie platter.  It looked absolutely unappetizing, but veggies are veggies.

The calamari was mediocre at best, but the tiny bits of fried squid didn't do anything for me.  It was practically the same price as say, Stepho's calamari dinner, but this one didn't taste good.

BBQ pork ribs?  What, heated on the grill for a few minutes and drowned in sauce?  These were tough and hard to swallow.  I don't know how Migz has the nerve to include the word BBQ in their name when they don't know the first thing about BBQ.  My recomendation for Migz - don't waste your money.  Even if there's nothing else open in the neighborhood, it's better to waste more gas by driving to a better place to eat.

BBQ Pork Back Ribs

If you look far back enough, I talked about this awesome rib recipe I got off my friend Eric.  In turn, I think he got it from the executive chef at some famous restaurant in California.  Anyway, everytime I make ribs, it turns out slightly different because I don't follow the recipe exactly. 

Here are some of the ingredients I use.  Pork Back Ribs, or baby back ribs if you can find them, or if you have to, settle for whatever pork ribs are available.  This time I got lucky, I managed to get four racks of back ribs, but because they're smaller, four racks don't get you very far for a barbeque.

I got some potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes for a really tasty by-product of preparing my barbeque ribs.

First boil consists of water, a bit of oil (to keep the meat from sticking to the pot) and some salt.

After all the muck floats to the top (about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes), skim it off and take the ribs out of the water.

The ribs are pretty much clean of the nasty stuff, and it's time to prepare for the second boil.  At this point, I toss some butter into the pot along with a medium size onion chopped fine.  Cook it til the onion's just about melted.

Add water and pretty much whatever other seasoning you want and throw the ribs back in for about two and a half hours.

  

At this point, you can probably start mixing up whatever sauce you want to soak your ribs in.  I start off with a couple of spoonfuls of instant coffee and a bit of hot water, and loads of minced garlic.  The garlic could be almost 1/4 of the sauce.  Some Korean BBQ rib sauce recipes call for nearly 1/2.

Here's where I cheat.  My buddy Eric makes the base from scratch by cooking up tomatoes and an bunch of other stuff.  I simply use an BBQ Sauce, usually Kraft because it's a good neutral base, and I add all my other stuff to it.  Sesame oil is always a little nice, and some maple syrup or even Aunt Jamima's. 

Some chili oil to spice things up, but if you have chili sauce, it would be better. 

Some sesame seeds to give the whole thing a bit of a different texture, and sesame has a great taste that always compliments meat.

After the ribs are boiled, soak them in the sauce overnight.  Now you can start working with the the by-product of the ribs....soup.

Chopped potatoes, carrots, celery.

After taking the ribs out of the water, you end up with a very rich broth.  You can do all kinds of stuff with it like boil your rice in it, or save it to make a nice bowl of miso ramen, or you can do what I do - make soup.  This is what I ended up with after skimming the top of the broth.

Toss in all the chopped veggies and cook for a few more hours so and you've got yourself a really nice, flavourful soup.

Bacon-wrapped scallops, another common item on my BBQ menu.  I get the biggest scallops I can find, and wrap them with the fattiest bacon I can find....delicious.

Boxed garlic bread, surprisingly tasty and perfect for a BBQ.

A British Airways 747 flew overhead during our barbeque and I have to say that the Boeing 747 is still a damn fine looking plane.  Way better than the newer but uglier Airbus A380.  It's a shame that Air Canada did away with all of their own 747's and Canadian Airline's collection of '47s. 

Simon and his wife Lily - hosts of our little barbeque.  Thanks again!

Mushroom caps seasoned with a custom seasoning salt from my buddy Jay (actually, the recipe is from his dad and master chef - Alexander Wan).

The moon, shot freehand using the 26x optical zoon from a Nikon Coolpix P100.

 

Beef shortribs, prepared by Lily.  Absolutely delicious.

My pork ribs are held together only by the sauce that caramelizes on the outside during barbequing. 

The party's entertainment - Rob.  He left his clown costume at home.

The meat literally falls off the bone when you eat it. 

Here's a shot of the short ribs again.  Look at that nice creamy layer of fat near the bone.  When that part starts to sizzle, it's time to party.

Parksville Seminar May, 2009

Ok, back to steak. Earlier this year, Peter Gunstone sensei from our Canadian Iaido Association hosted the annual national seminar in Parksville, BC. After the seminar, I accompanied my own sensei, Hironori Inoue to Peter Gunstone sensei's home for a general meeting (in effect, I was the sandal bearer/sword bearer/personal assistant). We were treated to some really fine dining and one of the best barbequed steaks I have ever had. Whenever I see a BBQ grill, I always have this urge to do all the cooking, and this time was no exception. While the sensei had their meeting, I entertained myself by making sure I didn't burn their steaks.





I'd love to take all of the credit for cooking some wicked steaks, but in truth, I didn't do very much at all. The steaks were marinated by Peter Gunstone sensei, and I think some of the ingredients were soy sauce, sugar, and some other stuff. The quality of the meat was top notch and all I know is they were purchased from Costco.