Photos by MJ Klein and Hui-chen, including FOOD PHOTOS
Part of the 2010 USA Trip Series
I used to have a wood smoker back in New Hampshire, and I have missed smoking foods in Taiwan (although I do have a smoker in Thailand). We went in halves with my sister and her husband and picked up this Brinkmann smoker at Home Depot. I got to use it quite a few times during our visit. We’ll show you what we put in the smoker shortly.
But first, “Everybody in the pool!” It was hot during our trip and I’m so glad that my sister and her husband have this pool! As you may recall from our last series on the US, this is the pool where Dad was swimming.
Uncle Mike uses his GoPro Helmet HERO Wide camera, with the waterproof case to take a photo of my sister’s granddaughter (no names to protect privacy).
Uncle Mike takes a closeup shot:
This is the resulting photograph. Unfortunately water drops were clinging to the lens!
I would have died in the heat without this pool!
Time to play catch! Eventually I got around to putting some food into the smoker and getting ready to eat later.
Mike (my sister’s husband) and I, holding in our guts for the photo.
We chopped up some wood so it would fit into the firebox.
Mike had some white oak, which is a perfect wood for smoking.
This is what went on first: Arkansas style pork ribs!
This is the smoker, all loaded up with pork ribs.
Once loaded and the fire is burned down, it’s just a matter of time for the food to cook properly.
Unfortunately I didn’t’ burn the wood down enough. I haven’t smoked anything in years and it took me a first run to get back into things. The ribs got too dark so I won’t show them to you this time. But don’t worry because I successfully smoked several other batches during our trip and those came out just perfect. Even though they were dark, they tasted good and everyone seemed to like them.
Later on, we put salmon into the smoker. It doesn’t take as long to cook fish so we didn’t put these on with the ribs.
You can see on the left that we have some chicken pieces on too.
After the ribs came off we put the chicken on with the salmon. Of course the chicken took longer but we had a lot of stuff to cook, so it was simply a matter of managing everything.
Inside the house, my honey was busy preparing some Taiwan style dishes.
Chinese style cabbage.
Asparagus, cut and prepared for cooking.
This is spinach*, one of my favorites. *Corrected from “kale” by Hui-chen
Chopped garlic, just waiting for the cooking to begin.
Hui-chen at the stove, beginning the preparation.
The plates have been placed and ready for the food to be plated.
This is the salmon, all finished and ready to take off the smoker. Notice how the fish oil has risen to the top surface.
This is the asparagus and bell pepper cold salad dish.
Chinese cabbage.
This is the asparagus and bell pepper cold salad, with mayo added.
Taiwanese style pan fried spinach.
This is the smoked chicken and salmon.
Closeup of the salmon, sliced up.
Closeup of the smoked chicken.
We had a large group that was so ready to eat! It was a fantastic evening with rum drinks and smoked food! Glad you could join us!
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Articles in series 2010 USA Trip:
- Our 2010 USA Trip
- Getting There Is Half The Fun
- Back In The USA
- New England, Day 1
- New England, Day 2
- New England, Day 3
- New England: The State of Maine
- New England: Back to New Hampshire
- New England: Mount Washington Cog Railway
- Northern New Hampshire
- Back to Massachusetts
- Salem, Massachusetts
- Famous Kelly’s in Revere
- Boston’s North End
- Boston: Last Day in New England
- Back to North Carolina
- Our Visit to Krispy Kreme
- Our Last Day in the USA
- On The Way Back Home
I love the food pictures! I’m just taking pictures with my iPhone but everything looks great!! Hope your trip went well.
Linda
hi Linda! always nice to hear from you – how are you doing? our trip went very well and we did 99% of what we had planned. we’ll be bringing you the stories over the new few weeks so stay tuned! thanks!
Gosh!
Wish I were there !!
The food look so good. (And it should be good)
I know I should’t read your blog during my work time… makes me feel so hungry now.
hi Tiffany – sorry for that! there’s nothing we can do about the food photos except to warn people! lol thanks for reading! take care.
looks like great fun, awesome stuff
hi dennis. hopefully the remaining installments will get better as we do more stuff. thanks and take care.
Now that looked like a great time. I think we can forgive you being a little rusty with the smoker and the ribs 🙂
The ribs looked delicious, it is so hard to find ribs like that here in Isaan Thailand.
I love Kale as well, simply with garlic and an oyster sauce is delicious.
How long does it take to cook the chicken in the smoker and cooking like this, does it retain the meats moisture better?
I ask this as I hate dry chicken and when they grill here the people over cook the meat too often.
Anyway thanks for sharing MJ
Brunty´s last post ..A Sick Girl- A Trying Afternoon Isaan Thailand
hi Brunty. the chicken takes between 2 and 4 hours depending upon how hot you run the smoker, and how large the pieces are. slow cooking does retain the juices and even if you are grilling you should be able to cook it without drying it out so badly by just lowering the cooking temp. it’s hard to find ribs like that cut anywhere in Asia. they mostly cut the meat off and use the bones for soup over here. kale and garlic is such a simple dish with oyster sauce, but as you point out, it’s delicious! thanks for your comments Brunty and take care.
Hmmm… sorry its taken me a few days to take a look at this article… just spent a few days in Union Hospital and just got discharged today 🙁
Well… glad to see you got a LOT of good use out of that smoker. I can only imagine how hot it was down in North Carolina when you were there casue I know how hot it was this far north (and you seen too once you trip to the United States made it this far north).
I’m sure the pool felt GREAT in that heat and humidity… but I can only imagine how warm the water temp in the pool got up to. Still… in that heat and humidity… its better than nothing 🙂
mike01905´s last post ..2010 Revere Beach Sand Sculpture Festival
Mike! you can’t tease us with a statement like “just spent a few days in Union Hospital and just got discharged today” and not give us any more details than that!
we did get a lot of use out of the smoker – there are at least 2 other days where we used it and documented it for the blog. and you’re right – it was very hot in NC and the pool temp climbed as well. but as you say, still in that heat and humidity it was way more better than nothing – it was the only way to survive the heat – and most of the time i had a rum drink in my hand! thanks Mike
OK… e-mail sent explaining the “just spent a few days in the hospital and just got discharged today” comment. Kind of a long e-mail too.
mike01905´s last post ..2010 Revere Beach Sand Sculpture Festival
got it, Mike. thanks.
The food looks wonderful. Wish I was there.
Carolyn, we would have had a great time with you there. maybe someday!
Where in N.C. were you? I have family back there. I have made several trips back to meet cousins and to search cemeteries for relatives.
Carolyn, without giving too much detail, we were located “north of Greensboro.” my sister and her husband live in a small town.
Hello Klein,
It’s very nice food pictures ! Did you enjoy ?
I came back from Bangkok 2days ago.
But I could not eat thai foods well, Because I got a sick there.
Maybe I will try next year too !
Have a nice day,
Emi
hi Emi. thanks for your compliments. sorry you got sick in Thailand. hope you can go back there again and enjoy it next time. take care.
happy to see all the preparations of food and the way you are cooking food is interesting.Especially the wood woven which looks me so stunned.
thanks rabica.
That looks delicious MJ, makes me miss BBQ!
Jeroen, those photos were absolutely un-edited or unretouched. wish i could smoke some here in Taiwan! thanks Jeroen.