It’s great that you can visit for extended periods of time. I have a sort of plan that when I’m done with work, I want to spend at 6 months at a time in a different place. I have France circled but can’t decide between 6 months in Paris, Beaune or Provence. After that somewhere in Italy. But its a while off in any event. Food and wine choices will be a big part of picking where.
yes, I followed their kickstarter campaign and posted about the unit somewhere here on HO. The reviews on amazon are a little mixed and I stupidly used up my counterspace allotment on an electric pizza oven that I ended up not loving. I mean, we have two very good pizzerias 3 minutes from our apt, dunno what I was thinking.
i guess I’ve lost the thread of our conversation, I can’t use a smoker. I believe using a smoker to make bbq provides insight into eating a bbq and if you’re already using a weber kettle to make bbq…anyhow, if you haven’t done so, you might enjoy becoming a kcbs certified judge and judging contests. I’ve judged about 25 though haven’t done so since the pandemic. they’re fun and you’ll eat amazing bbq.
That better not be my building, or heads are gonna roll.
How will you know?
“I have a sort of plan that when I’m done with work, I want to spend at 6 months at a time in a different place… Food and wine choices will be a big part of picking where.”
We thought about longer time periods, but decided we like being home too much to do that. Food definitely has driven our choice of NYC for the first three years of our retirement, we have really enjoyed exploring NYC’s food in depth. However, we might change things up next year and head to a different city, with LA being the leading contender at the moment, with Tokyo and Singapore also in the mix.
“GE Smart Indoor Smoker”
I hesitate to get deeper into this here, but will note that I am only posting this with respect to indoor smokers LOCATED IN NYC.
That said, I think it’s of interest to space-challenged New Yorkers that Texas Monthly, the bible of barbecue aficionados, has already weighed in on this important issue.
In what might be an effort to troll its own barbecue-loving readers, Texas Monthly published an article last month about the $1000 home pellet cooker, the General Electric Appliances Smart Cooker, with the title, “THIS MAGIC COUNTERTOP BOX EFFORTLESSLY SMOKES MEAT. BUT IS IT BARBECUE?” (subtitle: “We Reviewed the GE Profile Indoor Smoker, but Felt Guilty About It”). The GE smoker is described as “effortless” and “WiFi enabled,” and as producing “delicious” barbecue with “crusty bark and pleasing smoke essence.” The reviewer felt conflicted, “After two bites, I thought to myself that good barbecue can’t—or perhaps, shouldn’t—be this effortless.”
But when the Texas Monthly reviewer surveyed several notable Texas pitmasters, their response was mostly along the lines of “If it’s good, who cares how it’s made.” Jordan Jackson, a former pitmaster at Franklin’s in Austin, is quoted as saying, "“The way I look at it is pretty simple: People focus too much on how something is achieved instead of the achievement. If you make a really good Texas brisket on a pellet smoker, how can you argue with that? If it was great, well, what does it matter how you made it?”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/ge-profile-smart-indoor-smoker-review/?utm_source=texasmonthly.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=sharebutton (I think I’ve broken the paywall on this, as subscribers can do for a few articles per month)
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hmm, thanks, having read the article, it hits a lot of notes about why there was skepticism about this smoker in the broader bbq community. They seemed to manage the beta in such a way that it was hard to get much information about the smoker, the videos with pitmasters were curated and they didn’t seem to want to put the unit in the hands of bbq competitors.
I’d note it’s the author’s only article for texas monthly and I’m not exactly sure if the caption “texas monthly, courtesy of ge” refers to the photo or the article as a whole. I do wonder if GE paid for this “review”. Buttressing this idea is that you didn’t break the firewall, the article is freely available on the texas monthly website.
the article hits a number of cautionary themes that I’ve read in other reviews:
- “It does create nice bark, an essence of smoke, but nothing like you’re going to get from cooking on charcoal or logs,”
- "While it’s true that traditional barbecue is more difficult, yielding a more complex flavor, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for something else. "
- “I was worried that my family would pick up on the faint but pleasing smoke smell.”
the article did nothing to change my mind about risking $1k on this machine.
best,
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where will you be and when? Hope we will cross paths with you!
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I’ll start the investigative process. There are a few people here who secretly (because it’s not allowed) rent out their places on Airbnb, and it’s a security risk and generally not a neighborly thing to do.
That would be really great. We’ll be in Crown Heights for the month of July.
The only part of your hesitation about the GE smoker that I don’t sure is the suspicion that the article in Texas Monthly is a paid product placement. It’s not that kind of magazine.
Otherwise, I’m sure not laying out $1000 for it.
Speaking of NYC BBQ, has anyone been to La Piraña Lechonera, the South Bronx stand?
Pete Wells gave it three stars to a couple of years ago. Gift link:
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@DaveCook has been, we’ve talked about an ho outing there.
I will be away for the whole month til July 27 - Jim will be at home for the first week then off with me in Italy and Berlin. So I hope we can catch up with you at the end of your stay. How far down in Crown Hts are you going to be?
Oh, bad timing for us. Let’s target something for the 28th or 29th, then.
We’re not very far down in Crown Heights, just a few blocks south of Atlantic, near the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Short walk to Bed-Stuy, long walk to Prospect Heights.
thats what the Bergen/Dean Street Bus is for if your legs get tired! Jim and I would definitely be game for something then.
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Great, let’s make more specific plans when the time gets a little closer.
We’re back in Bklyn & will be here all of July. Except for a couple of nights (10th & 11th), we’re pretty much available.
