Well, my Japanese experience has come and gone. The video will be posted on the TV Tokyo website sometime tomorrow night. I'll let you know where to get it.
I was told that it was the "Japanese equivalent of the Today show. At least for the business community. Think of it as squak box, but with a much bigger audience" and was supposedly seen by 8 million viewers. I was dressed in my Brethren hat (Thanks Parrothead!) and apron with my KCBS CBJ Pin on my shirt pocket.
This morning I smoked, over cherry wood, 3 racks of baby back ribs rubbed with Head Country and glazed in a home made Kansas City style sauce. Last night, I bought 2lbs of pulled pork from Dinosaur BBQ to bring with me, (it's not because I'm lazy Phil) to which I added a home made Carolina style mustard sauce. Part of the plan was to show different regional styles of Q. The ribs got away from me this morning. They were tender and moist, but overcooked, the meat was falling off the bone. I wasn't happy.
So I get picked up by a limo and driven to Dumont, New Jersey where they were staging a "typical American BBQ party," complete with "typical American family" enjoying the BBQ. My driver who was Korean spent a good thirty minutes explaining why and how Koreans eat and prepare dog. (In case anyone wants to know how to pick a good one - send my a PM and I'll fill you in.) He should have been paying attention to the driving, he got us lost.
So I get there and am met by the producer who explains that he wants me to talk about what true BBQ is. He asks me to explain the differences between grilling and BBQ, what Americans eat and the regional differences. Sounds good.
I meet the star, nice guy, but I can't get his name straight. Everyone says it differently. I think it was something like skipstarson. We do a rehearsal and I guess I became Chad, because they tell me that my explaination is way too long to do in both English and then Japanese. They take my words and translate them into Japanese and give them to Skipstarson to say.
OK. Then I was asked to grill some beef and chicken kabobs for the promo. Hey - this isn't BBQ, but what the hell. I grill them up and they film me with Starskipson saying something next to me while the camera zooms in on the kabobs cooking on a gas grill.
Once the kabobs are done, we take out the ribs and pulled pork and put them on the gas gill for the show. I protested that we should use the charcoal weber, but I am over ruled. So we do a run thru of the show. Skipstarson blathers on in Japanese for awhile, while I attend to the ribs and pulled pork. The only words I understand are Kansas Shitty and Carolina. As soon as he says Carolina, I'm to step back and let him take some of the pulled pork. He takes a fork full (it was ice cold at this point) puts it in his mouth and makes some sort of gesture that I assume means he likes it.
A panic goes up about the time, and I light the gas grill up again to get the ribs and pork back up to temperture. Skipstarson goes to another end of the yard with some of the kabobs and does some sort of tease for the show. (Kinda like how in the news they cut to a reporter and he gives a brief "later in the show, I'll be screwing peguins." type thing.) He's there holding a kabob in one hand and a fake cosmo in the other and laughing and joking about "American" and "BBQ"
It's supposed to be 15 minutes between that bit and the real piece of the show, so we do another rehearsal. I have no idea what I'm supposed to say, because they took my topics away. Yummi the assistant producer comes over and says, here's your line. "In America, barbeque is an occasion for people to come together, party, cook and eat meat." Hmm, for this I'm being billed as "the expert?"
Something goes wrong in the studio, so we're pushed back. This was a live segment. We finally get the go ahead and Skipstarson is filmed talking and walking up the driveway of the house until he "finds" a typical "American Barbeque" Part of the segment was Skipstarson explaining the differences between charcoal and gas grills. Jack Daniels must be a sponsor, because he holds up bag of JD chips and talks about them for awhile.
I'm supposed to wander over the grill at some point like I just arrived and we do the bit. I open up the grill and move around the ribs and pork while Skipstarson is talking and gesturing and finally says "Robert Fernandez." and I spout my line! (3.5 seconds of fame! Whoo HOOO!) The segment ends with Skipstarson calling out to the family to come over and eat. It was alot of fun, even it wasn't what I thought I was there to do.
Now the show's over and the ribs and pulled pork have been on a hot grill for about 45 minutes. I wasn't happy with the ribs when I pulled them off my grill and by this time they were burnt and dry. The pork was still in pretty good shape, but definitely on the down swing. But the "Typical American family" loved it. The crew loved it. The producer asked if I'd cook for his office party. One of the "family" asked for my card for a party he was holding in the fall. Skipstarson and Yummi never left the grill, just ate right over it.
I got driven home in an incredible tricked out Suburan. Leather everywhere. Stocked bar. 6 video screens with seperate controls. Nice.
But, sadly, the typical american family, at least in New Jersey has no clue about what good BBQ is. This stuff tasted OK, but damn, it was garbage. Dry, falling apart ribs and pork getting tough. I would have thrown it out before I'd serve it to one of you.
Phil and I were talking about this on the phone aftewards. This happens to him all the time. Q that he thinks is only mediocre is raved about by non-brethren. So brothers, are our BBQ standards too high?
