pippadaisy's Full Review: John Stage and Nancy Radke - Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: A...
Ah, the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. When they first opened their restaurant in Rochester, NY, I was devastated. Taking over the building that housed my favorite club in my younger days, along with being a transplant from the Syracuse area left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, once I tasted the glorious food that's served at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, that bad taste was long gone.
~&~ The Basics ~&~
The book Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse is, unfortunately, the closest that some of you will ever get to experiencing all that is the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Have no fear, however, because this 176-page book has it all: great Dinosaur recipes, how-tos, pictures, and is the closest you can get to being at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on paper.
The first section of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse is the Introduction, and includes the detailed history of Dinosaur that you'd expect. However, it also includes tips to help you get your virtual Dinosaur experience just right, from the bathroom experience (the walls are covered in graffiti from patrons) to the Dinosaur Top Twenty-One tunes that play in the restaurants, to Techniques of Outdoor Cooking, Assumptions: Don't Let Them Ruin Your Barbecue and Get Personal With Your Pit.
The next several sections are the typical cookbook sections you might expect, with a few additions. You have Starters, Beef (which includes information on how to tell when your beef is done and Beef Brisket Pit Boss Tips), Chicken (with more pit boss tips), Fish, Lamb, Pork (including pit boss tips, Cookin' Perfect Pork, and how to brine pork chops), Sides (with Fry Obsession), Soups and Leftovers (with tips on what to do with leftovers from your barbecue... as if there will be any after using this cookbook), and Desserts.
Finally, there is a section on your own Dinosaur Pantry detailing what you will need to keep on hand to make most of the recipes in this book, another section on Resources to find some of the harder to find products (or ready-made Dinosaur sauces) and tattoos showcased in photos, and finally, the Index.
~&~ My Experience ~&~
I'll be perfectly honest; I don't do most of the cooking in my house. My husband is the cook, mainly because he loves to do it, and I'm not a fan of anything but baking. However, this book is a joy to page through. Interspersed with the recipes are pictures from the Dinosaur restaurant, including patrons and musical acts. You'll also find photos of some of the dishes themselves almost leaping off the page. Just looking at them, I can almost taste them and wish my husband was home to whip something up, because writing this review is sheer torture. They've also included some of the bathroom graffiti to use up some of the white space on pages, to give you a true taste of the Dinosaur experience.
As far as how true the recipes are to the original, they are as close as you can get without actually being in the restaurant. I imagine if you set your barbecue pit up exactly as the instructions detail, you'll get as close to the Dinosaur as you possibly can. My husband has already tried out several of the recipes, and even on a gas grill, it's close if you can't get out to the restaurant, although I can't vouch for any of the desserts, because I've never had enough room left after eating Dinosaur to try any.
The ultimate compliment for Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse has to be from my husband, however. He is a born and bred Southerner: born and raised in Georgia by a Texan mother. The man knows barbecue, and to talk him into even trying a barbecue joint north of the Mason-Dixon line is near impossible. However, he is totally sold on this barbecue, and was excited to receive this book for Christmas and take it for a spin.
~&~ Overall ~&~
If barbecue is your thing and you aren't privileged to live close enough to an actual Dinosaur yourself, or even if you do and want to try to do it yourself, then Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse is a must-have addition to your cooking arsenal.
The renowned Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is beloved by bikers, blues musicians, and barbeque aficionados for its famous barbeque and colorful regulars. Cooks c...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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