Through all of this I almost missed a simple post that began with, “Ray Manzarek was born and raised on the south side of Chicago.” I didn’t really have to read the rest to know what was to follow. I was pretty bummed to hear about his passing. I never met the man, but I feel like he was a part of my life, through his music. Music triggers memories and whenever I hear The Doors, well, there’s a flood of memories. I guess it to be fitting to re-hash some memories that The Doors and Ray Manzarek’s keyboard playing was inter-connected with, but I’m not in a “sappy” mood. I’m in an honest, somewhat, cynically reflective mood. (Here’s your chance to opt out of this piece)

Oliver Stone is no good.

My uncle gave me my first Doors record. I remember listening to it and not being as drawn to it as I was to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin records he also tossed my way. I didn’t play an instrument yet so I didn’t understand music very well, but I didn’t need to in order to realize how simple, almost cheesy their music sounded. This was way before the internet, so I really had to research bands if I liked them enough, I couldn’t just Google “classic rock, The Doors.” Since I wasn’t that into them I didn’t bother to seek out any more info on them. Then something happened:That terrible movie came out. The Doors. (Fuck you, Oliver Stone)

So now the story of The Doors was dropped onto my lap, well, what I believed to be “the story” of the Doors; not realizing it was Oliver Stone’s interpretation of what “the story” of the Doors should be. So all of the research I would really have to do was done for me. I already had the music and now there was an interesting story behind it. Hook, line and sinker. When I would listen to The Doors from then on it was no longer about the music, it was about who I thought they were. In all reality, it was about Jim Morrison. (Well, Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, acting out what Oliver Stone wanted Jim Morrison to be)Yep, a stupid story like that is how a teenager becomes a fan of something. (No, I’m not making excuses for Justin Bieber fans)

Stinky leather pants and falling out of love

I was always a social being so I had several circles of friends throughout high school. One of those circles was the stoners. I was a teenage pothead so I fit right in with these dudes. We would all get together, roll some joints and listen to classic rock. I was actually introduced to a lot of great music that I still love over after-school bong hits. Life was simple, things were good.

Well, I had a friend who fancied himself a super-Doors fan. It wasn’t much of a problem at first. It seemed the more pot he smoked the more he wanted to experiment with hallucinogens (see, it’s a gateway drug) and the more he felt he was Jim Morrison resurrected. This guy not only started tripping frequently, he started writing “poetry.” It was terrible, T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E shit but all of the stoners were eating it up. They thought this guy was some kind of genius, misunderstood prophet; exactly what Jim Morrison wanted people to believe. I saw it for what it was, gibberish that sorta-maybe-kinda made sense after you popped a few caps of mushrooms, nothing more.

The seeds of dislike towards The Doors were being planted. I was starting to realize that I really never liked the band’s music. It was teenage intrigue for a seemingly controversial band, not admiration. Apparently shit born from a controversial figure doesn’t stink as bad if you make a movie about it. (I’m looking at you, Howard Stern) Anyways, this prophet-wannabe friend of mine didn’t simply stop when he got to the tripping and bad poetry, no, he went full Morrison and started wearing leather pants for days without washing them. It’s a terrible thing being crammed inside a high school kid’s bedroom, which naturally already smells like rotten gym socks, with a bunch of lit marijuana paraphernalia and this asshole wearing a pair of cheap leather pants with month old ass-stench permeating the air. That’s all it took and I was done. I tapped out. I had musically broken up with The Doors.

R.I.P. Ray Manzarek

I guess I didn’t want to like anything associated with The Doors but from everything I had read about Ray Manzarek and every interview I saw with him, he seemed like someone I would sincerely would have liked to have a beer with. Even in the Doors movie that I have come to dislike so much, he was portrayed as the sane member and business brains behind the band. I respect that. He saw what he had in his hands: a good enough band with a babbling baby for a lead singer that everyone adored, so he ran with it and was overly-successful. But he was so much more than than “that guy in The Doors.” He was an author as well as very respected producer that worked with bands like X and Echo & the Bunnymen and also played with musicians like Iggy Pop and Darryl Hall. Manzarek never lost his passion and love for music, he remained playing and collaborating until shortly before his death. Not bad for a kid from the Southside.

R.I.P. Ray Manzarek.

After going over several different criteria, we settled on 4 that we felt would best represent a ManBQue Approved business/product:

Quality: It was obvious that there was time and care put into what we were being served and/or sold. (We like it when businesses give a shit)
Atmosphere: We prefer comfortable restaurants with personality over sterile, abstract art galleries that happen to be serving food from a kitchen in the back room.
What you MUST try: We love it when places have items that make it difficult to live without once we’ve tried for the first time. We’ll tell you what they are!
Price/Value: We have real-life things like bills that we have to pay, so we are very conscious of where we eat. If we have to miss a mortgage payment to afford some science infused apricot tart, we probably won’t be reviewing it.

If you have suggestions for places that we NEED to check out or products we should be using, email us at info@manbque.com or Tweet us at @manbque, #MBQAPP

Cheers,

The Godfather

There’s enough events to make your head spin so you must be tactical when approaching Chicago Craft Beer Week. Our friends at the Chicagoist put out a good CCBW guide and so did the Reader. Our list is a lot more biased, aimed at this upcoming weekend and probably contains more grammatical mistakes than those, but it’s a goddamn good list nonetheless. Go do this!
 

Thursday, 5/16:
 

Fischman Liqours, 4780 N. Milwaukee
Fischman’s is doing it right, keeping the Chicago in CHICAGO Craft Beer Week; they’re tapping beers from 16 local breweries and they have a parade of food trucks stopping by. So worth a drive out to the NW side of the city. Check out the line-up.

NorthDown Cafe & Taproom, 3244 N. Lincoln
Northdown is coming out swinging. They’re partnering up with a ManBQue favorite, Founders Brewing and have Bolt Cutter, Doom and Curmudgeon Old Ale on tap.

Friday, 5/17

Four Moon Tavern, 1847 W. Roscoe
Spiteful Brewing, one of my favorite breweries in Chicago is doing a tap takeover at Four Moon Tavern. Spiteful is seriously a brewery to keep your eye on; these guys are putting out some really consistently great beers. Stop by, check out their beers and thanks us later.

Local Option, 1102 W. Webster 
You can’t go wrong with an event called “Regional Clusterfuck.” Local Option is what happens when heavy metal marries awesome beer. They’re going to be tapping  some “rare and highly sought after releases” from Central Waters Brewing Company, Dark Horse Brewing Co., Against The Grain Brewery, Perennial Artisan Ales.

Saturday, 5/18

Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake St.
Our pals, The Chicago Beer Geeks, are hosting an awesome event featuring, Deception, their collaboration beer with Wild Onion. They’ll also be tapping some rare brews from Three Floyds, Revolution, and Goose Island. if that’s not enough, they’re throwing in some burlesque. Beer & t!tties!!! Great job, Chicago Beer Geeks!

Sunday, 5/19

Joe’s Barbershop, 2641 W. Fullerton
Now this is totally not a CCBW event but it IS a ManBQue event and it IS sponsored by Half Acre, which is hands-down one of the best breweries in Chicago. $30 gets you a haircut or straight razor shave, a ManBQue burger, a Half Acre tall boy and some Mikos Italian Ice. Not bad. Come check it out!

Earlier this week, Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield gave new meaning to the term, “space rock,” with a video rendition of David Bowie’s 1969 hit, “Space Oddity,” recorded and produced while on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

Hadfield, also the first Canadian to spacewalk, along with his team prove to be equal parts artistic and scientific; his vocals and accompanying music are spot on, and the photography is high-quality and aesthetically pleasing. The video features amazingness including a floating guitar floating, a floating Hadfield, and multiple views of planet Earth as seen through the shuttle’s portholes. Sure, we’ve witnessed similar things in other music videos, thanks to special effects, but nothing packs a punch like real live outer space. Bowie himself has called Hadfield’s cover, “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created.” It’s only natural that the video has gone viral, but if you haven’t already seen it, well, here you go:

Commander Hadfield has returned to Earth, but we hope for more music videos the next time around–Hawkwind’s “Space is Deep” or the Kinks “Supersonic Rocket Ship” would be especially nice. Along with “Space Oddity,” Hadfield has posted a number of videos to YouTube detailing things like opening a can of Coke on the ocean floor, and whether tear ducts can function as usual in zero gravity. Whether he will continue his music career remains to be seen, but we eagerly anticipate the day Commander Hadfield answers the all-important question, “Can you BarBQue in space (and not singe that awesome ‘stache!)?”

It’s time once again for ManBQue to take your tenderloins of ignorance, expose them to the purifying fire of our expertise, and return them to you with a side of tomatillo salsa … of … justice? Metaphor got away from us at the end there.

Your week’s lineup:

JB Mays
Egon
Death Toll Scholl
The Godfather
The Other Woman
Tomax

To your questions!

I’m a 16-year-old boy from the UK, and a picky eater. What do you suggest I should try to expand my palette?

- Will Rolfe

The Godfather: “This fall, from executive producers, Gordon Ramsay & Chris Hansen: To Catch a Culinary Predator.”

JB Mays: I’m not sure how much of a secret this is, but I grew up as the world’s pickest eater. I went at least a decade surviving mostly on mashed potatoes, breakfast cereal, and plain hamburgers. I didn’t even find a pasta dish I enjoyed until I was 22 years old. This is why if you ask my mother about the cookbook project, she’ll laugh her ass off and shake her head bemusedly.

I actually still remember – it was puerco pibil, which was/is basically a Yucatecan version of pulled pork. It looked good on television, so instead of opening the Cookie Crisp box, I decided to try making it for myself instead. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, so I slavishly followed the recipe so as not to screw it up. It turned out well (it was a good recipe), and I’d seen every step of the process for myself. There was nothing to be unfamiliar with or surprised by, so it became the start of the looooong process of learning how to cook and expand my tastes.

So the TL,DR here is find something new that doesn’t seem off putting, work it out for yourself, and see what it teaches you about your tastes. From there, take a little bigger step on the next project. Then a little bigger. Soon, you’ll not only be eating beef heart, but writing about it for a mass audience.

Death Toll Scholl: I suggest starting simple. If you like plain burgers – start putting quality condiments on it. Try something new each week – don’t be put off if you don’t like it. That’s the fun part of eating – you’re not going to like every type of food.

I grew up in meat & potatoes country where the craziest food option was a crappy Mexican place. Guacamole scared the shit out of me. But I started trying different dishes and eventually found some that I liked. Mustard is a different story – it wasn’t until I was of drinking age and grabbing cheap polish sausages slathered in mustard at 4am that I fell in love with the condiment. Now, I have no less of 4 varieties in my refrigerator at any time.

Egon: If you’re a picky eater in the UK, you have every right to be so. UK food is basically rubbish. You’ll be fine. [editor's note: BOOOOOOO]

The Other Woman: If you live in the UK, the answer is obvious; Indian take-away and falafel.

Tomax: If I could go back in time and tell 16 year old me anything I would say stop screwing around and go chase some women, but that’s me not you. Not knowing what you’ve eaten in the past maybe one of these ideas will help.

1. Put a fried egg and bacon on a burger.

2. Try sushi.

3. Find a Vietnamese joint and eat pho.

4. Eat tilapia tacos with mango salsa.

5. Great Peking duck can change your life forever.

Good luck and take a girl with you to try new food. The food might suck and you might hate it but odds are you won’t regret the experience.

Sooo I’ve got more of a sauce question but i am pretty sure you’ll know the answer. My father has this flame teriyaki sauce recipe but the final end result is more liquid than a thick sauce. I know you can thicken it up with like a corn starch but that still doesn’t leave it with the BBQ sauce consitency i need to put it on things.

- Marcus Savina

The Godfather: It really depends on the sum of all of the ingredients as to why your sauce isn’t thick enough. You’re probably already using honey since it’s teriyaki sauce so if that’s not leaving it thick enough I would recommend arrowroot; arrowroot has twice the thickening power of flour, won’t cloud up your sauce and it’s flavorless so you won’t get that starchy flavor of cornstarch. You can also try reducing the sauce. The longer the sauce boils, the thicker the sauce will get. As the sauce reduces the flavor intensifies so make sure not to season the sauce until you have reduced your sauce to the desired consistency.

JB Mays: If your baseline comparison is the bottled teriyaki sauces and marinades on store shelves, then it’s probably going to be a bit thinner than you’re used to. The thickeners used in industrial sauce production – modified starches or non-starch polysaccharides – aren’t kicking around most people’s home pantries. And, taking a look around the internet, most recipes don’t call for thick corn syrup as a base.

For a real-world example, consider the housemade sauces you find at the barbecue restaurants in the South. They’re almost uniformly thinner than any bottle of sauce you buy at the supermarket. There’s a completely different set of rules when you’re making hundreds of pallets of a shelf-stable sauce. Worry about flavor first when making sauce at home, then, like Jesse said, you can master the texture.

Tomax: The thing here is that if you don’t want to change the taste of your dad’s flame Teriyaki sauce you might want to just reduce it down on medium-low and stir it every few minutes to prevent it from burning. It will make the sauce stronger. You can try cornstarch or flour but again it could change the flavor.

What’s your guilty pleasure song? Like, the one that your friends rag on you for putting on the grilling playlist?

- Jeff Redmond

Egon: Guilty pleasures, music, and Dave Hanley go together like skirt steak, chopped onions, and cilantro. I am that guy who has 100.3 Lite FM as my second preset in my car and am damn proud of it. I find the guiltiest pleasures are the ones that somehow bring you the most joy. In my most humble opinion the easiest way for a straight 30 year old man to decide if the artist you are listening to is a guilty pleasure is to ask yourself: If I mention this artist’s first name will people know who I am talking about right away? For Example: Whitney, Rod, Lionel. All completely acceptable guilty pleasures in my book, but guilty nonetheless.

Then you have the Heavy Metal/Rock and Roll guilty pleasures that still apply to my rule: Glenn, Dio, Ozzy … any solo project by famous front-men from the 70s or 80s is a guilty pleasure. Music is like food – guilty or not, its what you enjoy but shouldn’t. I love Funyuns and hot dogs (sometimes with ketchup). I may only eat them in the privacy of my own home. On my couch. Under a blanket. In the dark. With the windows drawn. At 4 am. Bbut that does not mean I enjoy them any less. Be yourself and give yourself an opportunity for a little pleasure. Just keep your hands above the equator while doing it.

Death Toll Scholl: “Good Riddance” by Green Day. But seriously, I love you guys.

JB Mays: Reading Rainbow theme song. It stoked my passion for the written word. But don’t take my word for it …

The Other Woman: There are no such things as guilty pleasures when it comes to music. If you like it, you like it, and if you’re embarrassed about what your friends think about your playlist that’s on you and the middle school you still go to in your head. That being said, the only proven antidote for “bad taste” is to continuously expose yourself to new (or at least new-to-you) music, and let your brain come up with a weeding system on its own. Think of it as a palette-expanding exercise–a sonic equivalent to that kid in the first question overcoming his picky eating.

The Godfather: Guilty pleasure SONG? Hell, I have a huge playlist on Spotify labeled, “Only God Can Judge Me” that consists of songs that would probably seep into the category of “Guilty Pleasures.” Power ballads used to dominate the list but it has evolved to include the likes of Huey Lewis, Skrillex and Dolly Parton.

Tomax: Ratatat’s Wildcat song. Not only is the song amazing but the music video I found for it (which I am almost positive isn’t official) is truly amazing.

Every month, the competitors at ManBQue MEATings brawl for food supremacy over the forging heat of the grill fire. Each man is determined to have his personal meat Sistine Chapel named Best Dish. The prize most months? A bottle of booze, some promotional swag, or a ManBQue shirt. The prize this month?

Immortality.

The directors of ManBQue hereby throw down the gauntlet and declare the May MEATing as Wing Warfare month. The best wing of the night gets their recipe developed for the ManBQue cookbook, where it will live through the ages in bookstores, libraries, and Amazon warehouses until the day society falls and it is up to future alien archaeologists to once again raise the banner of Meat, Beer, and Rock N Roll.

The rules are simple:

1. One dozen wings cooked, with the best six (three flats, three drumettes) delivered to the judges in a marked container that we’ll provide.

2. Bring the recipe with you – no “I jus’ trew some stuff togetha” on this night.

3. Make sure it’s your own recipe, not Chef Glitterboy McTelevision’s Store-Brand Spice Rub.

4. Use real bone-in chicken wings. The boneless wing cookoff will be at the TGI Friday’s down the street.

That’s all. Be creative. Do delicious things. Stake your place in eternity.

Signed,

The ManBQue Board of Directors

Mikal Cronin: MCII (Merge Records)

San Francisco multi-instrumentalist Mikal Cronin may be best known as the guitarist in garage-rocker Ty Seagall’s band, but that will soon change once the public gets hold of his second album (and first on Merge Records). The preview suggests a flurry of power-pop gems that could rival some of Paul Westerberg’s best. And aside from a few guest appearances, Cronin plays every track himself.

Kylesa: Ultraviolet (Season of Mist)

The Savannah-Georgia based sludgy punk / metal / psychedelic outfit returns with its sixth studio album this month, once again recording with its guitarist / co-frontman Phillip Cope (Black Tusk, Baroness) and pushing its own boundaries in songwriting and experimentation.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats: Mind Control (Metal Blade)

The British doom rockers’ 2011 released album Bloodlust was a sleeper hit that took the rock underground by storm months after its initial release. The follow up, Mind Control, is a pulverizing, hook-driven slab of slow-burning acid rock that more than that meets the anticipation surrounding its release.

Welcome back to MBQ&A, where we answer all the questions of the universe with grilling knowledge. Your vaunted advisors today:

JB Mays
The Godfather
Death Toll Scholl
Tomax
Ricky Thumbs
Egon

To the learning!

What are the pros/cons of various woods for smoking or smoke roasting?
- Tom Brooks

JB Mays: I love applewood, but that’s probably a function of the fact that it’s the first wood I used when I started cooking real barbecue. My only hard and fast rule is to avoid mesquite, which imparts a kind of “bag of trash that is also on fire” taste. Texans are weird. Don’t use mesquite.

Death Toll Scholl: Each wood provides a different flavor but the pros and cons really start in what kind of cooker you’re using to smoke. With each one temperature is key and usually controlled by air intake. Hardwoods hold less resign than soft woods – so hardwoods are best to use.

Tomax: I would say the same rules apply from smoking meats to smoke roasting meats. You want dried out fruit wood cherry, pecan or apple all work great on pork and chicken and I use hickory for red meats. I avoid mesquite and morning wood completely. My recommendations are all based on flavor. Best to try all of them and see your results.

Who has the best jibarito steak sandwich in the city?
- Pat McBride

Tomax: If I want a Jibarito sandwich I’m going to Cafe Laguardia.

Death Toll Scholl: Gloria’s Café, a Columbian restaurant in Logan Square, has the best jibarito in the city. Yes, I know it’s not Puerto Rican; it’s just damn good.

JB Mays: Right here, man.

What’s your favorite non-documentary food movie? What about documentaries?
- James McDonald

The Godfather: Raging Bull taught me that if you overcook a steak “it defeats it’s own purpose.” Another great scene is at the end of “There Will Be Blood.”

JB Mays: For non-fiction, it’s really hard to beat “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” which literally every other food writer has talked to death. It teaches a lesson I think people are afraid to acknowledge – that you don’t become the best at food because of passion or love, but because you have the discipline and drive to do the same thing a hundred million times until it becomes second nature and you can sense the effects of minute changes to technique or conditions. Cooking might be about love for some people, but cooking well is ALWAYS about mastery through repetition. Sorry to stomp on your fuzzy memories.

As far as non-documentaries, I really enjoyed “Today’s Special,” which is on Netflix instant at the moment and which basically contradicts everything I love about the previous entry. So there’s that. I’m a conflicted man.

Egon: The thing about food scenes in movies is that it is not always the food that is important but rather the familiarity of eating with your friends/ family / business partners/partners in crime/lovers/enemies etc etc. and the conversations that happen at the table, which in my not so humble opinion are the best part about eating – lord knows I talk more than I eat.

A couple of my favorite movie scenes that involve food:

“Fargo”
Gaear Grimsrud – “We stop at Pancakes House.”
Carl Showalter – “What are ya nuts? We had pancakes for breakfast. I want to go somewhere I can get a shot and a beer, and a steak, maybe. No more fuckin’ pancakes, c’mon man. C’mon man!”
Trying to decide what to eat is as important as whom to eat with. All too often a group decision on food turns a conversation into a gastronomic nightmare. To deal with this tell people you are Vegan or the new Vegan (gluten free) explain that you no longer eat anything with a face or a germ and make a suggestion based on what you want to eat. When you order a Steak sandwich with garlic bread and your friend calls you out, pretend you have no idea what they are talking about.

“Reservoir Dogs”
I don’t need to go over the whole scene, let’s just say it’s the best scene about tipping of all time, with “My Blue Heaven” a close second in my opinion. Keep in mind I have never worked in the service industry and am also Jewish. I believe that tipping is a reward for doing a good job and not to be expected… no one tips me at my job, unless you count the occasional – “hey good job not fucking this project up!”
Another amazing food scene is in Goodfellas, when they’re in jail and Pauly cuts the garlic with a razor so it melts into the sauce.

Death Toll Scholl: “Ratatouille” has my vote as best non-documentary food. A funny rat that controls a chef – is that a metaphor or something?
Favorite documentary is “Food Inc.” It was done well and had logic instead of using shock tactics like some of the documentaries about factory farming, Monsanto evils, and genetic design.

Tomax: Favorite food movie might be “Uncle Buck” with that pancake he made with a shovel.

Ricky Thumbs: “Godfather Part I” (Clemenza’s sauce recipe), “Waiting” (a classic), “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” (Johnny Depp’s obsession with Puerco pibil), “Planet Terror” (secret BBQ recipe).

MAY is Mental Health Awareness Month