Restaurant Review: TC's Bar-B-Que

Awhile back I wrote about my favorite BBQ restaurant, Cotten's in Jacksonville, FL. At the time I noted that the owners had changed and some of the long-time staff (Ms. Lucille!) had moved on to their own place. I finally got a chance to visit TC's Bar-B-Que a week or so ago. It was worth the wait.

I like hole-in-the wall BBQ joints, and TC's fits the bill perfectly. It's basically a long counter with four tables in front. Ragged cafeteria chairs provide the only seating. At the time, the unisex restroom was out of order, but they opened it when one of my lunchmates asked.

But the real test is how does the food taste? Ms. Lucille has the recipe for Cotten's classic mustard-based sauce and it's just as good here as there. The ribs I had on the rib sandwich plate were St. Louis cut, but I'm told they have full size spareribs also. I can say the the rib plate was exactly what I was expecting: Three juicy ribs between two slices of white bread, with a salad and fries on the side. The salad had their homemade dressing and it was excellent.

While we were eating several people came in to pick up take out. And TC's is the place all the city officials and police left Cotten's to eat lunch at. You can't get much higher recommendations than that.

Ms. Lucille doesn't run the day to day business anymore but her presence is felt. TC's is definitely the place to go for BBQ in Jacksonville.

I may have a new favorite BBQ joint.

TC's Bar-B-Que
1269 Edgewood Ave W
Jacksonville, FL 32208
(904) 765-9945

TC's on Yelp. TC's on Google+.

Restaurant Review: Cotten's Bar-B-Que

Ask ten people at random what their favorite BBQ joint is and you'll get ten different answers. Ask ten people in Jacksonville, Florida, the same question and nine of them will tell you Cotten's Bar-B-Que on the corner of East 16th and North Main. The tenth person won't be from Jax.

Fred Cotten's Bar-B-Que has been a Jacksonville fixture for decades (founded in 1944). Growing up, my family ate there all the time. They still do. And I make a point of going there for lunch at least once every time I visit. In it's heyday, you could find city officials, including the mayor, and police eating lunch just about any day of the week. You can't get much better recommendations than having the police as frequent diners.

Cotten's features pork ribs and pulled pork sandwiches, smothered in their secret recipe mustard and vinegar sauce. Our favorite is the rib sandwich plate. It includes about a third of a rack of ribs between white bread slices, with straight cut french fries and a small salad. The salad features Cotten's unique dressing, similar to thousand island. Somehow those ribs on the right were cleaned off before I had a chance to take a picture. Oops.

Cotten's is small and serves up everything on Styrofoam plates with plastic utensils, but that just adds to the experience.

As I understand it, after Fred Cotten passed on the restaurant was run by his long time employee, Ms. Lucille (it was still owned by members of the Cotten family). She always had a smile and good conversation. I remember one time in the 90s I went to the counter to order some sauce to take back with me. "You know, I came all the way from Atlanta for this BBQ sauce," I told her. Ms. Lucille laughed and said, "If you came all that way then I'll give you a bottle free!" She also warned me to keep it refrigerated "because Mr. Cotten, he gave me the recipe before he died but he didn't say how long it'd keep!"

Since then I've always had the image of Fred Cotten on his deathbed, giving out the ingredients between gasps until finally, "...and it will keep for... arrgh!" RIP, Mr. Cotten.

Unfortunately, all has not gone well for Cotten's in this century. A new owner, Billy C (pictured on the left with long time cook Johnny),  bought it in 2000. He has renamed it Billy C's Fred Cotten Bar-B-Q and added more items to the menu. Since then business seems to have been on the decline. The politicians and police have moved on to an even smaller BBQ joint opened by Ms. Lucille and her sister Ernestine in 2002 called TC's. I'll review that when I get a chance.

In spite of the recent changes, Cotten's is still the best BBQ place I've ever eaten at. If you get a chance try their rib sandwich plate with sweet tea. You won't regret it.

Recipe Review: Silver Paper Chicken

This is the second of my recipe reviews from Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible. According to Raichlen, Silver Paper Chicken "was inspired by San Francisco's celebrated dim sum palace, Yank Sing." These are  chicken thighs or breasts, marinated with soy sauce, five spice powder, and a few other things, then individually wrapped with scallion in aluminum foil and put over direct heat on the grill until done (about twenty minutes). The recipe calls for bone in thighs but I used boneless, skinless thighs and had excellent results. The finished product makes a great appetizer. It would go well as a starter for Susur Lee's Chinese Barbecued Pork.

Preparing these is very easy. Cut the thighs or breasts in half. Mix the marinade ingredients together and marinate for at least a couple of hours. When you're ready to grill seal each piece with some scallion and a little bit of the marinade in a small foil square and start cooking!

As you can see from the finished product above, these come out nice and juicy and, you can take it from me, extremely tasty. The five spice powder, a blend of cinnamon, pepper, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise, give the chicken a distinctly Asian flavor.

If you want to impress your friends with the range of your grilling ability you definitely want to try these.

Obligatory quibble: Like the other recipes in The Barbecue! Bible, this isn't truly barbecue since it's prepared over a direct grill. Who cares? It's the taste that counts.

Recipe Review: Susur Lee's Chinese Barbecued Pork

I reviewed Steven Raichlen's The Barbecue! Bible last week. This week I'll talk about a couple of his recipes. The first one is Susur Lee's Chinese Barbecued Pork. According to Raichlen, Susur Lee was born in Hong Kong and owns a restaurant in Toronto called Lotus. Well, he used to own a restaurant in called Lotus. As I said in my review of the book, I have an old edition. Since then Lee has moved on to other culinary pursuits.

Susur Lee's current whereabouts and activities aren't really relevant to how good his Chinese barbecued pork recipe is. And it is good. One of my favorite Chinese dishes is barbecued spare ribs. The sweet glaze they use gives the ribs an exotic flavor and unique red tint. I've tried many times to duplicate this, to no avail. Until I tried this barbecued pork recipe. It uses pork tenderloins instead of ribs but possesses the same taste. The only thing missing is the red tint. I can live with that.


The ingredients are shown on the right:

• Pork tenderloin
• Celery, chopped
• Carrot, chopped
• Onion, chopped
• Ginger, minced
• Tangerine or orange zest (I used both)
• Rice wine or dry sherry (I had sherry handy)
• Soy sauce
• Maple syrup
• Asian dark sesame oil

Preparation is easy. Combine the vegetables and liquids to make a marinade. Marinate the tenderloins at least a day (two days is better). On cooking day remove the tenderloins from the marinade then strain the marinade and reduce it in a sauce pan on the stove.

Grill the tenderloins until done, brushing frequently with the marinade. Let them rest, slice, eat. The remaining marinade makes a great sauce. Steamed cauliflower goes well with this entree.

What makes this recipe so great while all my previous attempts failed? It was the sesame oil. I think that added the piece I've been missing to solve the Chinese barbecue puzzle. Now I can't wait to try it on ribs.

Obligatory quibble: Like the other recipes in The Barbecue! Bible, this isn't truly barbecue since it's prepared over a direct grill. Who cares? It's the taste that counts.