Tormented Kitchen

Hello, dear readers. What did you do for Labor Day weekend this year? We consumed mass quantities of ribs, like we always do! We split up the rib-snarfing over two evenings. I was keen to go Friday night because of the live band. It was Vertical Horizon! The kids hung with a grandparents so hubby and I could cavort in public with other grown ups. We enjoyed a few cold ones with the music, some food like these piles of fried potatoes, and meandered through the market. We ate a few rib samplers, fried pickles, and funnel cake, but we didn't actually get any alligator. You know that stuff isn't native around here. The next day, we came back with kids and one grandma.  We did the Rib Village. Baby N was not patient. She was starved and devoured applesauce and ice cream after sampling some ribs too. We did some shopping in the market stalls. It was perfect weather. We walked our behinds off. Thank goodness for the bu...

Hello dear readers! The past week Sparks was host to the annual Nugget Rib Cook-off. Of course we went and it was as busy as ever. This year we just went on Sunday. We caught a matinee at Century 14, Minions, since the big kids hadn't seen it yet. It was cute! We have been in the middle of minion madness, and the movie was the biggest deal to the kids. This was also the baby's first visit to a movie theater! After the movie, we walked through Victorian Square. We ate our fill of ribs from some favorites like Texas Outlaw and Chicago, plus a few of the vendors we don't always get like BourbonQ and Texas Thunder. We also chowed on deep fried pickles, deep fried peaches with whipped cream, a funnel cake, and shaved ice.  My husband also convinced me to help him drink a blended margarita. So what if I ended up drinking most of it? By the way, we seriously considered buying the whole roast pig this year.  Some friends have been hard at work helping another...

Hello readers! I've been slow to post this, mainly because I forgot to hit post!  Silly me! So let's take a look back at the 2014 Best in the West Rib Cook-off.  It was in the typical location along Victorian Square between the Nugget hotel and the Sparks Century 14 Theater.  In recent years, many of the older building were demolished and turned into a vast parking lot. This comes in very handy for events like this. There were rib booths spread out more toward the theater. Normally they are crowded together all down Victorian Avenue, and the lines of people waiting for food can get very long. It can be hard to even walk. I liked that the booths were further apart. We tried a few places that we didn't recognize. Everything was hot and fresh off the grill.Yum! In my opinion, that is the best way to eat ribs. We didn't get tickets to the Rib Village this time. No, we took our time meandering through the vendors on foot and stopping at places t...

Yes, it happened again.  The Nugget Rib Cook-off has come and gone. This year marked the 25th annual cookoff. There were all the usual events, like free concerts with Diego's Umbrella and Bad Company, vendors along the street, the carnival rides, the Rib Village, and Maker's Mark showed up to sell commemorative 25th anniversary silver-wax-dipped bottles of bourbon. The old Silver Club, has re-opened under the new name of Bourbon Square Casino.  They had a beignet stand just outside the doors.  I love donuts and beignets and these were super, super good beignets! The fried pickles from the next stand were pretty good, too. This year, we went to the Rib Village and methodically taste-tested ribs.  We took a plate of ribs with the matching sauce and shared amongst ourselves. The 5 of us, me, the husband, his mother, his brother, and brother's girlfriend did the tasting.  The kids were there, too, just not doing any evaluating. We conclude...

Oh my goodness. I forgot to post about rib cook off!  Yes, we went. We went more than one day, mind you. We are connoisseurs of ribs. It seemed like they spaced out the rib booths further from each other than in years past. That made walking around much easier.  We also took advantage of the free bus rides from the Legends mall to the downtown Sparks bus station. We got ribs from the vendors directly and then also one night we went into the Rib Village for the smorgasbord. The kids now love ribs and devoured them faster than me! We noted that few of the rib-smokers had whole suckling pigs roasting away. They were about $175 a pig. We wandered through the vendor booths and the food providers. The kids played in the water fountain in front of the theater and enjoyed a few carnival rides, day and night. We ate a little of everything. Fried zucchini, onion rings, fried peaches, funnel cake, cream puffs, ice cream bars, ribs, ribs, ribs, and washed it down w...

I've been going to the Nugget Rib Cookoff for years. The first time was way back in the early 90's, when I was a teenager. I missed a few years, but the past 8-9 years or so, my husband has made sure that we go. Dear readers, you know we love meat. We would starve as vegans. This cookoff was no different than past ones.  We went a couple different times, ate both from the Rib Village and stood in lines. We feel that gives us a fair representation. Sometimes, ribs hot off the grill are just so different from the Rib Village pans of ribs. You still get the flavor, but the fresh hot smokiness can get lost from getting wrapped and piled in a pan. A few of the entry booths have local restaurants so we already knew what to expect from them. Kinder's, Famous Dave's, BJ's Nevada BBQ. We know you guys very well, very well indeed. We went Friday night to the Rib Village. We were at the table right next to John Ascuaga himself. You know you're doing ...