Asian Noodle House - Hoffman Estates, IL - Beef Chow Fun

This was the second time our family went to Asian Noodle House in Hoffman Estates.  Click here to see the post for the other time we were there.  I ordered the Beef Chow Fun ($5.95), my daughter ordered the same thing she had last time (Shrimp Wonton and BBQ Pork Soup for $6.50 but they charged an extra $1.00 for the same kind of rice noodles that I had in my dish) and my wife ordered Beef and Chinese Broccoli for $5.95.  We also ordered one order of Fried Egg Roll for $2.95.

The only thing that wasn't worth it was the Fried Egg Roll.  Two very small egg rolls (with ground beef in there) for $2.95 was not worth it at all.  It wasn't that good too.

The other food was fine other than my wife wanted Cantonese Fried Noodles for her dish, but ended up with Pan Fried chow mein noodles instead.  Not what she was expecting.

This time, they had a bit of air conditioning, but still, not enough.  Their kitchen is wide open into the restaurant dining area so the heat from the cooking gets into the dining area too easily.  If it weren't for the fan running in there, it would have been hot again.  Today, the outside weather was not as hot as last time, so we didn't feel the effects of the heat as much this time around.  Really, they need to turn up their air conditioning.

Overall, still not bad as far as taste, but we did note that the restaurant is a bit farther away than what we would like, but the price and quality in general wasn't too bad.

El Rey del Pollo Asado

My wife and I went to El Rey del Pollo Asado for dinner.  We ordered the 8 piece Family Order with Rice, Beans and French Fries.  Cost was $16.15 plus tax ($17.93 with tax).  We also had included 6 corn tortillas per person as part of the meal.

In general, the taste was very good for everything.  The chicken was a bit small in our opinion, but the taste made up for it.  Jalapeño chili's and grilled green onions were also part of the chicken order.  Neither of us really eat the peppers or onions, but I'm sure others would appreciate it.  The beans were a bit runny for us, but I just poured it on top of the rice and put it in my corn tortillas.  Not the way to do it, I'm sure, but I was ok with that.  The fries were very good... nice and crunchy!

We had this chicken before but we did it as a take-out order.  The restaurant looks like it could have been a old Pizza Hut that they converted over as the shape of the restaurant looked like an old Pizza Hut.

The chicken came out fast, probably less than 5 minutes of wait time.  You pick up your order at the counter and bring it back to your table, so there's no tip needed.  Our fries were not done at the time the other food were ready, so they just brought those to our table a couple of minutes later.

Free salsa is available, but you can buy larger bowls of it if you want to take some home.

Overall, we liked El Rey del Pollo Asado's food and service, but thought that the it was a bit pricey considering the size of the chicken.  Yelp and Google Reviews are generally 4 out of 5 stars, so I guess others like it as well.

13.94 lbs of Pork Shoulder on the 22.5" WSM - AND a Coho Salmon!

13.94 lbs of Swift Premium Boneless Pork Shoulder from Costco (cut in half for faster cook time) on the 22.5" WSM. Rubbed with Costco's Flavor Connection rub modified with some cayenne pepper and Hickory wood for smoke. Pit Temp is hovering around 229 degrees. I will wrap at the stall and go to +/- 203 degrees internal temp.

My last smoke, I had problems with my temperature probe for the meat and so I put in a new probe to finish the cook. I ordered another replacement probe as a standby (good thing I had an extra last time) and also ordered a silicone "stand" for the remote on my ThermoWorks Smoke system. Just came in today, just in time for the cook! Nice! Now I don't need to lay the remote on its side to read it.

What I like about ThermoWorks is that they always include a small package of Jelly Belly jelly beans for you! Small things make my day!
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1 hour, 15 mins into the cook:

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2 hour, 15 mins into the cook and stalled at 155 degrees.

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3 hours into the cook the pork is still stalled and actually went down to 151 degrees.  The pit temp was raised to 234 degrees.

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4 hours, into the cook, I decided to wrap by putting the meat into aluminum pans and covering with aluminum foil.  The meat has been stalling for well over 2 hours now, so I figured I'd power through the stall by wrapping.  The pit temp has increased as well to 254 degrees.  Internal temp is currently at 151 degrees as checked on another piece of the meat.  I moved the middle grate meat to the top and the top to the middle during the wrap.
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4.25 hours into the cook, I decided to smoke some coho salmon as well!  Since the pork is wrapped and "isolated" from the fish, it should not mix in flavor.  I stacked the two aluminum pans together in the middle rack and put the fish on the top rack.  I'll smoke this until the fish has an internal temp of 145 degrees.

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The fish cooked really quickly and tasted great!

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6 hours - The pork is still in the smoker!  I believe it is going through a second stall at 186.5 degrees. I had to add more charcoal to the pit as well.  The pit temp is now at 235 degrees.

At 6.5 hours, I took out the meat in the middle grate.  The internal temperature had risen to 207 degrees.  A temperature probe went into the meat like butter!  VERY SOFT!  I'm waiting for it to sit for a while before attempting to pull the pork.  The top grate meat has been moved to the middle grate.  Internal temperature for that is only at 189.2 degrees.

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Half of the finished product. Zero effort to pull! Perhaps the softest I've ever smoked. Really nice smoke ring too! The other half is still in the smoker going on 7.25 hours.

I pulled out the second batch which really only reached 189.2 degrees after 8 hours. Just didn't have enough time to wait any longer. Soft, but did not pull as easily as the first batch. Still ok though, but the first batch was way better!

Our First Tomato

This was our first tomato ever!  It weighed 9.9 oz.  After 33 years of marriage, we decided to plant a tomato plant in our backyard.  The plant was purchased from Costco and we transplanted it actually.

The very first tomato was picked today and cooked with string beans and pork with rice.  Tasted great!  Can't get much fresher than a tomato picked just a couple of minutes before cooking it!

Edit Update:  More tomatoes the very next day (7-23-18)!

Edit Note: One more on 7-25-18:

One more on 7-27-18:

Yen Yen Chinese Restaurant - Arlington Heights, IL

My wife and I went to Yen Yen restaurant in Arlington Heights, IL.  We ordered Dry Beef Chow Fun and Ginger Chicken.

The dishes were tasty and the Beef Chow Fun had plenty of Wok Hei flavor to it.  Overall, taste was good.  Total cost was a bit over $31 including tax.  But when we came into the restaurant, my wife asked the waitress if they honor the 20% in-restaurant coupon we found online and she said, "Yes... they will take care of it when you pay at the front."

Well, they didn't honor it.  Apparently, there is a Yen Yen restaurant in Buffalo Grove and the coupon is from THAT restaurant!  The owners of the Arlington Heights restaurant sold their Buffalo Grove restaurant to the new owners but the new owners won't change their restaurant name!

You might say that this Arlington Heights restaurant should not have to honor the coupon from the other restaurant and I'd say you are right, except the waitress told us they would take care of it after our meal.  Why would she say that if they had no intention of honoring the coupon?  I think it's because this way, you will order, eat and then get hit with the reality of no discount AFTER you are done.

The cashier told us we were not the first ones making this mistake.  Apparently, they get others doing the same thing... coming to the Arlington Heights Yen Yen with the Buffalo Grove Yen Yen coupon.   So, they actually know about this common mistake and yet, the waitress still led us to believe our 20% discount would be applied at the end of the meal.  Very sneaky.

Because of this, I doubt we will go back.  Too bad.  If they had been upfront about the coupon to begin with, I probably would go back.  Not now.

Smoked Lake Trout on the 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

Today's smoke on the 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain... fillet of Lake Trout caught in Lake Michigan on my charter with WindyCitySalmon!

265 degree pit temp, fish coated with Old Bay Seasoning and hickory wood for the smoke. I will continue smoking the fish until it hits an internal temperature of 145 degrees.

The finished product!  The pre-cooked photos always look better since they have a fresh coating of rub on the meat.  The finished fish has oils that rise to the top causing the white sections you see in the photo.  But the fish tasted amazing!  Perhaps the best fish I have made yet!  Plenty of smoke flavor to it and the Old Bay Seasoning really enhances the taste with its celery salt.

Edit Note: I was told by another "smoking" chef that if I had smoked the fish at a lower temperature (around 175 degrees instead), it will have less chance of pulling the proteins / oils out of the fish and making it have less white sections. I will give that a try next time.

33rd Wedding Anniversary Dinner - Chef Ping - Rolling Meadows, IL

Well, my wife and I got a better dinner than we did lunch for our 33rd Wedding Anniversary.  We went to Chef Ping in Rolling Meadows, IL.

We ordered Sesame Chicken, Salt & Pepper Tofu and Combination Chow Mein.  Overall, the food was very good.  The Combination Chow Mein had decent "Wok Hei" but not as heavy of a wok her taste as it could have been.  Portions were a bit small and they gave only one small bowl of rice between the two of us, but the overall flavor was good.  My wife also ordered a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup since she likes that kind of soup.

Price was a bit over $35 with tax.  No bad.  This is the third time we've been to Chef Ping since it opened many years ago.  They were packed by the time we got there at 5:30 PM.  They opened at 4:30 PM.  People were waiting to get in by the time we were done (we were only there 1/2 hour before we had finished already!). Seems their business is doing very well.

33rd Wedding Anniversary Lunch - McDonalds

To celebrate our 33rd Wedding Anniversary, my wife and I went to McDonalds for lunch!  We each had an ap coupon for a free medium fries with a purchase of anything $1.00 or more.  So we each bought a McChicken sandwich for $1.00.  With tax, everything was $1.11 per person.  To top it off, we each paid for the meals ourselves!  Talk about a cheap date!  ;)

It's been years since we've been to a McDonalds!!  (I usually go to Burger King if I'm going to go to a fast food burger joint.)

We'll go out to a nicer restaurant for dinner tonight.

11.82 lbs Pork Butt for Pulled Pork - 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

Today's cook in the drizzling rain... 11.82 lbs of pork butt for pulled pork.  (The drizzle only lasted a few minutes, but I kept the smoker under the umbrella the whole cook.)

Cooking on the 22.5" WSM and using hickory for the smoke.  There's water in the pan.  Half of the meat is on the middle grate, the other half is on the top.  I'm monitoring the cook with a ThermoWorks Smoke Thermometer.  I'll run the cook until the meat stalls and then wrap in aluminum pans.  I will finish the cook when the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.

Currently the pit temp is at 261 degrees.  I am using a Weber water cover pan which is lined with aluminum foil to help the cleanup go faster.
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After 2 hour 45 mins into the cook, I decided to wrap the meat in an aluminum pan and aluminum foil.  A small amount of apple juice was added to the pan.  The meat had been hovering at 159 degrees for a while, so I knew it was stalling.  The pit temp immediately rose to 308 degrees after putting the lid back on the smoker, but I suspect that will drop back down.  A lot of air was let into the cooker when the lid was opened and that just adds more oxygen for the coals to burn hotter.  It should stabilize again soon.
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I was having some problems with my temperature probe going to the meat.  It seemed to be intermittent towards the end of the cook.  I got it to work, but I'm not sure what was causing it to show "no probe" on the remote.  Anyway, I ended up putting a new probe in the lower grate meat and keeping the intermittent probe on the upper grate meat.

Temperatures for both meat seemed similar within 2 degrees.  The lower grate was hitting 199 degrees after 5.75 hours and the upper grate was reading 197 degrees.  I will let the cook go until the upper grate reaches 200 degrees and will report back as to where the middle grate meat ends up at that point.
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The second batch (the upper grate batch) stayed on for 6.5 hours.  Both did not pull as easily as my best pull.  I think the defective probe has something to do with it.  Going forward, I'll use a new probe.

Asian Noodle House - Hoffman Estates, IL

I ordered the Combination Chow Fun (Malaysian Style) for $7.95 from Asian Noodle House (see photo above).  My wife and daughter ordered Shrimp Wonton and BBQ Pork Soup for $6.50.  My daughter's boyfriend ordered BBQ Pork and Rice (with a fried egg extra) for $5.75.  We also ordered Beef and Chinese Broccoli Chow Fun (but pan fried and no gravy) for $5.95.

Overall, we all thought all the food was good and priced reasonably.  The staff was friendly too.  The only thing we didn't like was that the restaurant did not have their air condition on and was only running a fan on a hot day!  We all were sweating by the time we finished our dishes.

We have been looking for an inexpensive place to go that was not too far from us that offered food that could compare to some of the restaurants in Chinatown.  While I don't believe it rivals Chinatown, it's ok for the price and convenience of location,  We'll be back.

Beer Can Chicken on the Weber Limited Edition Red 22.5" Kettle

This is my second time doing "Beer Can Chicken".  This time, I used Apple / Strawberry / Kiwi juice instead of beer.  I am also using a different can holder too which holds the drippings so that it doesn't just fall to the bottom of the kettle.  (You can see it on the second photo above.). The rub was Kick Butt's Hickory rub.

I also purchased the Weber 7403 Char-Basket Charcoal Briquet Holders on Amazon to keep the charcoal on the side.  Because of this, I was able to put the chicken holder and chicken directly on the charcoal grate which kept the chicken lower in the kettle.  This is important because in the last cook, the chicken barely fit in the kettle when putting on the lid!

I spritzed the chicken every 10 minutes with the Apple / Strawberry / Kiwi Juice and rotated the bird a quarter turn.

When it was all done, everything turned out relatively good!  The skin was nice and crisp... not rubbery (which happens easily when smoking a chicken).  Total cooking time was about 1 hour, 15 mins.  Cooking chicken needs to be fast and hot to keep the skin crisp.

The breast measured in at 168 degrees and the thighs at around 182 degrees.  I let the chicken rest about 15 minutes before cutting into it.

As good as it tasted, I think I may have over-cooked the chicken by maybe 5-8 minutes.  Had I pulled it out a little earlier, the breast meat would have been a little more moist.  Additionally, internal meat temps will usually still rise a little even after being taken off the heat source until it stabilizes.  Plus, the chicken was closer to the heat source than last time since it was placed on the charcoal grate.  Next time I'll know to maybe go about an hour total cook time and monitor the internal temp better.  By the way, ThermoWorks' Thermapen Mk IV is AMAZING!  I would not be able to cook without it on a grill!