barbecue and bachelors
So apparently the Nugget Rib Cook-off in Reno is a pretty big deal. According to the website over half a million people visit it every year. I had been wanting to go for the past few years but for some reason or other I was never able to make it until this year.
At the rib cook-off each competitor had a booth where you could buy ribs from. It was hard to pick because pretty much every booth said, “AWARD WINNING RIBS.”
All the booths had impressive displays of trophies. It makes me wonder if it’s just some sort of marketing gimmick, like everyone who pays to enter gets a prize of some sort, so that everyone can say they are selling award winning ribs.
They didn’t just sell ribs. Gid and I started off with this as our “breakfast.” It’s called the porkinator, which is pulled pork covered in ham, bacon and pepper jack cheese. Apparently we could have won a t-shirt if we finished it in under a minute.
They had other stuff besides food too, with various vendors selling stuff somewhat related to barbecue. I almost bought one of these cowboy hats. I have an idea for a restaurant called “Korean Cowboy Cuisine,” which would be my take on barbecue stuff. If I ever actually opened the restaurant I would need one of these hats.
In the end I left somewhat disappointed, mostly because of the cost. These two samplers cost us $10 each.
After the rib cookoff I headed down to Tahoe/Donner for the rest of the weekend to meet up with some friends for B’s bachelor party. The drive on highway 431 past Mount Rose and down into Incline Village was quite beautiful, especially with the sunset over the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe, this crappy cellphone shot doesn’t do the scene justice.
I thought I was running late, but I actually ended up making the left turn onto highway 28 right in between the two cars carrying the rest of the bachelor party, which was coming in from the cabin at Donner Lake. Perfect timing. We were all on our way to eat dinner at this tapas restaurant. The food was okay, but pricey. Actually now that I think of it, I should open a Korean fusion tapas restaurant. All I would have to do is serve the Korean stuff I normally cook (like Korean barbecued beef or kimchee fried rice), just put it onto little plates and charge a ton of money for it. I bet I would be a millionaire in no time if I actually opened a restaurant like that.
The next day we headed out to Squaw Valley. The scenery there never ceases to amaze me. This crappy cellphone shot doesn’t do the area justice. I find myself saying that a lot. The stupid thing is, I brought my SLR camera up for the weekend, but it never once left my bag. But I guess I wouldn’t have had time to take pictures anyways.
We spent the entire day playing paintball at Squaw Valley’s high camp at the top of the cable car. It was pretty awesome, they had both a speedball and a woodsball course with natural rock and tree obstacles. It was insanely fun, but seriously tiring running around dodging paintballs at 8200ft elevation (or maybe I’m just really out of shape).
The rest of the weekend was spent at the cabin. The cabin had a pretty nice grill setup so we ended up grilling a bunch of stuff for dinner. The rest of the time was spent relaxing. It was really good just chilling with these guys. I became a Christian in college and so these guys were the first church going friends I had and they had a pretty big impact on my life.
