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My leg of lamb cookout, plus some bad video of the Halal butcher chopping the legs

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    My leg of lamb cookout, plus some bad video of the Halal butcher chopping the legs

    Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) just ended and life is finally back to normal. I used to like and enjoy fireworks, before I started staying in China during Spring Festival. The smart people leave and head for the Philippines, Indonesia, or Burma and wait it out there. But everyone's back now and it's time for a BBQ. I get my buddy the bar owner to spring for the cost and take my ebike out to the Halal butcher. Earlier, I had had my girlfriend call him to make sure of his opening time since I wasn't going to make it there by 5, and he said he was open until 2am. Huh. Must be one of those people who live at the store. So I get there at 6:30, and the place is closed up. Wonderful. The neighbor says I should call the number on the sign, which was what I was going to do anyway. The guy says he'll come out and open up the shop. Fine.

    A Tunisian friend of mine introduced me to the place when he was doing some lamb at his own BBQ. One of the few times I ever inspired someone else to cook out, which I honestly hoped would have happened more by now. My friend didn't know the address, and so he had to guide the taxi left, right, left, until we got there. It's an odd shop, in the middle of an auto parts district. Totally out of place, but that's China for you. You never know where you're going to find these awesome, cool shops that have something you really want. It's the Halal butcher that serves every lamb noodle restaurant in the city. The first time I was there, this three-wheel motorbike showed up with bags of freshly cleaned carcasses, which the owner weighed and paid for. Where else would I buy leg of lamb?

    This is a case of nicely dovetailing with another situation, the fact that Meathead has a lamb recipe on the website. Last year, when my need for something new to BBQ met my knowledge that a Halal butcher existed, I bought my first leg of lamb and followed the recipe to a T. It came out spectacularly good. I didn't know I could make food like that. It was really my "LEVEL UP!" moment when I realized if I followed all the directions, I could make not just good BBQ, but spectacular BBQ. Changed the way I think!

    I wait an uncomfortably long time in front of his closed shop, soaking up the active street scene at that hour of the evening. On the video you can hear some kids singing. He finally arrives, and opens up the shop to get the meat. This is where the video comes in. I bought an SJ4000 headcam (gopro clone for $82) and have started using it to record my strange ebike journeys. I see the weirdest shit on a daily basis and nobody would ever believe me. I still hadn't figured out how to use it properly so it's not aimed right and you can barely see the good part, and it cuts off before all the great battle-ax chopping is done because the memory is full. Anyway, I'm including it anyway. You get to hear my execrable Mandarin pronunciation.

    <embed src='http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMjUyMDA2MzcyOA==/v.swf' allowFullScreen='true' quality='high' width='480' height='400' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash'></embed>

    <iframe height=498 width=510 src='http://player.youku.com/embed/XMjUyMDA2MzcyOA==' frameborder=0 'allowfullscreen'></iframe>

    Well, if the above is gibberish then that's what it said to post to embed the video here. If it doesn't work, just click the link directly and view the video on their site.

    Three legs of lamb come to 11.3 kilo for 632 yuan. That's 25 pounds for $92, or $3.69/lb. Only he included a part of the lamb's lower body that I really don't need. Evidently I have to buy what he cuts, cause he ain't doing it otherwise. Fine, I ain't paying anyway. That's why I love these bar cookouts, I get all this training for free. I have him chop the legs into shape which is the good part of the video that you didn't get to see because I am stupid. He handles that axe like Conan the Barbarian. At one point he misses and cleaves a big hunk out of the leg. I don't moan about it to him, I'll just tie it up with some butcher's twine (which I have because Meathead said it was a good idea.)

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    I pay him with Alipay. Electronic payment took over China about a year ago, and now everyone takes it. It's convenient, just scan a QR code on the other person's phone and then enter the amount. There's even a setting for cash registers that lets them just scan your phone with a barcode reader and the transaction completes with no further interaction on your part. It's pretty spiffy. For some security reason, it wants me to enter the seller's surname in Chinese. I go to ask the butcher what his name is, and he tells me it is "Ma", like horse. This is an ancient and honorable name of the Hui people, who are Chinese Muslims. They are ethnically Han Chinese, but long ago began practicing Islam which caused them to split off culturally from the Chinese mainstream. No surprise he's running the local Halal butcher shop.

    The other nice thing about cooking at this bar is that they have a chef, a young Chinese fellow "Felix" who was trained in Western cooking. He doesn't speak much English but he knows how to make all these salads and sandwiches. It's really convenient having him around because he can do all the un-fun things like chopping garlic and trimming the legs. When we were mixing up the rub and I was ready to apply it, he said isn't this supposed to have garlic? He pulls out the recipe from last time that he wrote down in Chinese, and sure enough the garlic is there. Good job. In fact, having done this before he pretty much does all the work and I just go out to start the fire. This is another story, of course, because this is China.
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    I find out that they used all my cotton ball candlewax fire starters, so we have no way to start the fire. Wonderful. I have the worst time getting the fire started. I have tried all sorts of things. Chimney starters, alcohol gels, no matter the method it was always a pain. Even when I eventually got the fire going. Hungry guests don't like waiting an extra 45 minutes while you soak paper towels in Wesson oil. So, what am I going to do now? I remember the bar has this big blowtorch lighter they use to light cigars. I commandeer it and arrange the coals so its blast will concentrate on one. There's always that extra little "oh no you don't because China" moment waiting for you, and then you have to improvise.
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    After maneuvering the thing around to light enough coals, which took about 20 minutes, glad its gas supply was full and could go that long, and it didn't melt and destroy itself during the process (always a concern in China). The fire was finally burning in a manner that seemed unlikely to go out, so I declared the fire started and put on the food.

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    Searing is something I'm going to have to get better at. Some places don't get enough, some places get too much.


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    Results were excellent.

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    Last edited by Lost in China; February 19, 2017, 04:01 AM.

    #2
    Felix made short work of the leg carving. Plated up with a bit of lettuce and served to the bar patrons. They didn't seem especially enthusiastic about it, but I didn't see any leftovers.

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    I have to think of what my next challenge will be. I guess I need to finally get off my butt and find a real butcher who can carve off what I need from a side of beef. I want to make pulled pork, I can find it on Taobao but it's super expensive. Maybe ribs if I can get a pig. Even a brisket. Spring is barely here and it's time to BBQ until October.
    Last edited by Lost in China; February 19, 2017, 03:55 AM.

    Comment


      #3
      Nice pics!

      Comment


        #4
        Beautiful!

        Comment


          #5
          Great job! Lamb looks good! ​​​​
          Australian charcoal is also hard to light - sometimes if I'm in a hurry I have to use the oxy set.
          I bought two bags of Kingston original from Costco the other day and the difference is night and day - so much easier to light.
          ​​​​​​​Pulled pork shoulder is really good and also easy - you really should try it if you can get a shoulder. Its awesome!!

          Comment


            #6
            Could anyone see the video? I don't know if it went through or not.

            Comment


            • JCBBQ
              JCBBQ commented
              Editing a comment
              I was able to watch the video

            #7
            I tried yesterday and now again and it didn't work for me. I'm using an Android tablet....

            Comment


              #8
              Nice photos and write-up. I don't know if you can use US electric products, but if you can, maybe one of these, (or something similar), would solve your fire starting problems.

              Comment


                #9
                I just tried the video again and it worked!!!
                Amazing..
                Did he use his phone to take payment??? I saw him put it on the table....

                Comment


                  #10
                  Cool write up! Your musings about China are quite funny!

                  Comment

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