BBQ Judging the Guam Contractors Association 21st Annual Family Day 2013 Picnic and BBQ Contest.

Every year the Guam Contrator's Association hosts a big beach gathering for all of it's members. It's held at Ypao Beach Park, in Tumon Bay. It's one humongous BBQ. They also put on a no holds barred mini BBQ competition. This year it was chicken and ribs and you could garnish however you like. I love this type of competition because all the creativity comes out. You'll see what I mean when you check out the photos.

For the second year in a row, I was invited to judge the BBQ competition. It was a blast. What I like about it is that it is a small competition so the judging doesn't take long to complete and I get to sample some fantastic island style flavors.

Take a look for yourselves....

It was a whole beach park full of pavilions, canopies and BBQ!!! — at Ypao Beach, Tumon Bay, Guam.

Grilling the chicken on a stainless grill. Nice!!

The Watts crew having too much fun!!!

I thought this portable pig roaster was cool. The fire is raised and lowered by a car jack that you can see at the bottom of the photo. The fire drums are supported by the frame that is balanced and welded to the top of the car jack.

Don't have a stainless steel rod for the pig, use a long threaded bolt like this one. I like the way the legs are supported and secured on the metal supports. Nice!!

Roasting and rolling the whole hog. How much fun is this???

Limtiacos on the grill!!! You go guys!!!

The Perez Bros crew posing for the Master Photog Ed San Nicolas...

Photographer Ed San Nicolas says the shoot is over, now it's time to chow with the Perez Bros crew...

The grills come in all shapes and sizes...

Pork spare ribs coming right up!!!

BBQing the beef shortribs...

Master grillers in action. Old gas tank and stainless grill!!!

Outside of the big GCA Family Day Picnic 2013, life still goes on at the beach!!!

There is plenty of room to ride, walk, stroll....whatever you want to do, in Tumon Bay...

The storm surf was crashing the reefs.... That's Two Lover's Point in the background!!!

OK guys, cough up coin...beer run!!!

Judging Chicken...

The Judges...

Kaz Endo, Jason Datuin, and Rueben Olivas

Working it!!!

Working it harder!!!

Photographer Ed San Nicolas...

Judging Ribs...

So colorful!!!

And the winners were......who cares!!! It was all about having family fun, getting together with your friends, BBQing and spending the day at the beach!!  And, And, And...

Everyone was a winner on this day!! Even me..Burp!!

Want to give a special shout-out to Mr. Mark Cruz, Sales Manager for Mid-Pac Far East who helped coordinate the BBQ competition and Judging logistics. He also ate most of the chicken and rib samples too. I just had to say it OKAY!!!

Until next time...

Kahlua Shredded Pork Tacos!!

Who doesn't like tacos!!!! We love them. They are so easy to make. As a matter of fact a taco is just another way to eat leftovers. So you can make them out of anything you have. Not too complicated all all. One of my favorites though, is the Kahlua shredded pork taco. Here's one way we do it...

Here is the shredded boneless pork butt, Kahlua style. Though I prefer to cook my meat in the outside smoker low and slow, it's rainy season on Guam so I cooked this using a crock pot on the high setting for 4 hours. I rubbed the butt roast down on all sides with coarse sea salt and about 2 teaspoons of Liquid Smoke. Then I added 1 cup of water. 4 hours later is was time for shredding.

Home made re-fried beans. We use a pressure cooker for this. Saves a few hours of cooking. We used 2 bags of pinto beans, cleaned and washed, into the pressure cooker with 2 tablespoons of veggie oil. The oil helps suppress the excess gas from the beans. Fill the cooker to the halfway line with water and cook away following the instructions that came with your pressure cooker for beans. I use 12 minutes of cooking after the little pressure cap starts rocking. When the pressure cap starts to rock back and forth from the steam, you turn down the heat until it slows it's rock and that is when you start your cooking time. I turned off the heat after the 12 minutes and let it cool down.

To fry the beans, in a fry skillet, I use my saved bacon grease, add the cooked pinto beans to this and mash them while I cook. I use a mash potato masher to do this. I then add a little of the water from the pinto bean pot until I get the consistency that I like.

  

Mexican rice. For this I used 3 cups of rice. In a deep-sided skillet I add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil, add the rice and very lightly brown it. Just when I see that it is just starting to brown, I add about 3-4 cloves of minced garlic. Put in 1 1/2 cans of tomato sauce (8 oz. can) and same amount of water. Add in one tomato chopped and bring to a boil on high heat. Once brought to a boil, stir for about 1 minute and turn down heat to low and allow to simmer and steam, covered, just like making white rice. Stir occasionally. Will finish cooking in about 20-30 minutes. Turn off heat.

Salsa, the key to any good Mexican food. My salsa, Mama's Salsa, is quite unique and very flavorful. The recipe for this salsa will be coming out in my BBQ Guam cookbook due to be released, if all works out as planned, in 2014 just before Father's Day.

So here we have our complete meal. Mexican rice, re-fried beans, shredded Kahlua Pork, and Mama's Salsa. Not in the photo are the corn tortillas and shredded Jack/Cheddar cheese.

My plate consists of Shredded Kahlua Pork taco (pork on bottom, salsa, topped with cilantro and shredded Jack/Cheddar cheese), Mexican rice, re-fried beans and a little lettuce for salad...

This taco is going down!!! I ate 3 before I realized that I had not touched my beans and rice. So I ate one more taco and then polished off the beans and rice!!!

But as I mentioned before I do prefer to BBQ my meat in my pit, low and slow. Length of time depends on the thickness of your meat. But cook until you can flake the meat with a fork. You get that great smokey flavor. But using the slow cooker, crock pot, or your oven will still yield a great tasting meat for your tacos. You all know at first bite....it's all Good!!!

Until next time...