The Bacon Explosion from Ed Lin on Vimeo.
Did you notice a new byline on our blog yesterday? Yes, it's none other than Professor Salt, a.k.a. Shuji Sakai! The man, who has been giving sage food advice on the Orange County Chowhound Board for as long as there was a Chowhound, has finally joined our rank and file as the newest Stick-a-Forker. As Gustavo Arellano put it, “it's about fucking time!”
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Shuji comes with a list of accolades too numerous to name. But I'll try. He's contributed to The Weekly, started one of OC's first food blogs in his “You Gonna Eat That?”, and competed in many a BBQ competitions with his team, Four Q.
If you know Shuji like we do, you know he's an expert on BBQ, keeper of the flame and slow smoke. If you don't, his first post yesterday on what wood to use and not to use, should've given you a clue. In the video above (shot by Eddie Lin of Deep End Dining), see our now-resident pitmaster preparing a Bacon Explosion.
But as we welcome The Prof to our blog, he will also fortuitously be on TV tonight! Shuji is going to appear on tonight's episode of BBQ Pitmasters on TLC. The show airs at 10 p.m. on the analog TLC, or TLC HD at 7 p.m.
As humble as he is learned, the Professor downplayed his appearance on the boob tube. He told me, “I'm a bit player on Team Bigmista's BBQ. Neil Strawder is the star, my other teammate Sylvie and I are there as the help. So don't expect to see a lot of me, I'm not the main course.”
Well, I can tell you where you'll see a lot more of him: HERE! ON STICK A FORK IN IT!
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.