Revisiting Where It All Began

   This past weekend I was back visiting San Luis Obispo, the town where I believe my passion for cooking all began. On the Cal Poly 5 year plan, I made every effort to ensure that I had classes only three days a week to open time for things I was really interested in, like surfing, golfing, and well drinking (it is college after all).

   What I didn't realize was that it wasn't as much fun doing those things alone as every friend was hard at "work" in some general ed lecture room. So I spent many of those "days off" in my dorm room watching what was a new venture known as the Food Network. I remember these episodes vividly of Emeril taking swigs of wine while cooking and yelling "bam" at a level never to be seen again once his popularity caught the public eye. Sitting on our dorm living room couch, I watched as Bobby Flay grabbed the wrong pan that was searing hot out of the oven and fought back the tears but turned as red as one of his signature rubs full of chiles, all for the sake of creating good live TV.

   These days of boredom led to a curiosity of cooking that I explore with a passion til this very day. My mom taught me a lot about cooking and how to make food for myself all through my childhood. Let's face it, it's not hard to get excited about food when you get homemade lumpia, adobo, and every other great Hawaiian and Filipino dish made for you on a daily basis. My new excitement for cooking all started with an electric hotplate, breadmaker, a couple of pots and pans, and a small habachi bbq that allowed me to create "gourmet" dishes within the confines of a dorm room.

  Those of you familiar with SLO, know about a little place downtown called Firestone Grill, or Firestone's to the locals. The first week of my freshman year a group of us from the dorms headed downtown to check out the Thursday night farmer's market and stumbled into Firestone's. 

   It was that night, waiting in a line for 10 minutes and forking out the $4.75 for a tri tip sandwich that started this journey of finding the ultimate bbq joints along my path of life.

And the story begins!

Enjoy...with a pint of beer of course!