Soul Fire (Allston, MA) - Review of the Pitboss Sampler

Barbecue is one of those things that is best eaten at a restaurant or ordered take-out because it takes a long time to make it well at home. If you live in Boston, Red Bones in Somerville is probably one of the more well-known places to get tasty barbecue. However, if you live in Boston (and not in Cambridge or Somerville) and don't want to haul your butt over there, Soul Fire (in the Allston area) is a pretty good place too. I had a Living Social deal that was about to run out and finally got some take-out there. For a more thorough review of everything they serve, check out the pigtrip blog (it has pictures of most dishes).

Since I didn't know what to order, I got the Pit Boss Sampler, which includes a bit of a lot of different things for about $43 with tax. I thought it would be enough food for about 2 days. It's a lot of food and supposedly feeds only 2 or 3 people - umm, yeah, if the people are big football players! I think it feeds at least 4 or 5 people (who are not football players). There was plenty of food for at least 5 meals and I'm not a skinny person. There are 7 different meat dishes in the Pitboss Sampler: pulled pork, spare ribs, baby back ribs, brisket, a hot link (sausage on a stick), fried chicken, and spicy hot wings (with sauce on them). All of the meats were cooked very well and the brisket was especially good. That explains why the 2 guys who ordered after me both chose the brisket. There was enough seasoning to not need any sauce but dipping is part of the fun of eating barbecue, right?

7 different meat dishes in Pit boss sampler

hot link (top), pulled pork, spare ribs (left), and baby back ribs (bottom)

yummy brisket chunks (on top of a slice of bread) hiding under the rack of baby back ribs!

As if the big pile of meat were not enough, the Pitboss sampler comes with 6 different sides, cornbread, and all the sauce you need. The guy said I could "load up" on sauces but I took only a small container of each of the 3 sauces in the pumps because I expected that the meats would be well seasoned already. Ok, so the sides were: collard greens, beans, rice and beans, mac & cheese, potato & egg salad, coleslaw, and cornbread (with butter). I liked the potato & egg salad very much. The mac & cheese was good too. The collards, slaw, and beans were actually on the sweet side. However, I'm not sure if I might be a little more sensitive to sweet than other people because I've been cutting my sugar consumption. Personally, I like collards to be a little on the salty side. The cornbread was pretty good and the rice and beans were quite good with a bit of a spicy kick. All of the sides were in the 8 oz deli containers, which made me think that this would be way too much food for 2 or even 3 people (who are not football players). In rank order, I liked the mac & cheese, potato egg salad, rice & beans, and then the other 3 (because they were all just a bit too sweet for my taste).

Sides included in the Pit boss sampler (and all the sauce you need)
going clockwise: Collards (top), beans, rice & beans, corn bread, mac & cheese, potato egg salad, 3 sauces

potato egg salad

coleslaw

The Pitboss Sampler is a great thing to order if you're having a Superbowl party with a bunch of dudes who like to eat a lot. I would love to go back and order a brisket meal because that was done very well. The spare ribs were good too. For sides, I'd probably get the mac & cheese and/or the potato salad. If you have a LevelUp card (this link gets you a $5 credit, by the way), they take that too.

Cheap spicy meal - Slow cooked curry

For about $10, you can make enough curry for at least 8 meals. If you want to lower the cost even more, use beans instead of chicken. That will drive the cost down to about a buck a meal and it will look like you have more food (because a pound of dried beans will increase in volume a lot). However, you'll have to boil the dried beans (about $1.39/lb) and then add them to the curry. You can also add a smaller amount of chicken for flavor and add a lot of beans.

The other great thing about making curry is that it is very easy to do. Just get a 6-quart slow cooker, dump everything in, put the lid on, and go away for about 3 hours. You might have to stir it around once every hour but that's it. If you have one of those cookers with an adjustable temperature knob, you can adjust the time it takes for the curry to cook. If you're in a hurry, you can probably eat in about an hour (if you don't keep opening the lid). The temperature can also be set to about 180-200F if you plan on going to work/school and coming back in about 6 to 8 hours. Just make sure you have enough water in there and the lid is on if you're going away for more than a few hours (because if all of the water evaporates, the curry will burn).

NESCO cooker with adjustable temperature knob

Possible ingredients:
Chicken (or other protein) - $2.50
2 lb vegetables (frozen veggies are good) - $2.50
onion (diced) - $0.50
3-5 cloves garlic (chopped) - $0.10
2 large potatoes (cubed) - $1
2 plantains (cubed) - $0.40
4 blocks of Japanese curry roux (e.g. Golden Curry) - $2 (for half a large box)
1 can light coconut milk (e.g. Trader Joe's light coconut milk) - $1
water (depending on how much sauce you want - start with 2 cups and add if necessary)

* Prices are approximate

Big pot of curry all ready to eat!

Small portion - veggies, potato, plantain, mushroom

Small portion - veggies, potato, plantain, mushroom

If you have room in your fridge, the whole pot can be stored in there. However, it's probably better to store it in smaller containers so that you can take a box to school or work the next day.

The potatoes and plantains are enough carbs for some people but having rice on the side would be how most Asians would serve this. A healthier alternative would be to have a side of mashed beans if you did not use that as the protein in the curry.