- So this is the California cut known as the tri-tip.
It is part of the sirloin family
and the Santa Maria ranchers, they determined
that this was too nice of a cut to be just ground up.
Like brisket, there's a point and flap.
For the tri-tip, there's the tip and the end.
There is a little bit of a silver skin,
we want to trim that off.
We want to keep the marbleized fat
that's right on top of the tri tip.
So the Park's Finest is a representation
of American cuts of barbecue with a Filipino flavor.
What that allows us to do is provide
American cuts of barbecue with seasoning and sauces
that are reminiscent of the Filipino experience
present here in the United States.
So a basic dry rub, pink Himalayan salt,
a blend of black pepper, white pepper, cayenne powder,
and chili flakes, same thing with our onion,
garlic powder, granulation, chopped and minced.
This seasoning is kind of, as best as I can
in a dry format alongside smoked meat,
a sample of what Filipinos do.
So currently we are utilizing Lucy and Ricky,
our cook shack fast-Eddie smokers.
Through pellet technology, it is an offset smoker.
It is cooking directly behind our unit,
as it pumps convection air up,
it then is pushed down onto the side,
between the heat shield, to the meat out to the chimney.
Your prime the fire pit, the fire pot,
an entire 50 pound sack of pellets.
That lasts us two days.
So all we're doing is making sure
we have pellets loaded in the hopper.
It's kind of sliding kids down a slide of heat.
We're able to hold meat anywhere between
three to four degrees of efficiency and accuracy
over the course of 24 hours.
So we're loading this.
We're assuming that at least a solid 12 hours
where we could then pull certain items, hold it,
wrap it up and let it come back and relax
for service at five o'clock.
All we're trying to do is
kind of introduce you to Filipino food.
Something that you'd love, you just don't know yet.
(upbeat drum music)
We're going to be doing a briefing.
So for run of day, guests are going to arrive
roughly 4:30 and then from there,
make sure that drinks on the table,
servers are responsible for their drink orders
and pretty much letting our expediter know
what size of a party.
After a year and eight months of not serving food
to the public, we wanted to be able
to have an opportunity to feed people from our community.
To feed and serve people to the best of our ability
and welcome folks to 2021.
So I'm making Mama Leah's coconut beef stew.
It is a Filipino adobo using coconut milk.
But it makes it an adobo
because it's cooked with the vinegar.
So right now I am just throwing up some cooking oil
and roasting garlic, pairing it with our dry rub seasoning.
In the region of where my family is from,
lots of cattle or access to cattle in that area.
But what was dynamic was
my grandmother is Seventh-day Adventist.
So she didn't eat pork
like regular Filipinos do all the time.
So this, this is actually Ginataang Adobo Carabao
So it's a coconut Adobo utilizing carabao.
It's something that you're never going to get
outside of Temple Street, Historic Filipinotown.
So cubed chuck roll.
We smoke it first cause we want to render down the fat
just enough that it permeates in the meat, it tenderizes it.
And then also we can get some of that bark
to really sit on the outside layers of the meat.
So our heat, it's a more of a warmth on the back end
because what we're using is California yellow chilies.
That umami-ness from the fish sauce,
it's a hug for your stomach.
(upbeat music)
Start transferring the coco beef into a half 600.
We're going to continue this process in the smoker.
We throw it back into the smoker, like a crockpot.
So you get this nice rich texture with tender meat.
- I'm making cornbread bibingka.
Bibingka is a Filipino pastry.
Once I make the whole batter,
we'll be baking it on banana leaves.
I've already whipped up some eggs.
I'm going to put all our coco milk in there.
- So Ann and and I grew up at Virgil Junior High
middle school together since the sixth grade.
- When we first started the Park's Finest barbecue,
we thought of like, okay,
we want to do this type of meat and beef, and,
but we needed some sides.
Usually barbecue and cornbread kind of go together.
I can't say I'm the best cornbread maker,
but I sure could make some bibingka.
So I thought, why not?
Let's blend the two mixtures together
and see what it comes out to.
We're going to put our dry ingredients.
Bibingka's usually like a snack, like an afternoon snack.
Sometimes it compliments like a noodle dish.
This is cream of corn.
I figured, well, it's not really cornbread
if it doesn't have corn, right?
(upbeat drum music)
So I know when it's ready when my batter looks like that.
The banana leaves actually help with
a little bit of the flavor
and also it helps it from not sticking.
It was one of those things where like,
how can I mix your traditional American goodness
with a little bit of Filipino goodness?
It's like this, if your mom, your grandma,
the people in your life are going, boom,
this some good s***.
It felt good, it was surprising.
Pop it in, let it do it's thing for about 20 to 25 minutes.
Once that's done, we'll take it out.
Put a little butter.
Put more sugar.
Pop it back in, maybe another 15, 20 minutes.
Depends, you know?
And then you get the final product.
And my tester's here, that's my husband.
He's the other part of the Park's Finest.
All right, it's nice and hot.
Yeah, it's ready? - Nice and crunchy.
- So this is a choice Angus beef rib.
We think about Chris Rock in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka,
"Can I get one rib?"
So our ability to weigh a rib out,
it's that dinosaur rib on your plate.
It is such a heavy piece of meat
that if there's one item to get
that really hits the spot is the beef short rib.
When people think barbecue from all worlds and all levels,
you can't go wrong with a short rib.
Similar to our tri-tip seasoning.
It's pretty much straight across the board,
this is our dry rub.
So all of these things that come together,
you could see, right?
It creates texture, things that stick to your molar
as you're biting, as you're chewing it, it resonates.
We do not serve this in the Philippines.
Folks that eat this here in the United States
can relate it to the Korean community.
It's galbi, we call it three bone.
Accompanying it with our seasoning,
accompanying it with our sauces,
pairing it with rice makes it Filipino.
So we got to feed roughly 80 people
in the next hour and 15 minutes.
They'll probably arrive in 30 minutes.
The place isn't ready.
We're all kind of worried and scared.
So we're going to just double check
the things that we put in yesterday and shift accordingly.
We're trying to get everything to meet up at the same time.
So every two hours we do a shift,
rotate things down, move things up.
We're excited to be able to feed all of these folks
that are coming in and sitting down with us.
All right, time check, it's 4:30.
Let's go ahead and start plating food for a party of five.
(upbeat music)
So we have a full house.
We're about to unload all the food
for everybody to enjoy and give us an opportunity
to be able to serve them.
All hands on deck, all the stations are set up
and the people that are making this food
are not separated from the people that are being fed.
We go hand in hand and we're lucky enough
to do this together.
(upbeat music)
All right, good-looking people say, yeah.
- [All] Yeah!
- All right, good-looking people,
we are about to have the East Wind lion dance troop perform.
You notice there is lettuce hanging above you.
They will come in, they will eat up that lettuce
and provide blessings to everybody on the table.
And then we will pop about 200 yards of firecrackers.
Like sage, we will bless this space.
(traditional upbeat drum music)
(Eastern flute music)
So traditionally, a lion dance troop
are great for businesses because one,
the energy and the vibe that they create
for people to stop and take a look for a second.
As well as the idea that
we're bringing good fortune to our location
and helping cast out any bad vibes through the firecrackers
for folks that are passing through.
(firecrackers popping)
The name, The Park's Finest comes from
a comic book shop called The World's Finest.
And as kids, we used to traverse a mile over
to just buy some comic books.
That's at least six localized gangs in that stretch.
So as everybody starts to have their dance crews,
their party crews and all of these elements
that represented themselves,
the Park's Finest was the barbecue.
(upbeat music)