Florida Interlude #1 Funky Buddha

When you are married to a Latin American, or have friends who hail from down South America way, it's almost impossible to avoid ending up in Florida, particularly South Florida, on a regular basis. Thus was the case this month when my sister-in-law found herself in Fort Lauderdale for a few weeks as a teacher/chaperone of a group of Brazilian students on a sort of "study-cation", if you will. She had Sundays free, so the wife and I loaded up the car and headed the roughly six and a half hours down I-95 to spend a day with her before she jetted back down to Brazil.

We are categorically broke, so to make the trip work I reserved us a tent-camping site at Easterlin Park, which is in Oakland Park just down the street from where my sister-in-law was being hosted. The park itself was very nice, and apparently locally famous for its "disc golf" course, which looked to be absurdly popular, as well as just generally absurd. The weekend we were there we saw crowds of people with lots of specialized equipment playing the game as though it was actual golf. They had various sized discs (and if you didn't have enough, there was a disc vending machine on the premises) as well as modified strollers that served as their golf bags...I feel really dumb even typing that sentence. Anyway...

The park was decently wooded, and our site had plenty of privacy and access to bathrooms, showers, etc. We've camped a number of times in various county, state, and national parks in Florida and have never yet been disappointed in the available facilities. Obviously most folks are there in RVs and such, but we saw a few other fellow tent dwellers. The only real downside to the whole affair was the parks proximity to the highway and a very active rail line. You couldn't see the city, but you absolutely could hear it.

We arrived into town just in time to watch the Falcons take on the Seahawks, so once camp was pitched we headed down the street (literally) to the Funky Buddha Brewery. It was a Saturday, and there had apparently been a festival that ended right as we arrived so the place was packed. We were no strangers to the Buddha, having discovered its funky brews and vibes on our first trip to Lauderdale a few years ago. They do crazy good work with the beers, living up to the funky moniker. Think beers with guava, a peanut butter and jelly brown ale, lots of fruit sours (that night they had a passion fruit sour on tap), and dessert sounding brews such as sweet potato casserole ale. Most importantly, they have giant projector screens as well as LCD TVs everywhere for your football viewing pleasure, and they now serve food.

Due to Florida laws, which are not as restrictive as Georgia (e.g. they can actually sell they're own beer directly to the consumer) the food portion of the operation has to be kept separate from the beer part of the operation. So instead of simply sidling up to the long bar and ordering an ale and a burger, you have to purchase the food completely separately, counter-style, in a separate part of the building. Which is weird, and nonsensical, but ultimately not that big of a deal. The festival postponed the opening of the kitchen until about half-an-hour after we arrived, and also meant there was a limited menu. This ended up being a good thing because it forced us to check out new items we hadn't tried before. We had become big fans of their burgers last time, but they were off the menu.

We went with the Brat and the Pork Sandwich, later adding a "spent grain" pretzel to the feast. Lau's Brat came with the kettle chips and I substituted the yucca tots, because that's just how I roll.

MAIN STREET PORK SANDWICH

SPENT GRAIN PRETZEL

Let me start off by saying everything was very tasty and filling. We had driven a long way and set up a camp site, so we had a good hunger going and the portions certainly did not disappoint. The stand out of the two "entrees" was the brat. The sausage was plump and juicy and had a great grilled flavor. The red cabbage was braised, I suppose in beer, which gave it a delicious sweetness that, combined with the onions, was balanced nicely by the awesome mustard (liberally applied, as you can see, and also made with in house beer.) Apparently the bun was made from spent grain too, which is a great was to make use of what is basically a waste product. The poppy seeds were a nice touch.

The Kettle Chips were phenomenal, and I can say without any hyperbole that they are the best chips I've ever had, period. They were a mix of potato and sweet potatoes of some variety (or varieties), thick cut, and crunchy without being at all greasy. They were magical and I honestly don't know how they do it.

My pork sando was decent. It as good pulled pork, roasted though and not smoked. The beer-based sauce was sweet with a little bit of a vinegary twang, though the "Hop Gun" IPA flavor was all but lost. Lately at home when I griddle up cheeseburgers, I've switched from using potato buns to challah because you get the same flavor profile, but with much more structure. This held true for the pork as well, holding up to the juice right until the end. If I did ever get this sandwich again though, it would be because of that slaw. And that pickle! Look at that beauty. They really have a good pickle game going at Funky Buddha, which befits a brewery since it's all fermentation. I don't know why the slaw was "creole" exactly, but they give you a lot and it was fresh and crisp, with just the right amount of natural sweetness from the carrots and cabbage to go with the vinegar.

The yucca tots are awesome. I'll officially go on record saying that I don't care for potato tots. I find them incredibly unnecessary with a garbled texture and sub-par potato flavor as compared to a good french fry. I do love yucca though, and think that it really should be more integrated into American cuisine at large. The Cuban's definitely know how to make it work, and no doubt that is what inspired the tots. Cooked soft then apparently dredged in cornstarch and fried before finally being topped with crumbled cojita cheese and spices. They are absolutely addicting.

Using spent grain from your brewery to back with is a cool concept that is hard to execute properly. After all, the grains have been sapped of most of their sugar already and really aren't good for much more than pig feed or dog treats. I really wonder if the pretzel was made entirely from flour milled from their grains, or if it was some sort of mix. Hard to say, but the pretzel was good anyway. My wife said it was the best she'd ever had. You can see that it was large. The crust was nice, and the interior fluffy. They give you choices of sauces and we went with beer cheese and an awesome spread made from Nutella and bacon.

We love the Buddha so much we made a return trip with my sister-in-law that next day to get our hands on the burgers. More on that later.