Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I used to 5-10# of peppers at a time for my hot sauce company a few times a month. You absolutely had to let the peppers finish drying after washing them before putting them on the smoker or they came out tasting acrid.

Didn't feel them. Saw my sandal sitting upside down.

thanks for your answer.

I have seen that some guys swear by letting the meat dry using a fan for few hours, but to be honest, on this city, we live in a constant battle with flies all year around, so, its pretty difficult to let fish fillets on kitchen for hours and really dont want to have to buuild a special cage ( I have seen them on youtube videos) to keep the flies away for the few times I smoke fish.

Wow, that California mission church is much nicer looking than the one near where I grew-up(Mission San Jose) and it's 100 yrs older. Ours was an adobe brick church and quadrangle, finished in 1806 after being founded in 1797. MSJ got damaged in a big 1868 earthquake, replaced with a Gothic wooden building, then got toppled again in the 1907 earthquake. They did a nice restoration of it in the mid-80's.

Quote from: steelfish on April 22, 2025, 05:42:02 PM

Quote from: pjstevko on April 20, 2025, 05:29:43 PMOut of the marinade and drying for a few hours before going in the smoker

amigo, have you noticed a real difference between drying for hours the marinated meat until getting the pellicle layer , versus, just patting dry the meat with a towel and letting the meat to rest for minutes before going to the smoker?

maybe my taste is not that trained but I didn found a noticiable difference when doing it one way or the other.

I haven't noticed much of a difference to be honest with you. I pat the fish dry after it comes out of the marinade then let it air dry while the smoker comes up to temp and holds the desired heat. It takes a while to get the charcoal smoker to settle to temp anyway so i let the fish dry while it does

Quote from: pjstevko on April 20, 2025, 05:29:43 PMOut of the marinade and drying for a few hours before going in the smoker

amigo, have you noticed a real difference between drying for hours the marinated meat until getting the pellicle layer , versus, just patting dry the meat with a towel and letting the meat to rest for minutes before going to the smoker?

maybe my taste is not that trained but I didn found a noticiable difference when doing it one way or the other.

Thanks!  Great report so far, Wayne!

Best, Fred

Quote from: El Pescador on April 22, 2025, 01:51:03 PMAfter leaving LAX we did our boarder crossing at 31,000'!!  Alex, I THINK that is San Felipe below, but I don't know.  Either way, we were thinking of you with this photo!!!





Wayne

thats coool and its correcto amigo, that small town you saw was San Felipe, in the 2nd picture you can see two big mountains near to the sea, those are the Mount Kila and Mount machorro, which normally appear on many pictures of San Felipe.

Joel.B!

I'm just one man! I am NOT Alan Tani, who works on a hundred reels during the off-week between two long-range trips!

I am NO Fred Oakes either, who drops 120 pine trees before dinner time.  But I'm back, rested and ready to show all a bit of our EPIC trip to Loreto. 
So here we go...

First off, we did NOT do the CBX - board crossing - during our time of pricing out tickets - my wife Jennifer hopped on her computer and found an Alaska Airlines flight from SFO to LAX to Loreto for FAR LESS Money than what Jerry and I were finding on the internet.

After leaving LAX we did our boarder crossing at 31,000'!!  Alex, I THINK that is San Felipe below, but I don't know.  Either way, we were thinking of you with this photo!!!





We arrive at Loreto - already 88 degrees.



Inside shot of the Loreto International Airport.  Cool & comfortable inside.



And a BIG THANK YOU to whoever on this site - the arrival entertainment committee - set up this refreshment for us!!!



A short drive across the dry river bed (arroyo) - we are in Loreto proper



The mission in Loreto was the first mission of the Baja California - and it is in great shape today.  Built in 1697



    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misi%C3%B3n_de_Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_Loreto_Conch%C3%B3

How's your Spanish???  I had a great chance to work on my version of Spanish this week.



The Church has a large footprint in this town.  The church bells chime each 15 minutes, and at the hour as well.



Near the mission are 2 plazas - the old Plaza and the new Plaza





2 PM and time for lunch.  We grabbed this restaurant, and I was amazed at the number of Americans and English-speaking people here.  Clearly, we were not alone.



My lunch tacos pastor - pork with fresh pineapple.  Delicious!



THEN, out of NOWHERE the flies arrive, and the waiter placed this sterno can-lit-with limes and cloves on the rim, however this works, the FLIES WERE GONE!!!



Now, I'm on vacation, and REELY don't want to think.  So,  using this currency app on my phone, it made figering out PECOS to USD so much eashier for this 68 year old guy.



Now, it's getting hot, and being in the shade is the thing to do.  Beautiful, isn't it?



Time to get loaded up with food and drink for the week, so big question here, WHERE does El Pescador shop for food in Loreto???



At the local El Pescador Supermercado (Super Market - I'll save you the Spanish translation!!!)

And the chili looked fantastic!!!







Alright kids, you have something to chew on, I need to offload more photos from my phone to my computer, sort them, delete the blurry ones, and prepare for my next photo dump for you all.  More is coming.

Wayne

Nice work Joe keeping those rods in the lineup instead of the landfill.