There are two menus to choose from at Blood Bros. BBQ after you arrive at the cutting block to place your order. On the right is standard fare — brisket, ribs and sausage by the pound; sandwiches, sides and desserts.
Things get interesting when your eyes scan to the left side of the menu. It takes a while to process the creative, Asian-inspired spin-offs that brothers Robin and Terry Wong and pitmaster Quy Hoang continue to add to the Texas barbecue repertoire. Though change may come slowly to traditional joints, it comes fast and furious at this Bellaire barbecue laboratory.
For those customers unfamiliar with Blood Bros.’ innovative approach, it may take a few visits to start ordering off the left-side specials menu. But when you do, you may never go back.
More from J.C. Reid: From shoulder clod to brisket, change comes slowly to barbecue - but it does come
Let’s start with the loco moco which, for the uninitiated, is a Hawaiian comfort food dish. There are four fundamental components: a bed of rice, a hamburger patty, brown gravy, and a fried egg on top. Blood Bros. hews pretty close to the original recipe, but with one obvious barbecue influence: the burger patty is made from brisket and smoked.
Indeed, several of the specials here are built around a burger patty, including the Saturdays-only smoked prime brisket cheeseburger. Why the obsession with brisket burgers? Like a lot of decisions made by barbecue joint owners, it comes down to economics.
Specifically, what can they do with increasingly valuable meat and fat that they trim off briskets before cooking? Many pitmasters are turning that trim into sausage, while others are forming it into burger patties. Blood Bros. has mostly taken the latter route, though they make their own sausage, too.
Another prominent menu offering is smoked char-siu pork belly fried bao buns. Bao is a popular Asian street food made up of a steamed or fried bun stuffed with meat or fish. The Blood Bros. version is fried, with a honey glaze giving it a golden color and a slightly crispy texture.
Pork belly that is braised and basted with a char-siu sauce (a Chinese barbecue sauce) is then smoked, sliced and stuffed into the bao. A vinegary and tart topping of pickled water spinach adds the perfect accompaniment of acidity for the sweet bun and rich pork belly. A spread of Chinese hot mustard gives it a final kick.
One of the more incongruous menu items is a shepherd’s pie. There’s no detailed back-story on this addition to the eclectic offerings here, other than it is one of pitmaster Hoang’s favorite things to eat. It’s also another way to repurpose brisket trimmings into ground beef. To add some local flavor Hoang braises the brisket in 8th Wonder Brewery’s Rocket Fuel beer — a porter-style beer made with Vietnamese coffee. The ground beef is then topped with the traditional mashed potatoes and cheese.
More from J.C. Reid: Why more Texas barbecue joints are making their own sausage
These are only a few of two-dozen or so innovative specials (they call them “Features”) on the menu at Blood Bros. It’s important to note that different menu items are featured on different days — consult the restaurant’s Facebook page for details.
On a recent Wednesday, I scanned the menu and realized that what would otherwise be special menu items at any other barbecue joint are now the standard menu items at Blood Bros. Certainly, the Texas barbecue trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage will always be the foundation here.
But at this Houston joint, loco moco, bao buns and even shepherd’s pie are going mainstream.
jcreid@jcreidtx.com
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June 03, 2021 at 11:17PM
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Blood Bros. BBQ pushes barbecue boundaries with bao and shepherd’s pie - Houston Chronicle
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