Honey and Rosemary Grilled Pork Ribs - When My Butcher Broke My Heart...

How did my butcher break my heart?

He could've blantantly rejected my love...
He could've fooled around with the veggie vendor auntie right in front of my face...
He could've given better cuts of meat to the lady queueing in front of me...

but he didnt.

He simply broke down my ribs into pieces...

Don't call 999 just yet...they weren't exactly my ribs, but they were my pork ribs.

I always wanted to try grilling baby back ribs at home.

So, I went to my beloved butcher, hung around his shop for a while, wearing my sweetest smile, flicking my hair, toying with pieces of plump tomatoes I got from the veggie stall (because cucumbers or carrots would just be too vulgar), while checking out pieces of sexy things on display. But I didn't see anything remotely similar to the baby back ribs I usually get from pricey restaurants. I just saw a couple slabs of giant ribs, and wondered if they would do the trick.

My beloved butcher has always been super sweet.
I could just tell him what I want, and he'd give just what I need plus a little something extra (such as bits of fats or tendons to make your roast or sate moist, or pieces of bones to sweeten your soup)...
Told him about the grilling plan, he nodded knowingly and pulled a slab of giant ribs, quickly asked me if I wanted them cut....and before I could say anything much...he proceeded and broke the slab into tiny individual pieces...

Sob. Sob. Sob.

Despite not knowing if it mattered, I felt heartbroken.
Because I knew that I wouldn't be able to take beautiful pictures of the full slab of ribs just like Peter's.

Honey & Rosemary Grilled Pork Ribs

Yes, I was inspired by the ribs guru, my sweet lil' gweilo, Peter of Kalofagas, to make my own ribs. Check out Peter's Hickory Pork Ribs post to see how it should be done. I tried my best to follow his tips, but as always, I haven't achieved that "holy grail" level of ribs yet. I'll try to do better next time.

The dry rub
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Paprika
- Rosemary
- a little oregano
Since I don't have powdered garlic and onion, I just crushed a few cloves of garlic and halved a couple of shallot and scattered them amongst the ribs. I kept the ribs refrigerated overnight for grilling the day after.

The grilling
The next day, I preheated my oven to 180C, covered the ribs with foil (I failed to place the ribs on wire rack as I don't have it, I'll get one soon ^_^), and grilled the ribs for 1 hour. After an hour, I removed the foil cover, pour plenty of honey on the ribs, and grilled them again until golden brown.


These golden brown babies were delicious, but they could be a lot better.
I see a very promising future.

I quickly realized that I was being unreasonably broken hearted. My butcher was nothing but sweetnesses, love him still, but I shall continue my search for baby back ribs somewhere else. Oppps, sorry :p