The Most Of Summer: Roadside Ribs On U.S. 1

I left Mom's Organic Market with the best of intentions on Saturday afternoon.

I skipped the R&R Taqueria because we were supposed to go out to dinner, and I was on my way home when my own thoughts of fleeting summer pulled me to the side of U.S. 1.

No one will serve roadside ribs when the winter comes, so I seized the day -- and the plastic clamshell of beef ribs, beans and an onion-tomato salsa from a guy in Savage parked outside the Chesapeake Supply & Equipment Co.  As I have said before, the mythical Lonely Planet guide for Howard County would send 20-year-old foreigners to eat ribs from the steel-drum smokers parked on weekends throughout Jessup and Elkridge.

Great flavor.  An authenticity.  Not exactly a steal, but certainly cheap eats at $10 for more food than anyone should eat at once.  This is a wonderful taste of a summer afternoon.  Saturday, my plate was beef ribs.  These weren't the long bones that I got in May from the weekend barbecue at Mel's Liquors in Jessup.  They were cut across from ribs, so I got a half-dozen ovals of bone and a long piece of flavorful, smokey meat.  No sauce.  It was an half-inch-thick piece of meat that you would have needed a knife to cut.  Luckily, I was alone, so ate it like a popsicle.

(An aside to my favorite HowChow reader:  You knew this when you married me.  You knew that I cooked all kinds of complex food, but I ate standing at the counter.  It's not like I came home and handed you a meat popsicle.  And I used a fork for the beans.  Smooch.)

The sign described these ribs as "costillas de res," and I have found some instructions for similar-looking grilled ribs that describe them as "flanken" style.  There are recipes that call them Korean-style, so maybe you buy them at H Mart or the other Korean grocery stores.  They still had the moistness and sheen of fat, nothing greasy.  The flavor was that full beef flavor that you get from well-grained cuts with a tang of smoke.  The guy also had pork ribs and chicken.  His beans were good -- tender, but not a huge amount of flavor.  The onion and tomato salsa was a fine contrast to the meat, but I wouldn't take a vegetarians and expect them to rave.

Go this weekend.  Grab your summer while it is still around.

The problem with this post is that I don't have an exact address.  Chesapeake Supply has a facility on U.S. 1, but it has a mailing address south of Rte 32.  The facility and the ribs were clearly north of Rte 32.  If I read Google Maps correctly, it was across from A Platimum Plus Limosines, 8359 Washington Blvd, Jessup.

A Guy Selling Ribs On Weekends
in the parking lot of Chesapeake Supply & Equipment Co.
on the west side of U.S. 1 north of Rte 32
Savage, MD

NEAR: Don't believe Chesapeake Supply's mailing address.  The company is actually north of Rte 32.  It has a yard of used construction equipment, and the grill guy has a truck and two multi-colored umbrellas.  You'll see it.