Park's Finest: Fingerlickin' Fine

Update: you can now buy your very own bottle of this crazy good sauce, but it's only available at the large public events it caters. I'll let you know when it begins selling it online on its site. Enjoy!

Meat, meat and more meat. If you're not a proud carnivore, you may want to skip this post. The first time I had a taste of Park's Finest was at Tuesday Night Cafe, which was MC-ed by founder and BBQ-master extraordinaire, Johneric Concordia himself. He brought some chicken that tasted good enough, but it wasn't until I had a dab of the fantabulous barbecue sauce that I became an instant groupie.

It took me exactly two seconds to think of an excuse to cater a Park's Finest BBQ party.

We got the pork baby back ribs (left), ribeye roast, chicken and sausages for meat and the corn bibingka, of course. They threw in a special cut of beef rib meat (above) they called dinosaur something but all I have to say is that it was my favorite -- cooked medium rare and all.

The food came on time and piping hot. Everything was fantastic. The only thing I would say they could have done better was the chicken. Maybe because the chicken pieces were smaller and uneven in size, the smaller chicken legs, in particular were a bit dry. BUT, nothing that couldn't be remedied with some smothering (more like dunking, drowning...you get the idea) of that lovely barbecue sauce with a Filipino twist that contains sugar cane, pineapple, soy sauce, garlic and...he'll have to kill you first to divulge the secret. When asked, he once famously said, "unicorn blood." No offense to animal-lovers. One of the hosts also famously wrote that she wanted to drink the sauce by itself. They should really sell this stuff in jars.

The sauce makes this barbecue. Don't get me wrong. The meats are great but significantly enhanced by the addition of this sweet, spicy, garlicky, smoky delight that you likely have never tasted before. It's that transformational.

The corn bibingka was sweet, soft, grainy and toasted slightly on top -- in short, the perfect accompaniment to the meaty stars of the barbecue.

The host and I made some sides, like corn on the cobb, peach and greens salad, roasted curried fingerling potatoes, cole slaw, pepper and cucumber salad, to balance out the heaviness from the meat. It didn't necessarily stop us from overeating but it certainly helped to temper the meatfest.

Still, we could have fed an army with the copious amounts of meat and food that was available. Not to mention our amazing array of cocktails, courtesy of our resident mixologist who made the best mango and strawberry margaritas, mojitos and caipirihnas.





You can find out where the name, Park's Finest, came from and the full menu on its site below. It also has pork tenderloin, beef ribs and much more. This BBQ is not to be missed. Cater it for your next work or play event.

Park's Finest
Tel. (213) 247-4909
theparksfinest213@gmail.com