now about that magical roasting box, legend has it, it was an ancient chinese torturing device. you would stick a person in there, close the lid and put some hot coals down on top. someone figured out, hey, that guys dead, but man, hes cooked pretty evenly. maybe we should try to cook a whole pig in there!
fast foward a few hundred years and some dude in puerto rico remembered seeing some old chinese coworkers using a roasting box to cook up some damn good eats. he decided to make his own. then his son decided to market the box!
tada! smart man, making a nice little business from a simple need he saw. thats pretty smart, and it looks like they are making a pretty nice living out of it.... ok, you see thats smart. i have to hand it to the la caja china people. they make a very simple kit which costs next to nothing to make, market it for $300 bucks and you have people like me that swear by it cause it cooks really well. but you see, thats not white man rule the world smarts. not even close. more on that toward the end of the post.
back to the box. to be honest, i was bit disappointed when i first received my box. it was pretty much something i could whip up one afternoon at work with some scrap wood, some 3ply 1/2' cdx plywood, a table saw, some 24 guage sheet metal and a six pack of beer. i wondered by i paid like $300 for it. oh yeah, i saw it on tv and i had to have it......
ive used it a handful of times, ok i gotta say, this thing is pretty magical. the box freaking works great. i have to say its worth the price, but next time, if i need another one, i will just make it myself.... and my current box? well i modded my la caja china... smoothed and sanded it down, put new handles, new wheels, slapped on a thermometer....
la negra caja
however this is actually counter productive along the white man rule the world smart scale. basically, i bought a honda civic at mercedes benz prices and threw on some 24s.
white man rule the world smart?
this
take a $300 box. slap on some chrome trim. add a thermometer, most important, slap on your brand name. increase price five fold +
this is white man rule the world smart. holy crap. you have to have balls the size of basketballs to think that you can straight up take an already overpriced wooden box, add a few decorative touches and sell it to your customers for five times + more.... and people buy it! holy crap. only white man rule the world smart people could think like this..... one day, i will be able to think on this scale. if i could go back to school, i would want to major in how to think like a white man.
and this is one funny white man who talks about how great it is to be a white man.
Whole pigs, pork shoulders, briskets, ribs, turkeys, salmon, you name it, it’s all great in La Caja China!
ReplyDeleteGreat article, thanks!
- Perry
Perry P. Perkins
Author – “La Caja China Cooking”
https://www.createspace.com/3445714
all kidding aside, i love my la caja china. i dont get to use it nearly as much as i want to because i live in a condo in an urban area, but when we do, we all love it. infact, im picking up a harvested 50lb whole hog tomorrow and dusting off the ole caja china for sunday.
ReplyDeleteand im not sure if this really qualifies as an article, but thanks for reading!
Yeah, I have the same trouble, condo and urban neighborhood. I use my little Caja China #3 on the deck all the time, but the big box only comes out 2-3 times a year now. Oh well, maybe someday I'll have a back yard again, lol.
ReplyDeleteHow did that pig turn out?
-Perry
Perry P. Perkins
Author
“La Caja China Cooking”
“La Caja China World”
This was the first time I did it myself. I purchased mines originally years ago for a pig roast we set up to benefit our local food bank. It turned out so well we did it a couple more times.
ReplyDeleteThis time around I did all the work myself. Picked up the freshly harvested roaster, made a mojo with sour orange juice, etc. And roasted it myself. I made a few errors but now I know for the next time. Got myself a few pointers!