We Seem To Be Back!

Well, we seem to be back! We have been away for 2 months recovering from knee surgery. (Check out "Microfracture Surgery" on Wikipedia for details.) We can now get back up the stairs which is where the core technology center of The Naked Whiz Publishing Empire resides! Today we updated the 'Fest Map and Events Calendar and in the coming weeks we hope to publish some new product reviews. So stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed we don't fall down the stairs!

 - TNW

Extruded Coconut Charcoal Review

As we related earlier, a box of Komodo Sustainable Extruded Coconut Charcoal appeared on our doorstep a few weeks ago (the day before we had knee surgery, argh!). We have just posted the review which you can read at this location.

Just to recap for any of you new to this form of charcoal, back in the 2002-2004 time frame, Kamado sold a wonderful extruded coconut charcoal that was made in the Philippines. It burned reasonably long, hot and even, and made a great fuel source for long overnight cooks.

Well, rumor has it that Kamado never paid for that charcoal and thus could never get it again. So they started selling various truly dreadful formulations that produced huge amounts of ash, smelled bad, was moldy, and burned for relatively short periods of time. Most of the people who tried it were aghast.

Back in 2009, Komodo Kamado (not to be confused with the Kamado company just mentioned) attempted to source that first great coconut charcoal but discovered that for various reasons, you just can't rely on suppliers to deliver what they promise. The charcoal they obtained was "sort of ok" but it wasn't the really "good stuff."

So, Komodo Kamado went off and either bought or manufactured all the equipment they needed to produce their own charcoal, and the result is this 2011 Komodo Sustainable Extruded Coconut Charcoal. You should read the review, but let us briefly state that this is exactly what Komodo Kamado was striving for. We hope you enjoy the review!

- TNW

Custom Covers For Your Cooker

We just thought that we would share with you one of our favorite suppliers, Coverworks, makers of custom covers for just about anything you own. Coverworks is run by John Edwards who goes by "Johnnyboy" online. Previously, he has made covers for our medium Big Green Egg and Komodo Kamado cookers. Well, just today we received two new covers, one for a large Big Green Egg and one for a classic Kamado Joe. We thought owners of these popular cookers would be interested in a source for quality custom covers.

Here you can see the custom cover he made for our large Big Green Egg. All his covers are made from Sunbrella. Sunbrella is a woven synthetic canvas fabric from Glen Raven Mills, Inc. that is made of 100% solution dyed acrylic fiber by Du Pont. Sunbrella fabric comes in a range of colors and is color-fast and resistant to fading, cracking, scratching and hardening. It will resist mildew growth as well. Stretching and shrinking is minimal with Sunbrella fabric. Sunbrella products provide up to 90 percent UV protection from sun rays.

We now have all our cookers, save one, being protected from the elements by covers from Johnnyboy's Coverworks. We have been very pleased with the performance of our covers, so if you are interested, you can contact them via email at coverworks@hotmail.com.

- TNW

Extruded Coconut Charcoal Is Back!

Long time readers will remember a time in the distant past when one could buy quality extruded coconut charcoal. It had a sweet smell, burned evenly like briquettes but capable of higher temperatures. It was a perfect fuel for low and slow overnight cooks as it produced little ash.

Unfortunately, the company selling it ran out and was never able to supply quality charcoal ever again. (You can read the long sad story of the rubbish charcoal they attempted to pawn off onto their customers at the Lump Charcoal Database. Just look for the reviews of the various incarnations of Kamado extruded coconut charcoals.)

But that was then and this is now. Komodo Kamado (not to be confused with said previous supplier) decided to fill this gaping hole in the charcoal world by trying to find the original supply. To make a long story short, Komodo Kamado came to the conclusion that the only way to supply quality extruded coconut charcoal was to make it themselves.

So to make an even longer story even shorter, a box of Komodo Kamado Sustainable extruded coconut charcoal arrived at our doorstep yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, we will begin a review of this highly anticipated product as soon as our little adventure with the orthopaedic surgeon comes to a satisfactory conclusion. But we are excited about the possibility that we all may now have a reliable source of this charcoal from a reliable and reputable source. We'll of course let you know when the Naked Whiz Publishing Empire resumes operations.

- TNW

The Komodo Kamado Review Is Finally Here

Well, it took 2 months, over 260 photos, about 20 pounds of charcoal, four strong men (well 3 strong men and us) and a lot of time to produce our latest review: The Komodo Kamado 2011 23-inch OTB Gen 2.4 Ultimate Refractory Cooker. We hope you find it informative and enjoyable.

This is the latest version of Komodo Kamado's top of the line cooker. It's simply stunning. Pebble tile, elastomeric (flexible) grout, monster stainless steel grids, a truly air-tight gasket, and on and on. It's hard to believe how well designed and built this cooker is, so check out the review and you'll see for yourself!

- TNW

Komodo Kamado Review progress report

Just a quick update to state that our new cooker is in place on the deck. We've probably done about 90% of the photography for the "photo tour" section of the review and now we just have a heck of a lot of writing and explaining to do. The plan for these reviews calls for finishing up the photo tour before lighting it up for the inaugural cook. We want to be sure we've got all the photos of a bright and shiny brand new cooker, inside and out, before we begin using it. Back to work....

-TNW

Our Latest Cooker: Komodo Kamado

Many of you already know that we owned a Komodo Kamado cooker that arrived by in 2006. It was a great cooker and it served us well, but we finally decided this spring that we wanted a new model with all the updates and with tile and a color that was our choosing. So, we sold the old cooker and placed an order for the new model.

Last week we took delivery on the latest and greatest model and today we were able to get it uncrated and moved into the Naked Whiz Publishing Empire's new wing. She's a beauty! We just thought we'd alert you to the fact that we will be working on a new review of the Komodo Kamado cooker to replace the old one. There have been a LOT of changes, all of them improvements and it's time we updated you. So, keep an eye on the website. We will, as always, update the What's New box when the review is ready.

- TNW