DJ Neil Armstrong Made Us Cambodian-Style Pork Ribs

Ginger and honey baby back ribs "Cambodian style." Photo by DJ Neil Armstrong

In this space, I'll be bringing you recipes and food stories from the globe's most cookin-est DJs, paired with carefully selected music for culinary enhancement. In my years in the music game, I have found DJs to be amongst the most discriminating food connoisseurs. This is no coincidence.  When travelling, you're being taken to pre-gig meals, usually at a local flagship. When throwing parties in your own town, you're taking guests to dinner or hunting for late night eats. When home relaxing, you're making up for all the gut-buster airport tour food by whipping up some good home cooking. And of course, you're Instagramming it all.

Today, New York turntablist and mixtape legend DJ Neil Armstrong teaches us to make Cambodian-style pork ribs. Neil's early 2000s "Originals" mixtapes basically re-arranged the way I thought about playing classic disco and soul alongside contemporary tracks, so naturally, I figured he could tell me what to order in a Filipino cafeteria. Turns out I was right. Oh, and in case you ever wondered what ants taste like, read on—I'll tell you.

DJ Neil Armstrong with Jay-Z

THUMP: Hey Neil, tell the people who you are and what you do with both music and food.
DJ Neil Armstrong: I'm DJ Neil Armstrong, born and raised in Queens, NYC. I'm a founding member of the 5th Platoon, former tour DJ for Jay-Z, Adidas global ambassador. I'm a contributor to the food blog Pomme des Garcons. DJing allows me to travel a lot so I get to eat a lot of local food that a lot of folk don't often get to try out. I recently did a campaign for KIND Healthy Snacks and Spotify—picking a summer playlist of my personal songs and also "curating" a list of songs chosen by KIND Snacks fans via Facebook.

So I don't think I've ever had Filipino food, but since I have a real live Filipino foodie right here, I was wondering if you could tell me where I should be going to eat Filipino food in NYC and what I should be ordering.
I live in NYC so when I'm here I rarely go out to eat. So if I want Filipino food I'd go home to my parents' or aunt's house. Recently though I guess Filipino food has become the "it" cuisine. There have been a few Filipino "fusion" spots showing up in the city. Maharlika and Jeepney offer upscale Filipino dining. Then of course there is the Woodside and Jackson Heights areas, and there you'll find those cafeteria-style spots. You just point at what you want and you get two choices with a thing of rice. If you've never tried Filipino food before, I'd say pork or chicken adobo, pancit, lumpia, longanisa sausage (if you're there for breakfast) and a pork or fish sinigang. Get something with pork in it and you'll be good.

I'm known as the pork-lovinest Jew around, so that's a recommendation I will definitely follow.  Let's get to your recipe—what are we cooking right now?
Ginger and honey baby back ribs "Cambodian style," from Sarun Pich, a chef at the Amansara resort in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Have you been there?
Nope, I have not.

It's one of the most awe-inspiring places on earth, with ancient sculpture and architecture on a ridiculously large scale. Also, it's full of land mines and lots of vestiges of the genocide and war there.  But if you haven't been to Siem Reap, where did you come across this recipe?
The Internet. It's a wonderous thing. Epicurious.com tends to be where I find a lot of recipes. I'm not at a point where I can cook make my own recipes yet. I don't really know how to manipulate flavor profiles. I also watch a lot of the Food Channel.

Did you know that in Cambodia, ants are apparently a decent substitute for citrus flavor if you're in a pinch? While I'm assuming that making some ribs in the comfort of your own home is a lot easier than trapping stinging insects in a minefield, I don't want to assume anything. What's the trick to this dish? Do I have to be a genius to make this?
There are definitely some really difficult things to make—baking anything for instance, or even like, hollandaise sauce. But for the most part, making meat is not difficult at all.  Nine times out of ten it involves making a marinade, or sprinkling salt and pepper and cooking said meat on a grill, open flame or oven. Super basic. For this dish, just make sure you are using fresh ingredients– fresh ginger and fresh limes for the sauce. None of that bottled stuff. Also—time. Make sure you marinate the ribs for at least four hours. They're even better if you marinate for a whole day.

Last piece of important prep work: what should we be listening to while we cook this?

Hell yeah.  This is one of my absolute favorite mixtapes of all time right here.  Where can people catch you next?
I'll be out in Hong Kong for Chockenflap this year and I'm doing a campaign for Adidas and the Brooklyn Nets in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia Nov 8th and 9th.

Dope. Shoutouts to the international date line. Alright, let's get down to business with this rib recipe.  Bon Apetit:

Ginger and Honey Baby Back Ribs by Sarun Pich, adapted by DJ Neil Armstrong

Ribs and marinade

2 2 1/4 to 2 1/2-pound baby back pork rib racks, cut into 6 to 7 rib sections (I often buy St. Louis Style ribs—that's what they have at my Costco.)
1/4 cup chopped peeled fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce (such as Nam Pla or Nuoc Nam)
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Dipping sauce:

6 teaspoons coarse kosher salt, divided
6 teaspoons ground white pepper, divided
3 large limes, halved

1. Make marinade. Combine ginger, garlic, sugar, salt, and black pepper in processor.  Puree.
2. Add honey, soy sauce and fish sauce. Process until blended.
3. Prepare ribs. Make sure you (or your butcher) removes the membrane on the backside of the rib. Here is a video tutorial for those that don't know what I'm talking about:

4. Spread spiced marinade on both sides of ribs (about 2 tablespoons marinade per side for each rib section).
5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours. This can be done 1 day ahead if you keep it refrigerated.
6. Cook them ribs. Cook them on an open grill outside if you got one. I cook my ribs in the oven and if you live in a city that's often the option you'll have to go to. Here are instructions for each:
Grill: Cooking time really depends on your grill though, but assuming "medium heat," cook them about 8 minutes per side as follows—make sure the grill is well oiled, place rib racks, rounded (meaty) side down, on grill rack. Grill ribs, uncovered, 8 minutes per side, then cover barbecue and grill until ribs are cooked through, about 8 minutes longer per side.
Oven: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place ribs in a baking safe pan . Bake ribs for about an hour and 10 minutes.  You can finish these on a stove top grill to get that "charred" feel on the ribs.
7. Cut them ribs. With a lot of meat you should let it "rest" (i.e. leave it alone for like 5 to 10 minutes so that the juices redistribute) but for ribs it's not really necessary. Cut them up, make them look pretty.
8. Serve with lime sauce. This one needs the sauce. Make it fresh. Don't use store-bought lime juice. You're better then that. Use a small "bowl," and place 1 teaspoon coarse salt and 1 teaspoon ground white pepper in neat mounds side by side in each bowl, then place 1 lime half on plate next to each bowl. Allow each diner to squeeze juice from lime into bowl with coarse salt and white pepper and stir until mixed, then dip ribs into sauce.

And there you have it. Cambodian-style ribs. Super flavorful. The meat will be tender and a bit salty and tart and slightly sweet with that "fish sauce" flavor.

DJ Neil Armstrong played Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration party with Jay-Z, which is, by definition, the most baller shit of all time.  Follow him on twitter at @djneilarmstrong.

Michael Fichman once DJ'd a party hosted by Democratic National Committee chair Ed Rendell. Follow him on twitter at @djaptone.