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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Close Your Eyes and Think of England

posted by on June 26 at 12:35 PM

From the archives of the BBC:

A West Midlands family is playing a central role in the quest to raise the profile of a forgotten British dish—faggots.

The Doody family from Wolverhampton has been crowned The Faggot Family in a national competition, and to kick off their reign they will launch National Faggot Week.

Best quote...

"The great British faggot is full of flavour and a great belly warmer at this time of year."

I have a feeling this might be a hoax, but I just don't want to check.


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

It Sure Would Be Nice to Sit at a Café on the Sidewalk Right Now

posted by on June 25 at 5:49 PM

You know, like in Paris, where there’s at least one on every block. But on a nice day here in Seattle, the handful of places with sidewalk seating are already running an hour-long wait for the patio. Why aren't there more? In addition to exorbitant costs and long-processing times, pulling a table over the threshold requires two separate permits.

Calling Seattle's permitting system bureaucratic and outdated, Mayor Greg Nickels on Tuesday proposed reducing permit time and costs for restaurants that want sidewalk seating. The changes, which require City Council approval, would lower the cost from $2,300 to $600 for a 100-square-foot sidewalk-cafe permit and would set a processing goal of 10 days….

Nickels proposed requiring approval only from the Transportation Department, which controls public sidewalk space.

Cheers to city hall! Of course, it might have been nice to get crackin’ on this, like, before summer. But progress is progress. Perhaps while the electeds hold twenty-six public meetings to discuss this, conduct a feasibility analysis study, and mull it over, the legislature could eviscerate Washington’s nanny-state liquor laws so by next year we don’t have to drink behind ropes like we’re in baby pens. What’s with that? And, to promote more sidewalk seating, and eating, and drinking—which is seriously is the pinnacle of urban life—we should build wider sidewalks. Every time there’s a proposed development, some jackals start yelping about the need for open space, so we build these bullshit courtyard wind tunnels between buildings and round off the edges of buildings. We don’t need unusable postage-stamp plazas lined with beach grasses for open space; we need more 25-foot wide sidewalks, more patio seating, more little outdoor tables… outdoor tables with ashtrays, sweetie.


Monday, June 23, 2008

Now Where Will the Glowering Vegans Go?

posted by on June 23 at 4:11 PM

When the KFC on East Pine Street shut its doors a couple weeks ago, it was another nail in the coffin for fast food chains on Capitol Hill. Taco Bell on Broadway was demolished recently for a six-story mixed-use development; Jack in the Box closed in March at the light-rail station site. Now only litter from Dick’s, Seattle’s hometown gristle hut, has made its way into the trash can in front of KFC.

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KFC “was doing fine,” says Karen Gutke, director of real estate for poultry franchisee Harman Management Corporation. The building required an upgrade to meet contractual obligations, but “the site’s too small to do a scrape and rebuild,” she says. Colonel Sanders’s placid smile is absent from the sign pole at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, and so are the PETA volunteers passing out scornful pamphlets.

“My business partners and neighbors are all happy that fast food will no longer be the use for that site,” says Ted Schroth, owner of the Oddfellows Building across the street. According to Schroth and sources in the neighborhood, the site will be developed into (what else?) a multi-story building with retail on the ground floor and apartments up top.

But they may be counting their fried chickens before they hatch. Before the site’s big transformation, it could be home to another fast food joint—albeit temporarily. The buyer (rumored to be Ron Amundson, who owns the adjacent property and storefronts on Broadway) is reportedly known to take his time redeveloping new properties. And workers in coveralls last week were painting the telltale red roof with tan paint; they said the new owner is seeking a new fast-food tenant.

Jack in the Box was rumored to have plans to move into the site. However, company spokespeople did not respond before I posted this and, if the JB lounge was interested, the owner probably wouldn't be putting his building on the market.

Regardless, given pedestrian-friendly requirements for new construction in the Pike-Pine corridor and the demand for high-density developments, there are few sites in the neighborhood where zoning or economics would allow a new drive-through restaurant. "If I could find another site, we would build another store," says Gutke.

Lunch Date: Girl Factory

posted by on June 23 at 12:00 PM

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(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who's your date today? Girl Factory, by Jim Krusoe

Where'd you go? Bleu Bistro.

What'd you eat? Macaroni and cheese ($7.99) with the optional Caesar salad ($2.99).

How was the food? It was really good. The macaroni and cheese was more like a baked ziti, only without any red sauce. The top was crunchy and the bottom was goopy, just the way I like, and the cheese was a nice sharp cheddar. The salad was, you know, Caesar-y and good. The whole thing came with three good pieces of not-too-garlicky-for-lunch garlic toast. I always forget about Bleu Bistro, and whenever I go inside I have to fight a momentary fear of the cramped booths in the place going up in flames, but I've never been disappointed by the food.

What does your date say about itself? This is the newest novel by the author of the amazing debut novel Iceland. If you have a good tolerance for quirky, sad writing, Iceland is something that you really need to read; it's about how we make more of our memories than other people do. Reading that book was such a grand experience that I'm afraid to re-read it. I recall the pleasurable feeling of reading it almost more than I remember the actual words that I read. Girl Factory is about a man who works at a frozen yogurt store in a strip mall owned by a man named Spinner. Spinner is doing something weird in the basement. Also, there's a hyperintelligent, chess-playing dog running around

Is there a representative quote? "This was the first time ever that Spinner had trusted me with the keys to Mister Twisty’s, but at any rate I was feeling very tired myself, and for some reason, a little sad also. From the basement I could hear the hum of the giant cooling machines as I sprayed a little Windex on the counters to wipe away the stickiness, and rubbed down the swirl machines with chrome cleaner. And I was just about to go home when I heard, or thought I heard, a difference in the intensity of sound coming from below me...It was probably nothing, but just suppose there was some kind of a malfunction in the equipment downstairs, or even one of the old guys had had a heart attack and fallen into the machinery. We never really kept track of who went down and who came back up, and for all I know there might be someone down there, dying this very minute. I knew that Spinner had said he’d been working on the equipment a few weeks earlier, but I also knew that he had told me once, when I first began to work there, never to go down to the basement for any reason at all."

Will you two end up in bed together? Yes. It might not be as miraculous as Iceland—and it would be unfair to expect that of a second novel—I'm intrigued and ready for the book to get really weird. Whether it gets sad will remain to be seen.


Friday, June 20, 2008

For Your Stomach's Consideration

posted by on June 20 at 11:04 AM

Black Bottle in Belltown is now serving lunch. Black Bottle is a Stranger reader-reviewer favorite, home of great light bulbs, favorite first-date venue of Grant Cogswell, and temple of blasted broccoli...

The menu calls it, simply, "broccoli blasted." It's an $8 hill of broccoli that appears to have survived a fiery, salty apocalypse. The tips are ashy, crunchy, almost dust. The rest of it is deep green. (Must be all the vitamins, the nutrients, the anticancer stuff.) I have walked from the far reaches of the city in the hard rain, cars splashing water at me, all the way to Black Bottle to wait for a seat at the bar, just to eat a plate of broccoli while staring into a candle, alone. Christopher Frizzelle

Blasted broccoli is not on the all-new lunch menu (after the jump), but "like all special requests, we want everybody to feel free to ask and we will always do what we can!" (sounds like yes).

Continue reading "For Your Stomach's Consideration" »

Lunch Date: Farewell Navigator

posted by on June 20 at 11:00 AM

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(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who's your date today? Farewell Navigator, a collection of short stories by Leni Zumas

Where'd you go? Cafe Stellina .


What'd you eat?
A potato, provolone, and bacon tart ($10).

How was the food? Stellina is a controversial restaurant around these parts, but I really dug on that tart. There wasn't too much bacon, the crust was light and flaky, the potatoes made the whole thing just heavy enough to be satisfying, and the tart was surrounded by greens coated in Stellina's delicious rosemary dressing. It was a good lunch.


What does your date say about itself?
Ten short stories by a fairly new author "who plays drums in the post-punk band S-S-S-Spectres." "Attention unrequited lovers, sisters of suicidal brothers, children of the legally blind: you are not alone. Leni Zumas understands your quiet agony and describes it with such a wry, unflinching familiarity that even the gory details ring true. If darkness has ever been your friend, your story is in here."—Miranda July


Is there a representative quote?
"The word is moxa, I say, and here are your choices: a medieval fortified keep; a small instrument used to brush hair off the South American goose; a preternaturally skilled hoagie maker; or a flammable material obtained from the leaves of Japanese wormwood.
Hoagie is a disturbing word, my mother says.
You have ten seconds.
Well, she says, I don't know what hoagie means so how can I choose?"

Will you two end up in bed together? Yes. In one lunch, I got through two stories, and the first one was way too vague for my tastes, the second one—the one quoted above—was a bit too eccentric for me, and the third seems just right. So we'll see where it goes from here. There's enough in the language to remind me of Aimee Bender, who's one of my all-time favorites, to keep me happy even in the vaguest of the stories. I don't get the sense that Zumas is a writer biding time until her novel gets edited; she seems to really like short stories, and that makes all the difference.

"Guessing the Flavor Is Just the Beginning"

posted by on June 20 at 10:40 AM

Wishing you’d never tried any is the rest.

Doritos has introduced yet another variety of chips. Frito Lay declares it a “Mystery Flavor,” and you’re supposed to guess what you're eating.

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I’m going with salted-Jolly-Rancher-powder-on-communion-wafer flavor. That or Kool-Aid-and-corn. Maybe other bags have different seasonings but, personally, I’m done with the mystery flavor.

Unlike the Dorito flavor naming game—see "X-13D" which David Schmader declared "Beef Tallow n’ Tartar Sauce Crunch" which Doritos executives claimed to be "Cheeseburger"— these packages direct snackers to an X-Box-hyping web page that makes no sense and are adorned with “extreme-green” to emphasize that this is a gamer-snacker promotion—an obvious cross-marketing demographic if there ever was one.

PS—My most regretful apologies to David and Megan for stepping on the gross-experimental-snack beat.


Thursday, June 19, 2008

What Will They Think of Next!

posted by on June 19 at 3:47 PM

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The hard-boiled egg's packaging problem—solved!

Kathleen Wilson: Still Telling It Like It Is

posted by on June 19 at 2:37 PM

The perfect antidote to your mid-afternoon slump: a refreshing dose of Kathleen Wilson, who writes:

Hi Dave,

Are you familiar with AmazonFresh.com? It's a much-improved service modeled on the old homegrocer.com. You order from a huge selection, and they deliver it to your door in brightly colored plastic bins at various times of the day, at a time of your choosing. They offer a special "pre-dawn" delivery for customers like my idealistic husband who imagines waking to the doorstep delivery of eggs, dairy and fresh produce to be a tiny step toward a bucolic existence among the condos on Capitol Hill.

Having lived on the Hill for more than a decade, I scoffed at his enthusiasm, knowing full well that "pre-dawn delivery" would translate to "Free Food Here" for any drunken yahoo staggering down our street in the wee hours. My husband said I was crazy and did it anyway. At 6am he skipped down the stairs, threw open the front door only to be faced with the soul-crushing reality of brightly colored bins busted open and much of our groceries gone. I told him!

Anyway, my advice to anyone who might find the idea of pre-dawn delivery of groceries a happy way to start the day: Go ahead if you want to prove you are a complete idiot. On the whole amazonfresh is an excellent way to grocery shop and we've never had a problem before this because I did the ordering and made sure that delivery was made between 8-10am, when people are more likely to have their sense of shame intact.

xo
Kathleen

Let this be a lesson to us all. (As for me, I won't even try AmazonFresh until they add regularly updated celebrity newsmagazines to their virtual checkout lanes.)


Monday, June 16, 2008

Noodles: Boom!

posted by on June 16 at 11:36 AM

The Globe Cafe on Capitol Hill closed at the end of 2007 to some controversy (see comments here), but what's taking the Globe's space is promising in the extreme: Justin Neidermeyer's long-awaited restaurant and artisan pasta company. Neidermeyer's a jovial pasta genius; he was originally going to open a place down on Eastlake (as prematurely reported here). His new endeavor, which may or may not be called Pian Pianino, is supposed to open on 14th at Pine in early July (though peeking through the papered-over windows this weekend, it looked like more than a couple weeks' work remained--no kitchen was visible).

Gentrification hand-wringers, yes, some change is terrible (e.g., the paving of paradise for a parking lot further down Pine). But until you eat some of Neidermeyer's noodles, you can't know how encouraging this development is for the neighborhood and the city. Picture that scene in Lady and the Tramp, with you at one end of the noodle and, I don't know, God at the other.

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

When Candy Design Goes Wrong

posted by on June 12 at 6:17 AM

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via Joey deVilla.


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

You Say Tomato, I Say Gardenburger

posted by on June 10 at 4:00 PM

Gardenburgers nationwide have been surreptitiously removed from shelves and menus. Why? Nobody seems to know. The answer, according to this one vegetarian thread, could involve lost keys, electrical failures, construction, and sawdust. But a response from Gardenburger was exceedingly unhelpful:

Kellogg® has removed a limited number of Gardenburger® products from distribution while we upgrade the manufacturing facility. The product is not being recalled and is safe for consumption. We hope to have Gardenburger® products available again at retailers by mid-June.

Consumer confidence is not in this way built.

The Corson Building, at Last

posted by on June 10 at 2:11 PM

The Corson Building—the new Georgetown restaurant/microfarm/oasis from Sitka & Spruce's Matthew Dillon—will start taking reservations by phone this Friday (here's the number). It was supposed to open last November; as it nearly universally goes with restaurant build-outs, it was all much more complicated and time-consuming than expected. (I should've known better than to get so specifically all wound up in print last September.) The first official event was a June 7 dinner with Anthony Bourdain (tickets were auctioned online to the final tune of $600 a plate; more info/photos by a rich man here). At the very well-attended open house last night, Jerry Traunfeld (formerly of the Herbfarm) said his north Broadway restaurant, Poppy, is on schedule to open after Labor Day. He was standing next to Dillon. "Don't rub it in," someone said. Dillon and his business partner, Wylie Bush, both were quietly jubilant.

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Wylie Bush and Matt Dillon

Food for the party was provided by the Hallava Falafel truck parked out front; Arctic gusts of wind (though, shockingly, no rain) were provided by June. (Perhaps with an assist from climate change--though growing up here, I experienced summers like this about every four or five years; they were known afterwards as "the last time we didn't have a summer." People were pretty philosophical about it--it's good for reading and listening to music--and exposure to such weather provides an inoculation of low-level, ongoing depression that is very helpful in modern life. But I digress.) A pug ran around in a rhinestone (or diamond?) collar; a toddler was entranced with the small planes flying very close overhead and with the stairs that lead to the balcony. The new raised beds in the yard are full of herbs and lettuces and veg that (of course) are doing better than most, despite the recent, endless total eclipse of the sun. The plum trees look good, as do the chickens. (The latter were initially raised by John Sutton of art trio SuttonBeresCuller; a while back, one of the birds was reportedly almost killed by the dog belonging to erstwhile Stranger writer Matthew Richter. Rescued from the very jaws of the great beyond, the near-death chicken remains in Sutton's South Park coop, where it does not flap its wings like the others, but is eating and otherwise doing fine.) Also, there are doves; a friend of a friend was getting rid of them, and Dillon felt he ought to give them a home. (Will tiny hard-boiled dove eggs appear on top of salads made from the freshest possible greens? Maybe.)

Out front, the fountain of Venus has been repaired (though half of her concrete conch shell, held aloft and spouting water, is still missing). A big barbeque around the side looks very promising. Inside, the plaster has been repaired, but not overly so, with some brick still showing through cracks; the fireplace with its lion ornamentation is working. It's rustic and nearly nauseatingly charming--the light through the rows of glassware in the windowed pantry, the fox-and-pheasant-and-boar bathroom wallpaper, the heavy door to the meat curing room. The kitchen, added onto the back, is big and airy and has a pleasing view of people playing soccer in the field across the train tracks. The kitchen is maybe a little bit bigger than the front of the house--a chef's golden ratio, same as at the (much smaller overall) Sitka & Spruce.

Dillon will be spending much of his time at the Corson (who could blame him, he said). Sitka will mostly be left in the capable hands of sous-chef Cormac Mahoney, who was looking very dapper in a suit and tie at the Corson housewarming. Sitka's default motto, on a small chalkboard at the bar, is "Food worth standing up for." The Corson--which will have canning parties and cookouts and events (possibly yours--talk to Dillon), as well as the 30-seat, a-few-nights-a-week restaurant--promises to be worth the wait.

Tomato Terror

posted by on June 10 at 9:15 AM

Brad's already noted this in the morning news. I just want to add:

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

posted by on June 9 at 4:51 PM

The Food and Drug Administration is expanding its warning to consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak has been linked to consumption of certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing these raw, red tomatoes.

FDA recommends that consumers not eat raw red Roma, raw red plum, raw red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes unless the tomatoes are from the sources listed below. If unsure of where tomatoes are grown or harvested, consumers are encouraged to contact the store where the tomato purchase was made. Consumers should continue to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, or tomatoes grown at home.

You will learn to fear ketchup!

Re: Cafe Juanita and Maneki Win James Beard Awards

posted by on June 9 at 2:46 PM

Cafe Juanita's Holly Smith might seem like a dark horse among the other, more-fashionable-of-late regional James Beard Award nominees--Maria Hines of Tilth, Ethan Stowell of the Union/Tavolata/How to Cook a Wolf trifecta, Jason Wilson of Crush, and Scott Dolich of Portland's Park Kitchen--but she's been nominated the last four years in a row and fully deserves it. Cafe Juanita's a gem; open since 2000, it's in a mid-century house in the woods on the Eastside, with a menu emphasizing Northern Italian cuisine (and, of course, organics/localness/sustaina-et-cetera).

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Holly Smith and sous chef Earl Hook in 2003.

Smith also just started a gelato operation—the excitement!—which will be at the Fremont farmers market starting this Sunday with flavors like burnt sugar, pine nut brittle with marsala currents, and Lillet Blanc sorbet (hel-LO!).

Tom Douglas correctly predicted last week that he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Outstanding Restaurateur award: Mario Batali and business partner Joe Bastianich got it. Canlis lost in the Outstanding Service arena to Napa's Terra.

Something you might not know about Maneki (an America’s Classics Award-winner): "it has been around through both world wars, Japanese internment, and has even seen one of its former dishwashers become the Prime Minister of Japan" (so sayeth the James Beard people).

Ashes to Ashes, Chips to Chips

posted by on June 9 at 2:00 PM

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Adfreak informs us that the man who invented the Pringles can had a portion of his ashes buried in a Pringles can. Way to take pride in your work, I guess.

(Related: The Pringles website is totally flash-happy.)

Cafe Juanita and Maneki Win James Beard Awards

posted by on June 9 at 1:32 PM

Yesterday brought the annual James Beard Foundation Awards, and two Northwest institutions received top honors.

Winning Best Northwest Chef: Holly Smith, the woman behind Kirkland's beloved Cafe Juanita.

And winning an "America's Classic" award: the International District's even-more-beloved, 103-year-old sushi restaurant Maneki.

Here's a nice Maneki-related tidbit from last night's NYC award ceremony, courtesy of the Seattle Times:

[A]fter a charming video presentation in which Seattle's 103-year-old Japanese restaurant Maneki was honored as one of "America's Classics," owner Jean Nakayama went onstage and gave props to her staff. They included longtime employee and septuagenarian "Mom" Fusae Yokoyama, who smiled from behind Maneki's bar on the wide screen poised center-stage in New York City, where chef Bobby Flay and "Sex and the City" actress Kim Cattrall played host.

Congrats to Holly Smith and everyone at Maneki.


Friday, June 6, 2008

Hot Beef Carcasses

posted by on June 6 at 3:14 PM

Finding out about the new federal cases regarding food contamination is so much fun—remember the Class II Recall of Frozen Cattle Heads That Contain Prohibited Materials?—that I signed up for more USDA email news. I recently received my first USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service New Technologies Update, and while certainly applying technology to food is generally a good idea, a lot of this sounds depraved. Vegetarians, get your gloat all shined up; now is truly the time.

The New Technologies Update contains "new, or new applications of, equipment, substances, methods, processes, or procedures affecting the slaughter of livestock and poultry or processing of meat, poultry, or egg products" that have been "received and reviewed, and for which FSIS has had 'no objection' to use in FSIS establishments."

Highlights from the newest in New Technologies:

Meyn America LLC: Meyn evisceration system can operate at 140 birds per minute on eight inch shackle spacing with four Federal inspectors

Tasker Products*: Use of pHarlo Blue as an antimicrobial processing aid applied in poultry scalders, as a spray on poultry picker rails, and post-picker spray or dip

Olsson, Frank and Weeda, P.C.: Use of up to 5% lactic acids on hot beef carcasses

Cargill Meat Solutions: Hide-On Beef Carcass Washing System using sodium hydroxide applied at the post-exsanguination stage of slaughter

Braswell Foods, Inc.: The In-package Pasteurization of Liquid Egg and Egg Products

Ecolab, Inc.: Reuse of Inspexx 100 ™ poultry wash and chill process water to reduce microbial contamination on raw edible poultry products and/or to wash poultry processing equipment and environmental surfaces

Ashland Specialty Chemical: Reuse of Chlorine Dioxide as an antimicrobial agent in poultry processing water (locations-application cabinets, feather rinses and pickers/scalders)

The list goes on.

Elsewhere, the FSIS is no longer allowing Tyson Foods to use the "Raised Without Antibiotics That Impact Human Antibiotic Resistance" label, having discovered that contrary to information that Tyson itself provided in December, they are in fact using questionable antibiotics in chicks. Peep!

Beware the mass-market meats, birds, and fish.

Inquiring Drunks Want to Know

posted by on June 6 at 11:49 AM

This email was just sent to us this morning:

I've noticed that Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and KFC have all closed up on the hill. I definitely have no problem with this, I've seen the images of chemical burned chickens, read the nutritional info for their food, and get nauseous even thinking about eating at any of these places. But is this the reason these places have closed? Are there that many others like me? Or have the lots just been bought out from rich developers?

Don't worry late-night drunks: fast food isn't completely gone from the hill! While the Taco Bell on Broadway and Republican may be gone for good, Jack in the Box will return to the hill, replacing the KFC on 10th and Pine.

But why eat a greasy late-night turdburger to head off that hangover when you can have greasy, delicious Fish Fry, Tacos Gringos or a hot dog from the wonderful little cart in front of the Comet?

UPDATE: DUH! I linked but did not clearly explain that Taco Bell's old space is being absorbed into a development by Driscoll Architects and Jack in the Box is becoming a Sound Transit station.


Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Spend Cheap, Feel Fancy

posted by on June 4 at 11:42 AM

I'm kind of glad that I only recently found out about La Buona Tavola (1524 Pike Pl). If I'd known this little gem of a wine (and truffle) shop existed when I worked near its Pike Place Market location, it would have been very difficult to resist spending my lunch hours there. Fortunately, I am now at enough of a remove that I am only likely to dally there when it is appropriate to do so, i.e. not during a work day. Check it out, boozers. Five dollars will buy you a personalized wine tasting, tailored to your preferences. Also, they do monthly sit-down dinners, but the shop is tiny, so you have to sign up pretty far in advance. For now, though, try their potato leek soup. It is fucking delicious. Go, live high on the hog for like, 40 minutes, and try to forget your shitty office job.

[Chelsea Alvarez-Bell is June’s guest Slogger. Her permanent home on the web is Who Did What To Who.]

A Waste of Cake

posted by on June 4 at 10:03 AM

Did she lose a bet or something? Dunno. But I imagine Charles will want to be this woman's birthday cake in his next life. Oh, NSFW—particularly if you work in a bakery.


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Oh My God

posted by on June 3 at 2:00 PM

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Canned bacon. Ready to eat right out of the can, pre-wrapped in towels before canning.

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Just open the can, unroll, and eat. There is nothing that I can say to add to this.

(Via Cynical-C blog.)


Friday, May 30, 2008

Ow

posted by on May 30 at 4:28 PM

Have you seen the new signage stuck to Amante on Olive? My eyes are bleeding.

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Update: a photo by Mr. Anthony Hecht that gives an idea of the hurtfulness.

Bone Marrow Popcorn!

posted by on May 30 at 12:24 PM

Joule, Wallingford's French-Korean restaurant, is hosting a weekly summer barbecue series starting this Sunday with "Operation Clam Bake."

Other scheduled barbecues: "Hail to the Vegetables," "Food on a Stick," and "Where's the Beef?" The latter, scheduled for July 20, stars smoked brisket, a chilled beef salad, and bone marrow popcorn.

"We just soak the bones in cold water to get the blood out," says Joule chef/owner Rachel Yang. "Then it's just popped from the bone, battered, and deep-fried."

I have an unusual affection for marrow. I will be there.


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

But Has the Candidate Ever Had Gray Salt Caramels?

posted by on May 27 at 10:15 AM

From the bottom of that Reggie Love story Eli posted:

As Senator Barack Obama’s body man, Reggie Love makes sure the candidate has plenty of the things he likes — and makes note of those things he would rather avoid.

Here is a partial list, provided by Mr. Love.

[likes]
¶ Planters Trail Mix: Nuts, Seeds & Raisins
¶ Roasted almonds
¶ Pistachios
¶ Water
¶ Dentyne Ice
¶ Nicorette
¶ MET-Rx chocolate roasted peanut protein bars
¶ Vegetables, especially broccoli and spinach
Handmade milk chocolates from Fran’s Chocolates in Seattle

[avoids]
¶ Mayonnaise
¶ Salt and vinegar potato chips
¶ Asparagus (“if no other vegetables are available, he’ll eat it”)
¶ Soft drinks (he prefers water)

Hopefully this won't start a run on Fran's. As a side note, I gotta say, there's something wrong with a man who doesn't like salt and vinegar potato chips. Maybe Obama wouldn't appreciate gray salt caramels after all.


Thursday, May 22, 2008

Lunch Date: Bob Spitz

posted by on May 22 at 5:46 PM

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(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who's your date today? Today is a special Lunch Date. W.W. Norton took a few local booksellers, a couple of reporters, and a certain Stranger Book Editor out to the Dahlia Lounge for a lunch with Bob Spitz, the author of The Saucier's Apprentice. Spitz wrote The Beatles, the biography of, um, The Beatles, and he's reading from Apprentice at Third Place Books tonight at 7.


What'd you eat?
This amazing five-course meal that wasn't on the menu.

How was the food? See the word "amazing," above. The best items, though, were at the beginning and end of the meal. Spitz made the appetizer, which was a morel and oyster mushroom tatin. The recipe is from the book, Spitz claims that it only takes ten minutes of preparation, and it's motherfucking delicious, possibly because Spitz claimed that it took "about a half pound of butter" to make. I'm going to try to make it at home, and I'll tell you if it actually takes anywhere near ten minutes to make. The dessert, which was a Dahlia original, was a cornmeal and olive oil cake with white chocolate, strawberry, and rhubarb. It was unbelievably good, fluffy, and sweet. Spitz called it one of the best desserts he'd ever eaten, and just about everybody at the table agreed with him. People should protest the Dahlia Lounge until it becomes available every day.


What does your date say about itself?
Dust jacket: "The education of a barbarian in the temples of haute cuisine. In the blink of an eye, Bob Spitz turned fifty, finished an eight-year project and a fourteen-year marriage that left him nearly destitute, had his heart stolen and broken on the rebound, and sought salvation the only way he knew how. He fled to Europe, where he hopscotched among the finest cooking schools in the pursuit of his dream. The urge to cook like a virtuoso, to unravel the mysteries of the process, was too tantalizing to resist."


Is there a representative quote?
"One day, dreaming of food orgies, I came across a recipe for pan-roasted cod in the New York Times Dining section and immediately grew flushed. There was something sensuous about the way it appeared on the page. What I couldn't get over was its aching simplicity, nothing more than a tiny saddle-shaped fillet dressed with a thorny sprig of thyme, looking lost and forlorn in a copper saute pan. No sauce, no vegetables, just as buck-naked innocent and provocative as the girl next door."

Will you two end up in bed together? Spitz and I will not end up in bed together, as we are both heterosexual men in committed relationships. The book and I might just end up in bed together; I'm not crazy about while male midlife change books as a rule, but I am interested in the subject matter. Spitz is more of an everyman than, say, Bill Buford, and so his food writing is a little more accessible. I know that the book and I will wind up in the kitchen together, as I'm going to try that friggin' delicious mushroom tatin, and I'm interested to see what other easy-fancy recipes are inside.

Rancho Bravo Tacos CLOSED AGAIN!

posted by on May 22 at 10:14 AM

Seattle's most overrated taco truck was closed again yesterday for another round of health code violations.

According to the King County Health Department's website, Rancho Bravo was cited for "Failure to correct repeated violations, sewage leaking onto ground [and] failure to operate in compliance with mobile plan of operation."

Hate away, Sloggers.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Salted Caramel Ice Cream: The Verdict

posted by on May 21 at 1:53 PM

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Yesterday I slogged about my enslavement to the flavor combination of salt and caramel, which I first encountered via the miraculous Fran's Gray and Smoked Salt Caramels (pictured above) and tracked last night to Wallingford's Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream Boutique.

The verdict on Molly Moon's Salted Caramel ice cream: During yesterday's salted-caramel discussion, commenter squidoo wrote, "Some people are saying Molly Moon's version is too salty," and now, I am one of those people. Lingering questions: Did the softening of the ice cream on the drive home somehow accentuate the saltiness in a way hard-frozen ice cream would more harmoniously accommodate? Or is it a matter of portion size--maybe a single, Fran's-sized cube of Molly Moon's Salted Caramel ice cream would be perfect. But in even the smallest available portion—a single scoop—it comes off a bit too salty for my taste.

However: The two other Molly Moon flavors I tasted were amazing. The "Balsamic Strawberry" was a subtle explosion of deliciousness and the "Vivace Coffee" was the best coffee ice cream I've ever had.

P.S. For those folks hankering for gourmet homemade ice cream but lacking easy access to Wallingford, Half-Pint Ice Cream—which sounds exactly as delicious as Molly Moon's even if it doesn't come with a snazzy website—will be available at this Sunday's Broadway Farmers Market (11 am-3pm, behind the Bank of America at Broadway and Thomas).

P.P.S. SPOILER ALERT: Apparently there's some time-sensitive information about football/soccer in the comments. Proceed at your own risk.


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Greatest Flavor Combination Since Vanilla Ice Cream and Root Beer

posted by on May 20 at 3:30 PM

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...is clearly salt and caramel.

I first encountered the combination via Fran's Gray and Smoked Salt Caramels, pictured above and available at Fran's University Village store. Fran's pricey delights taught my taste buds a lesson they've been itching to replicate ever since, and while Riesens dusted with large-granule sea salt have their charms, they're no Fran's.

However, I was just adding Wallingford's hot new gourmet handmade ice creamery Molly Moon's to the Stranger Restaurant Guide and noticed some of the ice-cream flavors hyped on Molly Moon's website, including "Scout" Mint, Vivace Coffee (!), and Salted Caramel (!!).

I shall report back soon.

"Fried and Gone to Heaven"

posted by on May 20 at 1:20 PM

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That subject line is the work of former Stranger music editor/new Seattle Times music columnist Jonathan Zwickel, who created it for a Slog post announcing his transcendent first encounter with Ezell's Famous Chicken, the Central District legend that's inspired hordes of worshippers and one weird Slog post that last week grew into an all-encompassing fight about everything.

Which brings me to the latest addition to the Ezell's dossier—a tender memory sent in by the one and only Kathleen Wilson:

I'm a little late with my Ezell's two-cents, but what they hey: While walking to Ezell's one afternoon, bullets whizzed by as I was narrowly missed by a drive-by shooting. After being detained by police for a statement, I still ordered a one-piece breast snack-pack to go. Just sayin'. Chicken is THAT good.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite Last Days Hot Tips of all time:

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007 For decades, humanity has marveled at the power of Ezell's, the Seattle fried-chickenry whose goods are so good that vegetarians curse their fates and Oprah has 'em FedExed directly to her mouth. Today brings not only the most extravagant Ezell's-related Hot Tip we've ever received, but also the most charming Metro-based Hot Tip in history. "I was in line at Ezell's on 23rd early this afternoon," reports Hot Tipper Jake. "Suddenly, a Metro bus pulls up in front of the store and the female driver runs in and yells, 'Give me four drumsticks quick!' Then she says, 'No! Make it five!' Of course, everyone in line is looking at her, so she hollers, 'What? I've got five minutes!' She gets her drumsticks and runs back to her waiting bus, which I now see is carrying a dozen or so passengers." Thanks to Jake for noticing and sharing, and props to the Metro driver for her inspirational time management.

Dear Ezell's: Feel free to use either Ezell's: I'd Dodge a Bullet for a Bite! or Ezell's: Bus-Fleeingly Delicious as your next ad slogan. You're welcome.


Monday, May 19, 2008

Jumbo Berries

posted by on May 19 at 5:20 PM

Megan found these (Limited Edition!) gigantic strawberries at QFC today (excuse the terrible photo). They are uniformly delicious and no one who has consumed them has reported unusual hair growth or a deepening voice. They are, however, very, very messy.
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Wait, Where'd My Beer Go?

posted by on May 19 at 3:00 PM

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Miller and Anheuser-Busch are releasing beer in camouflage cans to attract the hunting demographic. The cans arrive in October, just in time for a fresh slew of beer-related hunting accidents.

(Via Adfreak.)

Bethany Jean Clement Raids Renee Erickson's Refrigerator

posted by on May 19 at 10:15 AM

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Seattle's got a new food quarterly: Edible Seattle, devoted to "celebrating the seasonal bounty of Puget Sound."

The premiere issue is on stands now, and features the start of a new series by Stranger food writer/Bar Examiner Bethany Jean Clement: Icebox, in which BJC investigates the contents of a notable chef's refrigerator.

Subject of the first installment: Boat Street Cafe's Renee Erickson, whose fridge is home to an array of fascinations, along with Best Foods mayonnaise, Heinz ketchup, and Diet Pepsi.

You can find EdibleSeattle all over town.

Holy Hooters

posted by on May 19 at 8:59 AM

Enough of the heavy and sad stories from the Holy Land...
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...Let's read something light and breezy:

Ofer Ahiraz, a gray-haired 48-year-old... and his wife Ilana... opened [a] Hooters franchise last November, putting Israel on the list of over 40 nations that have imported the American icon.

Ilana, also 48, is not a waitress, although her admiration for the Hooters girls is clear - especially since the Ahirazes' daughter, Gal, works as head waitress and trainer. Like any good Jewish parents, the Ahirazes sent their eldest daughter to college - at Hooters University in Atlanta, Georgia, where Gal studied for three months to learn the principles behind the Hooters mystique.

The Ahirazes have adapted the chain's food and atmosphere to suit Israeli tastes and mentalities. They replaced Hooters' crab, pork and oyster dishes with more salads and grilled meats, but they still serve up world-famous Hooters chicken wings, along with Philly steak and chicken burgers. Wings are made with the time-tested Hooters buttery-vinaigrette hot sauce and come in five levels of spiciness.



Friday, May 16, 2008

Deliciousness of Spring

posted by on May 16 at 11:55 AM

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Asparagus! It is simply great. It's so simply great that getting it at a restaurant is usually stupid--why would you when you can steam or grill it at home and enjoy the unadulterated deliciousness of spring? Last spring, the most-worth-it asparagus I found in a restaurant was (unsurprisingly) at Sitka & Spruce (grilled, topped with a sunny-side-up duck egg, with duck prosciutto and anchovy).

This spring, the winner is the salade aux asperges at Café Presse: asparagus served refreshingly chilled with a clingy, tart-ish goat cheese vinaigrette, sprinkled with pine nuts and little bits of scallion. (Also reportedly worth it: the new Pike Street Fish Fry's deep-fried asparagus, an Eastern Washington classic.) The salade aux asperges is so good, it's better than asparagus at home. This made me mad. I tried to recreate the dressing, with only so-so results.

I called Jim Drohman at Café Presse. He loves asparagus, too. It's so delicious, he said, you just want to keep from doing something silly to it (so true). Then he told me what's in the chevre vinaigrette: shallots, garlic, Dijon mustard, fresh thyme, lemon juice, lemon zest, rice vinegar, fresh chevre, honey, salt and pepper, and a mix of soy and olive oil (more soy than olive). The amounts are classified information. You blend all but the oil in a blender, then slowly add in the oil, emulsifying. Blanch the asparagus, then bathe it in ice water to stop the cooking and cool it down. Toast your pine nuts (Jim says always toast your nuts). Don't forget the scallions.

Anti-Recipe of the Day

posted by on May 16 at 9:54 AM

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(Credit)

French Laundry at Home, a hilarious (yes, hilarious) food blog you should check out--now!--if you haven't already, on cooking tripe:

You know when you walk into a nursing home for the first time, and there's a distinct, rather unpleasant smell? Or, when you drive past a sewage treatment plant or paper mill? Or the airplane bathroom on a Southwest Airlines flight? Or a hospital's burn unit?

Those are all preferable smells compared to cooked tripe.

People, this smell was worse than morning breath and dirty hair after you've have the flu for three days and haven't brushed your teeth or showered at all.

I strained the liquid into another saucepan, reduced it, added some cream, a little mustard, and some salt and pepper, as the book suggested. By this time, my corneas had evaporated from the stench and my eyebrows started to fall out.

This? Was disgusting. Absolutely, positively the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life.

I left my kitchen, cookbook in hand, and sat outside on the front porch to re-read the instructions to make sure I hadn't missed a crucial step. I hadn't. It was then that I saw the final sentence that wrapped up the instructions for the dish: "It's terrific."

It made me wonder how long it took Michael Ruhlman and Thomas Keller to come up with that sentence, because surely, it has to be some sort of inside joke or secret chef-to-chef code for a dish that is really awful but meant to be tried only in some sort of freakish dare. I imagine their exchange might have gone a little something like this:

Michael: So, we've described how to cook tripe, and we've included your story about the importance of cooking offal. Would you like to add something here at the end that describes what tripe tastes like?

Thomas: Yeah, sure. But in case someone, someday decides they want to cook every recipe in this book and maybe write about it, let's not deter them in any way, so how about we say, "It's absolutely fantastic!"

Michael: Thomas.

Thomas: Yes, Michael?

Michael: Fantastic. Really?

Thomas: Um, how about, "it doesn't suck... oh no wait, IT DOES!"?

Michael: Or, "hope you've got your fumigator on speed dial"?

Thomas: Oh, I know! What if we say "it's good" and you draw a picture of me doing air quotes around the word "good"?

Michael: *giggle*snort* Or, we could say it tastes like a word that rhymes with something else. Like "schmass"?

Thomas: Wait, wait, wait. I got it. Let's say it tastes terrific. After all, Michael, you went to the CIA; you've been inducted into the Secret Chef Jargon That Pranks Home Cooks Club -- you remember what "terrific" means, right?

Michael: Oh yes. Ha ha. But the regular reader won't know that now will they? We are so smart. This will most certainly encourage a potential home cook perhaps from the Washington, DC region to try this dish in like, I dunno, ten years or so, because she thinks it will be really great.

Thomas: Well done, Ruhlman. Well done. Terrific it is.

Michael: MWWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks a lot.


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Damn.

posted by on May 15 at 9:11 AM

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I'm absolutely addicted the chocolate croissants at Cafe Presse. They're awesome. Presse's pastry chef has achieved the perfect chocolate-to-pastry ratio, roughly two parts chocolate to four parts pastry, so you get some delicious dark, runny chocolate and crisp, flaky pastry in every bite. Must... not... order... another... one...


Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Lunch Date: The Explainers

posted by on May 14 at 12:00 PM

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(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who's your date today? The Explainers, by Jules Feiffer.

Where'd you go? Phuket, on lower Queen Anne.


What'd you eat?
I had the lunch combo $8.99, which is rice, salad, and any two Thai food combos. I went with the green curry and the Phad Kee Mao

How was the food? It was pretty damn good. The wide rice noodles were cooked just right, the vegetables were fresh, and I really liked being able to order two types of Thai food at once. It's the kind of option that you usually only get at bad Chinese places, but everything at Phuket was made to order. The sauces were a tad too sweet, but on the whole it's a good Thai lunch counter. I ordered medium and there was virtually no spice; heat-seekers might want to aim high.


What does your date say about itself?
This is volume one of Fantagraphics' new chronological collection of Feiffer's complete Village Voice strips. This volume collects 1956 through 1966.



Is there a representative quote?

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Will you two end up in bed together? I'm marrying the fucker. I've always said that Feiffer's cartoons are like Schulz's Peanuts all grown up, and this collection is going to wind up on the same shelf that I reserve for Fantagraphics' gorgeous Complete Peanuts collections. The surprising part is that most of these cartoons have aged incredibly well--though Feiffer worked on a tiny deadline for most of his early career, these strips still seem fresh and neurotic and crazy as ever. If I were to have one complaint--and I always have at least one complaint--it's that I don't like the neon orange on the cover. But this book is just about as perfect a collection of comics as you'll ever find.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Ezell's Under Attack

posted by on May 13 at 2:21 PM

After two and a half relatively crime-free decades, Ezell's Famous Chicken—the Central District mainstay and Official Feeder of Oprah(TM)--has been experiencing a rash of robberies.

As KIRO reports:

"Within the last four months, we have been broken into more times than the entire time we have been at the corner here (at 23rd Avenue East and East Jefferson Street)," said President Lewis Rudd. Surveillance video showed a man breaking a side window early Saturday morning after the restaurant closed, looking for cash inside the business and then fleeing when an alarm sounded.

They said they were surprised by the burglary because Ezell's has a reputation for giving former criminals a second chance and a job—something they said they are willing to do with this burglar. "It's disheartening, (a) sad situation. I would ask the guy come in. I will give you a job. It will be better for you in the long run. I know he must be down on his luck," Rudd said.

Dear robbers: Leave Ezell's alone. If you must rob someplace, rob Chili's.