The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Slog: Chow

Free Baguettes for Bikers, Beer Week Continues, and More

Unpaid Intern — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:39:00 -0700

Click to enlarge.

Posted by Emily Klein

• Today, enjoy a free baguette from ~~Columbia City~~ Grand Central Bakery in honor of Bike to Work Day (if you bike there, of course).

• Tomorrow (and Sunday—last day!), revel in beery goodness at one (or three!) of Seattle Beer Week’s events.

• Sunday, unite your gluttony with your generosity at the Food Truck Roundup in Fremont, or one of this weekend’s other food-focused fundraisers.

Details, plus more events for your eating/drinking pleasure, may be found in our Chow calendar.

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Want to Avoid Buying Monsanto Products?

Bethany Jean Clement — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:23:22 -0700

There's an app for that!

Thanks, biff.

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I Heart Chico Madrid: A Restaurant Review

Bethany Jean Clement — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:38:19 -0700

Kelly O
The tuna bocadillo at Chico Madrid. IT IS REALLY GOOD.

I heart it so much, I ate there every day for a week. If you like things that are good, you're going to heart it too.

KEEP READING > > >

Michael Pollan Is the Steve Jobs of Food

Unpaid Intern — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:04:36 -0700

Posted by news intern Ansel Herz

Last night at Benaroya Hall, author Michael Pollan paced the stage and talked to an audience that seemed to adore him. He's tall, thin, and bald with wireframe glasses. He wore jeans and a navy-blue sport coat.

If he'd been wearing a turtleneck, Pollan could have been mistaken for Steve Jobs. Which is appropriate, because his critique of the food system is Jobsian—highly effective, technically on point, even cool. But snobbish and alienating.

The substance of Pollan's argument against the corporate food industry is solid. He began with an anecdote from early in his career that encapsulates it perfectly, when he visited an Idaho farm where potatoes have to off-gas the toxicity from pesticides for five days before they can be turned into McDonald's French fries.

So I was totally with him. But then Pollan received the biggest laughs and applause of the night when he called the microwave "the Ayn Rand of appliances." He recounted the experience of buying frozen meals from Safeway as if it was an adventure on an alien planet. Waiting for them to cook in the microwave was "soul-irradiating," he said. The food was gross.

Pollan juxtaposed this with his nostalgia for the family meal of yesteryear, when kids "learn to argue without screaming or fighting. They learn the art of conversation." Chicken kiev was his favorite dish made by mom each birthday. (Who eats chicken kiev on his birthday?)

For the affluent Benaroya audience, this seemed to be all well and good. Personally, my memories of the kitchen are less fond. In single-family households (mine was firmly middle class), kids take on a lot more cooking and cleaning duties. I remember being yelled at a lot. And I thought frozen King's Hawaiian Teriyaki Bowls and Marie Callender pot pies were absolutely delicious.

This is where we begin to see that Pollan is selling an image to the upper crust (pun intended, I guess). Others have already noted the way he glosses over class, race, and gender issues in his new book, Cooked. Farmworkers—the millions of poorly paid folks who pick most of the healthy fruits and vegetables Pollan promotes—didn't get a mention last night, until I asked him about it.

He shouted out the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is an amazing organization, but one based at the opposite end of the country, in Florida. When I tried to mention a similar group based in Bellingham that people might benefit from knowing about, Pollan cut me off and moved on. That brusqueness, too, reminds one of Jobs.

The last question of the night came from a young woman who talked about how much she looks up to him. "What can one person do to make a change?" she asked, almost pleading.

Pollan smiled and gestured with his long arms. "This is the challenge of all politics...I think we are making a change, and that change is coming out of a changes in behavior. I call it voting with your fork. This book is really about changing your identity as a consumer."

That's the essence of the Jobsian approach: purchase the absolute best products, and feel justifiably smug and enlightened about it. I actually think that's fine when it comes to technology—Apple devices tend to be objectively better than their competitors (the dark side being, of course, working conditions in China). It works less well as a political vision challenging the food industry, because it's not inclusive or about collective power.

I doubt the problems in the food industry will be solved by Pollan and his converts any more than global warming will be by people buying Priuses. I wish it was that easy.

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Burning Beast Alert!

Bethany Jean Clement — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:03:33 -0700

Tickets will go on sale for the world's funnest, most delicious, meatiest feast in a field on May 22 at 9 a.m. over here.

The date of Burning Beast this year: Sunday, July 21.

Last year tickets sold out in less than three hours—don't miss the meat.

THE STRANGER
Last year's menu... this year's chefs are still TBA.

Enjoy (or abhor) more meaty, meaty photos from last year's Burning Beast over here (including the actual burning of the beast).

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Welcome News for People Who Like Foods That Taste Good

Goldy — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:33:39 -0700

As a big fan of savory foods, I welcome this news:

In a report that undercuts years of public health warnings, a prestigious group convened by the government says there is no good reason based on health outcomes for many Americans to drive their sodium consumption down to the very low levels recommended in national dietary guidelines.

Those levels, 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, or a little more than half a teaspoon of salt, were supposed to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at risk, including anyone older than 50, blacks and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease — a group that makes up more than half of the American population. ... But the new expert committee, commissioned by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was no rationale for anyone to aim for sodium levels below 2,300 milligrams a day. The group examined new evidence that had emerged since the last such report was issued, in 2005.

I mostly cook and bake for myself rather than eating out or buying prepared foods, so I'm guessing my sodium intake is way lower than the average American's. But there's no way I manage to stay below 1,500 milligrams on most days. Now I can stop giving myself hypertension worrying about my salt intake.

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Drugstore Fruit

Anna Minard — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:39:47 -0700

AM
The downtown Bartell Drugs

I have seen the occasional pile of oranges and bananas at a Walgreens. The sad cafeteria-style pile of unripe fruit makes a kind of sense. But this drugstore's exotic fruit display—pineapples, coconuts, papayas, mangos in between hair dryers and cans of nuts—totally blew my mind. Overhead, they played Joni Mitchell. The wooden display is actually for a brand of "crunch dried® fruit and vegetable snacks" in plastic bags, the kind of food I expect at the drugstore. It was a tropical fluke in the snack aisle. Or is this a new trend?

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Very Important Milkshake News

Megan Seling — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:30:46 -0700

This is a Rachel's Ginger Beer milkshake from Cupcake Royale in Ballard, and it is great.

Me. I took this photo.
YUM.

Two things: 1) It's a little pricey—over $8, since you're buying a milkshake and a Rachel's Ginger Beer (you get the left over ginger beer, too), but it's large enough that you could definitely share it with a friend. 2) This one is made with CR's vanilla ice cream, but Cupcake Royale also currently has a honey snickerdoodle flavor as well as an orange hibiscus sorbet that would probably be AMAZING and really refreshing when blended with Rachel's Ginger Beer.

Read more about milkshakes (and teeth pulling!) here.

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Cultured Meat

Eli Sanders — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:00:00 -0700

Behold, the artificial hamburger, created in a plastic cylinder for your enjoyment:

The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world — including potential sources of research funds — that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality.

Does it make it extra appetizing to know that it's environmentally friendly?

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Pea Season!

Goldy — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:18:33 -0700

Goldy | The Stranger

You know those peas I planted back in February? The first fruit are now on the vine, meaning my daughter and I will start enjoying sweet, crunchy snap and snow peas by this time next week. Yum!

What's in your garden?

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Stop Eating Dessert: You Should Drink It Instead!

Megan Seling — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:26:09 -0700

KELLY O
THE BANANA-SPLIT SHAKE AT LUNA PARK CAFE: Whoever thought of this is A GENIUS!

Tears came out of my eyes as I pulled the blood-soaked gauze out of my mouth—I couldn't feel anything on the lower half of my face, but the fresh wounds in my gums, where my wisdom teeth used to be, were still trickling a tinny-tasting stream of blood that all the water in the world couldn't rinse off my tongue. Blech.

After getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, I stayed hunkered down in bed and survived on a diet of over-the-counter painkillers, Netflix's terrible reality TV shows (Bridalplasty, dudes—seriously), and liquid meals for several days. Within the first 24 hours, I had already grown tired of juice, soups, and chalky Odwalla protein shakes. I was dying to eat something real, something that stuck to my bones and satisfied my sweet tooth.

This is when I fell in love with the milkshake all over again. I'd been so distracted by eating dessert that I completely forgot that sometimes the best way to spike your blood sugar comes through a straw! The milkshake is the bright side of having to have four large teeth yanked out of your face.

Whether it's a traditional strawberry shake from Dick's Drive-In ($2.15) or a boozy smoked-chocolate-and-whiskey concoction from Ballard's Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery ($13!), as long as real ice cream is used, it's nearly impossible to make a bad milkshake. (A mediocre milkshake, sure, but certainly not a bad one.)

Posthumanism Today: The Hunger Microchip

Charles Mudede — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:57:50 -0700

BBC:

UK-based scientists have designed an 'intelligent' microchip which they claim can suppress appetite.

Animal trials of the electronic implant are about to begin and its makers say it could provide a more effective alternative to weight-loss surgery.

The chip is attached to the vagus nerve which plays a role in appetite as well as a host of other functions within the body.

Human trials of the implant could begin within three years, say its makers.

The last two chapters of Micheal Gazzaniga's book Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique are devoted to this sort of thing, the future of the human body. After explaining for 300 pages what's biologically special about the human animal (our hands, our brains, our languages, our cultures, our dependence on technology), he begins to examine the latest technological direction—from the outside to the inside. In the past, tools were external (hammer, spoon, shoes); in the future that's arriving all around us, tools are becoming more and more internal. In the past, we were fyborgs (dependent on technology), but the future is transforming us into cyborgs.

Cyborgs have a physical integration of biological and technological structures. And we now have a few in our midst.

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Now Open 24 Hours: Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge

Bethany Jean Clement — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:27:46 -0700

lostlakecafe.com

Capitol Hill finally has a place to eat that is open all day and all night. After Basic Plumbing—the windowless, louche gay bathhouse on 10th and Pike—closed its clammy doors, David Meinert (5 Point/Big Mario's) and Jason Lajeunesse (Neumo's/Moe Bar/etc.) turned the space into 24-hour diner Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge (with an accidental, but hopefully cleansing, fire occurring during the process). They promise "the stiffest drinks on the Hill" (stiffest-er than the Crescent*?! Lord help us) and "no pretentious deconstructed anything, just real food for real people at great prices." The atmosphere is retro-Twin-Peaks-y, and we hear that the tuna melt is good, and there is pie.

*UPDATE: Or stiffest-er than C.C. Attle's, as commenter kittenalarm rightfully asks!?

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Proof That Paying McDonald's Employees More Leads to Happier Employees

Paul Constant — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:51:59 -0700

This morning, I told you about a calamitous douche named Chris DeRose who suggested a bunch of idiot ideas to improve customer service at McDonald's. None of DeRose's ideas involved paying the employees more.

The comments thread to that post has been pretty great, including a link from Gold Star Slog Commenter Merchant Seaman to a story from KPLU that seems to prove my thesis about McDonald's employees doing better at their jobs when they're paid a better wage. It's about a McDonald's along the border in Washington State (where the minimum wage is $9.19) that won't move twenty feet into Idaho, where the minimum wage is $7.25:

So, just to be clear: This McDonalds is in the state with the higher minimum wage. And this busy intersection is so profitable that it didn’t occur to [franchise owner Tim] Skubitz to move, even when he tore down the old McDonald’s in 2011. He built a fancier new one in the same place instead of in the state right across the street with the lower minimum wage. Skibutz says wages are just one piece of a larger puzzle.

“Just because we've expanded our business shows that we're growing our business,” he said. “And so with growing our business, I need more employees. So we've grown substantially I'd say in the last year and a half.”

The researchers who studied neighboring counties across state lines say there are a couple of reasons why minimum wage increases turn out to be a wash for businesses overall. They say first, the wage hike reduces turnover. It also leads employers to invest more in worker training, which increases productivity.

This story is proof that Republicans who insist lower wages are the way to build jobs are full of shit. I suggest you go read the whole thing.

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The Customer Service Problem at McDonald's Is a Symptom of a Much Bigger Problem

Paul Constant — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:44:13 -0700

Chris DeRose published an article at Business Insider addressing the fact that McDonald's is failing at customer service, with a vice president of the company openly talking about the “rude or unprofessional employees" at some franchises. Here are DeRose's suggestions:

1. Create shared emotion around delivering a great customer experience.
2. Keep simplifying work processes and rules
3. Invest more in tools and training.
4. Reward and recognize great service.

What DeRose doesn't suggest? Paying the employees a living wage. Instead, he spends his time blathering about bullshit PowerPoint terms like "wow stories" and "customer mania" and "creating memories." If you treat your employees like garbage, they're going to treat your customers like garbage. McDonald's shitty pay doesn't even get a mention in DeRose's article, but a program where "employees nominate each other for a series of pins" is suggested as a fix. Fucking unbelievable.

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When Is the Fuji Bakery in Interbay Finally Going to Open?

Bethany Jean Clement — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:30:33 -0700

Kelly O
This is what we are talking about.

As per Rachel Eggers' 2011 review, Fuji Bakery's head baker Taka Hirai* spent three years at Joël Robuchon's three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, and this expertise is reflected in everything at Fuji (except maybe the decor). They use a particular European cultured butter; they make their own yeast. Japanese-meets-French offerings include curry buns, green tea danishes, and baguette sandwiches with fillings such as smoked salmon, milk cream (!), and mentaiko butter, while the straight-up French stuff—croissants, tiny quiches, etc.—is WAY better than some so-called French bakeries.

After a hiatus, the Fuji Bakery in the ID and the one in Bellevue reopened not too long ago (and not soon enough for rabid fans).

Now inquiring minds over here in comments want to know when the long-delayed Interbay Fuji is opening, so we asked, and they answered:

Thanks for checking in! We're aiming to open the third location before summer starts, so hopefully around late May or early June.

And they will post it on their Facebook and website when it happens, for all of our information.

Meanwhile: Anyone been to G.A. Bakery, which joined Fuji in the Bellevue location in January, offering "authentic Bosnian food and baked goods"?

*UPDATE: Baker Taka Hirai is back in Tokyo and no longer with the company (thanks, johan_smithe). Anybody been to either of the Fujis since they reopened without him?

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Now Open: Vostok Dumpling House on Capitol Hill

Bethany Jean Clement — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:17:46 -0700

The Stranger

Located next to Marination Station—upstairs from the QFC at Broadway and Pike, where Little Shanghai used to be—Vostok Dumpling House serves Russian dumplings, soups, salads, and so forth. They say:

Change has arrived! Now we are not talking about political change. We are talking about a change to the dinning experience. Your cravings are no longer limited to a tortilla or a bun. Vostok Dumpling House serves up a delicious variety of soviet inspired dumplings, starting from the unforgettably hearty meat filled Siberian pelmeni to the sweet and unpredictable Ukrainian vareniki. Paired with a proud collection of local micro brews the combination of flavors and experiences are bound to start a revolution!

The ~~repurposed~~ USSR propaganda poster on the wall asks ~~“Hungry?” instead of~~ “Have you enlisted?” (Thank you, gavastik.)

Anybody tried the dumplings yet?

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Walter Cronkite and the Future of the Kitchen in 1967

Charles Mudede — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:35:14 -0700

He got the microwave oven right...

But the real surprise are the “cups and saucers [that] are molded on the spot.” Of course, the point is not to improve or automate the kitchen but to get rid of it altogether and transfer all cooking to public spaces. As the yard must be replaced by the public park, the kitchen must be replaced by the restaurant.

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Who Is More Qualified for Public Office?

Dominic Holden — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:35:55 -0700

The primary measure of an official's competence is defined by the snacks they purchase on their own dime to share with constituents. One of the photos below shows the candy bowl in Council Member Sally Bagshaw's office and one of them is the candy bowl in Mayor Mike McGinn's office. We're not saying whose is whose—but which one would you vote for?

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Freak Out! Mai Thaiku in Phinney Is Different Than the Old Thaiku in Ballard

Bethany Jean Clement — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:58:47 -0700

Kelly O
NOW IN A BUNGALOW Is smaller better? And who’s that in the corner?

No one can really remember the interior of the old Thaiku in Ballard. (You can? You're the only one.) My colleague Anna Minard, who went there at least a dozen times during its near-decade of existence, stared blankly when asked about it, then finally said that it was big and dark and high-ceilinged, kind of, question mark? My friend Jill Lightner, the editor of Edible Seattle, e-mailed: "Thaiku used to be kind of dark, lots of wood beams and really crowded tables. Kind of boring." I only went there once, on an awkward date, and was mostly in the bar, which was so full that we awkwardly sat on top of a table that awkwardly didn't have any chairs. It was dark and big (and awkward, though that wasn't its fault, except for the chairs).

Thaiku used to be where brand-new Ballard Annex Oyster House now stands, and the Thai food was extra-good there; people do remember this. Then it shut down, and it was gone for more than a year. Now it has finally reopened on Phinney...

KEEP READING > > >

Now Open: New Seattle Places for Stuffing Seattle Faces

Bethany Jean Clement — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:06:31 -0700

The Stranger
A second Bakery Nouveau, now open on 15th on Capitol Hill. FREAK OUT!

Look—it's tons of new places to eat and drink in Seattle, including Chico Madrid, Harry's Chicken Joint, another Bakery Nouveau, the Sixgill, Radiator Whiskey, and more, more, MORE!

KEEP READING > > >

Meanwhile, Over at Edible Seattle...

Bethany Jean Clement — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:40 -0700

This celebratory issue is on newsstands now, with all kinds of recipes using "this centuries-old culinary herb, some of which are intended to provide the user with noticeable effects, while others simply make use of cannabis in the same manner we might use thyme or marjoram"—including pot pesto, herb-roasted root vegetables, pot-roasted chicken in a pot, and more.

And look—here's the recipe for Killer Brownies, as depicted above, with "cinnamon, bourbon and espresso powder [that] helps elevate the bittersweet notes of the chocolate while adding layers of flavor that help to hide the taste of cannabutter." Oh, you need a cannabutter recipe, too? There's a good one in the issue (on sale all over the place today), and here's one from the awesome Maria Hines (Tilth, Golden Beetle, Agrodolce).

Regarding cannabis butter, Edible Seattle editor Jill Lightner says: "From my own recent experiences, I can say that grinding it fine is KEY. I got lazy with one batch and I made cannagrossbrownsludge instead of cannabutter... the main thing is the fine grinding, like dust/powder."

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Eating in the Dark

Charles Mudede — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:00:44 -0700

In response to this statement in my drinking column...

I have to be honest, I'm one of the few lovers of wine who never sticks his nose into a wine glass. In my thinking, sniffing is fine for a dog or a cat or any animal that still finds olfactory information meaningful, but not for a human. We long ago traded the senses of the nose for the glory of tricolor vision.

...two members of the band Friends and Family, Alex McCauley and Nathaniel Elliot Tanner Rogers, wrote:

[We] ate at a pitch black restaurant recently. Part of the gimmick is the idea that without vision you can taste and smell the food better. I think we all found that out it was the opposite—without the visual cues it was much more difficult to make out what we were eating.

I do not have the ability to dissociate eating in the dark with the punishment of confinement in a cell with no light.

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Today In Too Awful to Think About

Paul Constant — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:12:36 -0700

This AP alert screamed across my Twitter feed and now I can't stop reading the story:

CLACKAMAS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon cleaning worker was killed when he fell into a running blender at a meat-processing plant, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said.

I think I'm going to make a nice tempeh dish for dinner tonight.

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Tonight's the End for the Viking Tavern in Ballard

Bethany Jean Clement — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:32:28 -0700

THEVIKINGBALLARD.COM
Nooooooooooooo!

The Bus Stop is gone. So is the 1st Hill Bar & Grill. And the Broadway Grill.

And now the tiny, classic Viking Tavern—serving Ballard since 1950, with the photographs of opening day and timelessly great ambiance to prove it—is closing forever.

Here's an interview with longtime owner Tim Cannon, including when and why the Viking started selling fresh eggs by the dozen.

And here's an appreciation of both the Viking's barbecue and the place as a Seattle institution by Rachel Kessler from way back in 2001:

There is something about the Viking that reminds me of old Seattle: the lush and green and lonely Seattle of the 1970s, imbued with the infinite sadness of spent resources and industrialized, polluted, then abandoned riverbanks. In the old Seattle, there were weeds, and dogs without leashes. The paint peeled off houses and nobody bothered the city council about it. My grandpa, a lean man who sleeps with a gun under his pillow in his mossy rambler out in Preston, would drink at the Viking if he lived in Ballard. I imagine both my grandparents being very comfortable at the Viking, in fact, with their pair of Dobermans, Acey and Deucy, at attention next to several rib bones picked clean...

The ground upon which the Viking stands will become a development called the Ballard Lofts. Please join me now in a moment of silent hating of the world.

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R.I.P. Joko's Indonesian Kitchen

Grant Brissey — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:01:52 -0700

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1st Hill Bar and Grill Closes

Unpaid Intern — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:21:15 -0700

Kelly O

Posted by Chow intern Kim Fu

As of tomorrow at closing time, the neon lights at Ninth and Madison will be no more. After 34 years and some health troubles, the owner of Greek-American 1st Hill Bar and Grill has decided to sell. Marti Jonjak’s Happiest Hour love note doubles as an elegy for one of the last truly old-school Seattle restaurant-and-lounges:

The 1st Hill Bar & Grill is a deeply charming dive that's been around forever. Occupying the front space: a pleasant, ordinary diner with old men and mauve seashell-print upholstery and garlands of plastic ivy. But the back lounge blooms into a distinct and unexpected realm—vast and still, with glossy orange underlights and murals on every wall depicting famous Greek ruins.

Come say your goodbyes!

There's a silver lining to this story: The buyer is Ridgley Kuang, owner of the two Green Leaf locations—one serves the best Vietnamese food in Belltown (no contest) and the other serves arguably the best Vietnamese in the International District (we can fight about it in the comments). I go to the Belltown Green Leaf so often that the waitresses know how I like my iced coffee and sometimes send over free dessert.

Kuang isn’t opening another Green Leaf; he thinks two is enough. The new restaurant will be called Lotus Asian Kitchen and Lounge, following a few months of remodeling. Some Green Leaf dishes might migrate, but the menu will have more of an experimental, Asian-fusion vibe, plus a full bar.

And if you find yourself wandering First Hill, in need in of old-fashioned, homey ambience and cheap, serviceable souvlaki, there’s always Mediterranean Kitchen.

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The International Connection Between a Book and a Local Restaurant

Charles Mudede — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:44:32 -0700

I want to make a connection between a book, The Making of Global Capitalism, I reviewed in this week's books section...

And a new Ethiopian restaurant, Wonder Coffee and Sports Bar, I reviewed in this week's chow section.

Here is the connection: In The Making of Global Capitalism, the Canadian authors (Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin—the first is a professor of political science and the second is an economist), convincingly argue that globalization is essentially Americanization. To understand their reasoning, you have to first understand this: There is no such thing as a pure capitalism, a capitalism as a kind of Platonic form. There are instead multiple capitalisms, each marked by the culture through which it is expressed—Singaporean capitalism, German capitalism, Brazilian capitalism, and so on. The kind of capitalism that went global during the second half of the 20th century was US capitalism. Not only that, this capitalism was made global not by capitalists or multinational corporations but by the US government. Only a powerful state has the kind of muscle needed to build, support, and reproduce an economic order on a global scale.

And how does this connect with the Wonder Coffee and Sports Bar? A passage from my review:

A part of the menu offers Ethiopian dishes. The other part offers plain American meals... Now here is where things get wonderfully weird: The Ethiopian dishes are in the Wonder Special Ethiopian section of the menu, and the American meals are in the Wonder Special International section. When you eat a hamburger down the street, it is not international—but when you eat it in Wonder, it is. America, not Ethiopia, is international in Wonder.

Wonder, however, is correct to categorize American plates (even in America) as international—it is the food/language/culture of global capitalism. A cheeseburger, no matter where it is served, is international; injera bread, no matter where it is served, is local.

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Teen Scientist Says Fruit Flies Prefer Organic

Anna Minard — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:56:28 -0700

On this gray and somber morning, a little story that contains three of my favorite things—women in science, kids at the grown-up table, and yummy organic produce—is brightening things just a bit. Dallas teenager Ria Chhabra, who started this project in middle school and is now 16, has had her research on organic foods published in a peer-reviewed journal after winning honors at national science competitions.

From Tara Parker-Pope on the NYT Well blog:

The research, titled “Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster,” tracked the effects of organic and conventional diets on the health of fruit flies. By nearly every measure, including fertility, stress resistance and longevity, flies that fed on organic bananas and potatoes fared better than those who dined on conventionally raised produce.

She's been working with a Southern Methodist University professor, Dr. Johannes Bauer, in his lab. According to Pope, "Dr. Bauer said that he was happy to have her working in his lab and that her biggest problem was that 'she has too many ideas for her own good.'" Bless you, internet, for the good stuff.

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Going to the Chapel: How's the Food at the Most Gorgeous Place on Capitol Hill?

Bethany Jean Clement — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:55:42 -0700

Kelly O
FROM ON HIGH The mighty airspace of the Pine Box.

The Pine Box opened last summer in the former chapel of Butterworth Mortuary. With its leaded glass windows, enormous mirrors, ornate dark woodwork, vaulted ceiling, and antique fixtures, it's the most gorgeous space on Capitol Hill. (The club called Chapel that preceded it was glam and seedy, with service so slow that you might've actually expired before getting a drink.) The Pine Box is headed up by beer guru Ian Roberts, former Brouwer's manager and a founder of Seattle Beer Week (which is sure to be celebrated mightily at the Pine Box starting May 9—and lasting 10 days, as a beer-related week should).

The chapel works marvelously as a beer hall. Its mighty airspace makes for an ungodly, joyous clatter and din when the place is full—yes, it is loud, loud with the laughter that comes from 33 rotating taps of great beer...

KEEP READING > > >