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Monday, March 2, 2009

City / Chow Mayor Nickels's Kickoff: The Food

Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 4:22 PM

I'll be writing more this week about the mayor's race and what went down at this Saturday's kickoff "barbecue" at the Central Area Senior Center in this week's paper. But for now, I'll answer the question that's obviously on everybody's mind: How was the food?

Let me tell you, it was a mixed bag. First of all, can someone explain to me this obsession with calling things barbecues that are obviously not barbecues? (I'm from Texas, where people don't confuse such things). There were no ribs, no sausages, not so much as a squeeze-bottle of Heinz ersatz "BBQ" sauce to be found. There were, however, enough grilled items (note to Northwesterners: A grill is not a barbecue), chips, potato salad, and fixings to almost make up for the misnomer. Almost.

Tim Ceis, the deputy mayor, and Alex Fryer, the mayor's spokesman, manned the grill. You had your basic hot dogs (good, I'm told), your salmon burgers (surprisingly juicy), your regular burgers (overcooked) and your Costco veggie patties (fine, but easily scorched). The fixings, impressively, held out until the very end of the party—sweet pickle slices, sweet relish, Cheddar cheese slices, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and some very basic condiments—and although the mayonnaise-y potato salad didn't last quite that long, that was probably for the best. Props to Team Nickels for keeping plenty of Coke products on ice, and for using compostable dishes, flatware, and plastic cups (identified as such by huge signs everywhere screaming "COMPOSTABLE"!). There were also constantly-replenished communal baskets of chips— cheese Doritos, plain Ruffles, and some Kettle/Cheeto hybrid that was an alarming color of orange. I avoided all of them. Orange grease didn't go with my outfit.

Comments (24) RSS

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Was it indoors? Might explain the need for a grill and not a BBQ??

Posted by Sorry We're Not As Perfect Up Here on March 2, 2009 at 4:43 PM

good thing they went for the Coke products. Wouldn't want to use any of those PEPSI products that are bottled just down the road from where the "BBQ" was being held....just sayin.

Posted by dkl on March 2, 2009 at 4:49 PM

Barbecue is a word that means different things in different places. Like "pop" and "soda", or "trousers" and "pants", or "bum" and "butt". It's called "dialect", and we have a different one in Seattle from what people in Texas have.

Posted by andrew on March 2, 2009 at 4:57 PM

So, what are you doing for your BBQ, Dan?

And will there be vegan options?

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 2, 2009 at 4:58 PM

There were also some costco cookies, bratwurts and kielbasa's. The Kielbasa's and brats went quickly, so they were probably gone before you got there.

Posted by andrew on March 2, 2009 at 5:03 PM

Erica Darling, just because a barbecue is a certain way in a certain place doesn't meant it has to be that way all over. That's good for Wal-Mart and McDonalds, but not much else.

Besides, I can think of few things nicer than a BBQ on the lovely terrace of the Central Area Senior Center.

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay on March 2, 2009 at 5:36 PM

nobody ever invited a texan to come tell them what things are called

Posted by Go away! 'Batin'! on March 2, 2009 at 5:58 PM

The BBQ/Grilling confusion isn't endemic to just the PNW, but is pretty much standard up-and-down the West Coast. So far as I'm aware (and I'm a native mossback), almost no one born within a day's drive of the Pacific Ocean calls slapping a piece of meat on an open grill anything BUT "bar-b-que".

That being said, I do beg to differ with those who insist there is no semantical difference between BBQ and grilling, and to play Devil's Advocate: just because some people don't know the difference between the two doesn't mean there ISN'T a difference.

Just as an Inuit has 27 different words for "snow", and a Cascadian wouldn't mistake a Douglas for a Noble Fir, neither would the denizens of Dallas, Kansas City, New Orleans or Charlotte consider throwing a sirloin on a overheated Weber charcoal grill for ten minutes at all equivalent to slow-cooking a nice hunk of brisket for 10+ hours over low heat, along with generous application of a tangy "mop".

Posted by COMTE on March 2, 2009 at 6:24 PM

Oh, and ECB - what's the story on this compostable dinnerware? I'd LOVE to get my theatre to start using compostable plastic cups, but we've never come across these at any of the places you'd think would carry them.

Posted by COMTE on March 2, 2009 at 6:28 PM

It's a dialect idiot, kind of like how you say "nucular" in Texas, and "lynch em"!

Posted by Todd on March 2, 2009 at 6:56 PM

Btw - if you're from Texas, where on earth did you learn to write?

Posted by Todd on March 2, 2009 at 6:59 PM

Sounds like an entirely uninspiring and fatty spread. Perfect for our Mayor.

Posted by DOUG. on March 2, 2009 at 7:07 PM

A barbecue IS a grill. Look it up.

The Stranger is like Seattle's high school paper.

Posted by Shut up about Texas on March 2, 2009 at 7:27 PM

Thanks god there was no music, that would have been ironic. Sounds like the Mayor is trying to solidify his base among the old and institutionalized. Possibly the only group who won't remember the completely shit job he's done over the last 8 years.

Posted by wherethehell'stheopposition? on March 2, 2009 at 7:53 PM

@13: I looked it up, and it turns out you're wrong:

In US English usage, however, grilling refers to a fast process over high heat, while barbecuing refers to a slow process using indirect heat and/or hot smoke (very similar to some forms of roasting). For example, in a typical U.S. home grill, food is cooked on a grate directly over hot charcoal, while in a U.S. barbecue, the coals are dispersed to the sides or at significant distance from the grate.

Posted by huh on March 2, 2009 at 7:57 PM

@9 - the entire UW uses the compostable dinnerware and cutlery so you know they're available in bulk.

Maybe the Stranger could do an article about who the suppliers are so other people could use them?

But that might require ... reporting. And ... research.

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 2, 2009 at 8:24 PM

And for real Texan BBQ you need to bury it in the ground.

No, I'm serious.

Posted by Will in Seattle, the Texan version on March 2, 2009 at 8:25 PM

@15:

Precisely. Anyone who claims there's no difference is automatically disqualified from being taken seriously when conversing on the subject, because clearly they have no idea about what they fuck they're talking.

Yes, both bar-b-ques and grills have a "grill", but so did my old man's 1956 Chevy pick-up. However, just because they all have "grills" nobody would be stupid enough to try to cook a steak on the latter.

Posted by COMTE on March 2, 2009 at 8:31 PM

The kind of person who would throw a piece of meat on a grill and call it barbeque is the same kind of person who would throw sliced Oscar Meyer wiener into Campbell's vegetable soup and call it gumbo.

Or for that matter, the kind of person who would serve huevos rancheros with black beans and call it good.

Posted by Apocalypse Tom on March 2, 2009 at 8:43 PM

The kind of person who cares about such stupid distinctions as the difference between "grilling" and "barbequing" is the kind of pretentious asshole that never gets asked out anywhere, and thus has no idea of what they are talking about.

Posted by Pathetic little sloggers.... on March 2, 2009 at 9:32 PM

@20: Yeah, I'm so sure you left that comment as you were getting ready for a hot date.

Posted by Darcy on March 2, 2009 at 10:29 PM

I hate overcooked hamburgers. I am dying for a thick juicy one. Juice that runs down my wrist and my chin.

I think I am getting a boner.

Posted by elswinger on March 2, 2009 at 10:52 PM

Agree w/ECB. . .BBQ is a sauce! You can grill stuff then BBQ it. . with the BBQ sauce.
don't care what book says what.
I was made fun of so much when my hill billy butt first came here. I'd say "grill out" or "cook out". The natives I worked with would give me a hard time. "It's BBQ, what is a cook out?" After marrying a native and hanging with so many of them them I eventually gave up and conformed - after about 10 yrs. It was very strange at first to even say BBQ but I say BBQ now - even tho' I know that's a sauce.

Posted by irl on March 3, 2009 at 10:15 AM

@22:

Hie thee over to Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard, stat!

And @23, while I understand the desire to assimilate into the local culture, I have to respectfully disagree with your initial assessment. Bar-b-que is mainly about how the meat is cooked, the types of cuts used, the temperature and length of time at which they're cooked, and only secondarily about what is put on either before, during, or after that process.

Sauces vary from region-to-region, and even between specific locales within a region, but the one thing ALL BBQ has in common is the low-temperature, slow-cooking methodology.

For some regional 'Q's there's no sauce involved in the cooking process at all, while others may use only a dry-rub of herbs and spices to cover the meat before being cooked. In both cases you will usually get sauce on-the-side, but there are purists out there who would just as vehemently insist it's not only unnecessary, but actually an impediment to enjoying the natural flavor of the slow-cooked meat itself.

Posted by COMTE on March 3, 2009 at 12:12 PM