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Posted by Emily Klein

• Today, enjoy a free baguette from Columbia City 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.

• 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 > > >

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).

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.

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

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.)

Continue reading »

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.

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

• 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?

He got the microwave oven right...

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?

• 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 > > >

• 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 > > >

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."

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.

[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.