I learned this week that Seattle has its own style of hot dog.
I’ve had it and love it, but never knew cream cheese and grilled
onions on a dog make it uniquely Seattle.
This week, I learned from The
News Tribune in Tacoma that there’s a semi-local
(Puyallup)sauce, hummus and chimichurri maker called Sound Bites Sauce and Spread
Co. They apparently use regional and local ingredients.
The big drawback, though is that it seems the closest local
retailer to sell it is Harbor Greens in Gig Harbor. It’s mostly
sold in Pierce and King Counties.
Events:
Tonight
If you can make it out to Seattle by 6:30, Food Network food
geek Alton Brown will be out at
Third Place books, 17171 Bothell Way, shilling his new book,
Good Eats: The Early Years, about some of his
crazy stunts and background from 10 years on the “Good Eats”
show.
All weekend:
I’d also encourage folks to take advantage of the waning days of
the local farmers markets. Port
Orchard and Kingston have their last market Saturday. Suquamish and
Bremerton finish on Oct. 14 and Poulsbo and Bainbridge are done
Oct. 17 , though a winter market on Bainbridge Island will start in
November.
Up in Port Angeles, The 8th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood
Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and 10
a.m. to 5 p.m Sunday. Events during the festival include a
Grab-A-Crab derby where you can catch a crab (you don’t need a
permit for this one), music, activities for kids and tribal
cultural demonstrations and activities and art. The big draw,
though, is why this gets included in a food blog roundup: a giant
crab feed with fresh Dungeness crab served with coleslaw and
corn
Phew! That’s all I can say after coming off a couple weeks of
crazy, fast-food-fueled working (ugh, I know, I know). While I
didn’t get much of a chance to write, I did take a few moments to
read what other people were writing about food. Those of you who’ve
been following along with my reading links (at right), it’s not
much new. But for those who haven’t, here are a few articles you
might find interesting until I can regroup a few thoughts and
photos. Most of it was food I dreamed about making and eating while
stuffing a slice of pizza in my mouth.
Fiji
Water: Spin the Bottle
Report says glossy bottles of the popular drinking water hide the
political and humanitarian issues that plague the island
nation.
One of the big to-dos in the world of food last week was
British study has
recently concluded that organic food has no additional
nutritional benefit over standard produce.
Whether or not organic veggies have more or better vitamins and
minerals has been hotly debated for years. Especially in these hard
economic times, is the benefit worth spending the extra cash for
organic food? Even if it is, is all food better organic or just
some? This study doesn’t settle the debate, but rather adds another
piece to the complex discussion. And as Seattle-based blog the
Accidental Hedonist pointed out last week, the study is
far from definitive. People buy organic for a variety of reasons
including fear of effects from pesticides and the chance to meet
friendly faces when you purchase organic produce from your friendly
neighborhood farmer.
Do you buy some or all your food organic or do you think the
movement is overblown? Why or why not?
Continuing with my roundups of the food news I haven’t
elaborated on, but are still worth a little taste, here are some
happenings in the local (and occasionally national) food world:
Checking in With Local Restaurants
A little past the last week, but still worth noting since I
missed a mention in my blog-world absence: Local food reviewer
Bernard Jacobson headed to Poulsbo for a taste of Sogno di Vitto
and offered
this review: “For the most part, too, the food and drink
measure up to the buzz created by this exciting space,” and rated
the food an 8 out of 10. And if you want a health overview of
restaurants in general, the latest Kitsap food inspection scores
were released last week.
Reading Up With Beer
Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo has been marking its presence in
the social media sphere, and this week offered up part
two of a food-related blog post that brings together
both two of my loves in a way I thought was pretty darn clever.
They matched fine literature with craft brews. It goes beyond just
taking a drink mentioned in a book in say the way you’d pair a
Jack
Rose with
“The Sun Also Rises” or an orgy of rum over ice with
“The Rum Diary”. The blogger (maybe stretching a little)
matches characteristics of a brew with the character of the
book.
Loving Local
In Washington state, next week has been declared Farmers Market
Week to celebrate locally grown food. Locally, a few markets, such
as the one in Port orchard have a few activities planned,
according to a story by South Kitsap’s Chris Henry.
And speaking of local food and local, the Orchard Theatre is
among the latest to Proceeds will go to benefit the blossoming
Kitsap Food Co-Op
effort.
Bests
Going further afield, across Sound to Seattle, last week marked
the alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly’s annual roundup of “Best
Of”-ness. Among the many and often creative categories, the Weekly
compiled a list of best
restaurants,
best local food blog, best places for free happy hour
food and other “best-ofs” including things like “Best Carb-on-Carb
Action Since Hawaii Invented the Loco Moco.”
Grocery Recession
Even Seattle foodies are apparently trying to save a little cash
at the register.
The Seattle Times reports that food shoppers are trading
down on expensive items like soda, wine and snacks. The one
possibly good thing to come out of this recession may be that
people will learn what Europeans have known for some time: that you
can have a good, tasty bottle of wine for under $20, even (hold
your breath) an occasionally drinkable
bottle of Two Buck Chuck.
Local Representation on Iron Chef
It looks like Seattle will have some representation on the
television reality competition series “Iron Chef” in the form of
Holly Smith, of Cafe Juanita and Poco Carretto,
according to former P-I food writer Rebekah Denn. She
joined nine other top chefs in a five-week worldwide competition
show, which premieres Oct. 4. I know folks who hate it, but I’ve
found much to love about the show since my first peek at the
original Japanese version of the show. The original was billed as a
way to bring out the artistry and deadline-induced creativity of
cooking. Both the Japanese and U.S. versions do bring out a measure
of that, what I really love about the show is the way it captures
much of the heated process and sometimes mistakes that occur in the
kitchen, the charred-beyond-recognition grilled meats, the sauces
forgotten on the burner. It makes me feel a little better about my
food
failures.
Speaking of Representation …
In response to a spate of food scares in foods from spinach to
peanuts during the past year, the House of Representatives
recently
passed a new package of food safety laws. Among other
things, the measure would require the Food and Drug Administration
to conduct inspections every 6 to 12 months at food processing
plants that it deems high-risk. Lower-risk plants would be
inspected at least once every three years, and warehouses for
packaged foods at least once every five. To pay for it all, the
bill would impose a yearly fee of $500 on food processing plants.
The measure moves to the Senate for scrutiny, etc.
Getting Geeky
For foodies who also are technophiles, Mashable
compiled a list of food buying, cooking and eating web
and phone applications that included things like an online
marketplace for locally created and artisanal foods called
Foodzie and one of my newfound
jungle to get lost in, the food-based wiki Foodista to restaurant review
sites like Urban Spoon.
It’s been a busy week, and while I haven’t spent nearly as much
time in the kitchen or out in the eating world as I like, I’ve been
reading about it. Here are a few tidbits I found and a couple local
food-related events happening in the upcoming week:
You probably don’t want to know
A new Web site called What’s on My Food lets you
search your favorite foods — from almonds to winter squash — and
see how often toxic pesticides have been detected on them. Let’s
see, I’ll have a dash of Piperonyl butoxide, Chlorpyrifos and
Boscalid on my almonds, please …
Cupcakes
Sometime in the past few years the cupcake has exploded on the
scene as the dessert of choice, moving from papered kiddie party
staple to an adorable, delectably delightful dessert of choice. In
Seattle, one shop, noted this week by the
Tasting Menu blog is Trophy Cupcakes of Seattle. They
deem the cakes at the Wallingford adorable, creative and I assume
tasty, though they really focused on the adorable.
For the Love of Sandwich
Restaurant reviewers over at The Stranger this week
compiled a list o Seattle’s best sandwiches in case you
find yourself in need of a noontime pick-me-up. Their vote for best
sandwich in the city happens to be my favorite kind, though from a
place I’ve yet to try, a Reuben from I Love New York Deli on Pike
Street. Mmmmm … corned beef and rye.
Rolling in Rhubarb
For those of you, like me, trying to figure out what to do with
the armfuls of rhubarb either growing in your garden or gifted to
you by family and friends, there will be more on that in this blog.
In the meantime, the Amateur Gourmet blog has a quick and easy
recipe for roasted
rhubarb to serve with yogurt. And a little more than a
week ago, Anne from the Small Potatoes blog offered up a recipe for
strawberry rhubarb muffins
Events:
This weekend
The annual Taste of Tacoma
kicked off Friday and runs through Saturday (11 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and
Sunday (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.). The event features 32 restaurant booths
(though some are repeats) each with options for $6 or less. A
wine-tasting area also is set up with 10 wineries to choose from
with a set of 5 tastes costing $15. You also get music and comedy
while you eat.
Also this weekend, Sustainable
Bainbridge will host two food-related matinees for $9 at
the Lynwood Theatre on
Bainbridge Island. On Saturday, they will show “Food Fight,” an
83-minute documentary about agricultural policy and food culture in
the 20th century and a counter-revolution against agribusiness.
Afterward, Lari Setlzer of Real Foods in Winslow will lead a
discussion. Here’s a trailer for “Food Fight”:
On Sunday, they’ll show “Homegrown Revolution”, a 16-minute film
about a Pasadena, Calif. family who began growing their own organic
food, using solar energy and biodiesel. A post-film discussion will
be lead by Anne Willhoit, a volunteer with Sound Food.
Wednesday
Your hunger Wednesday could help support The Kitsap Food C-Op if you
satisfy it at Hi-Lo’s 15th Street
Cafe. From 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., a portion of the food sales
will go to the co-op to help them raise funds for things like a
feasibility study. Folks from the Co-op effort will be there to
answer questions.
The lowest tides of the season are this week, and the
Seattle Times rounded up some of the best (which happen
to be in our neck of the woods) places to find clams and
oysters.
French Fries can be bad for your house, too
The Tacoma News Tribune
reported Wednesday that accidents with homemade french
fries are responsible for a half dozen fires in Tacoma. The
firefighters there reminded folks that the fryer should not be left
unattended, nor should you pile paper up against it.
Emapanadas
Also in the News Tribune, is a profile
of a mom and daughter who make a living out of making
empanadas.
Tipping at Weddings
Seattle Weekly’s
Voracious blog asked a bartender this week about the
etiquette for tipping at the bar (and other places) at weddings and
other events. Answer: yep, tip, and how much depends on what you
order. They have suggested tip amounts for other things in the
post.
Grocers Woe-ing, but not Uwajimaya
People’s need to save money at the grocery store has hit some
companies from Safeway to Costco with revenue drops. But not Asian
grocer Uwajimaya, says
a Seattle Times article. The Seattle-based chain — which
once was rumored to be interested in downtown Bremerton, among
other grocery chains, though that information could not be
confirmed. They’re doing OK for themselves and even expanding in
Renton.
Cheetos Kisses?
The Mental Floss
blog posted this week about a few companies’ past
creations to extend their brands into new markets. Some are from
food companies that are creating things that aren’t edible (or from
good taste), such as Cheetos-flavored lip balm, which I guess are
for people who prefer salty kisses. Others are from food companies
that went beyond the traditional food, such as Gerber’s attempt at
making food for adults and Colgate’s recipe guide.
Here is a random (very random) collection of news tidbits that
appeared (or that I found) online this week:
One Less Bremerton Breakfast place
Some sad news from the
Bremerton Beat blog, August Wynn in Manette apparently
has closed its doors and shut down its web site.
To market, to market?
Former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food writer Rebekah Denn
wrote about a recent study on the growing number of
farmers markets and asks at what level we reach the saturation
point. The study, based on information collected in 2006, seems to
show that with the growth in farmers markets has come a decline in
sales at each of those markets.
Speaking of Farmers …
The local food movement has been growing for the past couple
years, and some folks are trying to help it grow further. Early
this week,
The (Everett) Daily Herald reported on a farmer who is
hoping to show city folk what farming is all about by starting up
an agro-tourism (can I claim to coin that term?) operation at his
farm. And locally, farmers looking to expand are learning a whole
lot about the complex system surrounding
water rights.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for … what is that?
Ice cream is delicious in so many varieties, but a couple of the
flavors in a recent
Women’s Day article on the top 10 innovative ice cream
flavors may stray a bit from the “delicious.” I haven’t tried, so I
can’t really judge, but among the flavors are caviar ice cream and
candied bacon. Yeah, yeah, savory and sweet go together, but in my
world, ice cream is sacredly sweet or sour or a combination of the
two. Other flavors there, however, I could definitely dig my spoon
into, including strawberry balsamic, bourbon and cornflake.
While not mentioned in the article, but of local interest, was
that one of those unusual flavors can be found at a local ice cream
shop. Mora Iced Creamery on
Bainbridge carries a Goat Cheese and Fig (though it’s seasonal and
not available right now), as well as other non-traditional flavors,
such as lavendar, a mojito sorbet and a sabayon, which is like an
egg custard with wine.
Wine Online
It’s not enough to just get together with friends for a few
sips. Cue the smooth jazz: Web site Snooth has created a social
network and website around wine. You can search for wine reader
reviews and recommendations, and talk to other wine lovers. And
yes, there’s an app for that, launched this
month.
Lifehacker’s Food Week
The above find came from LifeHacker, who declared this week
Food Week, where
they offered plenty of links to sites that show you things from how
to season a cast iron skillet to how to choose the healthiest (or
unhealthiest) items at fast food restaurants. A couple of my
favorite highlights: Making
your own ginger ale,
baking fresh bread in five minutes, and
making brown bag lunches more appealing.
Found a lot going on in the world of food this week, so let’s
get to it:
Food News
Today Was Doughnut Day
Get your coffee cups ready for a cheer. Today is National Doughnut Day.
Krispy Creme and Dunkin’ doughnuts are offering free treats. We
don’t have those in Kitsap, as far as I know, though. If you hear
otherwise, let everyone know!
Sipping in the Sun
Both the Seattle Weekly and the Seattle TImes served up lists of
places to enjoy dishes and cocktails outside. The Times’ Nancy
Leson wrote a roundup of
best restaurants with waterfront views. The Seattle
Weekly published it’s annual
Summer Guide and offered photos of a few of their favorite
spots.
Starbucks Going Healthy
According
to Reuter’s, Starbucks is going to change up its food
menu at the end of the month to try and draw health-conscious
customers, who apparently are healthy but don’t mind drinking
things like a 360-calorie grande Caramel Frappuccino
with whipped cream). That’s not really fair. What they’re doing is
changing up ingredients to remove preservatives where they can and
include things like low-calorie salads and reworking some of their
baked goods to have simpler, and in one case, organic
ingredients.
Another Food Recall
Just when you though “natural” food was the only safe thing to
eat, a wave of natural and organic food recalls have crashed over
the food industry in the past year. The latest on the list this
week was a
recall of ground beef, including some larger packages of
Cascade Natural Beef brand.
Global Groceries
Serious Eats blog had a
wrote a post about an interactive site application
called Global
Grocer that lets you find out how far some of your food
travels before it gets to your grocery store.”
Save Room for Clichés
The cozy interior of the Epicurious blog this week included a
big gulp of reality for food writers. One of their bloggers
apparently have had it with the yummy, decadent desserts described
by some food critics, and compiled a list of their
Top 5 Most Annoying Food-Writing Clichés, all of which
I’ve used in this entry (and then some). The article is washed down
with a generous serving of equally annoyed commenters’ cliché
suggestions.
Food as an Agent of Change
KUOWs “The
Conversation” Thursday included an interview with
Tom Standage,
business editor at The Economist and author of a new book called
“An Edible History of Humanity”. He talks about how food has been
an agent of change in our history from the stationary communities
created when we learned to farm to the industrialization of
agriculture.
Events
On Saturday, you can eat food and support cancer research in
Kingston. Businesses there are hosting a “Walk for
Chocolate” to benefit the North Kitsap Relay for Life
team. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. you can use a $5 “passport” on a stroll
through the town to stop into businesses and take in a few
chocolate samples. Passports are later entered for a prize drawing.
So not only do you get to donate money to a cause, you also can
walk off the calories from your bites.
While I was looking at some classes at
Seattle-base Cooksworld.net, I ran across an
announcement for a mac ‘n’ cheese cooking contest: Entry is $10,
you bring enough to serve eight people and the recipe to the store
on near University Village in Seattle on June 17. The top three
tasty concoctions get store gift certificates and merchandise. It’s
limited to 14 competitors. So, where do I sign up to be a
judge?
Speaking of contests, Port Orchard’s Morningside Bakery
announced recently that they’ll be hosting a
cake decorating contest on June 20 to benefit Kitsap
Foster Care Association’s DREAM
Project. The contest is split into divisions for kids,
amateur and professional adults. There’s even a cutest cupcake
category. Entry is $10 if you enter by today, $15 until the June 16
entry closing date.
One of the things I’ve always loved about Wednesdays are the
food sections in the big daily newspapers. I’m not entirely sure
sure why it’s Wednesdays, but it may be linked to all the grocery
ads that ran on the same day.
Though most of these sections have become skimpier, relegated to
a small page (sadly, like ours, which is now down to a couple
columns that run on Sundays in print and
online with an occasional restaurant review in A&E)
or done away with altogether because of budget cuts and the
emergence of some really good food bloggers, a few gems can still
be found in a newspaper.
Mostly, this is my long way of getting into a few items I saw in
todays papers:
In the Seattle Times, they
had a Q&A with my favorite television food star,
Anthony Bourdain of
the “No Reservations” show on the Travel channel. He will be with
chef Mario Batali Saturday at The Paramount
Theatre. Sadly, I have another commitment that night,
plus the $45 to $175 tickets were a bit on the high end for me
right now.
The Times also had some excerpts from food writer Nancy
Lesson’s blog, namely a note on a new Queen Anne
restaurant and new features at a Georgetown restaurant.
In the Tacoma News Tribune, their food feature was about
South
Sound cooking classes. Apparently more folks are trying
to cook good food at home for various reasons, from seeing others
do it on the vast number of cooking shows and to save a few bucks.
They list three cooking classes and prices.
I think I’ll steal their idea and compile a larger list of
Kitsap-side cooking classes. That’s the other thing papers are good
for, stealing ideas. And wrapping your fish.
If any of you hear of any cooking classes, let me know. I’m not
kidding about stealing that idea.
Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to type out in a few
minutes … Until next time.
In celebration of this THREE DAY WEEKEND!!! (really, it deserves
caps and exclamation points), this week’s food news is dedicated to
local events, some you can do this weekend, some you can do the
following regular, ordinary weekend. Weather this weekend is
supposed to be gorgeous, so if you’re not going anywhere, the least
you can do is break out the barbecue.
ShrimpFest
If you’re already on the West side of the Hood Canal or are
taking a trip out there on this weekend, Brinnon
has a ShrimpFest from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 to 5 on
Sunday. They’ll have food booths, crafts, music and other
activities.Oh, and it’s free.
Bite of Port Orchard
Sunday in Port Orchard, a dozen area eateries will set up a
Bite of Port Orchard as part of the Harbor Festival.
Food can be had from 3 to 6, and for the lush-minded, there’s a
beer garden from 3 to 7. All in Port Orchard Marina Park.
Films
The Seattle International Film
Festival (SIFF) has a ton of food-related films. Click
on any of the film links for showtimes, etc. from SIFF:
“Chef’s Special” is about a Spanish chef with a
restaurant in Madrid who is trying to work out family issues while
pushing for culinary superstardom. It plays Saturday and Monday at
the Egyption and Pacific Place, respectively.
“Apron Strings” is about the food and traditions of two
Kiwi (New Zealand) families struggling with culture and
connections. It plays May 30 and June 1.
“Food, Inc.,”
focuses on corporate bulk food practices (which may not make you
want to eat)and “Know Your Mushrooms”. It plays May 30 and 31 at
the Egyptian Theater.
“School Days with a Pig” is based on a true story of a
Japanese class of elementary students who struggle with their
relationship to a piglet destined to become a pork chop.
Edible Gardens
Tuesday is the last day to sign up for discounted tickets for
the May 30 Bremerton Edible Garden Tour. It’s a bus tour showcasing
some of your urban food-producing neighbors. Cost is $8 before
Tuesday, $12 after. More details at www.bugskitsap.org.
