Food: November 2009 Archives

Astronauts eat freeze-dried T-rations, right? They eat half-frozen carbohydrate gruel, mystery meat, and dry, crumbly rolls coated with margarine from a toothpaste tube. Sheesh, the best part of an astronaut's meal is the freeze-dried ice cream. Right?

It's a slower day than usual in the Emerald City, as many of us mentally prepare ourselves for dealing with travel, family, and gluttony. So instead of our normal list of events around the city, we're presenting a list of "can't miss" opportunities to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

For the year's final Dish-Off in City Arts before the year-end playoff issue, a steak house and an oyster house interpret Uncle Kracker's "Steaks 'n' Shrimp"--the most risque song in Dish-Off history. It was interesting to see how two chefs from traditional restaurants interpreted lyrics that end, "I'm all about today and I'm-a die that way...bitch."

   

If you're in the know, you know the headline as the original title of Casablanca. If not, well, there's this report from Victoria, BC, with a supporting cast of ne'er-do-wells and barflies from Seattlite.

In terms of food, Thanksgiving is all about the bird. Side dishes are nothing more than filler, but they still stand up by themselves when one uses the right "brew." This week, we continue looking at the theme of beer with a helping of thanks.

Far be it from us to say that the Twilight franchise of books and movies is bad--they're super-entertaining and enjoyable. We just think Twilight is wrong about two things: Forks, Washington, and vampires.

A good Thanksgiving, in our opinion, also includes some times for reflection when you can enjoy a mixed drink or a glass of wine. And while wine and martinis might seem the best options with turkey (martinis pair best with dark meat, by the way), there's a missed pairing option: the craft beer.

     

A baker's dozen of Seattle eateries are featuring Bristol Bay sockeye this week, to call attention to the dangers the fish will face from a proposed open pit mine. Save Bristol Bay's salmon by eating salmon, they say! But a woman in Alaska thinks you should boycott those restaurants.

It's the time of year to dust off all the food-splattered and water-stained family recipes and carry on the tradition. Thanksgiving is the one time of year when we aren't permitted to deviate from the standard.

Americans are drinking more wine than ever, and we in Washington state are beneficiaries of the trend. But how well do we know our own wines?

    

There's so much going on at Toulouse Petit, a New Orleans-themed brasserie that opened last night at Queen Anne & Mercer, you don't know quite where to start. A year in the building, you can see the effort on the walls, the floors, the tabletops, in the platoons of staff and the extensive menus (food, wine, cocktails, happy hour, with breakfast and lunch still to come). There's something for every wallet here, starting with a fatcat's $42 steak (filet with foie gras, veal-cognac-shallot reduction, white truffle oil). For the frugal, the happy hour menu offers boudin blanc ($4), spicy fried alligator ($5), lamb's tongue en remoulade ($6); for the spendthrift, a blackened USDA prime rib eye ($18).

"Chilly Dog!" by Shawn McClung, from our Flickr pool

Periodically a stabbing at your frontal lobe will occur in the form of events throughout the year. It's appropriate with the weather being deplorable that Hump Day (Wednesday) be the day of choice this week.

    

This seems to be a back-to-the-future moment of confluence, when the forces of history, music and government converge into a meatloaf sandwich time machine. It is a triumph of the old gang, the long-haired grungers over the well-coiffed anchors and well-pressed suits. Concert promoter Dave Meinert (Cap Hill Block Party, One Reel, Blue Scholars, The Presidents) and his girlfriend Mandy Park (longtime waitress at the 5 Point Café) have taken over Belltown's longest-running dive bar. The announcement came from music-PR gal Kerri Harrop, who's also tied in with Neumos (and the whole Mike McConnell music-pizza-coffee organization; Caffe Vita will now supply 5 Point customers with bottomless cups of java). Meinert, whose bands perform regularly at Neumos and who also ran the old Mirabeau Room on Lower Queen Anne, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of both Dow Constantine and Mike McGinn.

Between May and November, we drove to Green Lake every weekend to pick up a surprisingly heavy bag of vegetables, and we had built our cooking around it. We'd come to rely on the weekly picks up of local produce, including kale, carrots, lettuce, bok choy, potatoes, beets, and tomatoes, all grown in South Seattle to shape our diets. Now, the vegetables in our crisper sit there like prisoners on death row--they're the last of their kind. It's time to reflect on the whole experience; it was more of a change to our lifestyle than walking to QFC ever was, that's for sure.

Besides getting your name on a mug that you can take home, thirty bucks entitles you to two dollars off pints and invitations to beer release parties.

The cranberry is one of only three commercially-important fruits that originated in North America (the other two are the blueberry, and the Concord grape), and Washington is one of five states that produce the majority of the cranberries in this country. While you may have missed the local harvest, it is still worth a trip out to Long Beach to check out the cranberry bogs and visit the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation Museum.

Brian was an affable man whom you could trust when he handed you a pint of a freshly tapped beer from the brewery. When he wasn't at the pub or inside the brewery he was at festivals offering conversation to those that listened. His advice came from years of being in the industry (fifteen of which were spent with Diamond Knot) and he was an open book. Brian is survived by his colleagues Pat Ringe and Bob Mophet as well as countless, loyal employees, friends, family, and fans. You will be missed Brian, but through each pint we will never forget you.