A little bird told me that this is the largest vegetarian food festival in the country. It's this weekend in Seattle Center - only $8 for access to more than 500 free food samples to try! Anyone planning to attend?
Information here.
Apr 7, 2010
Vegfest 2010
A little bird told me that this is the largest vegetarian food festival in the country. It's this weekend in Seattle Center - only $8 for access to more than 500 free food samples to try! Anyone planning to attend?
Information here.
Giant meatball? Or...?
Hee hee, sometimes things aren't always what they seem to be!
Looks like a gigantic meatball...in reality, it is actually inside-out spaghetti and meatballs! The creative mind behind this mess baked a meat bowl in the oven, then filled it up with spaghetti and sauce, added cheese, and flipped it onto a serving plate. Wow! Or gross! Or wow-that's-kinda-gross!
via No Puedo Creer
Looks like a gigantic meatball...in reality, it is actually inside-out spaghetti and meatballs! The creative mind behind this mess baked a meat bowl in the oven, then filled it up with spaghetti and sauce, added cheese, and flipped it onto a serving plate. Wow! Or gross! Or wow-that's-kinda-gross!
via No Puedo Creer
March KTC event - Simplicity (and yumminess!) at Meg's place
March has come and gone, and somewhere within the whirlwind was a fabulous KTC event at Meg’s place. Originally conceived of as an exercise in simplicity, the idea was to have no single recipe with more than three ingredients. In execution, I believe we cheated quite a bit and ended up using more than three in many cases, but things were still relatively simply prepared, with delicious results!
The evening began with glasses of champagne and rosé for all. Special treat guests Sam and Michael joined us for a while and brought a boxload of Theo’s confections to sample and enjoy. Yum!
First order of business: to “blanch” the potatoes we planned to fry in the deep fryer. William explained the reasoning for adding this step in this way, via a subsequent email:
“Simple quick frying doesn’t work very well; it gives a thin, delicate crust that’s quickly softened by the interior’s moisture. A crisps crust requires an initial period of gentle frying, so that starch in the surface cells has time to dissolve from the granules and reinforce and glue together the outer cell walls into a thicker, more robust layer. – The most efficient production method is to pre-fry all the potato strips at the lower temperature ahead of time, set them aside at room temperature, and then do the brief high-temperature frying at the last minute.”
As you can see from the above photo, results were far greater than satisfactory. Two words: Truffle salt.
Meg had recently been in Napa and had purchased a number of wines which she generously offered for us to try. We enjoyed some incredible examples from Cuvaison (Chardonnay), Kent Rasmussen (Pinot Noir), Peju (Sauvignon Blanc), and more.
Jessica and Meg got to work preparing the chickens for roasting, which—in and of itself—was a hysterical bout of fun. These brave and fair ladies shoved fresh bay leaves under the chicken’s skin (admittedly not the chicken's best angle)...
And provided spa-quality chicken carcass massage services, as demonstrated in this video:
Once the chicken was ready for the oven, we began working on the other elements of our meal. Meg had the terrific idea of trying to recreate an oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious salad she’d enjoyed on her recent Napa trip: arugula, carrot, mushroom, lemon juice, and truffle oil. It was heavenly!
Damian and Frank were hard at work preparing extraordinarily buttery-smelling puff pastry sheets for a lovely potato tart. They rolled and cut out what they needed, and baked the scraps up into cute little mini-puff-pastries...
Much slicing of potatoes followed, the puff pastry crusts were placed, and into the oven everything went. A short while later, it was time for step two—the addition of a custard inside the tart via a small vent which had thoughtfully been left in the top crust.
Damian separated the eggs, mastering the old “just use your hands” trick (fine advice for many a situation, to be sure)...
And then whisked the yolk into some heavy cream...
It took three of us to introduce around half of this custard mixture (all that would fit!) into the tart through this tiny hole, but I feel confident stating the effort was certainly worth the trouble. Feast your eyes...
About then, these stunning roasted chickens emerged, flanked by the Brussels sprouts we’d tucked in before slipping the pan into the oven...
The bay leaves beneath the skin were gorgeous...
Brussels sprouts were removed and placed in a bowl to admire for a while before serving...
We placed the chickens on platters to carve, which Rick masterfully performed...
Meanwhile, sensing the real action was close at hand, Fernando and Frank exhibited laudable patience. We snapped them here, in anticipation of the feast...
The herbed potato tart creation proved to be as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside (not to mention as tasty!)...
We didn’t do too badly in picking the chickens over – these bits were packaged up as giveaways for some lucky folks’ homemade stock...
The cheese course consisted of wine-stewed prunes and cheese – YUM!
Dessert was a fried frittery treat: Churros! The deep fryer was turned back on, and we mixed up the super-easy dough to load into a pastry bag...
We fried them up...
And then tossed them “luxuriously” (per the recipe!) in a sugar and cinnamon mix before holding in the warm oven until it was time to serve them...
And serve them, we did – with two kinds of chocolate sauce!
As you can see, the night was a success! Don’t forget to pass along ideas for concepts or ideas of things to learn/re-learn to William. We look forward to seeing y’all in a couple of weeks on the 25th for a super-cheesy afternoon at Shawn and Fernando’s place!
In closing, a gratuitous cool flower photo that Fernando took of Meg’s tulips...
The evening began with glasses of champagne and rosé for all. Special treat guests Sam and Michael joined us for a while and brought a boxload of Theo’s confections to sample and enjoy. Yum!
First order of business: to “blanch” the potatoes we planned to fry in the deep fryer. William explained the reasoning for adding this step in this way, via a subsequent email:
“Simple quick frying doesn’t work very well; it gives a thin, delicate crust that’s quickly softened by the interior’s moisture. A crisps crust requires an initial period of gentle frying, so that starch in the surface cells has time to dissolve from the granules and reinforce and glue together the outer cell walls into a thicker, more robust layer. – The most efficient production method is to pre-fry all the potato strips at the lower temperature ahead of time, set them aside at room temperature, and then do the brief high-temperature frying at the last minute.”
As you can see from the above photo, results were far greater than satisfactory. Two words: Truffle salt.Meg had recently been in Napa and had purchased a number of wines which she generously offered for us to try. We enjoyed some incredible examples from Cuvaison (Chardonnay), Kent Rasmussen (Pinot Noir), Peju (Sauvignon Blanc), and more.
Jessica and Meg got to work preparing the chickens for roasting, which—in and of itself—was a hysterical bout of fun. These brave and fair ladies shoved fresh bay leaves under the chicken’s skin (admittedly not the chicken's best angle)...
And provided spa-quality chicken carcass massage services, as demonstrated in this video:
Once the chicken was ready for the oven, we began working on the other elements of our meal. Meg had the terrific idea of trying to recreate an oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious salad she’d enjoyed on her recent Napa trip: arugula, carrot, mushroom, lemon juice, and truffle oil. It was heavenly!
Damian and Frank were hard at work preparing extraordinarily buttery-smelling puff pastry sheets for a lovely potato tart. They rolled and cut out what they needed, and baked the scraps up into cute little mini-puff-pastries...
Much slicing of potatoes followed, the puff pastry crusts were placed, and into the oven everything went. A short while later, it was time for step two—the addition of a custard inside the tart via a small vent which had thoughtfully been left in the top crust.
Damian separated the eggs, mastering the old “just use your hands” trick (fine advice for many a situation, to be sure)...
And then whisked the yolk into some heavy cream...
It took three of us to introduce around half of this custard mixture (all that would fit!) into the tart through this tiny hole, but I feel confident stating the effort was certainly worth the trouble. Feast your eyes...
About then, these stunning roasted chickens emerged, flanked by the Brussels sprouts we’d tucked in before slipping the pan into the oven...
The bay leaves beneath the skin were gorgeous...
Brussels sprouts were removed and placed in a bowl to admire for a while before serving...
We placed the chickens on platters to carve, which Rick masterfully performed...
Meanwhile, sensing the real action was close at hand, Fernando and Frank exhibited laudable patience. We snapped them here, in anticipation of the feast...
The herbed potato tart creation proved to be as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside (not to mention as tasty!)...
We didn’t do too badly in picking the chickens over – these bits were packaged up as giveaways for some lucky folks’ homemade stock...
The cheese course consisted of wine-stewed prunes and cheese – YUM!
Dessert was a fried frittery treat: Churros! The deep fryer was turned back on, and we mixed up the super-easy dough to load into a pastry bag...
We fried them up...
And then tossed them “luxuriously” (per the recipe!) in a sugar and cinnamon mix before holding in the warm oven until it was time to serve them...
And serve them, we did – with two kinds of chocolate sauce!
As you can see, the night was a success! Don’t forget to pass along ideas for concepts or ideas of things to learn/re-learn to William. We look forward to seeing y’all in a couple of weeks on the 25th for a super-cheesy afternoon at Shawn and Fernando’s place!
In closing, a gratuitous cool flower photo that Fernando took of Meg’s tulips...
Apr 1, 2010
Table-setting guide - on a placemat!
Of course I thought of William when I saw this product. And also of my Aunt Linda's dear friend and manners-Nazi, Gloria.
Insist on correctness at the table on every occasion - Get help from this paper placemat, which indicates the correct placement of the bread plate, the glasses, meat and/or fish knives (I'm not sure I ever knew there WAS such a thing as a fish knife!), varied forks, dessert utensils, and more.
via No Puedo Creer
Insist on correctness at the table on every occasion - Get help from this paper placemat, which indicates the correct placement of the bread plate, the glasses, meat and/or fish knives (I'm not sure I ever knew there WAS such a thing as a fish knife!), varied forks, dessert utensils, and more.
via No Puedo Creer
Mar 31, 2010
Tamara Murphy, and her new book, in Foodista
Foodista interviews Tamara Murphy of Brasa about her current projects and passions. Below are the first bits of the interview. Read the whole thing on Foodista.
James Beard award winning chef, restaurateur and soon-to-be author, Tamara Murphy has more than a couple irons in the fire right now. We asked the Seattle chef about her new book, her passion for locally-sourced ingredients and the future of Terra Plata.
There is a lot going on in your world these days, besides running Brasa, you are currently working on the relocation of Elliott Bay Café and hoping to open Terra Plata in the near future, how are you holding up?I definitely feel challenged. I feel confident knowing that I have handled my challenges respectfully and with integrity. Considering the circumstances, I am doing well.
What would be the ultimate outcome for everything you have going on? Terra Plata is open and thriving, and I am able to put my energies towards the creative side of my life, which is what I love most. Elliott Bay Cafe will be staying in its current location in Pioneer Square and I am opening my second Elliott Bay Cafe in the new book store on Capitol Hill.
You also have a book coming out this spring, congratulations! Can you tell us more about TENDER: farmers, cooks, eaters? What was your inspiration behind it? And where can we find it once it’s released? I have been working with farmers for a long time. Our local farmers are truly inspiring to me. They grow and handle our food with care and in a sustainable and respectful way, which is very important to me. Our farmers take care of our rural landscape and our farmers markets take care of our urban landscape. I wanted to share this simple message. TENDER is about honoring those farmers and the message behind their work. Its not just a recipe book. The photographs are beautiful. TENDER… that which requires careful handling; soft and easily chewed; a softness or gentleness in ones relations with others that is expressive of warm affection, concern; to offer, to give; a means of payment; has or expresses affection, love, consideration; someone who tends. The name reflects the connection we share with a farmer, a cook and an eater. TENDER is currently available for pre-lease to reserve a signed copy of the first printing. It can be reserved at http://www.farmerscookseaters.com/purchase-tender.
Ferran Adria Goes to Harvard
Some of you were talking about this on Saturday. Here's the scoop:
From Slashfood:
"Now that El Bulli, the world's most famous restaurant is closing, chef Ferran Adria can concentrate on other projects, like teaching a class at America's most famous college, Harvard University.
This fall Adria is teaming up with his old friend, Jose Andres to teach a 13-week 'culinary physics' course at Harvard. Andres runs several D.C. based restaurants and is often credited with introducing traditional Spanish cuisine to the U.S.
Other chefs will be joining them including Blue Hill's Dan Barber and Spanish compatriot Joan Roca (who has snagged his own Michelin star).
The course is not a typical cooking: the chefs will be instructing students on the abc's of physics and then moving onto demonstrations on how to make the emulsions and foams that are Adria's trademark.
Andres told Slashfood that "Harvard is a world-class university and when Harvard does something, other institutions around the world take notice. This is something completely new and I think you will see other universities starting similar programs."
From Slashfood:
"Now that El Bulli, the world's most famous restaurant is closing, chef Ferran Adria can concentrate on other projects, like teaching a class at America's most famous college, Harvard University.
This fall Adria is teaming up with his old friend, Jose Andres to teach a 13-week 'culinary physics' course at Harvard. Andres runs several D.C. based restaurants and is often credited with introducing traditional Spanish cuisine to the U.S.
Other chefs will be joining them including Blue Hill's Dan Barber and Spanish compatriot Joan Roca (who has snagged his own Michelin star).
The course is not a typical cooking: the chefs will be instructing students on the abc's of physics and then moving onto demonstrations on how to make the emulsions and foams that are Adria's trademark.
Andres told Slashfood that "Harvard is a world-class university and when Harvard does something, other institutions around the world take notice. This is something completely new and I think you will see other universities starting similar programs."
Mar 24, 2010
February KTC Event: Moroccan Madness!
With Meg, William, and Fernando missing, February’s KTC event at Rick and Anne’s house could have felt oddly unpopulated. However, we were fortunate to have some very special surprise guests: Mom and Dad Allen!!
I arrived at Anne and Rick’s place, went in and went around to say my hellos. I introduced myself to Joyce’s mom, and then I spied Joyce’s dad sitting on the sofa, reading a book. I walked over to introduce myself, and knew we were all in for a treat when this exchange occurred:
Me, effusive: “Hi there! I wanted to come over and introduce myself, my name is Shawn, I’m so glad you guys were able to join us! What a nice surprise!”
Dad, after a slight pause: “You talk a lot, don’t you?”
Brilliant stuff!!
Moroccan food was our carte du jour, fun! I had read somewhere that nearly every Moroccan meal is accompanied by pickled lemons. On my way to Anne and Rick’s, I popped into the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern market near my house and picked up a jar. Anne and I opened it to check out the goods, and first noticed the color of the lemons: a somewhat unappetizing mustardy camel color. Immediately afterwards, our nostrils were assaulted by an extremely pungent herbal aroma, reminiscent of pine. We sliced off a tiny bit to try, and, ladies and gentleman, it was as if we were chewing on solid bits of Pine-Sol! It was horrible!
Since she’s amazing like that, Anne cracked open a jar of her own homemade pickled lemons. They were actually lemon colored, and smelled zingy and lemony. Plus, they were delicious! Maybe next year I’ll pickle some lemons.
Needless to say, the Pine-Sol bits were, shall we say, a dud. What a disaster!
Amidst the pickled lemon activity, lots of other groovy cooking and preparation was going on. Onions were diced…
Olives and cilantro were chopped...
Which didn't make Rick too happy...
Moroccan bread, called khobz, was baked...
Vegetable tagine and chicken and olive tagine simmered…
Couscous was prepared...
The table was set…
And everything was plated up and served!
We had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner and conversation, and most of us even manned up to eat with our (right!) hands. Elli’s friend Olivia was put on the spot to guess the age of everyone at the table—a potentially uncomfortable situation which was defused by her sense of humor and sensibility to low-ball her guesses. Dessert was ice cream, one was coconut with saffron, which I loved and which Anne made. The other one was good, too, but I don’t remember now what it was or if Anne made it! Anne? Do you remember? Post dinner, Joyce, Jessica, and parents retired for the evening. After a light straightening up, those of us remaining sat around in the living room and chatted, which was really nice and relaxing. Even the cat enjoyed it!
All in all, a superb evening was had by all. We were sorry to have missed Meg, William, and Fernando, and will look forward to seeing you all this weekend at Meg’s! Golly the time flies……
More soon, Kissers!
I arrived at Anne and Rick’s place, went in and went around to say my hellos. I introduced myself to Joyce’s mom, and then I spied Joyce’s dad sitting on the sofa, reading a book. I walked over to introduce myself, and knew we were all in for a treat when this exchange occurred:
Me, effusive: “Hi there! I wanted to come over and introduce myself, my name is Shawn, I’m so glad you guys were able to join us! What a nice surprise!”
Dad, after a slight pause: “You talk a lot, don’t you?”
Brilliant stuff!!
Moroccan food was our carte du jour, fun! I had read somewhere that nearly every Moroccan meal is accompanied by pickled lemons. On my way to Anne and Rick’s, I popped into the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern market near my house and picked up a jar. Anne and I opened it to check out the goods, and first noticed the color of the lemons: a somewhat unappetizing mustardy camel color. Immediately afterwards, our nostrils were assaulted by an extremely pungent herbal aroma, reminiscent of pine. We sliced off a tiny bit to try, and, ladies and gentleman, it was as if we were chewing on solid bits of Pine-Sol! It was horrible!
Since she’s amazing like that, Anne cracked open a jar of her own homemade pickled lemons. They were actually lemon colored, and smelled zingy and lemony. Plus, they were delicious! Maybe next year I’ll pickle some lemons.
Needless to say, the Pine-Sol bits were, shall we say, a dud. What a disaster!
Amidst the pickled lemon activity, lots of other groovy cooking and preparation was going on. Onions were diced…
Olives and cilantro were chopped...
Which didn't make Rick too happy...
Moroccan bread, called khobz, was baked...
Vegetable tagine and chicken and olive tagine simmered…
Couscous was prepared...
The table was set…
And everything was plated up and served!
We had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner and conversation, and most of us even manned up to eat with our (right!) hands. Elli’s friend Olivia was put on the spot to guess the age of everyone at the table—a potentially uncomfortable situation which was defused by her sense of humor and sensibility to low-ball her guesses. Dessert was ice cream, one was coconut with saffron, which I loved and which Anne made. The other one was good, too, but I don’t remember now what it was or if Anne made it! Anne? Do you remember? Post dinner, Joyce, Jessica, and parents retired for the evening. After a light straightening up, those of us remaining sat around in the living room and chatted, which was really nice and relaxing. Even the cat enjoyed it!
All in all, a superb evening was had by all. We were sorry to have missed Meg, William, and Fernando, and will look forward to seeing you all this weekend at Meg’s! Golly the time flies……
More soon, Kissers!
Mar 21, 2010
Seattle Walking Tour: Mmmm, Chocolatey!
I recently heard about a visitor who took Savor Seattle's Chocolate Indulgence Tour, and it sounds really fun! Offered weekend mornings at 11am, the tour includes at least 6 stops and costs around $50. Maybe we can plan for an outing as a group - Chocolate for breakfast for everyone!
The website states that the two-hour tour includes:
The website states that the two-hour tour includes:- Decadent chocolate truffles and caramels
- Mini cupcakes and chocolate enrobed brownies
- Tom Douglas's famous Triple Coconut Cream Pie
- Gourmet popcorn with chocolate, nuts, and cocoa nibs
- White chocolate raspberry cheesecake
- Colombian drinking chocolate
- A hand-crafted chocolate cocktail
- Smooth and creamy gelato and sorbet
- Chocolate truffle cookies
- And more... if you can handle it!
Chef Gabriel Claycamp presents Vagabond Dinners at Swirl Wine Bar
I just found this - there's still time to plan for next weekend! Any takers?
From The Swinery's website:
Chef Gabriel will be cooking for two Vagabond-style dinners coming up later this month at Swirl Wine Bar in Magnolia! If you've never been, Vagabond is a communal, family-style dinner of "sexy peasant food." Three mouthwatering courses for $35; wines are available by the glass or bottle.
Reservations are available at www.localwineevents.com; links below are for each dinner.
The menu is as follows:
Sunday, March 28
Swirl Plateau de Fromage
Roasted Heirloom Potato Salad
salt cod, bacon, parsley, rosemary oil
Smoked Lamb Shoulder
Lamb tongue agnolloti, roasted beets, pickled prunes, tarragon gremolata
Black Berry Brownies
goats milk caramel, vanilla ice cream, candied walnuts
via: The Swinery
From The Swinery's website:
Chef Gabriel will be cooking for two Vagabond-style dinners coming up later this month at Swirl Wine Bar in Magnolia! If you've never been, Vagabond is a communal, family-style dinner of "sexy peasant food." Three mouthwatering courses for $35; wines are available by the glass or bottle.
Reservations are available at www.localwineevents.com; links below are for each dinner.
The menu is as follows:
Sunday, March 28
Swirl Plateau de Fromage
Roasted Heirloom Potato Salad
salt cod, bacon, parsley, rosemary oil
Smoked Lamb Shoulder
Lamb tongue agnolloti, roasted beets, pickled prunes, tarragon gremolata
Black Berry Brownies
goats milk caramel, vanilla ice cream, candied walnuts
via: The Swinery
New Kitchen Gadget:: The FoodPod!
This gadget looks like a cross between a plastic garlic clove and a budding flower, and reportedly saves "time and water when preparing a meal, keeps foods together for easy removal and even cooking and acts as a strainer, reserving the cooking liquid." With a 1.75 quart capacity, it holds up to a dozen large eggs or several heads of broccoli.
Thanks, Food Section!
The FoodPod is made of dishwasher-safe silicone and nylon and has a built-in clip for attaching to the side of the pot and for use as a handle to yank it out of the water at the end of cooking.
Thanks, Food Section!
Do you want to enjoy crispy-fried yummies without all the fat?
Well, welcome to the club. I’ve just read about the ActiFry Fryer – a new French gadget that promises to do just that!
Check out this interesting article – I’ll be watching for more information about this machine. Could there be hope on the horizon for indulging my French-fry obsession and STILL taking good care of my body? Stay tuned…!
Mar 17, 2010
FINALLY posting: January's fabulous KTC cakes!
Well, this post is purely hearsay, since I didn’t personally attend. However, I have word from a reliable source that a good and cake-filled time was had by all! And by “reliable source,” of course I mean our gal Joyce, who sent this email:
“Shawn, Mike, Fernando, you missed some amazing food from Frank's hands and some fancy cake decorating ala everyone. We had a good time and appreciated the potential for artistic expression. Fernando, you would so have loved the sculptural aspects of this event! And since the skills are hard to perfect, I am sure we will make another opportunity for this in the future. Piping tips - Mike, bigger is not necessarily better. It is the variety of sizes that make fine art and William definitely had the right instruments!! Ohh, sorry Jessica.
:-)
Smooch
Joyce
Wow! Cake decorating skills, AND life lessons. Only in our cooking group do these two topics meld so seamlessly!
Fernando and I were very sorry to have missed Frank’s return dinner (Short ribs? Without us? I only cried a little…), and sorry to have missed our chance to decorate a cake. Sadly, at the very moment the subtleties of piping were being discussed, Fernando and I were landing in Salt Lake for a week in Deer Valley, a fancy-pants ski resort in Park City. It was the same weekend as Sundance, and we saw a couple of Hollywood folks at the airport – Diego Luna and Juliette Lewis! That was kind of exciting, and little bit satisfying, too – Poor Juliette Lewis had to sit around and wait on her shuttle just like we peons did, and the shuttle company goons didn’t appear to be any nicer to her than to us!
While the other Kissers were sleeping off a frosting-induced coma the next day, Fernando and I were up early doing things like renting skis and trying on boots and buying extra socks. Because it was 14 degrees. And snowing. With no cake.
Yes, F and I were sorry to miss the fun, but Joyce is amazing and shared some photos with us! I’ve cropped them down to display the baked goods in question (in case folks feel funny about having pics online—however, let me know and we can definitely include the whole photo.) and now I’m even sorrier to have missed it. I do love a good cake!
Feb 16, 2010
Still stumped about umami?
Fear not! Now you have a chance to take the super-hyper-crazy-easy way out and purchase it straight out of a tube! That's right, meet Taste No. 5 Umami Paste, on sale now in your favorite British supermarket chain!
An excerpt:
"Americans are familiar with the four primary tastes we've known since childhood: sweet, salty, bitter and sour. But the fifth taste -- the taste associated with savory things called umami -- has been less familiar. Umami is an earthy flavor foods get from amino acids in meats, some cheeses, fish and vegetables including mushrooms, ketchup, oysters, steak and sweet potatoes. It also gives food-additive MSG its allure.
<...>
An excerpt:"Americans are familiar with the four primary tastes we've known since childhood: sweet, salty, bitter and sour. But the fifth taste -- the taste associated with savory things called umami -- has been less familiar. Umami is an earthy flavor foods get from amino acids in meats, some cheeses, fish and vegetables including mushrooms, ketchup, oysters, steak and sweet potatoes. It also gives food-additive MSG its allure.
<...>
"Umami is part of our everyday eating lives, it is just that many of us don't know what to call it. It is what gives depth of flavour to food. Every food culture has its umami-rich ingredients, whether it is seaweed in Japan or Parmesan in Italy."
<...>
Other foods that have umami flavor include: anchovies, Parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce and Marmite."
Are you a food outlier?
I got a kick out of a blog post from Cheryl Sternman Rule describing her nearly out-of-body experience in realizing-mid gush about Michael Pollan gossip-that no one in the group of people around her had the foggiest idea who or what she was blathering on about.
The comments from other readers are also telling, with food-loving folks sharing stories of their loved ones' absolute confusion regarding these other food outliers' food decisions and choices.
I bump into this feeling regularly myself. I feel a little lost each time I try to explain to my gym friend that just because it is a salad at Panera Bread doesn't necessarily make it a "healthy" option. Or when I raise an eyebrow about "fresh" berries in the supermarket in the dead of winter. Or in justifying to my mom why I'd prefer to eat animal products less frequently but pay out the nose for organic/ sustainably-raised critters whom I will enjoy down to the bone and marrow without worrying about what bizarre byproducts I am also consuming rather than simply buying them more cheaply at Wal-Mart. Or why I'm a little bit scared of Denny's.
Recently, I was coming around to accepting the cold, hard truth: Simply put, I am a food snob. However, I am cheered after reading Chery's blog post! Not only can I rename and reclaim my shame (am I right?), but apparently I can also enjoy being part of a much larger community of folks who are just like me, proudly adapting the mantle of "food outlier." What say you, KTC peeps?
via Serious Eats
The comments from other readers are also telling, with food-loving folks sharing stories of their loved ones' absolute confusion regarding these other food outliers' food decisions and choices.
I bump into this feeling regularly myself. I feel a little lost each time I try to explain to my gym friend that just because it is a salad at Panera Bread doesn't necessarily make it a "healthy" option. Or when I raise an eyebrow about "fresh" berries in the supermarket in the dead of winter. Or in justifying to my mom why I'd prefer to eat animal products less frequently but pay out the nose for organic/ sustainably-raised critters whom I will enjoy down to the bone and marrow without worrying about what bizarre byproducts I am also consuming rather than simply buying them more cheaply at Wal-Mart. Or why I'm a little bit scared of Denny's.
Recently, I was coming around to accepting the cold, hard truth: Simply put, I am a food snob. However, I am cheered after reading Chery's blog post! Not only can I rename and reclaim my shame (am I right?), but apparently I can also enjoy being part of a much larger community of folks who are just like me, proudly adapting the mantle of "food outlier." What say you, KTC peeps?
via Serious Eats
Bacon Cheese Turtleburgers
Just as soon as it gets warm enough (which, at the rate springtime is barreling down upon us, might be as early as next week or so), we should definitely try to make these little guys!
Serious Eats describes the bacony goodness: "...ground beef patties topped with sharp cheddar cheese and wrapped in woven bacon, impaled with hot dogs for the heads, legs, and tails..."
via Serious Eats
Serious Eats describes the bacony goodness: "...ground beef patties topped with sharp cheddar cheese and wrapped in woven bacon, impaled with hot dogs for the heads, legs, and tails..."via Serious Eats
Seattle Knife Sharpening makes the cut - AND the Wall Street Journal!
Wow, I was tickled to read about our very own Bob Tate and his mail-order knife-sharpening service. And in the WSJ, no less!
Bob's shop was compared alongside four other knife sharpeners, and the WSJ's final summary comments were: "Lacks a user-friendly and uniform ordering and mailing system, but this cook-turned-sharpener has learned from a master bladesmith. Newer than other services we tested, yet it produced perhaps the sharpest knife edges we tested."
Neat!
Read about the knife sharpening face-off here.
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