Tonynet Explorer

I may never go to Chicago again...

...and not just because my brother moved there.

Banning foie gras? Really? Seems like an arbitrary line to draw. We do lots of horrendous things to animals in the name of food, ones that I consider even greater crimes.

For instance, in the interest of having a picture perfect turkey breast (and none of that scary dark meat that most Americans view as just a step above eating brains), we've bred the life out of the turkey to the point where most commercial turkeys are so screwed up they can't mate (they're artificially inseminated), their aortas rupture randomly, and they're so dumb they really do drown in the rain. We treat them, well, like animals to the point where farmers need to clip turkey beaks because they'll peck each other to death in their crowded conditions otherwise. But, because the Thanksgiving turkey is a sacrosanct part of American culture and broadly eaten, the Chicaco city council wouldn't dream of taking on that industry. If we're not careful, we may completely lose entire strains of "heritage" turkeys in the face of the mono culture of these horrible American White turkeys. More on this at Slow Food USA.

Even worse is the practice of shark finning. This where fishermen catch sharks, chop the valuable fin off, and then throw the still-living shark back in the water to drown. Although this practice makes economic sense to the fishermen, it's an incredible waste and incredibly cruel. What's more, it allows for a much broader massacre of sharks, which reproduce very slowly. The environmental carnage is incredible. Fortunately, this practice is now banned for American boats and in American waters. Disneyland Hong Kong also backed down in the face of public pressure and will not offer shark fin soup in the park.

Perhaps a greater crime against nature, though, are Smucker's Uncrustables. Frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Really? I'm shocked and appalled that anyone would consider making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches too hard or too much work. Instructions too complicated? Too time consuming? Ingredients too exotic, too hard to find, too expensive? WTF. (OK, this was a bit off tangent, but I've wanted to get that rant off my chest for a while.)

I'm certainly not against eating meat, but I would propose a few principles:

• Use the whole animal. Waste is disrespectful to nature and the animal and just stupid on our part.


• Eat only what the ecosystem can sustain. It's incredibly short-sighted to eat species into exinction. (For instance, check out the FishWise list to see what kinds of fish are harvested from sustainable fisheries.)


• Eat real food, not genetic freaks. Specifically, eat naturally produced genetic strains of meat and vegetables. They taste better, can be more nutritious, and are generally better suited for their local environments. This action may also slow the loss of genetic diversity in our food supply.


• Eat organically produced meat and veggies. The chemicals in the food are certainly not good for us and is very likely bad, plus the food is generally less nutritious. Furthermore, the Earth doesn't need more of our chemicals running off into streams or poisoning animals.

I hate grandstanding and arbitrary bans like the one being considered in Chicago. If you want to change the world, have a set of principles and then go apply them consistently. Anything else is random and ultimately ineffective.

Salumi - A bite of heaven

I had an insanely great lunch Tuesday at Salumi with my friend and colleague Will. Salumi is a shop/restaurant in Seattle that makes and cures their own cured meats -- salami, prosciutto, etc. In addition to the cured meats, they do hot foods at the shop as well -- melt-in-your-mouth porchetta, meatballs to die for, grilled cured meats, and great looking sandwiches.

Will and I shared a hot plate and a cold plate, giving us a "skipper's platter" tour of the offerings. The range of tastes was amazing, from the spicy hot soprasatta to the silky culatello to the meaty meat balls slathered in a robust tomato sauce. I was stuffed pretty quickly, but I kept eating for the sheer pleasure of it. They make gnocchi on Tuesdays too, but there was simply no way I could physically take that on too; I'll just have to come back.

The shop itself is tiny, really just a food line and a few communal tables. The co-founder and "Principal Salumist", Dino Batali, is the father of Food Network's Mario Batali. I guess it runs in the family. I also got to meet Will's dad, Bill, who is a co-owner; he was a very warm guy who really seems to enjoy the restaurant.

If you're in Seattle, run, don't walk to Salumi. (Note, they're only open from 11:00am-4:00pm Tuesday-Friday.) If you're not in Seattle, come and try it out or order a taste from their website. I bought a little coppa, lamb prosciutto, and hot sopressata for home; I think I'll have a little snickity snack right now. Ciao...

Disappointed at DeLille

Last night I went to DeLille Cellars Winery to pick-up some wine I had ordered earlier this year. (Like many wineries, DeLille has a mailing list of interested customers that they sell directly to.) As part of the release, they have a little party with wine and some food in addition to letting people people up their wine.

This was my first release party, so I was kind of excited to see what it was about. Unfortunately, my eagerness was misplaced. The parking lot is small and the narrow drive only allows one-way traffic, which made for a very difficult departure. The event room was crowded with a long line for wine, and when you got to the bar, they were only pouring little splashes of wine, literally just a splash. This would have been OK if I could have stood there tasting all the wines (which is what they seemed to be trying to offer), but given the long wait to get another glass of wine, a more generous pour would have been welcome. Overall, it was boring and unfulfilling. I won't do this again.

(The wines, however, are lovely.)

Sushi & Sake Fest

Earlier this week, Michelle, Mike, and I went to the Sushi & Sake Fest.

The event was at the Grand Hyatt here in Seattle. As we walked in I saw my favorite things filling the room: sushi, sake, beer, Japanese beauty pagent contestants, and... a silent auction! This promised to be a great evening.

Well, the sushi was only OK, the sake came in little cups, the beer was poured badly, and the beauty pagent queens were too young and a little plain, and the auction stuff was mostly uninteresting. Still, we ran into some friends and had a few good pieces of sushi. Nishino, no surprise, was the best. I also liked Mashiko, at least as much for their URL -- sushiwhore.com. They were the only place that had a line all night.

Anyway, I left with a full but unsatisfied belly and didn't really discover anything fantastic or new. Mike, however, learned that mochi ice cream expands after you eat it, so it's wise to not fill up on them. Oh well. Live and learn...

Durian hell

Although I was warned before I went to Malaysia about the local "delicacy" called durian, I was drawn like moth to flame. My travel mantra is to always try to local foods, so durian was a must, even though durian is famous for its stench (enough to get the fruit banned from local hotels) and strong taste.

That said, I knew it would be a bit daunting, so I tried what I thought would be a safer form -- durian cheesecake. It tasted like liver and onion cheesecake. The taste was oddly strong and not at all what I expected. A second bit confirmed the overwhelming flavor. That was enough for me. The durian burps later that evening were rueful reminders of my experiment gone bad.

I can almost see how durian would be an acquired taste like strong cheese. There was something complex about the flavor, but I don't think I'll be working too hard to pick up a taste for durian.

Grouper's Seafood Grill & Market

While we were in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, Michelle's parents took us to a restaurant near their house called Grouper's. Not surprisingly, they specialize in grouper. For those of you not familiar with grouper, it's a big, ugly, yummy fish. We don't get much grouper here in Seattle, so I always try to get a bunch while I'm in Florida.

Anyway, over the years, I've had a lot of grouper sandwiches, filets, etc. but this was easily the best grouper I'd ever had at any price. I had an incredibly delicious blackened grouper wrap; it was spicy, fresh, and cooked just right. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal too. It also helped that Renee Holt, the owner, and her staff were super friendly.

Renee explained they only serve fresh grouper; they have a boat they work with nearby to bring them fresh grouper. Apparently a lot of restaurants have to rely on frozen grouper these days due to higher prices. Well, our meal was definitely worth every penny.

If you're ever in the St. Pete Beach area, you must stop by Grouper's. Say hello to Renee for me too.

Grouper's Seafood Grill & Market
9524 Blind Pass Rd # 19
St Petersburg, FL 33706-1344
727-367-9000

(BTW, I wanted to link to the Encarta Encyclopedia article instead of Wikipedia. Frankly, it was better written, plus I have some loyalty to my old team. Unfortunately, for some reason, this article was selected to only be available to Encarta Premium subscribers. As a shareholder, I really understand why we want to make some money off of Encarta, but there must be a better way. You can't make money charging for something as good that someone else is giving away.)

Yummy ginger beer

Yesterday, I mixed up a batch of ginger beer from a recipe in the New York Times. This non-alcoholic, non-carbonated brew is just ginger and a bay leaf steeped in hot water for a few hours and then cut with simple syrup. It's spicy, sweet, and oh-so-good.

Of course, as with many beverages, a splash of whisky makes it even better...

Update: Gin does not make the ginger beer better.

Crappy pepper

Why does the wait-staff offer freshly ground pepper for soups and salads?

First off, 99.9999999% of the time, I just got the damn thing; how do I know if it needs pepper?

Second, what's wrong with the pepper in the shaker? Oh, it's not as good? Then why the hell put in on the table? F

inally, if you're going to offer, grind out enough pepper to matter. The motions of grinding a peppermill do nothing for me or the dish. If you're doing to give me pepper, give me pepper until I tell you to stop. I don't care if your arms fall off from RSI.

This is one of Michelle's pet peeves. Now that she's pointed it out to me, it grates on me like fingernails on a chalkboard.

M-m-m carrots

It's summer again (of course) which means we get bags of awesome veggies from the Root Connection, the community supported agriculture (CSA) farm we belong to.

As I've blogged about before, I love the veggies from the Root Connection. This week we got our first carrots of the season, easily my favorite thing from the Farm. Sweet and crisp without being woody like the nasty carrots from grocery stores. It's hard to not eat them all in one sitting.

Of course there's lots of other fantastic stuff too. Last week, Michelle roasted the first beets of the season and served them with chevre (goat cheese) in a salad. The beet greens were sauteed with carmelized onions and tossed with pasta. Wow.

I think they're still looking for members for this year, so give them a call! Also, look for them at the Redmond Saturday Market. You'll never look at veggies the same way again.

Ballantines to the rescue

It's been four days, and I'm still jet lagged beyond belief. I'm clearly getting old.

Maybe some more Scotch will help me go to sleep. I picked up a very nice bottle of Ballantines 17 year-old in the Bejing duty-free (I love buying whiskey in duty free because there's such a great variety and because I hate paying Washington's liquor tax.)

I even brought Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible in my carry-on so I could figure out which to buy. The book (and subsequent tastings) have convinced me to drop my snobbery around blends vs. single malts. Both can be great. No reason to be a bigot.

Back to my yummy Ballantines (rated 96/100 in the book).

Oyster Olympics again

Last night, for the second year in a row, I went to the Oyster Olympics, a fundraiser for the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.

Like last year, I stuffed myself with dozens of tasty oysters from all around the Puget Sound and Hood Canal area. My favorites are still the Pacificas, with a slight preference for Hood Canal over Puget Sound (less salty, more sweet.) Kumamotos were a close second. I also loved the Virginicas and Olympias. Probably the only ones I don't care for are the European Flats -- too metallic tasting for me. It was great to wash down all the oysters with some good wine too.

Unlike last year, I decided to focus on chatting with my friends and eating oysters vs. taking photos. The event was largely the same as year though, so my photos from last year are still appropriate.

This is the right way to eat oysters. No mamby-pamby half dozen shared with friends. Three dozen for me, and three dozen for my friend. That's living...

Ick

You don't want to find big hairy green mold patches on the second slice of Havarti in the package after you just ate the first slice. I'm just sayin'...

(If I keel over and fall into a mysterious coma, I'd appreciate it if someone would show this blog post to the doctors.)

M-M-Milk Stout!

I think I've died and gone to heaven. I just had another bottle of Widmer Brothers' Snowplow Milk Stout. (This is a beer for those who are not hop-saavy.)

This is an incredibly smooth, chocolately stout with an amazing finish attributed to the milk sugar they add to the beer before fermentation. It's really quite unlike any beer I've ever had. (And I've had a lot of beer...)

I think I'll go have another.

Dinner at the Herbfarm

Michelle and I had dinner at the Herbfarm this week with Scott and his wife Patti, our friend Angie, and our friend Mike. We've been to the Herbfarm several times before, although this is the first time in their new location (their first place burned down, then they were in a few temporary locations.)

Both Angie and Scott beat me to writing about the dinner in their blogs, so I'll leave you with their descriptions of the menu and evening. I will say, though, that dinner at the Herbfarm is always great and interesting, but boy, it's long. Six hours is quite an endurance test. I think it's easier to bear when the weather is nice since you can walk around outside between courses. A good group of friends who are active and scintillating conversationalists is a must as well (fortunately, we were covered there.)

Anyway, it was nice to see the Herbfarm is still wonderful. I'm looking forward to our next meal there -- after I've slept a bit.

Angie's view
Scott's view

Seoul Man

Yesterday in Taipei, we had a little press interview and went to kick off the Microsoft booth at InfoMonth, an immense trade show that was packed with people. We saw some cool stuff, especially the Cappuccino computer, a tiny desktop PC with full specs. Lots of cute booth babes (especially the Microsoft booth) topped off this great geek fest.

Afterwards, we had a great lunch at Ting Tai Fung. This is a super popular restaurant in Taipei (so popular they've opened additional branches including some in Tokyo.) It was listed by the New York Times as one of the ten best restaurants in the world. I don't know if that's true, but it was pretty damn good. The restaurant is nothing fancy and specializes in dumplings, which really I love. We had way too much food, but it was amazing.

We finished up the day with a trip to the National Palace Museum (great, but under renovation), a stroll through the Shihlin Night Market, and some shopping in the great electronics district.

The tropical storm took a turn out to see, so the rain eased up and didn't really cause much hassle for us.

I'm in Seoul now, and just had a great Korean bbq dinner. There's nothing better than a little kalbi (bbq'd short ribs) washed down with soju (Korean rice wine) -- except maybe a lot of kalbi washed down with soju. We had a lot of kalbi.

More meetings and MVP stuff tomorrow. Wahoo.

End of the season

We picked up the last share of the season from the Root Connection, the cooperative farm that we belong to. As I noted at the beginning of the summer, I love the produce we get and the principles the Root Connection stands for.

It's always sad to see the last bag come. I'll have to savor the last bunch of carrots and Honey Boat squash (this is a real treat!) and make the memories last until next summer.

XXX!

I finally went to the XXX Root Beer Drive-In today for lunch. This Issaquah, WA restaurant was the first drive-in restaurant in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to a fun 50's car atmosphere (they have huge classic car get togethers here), they have great root beer (I think I saw in The Week Magazine that they were on the top 10 best root beer in America list.) The burgers and milkshakes were good too.

Anyway, I can't believe it's taken me 14 years to go there. It won't be 14 years before we go back.

S'more strategy

I have never been particular successful making truly great s'mores. In particular, the chocolate never melts; I've always envisioned a sticky, luscious mix of melted chocolate and marshmallow squishing out between the graham crackers. But last night, I think I hit on the right approach (now obvious).

First, the marshmallow must be thoroughly melted and hot. This means a long roast time to get the inside as goopy as the outside. No flaming torches here. Lots of turning and patience here.

Once you have the completely soft marshmallow and assemble the s'more, you need to let the whole thing sit for a few minutes so the heat of the marshmallow can melt the chocolate. This is hard with eager kids, so in practice, I could only do this after handing a frankly half-done s'more to each kid. M-m-m.

I suppose you could this with chocolate sauce instead of a chocolate bar, but that seems like cheating and frankly un-American.

That said, I discovered that I like just marshmallow and graham cracker better than the normal way with chocolate. It's a lot less cloying and doesn't have any of that annoying waiting around.

My pastis mission accomplished

Since my trip to Provence, I've been jonesing for pastis, the anise flavored liqueur so popular in Provence. I've found a few restaurants around here that have it but have been unlucky about finding a bottle in the state owned liquor stores here (I'll rant about that another time.) I've been combing the liquor stores across Seattle for them, even using their website that purports to accurately reflect the inventory of the stores (it doesn't).

I guess Michelle got sick of me pining for my pastis and being gone for hours at a time wandering from liquor store to liquor store like some kind of desperate alcoholic (I know it might look like that...) She called around (she's the smart one) and found a store that just got a shipment. Happy day!

Much to my glee, I found not only the Ricard 45 I was expecting (this is the most common pastis in the US) but Granier as well. I haven't had Granier yet, so I bought both. Not sure I can tell the difference between the two yet to be honest, but I'll keep drinking both until I can. My dedication to my craft can be tedious, but it's all I know...

For a good article on pastis, check out this Taste Magazine (Williams-Sonoma) article.

M-m-m deep fried pork sausage kebabs...

How could something as tempting as a deep fried pork sausage kebab be bad? (Remember, everything is better deep fried.) Well, I guess "The Stonner" and its 1000 calories are bad enough to be considered the most dangerous fast food in Britain. It's bad enough that there's a sign in the shop saying they'll only sell one per customer per week.

I gotta get one.

More on this on the Washington Post.

Another one from Boing Boing.

Girl Scout cookies

You might think the chocolate coating on a Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie would protect it from becoming stale. You'd be wrong.

The Root Connection

I just finished cleaning the 12-gallon bag of organic produce we get each week during the summer from the Root Connection, a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in nearby Woodinville, WA.

Basically, you buy a share of the farm's output and pick it up each week. It's theoretically possible to get nothing, but in practice, we get a huge bag a week. This week we got six heads of lettuce (a.k.a. a shitload of lettuce), a mess of zucchini and yellow squash, two bunches of carrots, and two bunches of red onions. It's too much for us really, but I support what the farm does and want to help. Realistically, a half share would probably be plenty for us most weeks (except when carrots are in season...)

If you've never tasted really fresh produce, you're missing out on one of life's great treats. Furthermore, the varieties of produce from the Root Connection are optimized for flavor, not appearance, mechanical harvestability, or shelf-life like virtually everything you get in the grocery store. The carrots are amazingly sweet and crisp (the kids won't eat store-bought carrots anymore), the lettuce tastes like something more than crunchy water, and the corn (later in the season) is like nothing you've ever had. Plus, everything is organic, so no scary poisons for the family, the environment, or farm workers.

I've come to love seeing stuff come and go over the course of the summer; I really look forward to each crop as comes into season and enjoy its run fully. Eating seasonally is something of a lost art in this era of a global food supply, cold storage, and hot houses. Too bad.

I'm also happy to that the boys can see where food comes from. There are u-pick fields and kids gardens plus flowers and herbs for members. The guys love playing in the fields, pulling weeds, and picking beans. A well-educated friend of ours from a wealthy LA family had never seen a corn plant until well after college (amazing to me, since I grew up in Minnesota). I don't want the kids to be so ignorant of where food comes from and what it looks like au natural (pre-bags and neat store displays). I don't think it's good to be so separated from something so vital.

Finally, I'm glad to see this rich land being farmed instead of turned into strip malls, grass farms (with heavy pesticides), and golf courses like all the land around the farm. I believe that we should use land in the ways it's best suited rather than what's most convenient or even economical. In the end, I think we'll all be happier for it and the ecosystem will be healthier.

If it were just great produce, our farm share would still be a good value. That it's good for the kids, good for the land, and just makes me happy makes it unbeatable.

Horse meat ice cream?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the Japanese are weird. I love a lot about the Japanese and Japanese society, but at the end of the day they're weird.

This article from Mainchi Daily News covers the strange world of Japanese ice cream where raw horse meat, whale, and natto (a nasty fermented soy bean product) wind up in ice cream. Now, I like my horse meat as much as the next guy, but I don't want it in my ice cream. Ever.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the tip.

The Queen of Table Waters

I normally don't place much stock in fancy bottled water; in fact, I prefer our tap water to most bottled waters, especially the salty, brackish, hellish Evian (in case you didn't glean my opinion from that rant, I really hate Evian.)

But, as usual, Michelle brought home another gem that I would never have found on my own -- Apollinaris Classic. It's a sparkling mineral water from Germany whose tagline is, "The Queen of Table Waters." I'm sure it sounds better in German.

Apparently, "100% source carbonic acid and outstanding, specially balanced mineralisation" is the key. Whatever. All the brr brr aside, I like it a lot. It was nice by itself and mixed with cherry liqueur on the rocks for a little pick-me-up on a hot afternoon.

They have a high end version too called "Apollinaris Private". I would normally be skeptical, but I think I may have to try it.

Just keep those nasty French waters away from me.

Rioja Fun

A group of us had a very tasty and fun meal at the Harvest Vine, a tapas restaurant just outside of downtown Seattle. The event was a special "Crianzas of Rioja" wine dinner with coursed Riojas (Spanish red wine). I don't have a lot of experience with riojas, so it was great to try so many with good descriptions. This was also my first time to Harvest Vine despite many, many recommendations from friends.

The meal started out with "sea urchin and trout roe lightly scrambled with aracana egg, accented with chorizo powder" and paired with Bodegas Primicia Gran Deizmo Crianza de Mazuelo 1999 (which is a very young Rioja, like Beaujoulais Nouveau). The dish was fantastic and the wine was good and interesting.

I won't bore you with the full menu/wine list (click here for that list). Sufficed to say it was great. However, I will comment on the amazing dessert. I'm not a big dessert guy, so it's hard to impress me with a super dessert. Joseph Jimenez de Jimenez (the chef, and a colorful guy with big mustache and floppy beret) and his wife Caroline (who I think is the actual mastermind behind the desserts and wine) poured a strawberry-rhubarb soup over a goat's milk gelatine (like a custard). The sweet tangy soup was a nice counter to the creamy gelatine which was also a bit tangy from the goat's milk. Great flavors and paired with a stunning El Grifo Malvasia 2001 dessert wine. Yum.

I also really liked the Lanzaga 2000 the most. We wound up buying a bottle each of the Lanzaga and El Grifo to enjoy at home (they have a retail liquor license too.)

The owners were charming, the food and wine were great, and the company (my wife Michelle plus Christopher and Kellie from work, and Kellie's friend Barbie) were super fun as always. Great evening.

Oyster Olympics

What could be more decadent than an afternoon of slurping as many fresh, fresh, fresh oysters and washing them down with great local wines? Some friends (and my brother - not to be confused with a friend...) went to the 15th Annual Oyster Olympics last month. This was a benefit for the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.

Anyway, I've never had so many oysters in one day, and in particular, have not had a chance to have oysters from all over the region. I decided I liked the Hood Canal oysters a bit more than the Puget Sound oysters; they're a bit less salty and bit sweeter. Still, they were all amazing.

The event was huge with oyster shucking contests, an oyster-wear contest, and lots of media coverage including the Travel Channel.

Check out my photos here.

M-m-m Macallan

My buddy Kevin invited me to join him for a Macallan Scotch tasting at the Hotel Monaco. This grand (and free!) evening started off with copious amounts of the Macallan 12 year and yummy appetizers from Sazerac (the hotel restaurant.) I've never had lamb chops as finger food, but let me tell you, it's wonderful.

We were ushered into a ballroom where we each had four glasses of scotch in front of us that we couldn't touch until our charming Scottish host ran through his 1/2 hour Powerpoint presentation on why Macallan was the best scotch. Powerpoint aside, the presentation and the presenter were very informative and entertaining (lots of jokes about the Irish and British). (Did you know that Irish whiskey is distilled three times whereas Scottish whisky is distilled twice? Irish whiskey can be a bit smoother but scotch is has more interesting flavors as result. I'm enjoying a glass of Jameson Distillery Reserve - my favorite Irish whiskey - right now and can attest.)

He then described the whiskies in front of us and had us guess which was which. The first was a Speyside whisky from another distillery. Nice but a little uninteresting compared to the Macallan 12-year we'd been drinking.

The second was a kick-you-in-the-ass Macallan Cask Strength. Normally, whisky is cut from the full strength to make the 80 proof. This was the full 118 proof. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but it definitely grew on me as I came to terms with it. This was my favorite.

The last two had a very interesting story. They were replicas of the 1841 and 1861 Macallan products. Macallan bought a bottle of each at auction and then had their Master Distiller (what a job!) taste virtually all of their barrels to find ones that matched the 1841 and 1861. Macallan then made replica bottles and made these whiskys available. Unlike wine, whisky doesn't really age or change once it's in the bottle, so it's not that these tasted old, they just tasted different. It was interesting to see how the house style of Macallan had changed over the century.

It's too bad they didn't have any of the Macallan 60 year. Apparently, they only produced a few hundred bottles of this exceptional whisky. Each bottle goes for $39,000 (yes, that's US dollars). The borgata in Atlantic City is selling shots of this fine stuff for $4000 each. That's a bit spendy even for me.

Anyway, it was a very educational and enjoyable evening -- definitely a top notch event with no sales pressure (they weren't selling at the event, probably thanks to our friends at the BATF and Washington State Liquor Control Board). I'm a big Macallan fan now and feel a bit more knowledgable. I'll have to drink a lot more scotch, whiskey, and bourbon for comparison now...

The best rum in the world

I'm not usually a big rum fan unless it's mixed with Coke or something, but I just had a glass of Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum. Damn, it's good. Very, very smooth. It is reminscent of good scotch without the peat or smoke. It's a more clean, sugar cane taste.

This is the world's best rum. I think so. So did the 2000 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Anyway, it's delicious.

It will also kick your ass. I've been sipping an albeit generous pour this evening and can already feel it go to my head. How good.

Mmm fried food

This has been a good holiday for eating. Every New Year's Day, Michelle makes beignets (made famous at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans). These are deep fried doughnuts covered with powdered sugar. Dr. Atkins would definitely not approve. Michelle's are even better than the ones at Cafe Du Monde and more plentiful (quantity has a quality all its own.)

Since we had a pot of hot oil, I decided I needed to fry stuff. I was too lazy to make a batter, so I made strip chips from Alton Brown's cookbook I'm Just Here for the Food. These are home made potato chips made with a vegetable peeler so there's even less to clean up. I made one big batch with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and one big batch seasoned with Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning mix -- a tastes-good-on-everything blend with a kick. Both were damn fine. I have to agree with Alton Brown's note that no matter how many you make, the pile of chips is really just one serving.

Alton Brown is the host of Good Eats on the Food Network, my favorite cooking show. Great food science and hacky gear make for an enjoyable show.

I also made "sun" dried tomatoes from a huge box of tomatoes we got for Christmas -- sliced tomatoes with a little sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary then baked all night on a very low oven. Wow. I made an incredible omelette (twice actually) with these tomatoes diced with some salami (really!) Insanely great.

Time to cook some more. Mmmmmm...

Incredible apple dinner

Last week, Michelle and I went to an amazing apple-themed dinner. It was sponsored by the Northwest Cider Society and featured great Northwest hard ciders and the food stylings of Susan Loomis (owner/operator of a cooking school in Normandy and author of the cookbook On Rue Tatin).

The dinner featured apples, naturally, to complement the ciders (Wescott Bay Orchards and Irvings Cider) and apple drinks (e.g. calvados). Susan served up luscious mussels steamed in cider; duck breast with onions, apples, and parsnips (I think); a very nice salad; and a beautiful tart tatin.

The company was also very interesting -- local foodies and restaurateurs (like Sandy Shea, owner of our favorite restaurant, Chez Shea). We also chatted with Jon Rowley, a friend I met at an ethereal oyster and wine dinner he donated and the one who dreamt up the dinner.

All in all, it was a lovely dinner. Check out the pictures here.