Tonynet Explorer

I'm illiterate. In Chinese, that is. I can speak well enough, but I read like a five year old (at best). Here in Bellevue, Washington, this limitation is not super debilitating except at Chinese restaurants. As many of you have probably surmised, you get better service at most Chinese restaurants if you're Chinese. Deal with it. So, whenever we're at a Chinese restaurant, I try to order in Chinese, but since I can't really read too much, I'm limited in what I can order to the few things I know or can read. (As Michelle discovered when we were on our honeymoon, the "something something" in "beef something something noodles" can be a lot of different parts of a cow, not all of them things most Westerners would be comfortable eating.)

So, you can imagine my delight (and her relief) when Michelle pointed me to How to Order Chinese Food Dot Com. This gem a site has photos, English names, and Chinese names for popular dishes, broken out by region and type. The author even has PDF versions you can print and carry with you.

I'm looking forward to expanding my repertoire and maybe even advancing to second grade food Chinese.

I can't believe I missed it. Saturday was International Bacon Day. This important holiday is the Saturday before Labor Day (August 30 this year). I'll have to make up for my omission with a double-serving of bacon. (Which of course, is impossible since the serving size of bacon is whatever is in front of you.)

(Flag courtesy of YesButNoButYes.)

During my research for my Szechuan Noodle Bowl post, I ran across MSG150 -a site describing a year long quest by my new heroes to eat at every restaurant in Seattle's International District. After a brief glance, I find that I agree with most of their findings, so they must be smart. :)

Anyway, if you're looking for a great restaurant in the ID (or trying to avoid a bad one) check them out!

Michelle, the boys, and I were in downtown Seattle Friday evening for some reason or another and started getting peckish (it being dinner time and all). We hadn't been to the International District for a while, so we thought we'd cruise some of our old haunts looking for a nosh.

We settled on the Szechuan Noodle Bowl, an ID classic. Michelle and I used to go there a lot when we were dating and first married, but for some reason or another, we hadn't been back for years. Big mistake.

The place certainly hasn't been updated since we were there last; it's a small place with fluorescent lighting, laminated tables, and a mishmash of photos and posters on the walls. But, like many great Chinese restaurants, you don't go to Szechuan Noodle Bowl for the decor.

You go for the crispy green onion pancakes. OMG, I had forgotten how good these are. These are easily the best green onion pancakes (cong you bing) I've ever had. The secret to their flaky, crispy deliciousness is lard. Everyone else seems to use the (presumably) healthier but way less yummy veggie oil between the layers of onion and dough. Not SNB. Nothing but the best here. Wow. It took all my restraint to not push my family out of the way getting to the crumbs.

Fortunately, just as Michael (8) elbowed me out of the way for the last wedge of pancake, the waitress arrived with plates of jiaozi (steamed dumplings - gyoza in Japanese). Unlike most Chinese restaurants, SNB makes these fresh every day with (most importantly) handmade wrappers. The result is a delicious, toothsome wrapper around great fillings. (In Chinese we say that wrappers like this have jiar or energy.) As regular readers know, I love meat, but surprisingly, my favorites were the veggie jiaozi -- spinach and tofu filled dumplings of love.

The beef noodle soup was almost as good as the first dishes. They actually have several different kinds of beef noodle soup; I chose the hong shao niu rou mein since it wasn't spicy so the kids would eat some. (This literally means  "red cooked beef noodles" where "red cooked" means cooked in soy sauce. I forget now what they called it in English on the menu -- sorry). Anyway, the bowl was filled with thick noodles with good jiar, lots of falling apart tender beef (that Michael loved) and a tasty broth. Yum.

It was so damn good; I'm already dreaming of my next trip.

Szechuan Noodle Bowl
420 8th Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 623-4198

For our last dinner in Roppongi, we ate at Restaurant Morimoto XEX - one of the restaurants of Iron Chef Japanese Masuharo Morimoto. This was a stupid good teppanyaki meal that lived up to the hype.

The restaurant is dark and beautiful with very attentive service from the English-speaking staff. Like other teppanyaki restaurants, guests sit around a bar where the chef grills your food in front of you. However, unlike Americanized Benihana-style teppanyaki, there isn't a cooking "show", so no flaming onion volcanoes or flipping of shrimp heads into the chef's hat (much to the boys' disappointment.)

There were really too many amazing courses to list or show off here, but I'll hit a few of the highlights.

One that we all thought was incredibly delicious and innovative was the sashimi course (below). This lovely box contained (from right to left): caviar, minced chu-toro (fatty tuna), uni (sea urchin), squid (I think), salmon roe, chives, toasted rice balls, nori (seaweed), wasabi sauce (I think), sour cream, and avocado sauce. To eat this, you used the little bamboo paddle and swept across the box, combining bits of the different ingredients and then dipping the mix into the light shoyu sauce. The combination of flavors and textures was insanely great. Even the others who don't normally eat uni and such enjoyed this.

Another great course was this lobster dish. The very sweet tail meat of the Australian lobster was well balanced by the sharp pepper sauce; the cilantro was a nice addition too. This was perfect in its simplicity.

As the chef prepared the star course of the show - the meltingly tender and moaningly delicious Kobe beef for me, great fillet for the others) - we were served little ramekins of mashed potatoes. These already smooth potatoes had a quarter inch of clarified butter on top; we were instructed to mix butter into the potato. The results were almost soup-like; of course, they were rich and scrumptious. The beef, needless to say, was great, served with a choice of sauces, exotic salt, and garam masala - a nice and unusual offering. Kobe beef is the only meal I've ever had where everyone at the table either softly moans or giggles to themselves as they chew. This was no exception. Michael (7) demolished his 50g steak almost instantly.

After dinner, we moved upstairs to this very retro 70's/early 80's lounge for dessert. The centerpiece of the lounge was this incredibly kitschy Dom Perignon stand light with a rotating top. It was kind of fun that they didn't take themselves too seriously. I was too full to eat, so I just had a glass of Suntory Hibiki 17 year Japanese whisky. Lovely stuff.

Obviously, this wasn't a cheap meal, but damn, it was good. Truly a memorable feast.

Today, we made a pilgrimage to Akihabara today, mecca for geeks. In particular I dragged everyone to Yodobashi, the photo giant. While the camera gear was more expensive than I could get at home, they had tons of great accessories like camera bags (you can never have enough camera bags) and my favorite lens cleaning cloth - Microdear (yes, I have a favorite lens cleaning cloth - You can get them at Amazon too.). Since Michael's (7) birthday is coming up, we got him a little digital camera (a slick little black Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd). He's been snapping pix like mad since then.

After Yodobashi, we played some video games (including a cool Gundam game in pods) and headed to Shinjuku to get lunch at Takashimaya Department store and shop some. On the way from the train station to the store, we passed through "Little Seattle" - the row that has our Microsoft Japan sales office, REI, Eddie Bauer, and Starbucks (and now a Krispy Kreme with a huge line out the door). Our tempura lunch at the Tunahachi (a big tempura chain) in the store was nice as was the visit to the legendary food department in the basement of Takashimaya.

The ladies stayed to shop, so I took the boys back to the hotel. We stopped off at the Motoyama Milk Bar for a bit of refreshment; after seeing the name, I had to try it out. It really was a milk bar, serving great milk products like ice cream, milk, panna cotta, and so on (apparently, it's unhomogenized milk from Hokkaido). I had an absolutely lovely Coffee Milk in a cute bottle; it was like a frappuccino done right -- creamy and sweet but not cloying, with great coffee taste. I am dreaming of coffee milk and may have to come back to Japan just to get another one.

Today we took the train out to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo filled with shopping malls, museums, a huge Ferris wheel, and such. We wandered around floors of shops, mostly without much luck, although the kids were delighted to find a Toys 'R' Us with a huge Pokemon Center. One of the odd things we saw in the store were live elephant beetles. Apparently, because of the popularity of the video game Mushi King where players battle with giant beetles, Japanese kids are collecting real beetles now.

After the toy store, we spent some time at the Sony showroom playing with their cool toys including the very fun Rolly, a little robot MP3 player that dances to the music; it was a neat way to get hands on with some fun technology. I kind of wonder if Microsoft should do something similar.

For lunch we found a bit of heaven - a ramen "theme park". This was a six of small ramen shops representing different styles from around Japan. There were "Iron Chef" style photos of each of the chefs. There was a hawker outside each shop drawing in customers; once we picked one (Tokyo style) we put money into a machine, pushed the buttons for what we wanted, and got some tickets to hand to staff. The gyoza and ramen were absolutely delicious; the ramen was very different from the Kyushu-style we had at Jangara with dark, rich broth.

After lunch we wound up at another mall called Venus Fort which was unremarkable except that it looked like the inside of the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Creepy really.

Barbi, Kellie, and I decided to take advantage of our jet lag and go to the Tsukiji Fish Market early (5:30am) this morning (this isn't a great place for kids, so Michelle and the boys stayed at the hotel). This is the largest fish market in the world and an amazing scene of commerce and food. I had been to Tsukuji many years ago, but I was excited to come back.

In the intervening years, they have apparently had an influx of tourists getting in the way of operations. As a result, in the tuna auction area, they now have an area blocked off for tourists and rules about flash photography. I've read that they may be closing the whole thing off to tourists; while this makes perfect sense, it would be too bad.

Anyway, the big thing here is the tuna auction where they sell off huge frozen and fresh tuna. The buyers walk around inspecting the fish and then the auctioneer starts the sing-song bidding. In a few seconds, a huge tuna is sold. Click here for an idea of the prices. Beyond the auction area, the place is a maze of shops selling everything seafood related that you can imagine; the shops also cut down the big tuna they just bought for further sale. The auction area and shops are in a huge warehouse known as the inner market.

The outer market is a series of streets and alleys selling more food like pickles, spices, and such as well as cooking supplies like the big knives the guys in the inner market use. There are also crazy good food stalls and restaurants serving the freshest fish from the market. After our tour, we had a bowl of maguro donburi (fresh tuna slices on a bowl of sushi rice) at Kanno, a stall four booths from the corner of Shin Hashi Dori and Harumi Dori (the main intersection near the market). It was super good, with the super fresh tuna and lovely sushi rice. Click here for a good New York Times article on restaurants in the area.

For lunch today, we went to Jangara Ramen in Harajuku at the recommendation of my colleague Li. In his mail to me, he said, "...you'll be in pork fat heaven!  Some say it's the best in Tokyo, and I can't imagine better tasting ramen."

OMG, he wasn't kidding. Jangara specializes in Kyushu-style ramen. I don't know if I can characterize the differences, but the broth is pork-based (vs. miso or shoyo-based) was perhaps a bit richer than I'm used to, and the pork was cut thick with a luscious cap of fat. The boiled egg on top was soft cooked, and the whole thing was topped with cod roe (lovely). The pickled greens and crushed garlic on the table made the bowl even better. For more, here's Rameniac's description of the style.

You could order one of a couple styles of ramen, each with options A-H which defined the toppings (everything, no egg, etc.) We also had nice gyoza to go with. They had English menus, and the staff was quick and helpful. I slurped down my bowl and ate what the kids' didn't finish from theirs. I was stuffed to the point of pain, but I couldn't stop eating. I'm still silly with the thought of the stuff.

Jangara is a small chain in Tokyo; there are actually two at this location on Omote-sando Dori, located on two floors. They are about a block from the Harajuku JR train station. They were apparently voted best ramen in Tokyo in 2003. I must find who won this year.

This evening, we had an early dinner at Inakaya, a robatayaki place here in Roppongi. I had been to the original branch several years ago and was excited to come back. In robatayaki you sit at a  U shaped bar with a huge selection of vegetables, meat, and fish before you. You point to things you want and the chefs grill it in front of you. As you order, all of the staff yell out the order in reply, so the place can get pretty raucous (although we were there early, so it was more subdued.)

The chefs pass the food, beer, whatever to you on these 3-4 foot long paddles; these guys are seriously strong. They can hold the paddles up without shaking at all. I'm not sure I could even hold the paddle steady.

The food was simple and very fresh; for instance the prawns (which were the hugest I've ever seen) were still moving on the display tray. The abalone was especially good but the whole snapper was my favorite. They thread a whole fish onto a skewer so the fish is in a S-shape; they rub a little salt on the fins to make them stand out, then they suspend the fish over the heat to cook. When it comes off it looks like it's swimming. The meat was tender and perfectly done.

Anyway, it was a great start to the trip. I'm looking forward to some other great meals...

Now you can have bacon any time, even after the apocalypse. MREDepot.com has canned bacon -- 9 ounces of fully cooked bacon per can, ready to eat, and with a shelf-life of ten years. Certainly a must-have for any well-fed survivalist and fun for the whole family!

Thanks to my colleague, Frank Oliver, for the tip.

In Washington state, we have a screwed up system where the state has a monopoly on liquor via the state-owned liquor stores. The one interesting thing about having state-owned stores though is that they are more transparent about their markups and such. (OK, the other interesting thing is that they have the prices and stock of each store online. Too bad their selection is crappy.)

Here's a great page that shows how they price alcohol. I always thought the government took more than their fair share, but I was surprised to see that 75% of the price of a bottle of liquor in Washington goes to Federal and State taxes (50%) plus the Liquor Control Board (25%). The LCB's take is 70% operations and 30% taxes (yay, more taxes!)

In the example below, a $13.65 bottle of liquor only cost the state $3.48; the rest goes to The Man.

Why oh why does the government own liquor stores?!?! How about doing some governing instead...

I've provided copious documentation on this blog of my affection for bacon, to the point when friends and readers have started sending me pointers more baconware. Here are a few for your enjoyment:

Vosges Mo's Bacon Chocolate Bar
I admit, I've had a few of these but didn't blog about it because it's been written up everywhere. Still, enough people ask me about it that I figured I should write about this. The Bacon Chocolate Bar is exactly what it sounds like - a chocolate bar with bits of bacon in it. I'm a fan of salty-sweet combinations, so it's probably no surprise that I like this. Still, despite the bacon in the bar, it's not as good as Fran's Gray & Smoked Salt Caramels if you're looking for a salty/chocolately treat (and you should be.)

Bacon Salt
I have not yet had this product, which the maker describes as "a zero calorie, vegetarian, kosher certified seasoning salt that makes everything taste like real bacon." Why eat anything else that just tastes like bacon, if you can have real bacon? I'll get around to trying this thing sometime if I ever run out of bacon. On the other hand, the notion of bacon fries or bacon popcorn does sound pretty appealing.

Bacon Scented Bacon Print Tuxedo

Oh yes, for only $99, you can be the proud owner of this stylish tuxedo that will pleasure the ladies by both sight and smell. (No, that's not me or anyone I know in the photo. Really.)

Congrats to Taylor Shellfish! Their Totten Virginicas won the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association contest for the best-tasting oyster. I don't know the politics of oysters, but I'm guessing that a West Coast oyster winning in the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association contest is probably big upset. Of course, they can claim some solace. The Virginicas, as you might guess from the name, are originally an East Coast oyster, transplanted to Puget Sound. These Virginicas were grown in Totten Inlet at the southern end of Puget Sound and get much of their flavor from the water they were raised in.

I'm sure these would be lovely with one of the winners of the 2008 Oyster Wine Contest. Mmm...

Here's the press release for your enjoyment:

April 30, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jon Rowley 206-963-5959

rowley@nwlink.com

“TOTTEN INLET VIRGINICA” FROM PUGET SOUND JUDGED BEST TASTING OYSTER AT EAST COAST SHELLFISH GROWER’S ASSN. FIRST ANNUAL INVITATIONAL OYSTER CHALLENGE IN R.I.

PROVIDENCE. R.I.: “Oyster growers are fiercely fiercely competitive and every grower is convinced their oyster is the best’, says Bob Rheault, President of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. To settle the issue of which East Coast oyster (Crasssostrea virginica) tastes best, the ECSGA and the National Shellfisheries Association asked growers to submit their finest to the First Annual Invitational Oyster Challenge, held in Provincetown, Rhode Island April 7 where 19 varieties from three coasts went head to head in a blind tasting judged by a celebrity panel of some of the country’s most discriminating oyster palates.

While the oysters were judged on a number of characteristics and the Island Creek from Duxbury, Massachusetts came in first overall, when it came to taste, it was an oyster from Washington state, the Totten Inlet Virginica, that prevailed. “Some of our customers have been telling us we have the best tasting oyster”, says Taylor Shellfish Farms President Bill Taylor, “but we are thrilled to have it verified like this by such an esteemed tasting panel.”

“I'd always known they were good, but tasting blind against so many others was really eye-opening’’ enthused Rowan Jacobsen, one of the Challenge celebrity judges and author of The Geography of Oysters. “You don't usually see all of that fruitiness and body in a virginica. To me, the superiority of the Totten’s flavor was stunning.”

“Plump and juicy, with a crisp flavor and a good amount of brine, it is a real oyster lover’s oyster”, says judge Sandy Ingber, Executive Chef of the New York’s legendary Grand Central Oyster Bar.  “It is one of our top-selling oysters; I sell 2300 a week.”

Because flavor characteristics are derived from the waters they grow in, oysters on the half shell are traditionally marketed by the name of their growing location. Most restaurants serving oysters carry several varieties; some as many as 30. All of the oysters were sent to Brown University where they will be tested for salts, minerals and metals. “I’m really trying to understand why some oysters taste rich and full bodied while others have a thin finish dominated by salt”, says Rheault who also grows Moonstone oysters in Narragansett, RI.

Totten Inlet Virginicas get their start in Taylor’s Quilcene, WA hatchery from brood stock descended from Eastern oysters brought to Washington State from the East Coast by train nearly a century ago. When thumbnail-sized, they are placed in nutrient-rich Totten Inlet in South Puget Sound where it takes 2 to 4 years to reach Taylor’s 3 ¼ inch minimum size “when they just taste better”, says Taylor.

Detailed information on the oysters, the judges and the judging can be found at ECSGA.org or by contacting Bob Rheault 401-783-1360 bob@moonstoneoysters.com. For information on Taylor Shellfish Farms visit www.taylorshellfish.com.

THE OYSTERS (alphabetically):
13 Mile Brand – Apalachicola Bay, FL.
Camanada Bay Oysters – Camanada Bay, LA.
Cape May Salts – Delaware Bay, NJ.
Island Creek Oysters® – Duxbury Bay, MA.
Katama Bay Oysters – Martha's Vineyard, MA.
Matunuck Oysters – Potters Pond, Wakefield, RI.,
May River Select – Bluffton, SC.
Moonstone Oysters® – Narragansett, RI.
Mystic Oysters – Mystic CT.
New Point "Comforts"® – New Point, VA.
Ninigret Cups – Charlestown Pond, RI.
Pemaquid Oysters® – Damariscotta River, ME.
Rappahannock River OystersTM – Rappahannock River, VA.
Saddle Rocks® – Long Island Sound, NY.
Snow Hill Oysters – Chincoteague Bay, MD.
Sweet Petites – Katama Bay, Martha's Vineyard, MA.
Toby Island Bay Oysters – Chincoteague Bay, VA.
Totten Inlet Virgincas – Totten Inlet, WA.
Watch Hill Oyster® – Winnapaug Pond, RI.

THE JUDGES:
Mallory Bufford, Executive Chef, Black’s Bar & Kitchen, Bethesda, MD
David Carrier, Chef/Owner, Avenue Sea Restaurant, Apalachicola, FL.
Kurt Freisland, Buyer, J. J. McDonalds, Jessup, MD
Max Harvey, Seafood Buyer, Jasper White’s Summer Shack, Boston
Peter Hoffman, Chef/Owner, Savoy Restaurant and Back Forty, New York
Sandy Ingber, Executive Chef, Grand Central Oyster Bar, New York
Rowan Jacobsen, author, The Geography of Oysters
Rob Klink, Executive Chef, Oceanaire Seafood Room, Baltimore, MD
Maureen Pothier, College of the Culinary Arts, Johnson & Wales University
Bruce Sherman, Chef/Partner, North Pond Restaurant, Chicago

As I mentioned last year, every year, Taylor Shellfish sponsors the Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition to find the best wines to pair with oysters. Here are this year's winners:

• Amity Vineyards* 06 Pinot Blanc (OR)
• Chateau Ste. Michelle** 06 Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc (WA)
• Clayhouse Vineyard 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Clos du Bois Winery 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Covey Run Winery 06 Fume Blanc (WA)
• Dry Creek Vineyard* 06 Sonoma County Fume Blanc (CA)
• Girard Winery 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Kathryn Kennedy Winery* 07 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Robledo Family Winery* 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Simi 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Van Duzer Vineyards 07 Pinot Gris (OR)
• Willamette Valley Vineyards** 07 Pinot Gris (OR)

* Prior Oyster Award Winner ** Multiple prior Oyster Awards

If my experience with the winners is any indication, these will all be relatively inexpensive and delicious with oysters. It's a bit late in the season for the best oysters, but if you hurry, you may be able to get some good ones still. I'm sure they'll still be lovely with these good wines (or whisky)

Thought this was funny, but of course, bacon increases my overall health...

From xkcd.com, courtesy of John.

We just had the Whole Foods branded Black Forest Bacon for breakfast this morning. Yum. It was meaty with just enough fat to be scrumptious and had a hint of sweet smoke.

You can find this treat in the meat case at Whole Foods. You'll probably see me in line at the Bellevue store getting more...

Oh, baby. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before...

From Breakfast Blogger

Do-it-yourself instructions on Instructables

Perfect.

See the original here, with links to get t-shirts, etc.

Regular readers know that I have a special part of my heart (and my waistline) reserved for bacon. I've written about the world's best way to cook bacon, linked to bacon humor, and even had my son aspire to bacon art.

However, I haven't written much about great bacons yet. My friend Chooky describes the best of something as "the bacon of xxx" (like his posts on the "bacon of yogurt" or the "bacon of pens".) This lead me to wonder what the "bacon of bacon" is.

Since I seem to inhale any bacon in front me too quickly for a thoughtful taste test, I turned to Cooks Illustrated, my favorite food magazine ever. They're the Consumer Reports of food. They'll test a hundred variations of a recipe to get it right; they also compare brands of foods and tools and give you the low-down. Their stuff is almost always gold. (They're also known as America's Test Kitchen on TV and in some cookbooks.)

Cooks Illustrated did two taste tests for bacons, one for supermarket brands and another for premium brands. (Note, CI requires a subscription to get to this content; they have a free 14-day trial offer though.) The winner of the supermarket brand is Farmland Hickory Smoked Bacon, topping stalwart brands like Boar's Head, Hormel Black Label (which I had yesterday morning and thought was lovely), Armour, and Oscar Mayer. Tasters described it as "meaty", "full-flavored", and "crispy, yet hearty".

On the premium side, Niman Ranch Dry Cured Center Cut Bacon won the day (I mentioned Niman Ranch in my post on cooking bacon.) Here's their description:

Niman Ranch Dry Cured Center Cut Bacon Oakland, California $8 for 12 ounces Tasters found this bacon hearty, rich, balanced, and smoky. One taster said, "Yum . . . what bacon should be."

This is our "house bacon" whenever we can swing by Trader Joes.

One note for the organic, free-range, no-preservative crowd: CI observed in their reviews that nitrate-free bacons did not fare well. Turns out that people are used to the color and taste of nitrate in their bacon, so it doesn't taste right when the nitrates aren't there. This is consistent with a taste test we did between corned beefs a few St. Patricks' Days ago. We ordered a nitrate-free corned beef that was excellent except that everyone liked the regular supermarket one better. The nitrate-free corned beef was grey instead of the familiar red and missing the tang that we've come to associate with corned beef.

CI also noted that there is a visible variation in meat-to-fat ratio between different packages of bacon. This seems obvious since bacon is a natural product (well, it starts off natural anyway and then becomes ethereal). It's worth a few extra seconds in the store to pick your package of bacon carefully, just like you would pick out good apples.

So, go give these brands a whirl and let me know what you think. Of course, as CI notes, "Bad bacon is something of an oxymoron."

I think it's important as a parent to keep your children connected with their heritage. Food, clearly, has tons of cultural and ritual meaning, so it's an important tradition to pass down.

With this in mind, this weekend, I introduced the kids to Marshmallow Fluff, a staple food in the Midwest (I grew up in Minnesota.) For those of you unfamiliar with this gooey concoction, Wikipedia describes it as a "very sweet, spreadable, marshmallow-like confection".

Andrew (10), who loves marshmallows, hated the Fluff. I think it kind of grossed him out, like many traditional foods do. I'm sure he'll develop a taste for it as he grows up. He'll thank me for it when he's older.

Michael (7) discovered the magical combination of peanut butter and fluff (well, soynut butter in his case since he's allergic to peanuts). While he didn't love the fluffernuter sandwich I sent him to school with, he does love dipping granola bites into the mixture. Kids these days.

It's tough being a responsible parent, but I keep trying. I will probably introduce them to hotdish or Western Dressing next.

My post on the Best Way to Cook Bacon continues to generate comments and testimonials. It's a little wild, really. Sonja, one of the recent commenters, offered this bit of bacon humor. Thanks, Sonja!

via videosift.com

As usual, we had a generous Christmas with lots of great presents. One gift that I thought was particularly appropriate given my long-lasting and well-known love for bacon was The Bacon Cookbook by James Villas, former food and wine editor of Town & Country Magazine and Bon Appetit's Food Writer of the Year 2004.

It's clear that Villas shares my love of bacon in all its forms. He starts by describing the different kinds of bacon from around the world and then dives through forty+ recipes, sorted by course; he even has a few bacon desserts like Canadian Bacon Maple Custard.

Each recipe has a short description that tells a personal story, explains a little history, or otherwise introduces the dish; I love when cookbooks do this vs. just listing a pile of recipes. Each introduction sells the dish with effusive praise, e.g. "...you simply can't serve a more delectable side dish" [Lima Bean and Bacon Casserole] or "One of America's most original and sensational breakfast or lunch dishes..." [California Hangtown Fry]. The photography in the book is very nice as well. More important, the recipes seem pretty well written and straightforward, with the possible exception of having to find these exotic types of bacon (although Villas does offer web resources for getting the different kinds of bacon.)

I admit, my mouth is watering right now as I flip through the book. I'm excited to start cooking out of it.

A while back I wrote about good Chinese restaurants around Bellevue, specifically close to Microsoft and our house. There are also a few good Mexican places in Bellevue now as well. This wasn't always the case. When I first moved to Seattle in 1990, I had a hard time finding Mexican restaurants that could scratch the Mexican food itch I developed in California and Texas. While I'm no expert, there are finally a few places I like a lot.

• Guerrero's is actually a little Mexican grocery store, but in the back of the shop they have a little buffet set up. You get a plate or a styrofoam box, fill it up with lovely stuff, and pay by weight. Last time, I had a great lengua (tongue) in tomatillo sauce, amazing birra (beef) cooked crazy tender and yummy, chicken to die for, delicious beans, and fantastic nopalitos (cactus). They apparently have tortas and nice bread too. It made me happy to get a Mexican Coke to wash it down; they're sweetened with real sugar instead of corn syrup like American Coke. It makes all the difference. There are only a few tables in the place, so I've only ever had takeout. One tip, go for lunch. They don't do much dinner business, so the selection isn't very good, and the food had been out all day. The cashier actually apologized to me and told me to come back for lunch. Anyways, this is an amazing place. I highly recommend it. It's in the old K-mart shopping center off of 148th and Main. Incidentally, this little mall is home of a few of my favorite restaurants. In addition to Guerrero's, Szechuan Chef (stellar Chinese) and Tuna House (very good sushi) are there. Yum. 15015 Main Street, Suite 119, Bellevue, WA
• El Rinconsito is a little more fast food and is apparently something of a chain, but no matter, it's very good. Their menu extends beyond tacos and burritos to posole, menudo (perfect for hangovers), grilled fish, a big jug of horchata (which I've never developed a taste for, I must admit), tortas, and more. Perhaps most unique, they are open late (3:00 am, I think -- unheard of in Bellevue). It's in the strip mall near Skate King and Wimbley's. Also, the same mall as Pizza and Sandwich House, one of my other favorite Chinese places. 2255 140th Ave NE Ste A, Bellevue

Many people also seem to like La Cocina Del Puerco in downtown Bellevue. It's pretty good, but I haven't had as ethereal experiences there as I have with these other two places. Of course, I haven't been there for a while, so maybe I should give them another chance.

Anyone hungry for lunch?

As I blogged about before, instant ramen is my "secret food" -- the thing I'll eat (despite my foodie ways) when no one else is around. I love them all, but I've recently discovered the dirty secret of instant ramen: the Asian varieties are way, way better.

Specifically, what I'm talking about here are the versions meant for Asian audiences and particularly for people in Asia. Case in point: Nissan Cup Noodles (the original instant ramen in a cup) are available in Japan as well as the US. However, the Japanese version is far tastier than its American counterpart. I compared the Japanese seafood cup to the American shrimp cup (this was the closest I could get to an apples-to-apples comparison). The broth in the American version had that familiar salty ramen soup taste; by contrast, the Japanese version actually tasted like seafood. The Japanese version had slices of octopus, more veggies, and more eggs too vs. the dried shrimp and sprinkling of other stuff in the American version. Even Michael (7) tasted the difference.

Since this discovery, I've been buying all kinds of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese noodles at the shops around us; they're all much yummier than the stuff at Safeway and not tons more expensive. Some even have foil pouches with meat (which actually taste good, if you can get over the idea). A few include a spork or other utensil too, which makes tons of sense.

If you like instant ramen (and let's be honest, who doesn't) you should definitely give the real thing a try.

Every week when I pick up our share from The Root Connection, I stop by Minea Farms across the street for some the best apple cider I've ever had. Minea uses a 100 year old cider press to make both single variety and blended ciders. Unlike most store-bought cider, Minea's actually taste like apples rather than sugary brown water; what's more, each variety of cider tastes different, as it should. I love them all, but I especially prefer the sweeter ones like Gala and Fuji over the tarter varieties like Granny Smith. Each week they have a few different types and offer tastings so you can decide which to choose from. (Michael (7) likes the cherry-apple cider blend.)

This time of year is especially good since they are pressing recently harvested apples; earlier in the year, they sell cider frozen the previous autumn (still super damn good). In addition to cider, they have apple butter, veggies, apples, fruit leather, and other farm products, but the big draw is the cider.

Their usual hours are Wed-Sun 11am - 5pm. They're located at 13404 Woodinville-Redmond Road. Here's the sign from the road:

If you haven't had fresh apple cider before, you're in for a treat. If you have, well, you know what you're missing. Either way, get off your butt and go get some...

(OK, as usual, I have no idea if this really is the world's best anything, but it's pretty damn good cider.)

This seems to be the summer of s'mores for us. After having mastered the perfect basic s'more, I thought it was important to pass on this important life skill to the boys. Despite the questionable wisdom of giving Michael (6) a sharp stick with a ball of flaming napalm on the end, we've had a safe and fun time with it so far. I may start trying some gourmet modifications to the recipe, although it's hard to beat the simple, diabetic coma perfection of a s'more.

Now, I just need to start working out in earnest again to work it all off...

I just came back from a very enjoyable dinner at Canlis with the Internet Explorer Program Management leads; these are basically the people who I work with who run the group that design the next versions of IE, organize the effort to ship it, and lead the work to take care of customers after we ship. Unfortunately, Chris Wilson couldn't make it, but he was off on some amazing SCUBA diving trip, so I don't feel too bad...

As with most teams, some of us have worked together for a while; some of the group came to IE more recently. We work together pretty well, but we haven't all gone out together and just had a fun meal; we were overdue.

Canlis is an old Seattle institution; it's the "dress up" restaurant in Seattle (one of the only ones with a dress code in town). We had a fun time telling stories, getting to know each other better, and generally not talking about work for a few hours. It was also fun to see everyone dressed up a bit.

The food was lovely, of course. I started with steak tartare to die for; easily the best I've ever had. We also had a few orders of truffle fries because the only thing better than fried food is fried food with truffle oil.

Then I had the Yukon River salmon. As I had blogged about earlier, I was looking forward to a chance to try it and had it tonight -- lovely. It was grilled simply (the best way for a fantastic piece of fish) with a little couscous on the side. Yum.

We also had some very nice wines -- some of my favorites

• 1990 Pol Roger -- I love Champagne; I think it makes every event a celebration. I don't know tons about vintages and such, but I recalled that 1990 was a fantastic year for Champagne. This was my first (I think) bottle of Pol Roger. Lovely. Dry and delicious.
• 2000 Peter Michael Les Pavot - Peter Michael is one of my favorite wineries, and the Les Pavot is really great. I'm not sure I've had the 2000 before, but once it opened up it was fantastic.
• 2004 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir - This is definitely one of my favorite pinot noirs, if not my very favorite. The consensus around the table seemed to be that this one was the best wine of the night, even though it was the least expense (although still not cheap...)

On top of the great food and wine, we got to see the Duck Dodge, a sailboat race in Lake Union and a Seattle tradition. I'm not sure anyone but I cared, but I liked it so there you go.

I had a great time; it's important to me to work with people I like. Tonight was a good reminder of why I love my job.

We picked up our first bag of veggies from the Root Connection this weekend. Yippee! As I've blogged about several times before, the Root Connection is a share farm where members "subscribe" to the farm's crop. Each week we get a bag of whatever veggies are available that week plus we can take advantage of the u-cut flowers, herbs, basil, and greens. The veggies are way more flavorful than grocery store veggies both because they're much fresher and because the varieties are chosen for their flavor not shelf-life, harvestability, or good looks.

It's early in the season still so the bag was pretty light. This year, we've opted for the smaller share because we had a hard time using everything each week. This week, we got a bunch of salad turnips (yum), some bok choy, a few heads of green and red leaf lettuce, and some cabbage lettuce. We ate the turnip greens sauteed this evening. Delicious.

I love the Root Connection and am looking forward to another summer of great veggies!

Jon Rowley, the man behind the Copper River salmon craze (here's a Gourmet Magazine interview with Jon about salmon), just sent me mail saying to watch for Yukon River king salmon from Kwikpak Fisheries; Kwikpak is a community-owned Fair Trade company. This alone makes me want to buy from them, but the salmon sound fantastic. Jon says in his mail:

The Yukon king has between 24 and 30% oil which translates into unsurpassed flavor and mouthfeel and Omega 3s into tomorrow (we will test for these this season. they are probably higher in this fish than in any other). By comparison, the Copper River kings, which have more oil than most kings, have 16-17%.

He also included a little about Kwikpak:

Kwikpak Fisheries is the only seafood company in the world to be certified by the the Fair Trade Federation. A purchase of Kwikpak  Yukon king salmon contributes directly to improving living and working condtions for the Yupik producers. The fishermen are paid a high price $4.30 /lb for whole fish off the boat. Without this price they can't get ahead with the cost of living in this very remote area. The average per capita income is $9000, $7000 of which is derived from the upcoming fishery. This is still primarily a subsitance [sic]culture. The community depends on hunting and fishing for much of their food needs.

In the Seattle area, Metropolitan Markets will carry the fish. Elliott's Oyster House, Waterfront, and Canlis will also have it. I'll have to go find some soon. If you like salmon, you should too. Jon is always right about these things.

Every year Taylor Shellfish sponsors the Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition, run by my friend Jon Rowley. This contest aims to find the best West Coast wines to pair with oysters. I first really got into oysters at a dinner hosted by Jon that served the winners of that year's competition with freshly harvested oysters. That night changed my life.

Anyway, here are this year's winners:

• Brassfield Estate Winery 05 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Dry Creek Vineyard 05 Sonoma County Fume Blanc (CA)
• **Dry Creek Vineyard 06 Dry Chenin Blanc (CA)
• **Geyser Peak Winery 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Hall 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• **Kenwood Vineyards 06 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• *King Estate Winery 05 Signature Pinot Gris (OR)
• *Martin & Weyrich Winery 06 Unwooded Chardonnay (CA)
• Sweet Cheeks Winery 06 Pinot Gris (OR)
• *Willamette Valley Vineyards 06 Pinot Gris (OR)

*Prior "Oyster Award" Winner
**Multiple prior "Oyster Awards"

Typically crisp whites with maybe a little mineral taste pair well; you can see a lot of chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc, and pinot gris on the list. The one chardonnay is unwooded; big oaky chardonnays are too much for oysters. Occasionally, you'll see an pinot noir on the list, but not this year. The other nice thing about the varietals that pair well with oysters is that they're typically pretty cheap. I haven't priced these wines, but previous winners have been $10-15/bottle. It's rare to find wines that win any contest for anything in that range.

So, if you can't have whisky with oysters, then pick one of these wines. Mmm...

(Here's another good profile of Jon, in case you're interested. He's quite a character and big in the Seattle food scene. He's also the guy behind the Copper River Salmon craze.)

Last weekend, Kellie, Kristen, Katya, Christopher, Barbie, and I went out to the Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington for a little wine tasting. After a brief stop at the XXX Root Beer Drive-In for lunch, we headed to Ellensburg for a fun filled evening (there were no hotel rooms in Yakima that evening). We had a good time playing hearts (which I never played before, but now I'm a fan) and drinking beer at the Tav, a good dinner at Pearls-on-Pearl, and more bar fun at the Starlight Lounge and Oak Rail Tavern. Nothing like partying with a bunch of college kids (from Central Washington University - the only thing in Ellensburg.) I really liked the Tav and Starlight Lounge; Pearls-on-Pearl was nice too.

After a slow morning at the luxurious