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...

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.)

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...

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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).

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...