Aug 11

Going Full Upstate

Tonight is the annual Spiediefest. Check out last year’s post, Spiedie 101, as well. This year I’m going full Upstate by making salt potatoes alongside the spiedies.

Some history first. Syracuse, New York is known as the Salt City because of the salt mines in the area. Salt is more than a seasoning in Upstate New York, it’s essential to keep roads clear during the ugly winters. It’s also essential to the livelihoods of car washes, body shops, and rustproofing businesses, as road salt eats away at cars. Six winters in Ithaca did a number on my 1982 Nissan Sentra, despite getting it rustproofed my first year in town. Someone had the bright idea of cooking unpeeled new potatoes in brine and serving them with butter (from Upstate New York dairies, of course). The salt stays on the surface of the spuds, so the result is not intolerably salty. Salt potatoes are commonly served at picnics, family reunions, clambakes, and the New York State Fair. Salt potato kits (potatoes with the right amount of salt enclosed in a plastic bag) are sold in most Upstate groceries.

When I told Julian I was going to make salt potatoes this year, he asked if he should pick up some Genesee Cream Ale to really go Full Upstate. I vetoed that idea. Too much bad brew at frat parties back in the day…

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/11/going-full-upstate/

Aug 02

Tuning Out

Sometimes listening to the news on my commute gets very tedious, especially in these times. Fortunately, I have a trial subscription to Sirius XM in Gretta the Jetta. (The name was Julian’s idea, and the Friday night crew agreed.) My preferred channels are the 60’s and The Beatles. I can sing along to my heart’s content and don’t care about the traffic or what’s going on in the other Washington.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/02/tuning-out/

Jul 30

Crawdads!

Or crawfish, crayfish, or mudbugs. Call them what you will, these little freshwater crustaceans are mighty tasty. They’re not easy to find hereabouts, but we buy them when we find them.
Crawfish can be found alive on occasion in well-stocked fish stores. We’ve purchased them at Uwajimaya and Mutual Fish. They’re available during the summer. Most of the year we buy them in a frozen brick of shelled meat. Make sure you buy domestic crawfish meat. Once we bought a package from China. It was so vile-smelling that we had to throw the whole recipe out and ate dinner at our go-to Salvadoran restaurant.

A highlight of buying live crawfish is to watch the cats’ reactions. Luka wasn’t sure what to think, but he was interested. Last night we tried to introduce Neli to our future dinner. She couldn’t get out of my arms fast enough when she saw the mass of twitching claws and antennae.

A crawfish tries to make a run for it. Luka’s on the case.

So what to do with crawfish? You can do a traditional Cajun boil. Think of a shrimp or crab boil, with seasonings, potatoes, corn on the cob, and other vegetables in the pot. Because there’s so little meat on crawfish, you’ll need to buy at least 2 pounds of live critters per person. For a tutorial on how to eat whole crawfish, here’s one. We usually make crawfish étouffée, substituting cooked tail meat for shrimp.

Beer is the preferred beverage to accompany crawfish at all steps of the process. A lighter-flavored beer is preferred, although you could try the Dixie Blackened Voodoo ale – if you can find it in your area. So pop open a bottle, twist off some heads, et laissez les bons temps rouler!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/30/crawdads/

Jul 28

Restaurant Criticisms

We eat at restaurants on a regular basis. The food is primary; however, we find some aspects of restaurant ambience annoying. Sometimes these features can negate the quality of the meal. Here’s our list:

Noise. High ceilings and hard surfaces make for difficult conversations, especially for those who have hearing issues.

Music. Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Greensboro used to play the same CD over and over in an evening. I think it was a strategy to turn over the tables faster. “Oops, this is where we came in. Time to get the check.” At first it was the soundtrack from Dances with Wolves, then the Titanic CD got worn out. We had lunch today at a new Thai restaurant in downtown Seattle. The soundtrack was slow techno music, which drives me nuts.

Lighting. Aging eyes and dimly-lit restaurants make reading menus difficult. The most important reason to bring one’s cell phone to a restaurant is  the flashlight app.

Seating. Some restaurant chairs may look stylish, but are highly uncomfortable. Think of the hard plastic booths in a fast food restaurant. They’re not meant for dawdling over your french fries. Even some high-end restaurants have chairs that are difficult to sit in for any length of time. The trend of barstool-height chairs and tables are off-putting to folks who are short or who get around in wheelchairs.

We’ve left restaurants because some of these issues. We looked into a new Mexican restaurant near our home. The noise was so overwhelming at the entrance that we didn’t bother trying to be seated. Potential restaurateurs would do well to consider the environment in which their food is served. If people aren’t comfortable when eating, they won’t return.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/28/restaurant-criticisms/

Jul 22

From Farm to Fork

Farmers are expanding into processing and serving what they grow. This move can make economic sense. When commodity prices are on the low side, farmers can add value by pickling, pressing, or cooking their crops. This helps their bottom line, provided they can jump through the health department hoops.

Last week we had breakfast at a farm-to-fork establishment in Pemberton, British Columbia. North Arm Farm serves breakfast and lunch, and offers catering and a venue for wedding receptions. It has its own flock of hens for eggs, along with sheep, goats, and pigs. It also has u-pick organic strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Some of the organic vegetables for sale are from the farm; others are from farther afield in British Columbia. It sells house-pickled items as well. We picked up a jar of pickled garlic scapes there. Our meals were very good. The sausage was made on site. The restaurant was busy, and the berry patches were hopping with pickers. We saw people bring in huge containers of raspberries and blueberries to take home. We’d definitely go back there for a meal. We’ll also look for farm-to-fork restaurants on this side of the border.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/22/from-farm-to-fork/

Jul 22

Preferred (Food) Porn

As I mentioned earlier, I subscribe to a plethora of foodie magazines. I have trimmed the number over the years, as some failed to keep my interest or (as in the case of Gourmet) ceased publication. Here’s the current roster.

Bon Appétit. I’ve subscribed to this one longer than any other periodical. My interest in it has waxed and waned over the years. Since Gourmet folded in 2009, Bon Appétit has incorporated some of the soft-focus photography features and articles characteristic of its former Condé Nast genre-mate. Sometimes it lapses a little far into the trendy, e.g., the “cleansing” articles in January.

Cooking Light. I started subscribing when I was in grad school, when a friend introduced me to it. The recipes are middle of the road, tasty, and healthy. The nutrition advice is relatively sound compared to other magazines.

Saveur. I think this would be my desert-island subscription. I’ve subscribed since the pilot issue. It couples cuisine with culture, rather than just highlighting recipes from a particular place. One year its top 100 highlighted our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Greensboro.

Fine Cooking. I like the step-by-step instructions and the food science articles. It also tends away from the trendy.

Cook’s Illustrated. Again, this publication focuses on the science of cooking and baking. Definitely a periodical for the obsessive-compulsive.

Sunset. While this isn’t strictly a food publication, Sunset has helped orient us to our home on the Left Coast and the culinary opportunities therein. I used to subscribe to Southern Living when we lived in Dallas and Greensboro for the same reason.

Milk Street. This is the only individual-driven publication I subscribe to. Christopher Kimball left Cook’s Illustrated in 2015 to form his own magazine-cum-store in Boston. The concept is similar to his old magazine, but the dishes are more international.

Taste of Home. This looks like the polka-dotted sheep of the lot. My mother gives me a gift subscription every year. I appreciate the baking recipes. To the editors’ credit, it has become a little more cosmopolitan than it was years ago. (Disclosure: A distant cousin used to edit it many years ago).

I’ll pick up random issues of other magazines (e.g., Food and Wine) if they have something interesting inside; otherwise, I stick to what I have.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/22/preferred-food-porn/

Jul 17

The Last Road Trip

Last weekend’s road trip to British Columbia was the last for Frau Blücher (neigh…), my 2010 Volkswagen Jetta not-so-clean diesel. She went out in a blaze of glory. We took her up twisty mountain roads and through traffic jams in Vancouver and on Interstate 5. She performed like a champ, as always.

Today I turned Die Frau in for a 2019 Jetta. It has the safety features that I wanted without having to pay $10K more for a GTI. It also has mood lighting, which I can live without. The external color is blue. It has yet to be named, although I’m leaning toward Marlene (as in Marlene Dietrich, star of The Blue Angel).

Die Frau conveniently was moved out of the dealership lot immediately after the VW rep took pictures of it before we signed her away. Maybe they were worried I’d have second thoughts. Given the low mileage, VW can probably do the fix and resell her. We saw a refurbished diesel at another dealership.

Auf wiedersehen, Frau. Und danke schön.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/17/the-last-road-trip/

Jul 17

Weekend in British Columbia

We usually visit Vancouver once a year. The city has many interesting attractions, not to mention great restaurants. This year we started our British Columbia trip in Pemberton, a village north of Whistler. Our neighbors suggested visiting Pemberton, as they’d been there the month before.

We visited Whistler for a day our first year living in Seattle. It was just after the 2010 Winter Olympics had been awarded to Vancouver/Whistler. It was just too touristy for our taste. Whistler’s business switches in the summer  from skiing to supporting hikers, mountain bikers, and general tourism. We stopped at Whistler en route to Pemberton and found that our assessment  hadn’t changed much in 15 years. A map of the mountain bike trails around town is good for a laugh, though. Here are a few snarky names of the black diamond (most challenging) trails:

  • Comfortably Numb (Does this refer to one’s butt after a ride on this trail?);
  • No Girly Man (As the longtime Ms. magazine section said, no comment);
  • Cheap Thrills (Cognitive dissonance alert: On a $1500 mountain bike?);
  • Industrial Disease (This is the first time I’ve seen something named after my favorite Dire Straits song).

Our temporary home in Pemberton was the Pemberton Valley Lodge. We had a suite with a separate bedroom and a kitchen. Downtown Pemberton is Whistler for the rest of us. There are a few restaurants, two grocery stores, and a few other shops. Tourist attractions other than riding down the road to Whistler include a horse tour and two golf courses. We had dinner at one of the clubhouses on our first night. We also walked around the farmers’ market on Friday.

The “death march” of the trip was a hike to the Joffre Lakes on Friday. This trail has burgeoned in popularity over the last ten years. In 2008 8000 people took the trail. One year later, thanks to social media, the trail hosted 108,000 hikers. The park is a 20-mile drive north of Pemberton, up some hair-raising hills. The hike was pretty hair-raising as well. The trail went up 1000 feet between the first and second lake. The trail between lakes two and three was extremely rocky. My knees and ankles felt every last rock on the way down. By the time we got back to the trailhead, our legs were not happy at all. A hot shower and a walk around the flat downtown improved matters.

Saturday we drove down to Vancouver. Doing Pemberton first made a lot of sense, especially when we saw the northbound traffic on the Sea to Sky Highway. Our pied-à-terre in Vancouver was the Times Square Suites. It’s a block west of our former regular hotel, which is being converted back to apartments. Saturday afternoon we walked over to Gastown and had dinner at a Belgian restaurant called Chambar. Fortunately, the staff was in a good mood after Belgium’s third-place showing in the World Cup. Julian had the duck, while I had the lamb shank tagine. We accompanied our meals with La Chouffe, a Belgian beer we discovered in Paris. We then walked back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we started off watching the World Cup championship match between France and Croatia. (Félicitations, les Bleus!) I admit that I was rooting for Croatia, but both teams overcame stiff odds to play in the final. After the match, we walked to our traditional breakfast joint in Vancouver, De Dutch. Granville Island was the next stop. Julian bought two sauce dishes and a jar of fireweed honey. On the way back we stopped at the Transylvanian Traditions bakery to pick up desserts for later. Dinner was at a Korean restaurant two blocks away from the hotel, Ma Dang Goun. My chicken bi bim bap bowl was okay, but our friends at Korea House in Bothell do it better.

Monday we had breakfast again at De Dutch, then wandered over to the Kitsilano neighborhood to shop. We went to a clothing store where Julian found his favorite socks and I got two skorts and two shirts. Lunch was at a little pan-Asian place called Noodle Box. There’s a restaurant that may be a branch of it near where I work. After we stocked up on Montreal-style bagels at Siegel’s, we were on our way home. A fun trip.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/17/weekend-in-british-columbia/

Jul 13

Mastering Metric

One problem that many folks have when they visit Canada or Europe is the metric system. My former students had difficulty as well. Back in the 1970’s, America was on track to convert to metric measurements; however, the proposal died an ignominious death under the Reagan administration. (See this Wikipedia article for details.) I worked in labs for many years, so converting between English and metric measurements is second nature for me. So for my friends who still struggle, here are a few hints:

Distance or length. 1 kilometer(km) is 0.62 miles, so a speed limit of 100 km/hour is 62 mph. This is bound to disappoint the speed demons in your family when they visit Canada. One meter is 39.36 inches. A 165 centimeter (cm) person would be 5’5″ in the English system. One of the doctors I work with entered data into a risk calculation that a patient was 270 cm. That would make the patient well over 8 feet tall. The hospital would have to put two beds end-to-end to accommodate him. The punch line: The doctor is Canadian. He just miskeyed the height.

Volume. The standard 12-ounce can of beer or soda equals about 360 milliliters (mL). Most liquid measuring cups sold in the US today have English and metric measurements on them.

Weight. One kilogram (kg) is about 2.2 pounds  so a 100-kg person would weigh 220 pounds or so. Fruit, vegetables, and meats are sold in Europe by the kg. So if you just want a pound or so of meat in Canada or Europe, ask for about 400-500 grams.

How do you practice your conversions here? The easiest way to do it is in the kitchen. Find a recipe that lists both English and metric units. Liquids are easy. Items like flour and sugar are a bit more frustrating, because the metric method or recipe-writing lists grams of dry ingredients rather than cups or tablespoons. The average American kitchen does not have a scale; however, you can pick up a decent electronic one for a reasonable price. With time and practice, you’ll be able to go between English and metric measurements easily.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/13/mastering-metric/

Jul 08

This is a Store?

Julian and I went shopping at University Village yesterday. Our first stop was the new Apple store. There was a perfectly serviceable store immediately to the east of the new structure, but Apple decided to up the ante by building even closer to the Microsoft store.

At first glance, the new store looks more like a giant Starbucks. (There’s a Starbucks directly behind the store.) The porches are covered by deep eaves and have lots of chairs for loitering on a Saturday afternoon. The inside looks like the old store, but more stark. The Genius Bar is less conspicuous than it was in the old store. Julian doesn’t remember seeing one on our walk-through.

An ideal place to slurp your cappuccino – and maybe buy some hardware.

A more familiar interior, but with lots more light.

One wonders what the Redmond Empire will do in response to its new, shinier next-door neighbor. There’s not much more real estate for building at the shopping center.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/08/this-is-a-store/

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