Another day, another mass shooting with a military-style assault rifle. The shooting in Orlando was different in scale and target than the others. Forty-nine people in a gay nightclub were gunned down in a horrific three-hour siege. The police managed to drive an armored vehicle through the wall of the club and kill the gunman before more lives were lost.
How many more people have to die before Congress acts to limit access to these weapons? Will it take shootings in every district? As I said earlier, assault weapons are not for game hunting; their sole purpose is mass murder with minimal skills. Call or email your representatives. Remember that every congressional seat is up for grabs this November. VOTE. The forty-nine people who were killed on Sunday morning had their right to vote taken away by use of an assault rifle. Honor their memories by making sure that these weapons aren’t available to the next deranged person who wants to kill people.
Jun 13
I Shouldn’t Have to Write This
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/06/13/i-shouldnt-have-to-write-this/
May 28
Hail, Hail, Dystopia!
Some of my friends in the Friday Night Follies crew are fond of reading books and watching television series on dystopian futures. Fans of Game of Thrones are into dystopian pasts. What, the dystopian present isn’t bad enough???
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/28/hail-hail-dystopia/
May 26
Teriyaki
Teriyaki restaurants are the Seattle equivalent of fried chicken shacks in the South. They are ubiquitous in the region. The original Japanese method of teriyaki is to marinate meat in a sweet soy-based sauce, then grill or broil it. Hereabouts, the predominant method is to grill the marinated meat and pour more sauce over the top.
Most teriyaki restaurants are holes-in-the-wall in strip shopping centers. Don’t expect much in the way of atmosphere. You want ambiance, go to Canlis. The menus are limited in scope. You get beef, pork, or chicken teriyaki with one or two scoops of rice and lettuce with a mayonnaise-based dressing. Some restaurants go upscale and offer salmon teriyaki. You may also find a combo platter on the menu that includes gyoza (dumplings) or tempura. A few teriyaki restaurants may also offer sushi. I’m rather picky about where I eat raw fish, so I stick to fully-cooked items at these joints.
The ground zero of teriyaki in Seattle is University Way (aka The Ave), adjacent to the University of Washington. For a while it looked as if Thai noodle shops and pho restaurants were going to overrun the Ave, but teriyaki restaurants are holding their own. This should be no surprise: Teriyaki is cheap, fast, filling chow for starving students.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/26/teriyaki/
May 26
Weirdness on the Walk to Work
On nice days between April and November when I ride the bus to work, I walk the ten blocks from the bus stop to my office. It’s a pleasant walk through the Seattle University area, and a little exercise in the morning wakes me up. Today I saw two unusual items on my walk:
A local hot yoga gym was advertising a unique triathlon: Run, bike, hot yoga. It sounds odd and may be potentially hazardous to one’s health. While stretching is a good idea after aerobic exercise, doing so in a hot room doesn’t allow much sweat to evaporate. I hope they have IV poles and saline bags on hand to rehydrate people during this event.
Two dogs were on the Seattle U tennis courts with their owners. This gives mixed doubles a whole new meaning.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/26/weirdness-on-the-walk-to-work/
May 21
Be Green: Save the Greens
So you’re at a Vietnamese restaurant. Your dinner comes with a plate of assorted herbs, bean sprouts, and the like to garnish your pho. You may only use a few of the greens. Save the leftovers from going into the compost bin or trash: Take them home and use them for another meal or two. That’s what we did with the leftover herb plate from our dinner at Seven Beef.
Our “doggie bag” contained Boston lettuce, mint, perilla, Thai basil, bean sprouts, pineapple, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber, rice noodles, and a few apple slices. My original thought was to make fresh spring rolls; however, we didn’t get home from our coffee run downtown in time. I wound up making shrimp hot and sour soup and cucumber salad for dinner. We had some shrimp in the freezer that I thawed overnight. I had some tomatoes, pineapple, scallions, and cucumbers at home that needed to be used. I managed to repurpose all of the ingredients into either the soup or salad. Bringing the leftover herb plate home meant I didn’t have to make a special trip to the Asian grocery to get those ingredients. More often than not, I don’t use a full bag of bean sprouts or bunch of cilantro before it goes bad. A small amount works best for our household.
There’s no reason why the garnishes and accompaniments can’t come home from a restaurant with the main dish. You paid for those items, too. Bring them home and reduce food waste.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/21/be-green-save-the-greens/
May 21
Seven Beef
Julian spent Friday afternoon at the REI sale while I was toiling away at the hospital. When he picked me up, the inevitable question arose: What’s for dinner? I had no desire to go downtown because traffic would be slammed thanks to the Billy Joel concert at Safeco Field. Capitol Hill would be full of tragic hipsters. I suggested food a short walk away from the hospital. Twelfth Avenue south of Madison Street used to be sparse on eateries, but has perked up of late. We opted to try Seven Beef, a new restaurant from the same sister-brother team who own Monsoon and Ba Bar.
Seven Beef is a steakhouse that plays on the traditional Vietnamese celebration dinner of beef seven ways. According to Nicole Routhier’s The Foods of Vietnam, the dinner starts with beef fondue, proceeds through grilled beef strips, ground beef wrapped in leaves and grilled, and finishes with beef congee (rice porridge). Seven Beef hews to that pattern. The beef is grass-raised and finished, and locally sourced. Other than the traditional herb plate and a beef salad, vegetables are served à la carte. We split orders of beef seven ways and their vegetables seven ways so we wouldn’t get scurvy. (This former Registered Dietitian has standards.)
The beef dishes were very good, particularly the bo la lot (the grilled wrapped beef rolls). Unfortunately, some of the vegetable courses were incongruous with the Vietnamese theme. Roquefort cheese? Polenta with Parmesan? Really? I would have rather seen a wild mushroom mélange or a stuffed tofu dish to keep consistent.
The ambiance of Seven Beef is halfway between Monsoon and Ba Bar. Although the restaurant is in a rather industrial-looking building, the interior is full of natural wood. The noise level is much quieter than the occasionally rowdy Ba Bar. The open kitchen features a wood-burning grill the size of a small apartment patio. The bar serves an interesting selection of local beers.
Seven Beef is not cheap. My main issue with it was the vegetables seven ways cost the same as the beef seven ways. It does have more economical items, including a burger. For an occasional splurge, Seven Beef is a good choice. For more workaday meals, go to Ba Bar or Lemongrass around the corner.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/21/seven-beef/
May 21
As Seen in Sunset
Our little town of Bothell has made the big time. The June issue of Sunset magazine had an article on our little town and its restaurant/microbrew scene. Now this was in the Seattle regional edition, but you can probably find the article on the Sunset website.
The article lists restaurants and pubs in the downtown area, but omits a couple of our favorites, Pen Thai and Julio’s. The reporter didn’t venture up the Bothell-Everett Highway to visit Korea House (home of the umami bomb broth) or Country Village (home of the iconic Bothell chicken statue). Even worse, the article put Bastyr University within the Bothell limits. Note to Sunset: Bastyr is in KENMORE.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/21/as-seen-in-sunset/
May 19
Feijoada!
[My vegetarian and observant Jewish and Muslim readers might like to read a less incendiary post, like Lizard on a Stick.]
Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil. It consists of assorted pork products in a black bean base. Most recipes are heavier on the pork than the beans. The full experience, known as feijoada completa, consists of: The black bean-pork combo; white rice; stir-fried collard greens; orange sections; and farofa. The last item is cassava meal sautéed with garlic and (you guessed it) bacon fat. It’s a good dish for parties, provided your friends like pork. The black beans and pork can be made well ahead of time so all you have to do is make the rice and other accoutrements.
Feijoada completa.
Feijoada is easy, although finding the farofa can be challenging. Julian used a recipe from the New York Times for last night’s meal. I’ve also used a recipe from the original New York Times Cookbook. Although I’m sure your average Brazilian would scoff, I made a vegetarian version during my postdoc as a going-away dish for my Brazilian officemate. One of my other officemates was a vegetarian; hence, the need to adapt. Since farofa is gluten-free, the full feijoada experience is fine for those with celiac disease.
As you can imagine, feijoada is pretty filling. The girl from Ipanema would be waddling down to the beach in a muumuu if she ate it on a regular basis. It’s another example of upscale peasant food–utilizing odds and ends to make a healthy meal.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/19/feijoada/
May 18
Avoid White Sauces
By now my regular readers know of my aversion to mayonnaise. It’s time to explain my dislike of cream sauces, or bêchamel to the classically trained.
White sauces were big in my mother’s recipe repertoire when I was a kid. Maybe it was because Grandma was a home ec teacher before she got married. Mom used to make the sauces herself before she discovered the joys of condensed cream of mushroom soup. There was also the occasional creamed chipped beef on toast, lovingly known by military personnel as (rhymes with snit) on a shingle.
When I got to seventh grade, there was the mandatory home economics class for girls. We had to memorize the proportions of flour and milk for thin, medium, and thick white sauces. There’s a reason so many of my generation became feminists: Home ec as it was taught back in the day did not hold our interest. Even diagramming sentences was more fun. It put me off cooking for years until I got into college and had to cook for myself and my roommates. Still, white sauces rarely make an appearance in my cuisine.
What do I use for sauces? Salsas, tomato sauces, and non-starch-thickened sauces, mostly. We make a mean chimichurri for steaks. Pesto is a favorite in the summer, especially if made with my crop of basil. We also make a mint sauce for lamb that’s just red wine vinegar, sugar, and fresh mint. They usually have much more flavor and have fewer calories than gravy or white sauce. They also don’t mask what you pour them over. If I’m going to put forth the effort to make a sauce, I’m going to make one I like.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/18/avoid-white-sauces/
May 14
Eating at the Mall
Remember when shopping at a mall was a big deal? Times have indeed changed, as have tastes. Nowadays going to the mall ranks with a root canal–it may be necessary, but you don’t pretend to enjoy it. Eating at the mall has also become an unpleasant chore. The food offerings are similar regardless of the location, and usually depressing.
Today Julian wanted to find a new pair of hiking boots. We went to Alderwood Mall. This is one of the new breed of mega-malls that have the usual internal stores plus satellites along outdoor walkways. We had lunch at a “fast casual” Mexican restaurant. I realize that I no longer live in Dallas, but I do have minimum standards for Mexican food regardless of location. Julian ordered pork enchiladas and I ordered beef enchiladas. We couldn’t distinguish between the two fillings. The sauces were distressingly sweet and lacking much in the way of capsaicin. There was way too much cheese in and atop the enchiladas. The preparation line was made to be as foolproof as possible. The enchiladas were put into a foil bowl and run through a large Easy-Bake Oven before beans, rice, lettuce, and pico de gallo were added. For an eco-obsessed area like the Northwest, the use of foil bowls was politically incorrect at best. Needless to say, we won’t go back there.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2016/05/14/eating-at-the-mall/
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