Picnic Inspiration

Image: http://www.seattle.gov/Parks/picnic_sites.asp

If you're still recovering from last night's Friday night, and not quite ready for a celebratory Fourth, consider this article a slow way to work yourself up to the holiday: Picnic inspiration.

The New York Times' Mark Bittman continues his series of minimalist meals with a plethora of quick picnic suggestions. A hundred and one recipes range from curried egg salad (I just put some eggs on for this one) to corn-flake fried chicken to cold peanut noodles. All are super simple.

But if all this sounds like too much trouble, as he says, even a bologna sandwich on white bread tastes good if you've put it together yourself, and are eating it outside.

Topics: Cook This

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I Ate This: Nachos at Alki Tavern

What: Nachos

Where: Alki Tavern

When: Last Monday

Would I eat it again? Yes, and I can't wait to!

I've lived in West Seattle for 11 years and this was the first time I had ever been to the Alki Tavern. How come nobody told me how cool this place was? I have always been intimidated to go here because of the bikers. Specifically, the dozens of bikers that swarm this dive bar every Thursday for $1 Taco Night. For the first seven years I lived in West Seattle, I lived in an apartment just up the hill from Alki on California Ave. I just remember every Thursday being woken from my slumber by the sound of roaring bikes. It sounded like a swarm of angry bees; angry bees that could only be tamed with cheap booze and tacos.

I begrudgingly went with a friend of mine who loves dive bars. I wasn't expecting much. But when I saw the seat he was saving for me this evening, my mind changed dramatically. It's a little known secret that Alki Tavern has a few bar seats that serve as a front-row view of the Seattle skyline. Check it out:

So beautiful. On a Monday evening after work, there were only a few other people in this lodge-style watering hole and my friend was able to snag the premier seating. I sat down and looked around: Pool table? Check. Juke box playing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train?" Check. Dart board? Check. Plastic Santa Claus legs sticking out of the ceiling? Check. Alki Tavern is my new favorite place.

My buddy ordered a pint of Mac & Jack's and I, always tempting an ass-kicking (I once played "Little Red Corvette" on the jukebox at the 5 Point during prime fightin' hours — not good), ordered the house chardonnay ($4). It was such a generous pour, I had to take a sip of it before I put it down to keep it from spilling. The cheap wine was good. Really good. And the nachos? A large plate with crispy tortilla chips, real cheddar cheese, jalepenos, and shredded beef served with a generous bowl of salsa and sour cream. I licked the plate clean.

To summarize: Alki Tavern rocks hard and is pleasantly charming. It's like the guy I imagine I'll someday marry — the Prince Charming who lived next door to me all my life and I never knew it until we were brought together over cheap booze and bar food.

Alki Tavern
1321 Harbor Ave. S.W.
932-9970

Topics: I Ate This

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Seattle International Beer Festival Weekend

Oh, and 4th of July, too. If you don't have enough drinking plans for the extended weekend, make an afternoon or evening of the Seattle International Beer Festival, Friday through Sunday at Seattle Center (click link for details). $20 gets you 10 tickets, and the show promises at least half the beers only cost one ticket — for a 4 oz. pour. Many of the show-stoppers will set you back at least 3 or 4 tickets, but then it only takes three or four of them to wipe you out (in more ways than one).

Here's a 10 beer crib sheet. No rhyme, no reason, just what looks damn good right now, and it's something to keep you from making the too easy/familiar choices, when you're standing dumbstruck and thirsty, holding a wad of beer tickets.

Samuel Smith Organic Cider, Reissdorf Kolsch, Boon Oude Geuze, Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, Allagash Black, Petrus Aged Pale, Flyer's "Plan B" Belgian Brown, Port Brewing Hop-15, Utenos Porterus, and Dinkelacker Dunkel.

The last beer is a test. If you cannot pronounce it or say it without cracking up, you have had enough and it's time to go home.

Topics: Beer

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Wieners and Losers: George's Sausage & Delicatessen

The uncooked sausages with Remy, my family's personal "hot-dawg." Credit: Jaime Swindle

The first in our weekly blog reviews of Seattle sausages.

Sausage: I tried three kinds: uncooked white sausage, smoked kielbasa and a veal haddock.

Butcher: George’s Sausage & Delicatessen, 907 Madison St., 622-1491, FIRST HILL. Open for a whopping 25 years, George’s is a Polish deli feeding the masses gigantic sandwiches, soups, and sausages during their lunch hour.

Length and girth: All three varieties were fat and meaty. Both the uncooked white sausage and the smoked kielbasa were both folded over, making a round shape; if it was unwound, they would be roughly 14 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter. The veal haddock was definitely packing some heat, with a more classic sausage shape, at roughly 9 inches in length and 1.75 inches in diameter.

What’s in it? The smoked kielbasa and the uncooked white sausage have basically the same ingredients: ground pork, a delicate smattering of garlic, and salt, all in a natural sheep casing straight out of Denmark. The only difference is that the kielbasa is smoked and needs only to be heated up, whereas the white sausage is completely uncooked. The veal haddock contains a fine grind of veal with just enough spice to make it savory. It is wrapped up in the same natural sheep casing used for the kielbasa and white sausage.

Continue reading "Wieners and Losers: George's Sausage & Delicatessen"

Topics: Wieners & Losers

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Sweet Relief and Strawberries For All

If you're driving through a farming area and you feel an unexpected breeze, don't panic — it's just what happens when every one of the region's berry farmers breathe a sigh of relief at the same time.

Last month, when record cold spells kept local strawberries green on the vine, Janet Stocker of Snohomish's Stocker Farms told Seattle Weekly that she worried she might lose her entire June crop and the profits that usually come with it.

That was before the weather turned and the Northwest experienced nearly two weeks of straight sunshine. Now the berries are ripe and ready for picking, and Stocker's fiscal year is saved.

"We're so happy," she said. "Things are looking good, and the berries are coming off great."

At Arlington's Biringer Farms, proof of the turnaround can be seen firsthand — and touched and purchased by the pound. The farm is open for U-pick until the end of the season, so anyone with a craving for fresh berries can pick to their heart's content and pay on the way out.

"The berries are big and just beautiful," they say. "Once you get in there you won't be able to stop."

For some farms, the season will be a few weeks shorter than usual, thanks in part to recent high temperatures (go figure), but in other cases, all is as it usually is, just two weeks later.

"Usually we have raspberries to sell on the Fourth of July," says Stocker, "but they're a bit behind, too, so we'll just have strawberries instead."

It's almost enough to make you believe in happy endings — and they all lived happily ever after with red juice on their chins. Shortcake, anyone?

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It's Official: Paseo to Replace Gordo's on Shilshole

Out with the old (Gordo's), in with the sort of new (Paseo) on Seaview Avenue. On the one hand, I loved Gordo's, and am sorry to see it go. On the other hand, it's not like there's a fish 'n chips shortage down that way, what with the Lockspot, Totem House, and Sloop all serving delicious baskets less than a mile away.

Topics: Openings & Closings

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Notes From the Eastside

Two quick notes: I hear Christina Longo is leaving her post as pastry chef at Barking Frog to deal with family issues in Florida.

And 0/8 Seafood Grill's Dan Thiessen says he's working on opening a martini/raw bar in Bellevue called "The Pearl" by June '09. Thiessen is also working on several other projects, including a Twisted Cork cafe, but is keeping hush-hush on the deets.

Topics: Restaurant Gossip

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Not Just for Jelly Anymore

You pick up the best household hints on the 12.

For example, this morning, the woman behind me was explaining — at top voice, so it wasn’t like she didn’t mind if I passed this on to you — that you didn’t have to spend $30 for some concoction to help you pass a urine analysis. What you need to do is go to QFC and buy two boxes of fruit pectin — at $2.69 a box! — and mix them up in a quart of water, until it’s a little thick and the clumps are dissolved. Then you drink that down, followed by a ton of water, and after you’ve peed six times you’re good to go. “I smoked three blunts that morning — in the FACE — and I was sure that my UA was going to be dirty,” she bragged. “But that shit came back clean.”

Of course, your urine is going to be diluted, so make sure you bring water along to the test.

“The nurse asked me if I drank a lot of water,” she continued. “I said, yeah. ‘Do you see that big bottle I just tossed in the trash?’ Plus I’m pregnant, you know...”

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First Call: Ozzie's

A weekly Voracious feature in which we walk into a bar unannounced and ask the bartender to make us his or her favorite drink.

Watering Hole: Ozzie's Restaurant and Lounge on 105 W. Mercer St.
Bartender helping Seatteites get drunk since . . . 2000
Name: Darrick Bourgeois
Wait a sec. That is not your name.
I fucking swear. No Proletarians in my family. It’s all bourgeois—like the upper-class of France. We made that shit.
Where did you enjoy this privileged upbringing?
Laughs. Federal Way.
That doesn’t sound very bourgeois.
I know. I actually owned a house there and was commuting to work until last weekend. I just got an apartment in upper Queen Anne, so now I’m from Seattle. I couldn’t keep commuting with the price of gas.
I’ll drink to that. Let’s get started.
I’ve got the perfect summer drink. My preference changes according to the season. When it gets warm out, I have a Caipiroska.
Can you spell that?
No, but I can Google it.
What’s in it?
Muddled lime, simple soda, and plum vodka. In Brazil they drink a cocktail called Caipirinha with a rum-like liquor. This is made with vodka instead. So it's Caipiroska, the Russian cousin.
It’s delicious. Do you down a couple of these before you sing? (Ozzie’s is a karaoke bar.)
Oh, I don’t sing. The last time I went up there on a really slow night. It was six months ago.
Fine. If you got sloshed enough, what would you sing?
Probably Billy Joel’s "For the Longest Time.” Or Stevie Wonder's “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”
I bet you've seen heard interesting song renditions while you've been here... any advice you've got for drunks who step up to the mic?
Oh man. There was this one guy who used to come in here every week and sing Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones.” He was so good. I loved hearing him sing. But then there’s the 10 people a night who sing “Sweet Caroline.” It makes me wanna shit. Nobody ever seems to get that one right. Find another song, people.

Topics: First Call

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Soak It Up: Wild Mountain Café

Apothecary: Wild Mountain Café, wildmtncafe.com,1408 NW 85th St., 297-9453, CROWN HILL

Time of entry: Roughly 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon

Level of Hangover (1–10 scale, with 10 being a paralyzing head-thumper): Even though Tuesday is like my Friday, there was no drinking to be had that night so I’d have to say I was at a 1.5. Tired, but not truly hung over.

Level of Waitstaff hangover: With cheery yellow walls decorated with paintings for sale and a purposely mismatched assortment of furniture serving as the café’s tables, it has a cozy homey feel that helps assuage any hangover that you might have. Besides, our waitress seemed to be in a fairly good mood and if anything I’ll bet she was bored because there weren’t too many people in the café when we were there.

Prescriptions: There’s nothing better than eggs in the “morning” so I had to choose the Florentia scramble ($9.75). Along with the two pieces of buttermilk toast and the two garlic potato pancakes my eggs were scrambled with a healthy heap of fresh spinach, diced thick-cut bacon, mushrooms and a generous amount of melted Swiss cheese.

Piled high with food, there was no way that I could finish everything in front of me but that wasn’t without lack of trying. Everything from the toast to the mushrooms in my scramble tasted as fresh as if it’d come straight from the bakery or a backyard garden. The table also already housed a little jar of berry preserves that was the perfect application for my toast when I wasn’t using it as a vehicle to eat my scramble.

My boyfriend, Alex, had the more classic four strips of bacon, over-easy eggs, buttermilk toast and garlic potato pancake breakfast called the “Joe Schmoe” ($8.75). He was thoroughly satisfied with his choice and claimed that it was the “perfect amount of food,” as he devoured almost the entire plate minus the last half of one of the potato pancakes.

Hair of the dog: I went for a classic cup of black coffee, but they had some delicious looking options such as the Magnolia, which is champagne, fresh squeezed o.j. and Grand Marnier ($6.75) and the Bellini, which is peach nectar and champagne ($6.25).

Success of the soak: I’d say it was a 9. I’d give it a 10 but I think that it was a little pricey for breakfast (every entrée was at least $8 and many were $10-$12). However, the food was excellent and I left with a satisfied full stomach. I imagine that if I were hung over between the calming ambiance and the tasty food, I’d feel like a real person after I left.

Topics: Soak It Up

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Gordo's Gone? Paseo Movin' In?

The venerable Shilshole cod slingery is closed, but for how long? The month of July? Forever? A Ballard-based blog speculates — on Gordo's future and what might replace it (Paseo?).

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Wal-Mart Goes Locavore, the Today Show Gets It Wrong, and Other Food News

Wal-Mart to Source More Fruits and Veggies Locally by Nicole Maestri (Reuters/MSN, thanks to Andrew Leonard): Corporate America says, hey, liberals, I know we like to pooh-pooh your fancies as paranoid ravings of the overeducated, but you may have something there with that food miles thing.

Why Indian Farmers Lust After Genetically Modified Seeds by Andrew Leonard (Salon): I've mentioned before that this is my favorite blog. Not only did I find a link to the above story on it, but this post caught my eye, too. What if GMOs can help out near-subsistence farmers rather than bankrupting them, a belief we lefties have embraced unreservedly?

Markets, Restaurants Report Gardenburger Shortage by Karen Gaudette (Seattle Times): Run, O vegan, to your local market to stock up on vegetable burgers now, because if you wait until July 4, you're going to be marinating tofu again. I'm still curious what scandal — I mean "quality control issue" — caused Kellogg's to shut down production of Gardenburgers for a few months, sparking the shortage.

Hooters invades Britain. Those poor Hooters girls. In the 23 countries where they've donned their microshorts and tank tops they've never encountered the likes of British journalists. I feel pity for the scathing they're about to endure, which I'm also setting up a Google Alert to track.

Child's Play (DailyCandy): Shopping e-newsletter DailyCandy gives us a heads-up about Seattle Youth Garden Works, which teaches low-income kids to garden and has a stand at the U District farmers market.

Glass Museum to Commission Bacon Boy Sculpture by Kathy Aney (Seattle PI): Heartwarming. Disturbing. Heartwarming. Disturbing.

TodayShow.com proclaims that NYC's Gusto Organics is the nation's first certified all-organic restaurant (I can't tell from this website whether this news bit was aired on TV). Um, Maria Hines? I think you need to demand a correction. (Hell, the owners of now-closed Sterling Cafe, which did it first, should be sending author Marisa Belger a lil' email). Myopic New Yorkers.

Topics: The Food Section

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Vocab Lesson: Plin

Even though I spend more of my time in tofu shops and taquerias than in bistros, being in and on the fringes of the restaurant business for a couple decades means that I've absorbed a lot of jargon. It's standard practice to spend the first five minutes of every meal out with friends helping them translate unfamiliar terminology: gnudi, sous-vide, gastrique, saba, scapes.

I was a little caught by surprise last week when I was doing some menu perusing online and came across two occurrences of a term I hadn't encountered yet — plin — though I'm sure it's old hat to you. Tilth's May menu and the Palace Kitchen's current menu both include this dish, which the Kitchen defined as "a Piedmontese ravioli." I decided to go see what a plin was.

This is a very bad photo of a large plate of Palace Kitchen's plin. (Note to prospective cell phone owners: If you ever want to take surreptitious photos that you can actually show to other people, don't buy a Blackberry.) "Plin" is an American bastardization of "agnolotti dal plin," agnolotti being a recognizable variety of stuffed pasta and plin meaning "pinch." Here's a thorough, photo-filled set of instructions on how to make them. Our Molto Mario also has a recipe.

Re Tom Douglas's plin: Porky and threaded through with a chiffonade of greens, the ravioli-with-a-fancy-name were tossed with butter, chard leaves, and parmesan, and almost reminded me of Chinese boiled dumplings. Very tasty. Actually, I was tempted to write the more professional-sounding "yumm-o," but then my fingertips broke out in hives and I had to stop typing.

Topics: Eats report

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Juno Opens Next Month

Thomas Kollasch

Juno, the restaurant in downtown's new Arctic Club Hotel, now has an opening date: July 15. (Jess Thomson first wrote about it here in February.)

Named after the Roman goddess, Juno will offer menus that change on the solstices and exquinoxes; special menus designed to complement an assortment of fine teas; and a bite-sized sweets menu to encourage grazing.

The Arctic Club Hotel's website describes it as "a luxurious and authentic 120-room hotel that combines the history and grandeur of an early 20th century men's club with period-inspired Art Deco Moderne design." Not to mention bathrooms stocked with Kiehl's products.

Heading up Juno will be Chef Thomas Kollasch, formerly of the Alderbrook Resort and Spa.

UPDATE: I just learned that Juno has pushed the date back and is now scheduled to open Saturday, July 19th.

Topics: Restaurant Gossip

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Walk It Out - Burke Gilman Playfield

Picnic Spot: Burke-Gilman playfield

Picnic Supplies: Metropolitan Market, 5250 40th Ave. N.E., 938-6600.

Picnic for Two : Rosemary potatoes and shrimp pasta salad from the market's kick-ass salad bar, fresh raspberries, two Izze sodas, and two Mexican wedding cake cookies from the market's equally kick-ass bakery came to $17.14 total.

Metro Market is tiny and a bit too pricey for my usual grocery shopping needs, but for a one-time deal, such as, say, a picnic, it's actually not too bad. I mean, when is the last time you got half a pound of shrimp anything for $3? Exactly. And the Food Network wishes they'd thought of these rosemary potatoes, which have been a favorite of mine for years. Definitely one of the better-quality picnics I've ever eaten, though comparing a two-person jaunt on a gorgeous afternoon to group family outings featuring my yearly recommended intake of charcoal with my burger is probably not entirely fair.

Walking It Out: There is a little path connecting the Metropolitan Market's parking lot and the Burke-Gilman Playfield, so your picnic spot is literally steps away. The place is lousy with random picnic tables, as are parts of the Burke-Gilman Trail, which runs behind the building. If you prefer to sit on the grass like my picnic pal and me, there are plenty of trees providing nice shady picnic spots. Just be sure you guard against the temptation to instigate a pinecone fight...especially if you're with me.

When you're done eating it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to the trail if you feel like a walk, or an equally short distance back to the car if you're lazy or short on time. If nothing else, just sit and watch thousands of people dressed in teeny-tiny shorts on car-priced bikes whiz by, yelling "on the left" every couple minutes or so. It's surprisingly entertaining.

Topics: Walk It Out

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