Barry Foy's Profile
Tacos and Tamales in Ocean Shores, WA!
The dreary culinary skies of Ocean Shores suddenly brightened for us recently when we stopped in at La Chica Taqueria, at 185 Chance a la Mer (the cross street by the Shiloh Inn). This teensy, colorful place, with two booths inside and several picnic tables outside, may be one of the area's few options for tasty, scrupulously prepared, nonindustrial food. Well worth a visit.
Tomatoes Direct from the Farm, SEA Area?
It's a challenge I face every year at this time: I need a source of good tomatoes for my annual batch of freezer sauce, probably 40 to 60 pounds' worth. Preferably unsprayed, preferably Romas or some other type well suited to sauce (though I'll consider others), and they must NEVER, EVER have been refrigerated. I can't afford boutique prices, so I'm hoping the large quantity will mean they're somewhat cheaper. I'm willing to go directly to the farm to get them, including across the mountains (though not all the way across the state). Any ideas?
Soup Dumplings
A couple of remarks on this topic:
Equating xiaolongbao with "soup dumplings" may be a little misleading; I've eaten many a XLB, in Taiwan mostly, that contained no soup (only a little liquid that seeped from the filling) and wasn't intended to. Second, if you're in Taipei and want to avoid the crowd and long waits at Din Tai Fung, especially the original Hsinyi Rd. branch, which is a madhouse, try Jin Din Shiao Kuan (in Hanyu Pinyin that would be Jingding Xiaoguan), at 47 Changchun Rd. (phone 02-2523-6639). Same style of food as DTF and very tasty, but without the insanity and tourist buses. I ate there last week and was highly satisfied.
Chicago-Style Italian Beef Sandwich in Seattle?
How about the new Taste of Chicago in the U-District, west side of the Ave at about 53rd St.? Anybody tried it yet? As far as I know, they're the only ones in SEA who claim to have an actual Chicago Italian beef; hot dogs too.
Ground Beef Woes :(
The big problem is often the fat content, by which I mean the lack thereof. They like it lean around here, at least in the "healthy" stores, and it's utterly flavorless. PCC sells a 9%-max-fat version, which is, predictably enough, a waste of space. Probably viewing it as a wild extravagance, they also do a 16%-max version, which is equally pointless. When I asked if they could add more fat on request, I was given all sorts of bureaucratic reasons for why that wasn't possible.
While Whole Food deals in pretty much the same silliness, I was once told by one of their meat guys that they could do any percentage I wanted. However, when I tried sometime later to actually do that, they said I'd have to place an order in advance. Tiresome.
I haven't checked, but I assume that the vendors at the farmers markets deal in a similar product, since so many of their customers seem to have the same anemic notions about food. So you'll probably have to resort to conventional but expert folks like A&J. Unfortunately, that usually means leaving the sustainable-humane-organic realm.
Chervil in SEA?
I have a recipe that calls for big fistfuls of chervil, and that's an herb I'm not seeing at the farmers markets. Anyone know where I can buy some (lots)?
Poutine
For the most part, these various "poutines" are poutine just as Seattle's various Thai restaurant "pad thais" are pad thai. As someone once wrote about Irish traditional music, there's no right way to do it, but there are many wrong ways to do it. In Quebec there's a wide range of poutine types on offer, leading one to draw the conclusion that the definition of "poutine" is simply various things, including a gravy of some sort, on top of decent french fries. But, given that the idea of a bunch of stuff on french fries is intrinsically good (which I happen to believe), that doesn't mean that any old cheese and any old gravy you care to use makes it a poutine. I'm finding gravies that are gloppy and heavy, and gravies not hot enough to melt cheese curds, and cheese curds that aren't even curds at all, and so forth. True, there are people serving up some fairly tasty gravy substances and cheese substances on french-fry substances in the Northwest, but they take liberties in calling them "poutine."
Irish coarse ground wholemeal flour
Sadly, you're probably in for a wild goose chase. I can't speak for the Portland area, but I did my damndest a couple of years ago to find wholemeal flour in Seattle and Vancouver, BC, to no avail. I had used the last of the Odlum's I'd brought from Ireland, and I was quite spoiled by the authentic brown sodas I'd been making--what passes for soda bread in the USA tends to be pretty pathetic. Anyway, I looked and looked and called around, but no luck. What I did find out was that King Arthur sells an "Irish-style whole meal" flour, for $5.95 per 3 lb. bag. (I've never tried it, though.) Unfortunately, once you tack on the shipping cost, it gets to be more than even the tastiest brown soda is worth. The only way to economize, I suspect, would be to put together a collective of soda bread aficionados and order it by the box. Good luck.
Looking for the best Seattle (fried) calamari
I won't risk a stab at "best," but I will say I had a damn tasty batch--hefty order of fries and sauce included, altogether $7.66--at Pike Street Fish Fry yesterday. Light and tender, a little piquant. Which is not to say that the loud rap music on the PA, with its seemingly endless string of "motherf'rs," "ho's," and "bitches" enhanced the experience any (are you listening, Pike Street Fish Fry?).
Sorghum Syrup in Seattle?
Anyone know where I can buy sorghum syrup in SEA, the sort you can pour on pancakes? Years ago, in Chicago, I used to buy a brand called Malaga, which doesn't seem to be around any more, but any brand will do.
Fu Man Dumpling House SEA review from me
Karen2006, if I can say this without sounding mean-spirited, I'll warn you that the bits of Seattle Chinese food likely to make a strong impression on you after you've been to Shanghai will be few and far between. Make the most of your visit!
Fu Man Dumpling House SEA review from me
I've found Fu Man to be reliable and satisfying--those "leek pancakes" are especially tasty. Lack of variety in fillings is, I'm afraid, an unpersuasive basis for criticizing a dumpling restaurant. A dumpling restaurant is simply where one eats dumplings; nowhere do the rules specify 31 flavors. I've eaten an awful lot of dumplings in locales where they are a staple food, and the most memorable ones have probably come from places that only sold one kind, or, in a pinch, one meat and one veg. Fu Man is a straight-up place foodwise, and nice people to boot.
Stollen in SEA
Does any bakery in the Seattle area make a decent stollen? Tis the season!
Do you ever like the crappy better than the excellent?
Anybody can like excellent food--I mean, that's the whole point, right? But only a discerning eater will also make room in his/her taste spectrum for crap food. The crap stuff is usually more affordable anyway, so unless the eater in question happens to have a trust fund, he/she must cross over to the dark side at least occasionally, so he/she might as well enjoy it. Oh, and by the way, regarding the syrup thing, yes, there is something wrong with you.
Planning and timing courses for a dinner for two
Seems to me that when a dinner for two is served in courses it actually becomes a dinner for one--and that one ain't you, the cook. While the guest sits there like a dork between courses, killing time and trying not to distract you from your culinary artistry, you meanwhile have the privilege of not enjoying any of the food (except maybe dessert, since it's last), because your mind is on the next course and everything that could go wrong with it.
With several guests, you can get away with absenting yourself to do the cooking--after all, they can talk among themselves. But if it's just you and Mr./Ms. Right, why spoil up a good thing? I say cook it all, and bring it on.
Help Today - No-Knead Bread
The CI version of this recipe is more complicated than the original version in The New York Times. If you're away from home, and particularly if you're breaking in someone who's not accustomed to making bread, it may make better sense to go back to the original version, which is forgiving of nearly any mistake you make. As for doneness, I've found that with the original recipe, you should take it out of the oven when the top has scorched just a little--no thermometer needed. This is a rather wet bread, so you need to let the top brown a bit more than you might otherwise, to ensure it's done. Pot size? Up to a certain point, a smaller pot simply means a taller loaf, which may be preferable anyway.
Sushi/Sashimi Grade Tuna
This may render the entire question moot:
http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/06/09/bye-bye-bluefin/
Scrumptious Hot Chocolate! (SEA)
Paid my first visit yesterday to the new Chocolopolis, 1527 Queen Anne Ave. N., up on top of the hill near Galer Street. Impressive selection of chocolate in bars and bonbons, but I didn't have much money in my pocket, so I bought myself a hot chocolate. They offer two kinds, Signature and Spicy, and I ordered the former, just to get things off to a proper start. It was really delicious, full of flavor and piping hot, and I'm looking forward to trying the spicy. FYI: (1) the Signature one is assertively sweet, and (2) it'll set you back a bit more than a packet of Swiss Miss--about $4.
Recommended!
So where's the **%$!!* Dark Meat?
"BREAST: A set of heavy frontal muscles that evolved to prevent domestic chickens and turkeys from falling over and bruising those body parts that are actually edible, namely, the dark meat. No other use for this portion of the bird has ever been discovered."
What is a "Foodie"
"FOODIE: A category of generally affluent hypergourmet that developed as a reaction to "progress." This is primarily a North American designation; a foodie from Italy, by comparison, is known simply as an Italian. The most extreme foodie may insist on incubating her own free-range vintage artisanal yeast. A more moderate one may merely want the option of buying a loaf of bread made with ingredients considered edible by human beings."
Where to buy cheesemaking supplies in Seattle?
I think I saw a sign advertising c'making supplies in the window at The Cellar Homebrew, 14320 N. Greenwood Ave. Give them a ring at 206-365-7660 and see if it's true. And if you go there, pop into Fu Man restaurant next door for some very tasty dumplingy items.
Good calzone in Seattle?
The calzones I remember most fondly from NYC were deep-fried, not baked. Is anyone in Seattle serving those? A few zeppoles couldn't hurt either!
PNW Food Blog recs?
Shameless of me to mention it, I suppose, but there's only one PNW food site that consists entirely of lies. When the burden of veracity, reliability, and informativeness grows too great--as it inevitably must--foodish people will find much-needed relief at The Devil's Food Dictionary (www.devilsfooddictionary.com).
Ramen in Seattle
One day, a couple of months ago, I was supposed to meet a friend for an inaugural lunch at Boom. I arrived first and scoped out the scene as best I could from outside the door. By the time my friend got there, I suggested we go elsewhere. The problem was, I've spent a certain small amount of time in Japan and he's spent a good bit more, and at a glance the place offered precisely the opposite of the atmosphere in which one wants to eat ramen. A squeaky clean, chic restaurant with a hostess station, a fusiony menu, and a nearly 100 percent Caucasian clientele (sorry, white people, but I'm one too)--it just didn't whet my appetite for that particular food. The funk and human scale and economy of Samurai put me much more in the mood, though the quality of the food does seem to be slipping.
Desperate to Improve Gluten-Free Pancake Mix!!
I have a nephew with a gluten problem, so his parents have begun feeding him pancakes made with Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pancake and Waffle Mix. However, I tasted some myself, and they were about the most revolting things I've ever eaten (and believe me, I've been around). Does anyone know of any fairly easy fixes to make that mix palatable? Or any alternative ready-made mixes or gluten-free pancake recipes? I'd hate for my nephew to get the idea that that's what food actually tastes like.
Cookbooks on making sausages & curing meat?
You can never have too many meat-curing books!
Try Paul Bertolli's "Cooking by Hand"--serious, high-class recipes from the guy who makes Fra Mani salumi (not to mention all the pastas and everything else in the book).
Also, the great Ruhlman-Polcyn book benefited from so many that went before, but it never hurts to revisit earlier ones:
Jane Grigson, "The Art of Charcuterie"
Rytek Kutas, "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing"
"Bruce Aidell's Complete Sausage Book"
By the way, Batali's "The Babbo Cookbook" has a delicious, dead-simple recipe for guanciale.
[PDX] Mandarin House, "Authentic" Chinese?
A tangential note on xialongbao:
The automatic identification of these little guys with the name "Shanghai soup dumpling" seems to have given people the idea that by definition they are full of "spurting goodness." I'm not quite sure how that happened; in my own experience (mostly in Taiwan), that's not the case. Dough, yes, meat filling yes, but I've eaten plenty of xiaolongbao that were moist and juicy without having nearly enough liquid to spurt--that's just not how everyone makes them. I'd advise focusing more on the taste and texture of the dough and filling, and less on how messy they are to eat.
Food for a shark-themed party?
Hate to be a spoilsport, but I'm with susancinsf: It's a little late in the day to be eating actual sharks; they've got enough problems as it is. Shark's fin soup in particular--that's simply an atrocity. If "Jaws" is the theme, then remind yourself that it took fake sharks to make that film, and be content with fake sharks. Gummis and cakes and sugar cookies sounds about right.
Minimum requirements you want in a food critic?
A few overly idealistic but desirable attributes for the critic of the future, just off the top of my head:
Enough self-discipline to never, EVER, include the phrase "to die for" in a restaurant review.
Some travel experience to places where food is not cheap and abundant--to the locals, that is.
A thick skin, and no friends whatsoever in any aspect of the food business, except maybe home canning.
The sense and the nerve to step back from it all at least now and then and say, "Hey, who could possibly afford that, and why should they?" Likewise, "Should we really be eating lettuce when it's 20 degrees outside?"
The ability to read the Chinese on the daily specials board.
