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Can Rain Shadow Meats Squared Justify a Place in Seattle's Sandwichiest Neighborhood?


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@5 What @10 said. Though I will eventually experiment with shorter pre-heat times. @4 @6 Electricity from our socialist, municipally-owned Seattle City Light is 92 percent hydro generated, 99 percent More …

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Pizza Update: Breaking the 5-Minute Barrier

Posted by on Sun, Jun 16, 2013 at 10:01 AM

An almost perfect six-minute pizza
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • An almost perfect six-minute pizza, topped with garden onions and arugula.

My second round with my new Baking Steel went better than the first, producing a crisp, airy, and not-too-dry pizza crust in just six minutes. This time I used the "broiler method," in which I preheated the oven to 550 degrees for 45 minutes, and then turned on the broiler once I put the pizza in the oven. This method allows the top to bake as fast as the bottom. If anything, as you can see from the substantial charring, I may have baked the pizza a little too long. Thirty seconds less might have produced optimal results.

But that was Friday night. Saturday night I experimented again, first with a plain cheese pizza for my daughter. And after only five minutes in the oven, pretty much perfection:

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Friday, June 14, 2013

Foie Gras Tastes Like Cat Food

Posted by on Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 5:38 PM

Lemmie start off with a little preamble: Morality is a fucker.

This week, animal-rights group Mercy For Animals targeted Amazon for selling foie gras, the french dish of fattened duck or goose liver. Mercy For Animals unveiled a video (not for the faint of heart) showing an underground investigator who claimed to work for Hudson Valley, one of Amazon's foie gras suppliers. The investigator videotaped ducks apparently being force-fed with a large metal pipe rammed down their throat, and eventually slaughtered.

In a press release, Mercy For Animals stated "Amazon has stopped selling other products, including whale meat, shark fin soup, and animal fighting videos, due to their cruel production practice." A quick search showed that, indeed, all of those things were not available to buy. Amazon has yet to respond to the group.

It all seemed rather hypocritical. How could Amazon refuse to sell those meats, yet not fat/diseased duck liver? Then again, who was I to judge Amazon. I'd never had foie gras, maybe it was God's gift to the mouth and people were just pissy about it.

I argued to myself that, while ramming metal rods down a duck's throat does seem particularly cruel, unlike whales and sharks I don't think the population of ducks is necessarily in any peril. Amazon's not killing the ducks themselves, just selling a product. A product that, while gruesome, in the long run is probably just as devastating to the world than any pound of ground beef.

So I ate some.

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Stuff Your Face and Get Pleasantly Addled All Weekend!

Posted by on Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 4:38 PM

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• Friday night, don your thrift-store finery and get silly at Seattle Greendrinks' 10th birthday party with a silent disco dance party and drinks (in your own reusable cup, of course).

• On Saturday, it's the PROOF Washington Distillers Festival, with the 40 members of the Washington Distillers Guild pouring samples and Greg Vandy (of KEXP's the Roadhouse) spinning records.

• Sunday brings great excuses for unfettered gluttony in the form of two delicious-sounding fundraisers for worthy causes: the Spreeha Foundation's Colors of Bangladesh fundraiser, featuring Bangladeshi food, crafts, and films, and Ethan Stowell's annual charity barbecue cook-off, showcasing the barbecue prowess of pros and amateurs alike.

Additional info, plus more food-related funtimes, in the Chow calendar.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Big-Ass Seattle Food News

Posted by on Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 8:09 AM

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Little Uncle in Pioneer Square (where Marcus' Martini Heaven used to be) is OPEN, and yay for that! Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. See you there real soon!

• David Meinert and Jason Lajeunesse of Lost Lake/Big Mario’s/Neumos/etc. will be taking over Capitol Hill's beloved Canterbury, after its troubles, reports Capitol Hill Seattle. I would like to take this opportunity to advocate for keeping the name, keeping prices low, and keeping the place pretty much exactly the same, except maybe removing all the beer promo flags and fixing the upholstery. And cleaning. It could use a deeeeeep cleaning.

• The (awesome) Fresh Bucks program—which doubles the value of food stamp benefits when used to purchase fresh food at Seattle farmers markets—is expanding to include ALL Seattle farmers markets!

• Also newly open in Pioneer Square, after a late-breaking chef change, Tinello.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Here's an Obscure Federal Provision That People Can Get Behind (Involving Chickpeas!)

Posted by on Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 6:00 AM

In this moment of angst over all the scary things that Congressional fine print ends up enabling, here's some new Congressional fine print—championed by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell—that could be great:

Cantwell’s Pulse School Pilot provision would provide the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) $10 million through 2017 to purchase pulse crops [that is, American-grown peas, lentils and chickpeas] to use in school breakfasts and lunches.

This could include raw beans and lentils as well as foods made from pulse crops, such as hummus. Flours made from pulse crops could also be added to breads, tortillas and pastas to enhance their nutritional value.

In further food shrewdness, Cantwell notes: "Washington state is the top chickpea producer in the nation—producing nearly half of the nation’s total—and third in the nation for pea and lentil production."

More chickpea jobs in Washington + more tax revenue for state government + healthier lunches in our public schools = DELICIOUS. The Senate just passed Cantwell's measure as part of the Farm Bill. Next up, the House...

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Christening My Baking Steel

Posted by on Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 5:17 PM

The Baking Steel produced one of the best looking pizza crusts Ive ever made, if not actually the best crust.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • The Baking Steel produced one of the best looking pizza crusts I've ever made, if not actually one of my best pizzas.

So, my "Baking Steel" arrived yesterday afternoon, right on schedule, and with a dough already cold-rising for two days in the fridge, I immediately put the steel to the test. After a 45-minute preheat at 550 degrees, I slid my pizza off the peel and onto the steel. Eight minutes later I had a pizza. (By comparison, baking on a pan, my pizzas normally take 12 to 14 minutes.)

The bottom of the crust looks exactly like the bottom of a well baked pizza crust should look.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • The bottom of the crust looks pretty much like the bottom of a well baked pizza crust should look.

The result: one of the best looking—and certainly the crispest—pizza crusts I've ever baked at home, if not actually one of my best pizzas.

To be fair, I wasn't actually trying to make a great pizza, just testing out the steel. So I kept it basic. My usual pizza dough recipe, some canned sauce, shredded mozzarella, and a handful of onions. Also, I didn't adequately adjust for the smaller surface (I usually bake on a 16-inch pan rather than the 14 x 16 steel) so I couldn't stretch out the dough quite as thick as I normally do. Next time I'll make a smaller dough.

So while the crust came out admirably crisp, it was also a little dry. The main problem is that I like my cheese rather caramelized, hence the eight-minute cooking time, while the crust was probably perfectly baked at about six minutes. I think I can fix this by baking with the broiler on, as many home pizza aficionados suggest. (I'm using the smaller top oven of a Maytag Gemini, so single rack is only a few inches from the element.)

Apart from that, the results were fairly impressive. I mean, a six-to-eight minute pizza in a conventional oven is no small feat. And a faster baking time means more "spring" to the crust—those largish but unevenly sized bubbles—the goal of all home pizza bakers:

Fast baking times produces more spring to the crust.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • Fast baking times produces more "spring" to the crust.

So my first impression was pretty good. I need to play with my dough recipe a bit (this one had no oil), as well as oven temperatures and settings, in order to achieve the best results. But so far it looks like the baking steel might actually live up to its hype.

The Glorious Union of Pie and Booze

Posted by on Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 11:48 AM

Natalie Delucchi and Lyss Lewis, living the pie dream.
  • Kelly O
  • Natalie Delucchi and Lyss Lewis, living the pie dream.
It's strange to eat pie while drinking, but it's better than you'd expect. Even better than that, and even less expected: drinking a cocktail made of pie. Capitol Hill's Pie Bar specializes in such drinkable desserts. Pie Bar's "pietinis" are like the middles of your favorite pies mixed with booze, served in martini glasses dipped in a butter, sugar, and pastry flour concoction that identical twin owners Lyss Lewis and Natalie Delucchi call "crack." I sat at the bar—the place was packed, not a table to be had—where I had a view of the hydraulic pie press and a row of fresh pies cooling, grandma-style, on a windowsill. The bar's flagstone walls and chandeliers create the atmosphere of a tiny pie castle. I drank a pumpkin pietini ($11) while eating a buttery, melty slice of marionberry/strawberry/apple "Desserted Island" pie à la mode ($8). Maybe it was the vodka, or being served by twins, but simultaneously eating pie and drinking a pie cocktail was slightly dizzying. I felt possibly on the verge of existential thoughts, and definitely of wanting more pie.

Lyss, the former owner of Seattle Pie Company, showed me the pipe she designed to carry the aroma of pie from the bar's oven to the street and the doorbell a neighbor installed in their pie pickup window. "We've both worked as general contractors," she told me. "We did Pie Bar's build-out ourselves. Check out the bathroom!" (Indeed, the bathroom is impressive—the smallest I have ever seen containing a chandelier.) I watched the bar's flat-screen TV after Lyss told me she likes to play a mixture of baseball and Mr. Bean, but seeing only baseball, I accepted with some disappointment that she meant she alternates between the two.

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Monday, June 10, 2013

The Minor Mystery of What Will Replace Brocklind's Is Solved

Posted by on Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 2:58 PM

The glory that was Brocklinds.
  • Jake Nelson
  • The glory that was Brocklind's.

Oh, Brocklind's—we miss you and your tuxedo/wedding gown/prom dress/costume rentals, your gorilla masks and chicken suits and fake mustaches. But you closed, Brocklind's, and we must come to terms with it.

Then we found out that the new establishment at Pike and Summit would be a mystery restaurant and bar, meaning downstairs neighbor Theater Schmeater would need to install an amount of soundproofing that would prohibit any actors over 5' 6" tall, or else Theater Schmeater would have to move. It was just happenstance that Brocklind's hours dovetailed with the theater's; the new place's hours would not. Theater Schmeater is moving.

Now the news about what the restaurant/bar will be: "a grand Roman-style trattoria" brought to you by Quentin Ertel, owner of The Saint and Havana. It does not yet have a name. Ertel says of Theater Schmeater's move: "Of course, I was very sorry to hear that they were leaving." More info on the grand Roman-style trattoria after the jump.

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I'm Still Waiting for My Purple Tomatoes

Posted by on Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 9:01 AM

I completely forgot this story...


These purple tomatoes will also have benefits for capitalists...
Tomatoes could be made tastier and stay fresh for twice as long, according to a new study.

Scientists say that the antioxidants found in purple GM tomatoes can more than double their shelf life from 21 days to 48 days.

And the natural pigment slows down the over-ripening process that leads to rotting and softening - creating a better taste.

I'm against Monsanto, but I'm not against GMOs. It's confusion that fuses the two into one and the same thing.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

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Thursday, June 6, 2013

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

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Glazed Over

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Monday, June 3, 2013

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

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I Can't Grow Cucumbers

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Friday, May 31, 2013

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

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An Unexpected Purple Pea

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Friday, May 24, 2013

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Should I Buy One of These?

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