Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, and This & That.
Polina Chesnakova, ‘Chesnok’
FEB 5
Local author (and former Book Larder culinary director) Polina Chesnakova returns with her third and latest cookbook Chesnok: Cooking from My Corner of the Diaspora: Recipes from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, a love letter to the food of the Soviet diaspora. Chesnakova, who was born in Ukraine to Russian and Armenian parents from Georgia, has painstakingly documented over 110 regional recipes ranging from Ukrainian varenyky (dumplings) to medovik (honey cake), alongside essays and stories of her childhood memories of cooking and eating. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL
Nicki Sizemore, ‘Mind, Body, Spirit, Food’
FEB 9
Trained chef, professional recipe developer, and cookbook author Nicki Sizemore has nearly 20 years of experience in the food industry, but she hasn’t always had an easy relationship with food. She’s shared her journey of overcoming diet culture and health issues on her Substack newsletter and podcast Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD and offers recipes paired with mindfulness techniques, as well as interviews with guests on their relationships with food. Her newest book, also called Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, contains 51 recipes (that just so happen to be free of gluten, due to her medical necessity) alongside mindfulness prompts that invite home cooks to slow down, invoke the five senses, and enjoy the process. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL
Naoko Takei Moore, ‘Simply Donabe’
FEB 26
Meals cooked in a donabe (a traditional Japanese earthenware pot) are the original one-pot meals. Besides being energy-efficient and having even heat distribution thanks to their porous material, they’ve also given rise to “nabe o kakomu” (“surrounding the pot”), a culture of communal meals centered around the donabe. Naoko Takei Moore’s new cookbook Simply Donabe demonstrates how you can recreate some of this comforting, nourishing magic in your own kitchen, with recipes like sour minced pork hotpot and miso-simmered ramen, plus side dishes like quick-pickled Napa cabbage and desserts like matcha ice cream. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL
More
Ballard Farmers Market Every Sunday, Ballard Ave, 9 am–noon, free
Capitol Hill Farmers Market Every Sunday, E Denny Way and Nagle Pl, 11 am–3 pm, free
West Seattle Farmers Market Every Sunday, Alaska Junction, 10 am–2 pm, free
Fremont Sunday Market Every Sunday, Evanston Ave N and N 34th St, 10 am–4 pm, free
Strong And Dark Beer Festival Feb 7, Figurehead Brewing Magnolia, noon–5 pm
Hops & Props Feb 21, Museum of Flight, 7–10 pm, 21+
Tacoma Beer Week Feb 27–March 8, various locations across Tacoma
Early Warnings
Taste Washington March 21–22, various locations, 21+
