Well Hello Again

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Well it has been WAY too long. I am sorry for that. I’d like to say that I have been doing something cool or serious and important, but really Leah and I have been watching Mythbusters with our little spare time.

That is in the process of changing now… well not the prodigious amount of TV we are watching but how much off time I now posses. I have just started working in a new restaurant and in so doing rid myself of a commute that was basically an unpaid part time job*. So please expect more frequent content in the future!

RAMEN!!!Breaking the Silence Ramen

1 tin of sardines
1 package Ramen
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 c frozen corn
1 tbsp butter

1. Heat cast iron grill pan or skillet on medium-high until it is stupidly hot. A good indicator of the pan being ready is your fire alarm going off or a drop of water jumping off the pan. Sear sardines on on each side for a minute and then set them aside.
2. While heating the pan set about cooking the ramen as per the instructions on the package with the addendum of reducing the water by 1/4 and the spice packet by half, and adding the peas and corn with the noodles.
3. Top the ramen with the sardines and butter**.

* At least three hours a day, five days a week.
**trust me, butter and ramen is awesome!

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

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Leah and I love sushi. It is one of the few things that we splurge on. For the most part we go to a small conveyor-belt place near our favorite movie theater. But just recently we really pulled out the stops and got an omakase at Mashiko* in West Seattle.

Our sushi excursion and the recent acquisition of a netflix subscription found me watching the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi(JDoS).

JDoS is a documentary about Jiro Ono, at 80 the oldest man to receive three Michelin stars, his restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro and his oldest son Yoshikazu Ono. Well those are the main interests anyway, you know how documentaries are with all the interviews and such.

I don’t really like this movie. It highlights Japan’s broken food system, especially in regards to their fisheries, without advocating for or even recognizing that there should be a change. There is just grim acceptance of the appalling state of the ocean. The tuna scenes in the Tskiji fish market are downright depressing. It is hard to see hundreds of beautiful hamachi laying on the floor of a warehouse and not remember that extinction looms closer every day for that fish.

Now for the we are the world moment: The food choices that we are making now has a direct effect on the sea life that will be available to the next generation. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has produced (and maintains) a guide to sustainable sea foods**, with recommendations to which fish to avoid to allow stocks time to repopulate. We do not have to accept the dwindling life in our seas with resignation, it is time to fight back.

I ended up watching this movie four times looking for something, anything to like. With all of the buzz this movie drew while it was in town I felt that there had to be something in it that I could latch on to, and there was. Albeit a very small thing. The notion of shokunin, an ever evolving master of their chosen craft. Every cook in some capacity aspires to be a shokunin; prep faster, chop more efficentily, make every recipe better with subtle tweaks. A true shokunin never allows himself/herself the luxury of becoming comfortable in their work, constant progress for progresses sake.

It does however bug me that this documentary does not have an ending. Don’t get me wrong, the movie does stop and the credits roll but it does not have a third part. The beginning is there as well the middle, but no ending. As I said the movie just stops, and the credits roll…

*I am not going to formally review the restaurant as I don’t want that to become my schtick, I’ll give you a haiku instead.
If you enjoy fish
Rice as well as veggies
Mashiko is for you.

**You can get them for your Android or iPhone.

Drink the Beer: Tablero Edition

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Leah and I had so much fun with the last Mystery Pack that we decided to have another… with an M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong twist; this time we played a drinking game!

Wheee!

As it is/was the only drinking I know, we played Tablero.

Tablero is a drinking board game that was invented by some Giant geeks in the SCA*. All you need to play the game is a chess board (preferably a cloth one you don’t mind getting beer on), seven shot glasses, two dice and beer. The rules are laid out very well here. Print out a copy as you will need to refer back to them when you are into your cups, and something to mop up when you knock them over.

I learned how to play this game while on a Geek related trip to Canada. The Ring Lord, a chainmaille bits & bobs manufacturer, has an annual customer appreciation weekend geekout that I attended at the age of 19 (for those keeping score, that was seven years ago). It was so cool! There was sword fighting, tating, chainmaille making, yoga, and Tablero. A jubilation of Tablero was played.

When played in a competitive manor a game of Tablero can take a while. Leah and I were a little more on the coporative side and ended up draining the six-pack in an hour and a half.

Here is what we thought about the beers:

Rogue Hazelnut Brown
L: “It is like Frangelico and Budweiser had a child that no one likes.”
R: ” Nice and chocolate milky.”

Full Sail IPA
L: “Not bad for an IPA. A touch skunky though.”
R: “Delicious… for an IPA. Very low hop profile.”

Anderson Valley Belk’s ESB
L: “Tastes like bile!”
R: “Very pleasant. Nice nippy bitterness.”

Leinenliugel’s Berry Weiss
L: “Tastes like the strawberry candies banks give away.”
R: “Simple and sweet, good for beer novices.”

Deschutes Brewery Inversion IPA
L: “It is bland except for the bitter.”
R: “Another run of the mill IPA.”

Franziskaner Weissbier
L: “Mmm, Banana Bread.”
R: “Yeasty and light, tastes like bananas.”

This is a great way to end up snockered in an evening, especially playing round robin style with friends. I plan on playing this again soon!

BIG FOOTNOTE: Hey, don’t drive drunk. Get a cab or something, ok?

SECOND BIG FOOTNOTE: Kids, save the drinking games for when you are grown up. Go play Call of Duty or something…

*Society for Creative Anachronisms, also known as Giant Renascence Geeks.

Notes:
- Spending time with old friends really helps put things into perspective, it was nice running into you.
- What happened to the Twinky scandal of 20-12? I feel like I got left out of the loop…
- This tapped our knowledge of drinking games, how about you suggest some for us to try?!

FOOL 2.0

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Most magazines about food are crap. Or, I guess it would be polite to say that they are not to my taste.

Fool magazine out of Sweden is not crap. It doesn’t have any “10 best wines for under $10″ or “how to semi home make restaurant style Blah, at home!” articles. It is more like a National Geographic about restaurants, restauraturs, farmers, ranchers, brewers and vintners.

The ads are few and geared toward people who can afford a hundred dollar set of two steak knives or a trip to Sweden. I can not tell you how much I hate leafing through old copies of Gourmet and realizing that roughly %70 of the print material in the rag is ads for random BS.

image

And there is not a single recipe. The entire thing is about the stories surrounding food and restaurants. I might be alone in this, but I feel more and better food writing would happen if people didn’t feel compelled to tie in a recipe or a restaurant recommendation in the script.

The previous issue featured an article with Magnus Neilson of Fäviken a fantastic pick for a first issue as he and his restaurant are the talk of the food world right now. They have followed up nicely with a nice feature on Michael Bras for this issue. I can not wait to see what the future brings for FOOL Magazine!

Notes:
- Writing really does get easier the more frequently you do it, if only it worked that way for getting up in the morning.
- I have reached a stage in my life where all of my favorite jeans are falling apart. I am not going to say that this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me… but man am I going to feel that way for a while.
- I have way too much stuff, sometimes I think about moving to a new house and leaving it all behind. (Don’t worry landlords, I probably won’t…)

Drink the Beer

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A long while back I mentioned the passing of the good grocery store in my neighborhood, the Greenwood Market. Just as the construction is finishing up on the Mega Fred Meyer where the Market once stood I have discovered that my beer shop, Chucks, has carried on with one of the former business’ traditions; The mixed, mystery six pack of beer.

What could be more mysterious than a brown paper bag?

Born from a need to sell broken six packs (when you buy one beer out of a six pack making it a five pack and less than marketable) the mystery six pack cost around $7.99. When I first saw them in the store I bought six of them. I can’t say that I ever came across any fantastic brews, but I did stumble across many new and interesting bottles that I would have never tried otherwise. There were a few cans of Budweiser, super hop-bomb IPAs and oh so many bottles of Newcastle but there was also one or two bottles that I would have never tried without having bought them mysteriously.

At Chuck’s a mystery sixer will run you $8.99 which is a bit more than they were at the Market, but with the unfathomably large selection to choose from, their mystery pack is much better than the Market’s as well.

All of that being said, Leah and I bought and tasted a mystery pack; here are our notes.

Yaaay Beer!

Laughing Dog Brewing- Cream Ale
Leah: “Hmmm, tastes like Roses. Nice and clean, I like it.”
Ryan: “Simple and clean. Not a whole lot to it.”

Sierra Nevada- Ruthless Rye Ipa
L: “It tastes like cigarette butts and vomit! UGH!”
R: “It is very spicy, once you muscle past the hoppy bitterness.”

Rogue- Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale
L: “Ugh, this was supposed to be a good one. It is bitter and I don’t like it.”
R: “Underneath all the bitterness there is a subtle malt that is quite nice.”

Elysian- The Immortal Ipa
L: “God, why do all IPAs taste so horrible?”
R: “Pretty run of the mill for an IPA.”

Anderson Valley- Heelch O’Hops Double Ipa
L: ” Smells like every other sort of IPA, they always smell like they are almost going to be good, but you know that they are lying. It has a weird, warm sweet taste… but a BLECH bitterness at the end.”
R: “It is hard to taste anything through the aggressive hop bitterness. It is like a sunburn in my mouth.”

Leavenworth Biers- Whistling Pig Hefeweizen
L: “smells delicious, tastes delicious, finaly at the end i get a tasty one. Like when you eat raw corn off of the cob.”
R: “Very quaffable, not a lot to it.”

We are not what you would call IPA people…

Notes:
- I am never going to get used to people talking on bluetooth headsets. I will always think that they are talking to themself.
- This was fun! We will probably do this again.
- Tidying the house is no fun at all, is that why people make kids?