Fertile Soil

“They call this area ‘The Salad Bowl’,” he told me. My dad was driving North on the 101 from King City, showing me around the area with a near bird’s-eye view in the passenger seat of his enormous pickup truck. The moniker clearly fit; in every direction I looked, something was growing. As a chef it’s exciting to see a place producing so much food. Entire acres look like vibrant green carpets. Rows of wine grapes stand at attention. Bright red strawberries beg to be picked and tasted (though I hear their farmers are less than encouraging about that sort of thing).

Then, after my excitement fades, a little embarrassment sets in. You see, I’ve been cooking for years. I’ve made tons of salads. I’ve hulled cases and cases of strawberries. I’ve purchased, washed, and chopped more cilantro and parsley than I could tally, but I’d never seen where it all came from. It didn’t take more than a glance to see that this place had fertile soil.

My lady and I had the pleasure of staying in King City for a solid month as part of a much larger, longer road trip that started in Seattle in February and will, by the end, have taken us through nine states here in the U.S. and one in Mexico. One of our favorite aspects of the trip thus far has been getting to spend so much time in so many different places, each one with its own unique pulse.

King City was certainly no exception; everywhere we went was beautiful, green, and lush. A drive from King City west to the coast yielded many great photo opportunities, and a short trip in the opposite direction showcased the gradual metamorphosis from flat fertile farmland to rolling green hills dotted with grazing cows, to a much steeper and rockier topography. Heading North, especially if you wander off the 101 a little, you can’t help but run into a vineyard or tasting room. We managed to make quite a dent in our “winery check-off map” (which she kept insisting was just a regular promotional map, and that we didn’t actually have to go to every winery on the list). In short, we had no trouble keeping busy for our month here.

At one point during our stay we stopped into the Firehouse coffee shop for some lattes. The young lady behind the counter asked how we’d been enjoying our time in King City. “We both love it,” I answered, “there’s so much to do around here.” “Really!?” was her surprised reply, followed by an embarrassed laugh. I guess it’s not unusual for the members of a town to feel like there’s nothing interesting to do where they live. It reminds me of my grandmother, telling me about living in Cairo, Egypt and never seeing the pyramids. From our point of view, however, there wasn’t nearly enough time for everything we wanted to see and do here. What’s more, it wasn’t longer than a week before we felt like a part of the community, rather than visitors from the outside looking in.

A one-month stay is a uniquely sized window into the life of a town. Instead of seeing the area simply as it stands now, you begin to learn a little about the people who have worked so hard to make it that way. What we saw when we first arrived in King City was this wonderful little community, but it was in meeting the people here that we began to understand how it didn’t get that way on it’s own. There was no serendipity, just a whole lot of people who get involved and love their city, from the wine makers to the farmers to the folks around town. This is a happy place made up of friendly people, working hard for each other and, in so doing, benefiting themselves.

I’ve been to a lot of different cities in my life, and it’s not often you come across a community like this one; a place that feels like home the first time you visit, with people who strive every day to make it even better. I’m sure it may sound funny, but I feel as though I made more friends after a month in King City than in the three years I’ve been up in Seattle.

Of course, I’ve talked to enough folks in town to know that not everyone agrees on everything all the time, but in the end everyone is striving toward a common goal. It can be easy to forget that not every place works that way. The community, like the farmland, is fertile, healthy, and strong. Even as our journey has continued on from California, I still think back often to our time in this place; getting to know King City was something I truly valued, and that feeling, much like King City itself, is something uniquely special.

In the Rye

Lately it seems like there's no time for posting to my own blog, but I still manage to find a little time to write for others... come read my guest blog about the release of the new Bulleit Rye Whiskey on "Dishing".

Rhum Agricole

Last night my friends and I had the great pleasure of attending a special dinner to showcase Rhum Clement and Rhum J.M. Both are brands of rhum agricole, a type of rum distilled from freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice rather than from molasses like most rums. Only recently have these brands jumped through all the necessary hoops to find their way onto the shelves of Washington liquor stores, and on this night we were lucky enough to have them shaken up for us by some of Seattle's top mixologists then paired with five incredible courses made by the chefs at Spur Gastropub.

Pairing cocktails with food works surprisingly well. As with wines, cocktails can span every flavor profile from sweet to acidic, from earthy to mineral, from smoky to herbaceous to floral. The key difference between the two is that, when making a cocktail, a bartender has the opportunity to take a variety of different flavors and mix them together at different ratios on the spot. While I won't argue that nothing is more awe-inspiring than a flawless wine and food pairing, there is something impressive about a mixologist who's skilled and knowledgeable enough to blend the perfect libation to go with an already perfect dish. This was my experience last night:

First

Tuna Tartare

wrapped in avocado with chili and lime "chips".

Saint Pierre

Clément Primier Canne, ginger, champagne vinegar, lime bitters.

by Cale Green

Throughout the dinner we were brought our cocktails first, followed by the food. This course was my favorite pairing because, at first sip, this cocktail came across as a little too sharp and acidic. Once I was able to try it with the food, however, I found it to be balanced as the ginger and vinegar elements in the cocktail helped to cut through the rich flavors of avocado and raw tuna.

Second

Sous Vide Pork Belly

with cabbage, pineapple, and creole mustard.

Carley’s Conundrum

Rhum J.M Gold, lemon, orgeat, demerara, boker’s bitters.

by Nathan Webber

Both of these would be just as good on their own as they were together. The complex and sweet flavors of the orgeat (an almond and infused syrup flavored with rose or orange flower water) and the demerara (a golden raw sugar) in the cocktail mirrored those of the soft pork belly and cooked pineapple on our plates.

Third

Smoked King Crab

on braised greens with butternut squash soup and pecans.

Calypso King

Brown Butter infused Rhum J.M Silver, falernum.

by Craig Schoen

As the bartender was describing his cocktail to us he proposed something I’d never heard of before: we were to dip or smoked king crab into the cocktail. Equally fun and delicious, the browned butter flavors infused into the rhum paired expectedly well with the crab, and the bite of alcohol in the finish served to cleanse the palate. 

Fourth

Beef Cheeks

with raw, braised, and pureed carrots, curry demi-glace, and horseradish foam.

Chimenea

Clement VSOP, rye, cynar, punt e mes, hickory syrup, orange bitters.

by Marley Tomic-Beard

This cocktail seemed to get mixed reviews from those sitting around me, but all agreed that it was much better with the food than on its own. The strong notes of hickory smoke and cynar (a bitter apéritif flavored with artichoke) were too much to handle alone, but the beef cheek sauced with curry demi-glace did much to help these potent flavors find there place.

Fifth

Rhum Walnut Sponge Cake

topped with a dehydrated banana-juice chip, paired with praline ice cream and banana panna cotta drizzled with caramel. 

Rhum Clément Cuvée Homère and Clément X. O.

For our final course we were given two blended barrel-aged rhums, served neat. The first, Cuvée Homère, was a marriage of the brand’s best rhums over the last fifteen years: 2001, 1999, and 1997. The second was a rare blend of very old aged rhums including the highly regarded vintages of 1976, 1970, and 1952. It was a great opportunity for all to see the incredible range of character that rhum agricole can have. After all, wasn’t that the point of the entire meal?

Claire Robinson wouldn't last a day in a 150° restaurant kitchen

When I first started this blog my sole intention was to make it all about the food. What it was, why I chose it, and how I cooked it. More importantly, I wanted to avoid letting it become a Big List Of Gripes (an acronym that, while unintentional, is often suitable), but when I read this article by Claire Robinson of the Food Network "exposing" the "tricks" that are often used by restaurants to increase sales I felt the need to rebut.

A quick Google query will tell you that Claire has had a full and noteworthy career. She earned her B. A. in Communications from the University of Memphis, where she also worked part time selling lotions and other beauty products. She also worked in both radio and television, and handled marketing for the University of Memphis’s athletic department. After a few years she decided she'd rather pursue cooking and attended the French Culinary Institute in New York City. She became a private chef and worked behind-the-scenes on several cooking shows before landing one of her own on the Food Network. As I said, full and noteworthy. Yet, search as I might, I couldn't find one lick of actual restaurant experience. If there had been any to speak of I'm sure Claire would have found something better to write about than "gaze-patterns" on menus, or what it costs to make a dish of pasta. I've seen plenty of things going on in a kitchen that would be much more surprising to the customer than that. You want examples? If the dude grilling your steak is really in the weeds, he may just drop that piece of meat in the deep fryer to speed things up a bit; hardly what a person expects when they pay $20-$30 for a filet mignon. I've been that dude. What's more, I probably had a beer in my hand and a few more in my belly while I was doing it. I'm not proud, just honest. Hell, I once opened the walk-in door to find a cook standing completely naked save for a well placed watermelon in his hands; his idea of humor (and that watermelon found its way onto about 50 appetizer plates later that day, yummy).

A seasoned chef hard at work:

 

 "tee-hee! what do I do with all these eggs?!?"

I work in kitchens, and you don't see me writing an exposé on sneaky tricks that people in marketing or media use, mainly because I have only a remedial idea of how they do things. You like food? That's great. I like TV but it hardly makes me an expert on what happens behind the scenes. The moral of the story: go with what you know. Rather than re-post her article here I've decided to paraphrase it, just a little bit.

5 Things Restaurants will do to Screw you out of all your Hard-earned Dough:

1. While it may appear that the sole purpose of a restaurant is to cater to your every whim and desire after you've spent a long day working in the salt mines, they're actually businesses that have been cleverly designed to turn a profit. Am I blowing your mind yet? (Cooks and waiters usually work there asses off for the sake of a paper-thin profit margin. Rarely is there a dish that yields "BIG bucks", as Claire puts it in her statements. Yes, a pork chop only costs us a few dollars. Yes, we will charge you four or five times that for the finished dish, it's how we stay in business. Keep in mind that restaurant profit margins usually hover around 5%-10%. Far less than, say, the kind of money a television show can make.)

2. The beef in that beef stew you ordered from the special menu might have been an entirely different dish the night before, and the veggies in there would have gone bad if they hadn't been used right away. If this one surprises you then I've got another news flash: that sale rack at Nordstrom is actually just the "leftovers" of last season's clothes that nobody wanted. If your asking yourself "why don't they just throw that stuff away?" then refer back to paragraph 1. (Throwing food away is a sin. Finding delicious ways to use it before it goes bad is the mark of a good chef. If something's "about" to go bad, that means it's still good, and if you're the chef or owner who paid for it then you'll find a way to use it quick if you want to keep the doors open and the lights on.)

3. Cocktails are usually expensive. Restaurants will try to trick you into ordering them using three techniques: 1. They'll put them all together on a little menu. 2. They'll make them delicious, often using fresh fruits and herbs as tools in their clever scheme. 3. They put booze in them. The customer's only recourse is to drink something less expensive like water or soda. (Thank God Claire Robinson was there to reveal this one.)

4. Just because the pasta dish is the cheapest on the menu doesn't mean the restaurant makes the least amount of profit on it. The mark-up is a greater percentage on pasta dishes than on chicken dishes for example, even though we charge a little less for the pasta dish. This is because we're trying to trick you into getting the cheaper dish, padding our already enormous bank accounts with the extra change we might make. (Or, maybe food isn't the only cost associated with getting a plate to your table. Pasta might cost a lot less than chicken, but the cooks, dishwashers, hosts, and waiters that all work to bring it to you and the rent for the space you're eating it in cost the same no matter what you get.)

5. Menus are specifically designed to get you to buy what the restaurant wants you to buy. This malicious little trick is often referred to as "product placement". They put the things they really want to sell you in the first places you'll look. Often, they'll use bold text or fancy borders to draw the eye. Shocking, I know. Of course I'll bet nobody else realizes this, as restaurants are surely the only kind of business using this method of deception.

The Legendary Rum of St. Croix

Last night I attended an exclusive dinner put on by Cruzan Rum to kick off their new advertising pitch "The Legendary Rum of St. Croix." Of the 25 in attendance were some of the best and brightest in Seattle's bar scene. Needless to say I felt a little out of place, but that didn't stop me from enjoying six couses of tropical seafood dishes accompanied by seven delicious rum-based cocktails. The lighting was too dim for good photos, but hopefully seeing some of my favorites from the menu will serve to evoke a little jealousy.

Tandoori Coconut Prawns - Tandoori marinated, coconut crusted white prawns served with tropical fruit chutney and rum plum sauce.
Paired with Single Barrel Cider.

Crispy Pan Fried Hawaiian Snapper - Opakapaka marinated in light rum and pan seared served with quinoa cakes, citrus salad and rum infused passion fruit-coconut sauce.
Paired with a Hemingway Daquiri.

Rum Battered Fried Banana - Banana battered with rum-ginger ale tempura and fried. Served with rum caramel sauce and ginger bread ice cream.
Paired with Bananas Foster in a Glass. 

Of all the cocktails the one that stood out the most to me was the Single-Barrel Cider. The combination of ingredients would also work well if served hot, and the good people at Cruzan were kind enough to provide me the recipe.

Single Barrel Cider

1 1/2 oz. Cruzan Single Barrel

3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

1 oz. Simple Syrup

2 oz. Apple Cider (Fresh, cloudy kind)

Freshly grate Cinnamon on top.

Rain Hat

It rained all week, then all day Saturday. Finally, it gave us a break on Sunday. When the weather gets like this I always find myself craving a cozy bar and some warm food. That's how I ended up at Hattie's Hat on Friday. A self-proclaimed "dive bar" this place has been in Ballard since the dawn of time. The bar itself is four-times my senior, and the food and decor would definitely be considered "classic", but sometimes it has exactly what I need; Chicken-fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Spinach Casserole, a Pabst, and a Wild Turkey on the rocks. It was just the trick to keep me warm on my walk home in the rain. It hit the spot so well, in fact, that I decided to reconstruct it here as something a little more updated, while still retaining its classic charm. This dish can be easily made for 1-2 people or multiplied to serve more, and is much faster to prepare than the original.

Pan-Fried Pork Chop with Spinach and Crushed Potatoes

Here I used boneless pork chops instead of chicken breast, and only dusted dusted them with flour rather that full-on breading them. The spinach I used was from the farmer's market and was large enought that it had to be cut up, but generally when using store-bought this wont be necessary. Finally, while I've seen the technique before, this is the first time I've prepared potatoes this way. The result is crispy and flavorful, not unlike homefries or hashbrowns.

Crushed Potatoes 

• 1 small bag baby potatoes, golfball sized
• 2 Tbsp butter
• salt and pepper to taste 

Pork Chops 

• 1 Tbsp Canola oil
• 2 thin cut boneless pork chops 
• salt and pepper 
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour 
• Parmigiano-Reggiano (for garnish)

Sauteed Spinach 

• 1 small onion, julienned 
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard 
• 1/4 cup buttermilk 
• 1 bunch (or bag) spinach 
• Salt and pepper to taste 

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan. Add salt generously and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil until they are tender enough to slide a knife in easily, aproximately 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and refrigerate.

Heat canola oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Measure flour into a shallow dish. Season each pork chop with salt and pepper then lightly coat with flour. Place chops into preheated pan and cook 2-3 minutes per side. When both sides are nicely browned remove chops from pan and cover with foil to keep warm. Return pan to heat and add butter.

At this point the potatoes should be cool enough to handle. On a cutting board gently crush each potato with the bottom of a glass, season liberally and set each gently into the pan. Cook two minutes per side, remove from pan, and add the onions. Allow these to brown and soften, 3 minutes, then stir in mustard and buttermilk. Add spinach and toss to wilt. Portion spinach onto plates, top with crushed potatoes and pork chop, and garnish with large shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano.