Shopping with a Chef
Ericka Burke of Seattle’s Volunteer Park Cafe It’s your local farmers market. The corner convenience store. The coffee shop where you don’t need to place an order anymore because the barista knows exactly what you want every morning. The neighborhood restaurant that you can count on for a comforting meal with a wallet-friendly bill on those nights when
Praising Shellfish
by Ethan Stowell— I might be biased, since I’m from Seattle. I’ll admit to that. But I dare you to argue that Washington State isn’t a damn good place to eat. The diners, the chefs, the farmers—we’re all in it together, enjoying the amazing foods from our backyards: a stellar array of wild mushrooms, juicy pears, crisp, flavorful apples, berries, lentils and grains. But in my book, if there is a single food that defines Washington and sets us apart, it’s not apples. (Sorry Eastern Washington, I said I was biased.) No, seafood is our crowning glory, and our premier crop is shellfish. I think all kids in this state should be able to shuck…
The Virtues of Verjus
Many are the reasons to celebrate verjus. A few local wineries are making it from grapes that would otherwise be wasted. It’s a versatile ingredient, used in sweet and savory dishes—in drinks, too. ut say “Vair-zhoo!” to a grocery store clerk and you’re apt to get a “Gesündheit” in response. That’s because verjus isn’t the pantry staple it once used to be. Verjus literally means “green juice.” Translated from the French, the word is a combination of jus, meaning juice (in this case from grapes), and verte, meaning green—not in color, but in the sense of “unripe.” Flavor Booster Back in the days before the widespread availability of citrus fruits and countless varieties of vinegars,…
Boss Hog
“Every one of my cooks knows how to break down a pig,” says Robert Belcham
Big Table Farm
Setting a Big Table By Kathleen Bauer “It’s good to enjoy wine with swine,” is the mantra at Big Table Farm,
Top of the Coppa
Italian for “nape,” coppa is a cured piece of pork similar to prosciutto, but using the muscle at the back of a pig’s head, at the top of the shoulder, rather than the leg. You may have heard it called “capicola” (a combination of the Italian words capo, meaning “head,” and collo, meaning “neck”), or the East Coast-Italian pronunciation, “gabagool” (as Jersey-born photographer David Reamer calls it). But chef Adam Stevenson sticks to calling his product “coppa,” the term he learned from Seattle sausage maker Armandino Batali, who has achieved fame as much for being the Emerald City’s don of salami at his deli, Salumi, as for fathering celebrity chef Mario Batali. “Armandino offered to…
Food Carts a Go-Go
A guide to Portland’s culinary carts
Branding Better Beef
Is there a difference between “grass-fed” and “grain-finished” beef? James Patrick Kelly takes us to a few Northwest cattle operations in an effort to corral the facts.