After declaring 2013 to be the year of the pickle (see below), I've been on high alert, looking for tart and crunchy signs that my prediction was on track and -- hooray! -- there's been plenty to cheer. Let's have a toast with a pickle juice Bloody Mary from Seatown!
Justin Marx was starving when he checked into a small hotel in the remote countryside of New Zealand a couple of years ago. He phoned down to the tiny kitchen, hoping for a simple snack.
“They sent up a beautiful plate of cheese and charcuterie, but it was the olive oil that really blew me away,” said the CEO of Marx Foods. “It was a deep green and had a rich, almost grassy flavor.”
So, Valentine’s Day is all about roses and chocolates and sparkling wine, right? Well, that’s a good start, but when it comes time to sit down to a romantic dinner, pour me a sexy red, please.
I want something that’s velvety soft, yet deep and complex. Something that whispers, but says something meaningful. Like about where it’s from. Red wine is my favorite form of armchair travel, transporting my tongue to the rare earth from which the grapes are grown. If it sounds like I’ve been sampling the goods, well, I’m not going to deny it.
You got that hot date spot dialed in for Valentine’s Day?
No pressure! (HA!)
The good news is that February 14 is on a Thursday, so it will naturally spill over to February 15, which is going to set us up for a whole Valentine’s Weekend. So many options. But hurry! Your days of booking a table are dwindling down to a precious few. Here are a few (with the newest entries up top):
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, let me give you a little advice garnered from my years of experience (ha!). Instead of struggling to book a last-minute restaurant or trying to wedge your way into a crowded bar, make that special someone a deliciously flirty cocktail at home. Here are five possibilities that taste scrumptious and fit the “Be Mine” mood. [Want restaurant recommendations for Valentine's Day? Check out Leslie Kelly's picks.]
This Sunday, Speed Rack comes to Seattle. This local iteration of the national batending competition will feature top local “mixtresses” from Seattle, Portland, Spokane and Denver competing in timed heats in which they mix cocktails picked randomly from a selection of 50 classics. Judges evaluate each drink on accuracy, taste and presentation. This rounds' judging panel features cocktail heroes: Libation Goddess Audrey Saunders, amazing cocktail writer Robert Hess, Rob Roy’s awesome Anu Apte, and bar-chef angel Kathy Casey.
What a bittersweet mistake!
I sat down late last night with the February issue of Seattle mag, and immediately started drooling over the gorgeous photos and mouthwatering prose describing the city’s finest chocolate makers and treat purveyors. [Get a digital copy for your tablet here.]
The Super Bowl won’t be as exciting as it should have been this year. (If things had just gone a little differently, this post would be all about drinks nicknamed “Russell” and “Marshawn”). Alas, there are still fun game day parties to be had. And to make them more fun, can the cheap beer and serve better drinks! The first two in this list are team specific, for the Ravens and 49ers fans among us.
Hey, Top Chef! How about you pack up your knives and go home?
Really, I'm over it, aren't you? This season, shot last summer in Seattle, is a big bust. It hurts my eyeballs to watch and stabs at my civic pride.
It’s not just the usual trumped up drama or the lame challenges. It’s that the producers fail to show the city at its best. You know, like when host Padma Lakshmi declared Bite of Seattle one of our preeminent food events. Sheesh.
Eating seasonally, locally and supporting farmers come deep wintertime equates to shivering trips to one of the few year-round farmers markets, where tables are piled high with a dozen varieties of potatoes, gnobbly carrots, turnips, beets and a few sorts of sturdy winter greens. It's good stuff, tasty, a welcome shift in our menus when, in November, when we're eager to embrace soft sweaters and kabocha gratin.
In winter, hot drinks take the chill off the body and buttress the soul. And while a few hot drinks were highlighted in my Cocktail Home Remedies post recently, there are so many heated imbibable hits that I thought a full post was needed.
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