Batgrrrl

Alas, Mamster, I believe the one you're thinking of has closed. It was above 52nd on the west side--last time I passed by they were an empty storefront. Batgrrrl

I too am friends with a couple like this, so I feel your pain. My friends aren't quite this extreme--they know they are absolutely clueless in the kitchen, and enjoy it immensely when we cook together, because they like learning. I, on the other hand, can't stand cooking with them because it takes them TWENTY #*&$^@#*&$^#* MINUTES TO SLICE AN ONION. Don't even get me started on how long it takes them to clean and slice mushrooms. Needless to say, we don't cook together much anymore. I'm NOT a patient woman. But the greater source of frustration for me is that the husband won't eat vegetables. I mean, okay, a 6 year old boy who won't eat vegetables, fine. But a 30 year old man? An otherwise cultured, highly intelligent, worldly, capable of sophisticated behavior man? Thus I cringed when you talked about the lack of spices. All of this is to say, as others have said before me, cook for yourself so that you enjoy the evening. Best case scenario--they will subtly get the hint that their meal was sub par, and you may inspire them to learn more. Batgrrrl

Oh dear, this is really a question for the Klinkmeister. I'm sous chef on our caesar salad endeavors. But we're making one tonight, and I'll take notes this time. I know it involves lots and lots of garlic, both roasted and raw!

Also in Seattle... I second Klink's endorsement of the College Inn Pub--it's long been the UW English department's traditional Thursday hangout place. Their nachos are also my favorite in town. I can't believe you didn't mention the nachos, Klink. For combined drinking and eating, I must must must recommend the Hilltop Alehouse at the top of Queen Anne and the 74th Street Alehouse on Greenwood--same owners, same style. Excellent beer on tap, local and British, including some nitro pours, and everything at the right temp, which means not as cool as most places serve beer. Their menus are excellent--their caesar salad was my favorite in town until Klink and I started making our own, and they do a garlic and herb bread appetizer that is incredible. But the best thing is that they make their own soups and they're always changing--wonderful chilled summer soups, great hearty winter soups. I've never been anything less than blown away by their soups. They also play good music (no jukebox, just cds), and once, while I was grading student papers there over a beer and an order of bread, they put on a Neil Diamond cd and all of us, kitchen, bar, and patrons, were singing along to "Sweel Caroline" at the top of our lungs. My kind of place. For fancy drinks, that's another issue: I like to get dressed up and have a drink at Oliver's downtown, which is in the Mayflower hotel. They make a variety of great martinis, and it's never crowded. And of course, the Cloud Room at the top of the Camlin Hotel is a great place for that sort of drinking as well. Oh, I could go on and on with this topic--after all, I've been a grad student in this town for more than half a decade, and few people drink like grad students! Batgrrl

Fascinating! I had no idea it had an "official" meaning in addition to its "slang" usage--and I hope my quotes around those terms indicate that I do realize how problematic such attempts at distinctions are (I teach literature and writing for a living, after all). I even went and checked out some online slang dictionaries, and the only one I could find that listed scrumpy (not an exhaustive search, mind) defined it as a type of cider. But that's definitely not how we used it! It makes me wonder if the slang use of scrumpy to refer to an attractive person is different in origin--because there doesn't seem to be a connection in meaning to scrumpy when it refers to cider. Or perhaps the term got stolen from cider because of it's similarity to scrumptious. Interesting stuff! Thanks for enlightening us! Batgrrl

I can only assume that scrumpy is short for "scrumptious." I've always heard it used in reference to a person the speaker is attracted to, e.g., "Wow, check out that scrumpy bloke, I'd really like to have a snog with him!", "snog" being more good British slang meaning "to make out heavily", I think. It functions both as a verb ("to snog") and as a noun ("to have a snog"). Perhaps others can enlighten us further. At last, a discussion thread that combines two of my greatest loves: cider and naughty slang! Back to cider: Wilfrid expressed an interest in hearing more about making cider, so below I give basic instructions for doing so. If, on the other hand, Wilfrid (and others) are looking for amusing stories about my brewing experiences, I'll put that in another post! So if you're looking for the amusing stories, they're coming soon. Sorry it's taken me a while to do this; I was having some egullet problems. Hopefully the elves have worked their magic and all will be well now. As I said above, it's very easy. Heck, if you're a college student without much in the way of room or resources, you can just take a gallon jug of cider, open it so that the seal is broken, put the cap back on but not all the way (so gasses can get out), and then wait. Eventually, you will have hard cider, uncarbonated. You'll probably have to scrape green stuff off the top, and might want to filter it through some cheesecloth, but it'll be alcoholic! There's plenty of natural yeast in the air that will get in there, and basically the other stuff that grows can't hurt you. The problem with this method is that you won't get a consistent taste, because you aren't controlling the kind of yeast that goes to work. It can be pretty funky, or it can be okay. One note of caution: Make sure that you check the seal every day, to see that the gasses building up are being released--as the yeast converts sugar to alcohol, it's giving off carbonation, and those bottles aren't strong enough to withstand that. I knew a guy in college who had a gallon jug under his bed explode when he forgot it for a week. Not a pretty situation! If, however, you're not in college (oh, the things we used to be willing to drink!) and want a better cider experience, you will need things available at any brewing supply store or online. You'll need: --A primary fermenter: 7 gallon plastic bucket with lid with hole in it --Stopper that fits that hole, and the stopper also needs a hole in it --Airlock that fits in the stopper (how the gasses escape without letting bad stuff in --A glass carboy, basically a 5-7 gallon jug that the stopper with airlock will also fit into --plastic tubing --Empty beer bottles (NOT the screwtop kind!), bottle caps, a capper (I recomomend getting the bottles the old fashioned way--empty them yourself! But you can buy them too.) --a hydrometer, which helps you measure the alcohol content --one packet of champagne yeast 5 gallons of cider--the lovely cloudy stuff with lots of pectin, if you can get it, but cheap grocery store stuff works fine--just make sure it doesn't have any added preservatives. Some other things are handy to have--a tool that helps you start the syphoning process, for example, and a piece of rigid tubing that attaches to the flexible stuff, so that you can avoid sediment more easily. There's also stuff I can't remember the name of that helps the sediment settle out more quickly What to do: sterilize everything by washing it with a very mild bleach solution. Rinse well, and let everything dry so that the chlorine evaporates thoroughly. Pour the cider in the primary fermenter. Take a hydrometer reading at this point; this will tell you the potential alcohol content. Basic grocery store cider, no sugar added, will be about 6-7%. If you want it higher, you can add sugar. Note down this reading--you'll be taking readings every few days, and when the reading doesn't change for 3 days in a row, you're done fermenting. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the cider, put the lid on, put the stopper with the airlock in the hole, and sit back and watch the magic! Enjoy the lovely smell of brewing filling your house! I actually had one housemate who didn't like the smell. Heathen. For about a week, the cider will bubble and foam impressively. Incidentally, you can't do this in a cold room--temps need to be in the high sixties at least, and if it's warmer it'll go faster. When the foam has subsided, syphon the cider into the carboy for the rest of the fermentation process. This has a better seal, so there's less risk of stuff getting in, but it doesn't have enough air space to do the foamy primary fermentation; I once went to carboy too soon and had foam coming out the airlock! When you syphon, you're always going to lose a bit of cider--you want to leave the sediment at the bottom behind. That's the spent yeast. Syphoning back and forth between the bucket and the carboy a few times (once a week or so) is a great way to get rid of a bit of sediment each time. Once you've got consistent hydrometer readings over 3 days, you add 1/4-1/2 cup more sugar to the cider, and then bottle. This last bit of sugar gets the yeast going again just enough to carbonate it in the bottle. So you can have it bottled in about a month, and then after 2 weeks it's good to go. But if you can be patient and let it sit 6 months, it's fantastic! I've never managed to keep cider around for longer than a year or so, and I do hear it can go bad. It's got no preservatives, after all! That's the basics. My advice if you want to do this would be to actually go talk to people at a brewing supply place--they're better than the books, and can help you specifically with any environmental factors you might be dealing with in your town. Good luck, and if anybody brews some, let us know how it goes! Cheers, Batgrrrl

I came at cider while I was an exchange student in southern England some 10 years ago. Woodpecker and Strongbow were the most popular there, and I absolutely fell in love with them. Thankfully there are places in Seattle where I can get Strongbow on tap, though it's been a while. Woodchuck is, I think, the best American cider--having said that, I think there's something very distinctive about British ciders, probably in the apples (cox pippins, I think?) that are used, that I prefer. I don't know Magners or Scrumpy Jack--the second, I'm assuming is British (at least, I've only heard Brits use the term "scrumpy"!), but is Magners British or American? I've also had some experience with the Okanagan ciders, having relatives north of the border. I'm sorry to say I missed the cherry cider, Miss J--sounds wonderful! My experience is that the ones out now are mostly too much like wine coolers. But it's been a while since I've explored them. I've often thought that the American market for ciders is misconceived--they seem to make and market them for the winecooler drinkers, when a truly great cider, I think, is much more like a good beer, and I'd love to see them making and marketing them that way instead. Incidentally, I've also brewed my own cider--it's very easy (easier than beer), and really tasty. I've had some good luck combining flavors as well--I did a blackcurrant-apple cider that was fantastic, and a cranberry-apple cider that was perfect for Thanksgiving. And once, just once, when I added too much sugar in the bottling, I got cider that was like the most wonderful, driest champagne you've ever had. It positively disappeared in effervescence on the tongue, leaving behind a delicate hint of apple. Of course I also lost about 6 bottles, which exploded under the pressure! Can you tell this is a topic close to my heart?!? Batgrrrl

Even though I wasn't part of the Klink/Mamster Shiki experience (having been informed that it was a "Boys' Night" and that my past references to fugu as the culinary equivalent of chest pounding, grunting, and scratching made me unwelcome), I nevertheless find myself compelled to add to Mamster's general comments about sushi, and the raw fish/cooked fish experience. I'm wholeheartedly in agreement. Heck, I spent the first 5 years of my life in the Bay Area, and the next 20 or so in the heart of midwest lake and river country; I've always had access to excellent fish, mainly freshwater. And I've never had any real interest in any of it. Of saltwater seafood, I've only ever really liked shrimp, crab and oysters. "Fish" fish just doesn't do it for me--even, forgive me, salmon. This was all until I started getting into sushi. It is all so much more interesting and flavorful when raw, or when only slightly seared on the outside! I love raw salmon, though it is often not as interesting as some of the other stuff, whereas I'd virtually never order cooked salmon at a restaurant, and I can count on one hand the times I've bothered to cook it myself. It just doesn't interest me. (Col. Klink, you can assume that your smoked salmon is an exception to this!) And I've had the great experience of finding that some seafood I do love when cooked (like shrimp and scallops) are every bit as good raw--perhaps even better. We have such huge mental blocks against eating raw meat in our culture--I'm so glad I overcame mine. Sushi is absolutely the best seafood experience I can imagine. When it's at its best, it is like eating bites of pure, distilled ocean. You guys had better take me along next time. I promise, no masculinity-threatening jokes about the fugu. Batgrrrl p.s. Is it just me or does "Klink/Mamster Shiki Experience" sound like a good name for a performance art troupe?

Batgrrrl and I (this is really klink, don't be fooled!) tried to find where Banh Mi is so we could get some lunch before the Mariner's game against the Padres. BUT, despite all of our web prowess, we were unable to find any information on the joint except in mamster's allusion in his Azuma review. Any help? And what about the first sandwich to order? Batgrrrl here--I'm a way better typist than Col. Klink! And a better editor. I just cleaned up his tenses. Must be because English is his second language. Cheers!

The chicken breasts with breadcrumbs and parmesan dish Col. Klink mentioned comes from good old Julia, btw--from Mastering the Art of Frenck Cooking, vol. 1 I believe. It's a variation of one of her master recipes. Look for the "brown butter sauce" recipe. It's been a family favorite of ours for years, though of course we find we add far more butter and lemon juice than the recipe calls for! It's even gone so far as to replace the more traditional Christmas dinners, since we're of the "let's do as little work on Christmas as possible but still eat good" philosophy. Batgrrrl