DRColby

We 're not far from SeaTac (close enough to provide parking and taxi service for relatives and friends). There are a couple of close-by grocery stores that have some pretty fair deli food. Larry's is north of the airport on 99 as couple of miles; south of there, about 2 miles on 99, is a Safeway. I see flight crews in both picking up their eats. Depending on the time of your flight, there's a good Thai restaurant a about a mile north of the airport on 99 that does take-out food. dave

The Vietnamese restaurant supply store in Seattle carries them. I think I paid 3 or 4 bucks a piece for four of them. If you want to add a nice kick to your caffine add a shot of Kaluha to each coffee. Dave

Okay, so I've got my gravlax (before the days of terrorists I used saltpetrer) now who's the expert on slicing it so you get those nice thin slices? Mine comes off in globs. One place I have been in cuts it is chucks rather than try to slice it thin is this okau? Suggestions for slicing. dave

Only five State dinners since Bush became president. Might as well throw away the good china. No wonder the pay is so poor for the job. dave

Have a drink at Ocean Crest, great setting, Then walk down the beach to the Moonraker motel, ask them to show you a room and have a good laugh. If's probably one of the coolest places on the West Coast. Lastly, foreget aput the oysters unless you like huge, soft,milky and very risky Pacifics. We love oysters and were hell-bent on eating August oysters at Moclips. We spent a day looking for someone selling oysters. Out of two dozen we finally gound I think I tried one and Cathy none; our poorest showing ever the bi-valves. dave

I am curious, Ellen, did the thread under the French postings on the The Montignac Method of eating come-up? I read to the end of this treat quickly. I was so impressed a year ago I bought both books connected with the The Montignac Method and liked most of the dietary parts but found timing and other aspects a little daunting. Walk before coffee, etc. I would ship them off to you but a friend currently is using them. Anyhow, I would be curious to learn the gout aspects of diet under the The Montignac Method. Why don't you post gout issue there and she what kind of answer Lucy comes up with? dave

Was Whole Foods in Madison unionized? Or is that not what we're discussing herre, we're just being nice to certain kinds of people? Dave

It is interesting that we have a Thursday farmers' market. A block away is an Aisian-Hispanic grocery store. The market is staffed by mostly Cambodians who have taken over the truck farming in the Seattle area, not to long ago it was the Itallian decendents controlling the produce business. Anyhow if I take $10 and go to the Asian-Hispanic grocery store I can come out with enough produce - good produce, some organic, some not - for a week. If I go to the farmer's market I might walk away with a pound of petite potatoes and a couple of tomatoes for my $10. Earlier this week I sampled 8 Robert Parker wines rated 93 or above. It cost me $200 and there wasn't a bottle "on sale" for under $75. The next day I bought a CA syrah for $4.50 that was just as good to my unatuned pallate. Can you guess where I shop when I can? Dave

And here is what other NY Times readers thought: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/...reenmarket.html Dave

My, what a touchy nerve Julie has hit. When do we get back to disussions about presoaking our beans before cooking instead of using canned? Or whether the French noblesse really did throw their offal out the window for the downtrodden to disguise in sauces? Or even if anyone is interested any more in Beard's "Art of American Cookery"? Are we taking ourselves far to seriously about $4 designer loafs while ignoring the Wonderbread of life.? Are the Alice Waters graduates of vegtable growning now eating heirloom produce or back at the school vending machines? dave

I guess what I saw was lots of cart-comparrisons going on: who's going to spend the most on a bottle of politically correct wine to entertain the boss, what deli item should we be eating according to the NY Times, etc. Perhaps I sensed a continuation of the attitude the sleek model, upstairs at the Ford booth, had about the sleek Lincoln truck she was demoing when sked whether this was "the truck the priest lusted over?" She could care less about the priest (didn't even know who he was), or his Madison Avenue lust that never made it to the Super Bowl, The whole thing seems very unreal - or maybe a better word is surreal - about food downstairs as luxury trucks upstairs. In Chinatown know what you buy in terms of food.... which just might just be an amplification of Julie's article. Dave

I want what I eat to come out of my garden (with the emphasis on MY), picked by my hands. I want my fish to be the fish that I caught (with the emphasis on "I") and I want my meat to be meat that I slaugtered. My wild mushrooms I want to pick, not from the Andes that will surely give me the shits. Then I know a little bit about the hows, whys, and wherefores of what I eat. Lamb shanks, sweatbreads and other ofal I have alwayss done with a version of a classic French sauce; it makes something more than it is out of it. So I would give Julie credit on that point. The only Whole Foods I have been in is the one in the NYC Times-Life (or is it AOL/Parsons?) Building. I was struck watching the scene that this is more social than about food. I beat a path to Chinatown to did my shopping. Dave

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/opinion/22powell_cm.html Very funny, very good. Dave

I picked one Meyer lemon about a month ago and Cathy used it by mistake. The cost was about $1,000 when you factor in the greenhouse, special, pot and all the other special needs over the last 3 years to keep it happy. I am gunning for abut 50 nice sweet, jucy, orange colored Meyers this Winter so I can move on and try a kaffir lime. Citrus grows here, not very well like "under the sunshine tree." Dave

Rocky Rocky, Cathy and I are traveling this Fall or I would bring you some. Last Fall we had so many we were taking them to the Japanese Retirement Home. Still have some buttons frozen whole if you'd like to try them. Asians I know freeze them this way but they seem very watery to me. By the way, didn't Cascadia start out this way (only food from the Cascade Mt. range) and then abandon that notion? Dave

I just spent about $40 at Rancho Gordo on beans. They are, of course, premium beans with a big shipping added. But most of those beans originated from the poor and for the poor.There is also many,many, different meals in those bags with just about anything I candream up to throw in with them. The point is : Beans is beans. They deon't have to be expesive ones,a nd cheap ones in bulk (get someone to buy you a bag at Costco) can be used just as well to mash, throw in salads, make soups, fry up with some old meat, created stews with a bunch of meaty bones, etc. If you also start to eat seasonally, buy in-season produce, you can dine very well and very cheaply. Corn is just about to go to 12 for $1. Man, some sweet corn,beans with some herbs picked along the roadside or from an Asian market....tough to beat. I often shop at Hispanic markets where there's lots of off-cuts of meats; most of those shopping there are in as tough of shape budget-wise as you. Another great source of ideas is your local food bank. The one we work at has weekly cooking demos (and gives out printed recipes for cheap, healthy eats that are quick and eay to make. It really is pretty easy to control the cost of your food, the biggest elements are thought and preparation. dave

Wendy, He's been in every time I have been in. I think he may have some other things going on at the moment. There is a chairt auction or something he mentionws in the offng. Did you rummage through the private collections he selling? Kind of an interesting idea. Much better shopping when he's there; many interesting stories and helpful input. dave

Try finding somewhere to eat in the Georgetown area. Belltown to me is always a few steps from the Market and always exciting. Two Bells, Shiros, breakfast at Macarima Bakery and all the food the comings and goings around 1st and Bell keep the neighborhood as one of the best to entertain guests. This is all based on working at 1st and Bell for years, and then moving to Georgetown where you have to get in your car and head to W. Seattle or North to the International District for a decent lunch. dave

My wife had an aunt who many, many years ago cooked at Canlis. She died recently and left the little she had to her one child, a class lady from NYC. At the wake her daughter took her inheritance and used it all on everyone at Canlis; one of the few things in her life that her mother would have approved of. It's an impressive place. Not so much for the food but for the way it's all done, the service, the ambiance, etc. The only other times I have been to Canlis is when I owned a company and we had a good year. Then we'd have our board meeting there.... Tossed at the table Ceaser's and the top of the wine list...... That happened twice in 15 years. That's the way I remember it, and before Greg. I think it probably still has that class. Dave

I back what Reesek writes: Ethan does about as well on seafood as anyone in town. One day I was in and they were preping Ahi toro, Ethan was very proud that he had brought it as "only" $35 a pound. (I think in a very talented family Ethan may turn out to be the most creative.) After 30 years in Seattle we went to Matt's for the first time a month or so ago and the featured item was a Cuban-style walleye. It was just great. We'd go back in a heart-beat but it is so tough to get in with the limited seating. dave

Corn-on-the-cob, coleslaw and 2 sauces, a dill-mustard, like would be used with gravlax, and a red pepper mayo sauce. I like take my crab cakes put them in the icebox for a couple of hours to setup, and then just brown them in oil and place them on a rack and put in 350 oven to finish. That way they are light and not so greasy. Dave

We were in the market this week for a new dishwasher. We checked with Direct Buy and liked an Asko at $1,000. I then went to Albert Lee at Southcenter and looked at Miele. Way out of our price range and told the salesman that. He took me in the scratch & dent room, showing the same Miele at $770. I asked him what was wrong with it. He could find nothing other than a missing manual and a kickplate. Those he produced from another floor model. I would bet this type of swapping occurs quite often and then the showroom model then moves into the scratch and dent room. I'd check there to get more for my money. dave

Cascadia has private room upstairs. dave

Bittman had a simple pasta recipe in the NYT not to long ago that featured mint and it was quite good. Just pasta tossed in olve oil and mint. dave

Allard? Dave