beans

Others do in another regional forum! (Or is that all rumour??!!)

duh! Yes, RL does sell Alaksan King, but that wasn't the all you can eat promotion. Pedestrian Snow Crab.

Oh Jason, that is in the spirit of it all.

Oh, they don't come cheap! Not that you are insinuating (sp?) that they are. I'll happily fork out the bucks for good eats, and, good drinks, so I may be an exception. Crap. Anyone remember this? Ummmm. Errrrrrr. Well, good food is good food, folks.

Katie - Acceptable spelling. There are, at least, four versions of this word for this anise flavoured liquor.

They're awesome chefs and restauranteurs. Michael Symon, of Lola's, from the Soul of a Chef and well, Parker Bosley. Both Michael Ruhlman faves, as well as mine. Cleveland is an old shoe. Comfortable to wear with many ethinic choices. Not Chicago, Detroit nor Pittsburgh or NYC. Cleveland actually, to one unnamed magazine, per capita, ate out near or more than NYC. We love our restaurants and eat out often. And tommy, I'm hardly ever right.... edit to add: YIKES, I keep confusing Robert Parker and Parker Bosley only by name!!!!! I've been visiting WS forums... YIKES

why tommy? Dinner in Cleveburg or Seattle can't compare to that of NYC in quality, preparation or pricing? Hmmmm. I'll gladly cite Robert Parker or Michael Symon. Both of which I have had the pleasure of experiencing, meeting and chatting with as well as enjoying their art in creating and plating food for not such a bargain price. But it is all cool.

That is generous too. Given all considerations. Actually, I don't factor in the cost of a bottle of wine. Midwestern or Pacific Northwest my views may be, I go by entree price. Wine is wine and the world's prices are all out there. Being a bartender, I understand and gladly pay the price for decent sips, beit vino or otherwise.

Yeah, $10 is the ultimate cheap eats. $20 is very do-able but $80 per person is starting on the higher end of things. (inclusive of vino, but a cheap dinner with an outrageously over priced bottle of wine happens too somtimes, but not on purpose, but only by whim.) Sorry Jin, don't want to gang up. Price, geographic locale and perspective and all.... Decent and damn good tasting Oregon Pinot Noir and two lovely fresh dungies graced our table last night for me and me mum and we got out under $130 in Seattle.

I've found a million arrack punches. Arrack is sort of a generic term I have learned.... Here's one of the few that were different! Autumn Leaf It is mentioned here in an article I found a month or so ago for a cocktails class. Esquire Article Again punch! If I find anything else further, I will happily post!

Ampersand: I've asked my friend about the coquito. He swears it is secret! But I have a feeling he'll fess up, but then it will be somewhere down the road when the holiday cheer is encouring him to be charitable with his secret mix!

I've had Middle Eastern arrack. It was mixed with water and turned a milky colour. I'll ask my friends that shared this with me on other suggestions....

Bertrand Bazin -- Isn't that Lesley's hubbie?

It most certainly is *not* Alaskan King Crab. It is mushy, skinny snow crab legs. Oh, btw, most crab and shrimp, at least in Alaska, are frozen in sea water. I went to a Red Lobster some time back last Spring. It was a reunion of sorts for some old employees and a previous gathering, a few years back, was at an Olive Garden (easily located, large party/group gatherings friendly, middle of the road in price/food). In all honesty, the meals were not cheap and I was deilghted with the herbed fresh baked bisquits and baby lobster tails (langostinos probably) sauted and tossed with shallots, red bell peppers, garlic and carrots in an herbed butter sauce. They were sweet, succulent little creatures! Not rubbery or tough at all. I was pleasantly surprised. My old buddy had a baked Tilapia fillet that was mild and delicious. Not that I'll choose to ever go back for dinner, unless of course those that are into planning our Opening Team reunions opt for the crusty, seafaring Red Lobster again! Trust me, unfortunately, I've had worse at better restaurants....

I have a few days to catch up on! The foraging has been dismal with the storms and heavy downpours. The wind gusts were up to 70 mph yesterday! Today is the last cruise ship for the rest of the year! Makes many of the Sitkan residents quite happy! Some of the downtown stores have already closed their temporary shops until next late April. I'm thrilled just about everything is on sale.... Thinking of food prices, the herb and spice prices are unbelievable. Some of the seasonings are about $12.00 a bottle (like rosemary and basil) for the standard McCormick's size. Yikes. Next year I plan to stop at Spenard's to purchase some herb plants for the garden. For our dinners, they have been rather homey, but quite good. My grandfather took some king salmon and steamed it to soft, moist and rich perfection. We had the usual white rice and mixed frozen veggies (his favourite). The evening before my aunt invited me over for a "subsistence" dinner. The salmon (I think it was a coho) was caught by my uncle and the assorted berries for dessert were picked and frozen into deep freeze. She made a "stew" with the salmon pieces with usual potatoes, celery, onions and carrots. She served along side, a traditional fried bread that everyone in this town adores. I guess every ethnicity has their own version of a doughnut. These little flat, fried bread dough pieces were served with butter, honey, powdered sugar or any of her jams. (strawberry, blueberry or salmonberry). Oh, and garnish for the stew were dried black seaweed ribbons they collected last Summer. It was lovely. I'll be sad to leave tomorrow.

Someone say 'beans' ???!!

Toliver: Thanks. It wasn't a worm. (yuk) I scanned away with the newest Symantec and found nothing! I found out the network settings were wrong. There wasn't a network! Ended the problem nicely, however then I realized I was using MSN and there isn't a local provider for MSN!!! Somehow my Grandfather signed up and got suckered into the additional long distance surcharge for Juneau!!!!! So, no luck with getting the pic thing to work, just yet. Gee, GCI is the local ISP at no long distance.... No telling him either! Stubborn!! The king salmon was so wonderful, it is beyond mere words. I thank God that little fish swims out to the open ocean and feasts in cold waters to gain that savoury fat!!! Tonight, an occasional treat, a white king. It will be roasted in honour of my poor cousin that suffered a horrible boating accident. Actually this is a huge community dinner in his honour and the proceeds go to a scholarship. Sauteed abalone too. This is a real treat, but very sad, however a wonderful celebration of how this person enriched all of our lives.

K: There is a store downtown near the old post office that is the Chocolate Moose. I have a pic for you, but this durn laptop.... The Theobroma "factory" is still way down HPR on the way to the ferry, just past Halibut Point. Yes! Two chocolatiers! The Chocolate Moose has truffles, espresso and teas for sale. They share space with the florist too. Today the sun's a shining!!! Lunch has been always smoked sockeye. This is the stuff when I was at university that I wrote my Grandfather and asked for a few cans to be shipped. It is pure love. I was rather excited yesterday that I got to finally cook without Mum and Grandpa hovering. One peering eye and I faked him out with having a Campbell's can of Tomato Soup on the counter and I was off! From his seasonless (ie, herbs or spices) I made roasted tomato soup (from scratch), the usual smoked sockeye on Sailor Boys, and with the traveling produce folks from Chelan, Washington wherein I got some wonderful peaches, a melange of sorts with Tillamook Vanilla Bean Icecream. My Grandfather is used to having dessert with lunch and dinner. Little did he know, in this "dry" household, these little peaches had zip from a very old bottle of Orange Curaçao (must have been from the days of my Grandmother's fruit cakes -- at least 15+ years ago!!), cinnamon, vanilla and sugar. They were "sinfully" delicious! So far for dinner we've had some boring but good halibut. (My Grandfather's preparation -- he seems to feel he's the only one to cook dinners around here! Alaska is very, very, very men do this and women do that....) He breaded it in a mixture of pancake mix (!) and deep fried it. Wish it could have been a beer batter.... But the halibut turned out moist and quite delicious. No gourmet preparations here. Simple stuff. It sort of annoys me too, as I seem to have noticed I require a sauce with everything. I can no longer enjoy a slab of meat slapped down on a plate fresh from the grill plain. It must be served with some wonderful and flavour enhancing sauce! Pancakes are in order before my Grandfather returns from church. The food here is sort of stuck in the 1950's, but for its freshness, is wonderful. Can't change up too much on the old guy elsewise he'll just push it around the plate with a glaring eye. Have yet to discover this new "Ludvig's" with the Spanish tapas. The only place, other than the steak-a-rama (with unidentifyable, huge cuts -- I know, I ate there when I lived here and asked our server to please identify the cut and grade of the beef!! She didn't know! *Danger Will Robinson!!!!*), that requires reservations.

Grrrrrrr. Bad, bad, BAD!!!!

I suppose that is why Lab in London is so notable. They are well disciplined in the classics and have a myriad of the new too. Their cocktail menus are numerous and from what I've seen, and are the absolute best at what they do -- consistetly mix up some of the most refreshing and tasty cocktails. American bartenders are so far behind the Europeans as far as quality preparation and innovation by creating modern twists upon a lovely classic. Perhaps a difference in cultural views of the position of bartender?

Welcome to eG Ampersand! I've had these mysterious drinks. I've got a friend that owns a lovely neighbourhood pub that is from Puerto Rico and he makes them every year near Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays. If I find a reputable resource elsewise, I'll be sure to pass it along in a post as soon as I can cut and paste! But don't you thing all of the varied recipes may be fun to try out? I love doing that. I call it field research!

Frustrating to order a cocktail and get something far from what was desired. Chances are your bartender didn't know what it was and guessed. Grrrrrrr. Owning up to not knowing what it is a tough thing to do. Bartenders really hate appearing like they don't know what they are mixing up.... However in all honesty, I have yet to have a guest request a Negroni despite my long stretches of tending bar in fine dining. Gently coach your barkeep! Ask them if they know how to mix up the yummy classic cocktail of your choosing! If they answer yes, then get brand specific with your preferences! If they answer no, well then tell them! They will forever be happy to learn a "new" delicious cocktail to add to their repertoire! Thanks Hollywood for sharing the article! I enjoyed reading it.

Snow on what are referred to as the Three Sisters! Very pretty. Everyone here keeps asking me why I returned to Cleveland. I wonder that myself. Jaymes, entering into the Sea Tac Airport and walking down the Alaska Air concourse, you *know* you are in a different place! Cowboy hats, scruffy beards, fisherman jackets (the type that are proudly embroidered with the F/V ________ -- their beloved seiner/troller/gillnetter), lots of Cabella's garb too. Some things never change! Well, I have some king salmon thawing nicely for dinner. I'm having a wonderful time with my Grandfather's new Dell. Somehow a fatal error keeps popping up and disconnecting and restarting Windows. Grrrrrrrr. I'm not exactly a Windows XP fan either, but I'm trying to find the source of this bug.... I wish I had a chance to get over to Juneau to see you Foam Pants! After all it's only a channel and a few mountains to hop over! oops, fatal error again. Something called the Remote Procedure Call service was terminated unexpectedly.... Ugh.

Thanks Suzanne. Oh, this is an entirely different world indeed. My family does some fun stuff with food, however my Grandfather will think he's trying to please me by making up pork chops and scalloped potatoes instead of diving into his deep freezer for halibut cheeks, venison and whatnot. I'm gonna venture into bear country and see if I can find some of the tea we pick and dry, any lowbush cranberries and some "goose tongue" on a few beaches I know where they grow in the salty tidal flats. I think it is way too late for fiddleheads. And possibly I may be able to forage for mushrooms. The bears are busy with the last of the salmon run, so I may be able to tiptoe right by them while they are lumped over and in a food coma-nap relatively unscathed. Where we used to go into a swampy/bog area has been "developed" and turned into a new postal office. That was where we'd pick those tart little cloud berries. The day I arrived my Grandfather had a buddy come drop by for lunch with some herring eggs (frozen from last Spring when they were collected while spawning). Just days before that my Mom, who has been here a week longer than I, said they pulled out some abalone from the freezer and sauteed those up in butter and garlic. I missed those, although I have to admit I'm not too big on the herring eggs. They are loud in your mouth, but taste mild and salty like the sea! There is much time yet to have some of those yummy local goodies. I'm hopeful. If I can't get this dog of a laptop to recognize the USB cable, I may need to resort to the dust covered "new" digital camera my Grandfather got for Father's Day and his new Dell computer that appears that he has never turned on. (ooooh, fun toys!!) Either that or I'll put the blog on pause until I return to Cleveburg and then load up and process the pics at our restaurant office. (The owner generously loaned me the camera -- all I have are dinosaur manual SLR Canons). The weather is teasing me today cause I did see bits of blue sky. I love the advantage of deleting a pic on the digital Nikon and retaking it with bright blue skies and the sun beaming. I think today I'll visit my friends at Sitka Sound Seafoods and see if they've got some good dungies and spot shrimp. If so, I know I'll be in a heavenly food induced coma myself. Oh, Fat Guy, if you're reading this, I had to laugh as I went past the store front for all of the furs hats and coats. Right in front, was that fur covered jock strap. I didn't look to closely, it may have been a thong! It was the source of amusement for many tourists in town for the day of fleecing by the storekeepers!

By all means, ask if they use simple syrup. They may have it on hand but don't use it very often. I have found if bartenders aren't trained on quality cocktail preparation, they just don't know -- most skid along learning on the job as they go. That's cool. You gotta start somewhere, but often learn from their customers rather than what their cohorts are doing, because often they are all doing the same thing/approach. Does that makes sense? Generally, it is good bar practice for the bartender or bar manager to be aware of the frequency of certain requests for product they do not usually order or maintain. They will begin to order in the items when they see a growing interest or to please a regular customer. So asking for a particular preparation method or product is always the best way to go. It's not going to far. If no simple syrup, well ask if they use Rose's and tell them -- Just a drop of the Rose's -- so as only to be a hint of Rose's or like droplets from an eye dropper.... They should get the picture! If not, find new digs and start up a new relationship with the next bar of your choosing!