The Seattle 100 Mile Diet Game

[rockdoggydog]

Holy crap! I forgot about citrus! That would definitely put a serious crimp in my life. Soy is grown here, and rice would grow but I think not well considering where rice does do well, and citrus wouldn't survive our winters I don't think. No more margaritas and mojitos, I think I might go nuts in the summer.

Rocky

[Eden]

Holy crap!  I forgot about citrus!  That would definitely put a serious crimp in my life.  Soy is grown here, and rice would grow but I think not well considering where rice does do well, and citrus wouldn't survive our winters I don't think.  No more margaritas and mojitos, I think I might go nuts in the summer.

Rocky

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actually we CAN grow citrus here exactly the way the wealthy of northern europe grew it at least until the last century - build yourself an orangerie put your lemon tree under glass & it should get plenty of therms. I also wonder if there are specific varieties that do better in our climate. I was amazed to hear that people cold grow figs here outside of a greenhouse.

me I got two black thumbs so with the exception of a few herbs if I can't buy it, I don't get to eat it. I guess my role in life is to support local farmers

[DRColby]

actually we CAN grow citrus here exactly the way the wealthy of northern europe grew it at least until the last century - build yourself an orangerie  put your lemon tree under glass & it should get plenty of therms. I also wonder if there are specific varieties that do better in our climate. I was amazed to hear that people cold grow figs here outside of a greenhouse.

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

[JasonTrue]

I know that soybeans grow around here so why is it that we can only get basic tofu? Is the demand for local too small? Same with lemongrass, bamboo etc.... I guess that is the same question for the prepared items you're talking about. Is the demand for locally grown and produced items too small?

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Well, none of the tofu that you'd want to eat is imported, except the koyadoufu (freeze dried) type and sometimes the vacuum-packed type (similar to Mori-nu) or pickled ones. Tofu doesn't have much of a shelf life and is too cheap to be sent by air transport.

Most of the tofu makers that produce decent tofu that hasn't soured after weeks of transport is made in Seattle (Thanh Son Tofu, for example) or Tacoma (by Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants. Even the less desirable stuff like Pacsoy is locally produced. But they aren't worried about the origins of the soybeans themselves. Most of the soybeans used in tofu production in Japan or the US are from the US, but not so many soybeans are from Washington.

Better soy sauce is usually imported, but the Kikkoman family established a presence in, I believe, California a generation or two ago and most Kikkoman soy sauce in the US is made by the US company from various parts of the US, not imported. You can, however, ferment soybeans with koji (the first generation of koji you use will likely be imported, but not necessariily), a steamed rice cultured with a mold spore and fermented, much like yogurt or beer or pickled vegetables would be. Some say that soy sauce was originally a byproduct of making miso (or the other way around if you're Chinese). Some miso is produced in the US as well.

Yuzu could conceivably grow in Washington because some varieties are comfortable in cooler weather, and some folks have grown meyer lemons in home gardens here, but there's no meaningful citrus production in Washington to my knowledge.

Konbu if harvested and dried could probably be used for soup stocks here. Dried shiitake could be used for soup stocks here, and I suppose you could dry your own tuna or bonita and then shave it. These items and local sake (we can get some from Oregon, presumably not from Oregon rice though) would be enough to handle most Japanese cuisine.

There's no locally grown sansho or sichuan peppercorns to my knowledge, and star anise is probably not grown in Washington, so these might limit some Chinese dishes. But since sichuan peppercorns in the US are here um... unofficially... maybe nobody will notice.

Black beans could be fermented here if grown in Washington, then used for Chinese dishes.

Lemongrass can be grown in a garden, which would be a big help with Southeast Asian foods. No coconut though.

Edited July 22, 2005 by JasonTrue (log)

[rockdoggydog]

I had more in mind the flower tofus, smoked tofu, tofu noodles, and braised tofus of various types. As far as I know none of these are produced in Washington state. You can get all of the basic tofus made here, and most shapes and types of fried tofu but not all. If there were a local producer for these other types I would be very happy to look for their products but I've not seen or heard of any. Most of these I find are from producers in Cali and for the hardier stuff I seem to find imported.

Rocky

[JasonTrue]

Smoked tofu and grilled tofu is mostly made in the US and European markets for their own domestic consumption as it's not terribly popular in Asia, but tofu noodles, chinese-style tied yuba, and so on is mostly made in California. Frozen ones or dried yuba and noodles may be imported. Baked tofu, "dry tofu", seasoned tofu and so on are usually produced by US companies targeting either Asian or health-food consumers. It has been a while since I've seen a Washington-state based tofu maker sell smoked tofu (this may be due to the fact that I don't look for it often), but baked tofu or seasoned tofu is made by local producers.

Fried tofu, onion fried tofu, and ganmodoki are all made locally by Thanh Son, Chuminh, Tacoma Tofu, and some others.

Some frozen vegetarian "meats" are made in China, Taiwan or Vietnam and exported here. But only tofu products that can be frozen without ruining the texture (which is pretty much limited to meat analogs and some forms of yuba) are typically sent out of the producing country. I'm not sure what you mean by flower tofus; I remember one "tofu" made from a kind of flower in Germany, and there's dau fu fa which is very custardy soft tofu, a version of which is made by Thanh Son and Chuminh locally.

I can't think of many tofu products that are imported to the US. At the last two FoodEx Japan shows the only export tofu product I even found other than traditional freeze-dried tofu or dried yuba was Japanese-style yuba manufactured and frozen in China, though the texture wasn't quite right. On Alibaba the only tofu products listed for export are fried bean curd puffs (for inari-zushi), which can be frozen or canned, fried tofu (which can be frozen with a noticeable texture change), or frozen tofu noodles. Refrigerated soy noodles and tied yuba generally have a pretty short shelf life even with good packaging.

Anything you find in the refrigerated section of Uwajimaya, 99 Ranch, PCC or Whole Foods is generally made somewhere in Washington, Oregon or California, and most likely distributed by Seasia/Nishimoto, JFC, or some similar company. A few tofu makers self-distribute. Island Spring and Pacsoy sell to lots of mainstream supermarkets, and Pacsoy distributes a lot of the out-of-area-made stuff like Yves and Mori-nu.

If you find non-frozen tofu products made with a Chinese label or non-English text on it, it's probably just packaged and marketed to immigrant populations, it doesn't mean it's imported. If it's imported it should have a country of origin label on it somewhere.

That being said, there are a number of tofu products that don't seem to be made in Washington and are trucked up from northern California. Of course, although soybeans can theoretically be grown here in Washington, most of them are coming from midwestern and maybe southern states. WSU did publish some research on growing edamame in Washington state.

As for other Asian foods... Wasabi is being grown in Oregon these days... some trials have been done in WA also. Research for bamboo for eating has been done too.

I had more in mind the flower tofus, smoked tofu, tofu noodles, and braised tofus of various types.  As far as I know none of these are produced in Washington state.  You can get all of the basic tofus made here, and most shapes and types of fried tofu but not all.  If there were a local producer for these other types I would be very happy to look for their products but I've not seen or heard of any.  Most of these I find are from producers in Cali and for the hardier stuff I seem to find imported.

Rocky

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Edited July 22, 2005 by JasonTrue (log)

[MGLloyd]

Island Spring over on Vashon makes a wide variety of tofu and tofu products. Some of their products I found in the Vashon Thriftway and no where else.