three bowls

On an endorphin rush from tonights installment of the 30-Day Shred, I blasted through 800+ items in my previously-neglected food blog reader.  Here are the highlights of the news related to food you probably shouldn't eat but probably sometimes want to.

Chow has a list of 10 frozen drinks for summer, and, actually, most of them are really probably not fast, junk or questionable.  But I was DEVASTATED to learn that Mr. Misty frozen drinks have been renamed Arctic Rush, which sounds to me more like some kind of mentholated deodorant body wash aimed at men aged 18-34.  This wasn't even apparently its first renaming, which means I am very out of touch with the goings-on at Dairy Queen.

Also on Chow - Burger King now has a $200 burger. Proceeds defensively and pre-emptively going to charity.

The SuperTaster (James Norton) on Chow taste-tests, well, questionable food.  This entry is on "shelf-stable ice cream floats" in a bottle.  As he notes, the product was plainly inevitable:

If there’s one thing that parents dread with the coming of each and every summer, it’s the incredible challenge of making root beer or orange soda floats for the kids. We’ve all been there: First, you have to buy vanilla ice cream. Then you have to buy soda. But, wait, there’s more: You have to put a scoop of ice cream into the soda. It’s crazy, right? And who’s going to clean the spoon?

And rounding out the Chow update, here's a brief one, but a caution!  Think carefully before you click on the link in this Chow post.  It takes you to a picture of French fry-coated bacon on a stick.  NSFA (Not Safe For Anyone)

Do you need your bacon portable, but are afraid that French fries simply won't be adequate protection?  Slog has a picture of bacon in a can.  Rolled in its own paper towels.

Epicurious has news of the temporary Hydrox comeback, and a Hydrox cookie contest.  Is it uncool to admit that you sort of like Hydrox better?  I've never really admitted it to myself, but I'll say it now.  That's right: I like Hydrox better than Oreo cookies.  They are crisper.  You don't know what you got 'til it's gone and then temporarily brought back.

Potentially winning the Most Questionable award for this entry, Lego Fun Snacks (gummy fruit snacks shaped like childhood toy and choking hazard Lego blocks) are featured on Accidental Hedonist, who predicts, "Next up for Kellog's - fruit roll-ups recreated to look like shards of glass."

You can add Pringles can designer Fred Baur to the growing list of fast and questionable food notables who passed away recently but whose relatively long life spans belie the idea that the foods are questionable at all.  Of course, we don't know how many Pringles Mr. Baur actually ate in one day, but he was proud enough of his can design enough to have a portion of his ashes buried in a Pringles container.  Which I find oddly touching.

I braved the heat yesterday and walked uphill both ways to the University District Farmers Market to fetch a veg to Get to Know.  I was hoping for bamboo shoots because they are supposed to be in season but there were none to be had.  Instead, I bought some pea vines.  I had previously used them in a Captain Ahab recipe, but I didn't really know them, per se.  What is their story?

About: Pea vines are the leaves, shoots, tendrils and sometimes flowers of young pea plants.  They are generally from snow peas, but can be from any type of garden pea.  They are popular in Shanghai and Vietnamese cooking, and are said to be a "expensive and highly esteemed leafy green favored by Chinese chefs."⁴

AKA: Pea vines, pea shoots, pea tendrils, Dua Mui, Dou Miao.  I have also seen the term "pea sprouts" used, although sometimes that seems to refer to actual sprouted peas.  Here's a note from the San Francisco Chronicle on the topic:

According to Charles Phan, owner of Slanted Door and Out the Door, pea sprouts are the new tender shoots of pea plants, while pea shoots refer to the more mature, but still tender shoots with its leaves and tendrils. The term "pea shoots" is often used interchangeably in Asian cuisine because they are the same plant, just in different stages of maturation.

Appearance: Pairs of oval-shaped leaves and curling tendrils on short stems.  They have a tendency to wilt because they are young plants without mature fiber.

(I believe these pea vines are a bit older hence the larger leaves and thicker stems.)

Taste:  Sweet with a delicate to strong pea flavor.

Growing Season/Area: There is some conflicting info here.  In Melissa's Great Book of Produce, the season is listed as year-round, and that might be for the whole U.S.  In a pamphlet provided by Washington State University, spring, early summer and fall are listed as the times for pea vines, noting that the season can be short since peas do not grow well when daytime temp is over 65 degrees.  Pea plants are apparently a good crop to plant as they are nitrogen fixing and beneficial to the soil.

Buying: Look for bright green, undamaged, fresh, not-wilted shoots.  Avoid yellowing, limp or tough shoots.  If you are feeling particularly bold, take a bite of of the shoot and tendrils to see if they are tough and stringy.⁶  When it comes to quantity, keep in mind that cooked pea vines reduce quite a bit.  If you are not serving raw, buy a quantity to serve as you would plan for serving cooked spinach, which reduces generally by at least half.⁷

Storing: While there is some disagreement among the various sources as to whether you can wait a day to eat your pea vines, the general consensus seems to be: eat them as soon as you can, preferably on the day you bought them.  You can possibly store until the next day, but you might be risking it.  Storage method recommendations vary: store in a plastic bag^1,8, store in paper towel in plastic bag^5,7, store loosely in a container³, or, winning points for most dramatic verb usage, Joy of Cooking exhorts you to "plunge the ends into a jar of water."  (Note to the other bug-o-phobes out there: my pea vines had a lot of little guys living in the leaves, so if you, like me, have a bit of an irrational skeeved reaction to that, you might want to choose the closed and contained method of storage.)

Preparation:  Trim away any large stems and rinse¹.  Do not rinse until you are ready to use.  Commonly used in stir-fries (cooks very quickly), raw in green salads and as a final addition to  soups and noodle dishes..

Pairs well with:  "Artichokes, chervil, chives, crab, lettuce, mint, salmon, scallinos, scallops, shad, sorrel, tarragon."¹

Substitutions: None listed although I assume some other young Asian greens like tatsoi and mizuna?

Nutrition:  Good source of Vitamin A, K and C.  Two cups have 132% RDA of Vit. K, 15% of Vit. A, and 35.5% of Vit. C.  Also has 10.5% RDA of Folate.  According to the WSU pamplet:

Pea shoots may also contain valuable phytochemicals. Certain pea plants have these natural disease fighters, but it is not known whether garden peas contain them. The phytochemicals found in other types of pea plants include lignins, a flavonoid called quercetin, and caffeic acid. Researchers believe these substances help prevent cancer in different ways and have other beneficial health effects.

Recipe ideas:

• Wilted Asian Greens
• Spring Vegetable Ragout
• Sauteed Pea Vines
• Pea Salad with Radishes and Feta Cheese
• Spring Stew with Fish or Shrimp
• Sesame Pea-Shoot Salad
• English Pea and Spring Herb Salad with Lemon-Yogurt Vinaigrette
• Cretan Mixed Greens and Tomatoes with Black-Eyed Peas
• Chicken/Tofu and Shiitake Stir-Fry with Peas and Pea Tendrils

PREVIOUSLY GOTTEN TO KNOW:

• Broccoli Rabe
• Sunburst Squash

_{^{Sources: 1. Field Guide to Produce by Aliza Green; 2. The Asian Grocery Store Demystified by Linda Bladholm; 3. Handy Pocket Guide to Asian Vegetables by Wendy Hutton; 4. Joy of Cooking; 5. Washington State University "Food from the Field" pamphlet; 6. Sunset Magazine; 7. Peashoots.com; 8. Melissa's Great Book of Produce by Cathy Thomas.}}

And we're back!

After a brief, five-month delay, I have returned to both updating the food events calendar and providing weekly highlights.  Here is the set from now through the end of the July 4th weekend.  (As a reminder, these highlights are completely capricious and based solely on things I think sound interesting.)

As always, please see Seattle Food Events Calendar page for FULL calendar (as there's more than just these highlights) and if any of the below highlights interest you, you can find more details and contact info in the actual Calendar itself.

And don't forget: farmers markets farmers markets farmers markets! 

THIS WEEK (plus some)

Saturday, Jun 28:

• Chef Franz Junga of Il Fornaio takes you on a tour of Pike Place Market.  Starts at 9:30 AM.  With lunch!
• Baby Food Cooking Demo at University District Farmers Market. 10am.
• Iranian Festival!  With Iranian food served from 12-8pm.  I won't be going but maybe I will finally be inspired to use the pomegranate molasses I bought a million years ago.

Sunday, Jun 29:

• Another Pike Place Market Chef Tour, this time with Chef Joseph Conrad of Qube. Starts at 9:30 am.
• FREE! Berry Sampling at West Seattle Farmers Market. 11am.
• FREE! Summer Sunday Chef Demonstrations at Pike Place Market: Chef Jim Drohman from Le Pichet.  Starts at 12pm.
• Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere! Dinner and Fair at Garfield Community Center.  Fair is free, with "local organizations, small businesses, and food producers dedicated to food justice, fairer trade and farm policies, urban gardening and immigrants' rights. Also enjoy live music, a local farmer meet & greet, community art project, and food and beverages from local wineries and breweries!"  Starts at 3pm.  Dinner will have chefs from La Medusa, Portage Bay Café and Stumbling Goat Bistro.  Requires tickets, sliding scale ($10-30), 6-9pm.

Monday, Jun 30:

• Homage to Local Producers Monday Dinner at Tilth, featuring Farmgirl Collective.
• Science on Tap at Ravenna location.  Sally James, science and medical writer will discuss "Brevity is Complex: How Science is Reported in the Media;" 7pm.

Tuesday, Jul 1:

• Only 30 days left to buy me a birthday present!
• Reisling and food pairing dinner at Flying Fish featuring wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle. 

Wednesday, Jul 2:

• FREE! Composting for Apartment Dwellers class thru Seattle Tilth.  5pm near Pike Place.  Pre-registration required.
• FREE! Cooking Demo by Wali Khairzada, Owner of Afghan restaurant Kabul.  Time is not listed, but it will be at Wallingford Farmers Market, which runs from 3-7pm.  I will be calling the organizers and will update with info ASAP.

Thursday, Jul 3: FareStart - Reservations Open for 08/14/08 Chef Tamas Ronyai of Centerplate.

Friday, Jul 4:

• Seattle Beer Fest! Running through Sunday.
• Probably some fireworks or something!

Sunday, Jul 6:

• FREE! Cooking Demo: Herbal Vinegar-Making for Kids. 11am at West Seattle Farmers Market.
• Monster Milk and Cookie Bake: "PCC is joining forces with Immaculate Baking Company and Organic Valley to host one sweet event — the baking of a 10-foot wide cookie!" 12-3pm.
• FREE! Summer Sunday Chef Demonstrations at Pike Place Market: Chef Seth Caswell of Stumbling Goat.  Starts at 12pm.

COMING UP

• Farestart Guest Chef on the Waterfront Event on Jul 9.  "50 of the Seattle area’s most talented chefs, breweries, wineries and purveyors of fine food. It's a celebration of fabulous fare, games, live jazz and a sparkling sunset, emceed by Chef Dan Thiessen, with all proceeds directly benefiting FareStart’s job training and placement program." Tickets on sale now. 6-9pm.
• Fabulous Female Winemakers of the Northwest Featuring Winemaker Kay Simon at Flying Fish on Jul 11.  Reservations now available.  6:30pm.
• FareStart: As of Jun 26, space still available for Chef Darin Leonardson of Toscano (Jul 17), Chef David Olson of Bis on Main (Jul 24) and Chef Seth Caswell of Stumbling Goat (Leslie's birthday, aka Jul 31).
• Sunday Supper at TASTE at SAM on Sunday, Aug 3.  Featuring Lummi Island Wild.  "The five-course dinner showcases reefnet caught wild salmon from Lummi Island Wild, located off the Straight of Georgia on Northern Washington’s Lummi Island."  Contact TASTE for reservations.  5:30pm.

OMG HAVE YOU HEARD FOOD PRICES ARE REALLY BAD!?!

I don’t watch the news and get all of my current event information from sporadically listening to Marketplace and BBC Newspod podcasts while washing my dishes.

Marketplace and the BBC are not exactly like your local newscast, i.e., not especially melodramatic or fear-mongering.  Nevertheless, during the three hours or so (this is actually NOT one of my patented ridiculous exaggerations) it took me to clean up from the babycake bake-a-thon, I listened to so much dire news about the state of the world’s food supply that I started to get that special kind of mild, vague anxiety that only the news can give you.

In response, I decided to make a pot of beans from the black beans I already had in my pantry.  Nothing calms me down faster than eating like a peasant, and this would kill two birds with one stone in that I would be eating an inexpensive food that I had actually already paid for.

I had heard, in happier podcasting, a KCRW Good Food Market Report (first audio clip on page)in which L.A. Times food writer Russ Parsons explains how he makes black and other dried beans.  There’s also more info about his thoughts at the eGullet Forums section on Dried Beans.  (Unfortunately the link doesn't seem to want to take you to the actual Russ Parsons post, but the one with the most bean-prep info appears to be his response from Feb 3 2004, 11:24 AM, so you can scroll down the page to click on the post from the tree view.)

Here are some of his bean tips:

He recommends not soaking.  His research led him to believe the benefits people assume come from soaking (minimizing of bean-induced gassiness, shorter cooking time) might not necessarily always be true.  He says cooking time with freshly dried beans isn’t really impacted very much from soaking.  Discard the soaking liquid might get rid of some of the troublesome complex sugars (alpha-galactosides), but you also lose the flavorful broth and you’re not doing anything about the fiber which can have the same effect.  Eating beans regularly usually takes care of that anyway and beans are good for you, so there.

He also says that salting only at end is a “misconception,” and you should do “a little at beginning, a little in the middle” and of course to make final seasoning adjustments before seasoning so that the flavor of the bean is seasoned all the way through.

He generally uses about 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon salt per pound of beans and recommends using only the minimum amount of water necessary.

He uses a closed pot method that he starts on the stove, bringing it to a simmer, then he sticks it in the oven at 350.

The time will be dependent on age of bean.  A freshly dried bean might only take 45 minutes, older beans, up to two hours.  Blow on a bean to see if its skin wrinkles to test if it’s done (or taste it, of course).  After they are done, take off heat and leave covered for 20 minutes to finish the cooking.

He notes that putting dried chipotles in to give the beans a smoky, meaty flavor even though they are vegetarian. 

I followed his advice with regard to the not soaking and adding salt and chipotle, but I used a slow cooker.  They were nice, not transcendent, so I think I will try again using his full method once I have a proper pot. 

The chipotle flavor was a nice addition; I think next time I will use more (used about three for two lbs.).  For summer BBQ’s with veggie friends, beans prepared that way might be a good centerpiece to a dish to help give them a heartier smoky BBQ experience.

My reality television watching responsibilities for BuddyTV are oddly mirroring my own life right now.  While I’m still just as interested in cooking, I have been strangely lacking in appetite lately.  Since I rarely have the chance to cook for others, there’s not much reason to cook for myself if I’m just not that hungry. Simultaneous to this, I have also been feeling the need to be much more physically active; it’s summertime and I just kind of feel a bouncy need to be out and about.

So it’s appropriate that with the end of Top Chef viewing duties comes now the newest season of the most happiest tv show ever, America’s Best Dance Crew.  All those kids!  With their dancing!  And sincerity!  It is simply physically impossible to be unhappy watching this show.

I will be posting weekly Prediction columns on Wednesdays and Best/Worst on Saturdays, but won’t be posting links here since it’s not really related.  If you enjoy that show though, as well, check out the columns and let me know if you agree with my picks. 

After several delays, here is my interview with my long-lost twin Stephanie Izard, winner of season 4 of Top Chef.  She explains how to braise a pistachio; I believe I will actually try this at some point.

I have decided to take it as a positive sign that my doppelganger just won $100K and a nationally-televised cooking show.  Surely things must continue to look up for me as well: foul-mouthed curly-haired brunettes, 2008 is our year!

With that one, the interviews are over for a while.  It’s hard to convey the level of relief I feel at the idea of at least a few months during which I do not have to face listening to myself on tape. 

My friends know better than to attempt to take any pictures of me.  However, if they do manage to capture me on film despite my tantrum-throwing, they quickly learn there’s no point in trying to make me look at any pictures of myself. 

Well, apparently I have as much of a phobic response to hear my voice as I do to seeing my own image.  Always so painful, the giggly doofusness.  If science does ever give us the ability to download our brains into a computer, I call dibs on the first spot in line.  I would feel much much more comfortable if I only existed as the text I produce. 

Nevertheless, I will certainly be raising my hand to do the interviews again for season five.  Any excuse to talk to chefs.

And here, too, is the recap of the Reunion show.  While Richard Blais is my sentimental favorite, Andrew D’Ambrosi’s ADHD antics won me over (of course), Spike Mendelsohn turned out to be pretty cool and sweet when I interviewed him, and Tom Colicchio could give me stern lecture any day, I believe grumpy Dale Talde surprisingly emerged from this final episode as the winner of the Top Chef Crush for this season.  I liked his sneakers.

After a hiatus, I have returned to updating the Seattle Food Events Calendar, and will be returning to weekly highlights soon.  Summertime is super-busy foodie time here in Seattle so there is a lot to add. Continue to check back over the next few days as I get caught up!

Here's my interview with Lisa Fernandes.  I have some thoughts on it but I have no time for my usual cultural criticism.

Stephanie Izard interview has been pushed back, now will be talking to her tomorrow so will post it after that.