Spokane Food Blog

First, I start to eat meat. Then today, I meet an 11 year old who is friends with the Palin Family. Her Grandma grew up with my second cousin once removed. That cousin’s Aunt is my Grandma. She grew up in Metaline Falls. Metaline Falls is the town the train to Ione travels from (as seen in Benny and Joon). I ate buffalo in Ione last weekend. Does that mean I am going to turn into Sarah Palin?

Eat buffalo in Ione. Really you should. The town is surrounded by gorgeous scenery and contains about 497 residents.

One of those 497 residents whips up amazing organic home cooked food. If she had a restaurant, I am sure Chef Ramsay would have to search deep in his soul to find one bad thing to say about her cooking. My buffalo was grain feed on a reservation near Ione. I don’t just go eating buffalo everyday but from what I could tell it was perfectly cooked.  Very tasty. The cut I had was a bit more dense and chewy than the red meat I have been eating. It had a distinct savory flavor.

Maybe I will take up buffalo hunting with Sarah next year?

Despite a message in my email inbox today reading “Holidays Are Murder on Turkeys,” I am looking forward to my very first Thanksgiving turkey and all of the dishes created out of turkey leftovers.  The email came from Action for Animals, a Seattle based 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation to promote the vegan lifestyle.  I signed up for the Action for Animals emails at least 4 years ago.  If you read past all of the invites to gather to close another KFC and protest fur, you can get some great tips for vegetarian restaurants in Seattle and Portland.

For more information about the group you can visit their sites:

http://www.afa-online.org
http://www.myspace.com/actionforanimals
http://actionforanimals.buzznet.com
http://www.VeganStarterPack.com

As you may or may not know, tonight is the first episode of Top Chef: New York on Bravo. At 8pm, no less than 17 chefs will face off in the Quickfire Challenge and the grander Elimination Challenge. It’ll be entertainment central, yo.

Who will win? Who will be laughed out? Who will be the douchebag to out-douche season two’s Marcel? With only Bravo’s propaganda to go by, it’s difficult to say, but here’s an early opinion:

The Potential Winners!

Alex: Executive chef, Restaurant 15, LA

His mug suggests he might just win the Douchebag award, yet you can’t argue with the man’s taste and credentials, at least when the context of a reality television program is taken into consideration. Having a vast international background — landing in LA by the way of Madrid, the Dominican Republic, and NYC — suggests he can be versatile in the kitchen while having a spicy enough personality for the producers to want to keep him around. His love for a good duck confit and paella makes him an interesting pick for me personally.

Fabio: Owner, Cafe Firenze Italian Restaurant & Martini Bar, Moorpark, CA

Fabio, a born and bred Italian, has the authentic Mediterranean cuisine down pretty well if his bio is anything to go by. In fact, looking at his restaurant’s menu, which I assume is his seeing he is the owner, Fabio is somebody who enjoys simple and clean flavors. This tends be a favorite quality for the judges. Of course, Fabio’s also a good looking man, which isn’t going to hurt his chances

Jamie: Executive Chef, Absinthe Brasserie and Bar, San Francisco

It’s hard to say if Absinthe seems so prolific just because of the easy to remember name or if it has an actual good buzz about it. Regardless, Absinthe’s menu looks impressive without being overly complicated, and Jamie’s CIA credentials would indicate she knows what she’s doing. Judging by her tattoos and posture, I’m also going to guess she has spunk, which is very television friendly. Who doesn’t love a spark plug?

The Potential Loser!

Carla: Owner/Chef, Alchemy Caterers, DC

While about half the contestants are, shall we say, uninspiring, I can’t help but feel that Carla encompasses all the less than stellar qualities of the Top Chefs. On top of the pile is her catering background. With all respect to caterers far and wide, I have seen few interesting caterer contestants. Remember Betty from season two? Her sparkly personality overshadowed her dull creations, and pulled her through further than she should have gone. She was also the same age as Carla.

In other words, I don’t think Carla will be the first to go. But that doesn’t mean she’s not The Loser in this competition.

The Potential Douchebag!

Patrick: Culinary student, NY

First, I’m fairly certain he might have his eyebrows waxed, which, unless he is in the middle of a reassignment process, does not inspire confidence. Other than that, the tie, his posture, his… Well, just look at the bio… My prediction is that he’ll be an overly cocky student who thinks he knows better than the judges, and will be kept in for quite a while to keep the program “colorful.” Outside of that, I have little reason to believe he’ll cook up anything too interesting.

The Stefaning!

Stefan: Chef, StefansCatering.com, Santa Monica

Yeah, I got little to add here, other than this will be the man who will unleash The Stefaning all over everybody’s faces! My personal favorite in the competition.

(Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words.)

I’m not gonna be much help on the chicken front…

When people ask me for good tofu I can point them to places as varied as Mizuna in Spokane to Kingdom of Vegetarians in Philly. I really will be no help on the chicken front for quite some time. When I dove into meat two months ago, a year after I lost my meat-virginity, I concluded that good steak is awesome, while I blissfully avoided other types of meats.

Then, for whatever reason, I woke up one morning to find myself wanting to cut to the search for perfect chicken.

Kusina Filipina, an East Francis establishment, might just have put an end to the search, at least as far as flavor goes. When my chicken arrived, I discovered I had to eat around the bones, and, sadly, there was no one to help me figure out how to exactly do that. I guess my dining companion was more fixated on his poker winnings than on my new found gold mine of chicken. Can I really blame him though? He was with me a year ago when I lost my meat-virginity.

The texture was… strange, but good. It perfectly absorbed the flavors of the marinade, not unlike tofu, yet completely different at the same time. I liked the flavor. Maybe not as much as I like steak, but at least there are other alternatives out there.

It isn’t simple, eating chicken. Those bones get in the way of a delicious flavor, and I was not prepared to fully take on this chicken-encounter quite yet. I am, however, ready to move past the steak.

On our way to sample the Northern Lights seasonal, we noticed a new addition to the Riverwalk Plaza. And quite frankly, what could be better than adding Halletts Chocolates to the current offering of brew-pub grub and Thai food?

We sampled their orange cream truffle, as well as a peanut butter one. The verdict? Not quite up there with either OMO or the French Quarter, but then again, with the larger scale production from Halletts, that is to be expected. Their chocolates are still tasty, and certainly more affordable than the two aforementioned boutiques.

Halletts is a great way to end a night filled with hot wings and craft brew from Northern Lights. Check them out at 1003 E Trent Ave, WA 99202.

Did you know there are people out there who don’t like cheese? I kid you not, they exist. We at the Spokane Food Blog Editorial Board™ (SFBED™ for short) do not consider ourselves part of that group of Lesser Tasters, and recently picked up four cheeses from Huckleberry’s Natural Market for an official inspection.

Red Hot Dutch Gouda: We didn’t dislike this gouda per se, but it certainly wasn’t loved either. The main issue was that the peppers overpowered the slightly sweet flavor of the gouda. This not so much because of the hotness — the peppers weren’t too spicy at all — but because the actual cheese was so mild. The combined flavor would quite possibly be a lot better if paired with a creamy cheese, but as it is, the SFBED™ can’t call this a favorite.

Sorry…

White Stilton with Blueberry: If there ever was a stereotypical dessert cheese, this would be it. The SFBED™ wouldn’t drive miles and miles to track down the flavored Stilton, and nor did we have to, seeing that it’s readily available at Huckleberry’s. It’s certainly something anybody should try at least once during their lifetime, therefore we are a bit less strict on judging the Stilton. (Surprisingly enough it is not on the Omnivore 100 list.) Don’t expect to taste too much from the actual cheese, though the creamy texture works well with the blueberry. Overall, it is a fine finale to a cheese platter, if not an original one.

Not exciting, but…

BelGioioso Italico Cheese: Despite its name, this Italian style washed rind cheese is actually from Wisconsin. That’s not a bad thing, of course, and the Italico is very tasty, with a slightly earthy flavor. Dunk it on a crusty Bouzies’s bread and pair it with a few slices on apple, and baby, you got yourself a fall meal going.

We gladly give it…

Ridder: Norwegian for “knight,” Ridder is a semi-hard cheese with a nice, slightly sharp, nutty flavor. It is not the most challenging of cheeses, and The SFBED™ is just OK with that. Open up a bottle of red, put on the Herbie Hancock The Doobie Brothers, and groove out with some Ridder. Indeed, Ridder would be smooth jazz yacht rock if it was a musical style.

We approve…