Yet wonderful as it may be, the weird part is really what makes it a stand-out. Spokane certainly has its share of mismatched people, and for whatever reason they all seem to congregate at Thomas Hammer. Why is this? No, really, I actually want to know.

I have seen the typical Beverly Hills Hillbillies-hillbilly on television many times, but in real life, I’ve only had the pleasure twice. Both times at Thomas Hammer. The one man, in particular, fit the stereotype beautifully, particularly when he broke out in a ditty mid-sentence, in between the characteristic “hee hee hee”-laugh spurts. He looked a bit like this.

On the other side, there tends to also be a bunch of younger hipsters sitting around comparing who has the thickest rimmed glasses. I kinda prefer the hillbilly, but that’s neither here nor there.

Thomas Hammer. I don’t quite get it, but I like it.

A few weeks ago we saw him put together a tomatillo salsa that looked very refreshing and summer-y. And seeing that we’re tired of the cold, it made sense to put something like it together as a reminder of warmer weather. I say “something like it” as I pretty much just put it together by memory after watching the show. It goes a little something like this:

Tyler Florence Tomatillo Salsa Remixed

• 5 tomatillos
• 1 small onion
• 1 jalapeno (more if you want, but this isn’t really meant to be spicy)
• 10 cloves of garlic (originally a lot less, but who doesn’t like garlic?!)
• A couple of handfuls of cilantro
• Salt

Boil water.

Chop the onion into large chunks and remove seeds and stems from jalapeno. Drop them with the tomatillo into the boiling water.

When the tomatillos are getting soft, pull all the vegetables out and run them under cold water. Remove the pot from the burner.

Drop the vegetables alongside the cilantro and garlic into a blender. Ladle in a bit of water from the pot, and salt to taste.

Blend to desired consistency.

Like I mentioned, this is a mild salsa, yet very refreshing and versatile.

This is too bad, because Luna still delivers good food.

Having had a couple of brunches there semi-recently, there is no reason to consider this a “has been.” Sure, there are more creative and daring (and cheap) choices out there, but the quality is consistently high. Their eggs benedict? Excellent. Huevos rancheros? Perfect. Sure, these have probably been on the menu for the last ten years, but you know what… You need spots that can dish the classics up well. Not to deter anybody from taking any chances out there, of course, but I will say there are room for everybody in this town.

A quick sampling of their dinner menu recently — OK so it was boxed leftovers, but whatever, I’m not too proud for the doggy bag — was also a pleasant experience. In fact, the dug leg confit was great in all its succulent glory. Mixed with a juicy bit of lamb the overall quality was high enough that I will gladly eat other people’s leftovers from Luna.

I’m just saying. I think Luna still deserves some love, even though it’s aging a bit. But then again, who isn’t?

Oh yes, it is still going down: three teams — Team SFB, Team Blue Spark and Team DTE (we don’t really count them, even though they now also have a fourth player) — are battling it out through five rounds of heavy spicy food challenges. Here is the original post, and keep in mind everything is still in the planning phases.

Some more background

The heart of our competition was best summed up by Team Blue Spark Bradley: This is a contest where we’ll eat “notorious dishes served in Spokane resaurants that are actually on the menu.” Sure, there will probably be some customization in the spirit of the contest, but anything we’ll be eating will in some shape or form exist in local restaurants. Hence why we call this Spiceavore — we nabbed the name from “locavore.”

And of course you — yes you — know something spicier than what we’ve picked. Thing is we have to pick something, and reactions to spiciness are incredibly subjective, Scoville scale aside. Our aim is to grab high quality food from local eateries.

Not that we aren’t open to suggestions, which brings us to…

The elusive Round 5

This will be a relay round, though we haven’t quite decided how it will go down. Slick Rock has, however, kindly offered up some of their ghost pepper salsa (if they can stock it — I’m guessing ghost peppers aren’t readily available from our local grocery stores) and we look forward to trying that.

The ref

We have learned that Chris Dreyer is interested in judging the contest. That’s great, although I’m a bit suspect the suggestion came from James Paul who is well known for bribery in contests.

So we got pretty excited when we heard DOMA would be featured in a porter from Kettle House Brewing Company. Kettle House, while not a brewery you can easily find here in Spokane, has made a good name for itself, so the marriage between the two sounded like one made in heaven. Kind of like this…

And the beer truly is a good one, as long as you like coffee. If you don’t, then you probably don’t want to get near this one. We’re talking something that is as much coffee with beer flavor as beer with coffee flavor. To me, that is a good thing.

Not shockingly this is a sipping beer, seeing how strong the flavors are. The head poured about a finger, and laces the glass well. The mouthfeel is medium, which was a bit surprising, seeing how strong the coffee flavor is. (In my experience, high coffee flavor = body like Kevin Federline.)

This is a highly drinkable beer, again, if you like coffee. With a couple of cans you can have a pretty good evening going. Of course, you can’t find it around here, so hey, road trip to Missoula!

I will not apologize for loving this.

Now, despite my promise not to digress, I will do just that. Somewhat strangely, perhaps ironically, enough, Portlanders who travel up here have a love affair with Zip’s. Why this is, I don’t know, as I never found that much to love about the place, but there you go.

Enough digressing… I tried the chipotle chocolate doughnut and have to say… Could be worse. Could also be better, but then again, this is Zip’s.

At first bite it really just tastes like a regular chocolate glazed doughnut. At second bite the light smokey flavors of the chipotle starts coming through. At third bite, the novelty wears off and you realize you’re eating a pretty standard grocery store-tier doughnut with some chipotle flavoring added. Sure, it’s all good in a sick and wrong way, but really, it’s nothing special.

It’s definitely an interesting little experiment from Zip’s, which served the doughnuts downtown at 3rd and Lincoln. But as a substitute for a real dessert, it falls short.

Maybe the bacon maple bar is better, but I’ve yet to try one of those. It might be easier just to buy a maple bar from Rosauers and fry up some bacon yourself.

There are better things to spend $0.99 on.

We have talked about it, and now it’s going down! Three teams — so far — are facing off on April 3rd to see who will be the ultimate Spiceavore in Spokane.

The Teams

Team Blue Spark: They might have good beer on tap, but can they hold their own in a spicy food challenge?

Team DTE: Nick, Bart, and James “Porcelain Mouth” Paul got severely defeated by yours truly during our last spicy food contest. Can they stage a comeback? (Answer: No.)

Team SFB: With two mystery members and two crowned champions, SFB is ready to take another victory.

The Venue

Checkerboard Tavern.

The Rounds

1. Spicy hot wings from the Screaming Yak.
2. Dish to be determined from De Leon.
3. Dish to be determined from Thai on 1st.
4. Tamales and some crazy spicy tequila from El Que.

The Rules

They’re being ironed out, but really — it’s about eating spicy foods. It’s not that complicated. We’re trying to keep it local (with one large exception to be announced soon) hence why we’re not getting KFC wings.

The Profile: Screaming Yak wings

It had to be either Screaming Yak or Northern Lights hot wings — they definitely rule Spokane’s wing scene in terms of flavor and spiciness. And while Northern Lights has a more lingering heat (and in my opinion a bit better flavor), the punch of Yak when it hits your lips just seems to fit a contest better. The hottest Yak wings don’t stay with you for as long as Lights do, but my god, when they hit the lips it feels like you’re being physically punched. There’s definitely some habanero going on with these wings.

And really if you’re a contestant, now you can go practice. Heck, if you like spicy foods and hot wings, Screaming Yak is a good place to stop by. It was extremely crowded during our visit, on account of it being happy hour, so finding sitting room might be an issue. It’s worthwhile, though, as the wings are about $5 during this time.

Plus the beer selection, while not stellar, is not awful either.

And furthermore…

If you’re interested in being a spectator, we will have some more information coming up. It’ll be worthwhile as you’ll see grown people cry.

For now, though, Golden Hills’ brews are available on tap in quite a few places around town — including Checkerboard Tavern which I wrote about yesterday — and two out of three of their lagers are definitely excellent session beers. You’ve already read my take on Clem’s Gold (unless you suck and didn’t, in which case you can read it now), and here are my opinions on the rest.

Ben’s Brown

This one was kind of a disappointment to me. I had expected something a little bit more substantial, particularly seeing its robustness pimped on the Golden Hills Web site.

Not that the flavor is entirely unpleasant; in fact it’s pretty good, I will give it that. But the body feels surprisingly thin and even a bit watered down.

It’s not awful. Heck, it might actually appeal to some over Lizzy’s Lager. Yet, for me, it kind of sticks out as the Cousin Oliver of the group.

Lizzy’s Lager

Lizzy might be Clem’s little sister, at least as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bit sweeter, and I can see what the brewers are going for, as it might even have some bolder flavors. I guess we could get into a philosophical discussion if a lager should go head to head with “wine and whiskey” (as the Web site suggests); in my view that’s more of an ale’s job.

But we’re getting into the nitty gritty here. I prefer the flavor of Clem’s Gold, but if Lizzy’s is on tap, then it’s worth considering if you’re looking for a refreshing lager.

Overall

I’m liking what I’m seeing from Golden Hills. They’re not going crazily overboard like, say, Dogfish Head, in creativity, but produce solid, refreshing beers. I for one respect them for that, and commend them for doing a great job on their first brews.

Currently the menu is showing nice potential with vegetarian options, and, soon, vegan options. And our pretzel was served with a pretty dang good mustard.

The beer selection too, is going in a direction that is looking good. Sure, it’s not huge, but with the excellent Clem’s Gold on tap and Laughing Dog IPA on bottle.

Checkerboard Tavern still feels old school, and hopefully that won’t change, even though the clientele inevitably will start skewing younger after the grand opening on March 17th. That’s probably not a bad thing, as the place is big enough for everyone. And the checkerboard tables are awesome for the competitive among us.

Also worth noting is that Down to Earth will host Green Drinks at the tavern on April 13th. Consider this your early notice.

To start with the tequila. I, for the most part, don’t like it much. Other than a delicious Santo tequila liquor, I just have bad memories and associations with tequila. But they do have 23 to choose from, and if you like the stuff, I’m sure it’d go just fine with their food.

As for the food, it’s definitely good. Maybe not great, but good. Their “Vietnamese guacamole” has a nice flavor to it — though it’s a tad too thin — and is served with what has to be De Leon tortilla chips. (Or an extremely close clone.) For $6 you also get a lot of chips, so we’re talking a good bang for the buck here.

Tacos, meanwhile, are $3 a pop, which seems a tad too expensive seeing Tumbras serve better ones at half price. Not that El Que’s tacos are bad, but I did miss a second tortilla with the tacos. The al pastor was good, though, and if you’re hanging out, drinking some Mexican beers or tequila, then El Que’s tacos are worthwhile.

El Que, then, is an excellent addition to Browne’s Addition.