Spokane Food Blog

A few employees at Hooters in Brooklyn are suing the food establishment for the mandatory purchase of their $20 uniform and the costs for dry cleaning it.  I know state laws vary on whether or not employers have the right to make the employees pay for uniforms, but do you think it is right for employees to pay for work uniforms?

I had a few jobs that required uniforms.  One place provided all employees with one shirt with logo that needed to be worn during every shift.  They offered more shirts for sale for $5 each that we purchased direct from the vendor and not from the employer. Another job I had required a specific shirt, that the establishment provided and cleaned so we would grab a new one for each shift. However, we were required to purchase pants, these could be from any vendor as long as they were black. Employees were not reimbursed for this cost. Some of my cousins worked for a clothing company.  They were not required to wear a specific uniform, however they had to wear a full outfit purchased at their place of work.

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The concept of the site is simple — every week a few dining spots, be it restaurants or grocery stores, that in one way or other are outstanding will be added to the guide. These places are sometimes off the beaten path, sometimes not, but should all be checked out by locals and visitors alike. Agree or disagree? Comment here on Spokane Food Blog and feel free to suggest your own spots while you’re at it.

The new spots are:

• Northern Lights Brewing Company for beer
• One World Spokane
• Rocket Market
• Tacos Tumbras

Owners and chefs are also encouraged to submit their own 200 character blurbs for their spots.

Enjoy Only Eat Here!

Ode to Meatless Mondays, Spokane Vegans cook up a few November events.

Even if you are not a vegan, you can still join these great events hosted by Spokane Vegans at One World Cafe.  You will find great inspiration at these dinners to refresh your menu ideas.  After all, even if you do consume animal products, it is unnecessary to consume animals for every meal — challenge your taste-buds and go vegan once a week.

November 6, 2009 5:30-8PM at One World Spokane, Guest Chef Stephanie Smith will prepare an entirely vegan meal.

Here is the official word from the Spokane Vegans‘ web site.

An Evening in the Garden of Vegan with Sarah Kramer

A Benefit for One World Spokane and Spokane Vegans

Join us Monday November 16th for a seasonal four course vegan meal lovingly prepared for you by the Spokane Vegans in partnership with One World Spokane. Best-selling cookbook author and vegan extraordinaire, Sarah Kramer will be our guest of honor and will be sharing some thoughts on veganism and celebrating the 10 year anniversary How it All Vegan.

This dinner is a benefit for One World Spokane, a unique organic community kitchen, and your friendly neighborhood vegans, us – the Spokane Vegans.

Doors open at 5:30pm, dinner will be served at 6pm

Tickets:

pre-order $20 adults and $15 children 10 & under

$30 at the door

Space is limited, so order your tickets now by following the links below.

Sarah Kramer’s books and 2010 wall calendar will be available for purchase at the event.

(Watch this space for more information, such as the evening’s planned menu.)

Another fun Spokane connection to Top Chef.

Nurse Kendra was one of twenty people in the USA to meet with Fabio from Top Chef Season 5 this past week. Kendra works as an RN for a Spokane Cystic Fibrosis (CF) clinic. She was flown to Minneapolis to participate in a conference on the disease. While in Minneapolis, Kendra was invited to watch Fabio demonstrate and provide tips for feeding children with Cystic Fibrosis.

You can help Kendra and others raise money to support fighting CF by watching out for the Spokane Great Strides walk that will take place at Gonzaga University, Jundt lawn at Jundt Art Museum on May 29, 2010 at 10:00 AM.

My favorite way to make tzatziki requires the best yogurt.

1. Go to International Market and buy any container of kefir yogurt they stock.
2. Pour the entire container in a bowl (about 2 cups).
3. Grab a cucumber (about 6″ long) and grate it on a standard cheese-grater letting the pieces fall on a towel.
4. Squeeze the juice out of the grated cucumber and add it to the bowl of yogurt.
5. Take 10 cloves of garlic (most people would prefer only 5 cloves) and zest it on a micro-plane.
6. Stir the garlic in to the cucumber and yogurt.
7. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the yogurt mixture.

That’s it.  Simple.

To cut the taste of the garlic add more lemon.  This might be necessary if you use 10 cloves and your leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

I like to eat my tzatziki in a falafel sandwich (naan, falafel, tomato, tzatziki, hummus, and sometimes fries) or with veggie slices.

A few interesting links were sent to the SFB inbox, check out this information:

10 healthy foods that are illegal in the USA – read this

50 best search engines for food choices – read this

Twitter user @hyperlocavore sent information about a website for folks in Spokane, WA looking for yard share space or gardeners. The site is free, so sign up! This is a great idea for land owner who don’t want to maintain it, and apartment dwellers who want to garden:

For more on yard sharing
Distributed suburban #CSA?
A hyperlocavore?

7vs7: Locavore Round 1 winners expect your prize in the mail this week. Those of you who have not sent your address email me (go to contact upper right corner) so I can send you your prize.

What is the name of this plant growing in Spokane, WA?

I emailed Dry Fly asking about their product.  They generously responded with some excellent news.

info@dryflydistilling.com to me

All of our wheat comes from Winsota Farm 8 miles east of Rosalia. Easily within a 100 mile radius. Nothing else in Vodka!

Don Poffenroth and Kent Fleischmann

“So where do you draw the line for yeast?” -Rachel

“We’ve had some mead brewing in our basement for almost a year. The original yeast we added were not local, but by this point, I’d assume any living yeasties were ‘born’ in my basement.” – Rachel

“I also have yeast ‘born’ in my basement from home-brew.” -UnknownNeva

“I think anything raised in our area is fair game. We import the seeds we grow our gardens with. I think if it was produced here and lives here like yeast in beer or sour dough starter— which die and reproduce quickly should be counted in.” -Brightspirit

“Yeast question is resolved? – please let me know if you have more to add on that.” -UnknownNeva

“Yeast is used to ferment the grapes, and although it is racked off the final product, it does come from outside the area.” -Local Winery

I know I said the yeast debate was done, but I do have more to add on that.

(We can not see who voted, it is all a secret ballot.)

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The final Locavore Round 1 contestants:

1. Becky from I Put the Me in Awesome
2. Mark from Route 140 and Rhymes with Almonds
3. Unknown Neva from SFB and Finally a Blog
4. Moneeeeq from Home Economics 2.0
5. Andrew from Editor, Revised and Burger, Revised
6. Hank from Shallow Cogitations
7. BrightSpirit from Fresh Abundance who will post to Fresh Blog
8. Paul from DTE
9. Remi from SFB and RemiAndre
10. Bart from DTE
11. Crystal from SpoVegan
12. Stephanie from Peanut butter and Stephanie
13. John Speare from Cycling Spokane
14. Rachel from One Facet of the Human Experience
15. Brandi from Twitter *which blog will you post to?

We will have plenty of people cheering us on from home and supporting us by trying to eat as local as they find possible. Feel free to send suggestions along the way.  Yesterday’s poll about buying local concluded people need to know where the local vendors are and about the variety of local food.  I am sure this contest will help provide that information.

Contestants, you know the rules.  Contest starts Monday August 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM and ends Friday September 4, 2009 at 11:59 PM.  Who will be the first to go out and what will push them over the edge?  Coffee and that caffeine kick just might knock out a few..  Not to mention the next Full Moon Fiasco.  Are all of these players really willing to only drink water until midnight? Don’t forget you must update on your progress or we will just consider you a drop out.

You can post updates on Twitter by using #7vs7

*Don’t forget 7vs7 Locavore: Round 2 will be coming soon (sometime between September and December 2009). More to come later but all locally produced products will be involved. Check back here or at DTE for more information.

You may select up to 3 answers.

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