By Kevin Finch on November 13, 2008
Here is the recipe from Jean. The original in the Tastes of Italia (July 2004) called for sea bass filets. I won’t pretend I know enough Italian to translate the recipe’s title on my own. The magazine renders it “Sea Bass in Crazy Water.”
Jean’s version with tilapia left nothing to be desired so you don’t need to take out a second mortgage on your home to come up with sea bass.
Here is what you need:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried red chili flakes
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
- 2 cups Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
- 1 pinch Kosher salt
- 1 1/2 pounds of tilapia filets (sea bass, red snapper, or grouper also work)
- freshly ground pepper (optional)
- additional chopped parsley for garnish (also optional)
In a large skillet, combine the olive oil, garlic and red chili flakes. Saute over medium heat for three minutes before adding the parsley, capers, tomatoes, wine, and salt. Bring to a boil. Add filets and reduce the heat to medium-low and cook filets about three minutes on each side. Arrange fish on plates and spoon the sauce/broth over the fish. Garnish with fresh pepper and parsley if desired and serve hot.
Posted in cooking, wine | Tagged capers, Crazy Water, fish recipe, garlic, Italian cooking, Jean Hernandez, olive oil, red chili flakes, sea bass, Tastes of Italia, tilapia, white wine |
By Kevin Finch on November 11, 2008
Food prepared with love is always a gift, and Jean Hernandez gives like few we know. The feast today was a stunning lunch in the Hernandez home after a tour of the rows and rows of cookbooks she has gathered over the years.
We counted it a very promising sign to see the corners of Post-It notes set like flags in the tops of nearly every cookbook on the shelf. The Post-Its suggested these books have been tools rather than just a colorful collection untouched by much besides dust.
And lunch proved beyond any doubt our hunch was spot on. It also provided more support for our view that many of the best feasts are simple meals eaten with friends at home. Jean’s ‘Tilapia all’ Acqua Pazza’ just may have been the best preparation of a fish we’ve had in years. Garlic, red chile, parsley, and capers along with Roma tomatoes simmered in white wine became the perfect foil for the flaky white fish.
I can hardly wait to make Crazy Water Tilapia myself, and I can assure you I’ll move heaven and earth to create an opening in my calendar next time Jean invites me over for a bite to eat. Let me know if you’d like a copy of the recipe.
Posted in cooking, wine | Tagged capers, cookbooks, Crazy Water, fish, hunch, Jean Hernandez, lunch, Post-It notes, Roma tomatoes, sliced garlic, tilapia |
By Kevin Finch on November 9, 2008
Several recommendations (including one from Nancy Leson… thanks Nancy) guided a group of us to a strip mall next to an abandoned KMart in Bellevue for a memorable Chinese meal at the Szechuan Chef. Above are the remains of the meal that included hand-shaved noodles, a savory “house pancake” with dipping sauce, Kung Pao fish, and Crispy Mandarin Tofu.
It was brilliant, and reminded me of several epic meals in Shanghai. Along with the food, the brisk service, funky lighting, and marble-topped tables summoned up Shanghai.
All that and possibly the humidity in the dining room from the steaming hot pots bubbling on tables all around us. Hot pot meals are one specialty of the house.
When you go… which you should… order hot pot for the table or do what we did. We chose instead to simply wander through the long menu picking this or that with the plan to eat family style. Szechuan dishes are noted for their heat, but don’t skip the Chef because spicy makes you nervous. Leson is right that a number of the “spicy” warnings littering the menu are overstated. We ordered several dishes listed as ’3′ on the heat scale that arrived quite mild. Of course there is always the chance that you will run into something with enough kick to make you sweat, but this just adds a bit of adventure to your evening out. Consider it a game… say Szechuan Chef Menu Roulette and expect a good story to tell next time conversation at work moves in the direction of chili peppers.
I counted it a very good sign that I was definitely a minority inside the Chef, and can’t wait to return to wander over more the menu.
Posted in culture, dining, travel | Tagged Bellevue, Bellevue restaurants, Chinese food, crispy tofu, eastside restaurants, ethic food, hand-shaved noodles, Nancy Leson, Shanghai, Szechuan Chef |
By Kevin Finch on November 5, 2008
I have one shirt from Nordstrom. It was a gift from a friend, Janet Moffit, who died from cancer just over a year ago. I love my shirt, and think of Janet every time I put it on.
This affection, though, for my shirt or for Janet has never compelled me to wander into Nordstrom to sample the food in their cafe. Call me food prejudiced, but there are Cafe Nordstroms in multiple locations. In my book the place qualifies as a chain and I tend to scorn chain restaurants. Prejudice point one.
It is also a restaurant in a clothing store. Prejudice point two. I don’t typically look to retail giants… even a high-end ones… for my food. And you might recall Nordstrom started as a Seattle shoe shop. The only link I can make between shoes and food is the smell of certain stinky cheeses.
Then prejudice point three: I assumed Cafe Nordstrom by definition would be solely the hang-out of a shopping set to which I will probably never belong. I don’t fit into a Size 4.
This said, I need to come clean. It turns out I’ve eaten ‘chain food’ food before and enjoyed it immensely. My grandfather used to take me, my sister, and our cousins to McDonalds in Kalispell Montana when I was young. The Big Macs I ate on those occassions are some of my best childhood memories.
As for prejudice point two. I need to consider the source. Part of a great meal is the setting and service and Nordstrom excells at both.
Then there was my assumption about Cafe Nordstrom clientele: one of the first people to wander in after I arrived was a guy who regularly works out at the gym where I am a member. So much for prejudice point three.
As I waited to order, I did notice quite a few salad coming out of the kitchen: stereotypical food for the Size 4 shopping set. Yet there is a possible alternative explanation; a great salad is a joy to behold and wonder to eat. And the first salad on the menu at Cafe Nordstrom is within striking distance of both.
I suggest you conquer any dining predjuces you have, and find the time to swing into Nordstrom yourself for the Chicken, Apple, and Goat Cheese Salad ($9.75). Well dressed (ha) in a champagne vinagrette (okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced still… CHAMPAGNE?!), the salad tops organic baby greens and romaine with chicken, fresh and dried apples, spice almonds, red onion (not much… bad for your breath during round two of shopping), and soft creamy goat cheese.
The flavors work like a great food ensemble, but my favorite ingredient was the goat cheese. It is mild with the consistency of whipped cream cheese. Chain or not… clothing store roots or not… shopping clientele or not… I’ll be back and I’ll be ordering a salad.
Posted in culture, dining | Tagged apple, apple chips, Big Mac, Cafe Nordstrom, chain restaurants, champagne vinaigrette, chicken, goat cheese, Janet Moffit, Kalispell MT, McDonalds, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Cafe, salad, shopping set, Size 4 |
By Kevin Finch on October 28, 2008
[caption id="attachment_196" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="A boutique candy from Maryland"]
[/caption]
Halloween is nearly upon us and this brings up critical question. Possibly this question is that much more important given the doom and gloom in the world. That question?
What is your favorite candy? And consider sharing not just a name, but the reason(s) why this particular sugar delivery system has meaning for you.
I am currently enamoured with Cow Tales. Up until a surprise discovery of a box of them on the bottom shelf near the checkout at JoAnn Fabrics here in Spokane, the only place I could get them was the Exxon station just off the 4th Street Exit in Coeur d’Alene. The combination of cheaper Idaho gas and Cow Tales has turned this Exxon into my standard stop near the start of any trip to Montana.
I’m a caramel guy and the vanilla cream center is a taste and texture bonus.
Your turn…
Posted in play, travel | Tagged caramel, caramel with a cream center, Cow Tales, doom and gloom, Exxon, favorite candy, Goetze's Candy Company, Halloween, Halloween candy, sugar delivery system |
By Kevin Finch on October 22, 2008
[caption id="attachment_193" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Recession Blues"]
[/caption]
I’m expanding my ‘recession restaurant’ list for Spokane while waiting to hear yours for the Inland Northwest or wherever you call home. Post on your list the five or ten places you absolutely DO NOT want to go out of business if the economy settles at the bottom of the pickle barrel for an extended time.
I was talking with one friend and restaurant owner yesterday who said that they felt very fortunate that their business was only down 5% thus far. Already he has heard of so many others that have taken much deeper hits.
To my first four (China Garden, Moxie, Luna, and Tacos Tumbras), let me now add three more:
- Donut Parade up on Hamilton. Though the Parade building has looked like it has been ground zero for a recession for years, Darryl’s maple bars are beyond words. Try one hot and just frosted with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and you can see why they don’t need a sign on the building to stay in business (literally there is no sign on the building and hasn’t been for years).
- Chicken-N-More downtown. Several bites of a chicken dinner at Bob Hemphill’s BBQ spot at “you begin to feel right as rain” (bonus points if you can identify the quote). The more at Bob’s includes among other things: ribs, catfish, pulled pork, greens, and red beans & rice.
- Mizuna on Howard near Riverfront Park. Mizuna was the first place I ate in Spokane nine years ago and it has remained near the top of my list of favorites through both ownership changes and a shift from an exclusively vegetarian spot to a bistro with great vegetarian and sustainable carnivore options. Angela Parris puts Mizuna on her list and I agree.
Posted in culture, dining | Tagged BBQ, Bob Hemphill, Chicken-N-More, closed sign, Donut Parade, downtown, Hamilton, maple bars, Michael Young, Mizuna Spokane, pickle barrel, recession, recession-proof restaurants, Spokane restaurants, vegetarian restaurants |
By Kevin Finch on October 21, 2008
[caption id="attachment_184" align="alignright" width="249" caption="Stock Image Doc"]
[/caption]
Thursday I go in for my nearly annual physical and I’m quite open to suggestions of what I might do between now and then to appear to be in better shape than I am. Any advice? Oatmeal for breakfast with freshly ground flax seeds on top? Fish oil? A juice fast for 36 hours? I’ll probably have another week or so before they do the obligatory blood draw so I’m gathering tips on what I might do to skew the numbers in my favor.
P.S. The stock image doc here even looks a bit like our primary care physician.
Posted in play | Tagged annual physical, blood draw, diet tips, fish oil, flax, flax seed, juice fast, oatmeal, physical |
By Kevin Finch on October 20, 2008
The Wall Street rollercoaster and bleak job numbers have me worrying about how well my favorite restaurants will fare over the coming months. In the best of times, even good restaurants can struggle for a number of reasons; and in a season when the economy in constricting, I’m starting to triage my dining budget.
Rather than spend increasingly precious dining dollars exploring new spots, I think I may need to focus on the places I am certain I want to see in business ten years from now. I call this my ‘recession restaurant list’ and for the sake of simplicity I’m going to say that such a list can’t include more than ten places.
Here are the first four in my completely subjective list for Spokane (not in any specific order):
- China Garden on the South Hill across from Shopko on Regal. Chef Raymond consistently serves up quality Chinese with a Hong Kong twist, house-made sauces with no MSG, and crisp vegetables. Cashew Chicken. Braised Tofu. Honey Walnut Prawns. Chow Mein with Hong Kong Style Noodles.
- Moxie in the heart of downtown on the north side of the Davenport. Ian Wingate is one of my favorite chefs in town and Moxie’s Asian/European menu is solid from top to bottom. My favorite Hot Turkey Sandwich on the planet is on the lunch menu. The Poké is wonderful and a full list of my favorite would basically be listing most of the menu.
- Luna on the back of the South Hill at the top of Hatch Road. Chef Anna Vogel loves her ingredients and that delight has brought the spark back to this 15-year pioneer in the upscale bistro market. The space is also a gift – warm and inviting. Lunch. Brunch. Weekday coffee and savory pastries. Dinner. And a massive cellar that show William Bond’s passion for vino.
- Tacos Tumbras Taco Trucks. The sit-down location on Sprague is just fine, but for a real taco that promised to transport your tastebuds south of the border, find one of the trucks around town. Order several tacos or the wonderful Mexican answer to the hamburger: the torta. Maybe I’ll suggest all my favorite restaurants buy mobile kitchens in the hopes that this will lower their overhead and make them recession-proof.
While I decide on my other six in Spokane and start a second list for Coeur d’Alene, I’d like you to weigh in with your recession restaurant list for the Inland Northwest or your neck of the woods.
[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="A Taco Tumbras Chicken Torta straight from the truck"]
[/caption]
Posted in culture, dining | Tagged Anna Vogel, China Garden, honey walnut prawns, hong kong style chow mein, hot turkey sandwich, Ian Wingate, Luna, Moxie, poke, Raymond Kong, recession, recession restaurants, Spokane restaurants, taco, Tacos Tumbras, torta |
By Kevin Finch on October 17, 2008
I need your help identifying the best gadgets or tools for men who turn off ESPN on occasion and sneak into the kitchen to cook. I’m working on an article for the holiday season that will highlight several great gifts for the expanding homo sapien subset called ‘kitchen males.”
Consider your favorite kitchen power tool… something that involves fire… or a favorite knife. This will likely be a ‘survival of the fittest’ piece so give me your best guy gadget or tool.
[caption id="attachment_172" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The perfect guy knife with a samurai history?"]
[/caption]
| Tagged Christmas gifts for guys, guy cooks, kitchen power tools, knives, male chef, Shun |
By Kevin Finch on October 15, 2008
The place will remain nameless. You can attempt to guess the spot if you want, but I hate ripping a restaurant by name without a pattern of bad food or horrid service. I might make an exception for food poisoning, but today wasn’t a life or death moment so I’ll simply put it down as STRIKE ONE.
I ordered the Reuben. My lunch companion said the house version had a loyal following and our server chimed in: claiming it was the best in town. Curious… almost every place that puts a Reuben on the menu claims theirs is the best in town. Note To Self: Do a Reuben run and hit all serious contenders the same day for a side-by-side comparison.
This one didn’t mess much with the formula other than to substitute thin-sliced grilled Pastrami for the original corned beef. Standard was the Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, “our own 1000 Island dressing,” and thick slices of toasted rye. $7.95 with bar fries, house made potato chips, green salad or coleslaw.
The problem was that what arrived wasn’t the Reuben at all, but the stripped-down sandwich one carriage return below the Reuben on the menu: a Hot Pastrami on Rye. This baby sported the same meat, the same cheese, the same toasted rye, but no ‘kraut for kick and no dressing to ooze out between your fingers. It took me several bites to confirm that this apparent lack wasn’t due to inconsistent application, but simply because there was no ‘kraut or dressing to be had.
If today’s visit had been for an official review, the mix-up probably would need to be mentioned. Yet lunch was just lunch rather than a review so I simply called our server over to ask for an actual Reuben rather than the Hot Pastrami. I even felt cheerful about the confusion. I wasn’t in a hurry, and this meant I would get my expected Reuben plus three bites of a decent Hot Pastrami for the price of the Reuben alone.
But it was not to be.
Our server promised to fix the problem, yet when she returned, it was with the same three-bites-short Hot Pastrami that had left the table seven minutes earlier. If it is possible, the sandwich itself actually looked sheepish to be back: slightly repositioned with sauerkraut and dressing now under the hood.
Faux pas. Big faux pas. Big big faux pas.
Leave aside the fact that this was the one sandwich on the menu that could possibly be repackaged as an actual Reuben by adding the ‘kraut and the dressing. I’ll grant you that, and even go so far as to say that I’d probably recycle a mistake like this at home.
But in a restaurant you just don’t do this if you expect people to come back. Read Danny Meyers in his book on hospitality, Setting The Table, and you’ll discover that a mistake is actually an opportunity to shine. Address a mistake with a little extra care and a restaurant can turn a customer into a regular.
But slapping a little sauerkraut and some 1000 Island on a half-eaten sandwich and sending it back out is anything but care. It’s lazy and it felt somehow rude. Even if the kitchen has used up the last of the pastrami and rye on my first sandwich… which is doubtful… they needed to at least ask if I’d like something else off the menu before recycling sandwich #1.
They didn’t, and what I’ll remember most about this place isn’t the decent Reuben, but the larger and disturbing fact that someone in that kitchen is lazy or stingy. And while I don’t plan to post the name of the restaurant here with tonight’s saga of the recycled Reuben, I bet the story will come up in conversation when folks ask me about the place. It will come up the same way I happen to mention getting food poisoning the last time I ate at the Italian place around the corner… the one claiming to be one of the top Italian destinations in the nation.
I know food costs are up these days, but today’s sandwich recycling was a stupid move even if the person who happened to get the retread entree wasn’t a restaurant critic. If you know of another spot for a formidable Reuben, let me know.
Posted in dining | Tagged 1000 Island dressing, bad service, Danny Meyer, faux pas, food poisoning, lazy, marbled rye, Northwest restaurants, restaurant faux pas, Reuben, sandwich, sandwiches, sauerkraut, Setting The Table, Spokane restaurants, Spokane WA, stingy |
By Kevin Finch on October 10, 2008
My tomatoes might not have survived the night in the back yard and the wind today has winter in it as well as fall. In no time at all in this corner of the Inland Northwest there will be snow drifts piling up next to the fence.
As a way to prepare for the coming cold let me suggest a special Russian dumpling perfect for winter months.
[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignnone" width="411" caption="Pelmeni ready for the snowbank or boiling water."]
[/caption]
My first pelmeni came after an evening of rolling and stuffing and boiling with family friends in Seattle. Pelmeni, in the Notkin home, takes on a sacramental feel. The ingredients are combined by feel rather than recipe, and stories are told as everyone begins to collect around the counters in the kitchen. Once the dough is rolled out, it gets cut in small circles with a tool passed down through the family (it looks like a short section of plumbing pipe with a machine tapered edge). Kids and adults alike pitch in to stuff pinches of the ground meat and onion filling into each dough circle before sealing and folding each dumpling around your thumb and pinching it off.
At this point tradition suggests you take the dumplings outside and toss them in a snowdrift to freeze; Seattle in September didn’t afford a convenient snowbank so we packed them onto cookie sheets and slid them into the freezer. This came after a family debate about the merits of freezing the dumplings if they were going to be boiled and eaten the same night.
Tradition won out and into the freezer they went. But tradition only goes so far: we didn’t pack the frozen dumpling in saddlebags and ride off to war.
Our pelmeni came back out of the freezer 20 minutes later simply to be dumped into boiling water.
At the table, the dipping sauce (also tradition) was steak sauce sauce cut with vinegar. After a few pelmeni sauced according to Notkin tradition I switched to dipping my dumplings in melted butter with the kids. I did so even as I began to scheme about when I would recreate these tiny Russian dumplings at home.
In time I will rangle a written version of the Notkin recipe for pelmeni out of the family vault. Until then here is a Kazakstani version:
Pelmeni
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Garlic, to taste
To make the dough, combine the flour, eggs, water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Knead mixture. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Mix the ground beef, ground pork, onions, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and garlic together. Roll the dough into a thin layer and cut into small circles. Place a small amount of meat in the center of each circle of dough. Fold the edges of the dough over the meat to form a ravioli-shaped dumpling. Boil the Pelmeni in salted water for seven minutes, or until they float to the surface. Serve hot.
Posted in cooking | Tagged pasta, pelmeni, Russian dumplings, Seattle, traditional dishes, winter food |
By Kevin Finch on October 8, 2008
Patrick has been making wine in his basement for several years now, and a sip of his 2006 Syrah and you’ll see why: therapist by day, up-and-coming vintner by night.
As far as I know he hasn’t yet come up with a label for his impressive product, but I’m lobbying for something along the lines of Rorschach Red or Transference Merlot.
Where this becomes personal is that this year Patrick convinced me to buy in. I ordered 100 pounds of Syrah grapes and they arrived in a 35 gallon food grade garbage can after being crushed on the estate in South Central Washington.
[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="08 Syrah Grapes After Crushing"]
[/caption]
The book Patrick suggested I study in advance arrived from Amazon too late so I took all my cues from Patrick. Tartaric Acid for a slight correction. Pastur Red yeast. Polymetasulfite as yeast food.
Patrick also recommended a small room that can be kept warm for the initial week of fermentation. In his home, that means his workshop in the basement: a room that, after a few years in service for wine production, is beginning to take on the character of a respectable cellar as bottles and carboys take up more and more of the space available.
Our basement is essentially one sprawling rec room so I needed to come up with Plan B for fermentation. Without consulting my wife or kids, Plan B became Plan Bathroom.
My first batch of wine fermented in our upstairs bathroom with a space heater cycling on and off to keep the space properly toasty. Karen was not impressed. All three kids complained of the smell and my makeshift thermometer (a instant-read meat fork) on the counter next to their toothbrushes.
And the truth is that I could have put up with worse just to secure a great name for my first wine: the 08 Bathtub Red.
[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Our 08 Syrah in the Olive Tub"]
[/caption]
Posted in culture, play, wine | Tagged 08 Syrah, bathtub wine, Syrah, Washington wine |
