Nosh Pit

Gastro Gift Guide Part 3: Gifts That Aren’t Stuff

Three unforgettable culinary encounters.

Posted by: Stephanie Rubesh on Dec 15, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Buy the book(s), hang out with one of the authors.

You know all those cliches about how the best gift is spending time with the people you love? Well, they’re all true…especially if you give someone one of these memorable food-centric events.

Art restaurant has a new dinner party-type game called Market To Art that provides all the frantic anticipation of Iron Chef, minus the competition (and someone else does the cooking). Up to 10 people gather at the restaurant and divide into pairs. Each duo receives an allowance and orders to wander nearby Pike Place Market and pick up delectable looking ingredients for one of the five courses that will be served (Ten people…five teams of two…five courses…still following?). Back at Art, chefs will whip up a dish on the spot using your selections—no prep allowed beforehand—meanwhile your group gets to sit back, judge, and enjoy. You can try to stymie chef Jelle Vandenbroucke and crew with odd ingredient combos, but remember…you’ll be eating whatever they prepare. Every pair gets to help plate and present their course. Think you have a discerning palate? You can add a wine or cheese tasting challenge in between courses. The $120 per person cost (it goes up to $160 or $190 with wine) includes the meal, a drink or two, and valet parking; email the restaurant to schedule.

Last year we named the Walrus and Carpenter Nighttime Oyster Picnic as one of our “kick yourself-if-you-miss-it awesomefests” for food lovers, and this annual outing is back for the winter (and selling out fast). Pay homage to Lewis Carroll’s “Walrus and the Carpenter” poem by following in the titular characters’ footsteps to enjoy oysters (and wine) on the beach at low tide, by the light of the moon (weather gods willing). The $75 cost covers the bus ride to Totten Inlet, endless rounds of oysters, chilled wine, stew, shucking lessons, and a decidedly magical evening.

Remember when we talked about that generous mood you were in? Lay down $550 to buy someone the epic Modernist Cuisine volumes at Fremont’s Book Larder and the culinary book mecca will throw in two tickets to an event February 2 with Maxime Bilet, one of the authors. Right now attendance is limited to people who purchase the book, so the evening promises to be an intimate one. Bilet will answer questions and prepare some Modernist recipes.

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Tags: Holiday Food Traditions, Holiday Gift Guide 2011, Gastro Gift Guide 2011

The Gastro Gift Guide Part 2: For Those Who Slather

Rubs, jams, jellies, and condiments galore for a tasteful stocking.

Posted by: Stephanie Rubesh on Dec 08, 2011 at 11:15AM 0 Comments

Tom Douglas dishes out the love freely (well, almost) for happy plates.

Photo Credits: tomdouglas.com

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Tom Douglas dishes out the love freely (well, almost) for happy plates.

Photo Credits: tomdouglas.com

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Pork in a jar for easy Christmas giving.

Photo Credits: Mark Pascua

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Get Dark chocolate, Classic Caramel or Raspberry according to your sweetie’s taste

Photo Credits: Fran’s Chocolates

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Joy in a jar. It’s peachy.

Photo Credits: Zachary D. Lyons

Sometimes Seattle and its sobering rain stats can rub people the wrong way. But believe us when we say Seattle knows how to do rub right. Jellies, spreads, and sauces too. A host of area restaurants, including Skillet, Wild Ginger, and the Tom Douglas empire, have achieved local condiment fame by offering their trade secrets in little containers for you to purchase. And then there are the offerings from our farmers markets, food boutiques, and specialty food shop. Yep, Seattle has rubs, condiments and spreads galore; and for (mostly) under $10, they happen to make excellent small gifts or stocking stuffers.

For the spice lover:

Curry powder from Wild Ginger is a signature spice blend of cumin, anise, ginger, and fennel among others. At $5 a bottle, it can be used as a marinade, in a sauce, or just to kick the flavor up a notch or three in any chosen dish.

The African Peri Peri Rub is a Tom Douglas concoction and part of his Rub with Love line; it’s infused with garlic, black pepper, citrus bursts, and chipotle chilies. Check out Douglas’s online store for more rubs, sauces, or snack mixes.

Pepper-jelly shop Mick’s Peppourri gives you a Red Hot Pepper Jelly: a delicious jalapeno jelly, light on the hot, heavy on the flavor. This is one of their flagship bottles, but go for raspberry pepper jelly, cabernet wine jelly, or hot garlic pepper jelly for a twist on the traditional. Order online or pick them out at Pike Place Market.

Food-truck phenom Marination finally buckled down and bottled their famous Nunya Sauce, a blend of mayo, onions, and a stash of spices that will remind your mouth what it means to be alive. Bottles are available at Marination Station or at the truck.

For the salt fanatic:

If you know Skillet, you know Skillet’s bacon jam. Really though, what’s not to love about bacon, onions, and spices in spreadable form? There was much fanfare and celebration when it hit the shelves in 2010, and now everyone (all but the vegetarians) on your Christmas list can find out why.

Volunteer Park Cafe made a splash in the NY Times with their bottled mac-n-cheese sauce (aka Mac Daddy) and we hear that it may be rolling back into town in time for the holiday season.

For the sweet tooth:

“Try us on toast” is their tagline, and after skimming a list of Deluxe Foods
jams that covers apricot vanilla, almond tea, jeweled strawberry, grape and walnut, gingered rhubarb (among others), all we can say is, “yes, please.” Rebecca Staffel is a jamming authority in these parts, and her creatively combined, locally grown fixings can be found either online or at a crowd of neighborhood shops and markets. Your toast may have met its renaissance.

Local chocolate artist Fran Bigelow transformed her renowned handmade truffles into delectable flowing form to top desserts (or oatmeal, or spoons, or milk) with ease. Fran’s Dark Chocolate Sauce is rich and creamy; buying it supports the work of Neighborhood House, helping with the fight against poverty—so really, you’re giving two gifts in one. Bravo.

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Tags: Tom Douglas, Skillet, Seattle-Made Condiments, Seattle Food Trucks, Holidays 2011, Gastro Gift Guide 2011

Gastro Gift Guide Part 1: Gifts for the Literary Cook

Some of the year’s top reads from our local food community.

Posted by: Stephanie Rubesh on Dec 01, 2011 at 12:15PM 0 Comments

Seattle loves its food tomes. This year, the city gained its first culinary bookstore in Book Larder, and you can’t heave a bunch of kale at the University District Farmers Market without hitting a local with a book deal. In the spirit of food-oriented holiday gift giving, here are some releases from the past year, all with local connections. And if you want to take care of your entire list at once, Tom Douglas’s annual cookbook social happens tonight, December 1, from 4 to 7 at the Palace Ballroom. Taste test noshables, meet the authors, and cookbook shop to your heart’s content. Tickets are $20. Now on to the books. And don’t worry boozers, we’ll have a similar list up on Sauced soon.

Since its release, love has been pouring in for the first book by Becky Selengut, chef-author extraordinaire (and an avid and potty-mouthed Twitter user). Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast presents 75 recipes; a hand to hold in the fish market; and details, from how good fish are hooked, to how to sear the perfect scallop—all in Selengut’s witty delivery that will make it a hit with even the most adventurous of seafood culinarians.

Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land was released last January and is on its way to being a classic in the local-food literature canon (Martha Stewart liked it too). Farmer and chef Kurt Timmermeister recounts his journey from city to field that puts organic local farming on a whole new level. From political scholar to acclaimed chef-farmer and now author, Timmermeister gives you the woes and wonders of farming life, realistically, artfully, and entertainingly telling it how it is.

’Tis the season for sugar, a topic with which one local blogger and shopkeeper is particularly familiar. Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by Cakespy (alias baking queen Jessie Oleson) leaves nothing lacking. Cupcakes, birthday cake–French toast, magic-cookie-bar pie or any of the 60 cavity-causers are at your bake and call.

Foodie: A person keenly interested in food. When it comes to gifts, the “foodie” is a category so broad it’s almost concerning. Kill several birds with one stone with Food Lovers Guide to Seattle: Best Local Specialities, Markets, Recipes, Restaurants and Events by Keren Brown, whose regular Foodportunity networking events bring together local chefs and the diners who love them. Informative, extensive, and compact, this little guide is the perfect Seattle travel companion.

Shiro Kashiba, the best Sushi chef in town, is now an author as well. Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer is a memoir-cookbook that outlines Kashiba’s ascent from dishwasher in Tokyo to Seattle’s champion sushi chef—with mouthwatering recipes and exquisite photography thrown in for good measure.

If you’re in a generous mood (a really, really generous mood), one of the year’s most notable releases in the cookbook category is Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. It retails for $625, and as the New York Times recently noted, “The recipes are likely to drive home cooks mad, but the photography is both revolutionary and museum-worthy.”

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Tags: Holidays 2011, Gastro Gift Guide 2011