Category: Food

I am seriously pro-food. I like to think about food, read about food, gently prod food, ferment food, garnish food, smell food, buy food, seek food and experience new food. I regale the difference between 6-month and 12-month Manchego, care whether asparagus is in season, and am honestly fond of (not just making a point of) eating sweetbreads (thymus and pancreas, usually, of calf), bone marrow, squid and fermented fish sauce. However, my upcoming trip to Iceland is making me gustatorily anxious.

Icelandic food specialties read more like grievous and fatal fraternity hazing rituals than anything that a human with extant taste buds and olfactory capability would submit to willingly. The regional recipes manage to get an F- on each of the rough trinity of food-is-yummy criteria, offending the user psychologically, aesthetically, and sensually.

You can do so many things with this dough that it’s almost not funny. I’ve memorized this recipe because it’s just that useful. Four quick ingredients turn into a stupidly large array of possibilities. My recipes here cover pizza and bagel derivatives, but I imagine that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Photo by Dalboz17

Feeling festive? Had a hard day at the ol’ office? In the mood to abuse a substance?

Here are some things that I started mixing together in the past six months or so. I found that many of them taste surprisingly good, and thought I would share. Fair warning: all involve alcohol. Bottoms up, kids!

Jim’s comment on my last post reminded me of something I haven’t covered here–and I like to cover the crap out of things. That is, what I eat and drink. And the whole interaction with my little Crohn’s problem. We’ll start here.
Curiously and counter-intuitively, there has not ever been any direct or observable correlation between [...]

Are there really any two families in the United States that prepare their tuna fish the same way? I would beg to assert that the composition of tuna fish salad is one of the most beautiful regional variations there is. Some people are pickle devotees. Some people swear by bare minimalism.
This is how we make [...]

Clamor, clamor, little readers / how I have joy that you care
browsing through the tubes so high / like a duck-fiend in the sky
satue, simmer little duck / you cooked well, such was my luck!
I am glad to follow up with some nonsense and finality about my duck. It all came together in a [...]

It started simply, as most cooking plans do, with not enough foresight and a general craving. Duck. My god, duck. It’s good.
Mr. Pencil and I thus swayed just had to impulsively buy a frozen duck a few months ago with no concept beyond: “Duck, hell yes.” I don’t remember where we got it: Sheridan’s? New [...]

My friend Autumn tried out the new Deschutes Brewery in the Pearl and wrote about it on her blog. I find it funny.
not totally thrilled my reuben was going to cost me $11.95 i was downright flummoxed to see that the kids menu listed grilled salmon as one of its offerings. grilled salmon? seriously? if [...]

lyzadanger posted a photo:

Om nom nom nom

For PDX-ers still mourning the loss of local coffee chain Coffee People (summarily bought out of existence by Starbucks, who coveted their two drive-in locations on MLK Blvd.) might feel a little bit better knowing that there is somewhere that is still carrying the flame.
There is a shop on SE Grand Ave and approximately Oak [...]