Jeremy Mates’s Blog

This photo required six bars of chocolate, three vertical on each side. There is a lego roof keeping the bars vertical, between two boxed sets of the Tale of Genji (Seidensticker and Tyler). The only lighting is from a desk lamp, the direct shine of which being masked off from the camera by shirts and chess boards. The Ferrero Rocher (picked up pretty much at random from the store; I had no idea how large the central chocolate should have been) rests atop a book case, and the background is a cork board. A polarizer was used, though I set it when the chocolate was wrapped, not unwrapped, so that might have been adjusted better. Had trouble lining the camera up square with the opening, which ball heads make difficult. May want to pickup a head that allows finer adjustment.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 05:22 | Permalink

This started as a soup, but evolved towards a longer reduction time and being combined with basmati rice. Amounts very approximate, though would feed several people. I save leftovers and use them up over the next few days.

• 1 tablespoon Coconut oil.
• Chopped red onion.
• Spice mix: this usually involves white and black pepper corns, red chile flakes, ajwain, coriander, ginger powder, turmeric, and others.
• Juice of one medium sized lime.
• Mix of vegetables: parsnip, rutabaga, and sunchoke work well together.
• 1 large Russet potato.
• 1 cup red lentils.
• ~4 cups water.
• Mustard to taste (could also use mustard seed in the spice mix).

Method:

1. Heat pot (mine holds 2.6 liters), then add the coconut oil. Mix together the onions, spice mix, and lime juice. I use a large pot, so the onions evenly coat the bottom of the pot, and do not require stirring as they reduce to almost a fragrant paste.
2. Add chopped vegetables, potatoes, and lentils. Stir and let this cook briefly.
3. Add water, increase heat to bring water to boil. Add mustard.
4. Reduce heat to simmer.
5. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes.
6. Optionally break down the potato chunks into paste. This will thicken the dish.
7. At a simmer, the dish could take anywhere from 45 minutes to longer to cook down.

Serve with equal amounts rice, or save for future use. The mixture will keep for several days refrigerated, and different flavor characteristics from the spices should develop over this time.

Variations: try different vegetables. Root vegetables and especially sunchokes work well, though this produces an off white to yellowish orange dish, which may not be visually appealing to some. Picked up some mung beans; need to try those in this dish.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 19:22 | Permalink

This dish results in a complex mix of flavors that I enjoy. The dish is quick to make, as Quinoa and Bulgar require little time to boil. For additional time savings, cook the grains in advance, then throw together the sauce.

Pilaf

The shallots and garlic, while good, can be skipped if you are short on time.

• Small amount grapeseed or other cooking oil.
• Shallots (or onion, to taste), diced.
• Garlic, diced. These could be cut large, and added first to the oil, where they will brown nicely, but still pack a good kick of raw garlic.
• Equal amounts whole grain Bulgar and Quinoa. I use ⅓ cup of each to feed myself.
• Double the amount of grains in water. 1⅓ cups, in my case.
• Chopped vegetables: carrots and celery work well, or I stock frozen vegetables (corn, green peas) to dump in when I’m in a hurry.

The making:

1. If possible, submerge the grains in water for a minute or two, then pour off any debris, then briefly rinse. Quinoa that has not been pre-rinsed will need longer soaking to remove the saponins.
2. Preheat the pot, add oil, and sauté the shallots and garlic to taste.
3. Dump grains into pot, let sauté briefly (the grains really should be dry, but that would entail rinsing them earlier, then drying them somehow).
4. Add water, bring to boil.
5. Cover loosely, reduce heat to low, and let the water cook off. This takes around 10 minutes for me.
6. Drop heat to warm, mix in the vegetables, and let that cook for another few minutes.

Sauce

There might be better sauces, but I currently like this one. Sugar addicted folks may need to add some brown sugar, or experiment with cutting raw sugar from the diet (always fun, given that in America the everyday ketchup, croutons, mustard, and so forth products all contain high fructose corn syrup). Mix together:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mustard (whole grain does not mix as well).
• Salt & pepper to taste (not much needed, if any).
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground caraway seed.
• Small amount turmeric. Optional. Mainly for the color and possible health benefits.

Mix the sauce and grains well in a dish, serve warm.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 04:59 | Permalink

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 14:11 | Permalink

A vegan cornbread recipe won an award (some years ago, but better late than never), so I had to try it out. The recipe is very similar to my basic cornbread recipe, though adjusts the amount of baking powder and oil used, and uses all-purpose flour. I use whole wheat flour, which makes the final product look more like a health store refugee than a traditional cornbread, but what can you do? I also substitute grade B maple syrup, though this works equally as well as brown sugar.

Round 1

Grinding flax seed then mixing it into boiling water does quickly produce a sticky, egg-white-like mass. This adhered to itself a bit too well, resulting in flax seed streaks in the batter. Also, I used a small amount of apple cider vinegar in the soy milk, which perhaps was left too long, or the batter stirred to much, as the batter ended up far too sticky.

Round 2

Better luck this time. Switched to using ¼ cup grape seed oil, 1½ cups corn meal, ½ cup whole wheat flour, and 4 teaspoons baking powder. (More like the winning recipe… shocking!) Also, spent some time stirring the ground flax seeds in water, this time not over heat. Did not leave the apple cider vinegar long in the soy milk before mixing the liquids and drys. Batter much improved: mostly runny with a few sticky spots, able to mix briefly without too much flax seed clumping. Coconut oil works well to grease the cast iron, though I have yet to try seasoning a pan with it. Increased cooking time from 20 minutes to 25 on the second batch, which turned out perfectly: a nice browned, crisp crust, and good interior. This one is a keeper.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:22 | Permalink

first day of the year
I think longingly of the sun
on those paddy waters
   — Basho

Japan Gregorianized in 1873, meaning Basho actually wrote this poem for a different new year’s day. Calendar musings aside, the sun and paddy waters naturally recommend Summer rolls (Spring rolls without all the frying). These are tricky to make, as rice paper requires some practice to master. I did not like using noodles in a first attempt, so substituted adzuki beans. This recipe made eight far too large rolls.

• ½ cup adzuki beans, boiled
• 1 cup peas, steamed
• 1 cup Hon-shimeji mushrooms, steamed
• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, steamed
• ½ cup carrots, steamed
• Shaved ginger, to taste
• Ground black, white, and Sichuan¹ peppers, to taste
• Ground India red chili flakes, to taste
• 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce

The above was mixed and used as filling. Good, but many improvements can be made:

• Must cut the ingredients by half, as otherwise too much food for just me.
• Less filling per roll: half as much or more. Pictures online show the excess wrap extends around the entire roll, not the 40% - 50% I get.
• Lettuce would better help hold the ingredients inside, and add some crunch. Also need to reduce the amount of peas, perhaps replacing some with daikon or some other vegetable.
• Make the dipping sauce in advance, as the Summer rolls must be consumed quickly before the wrap dries out.
• Grill the mushrooms, or add more sauce to the filling. Maybe also blend the filling lightly, to better incorporate the flavors?

¹ Warning! Excess Sichuan pepper numbs the mouth, creates an overpowering taste, and makes one drool. I only used a dusting of black and white peppers, along with a reasonable amount of Sichuan peppers here.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:28 | Permalink

I use small amounts of Kale, mixed with boiled hulled barley¹ (well soaked and cooked on a previous day) and some olive oil. While far less tasty than something sugary from a coffee shop, it avoids the various problems of high sugar foods, especially to start the day. I also sneak Kale into soups and other dishes, again only in small amounts.

At this usage, preserving the bundles stores sell (“no, a leaf. Can you sell just one leaf?”) is a problem—even with refrigeration—the kale goes bad before consumption. Freezing chopped kale left a mess in the container, which might be the container, or the moisture in my ancient refrigerator. Perhaps I could freeze whole leaves? Maybe parchment paper could keep the leaves from becoming kaleice blocks?

¹ Full study results.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 18:16 | Permalink

Research is duplicitous on whether coconuts should be consumed. The 92% saturated fat causes the “saturated fats are bad” camp to recommend all saturated fats not exceed 7% of the diet, while others present coconut oil more favorably. Small amounts of coconut oil mix well into morning Quinoa or Teff. Coconut water is nice during longer bicycle rides: it lacks the fat of other coconut products, but contains some sugars and electrolytes.

Darjeeling Oolong is an interesting tea—a decent oolong, most notable for a distinct cocoa flavor. It by no means approaches “King of the Frozen Summit” type oolongs (凍頂), but is good nonetheless (and far less expensive).

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:20 | Permalink

For Your Food Only is the recently launched blog of Thierry Rautureau, chef-owner of Rover’s. Hopefully, more entries will be added…

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 18:42 | Permalink

The folks at MSG150 are making a survey of the International District lunch spots, a risky venture given the “sketchy and … marginal health code reputations”^† of some eateries. Their assessment of Szechuan Noodle Bowl is spot on. Also informative is whether the restaurant uses MSG, among other metadata.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 18:27 | Permalink

Originally planned an article on tea temperature testing, but found interesting background material along the way:

• Black Tea: The Aroma of Oats and the Hottest Water. Cites the “Characterization of the Key Aroma Compounds in the Beverage Prepared from Darjeeling Black Tea: Quantitative Differences between Tea Leaves and Infusion” article by Christian Schuh and Peter Schieberle.

• 茶 (ちゃ) is part of 茶の間 “tea space”, or Japanese-style living room.

• “Flavor Chemistry of Tea and Coffee Drinks”. Kenji KUMAZAWA, FSTR. Vol. 12, 71-84. (2006).

  

  Fun fact: 4-mercapto-4-methyl-2-pentanone (Cat Ketone) is largely responsible for the characteristic grassy flavor of Japanese 煎茶 (せんちゃ). The roasting (煎) process brings out this compound, and most significantly in first pick (highest quality) teas. Additional commercial processing introduces yuck:

  “In addition, the off-flavor components which develop in tea and coffee flavors during the commercial drinks manufacturing process were identified. It is expected that the results of this research will be useful for the development of drink products with a more natural, characteristic and fresh flavor.” — p.82

  Good tea already has a natural, characteristic and fresh flavor. Mending an inferior product to mimic the real thing strikes me as wasteful. Good tea can already be manufactured, transported, and enjoyed worldwide, without the extra expense of canning, sterilization, and flavor correction.

Back to the topic of tea temperatures: tea brewing charts are available online, though none cite how they derived or tested their numbers, and different charts show a wide range of acceptable temperatures, time, and tea amounts…

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 22:58 | Permalink

黒酢 denotes “black vinegar”. The kurozu I found—the only rice & wheat vinegar in Uwajimaya—with others being black, but wheat free—smells something like an acidic soy sauce. The vinegar, once diluted, begins with a mild rice taste, and ends with a stronger and long-lasting malt flavor. “Solid farmentation” produced this vinegar.

In a test soup with buckwheat noodles, the vinegar did very well:

• 2 cups cold water.
• Bonito flakes. Bring to mild boil in water, drain out once fish scent released.
• 4 medium sized Shiitake. Add to water after straining out the bonito.
• Green onion, diced. Mix with soup near or at end of cooking.
• Noodles (here buckwheat).
• Sesame seed oil (to taste). I did not use much, having mostly run out.
• Sichuan peppers (4-5 husks), ground.
• Kurozu to taste (didn’t really measure, probably could have used more).

Cook the noodles al dente, then drain and place in a bowl. Add the sesame seed oil, sichuan peppers, and a dash of kurozu. Mix the the noodles up. Then pour the soup over the noodles.

This was a very mild soup, though I wanted to emphasize the kurozu flavor, so omitted the usual miso or ginger or shallots microplaned to a pulp. However, the taste was excellent, one of my best soups to date. The early rice sweetness mixed well with the mushroom, and the malty hops made for a good aftertaste. Granted, I was hungry, having first taken photos:

One flaw: the sichuan peppers concentrated into the last dredges. Folks say to mix them in near the end. In soups with noodles, I’ve had better luck mixing these peppers into the broth early, combined with sesame seed oil. Perhaps the mushrooms soak up the flavor?

Next experiment: kurozu reduction (simmer down over very low heat with spices). This works well for commercial—this is, not hundred dollar plus—balsamic vinegars, and could provide another vector for Sichuan peppers.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 01:42 | Permalink

First Amazon Fresh truck I’ve spotted in the wild. They offer pickup at work, but that leaves me lugging the groceries home as usual, and not much different from wandering through Uwajimaya. Time to give the service a try…

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 20:11 | Permalink

Free Rice donates rice while you build your vocabulary. Multiple choice, so guessing can get you into deep waters. This site converts time into charity; the charity navigator helps find the best means to convert money into charity. For instance, ASH, which has a horrible website, but good ratings, and good material on why finding a smoker-free apartment is a healthy choice.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 18:39 | Permalink

Seattle Coffee Works offers a suite of locally roasted coffee options, including both espresso and drip, and beans. Small location near pike place market, though well worth the visit, as they bring a variety of coffee to a single shop.

Reeeally good espresso. :)

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 01:23 | Permalink

Food safety worries mount:

“The effects of melamine on people are thought to be minimal, but no one really knows. Its consumption by humans is considered so improbable that no one has even studied it.”

[allegedly] “added melamine to the gluten in order to boost the measurable protein level and thus the price of the shipment”

Multiple problems here, including:

• Food is apparently cheaper to transport across the Pacific from China. Does this cost fund the FDA to properly screen imports? Account for the environmental impacts along the entire food collection and distribution chain? If not, who pays?

• Processed foods. These are difficult or impossible to trace back through the distribution chain, if one or more source is contaminated. This makes finding and holding accountable the responsible parties similarly difficult, for either governments, or consumers looking for a target to protest.

• Unstudied Chemicals. Melamine rumored in food, rocket fuel in the water supply. How bad are they for humans? How expensive are they to remove from the environment?

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 04:09 | Permalink

Found Remedy Teas on Capitol Hill (15th and Harrison) after a tip from a work mailing list. Music a tad loud… “You don't mind if we play a little Zen music, right?” KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP KROMP. Great selection of tea, on the other hand.

Earth & Ocean produces mixed results during 25 for 25, though currently offers a great “Washington Grown Menu” with a light garlic soup plus olive tartine, excellent gnocchi (best hot though a wee bit overcooked), very well done makizushi-style quinoa with bitter greens and a nice touch of wasabi, finished by a wonderful strawberry and rhubarb dish.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 04:47 | Permalink

Americans Still Not Eating Enough Fruits And Vegetables according to several new studies. How hard could adding an apple as a snack, a small salad around lunch, and some form of berries after dinner be? I am biased towards apples, as they are readily available in Washington. Any locally produced fruit, the fresher the better, will work.

Down with fast and processed food! However, many lack the time and training to cook food properly. Seattle now has a fair number of “stick this in the oven, then serve” food options, though I have not tried any yet. Also, various International cuisines (Indian, Thai, Chinese) offer tasty variety and good balances of meats to vegetables, for those who eat out more often.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:29 | Permalink

The USDA National Nutrient Database grants access to actual nutritional data, far better than the nearly useless food labels: the 20% RDA for Iron in Teff might be correct, if you’re a 2,000 Calorie reference human, unlike the rest of us. Not the best interface on both the nutrient website and product labels. What would be really nice would be a UPC indexed database of foodstuffs. Then simply wander around with a bar code scanner, with a PDA hosting personalized nutritional data—exact iron content in micrograms, glycemic index if diabetic, or any new concern too expensive to reprint—plus the usual profile (carbs and whatnot).

Additional code could suggest food to meet some nutrient goal, with the inevitable “Hi! I see you’re trying to induce Iron poisoning! Can I help?” software flaws.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 16:29 | Permalink

Recently discovered Teff, a quick to cook and great tasting grain. The Teff Company lists a great Tofu Vegetable Quiche recipe, among others. I altered the recipe by using dried oregano (basil grows poorly in my apartment, and the large expensive quantities available in stores most often are not worth it), and carrot, celery, and peas for the vegetables.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 05:39 | Permalink

Try the Cook’s Thesaurus for a handy reference of ingredients and kitchen tools.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 17:58 | Permalink

Finally got around to making pan fried gnocchi as reported earlier. Used imported gnocchi, cranberry beans from the University Farmer’s Market, chanterelle mushrooms, shallot, grape seed oil, roma tomato, thyme, fresh ground white and black pepper, salt.

Tomato did not mix well flavor-wise (too high and sharp), so added some Zinfandel vinegar and cooked bit longer. Hard to taste mushrooms over the beans (cooked mushrooms too long?), gnocchi really picked up on the grape seed oil flavor. Need to try with olive oil instead, perhaps boil gnocchi briefly before frying. Also should try adding fresh ground pepper to oil while frying gnocchi, to let them absorb the spices better.

Not sure where to find fresh gnocchi in Seattle, or how much they would improve the dish. All in all, an excellent dish…

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 02:56 | Permalink

A basic tortilla recipe. I prefer whole wheat tortillas, mainly for the extra protein, iron, and flavor. Serves one hungry person, or maybe two.

Ingredients

• Grains & Legumes

  Cook the rice in advance, as it can be refrigerated and used over the next several days. Aim for dry, well separated rice, as a starchy sticky mass does not fry well. I use brown basmati rice, and often mix in lesser amounts of wild rice or Bhutanese red rice. Toast the oil coated rice with mild spices (coriander, saffron) before boiling it for additional flavor.

  Canned black beans work well, though some canned varieties are worse than others. Buy around and experiment before stocking up. Azuki beans are a great replacement for black beans. Mix 1-½ cups grains and legumes together prior to cooking.

• Fruits & Vegetables

  Chop around 1-½ cups onion, carrot, and red pepper and mix well. Other vegetables, such as celery or green peas work well. Fresh pressed lime juice is essential, though lacking that, use a small amount of mild vinegar. The lime juice serves two purposes: integrating flavor, and to improve iron absorption, as does the vitamin C from the red pepper.

• Spices

  I’ve had best luck with a mix of white pepper, black pepper, and ajwain: interesting mix and heat enough for me, without the tasteless burning of hotter spices. For fun, experiment with curry powder or garam masala. Add the spice mix to the oil before adding the vegetables. This helps incorporate the oil soluble spices into the oil.

Method

Preheat skillet to medium high, add some grapeseed (or mild olive) oil, spice mix, then cook the fruit and vegetables briefly with some salt. Add 1-½ cups rice and black beans, mix well. Add fresh pressed lime juice (½ or whole lime, depending on size of lime), reduce heat to low, and cover. By the time tortillas (two to three, depending on their size) warmed in another pan, lime juice should be reduced to almost nothing. If not, remove the cover, and increase heat slightly.

The lime juice may also be added after cooking the filling. This promotes browning reactions the lime juice otherwise prevents while being cooked off.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 01:57 | Permalink

The twenty-five Seattle restaurants participating in 25-for-25 this November. $25 (minus Wines and other eccentricities) for a prix fixe dinner at a Very Expensive restaurant. Downside: some places get crazy busy during this period, such as Restaurant Zoë. Some venues offer only selected menu items at $25, others rotate the menu items throughout the month.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 05:42 | Permalink

Discovered Goji Berries in Uwajimaya while looking for snack food. The dried berries have a fairly unique taste, mixing sweet, sour, and other notes. Somewhat difficult to gnaw on dried. Interesting when mixed into oatmeal in place of raisins, very mellow if given time to hydrate.

Other sources recommend mixing them into Chinese style soup somehow, will have to experiment more. Should be great replacing dried cranberries in Couscous Risotto with Maple Syrup.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:56 | Permalink

Tasted some 25 wines from various Napa dealers over last Saturday. Perhaps too many, though for a first trip on limited time, what can one do? Visited Cakebread, Grgich Hills (yay for grape tasting off the vines), Heitz Cellars, Beringer, Duckhorn Vineyards, and Silver Oak Cellars. Wine ranged from decent but overpriced to amazingly good. Picked up a bottle of Heitz Bella Oaks Vineyard Cabernet for additional study.

Ferry building much more open and focused than eclectic Pike Place Market. Travel light, so only browsed around. Peet's Ferry Building espresso very Italian, with a Double Shot espresso served in a cup, rather than a shot glass. Decent crema, though neither sweet nor robust. Lingered well. Stopped by Spanish Table Berkeley store: much larger, same great selection of Spanish products.

Limón in the Mission area serves excellent drinks, amazing Peruvian/fusion cuisine. Only downside: packed and loud, though it was a Friday. Tartine bakery & café serves excellent French morning fare. For dinner, Breads of India very much worth the wait for dinner (Ajanta promised longer wait at the time, so moved on). Chinese for breakfast at Koi Palace unusual. Arrived early to beat the weekend rush, amazing Dim Sum ensued.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 07:00 | Permalink

Curious Cook - blog of Harold McGee, author of the excellent On Food and Cooking text.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 02:37 | Permalink

Disclaimer: this article has nothing to do with herbs. With that said, I use the following spices heavily:

• Ajwain - good complement in moderation with Coriander.
• Black and White Pepper - mixed together in pepper mill.
• Cardamon Seeds - wonderful when ground fresh, though fades quickly.
• Coriander - excellent base spice for Indian dishes or with quinoa.
• Ginger - fresh, ground, crystalized, it’s all good. Use in both Asian and Indian dishes, and also my smoothie spice mix.
• Poppy Seeds - complement for Cardamon based spice mixes.
• Turmeric - mainly for curry mixes and the health benefits. Not so keen on the orange stains it leaves everywhere.

For curry mixes, I also pick up any number of other spices. Be sure to buy spices fresh, or failing that, try ordering whole spices online. Like coffee, spices must be ground and used as soon as possible. Unless the spice requires industrial equipment to process, such as Mace.

For equipment, currently have a Kitchen Aid blade grinder, a small mortar and pestle, a pepper mill, and a hand crank coffee grinder. Kitchen Aid good for quick mixes of softer spices. Mortar and pestle has smooth sides, so hard to grind spices with. Coffee grinder handles hard spices such as Coriander best, though this task could also be handled by another pepper mill. If only buying one item, purchase a large mortar and pestle. Ensure it has rough sides, as smooth ones allow the spices to escape.

My favorite spice book came from the local World Merchant’s store: The Contemporary Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices: Seasonings for the Global Kitchen.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 02:43 | Permalink

As reported on 101 Cookbooks. Now, to find fresh Gnocchi…

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:04 | Permalink

Quick miso soup recipe for a light dinner. Great working next to Uwajimaya, as I can pickup mushrooms and green onions after work. Stuff, in order of appearance:

• 1½ cups Water.
• Bonito flakes.
• ½ teaspoon Sesame Seed oil.
• ½ teaspoon Soy Sauce (to taste, or eliminate if miso otherwise too salty).
• 1 tablespoon Mirin.
• 1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar.
• Hon Shimeji (Brown Beech) Mushroom (3 ounces at most).
• Fresh grated ginger to taste.
• Green Onion to taste. If possible, buy smaller, fresh light green stalks, not the stiff tasteless dark green bundles.
• Some more Water.
• 1 tablespoon red Miso. Just tried Miso Master Red Miso, wonderful stuff.

Method:

1. Mix water and bonito, cook over medium until kitchen smells of bonito.
2. In mean time, prepare the mushroom, ginger, and green onion.
3. Strain out bonito flakes, return broth to heat.
4. Add oil, soy, mirin, vinegar.
5. Mix in mushroom and ginger.
6. Let soup cook for some time.
7. Mix miso with additional water in bowl. Softer miso may not require this step.
8. Remove soup from heat. Add green onion and miso to soup.
9. Cover and let sit for some time (five minutes at most).

If anything would reduce the amount of vinegar and mirin, perhaps too overpowering in the amounts listed above. Add tofu for protein, though miso not as appetizing with an army of tofu cubes in it.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 04:09 | Permalink

Highly recommend the book The Flavors of Olive Oil. Covers buying and tasting techniques: great advice when faced with rows of olive oil in a store. The tasting notes and the list of vendors provide a starting point for exploration. Also includes many helpful asides on food products and cooking methods, for example saba—an ancient grape must sweetener. Need to try some of the many recipes…

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 03:51 | Permalink

After lunching in the International District of Seattle for over a month, I have two favorite restaurants:

1. Vegetarian Bistro at 668 South King Street. All vegetarian¹, though have not tried any of the fake meat options. They have a huge selection, including wonderful Dim Sum. Especially like the steamed vegetable and pan fried pot stickers. The steamed or fried crispy bean curd has been too hard to chew for my liking. Excellent fried rice with tofu and ginger or seaweed and toasted pine nuts.

   Not open on Tuesday, which leads to my second favorite restaurant.

2. Schezuan Noodle Bowl at 8th Ave South, just North of King Street. Still makes great noodles, green onion pancakes. Try a noodle bowl, or pancakes and the vegetable and tofu dumplings. Small restaurant: can fill up quickly during lunch hours.

Suspect Sichuan Peppers used to great effect in Vegetarian Bistro fried rice, so picked up a sample at World Merchants, Spice, Herb & Teahouse.

¹ Fortune cookies probably baked with eggs. Oh, well. :)

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 16:52 | Permalink

Among many other coffee sources in the Belltown area of Seattle:

• Bellino Coffee - weaker latte, great espresso (if you like a woodsy twang, like I do). Not much in the way of pastries. On the other side of the building Macrina Bakery is in.
• Espresso Ulysses - need to try this one again…
• Macrina Bakery - amazing bakery. Coffee might be tricky, due to huge morning lines.
• Uptown Espresso - some folks love the velvet foam, others like their handy Pier 70 and across-from-the-Westin-complex locations.

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Posted by Jeremy Mates at 11:45 | Permalink

Hair soy. Lower cost! Recycles waste material! A win-win solution.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 02:37 | Permalink

A sweet sauce, with heat depending on the amount of ginger and pepper used. The six tablespoons of liquid should result in sauce for roughly one serving of food. Expand amount of liquids (and the cooking time) as appropriate.

• 3T Mirin.
• 3T White wine (I favor complex whites, such as Canoe Ridge Chardonnay).
• Ginger and fresh ground white pepper to taste.
• Bay leaf.

Mix the mirin, herbs, and spices. Reduce until mirin lightly caramelized. Strain out herbs and spices. Add white wine, and cook until reduced by half. Tricky to reduce at first for the unskilled, but fairly easy otherwise. Be careful with the amount of spices, as the sauce will become very hot even with modest amounts of white pepper and ginger. Serve tea or chocolate afterwards, to help reduce the negative effects caramelized sugars have on the teeth.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 06:20 | Permalink

Thoughts on gainful diet hacking. First! Some food for thought:

• Becoming Vegetarian or Becoming Vegan.
• The China Study.

Base current diet around the four food groups: fruit, veggies, grains, and legumes.

If humans mindlessly consume milk, why not also pig milk? Suck ’em dry before carving them up. Pancetta in a pig cream sauce with pig noodles (blend pig into slurry, form into noodles). And why stop at pig milk? I’m sure someone can milk a Kangaroo, and there’s lots of those. What would the dairy industry do? Fight the fluid “that’s for baby pigs, unlike milk”, or embrace it?

Baby cow food surprisingly easy to eliminate from my diet. Needless saturated fat, and a strong correlation to diseases I'd rather not suffer. Can get plenty of calcium from veggies and legumes.

Like triple certified coffee? Try triple certified beef!

1. Sun grown in a clear cut field.
2. Natural corn and antibiotic diet.
3. Shipped thousands of miles before consumption.

I’m sure everyone will warm to this, given time. The resulting CO₂ certainly has nothing better to do.

Eliminated red meat a while ago: hard to digest, fattening. Other meats more difficult to give up, as need a fair amount of protein due to excerise, and love occasional sushi. Meat consumption now somewhere in the zero to four ounce per week range? Meat spikes in an otherwise mostly vegan diet produce interesting reactions I need to study more.

For B12 and whatnot, take supplements. Wish vitamin makers would use less than +100,000% of the recommended allowances, as the excess just goes down the drain. Some food makers now offer fortified soy, rice, and ceral products that never top 40%. Prefer to get vitamins directly from natural foods, though on-the-job stress and limited foraging time can scuttle that goal.

Avoiding oxolate rich foods, like spinach. Plenty of other veggies out there that lack vitamin and mineral binding support.

Mostly vegan diet gives me more energy (biking again after giving that up for a few years, taken up rock climbing), and appears to grant better tolerance for cold weather. Downside: trouble sitting still for long periods of time. Especially when getting my hair cut.

Seattle great for vegetarians: plenty of suitable restaurants and food sources.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 07:24 | Permalink

Ordered groceries from Amazon Grocery. Quick to ship, and now have handy stash of Clif Bars when trapped at work or biking, and a bunch of ceral boxes to cart home over the next few days. Wacky nuts from the Himalayas taking longer to ship. Disappointing only processed nuts available; would love to order whole walnuts, and process them when needed. Disclaimer: I work for Amazon!

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 18:36 | Permalink

• Quinoa Pilaf. For a simple, clean taste, mix freshly ground coriander into oil, coat quinoa well and toast, then cook down in water. Add carots and brocolli near end of cooking with some salt.
• Tofu Shake. Use white peaches or asian pears when in season.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 11:17 | Permalink

I recently switched jobs from RealNetworks to Amazon, so now have easy access to the many restaurants in the International District of Seattle. Thoughts on various lunch options:

• Bush Garden. Excellent lunch sushi special, all around better than Fuji’s (Ahi tuna wonderful, small serving size, lower price).
• Fuji Sushi. Busy at lunch, bento box too large, and good but not excellent sushi.
• Isami Restaurant. Part of the Uwajimaya complex. Expensive, but good. Fancy sushi presentations available, but as yet untried by myself.
• Schezuan Noodle Bowl (8th and King). Still makes great noodles, green onion pancakes.
• Tropics (606 South Weller Street). Okay Thai food. Only had Pad Thai Something there; Teapot Vegetarian House offers a better Pad Thai Tofu.
• Vegetarian Bistro (668 South King Street). Pricy and large serving sizes, but otherwise excellent. Need to try the Dim Sum.

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 07:37 | Permalink

I dislike corporate coffee. Starbucks coffee tastes muddy, perhaps due to the low quality of bean and long delays between roasting and consumption. Luckily, Seattle has no lack of good coffee shops. My current favorites:

• Cafe Fioré. Has a great location above Golden Gardens Park.
• Espresso Vivace Roasteria. Capitol Hill Titan. Try the chocolate espresso cake.
• Monorail Espresso. Easy to miss, look for the bike couriers.
• Seattle Best Tea (506 South King Street). Okay, not a coffee shop. Amazing oolongs, though.
• Victrola Coffee Roasters. Many creative pastries! Downside: popular.

Dearly departed: Hines Public Market Coffee from Eastlake. Charming (teetering, unsafe) building razed to make way for … more condos! And probably another Starbucks.

Technorati Tags: coffee

Posted by Jeremy Mates at 21:49 | Permalink