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Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:46:00 am
 Charlie McManus of Primo Grill prepares to roast a whole pig. Driving from the slaughterhouse in Kapowsin to Cheryl Ouellette’s farm in Summit one morning this month, it barely registered: dinner – 90 pounds of whole pig, freshly killed and USDA approved -- was riding in the jump seat behind me. On the way to the slaughterhouse two hours earlier, the pig, then 160 pounds and breathing, rode in a wooden crate in the back of Ouellette’s red Dodge pick-up truck. Now, with hair, blood and entrails removed, the pig, now pork, was wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a cardboard box about the size of a bag of golf clubs. To me, at this time, this little piggy was nothing more than tomorrow’s dinner. Ouellette and I might as well have been returning from the supermarket with a load of pork chops, roasts and ribs. As we drove and enjoyed each other’s company, I pretty much forgot there was a dead pig behind me, a creature, now a product, whose body temperature was about the same as mine. I love pork, but I had no feelings for this pig. I’d watched it die – a professional jolt of electricity on the top of its head ensured it wouldn’t feel the knife that would slit its throat. As life and blood drained from its body, the pig twitched. Don’t worry, Ouellette said, those are just muscle spasms. Ouellette hand-raises and hand-feeds her pigs from birth. She says she has a real connection with her animals. This was the first time she had observed their slaughter at this facility, but she assured me the pig died humanely: The pig was out the moment two electric spikes jolted its skull. I had been granted the privilege of watching this pig’s slaughter. I’d agreed not to take pictures or disclose the slaughterhouse’s name or exact location. For the purposes of this narrative, I’ll refer to the Caucasian slaughterhouse workers as John, and the Latino slaughterhouse workers as Juan. Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 12:19:06 pm
 My invitation to the Washington Wine Highway event this weekend at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery got lost in my in-box. No matter. I spent the weekend cozying up to Chateau Ste. Michelle wines. I reached for the eponymous Rieslings, along with bottles of the varietal bearing Hogue and Snoqualmie Vineyards labels, both of which are owned by the Woodinville winery, which is the largest Riesling producer in the world. On sale for between $5.98 and $10.50, I bought some CSM bottles at Metropolitan Market, Safeway and my local convenience mart. The basic Riesling was a bit syrupy but toned down to drinkability after I cut it with some of the more acidic Hogue. CSM Columbia Valley Dry Riesling had a clean appeal and good acidity. Snoqualmie’s organic “Naked” stood crisp. Then I read the June edition of Food & Wine magazine, which has a story about Chateau Ste. Michelle, which it dubbed “America’s greatest value winery.” As a California kid, I grew up valuing the affordability of Gallo products. I was tickled to read that Chateau Ste. Michelle’s winemaker is a former Gallo man. “I like to say I make wines that are aged on their way home from the grocery store,” winemaker Bob Bertheau said. I drank to that all weekend, with steak and brisket and cheese and asparagus. I'm a few glasses closer to being one with Riesling, which Food & Wine calls "a grape that most people still don't fully understand or appreciate."
Categories: Beverages
• 7 comments
Saturday, May 26th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:57:45 am
Ed's note: An overcast breeze blows across Browns Point today. 215 years ago today, British explorers and local Indians dined here on venison pie, xenophobia and a side of cannibal mythology. Here’s the tale, excerpted from an article that originally published in the News Tribune’s SoundLife section on May 16, 2005. In the late 18th century, the beaches around Browns Point and Dash Point were warm-weather retreats. Puget Sound was pregnant with salmon and clams. Fertile bluffs bore berries and roots. Deer and quail were for the taking. Puyallups made the junket by canoe. Other tribes trekked over the Cascades to relax, hunt and feast here. By all historical accounts, the cove between Browns Point and Dash Point also was a nice spot for British explorers to picnic on the pleasantly windy afternoon of May 26, 1792. Venison pie was on Capt. George Vancouver's menu that day. It was served with a helping of xenophobia and a side of cannibal mythology that stalked the Pacific Northwest. Dessert was a lesson of cultural assumption.
Categories: All-Purpose Stuff
• 2 comments
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 11:17:53 am
 Puget Sound Pizza, the little pizza parlor that could. Ed's note: Today in GO, I skipped down pepperoni lane and wrote about three old-school pizza parlors. Here are some excerpts from previous pizza reviews.
Categories: Extra! Extra!
• 20 comments
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:16:41 am
 Pizza the rock at The Rock Pizza. Rock ‘n’ roll. Both are classics. Most mornings, I get my fix of Led Zeppelin and Journey outside The Rock Wood Fired Pizza in downtown Tacoma. One can’t miss the music from the sidewalk speakers. I don’t know about you, but power chords and macho falsettoes give me the warm and fuzzies – like I’m back in California in the ‘70s, when rock still rocked and mustaches, tube tops and tricked-out vans ruled the valley. So when my wife’s baby boomer dentist sounded nitrous-giddy about some new pizza place in Federal Way, I knew he meant The Rock. The Rock’s original location on Jefferson Street near the University of Washington Tacoma is 10 years old. The Rock opened its sixth restaurant three weeks ago, in the Crossings shopping center at 348th Street and Enchanted Parkway. It’s in a tight corner right next to Fat Burger. Don’t expect to park in the first few rows. Where ever you park, just follow the music (c. late 1960s-mid-1980s) from the outdoor speakers. If the name isn’t any indication, The Rock loves rock ‘n’ roll. Pizzas have classic rock names (“Bohemian Rhapodsy,” “Bat Out’a Hell,” “Ooohhh, That Smell”). Menus are like album covers. (My fave: Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America,” with the smiling, juice-toting waitress of all waitresses). I bought an all-access pass to The Rock’s new joint this week -- the $8.29 lunch buffet. Last week, I ordered a pie and a pint at the bar. The buffet ran bare. I finished my pint before my pepperoni arrived. I chalked it up to the necessary fine-tuning that every new restaurant needs. (Note to staff: The salad dressing station should never look like Keith Moon had just been by.) On the good foot, a slice of buffet pie with garlic and green onions did rock my world. But pineapple on pepperoni? Either someone in the kitchen accidentally went out of tune or this pie was a tribute to icky duets – sort of like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. The Rock’s décor, however, totally rocks. Flick o’ the Bic to whoever thought of making tables look like music instrument equipment cabinets. A wall of shipping container doors pays tribute to the shopping center’s former incarnation: a truck stop. Except for the bar – where The Rock pours beer made by Olmpia’s Fish Tale – the restaurant is an all-ages, family-friendly show. I’ll be back to give the rest of the menu a spin. Until then, here’s one thing about The Rock that resonates with me: some of the hostesses and waitresses are of classic rock vintage. Meanwhile, another growing South Sound pizza empire, Farrelli’s Gourmet Wood Fired Pizza, is making preparations for Parkland, its fifth restaurant location. Yesterday, I saw contractors and a help-wanted sign. I’ll check in on Farrelli’s when the Parkland location opens this summer. Until then, I would like to know: Whose pizza rocks your world? The Rock Wood Fired Pizza: 34817 Enchanted Parkway S, Federal Way; 253-835-7625
Categories: First Bite
• 42 comments
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 06:49:48 pm
Here's a question I get asked sometimes: "Where do you get your story ideas?" You mean the ones even my editors laugh at? Here's today's answer: Goofing off with Google. Behold: 15,000 results from Googling "meet the farmer." 9 results from Googling "meet the farmworker."
Categories: Farming and growing
• 4 comments
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:16:51 am
 Crazy for curly fries: Tastes like Taste of Tacoma 2006. An Ed's Diner regular writes:
I covered Taste of Tacoma in 2005. There were nearly 50 food vendors – mostly caterers but a few restaurants, too. Vendors from the 206, the 425 and 360 area codes outnumbered 253s from Tacoma. I did not attend TOT2006. Remember last year’s Showcase Tacoma? That was a real good taste of Tacoma. Click here for a list of "restaurants" for TOT2007, June 29-July 1 at Point Defiance Park. Click on the comment link below if there's something about Taste of Tacoma that you want to get off your tongue.
Categories: All-Purpose Stuff
• 21 comments
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 12:31:42 pm
 I liked the barbecue I ate at Honey Bee. Several readers wrote and called to differ.
This piece of reader feedback is not unusual. Since I wrote about Honey Bee BBQ in March, I’ve received e-mail and telephone messages telling me I’m flat-out wrong about Honey Bee’s barbecue. Some of the correspondence and calls dug deeper into the menu than I did. First let me say three things: 1). I understand barbecue is a subjective thing. You like Kansas City. I like Memphis. I like St. Louis. You like Texas. One of us might like sweet or vinegary sauces more than the others. I agree we’ll disagree. 2.) When I wrote that Honey Bee has four-star barbecue, I was referring to the barbecue – brisket, ribs and chicken. Not the beans. Not the salad. Not the service. Not the corn. Not the steak. Not anything else on the menu. This was not a restaurant review; it was a report on the barbecue at two new restaurants. 3). I regret awarding Honey Bee’s barbecue four stars. Not because I didn’t enjoy the barbecue I ate and wrote about. I regret it because I regret the convention of the star system that’s supposed to give readers a shorthand version of a considered opinion. Please don’t misunderstand me: I am not railing against stars in reviews. I am concerned that stars, when they are attached to round-ups of ribs or pizzas or sandwiches or Korean fried chicken (exactly the kind of story in which I wrote about Honey Bee), are perceived as ratings for the restaurants themselves, not specifically the food that was written about. Let me ask you how I can clear this up: What do the stars mean to you? Do you read star ratings of reviews first or read the perspectives and experiences in the reviews that inform the stars? In the case of rounds-up reviews that deal with specific things – like the pizza round-up I’m writing this week about the pizza, and only the pizza, at The Cloverleaf, Spuds and Pizza Casa – do you want or expect the stars to be a reflection of overall dining experience, or just the pie? Got any better ideas than stars or other shorthand icons of (mis)understanding?
Categories: Reviewing
• 16 comments
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 05:55:44 am
Three South Sound home cooks will be featured in KCTS Cooks: Breakfast, premiering 11 a.m. Saturday on the Seattle-based public television station. Darla Brashers of Spanaway will make Valencia crepes with raspberry filling; Yasuko Tischler of Auburn will make green tea muffins with white chocolate chips; and Nancy Warren of Des Moines will make bacon and tomato frittata. They'll do it live, along with 10 other home cooks from throughout Puget Sound. The program will also include pro chefs in pre-taped segments. The four-hour show repeats repeats Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Categories: Media
• 4 comments
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:30:54 am
I enjoyed the hand-raised, free-range pig that Charlie McManus bought from Cheryl the Pig Lady and turned into a pulled pork special at Primo Grill this weekend. I was looking forward to trying Primo's next foray into procuring and preparing local foods. Looks like I'll have to hurry. "We just received our first shipment of free range organic chickens from Gerry Stokesberry in Olympia," McManus e-mailed. "They are really nice. However, there will be no more for two weeks as a dog got into his chicken pens and destroyed 130 birds. Once again, the hazards of ethical farming."
Categories: Farming and growing
• 2 comments
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 11:49:55 am
I was listenting to whiny progressive radio bloviator Ed Schultz on Monday. He was whining about ordering food at the Miami airport. There was a language issue. Ed's Spanish is not muy bueno, apparently. I pushed in a Warren Zevon CD before Schultz's whining sent me into a sputtering rage. "Lawyers, Guns and Money" quelled me. Then I thought about a language issue I encountered at the Puyallup farmers market on Saturday. I'd ordered pork and steak sandwiches. While we waited, my wife chatted up one of owners of the sandwich stand about her plans to open a restaurant in the South Hill area. Although English was obviously the woman's second language, I understood every word she said. Then the woman served another customer. "Jake," she said timidly and softly, unsure of her pronunciation. "Jake? ... Jake?" "Say it louder," snaped her son, who was working the cash register. Disgust and embarasment in the kid's voice were palpable. I enjoyed the sandwiches. But the way that kid talked to his mother left a bad taste in my mouth.
Categories: From the Gut
• 12 comments
Friday, May 11th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 11:48:56 am
I watched a pig die this morning. Soon, I'll eat it. Some unsettling things occurred before the pig became pork. But that's life on the farm, and this story I'm working on is a farm-to-table story. I'll spare you the electric-stunning, throat-slitting, blood-letting, pig-tumbling (that's how they get the hair off) details and jump ahead to the tasty morsels of the story: Cheryl the Pig Lady, a farmer from Summit, raises free-range pigs. Charlie McManus, chef/owner of Primo Grill in Tacoma, buys The Pig Lady's humanely slaughtered animals and turns them into pulled-pork specials. Charlie the chef pays Cheryl The Pig Lady per portion served. Cheryl the Pig Lady says she makes more money per pig this way than she would selling whole or cut-up hogs wholesale. This is one example of local farmers and local chefs working together. Which leads me to a simmering question or two: Does eating locally grown meat and produce mean something to you? Are you more likely to patronize a restaurant that sources local ingredients over one, say, whose pork chops come from Montana pigs? The comments lines are open ... Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 11:30:24 am
 Artisan’s Community Entertainment Café recently took over the downtown Olympia café previously occupied by Veritas. A flyer promoting Artisan’s open-mic poetry night (Tuesdays, at 8, for “slammers, beatniks, truth tellers & seekers” – my people) was the first thing that caught my eye. The other was hummingbird cake from Corina Bakery in Tacoma. There were other Corina goodies in the pastry case, too. It’s nice to see demand for Corina extends to the state capital. Meantime, Artisan’s serves salads and sandwiches, the latter made with bread from Olympia’s Bread Peddler, the best artisan bakery in the South Sound. Artisan’s Community Entertainment Café: 109 N. Capitol Way, Olympia; 360-507-2202.
Categories: Restaurant openings
• 5 comments
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 02:03:20 am
“Bob loved beer,” said Bob’s friend Manny. “When he turned 21, I went up to Alaska for his 21 Run with all his friends.” Bob had relapsed again. “This time they told him there was nothing they could do for him,” Manny said. “That was really tough. He realized his days were numbered.” On Monday – May 14, Bob’s birthday – Bob lives again. That’s the day Manny Chao, an owner and brewer at Seattle’s Georgetown Brewing Company, releases Bob’s Beer, a brown ale brewed to commemorate Bob and to raise money for a children’s charity. MEET BOB “I was his counselor back in 1999,” Manny said. “He had gone through remission and was doing fine.” Bob was 16 years old. He was in Manny’s leadership training. “Instead of just being campers where they get to go fishing, they really have more of a purpose of being there,” Manny said. “They get a chance to be assistant counselors and help out.” Back home in Alaska, Bob did volunteer and charity work. He won an Inspiration Award from the Juneau Cancer Society. “He was very instrumental when he was at Children’s Hospital, talking to kids and just being inspiring,” Manny said. “He wanted to come back and be a counselor, but unfortunately his health wouldn’t allow it.”
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 02:02:17 am
 Like the sodas I wrote about in today's SoundLife story, the soda pops pictured above are all made with cane sugar. I drank them head-to-head with versions of Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew made with high-fructose corn syrup. Here are my tasting notes: DR PEPPER COCA-COLA MOUNTAIN DEW Where can you buy these sodas made with cane sugar? Most Latin markets sell sugar-formula Coke. Babbling Bab's Bistro, which pairs sodas with sandwiches, sells Dublin Dr Pepper, the Texas-made, sugar-based, original-forumla pop. The Puget Sound mother lode for cane-sugar sodas is Real Soda in Seattle, which distributes and sells Dublin Dr Pepper, Coke, Mountain Dew, Dad's, Mug and many other cane-sugar sodas, both national and international brands. You can buy from Real Soda's retail store in the Fremont neighborhood or from Real Soda's online store, Soda King. I'd like to teach the world to sing about cane-sugar sodas. Which hits higher notes for you: cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 05:42:31 am
I, too, drank the Kool Aid. I was collecting unemployment and took on student loan debt I couldn't pay. Thanks to my wife's real estate investments, the debt is paid. But I damaged my credit to the point that I have trouble getting a credit card, a financial tool that's crucial to doing my job. On one hand, one could argue that attending culinary school got me where I am today. On the other hand, Rick Park of Austin, Texas, makes a great point: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone," he said. "I put my degree on applications, and they make fun of me for it.” The New York Times notes that many as 11 percent of graduates at some culinary schools are defaulting on federal student loans. The national average for all students last year was roughly half that, at 5.1 percent. Although the restaurant industry is expected to create two million new jobs in the next decade, the Department of Labor reports that in 2005, the latest year for which data were available, the average hourly wage for a restaurant cook was $9.86. It's an ugly cycle: blue-collar kids of limited means seduced into thinking they'll be the next Bobby Flay. Then the bill comes. "Bam!" Right in the credit rating. I remember a conversation with my lawyer, a person I greatly respect (and not just because he holds my get-out-of-jail-free card). I told my lawyer I was enrolling in the California Culinary Academy. "Why not go to San Francisco City College instead?" he asked. "It's cheaper and you'll learn just as much." "The culinary academy is more prestigious," I said. A year and a half later, I was hard up for a $10-an-hour-job. My lawyer told me so. Anyone out there got culinary school dreams? Or nightmares? Read this story or talk to me.
Categories: Industry stuff
• 9 comments
Friday, May 4th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 07:41:53 am
I don’t know Thomas Mott. Never met him. Never spoken with him. Never, to my knowledge, eaten his cooking. That last statement is the troublesome part. I’ve eaten at Mott’s new restaurant, Winfield’s Twisted Cue, four times since it opened in late March in the colorful white downtown Tacoma mansion formerly known as David’s on Broadway and before that, the University Union Club. Three out of four times, I saw the chef/owner of Winfield’s somewhere other than in the kitchen.  Thomas Mott, at Winfield's Twisted Cue. TNT photo: Drew Perine Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 07:28:14 pm
Seattle's top-rated local foodie radio show wants me on the air next week to discuss South Sound restaurants. I haven't given the producer my answer. Frankly, I'm terrified I'll speak my mind. Here’s the deal, if you haven’t already figured it out: The South Sound doesn't have that many restaurants that are worth the 40-mile drive from Seattle. How's that for reverse discrimination? Here's a short list of contenders: Primo Grill. Brix 25. Pacific Grill. Island Style Barbecue. Here are several maybes: Quickie Too. The Mark. Il Fiasco. Marzano's. Over the Moon Cafe. JT's Original Louisiana Bar-B-Que. La Creme Brulee. Stadium Bistro. Asado. Here are some that could have but won't: Masa. Indochine. Here's what I ask of you: Give me a dope-slap reminder of what's worth recommending to out-of-town foodies.
Categories: Help Wanted
• 73 comments
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 01:57:23 pm
A vocal Ed's Diner regular scratches at a problem many people have asked me about, when there was a theater scene in downtown Tacoma: Where's a good place to eat after the theater? My standard one-word answer: home. Read on, from a comment in The You Plate Special:
What do you all think?
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:01:02 am
A quiet but regular patron of Ed's Diner writes:
I haven't. Have you? My first and last encounter with homemade jerky occurred at my paternal grandfather's tarpaper shack in Hermosillo, Mexico. Small blankets of beef hung from the clothesline. Flies swarmed. I still dig jerky. Now I'm hankering for a jerky (and smoked cheese) road trip to Johnson's Smokehouse in Olympia. How about you? How and where do you satisfy your jerky jones?
Categories: Help Wanted
• 21 comments
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Ed's Diner
Looking for a place to eat? Don't know where to go? Don't know what you're hungry for? Search our restaurant guide. Search by the restaurant's name. Search by keyword (eg: korean fried chicken, wood-fired pizza). Search by proximity. You'll find links to maps, menus and more. Listen to Ed's song "My Lady of Tamales," in MP3.  Send comments, gossip or complaints to: ed.murrieta@thenewstribune.com. Or call: 253-597-8678. Got something to say? Here's the place to comment on and discuss what's on your plate and on your mind. Don't wait for me to post something to respond to. Keep up with the conversation Check out the latest comments on Ed's Diner. Category
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