Scrolling through this month's liquor license applications, an interesting tidbit: the resurfacing of that German deli in Freighthouse Square.

The Freight-Hause German Corner deli appears to be finding its new home on Fern Hill. The TNT Diner crew will be do a dutiful drive-by at lunch to investigate. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here, a collection of German restaurants to sniff around.

UPDATE: A lunchtime drive-by yielded a pleasant surprise. A sign promising a German restaurant at 8233 S. Park Ave., in the Fern Hill Center (between the post office and a nail shop). We knocked on the door. No answer, sadly. A woman from the nail salon next door, curious at our door banging, said that the owner is there working in the mornings and that they're looking to open next month.

Stay tuned for details.

Posted by Sue Kidd, Food Editor

With berry season upon us, we've been salivating all week in the newsroom over thoughts of pie. We're formulating our pie lust into a story, of course.

We've got our eye on interviewing a few of the winners from the Puyallup Fair pie contests, but who else should we lob our pie questions at? Any great pie bakers around here we should talk to? Which restaurants dish up great pie?

Oh, and the important question: what makes you want to dig your fork into a slice? The crust? Filling? The delicious merging of both? Your thoughts appreciated.

Posted by Sue Kidd, Food Editor

Changes are afoot at The News Tribune's restaurant blog. Ed Murrieta resigned this morning, so staff from the TNT will take over this blog effective immediately. The blog's name will change to TNT Diner and will continue to bring you regular reports from South Sound restaurants, diners, pubs and other eating establishments, continuing the conversation that has evolved in this space.

Starting Monday, Aug. 4, the URL will change to http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/tntdiner so please remember to update your bookmarks and/or RSS reader.

If you have questions or comments, contact Norma Martin, our assistant managing editor for features, at norma.martin@thenewstribune.com.

I took two weeks off from the grind called work. What did I do? I stayed home and ground my own.

Chorizo, that is.

There’s a hoary saying about the ugliness of witnessing the production of either journalism or sausage. Read on; this one’s pretty tasty.

My home-ground chorizo experience started in April, when I bought a 7-pound pork loin at QFC, dramatically marked down the day before its sell-by date. I stuck it in the deep freeze and forgot about it until I saw 10 pounds of pork shoulder at Costco. I beelined over to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer.

Home-made chorizo is easy to make. It’s a lot better than chorizo from the grocery store. That kind’s greasy and contains pig parts I don’t want to think about.

I asked my dad’s advice for preparing the pork (puree spices and chiles and let the cubed meat marinade in the mixture) and peeked at a Rick Bayless cookbook for proportions. With measurements scaled up to approximately one-quarter cup each, I lightly toasted the spices: oregano, cumin, paprika, peppercorns and Chinese five spice powder. I added garlic and salt. I cheated and used canned chiles in adobo, rather than reconstituting dried chiles in boiling water.

Once the meat was marinated, I ran it through the grinder. Then I poured three cups of cider vinegar into the ground pork and mixed it all together by hand. I covered the tub with plastic wrap and stuck it in the refrigerator.

Two hours later, I cooked a test batch. I was pleased. The chorizo was lean, with a meaty texture that didn’t crumble in a greasy pool like the supermarket stuff does. Two days later, after the spices mellowed and the vinegar started to preserve and flavor the meat, I cooked lunch – a scramble of chorizo, onions, bell peppers and mozzarella cheese, scooped up with corn tortillas. I ate the same lunch almost every day last week.

I gave some chorizo to a friend. She made breakfast pizza. I gave some to another friend. He shared it with his dad for breakfast, scrambled with eggs the way Mexicans have started their days for centuries.

I’ve got about seven pounds of chorizo left. I’m thinking about making chorizo chili. Maybe chorizo meatloaf. Heck, chorizo con chorizo sounds bueno, too.

I stop eating in Tacoma for two weeks and what happens? Someone pulls a gun at Pacific Grill -- after a customer orders fortified wine and tries to rob a private dining room full of doctors and drug reps.

A suspect's been arraigned. The guy who pulled a gun was a customer helping to detain the suspect. I'll be trying to find out if the doctor who was packing heat had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Meanwhile, what else did I miss?

Eat anything good while I was on vacation?

I'm vacationing, without food, on my deck.

Ed's Diner is closed for vacation until July 28. When I'm not fasting, I'll be cooking and baking for myself.

The You Plate Special remains open for self-service blogging.

This audio slide show goes with a story that'll appear in tomorrow's News Tribune. Here's a sneak for Ed's Diner readers. Read tomorrow's story for a list of South Sound farms within easy driving distance.

Tacoma's newest farmers market, the 6th Ave., kicks off at 3:30 p.m. today, just off Sixth Avenue on Pine Street, in front of Engine House No. 9.

Here's a new Farmer-Friendly Food Challenge, specifically for Sixth Avenue-area restaurants:

Buy some products at the farmers market -- anything from fruit to veggies to cheese to seafood to meat -- and use them in menu items.

Chefs: If you've got any Farmer-Friendly food up your sleeves, promote them here.

Diners: If you come across any Farmer-Friendly food -- or simply have suggestions for chefs after cruising today's market -- promote them here.

Homemade strawberry ice cream, on my deck.

The raw unpasteurized whole milk and cream came from Meadowwood Farm in Enumclaw. The milk is $10 per gallon, the cream $6 per pint.

If you've got any health hangups about drinking raw unpasteurized dairy products, this milk isn't for you. If you have no qualms, then this stuff's for you: It tastes like fresh grass. It's creamy yellow in shade, and thick and creamy to the mouth. Stays fresh in the fridge for two weeks. Great for drinking, making cheese, yogurt, creme fraiche or ice cream.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
Makes about a pint
1 cup raw unpasteurized whole milk
1 cup raw unpasteurized whole cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
5 egg yolks tablespoon vanilla
1 cup sugar, divided
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped

Combine strawberries and one-third cup sugar. Let macerate 2 hours. Combine milk, cream and vanilla. Set aside. Whisk or beat egg yolks and remaining sugar until thick. Whisk in milk-cream mixture. Drain the macerated berries; combine berry juice with custard base. Chill thoroughly in refrigerator. Freeze the custard base in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's directions, adding the strawberries in the final two minutes.

I saved half of the juices from the macerated strawberries. I reduced the juice with calvados, and drizzled the strawberry-apple brandy syrup over the ice cream.

I've got home-spun Cherry Garcia in my freezer. I tweaked the recipe above: pitted and sliced Bing cherries instead of strawberries, plus one broken-up bar of Ghiradelli semi-sweet. I could have used better chocolate, but Jerry Garcia and Ghiradelli are both from San Francisco, so that's where my heart goes. For a Northwest drizzle, I honored another Washington Bing -- Bing Crosby -- and boozed up my home-spun Cherry Garcia with cherry brandy syrup.

Raw unpasteurized milk at Meadowwood Farm: 20228 SE 400th St. Enumclaw; 360-802-3845; closed Wednesdays.

Get 'em at Olson's Meats & Smokehouse,
20104 SE 436th St., Enumclaw; 360-825-3340.

I drove to Enumclaw yesterday to buy farm-fresh raw, unpasteurized milk and cream. (I've got one batch of home-spun Cherry Garcia in the freezer, and I'm waiting for my strawberry custard base to chill before I start the next batch of homemade ice cream. Stand by for pictures.)

On my way to Meadowwood Farm, I swung by Olson's Meats & Smokehouse, where I scored the last two orders of pork on sticks.

These little piggies deserve a ribbon. Pork shanks are deboned. The meat is marinated in a teriyaki-style sauce. The meat is smoked with apple wood. The smoked meat and bones are re-united. They're sold ready to eat. I put mine under the broiler before gnawing them clean on my deck.

Pork on sticks, on my deck.

Inside pork on a stick, on my deck.

Thea's Market opened on Dock Street last week. It's the closest food market to downtown Tacoma.

I was sniffing out reports of at least one restaurant under development in the Esplanade condo project on Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway. I saw a few nice, empty spaces. Two of them face the water, such as the view goes: an unimpeded look at the Martinac ship yard. Whatever food and beverages will be served in whatever restaurants go into the Esplanades, I hope they stand up on their own.

While searching for parking along Dock Street, I found an interesting sign of livability next to the Esplanade, at the Thea's Landing : a ground-floor food market, more than four years after the first condo residents moved in.

Thea's Market opened July 3. It's owned by the people from Dock Street Sandwich Co., which occupies a ground-floor space on the opposite end of Thea's Landing.

Shannon Marshall, the daughter of owners Jim and Jayna Marshall, called the store "a mini Trader Joe's," selling pastas, condiments, cheeses, breads, snacks, and, soon, beer and wine. There's even a few household basics.

"Everyone needs toilet paper," Shannon Marshall said.

Except maybe cats. But, for them, Thea's Market has kitty litter.

Thea's Market: 1717 Dock St., Tacoma. Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays.

There's no beer or wine yet, but like the sign says, cold beer's sold at the other end of Thea's Landing.

Yukon River king salmon, with chimichurri and corn, on my deck.

I fell asleep soon after dinner last night. Fitting, since dinner was a dream.

Now that the ice in Alaska’s Yukon River has melted and the Eskimos have taken their share of the fish, Yukon River king salmon are in markets and restaurants. I bought a filet at Johnny’s Seafood in Tacoma yesterday.

It was $35.99 a pound. Johnny’s fishmonger said it would be a buck higher today.

I brushed the fish with my dad’s chimichurri (parsley, garlic, red peppers, red wine vinegar and olive oil) and broiled it, leaving the thickest part rare and cool in the center. I de-cobbed two ears of corn I’d bought at Mosby Farms in Auburn, sautéed the kernels in butter and mixed the corn with a few spoonfuls of chimichurri.

I went to bed hoping I’d dream up a fabulous description for my dinner. I woke up wordless, still dreaming about dinner.

The fish smelled and tasted like the cradle of the rivers and the seas.

The leading edge of a fork tine flaked the flesh.

The flesh barely needed chewing. It was as if this fish – one that stored up enough sustaining body fat to make a 2,000-mile trek to its spawning ground – wanted to slither down my gullet.

If the oils in salmon flesh could power an SUV, humans would wage war over this fish.

Thankfully, Yukon River salmon abound with the good kinds of oils – heart-healthy blah, blah, blah.

I got plenty of sleep last night. But I don’t think I’ve had enough Yukon River salmon yet.

Ed Powers, fishmonger at Johnny's Seafood in Tacoma, with a 14-pound Yukon River king salmon that arrived today from Alaska.

Yukon River King salmon has finally arrived. I bought mine today at Johnny's Seafood on Dock Street, $35.99 a pound. Turns out I could have got it for $29.99 a pound at Metropolitan Market. Northern Fish on Ruston way reports it's still waiting for its catch.

Jon Rowley, the Puget Sound food marketer who turned Copper River salmon into gold, does PR for a Yukon River outfit. Here's a snippet of an e-mail from Rowley:

After a bleak early run, the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game finally got
enough kings up the Yukon River to allow a limited harvest. The run
was late. Actually they are allowing a harvest of summer chums where
limited numbers of kings are taken incidentally. ... With 20 to 30% oil for their 2000 mile spawning journey, Yukon kings are in a league of their own. In my estimation, this is the ne plus ultra of fish.

I'll let you know about my first bite of Yukon River salmon
after I cook it tonight.

My dinner was cut from this fish.

Clockwise from top left, hand-made corn tortillas, carne asada tacos and tangy chicharrones with rice and beans.

Not many vegetarian meals are served at La Huerta International Market. Those who eschew meat may wish to avoid one of two entrances into the restaurant – the one that takes customers past La Huerta’s meat counter, where peeled beef knuckles and top round rest cheek by jowl with pork fat and pig’s blood sausage.

Juan and Rossy Murguia opened La Huerta three months ago, duplicating their thriving market in Kent: grocery products from Latin America, Asia and the United States, fresh tortillas and baked goods, a meat counter, and a restaurant that serves authentic Mexican food in a nice setting, at affordable prices.

The menu that hangs above La Huerta’s steam table touts tacos ($1.25 each, with choice of meat), burritos ($6.99), tamales ($2.25 each) and two treats featuring thick, hand-made corn tortillas – Jalisco-style gorditas (meat, lettuce and tomatoes sandwiched between two tortillas, $2.99) and Salvadoran pupusas (tortillas stuffed with meat, $2.99).

Grab one of the paper menus – or just gaze at the steam table – for more. Guisados are a great deal – sort of a Mexican plate lunch, featuring a choice of stewed meats (pork with peppers, chicken with corn and eggplant, spicy beef and goat), plus rice and beans. One-item guisados are $4.99, two-item guisados are $5.99. For breakfast, I enjoyed a plate of chilaquiles , a corn tortilla casserole with chicken, tangy tomatillo sauce and a hunk of fresh, fluffy cheese. For lunch, a serving of chicharrones (slices of stewed pork, crowned with fat) took me back to the border.

I was less pleased with the tamal I ordered: It was re-heated in the microwave and arrived rubbery and crusty. The beef in my tacos was both gristly and over-cooked. But the chorizo sausage in my gordita had spicy, vinegary bite.

For vegetarians, there are cheese enchiladas and chile rellenos. Soups, from chicken-vegetable to tripe-filled menudo, round out the menu.

La Huerta International Market: 5605 Pacific Ave. S, Tacoma; 253-474-1645. Hours: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays. Prices: $.

Double-dipped fried chicken and yeasty rolls at Ezell's in Tacoma.

There’s been some feather shuffling at Ezell’s Famous Chicken in Tacoma, where the owners of the Seattle-based fried chicken restaurants have taken over the local franchise, spiffed up the facilities and pledge to improve the quality of food and service.

Ezell’s opened at Pacific Avenue and 72nd Street in 2005. The franchise closed in March. Ezell’s founders, Ezell and Fay Stephens and Lewis Rudd, re-opened the restaurant on May 10, with new staff. I stopped in for a First Bite last week.

Cleanliness and service had been concerns each time I’d visited the old franchise (along with the short-lived Ezell’s franchise on Sixth Avenue, where Herban Café now operates). A new paint job inside and out are Ezell’s biggest noticeable cosmetic improvements to the 50-seat restaurant.

It’s impossible to compare the quality of the food between an existing restaurant and a defunct restaurant, but let me say: I enjoyed most of what I ordered and ate at the “new” Ezell’s, especially desserts.

Ezell’s double dips its birds -- first in breading, then in batter, then in breading again. This helps give the skin crunch and helps seal in natural juices as the bird parts fry in trans-fat-free vegetable oil. This worked perfectly for the juicy, intensely golden thighs and drumsticks I sampled, but the breasts, while meaty, verged on dry.

Spicy chicken had a whole lot more flavor than the bordering-on-bland regular chicken, thanks to an overnight marinade in Creole seasoning and a little cayenne that gives the batter bite.

Sides and desserts are made in house. Potato salad and coleslaw will appeal to mayo lovers. Desserts should appeal to anyone who can eat sugar. Sweet potato pie and bread pudding were moist and heartily spiced. Layers of piecrust beefed up peach cobbler. Yeasty rolls were soft and golden.

Two-piece meals start at $5.50. Four-piece meals are $9.50. Twenty-four pieces, with rolls and sides, is $45.05.

I'll be back.

Ezell’s Famous Chicken: 7201 Pacific Ave. S, Tacoma; 253-472-4300. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays. Prices: $.

I'm giving up eating bananas.

I just read “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World.” As author Dan Koeppel unpeels events, the history of commercial bananas is uglier than factory-farmed veal: rain forests destroyed, people subjugated, governments controlled, a species of food slowly poisoned by the very businessmen who made billions of dollars while making bananas the most-loved fruit on earth. Call it bananafest destiny.

I’ll review Koeppel’s fascinating book in Sunday’s SoundLife section. Meanwhile, if you’re like me and are chewing on what to do with those last three bananas that are turning black in my fruit bowl, I’ve got a suggestion:

When life hands you doomed fruit, make black banana cake.

=> Read more!

He’s back: Christmas in July.

Before the skies light up with fireworks, beer drinkers over age 21 can get lit up on winter warmers, the richer, higher-octane beers brewed for the frosty holidays.

Parkway Tavern, one of Tacoma’s leading dens of microbrews, pours held-over winter beers from Christmas 2007 on Thursday.

Here are the beers that Parkway will pour in schooners and pints, from 6 p.m. until last call: Maritime's Jolly Roger, Deschutes Nitro Jubelale, Full Sail's Cask Conditioned Wreck the Halls, Sierra Nevada's Celebration, Hale's Wee Heavy, a 2006 Full Sail Wassail, Hair of the Dog Barleywine, and a special release Imperial Black Butte Porter, also from Deschutes.

Meantime, The Swiss has Wassail and Pyramid’s Snowcap on tap. Publican Jack McQuade Celebration, Jolly Rodger, Wreck the Halls (on cask) and Elysian’s Bi-Frost will be tapped mid-month.

“We’re trying to have as many as we can for the 25th,” McQuade said.

UPDATE Doyle's Public House says it'll pour these three beers on July 25: Delrium Noel '06 and '07 and Gouden Carolus Noël '07.

Parkway Tavern: 313 N. I St., Tacoma; 253-383-8748

The Swiss Pub & Eatery: 1904 S Jefferson St., Tacoma; 253-572-2821

Doyle's Public House: 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma; 253-272-7468