Frozen custard from Old School Custard, with add-ins of sprinkles and Butterfinger pieces

I started the week with pie, so it seems natural to end the week with ice cream. Actually, custard, not ice cream, if you’re keeping tabs. They’re both frozen desserts, but frozen custard is so, so, so much better, I hesitate to even call it ice cream.

TNT Diner reader VibeGuy posted about Old School Custard in Bonney Lake on the pie thread Monday, immediately making me crave a taste. It’s an independently owned and operated store right next to Jersey Mike's, which I rated high for meaty subs in this article here.

I can see why VibeGuy is an enthusiastic fan of Old School. Frozen custard is the frosty princess of the ice cream universe

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Chilled blueberry soup from Babblin' Babs. Photo courtesy of William Mueller.

Blueberry season will be here shortly, but if you can't wait, pick up a bag of frozen blueberries at Terry's Berries on River Road. (Berry caveat: I also saw she was selling fresh strawberries at the Terry's Berries booth Saturday morning at the Sunrise Village Puyallup Farmers Market.)

I picked up some frozen blueberries a few weeks ago, the last time I was at the farm store at Terry's Berries. They are sitting in my freezer, still, which is a small miracle they haven't yet been devoured. I wasn't sure what to make with the blueberries until I heard what Chef William Mueller of Babblin' Babs in Proctor served at the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra dinner Saturday night – chilled blueberry soup. The farm-themed dinner paired chefs with local farmers. Mueller and Terry's Berries were a match made in blueberry heaven. Click the read more button for details on how to get blueberries from Terry's Berries, and for Mueller's blueberry soup recipe.

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I'm just back from a Portland cheese eating tour. I've returned with a cheeseworthy appreciation for Oregon artisinal cheese. One of my favorite stops was a cheese shop called Steve's in a small neighborhood in Northwest Portland. I also developed a major addiction to Juniper Grove chevre and Willamette Valley Cheese Co. smoked fontina. I'll be writing more about Oregon cheese later in the summer. Stay tuned.

Now that I'm back from my cheesy detour, I thought I'd do a quick check-in on what's opened, or opening soon. Let's take a look, shall we?

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This morning, at about 11 a.m., Sun Ok Chung will stand where she always stands – at the stove in the small kitchen of O-bok restaurant on South Tacoma Way. Today is the 20th anniversary of her Korean restaurant.

At that stove is where she’s stood just about every morning – yes, even today, on Mother’s Day – since 1989 when she opened O-bok, one of the first Korean restaurants in Tacoma. She rarely closes her restaurant, serving now a second generation of customers at the restaurant that was the first in the area to bring Korean tabletop barbecue to Tacoma diners.

“She’s at the restaurant for almost 12 hours a day, for close to 365 days a year,” said her daughter, Hyun Choi. Chung is the restaurant’s only cook.

Pictured here: Hyun Choi and her mother Sun Ok Chung.

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In case you missed it, here is a story C.R. Roberts had in yesterday's TNT about the Northwest Regional Barista Competition.

Alex Pond of Fresh Pot in Portland took top honors at the competition, held this weekend at Temple Theater. Kevin Fuller, of Portland's Albina Press, took second. Robbie Britt of Zoka in Seattle took third.

Congrats to Zachary Marvick, who competed in his first coffee competition. Marvick's creations can be found at Satellite and Black Water.

Baristas will brew their finest this week in the ultimate coffee comp – the Northwest Regional Barista Competition, Friday through Sunday at Tacoma’s Temple Theatre (details on the "read more" button).

It will be the first coffee competition for Zachary Marvick, a local artist and barista at Tacoma’s Satellite Coffee. He also brews at Black Water in Tacoma, but for this competition, he’s representing Satellite.

“I just hope to do a good job,” said a Marvick, who has crafted espresso and coffee drinks since 1999.

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The Tempest Boom Boom Champagne Cocktail. Photo by me.

I stopped by Tempest Lounge last night to talk bubbly with Denise Tempest. For New Year's Eve, Denise has all kinds of bubbles to sample - by the glass or in cocktail form. Denise's champagne cocktails pair well with a story in today's SoundLife section about making party cocktails using sparkling wine. Like the story we ran in SoundLife today, Denise has a French 75 on the menu. She also has an orange-vodka champagne cocktail she mixed up called the Tempest Boom Boom (see the pic above). Click the "read more" button for her Boom Boom recipe, and for a few other recipes for champagne/sparkling wine cocktails.

If you drop in at Tempest for New Year's Eve, here's something else of interest: A flight of three bubblies for $11. It comes with pours of Lady of Spain Cava (Spain), Lucient Albrecht Cremant Rose (France) and Jansz Premium Cuvee (Tasmania).

Happy New Year to all. Be safe.

Tempest Bar and Lounge
913 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma; 253-272-4904

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I have to admit: I've never tried lutefisk. But those who do eat it love it. One of those folks is Jonathan Nesvig, an editor here at the TNT.

Nesvig told me that The Sons of Norway is putting on its annual Lutefisk Dinner Sunday, Oct. 12 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. at Normanna Hall.

The dinner will include lutefisk, meatballs, lefse "and all the trimmings," according to a flyer he handed me.

Lefse is a traditional Norweigian soft flatbread made from potatoes and other ingredients. Yes, I had to look it up in Wikipedia.

Normanna Hall is located at 1106 S. 15th Street in Tacoma. Adults are $16, ages 7-12 are $8 and six and under are free.

There will also be a bazaar with Scandanavian gifts, a bake sale and demonstrations.

I love being in the right place at the right time. Especially when the right place smells like coffee beans.

The right time was Tuesday afternoon at Tacoma's Satellite Coffee Co. As I slurped my Americano, a gray Stumptown Coffee van pulled up and out clamored a dozen coffee farmers from Costa Rica.

Stumptown, the revered Portland coffee roaster, organizes its "meet the producers" events a few times a year, says Satellite owner Pat Brown. Satellite, in the cat-bird seat above Wright Park at Division and North I Street, is the only Stumptown purveyor between Seattle and Portland. Lucky for us.

While the Costa Ricans got down to the business of ordering their drinks – cries of "cappuccino!" from all corners – several of the farmers talked about how Stumptown's direct trade program has improved the lives of their families. (You can check out more about Stumptown in this article we did back in March.)

Basically, Brown explains, Stumptown sends bean buyers straight to the farms to hone in on the best varietals. Roasting those varietals in microlots preserves their unique flavor. And because the varietals bring higher prices from coffee junkies, the farmers in turn reap the profit. Brown loves the naturally sweet Montes de Oro strain he French-presses in his shop.

"What Stumptown enabled them to do was to experiment," Brown says of the growers. "Trying new varietals, new techniques."

Satellite would like to do more cuppings, or coffee tastings, in the future. I'll let you know the dates and times when I get the word.

Satellite Coffee Co.
817 Division Ave., Tacoma

When Stadium Bistro waved good-bye in April, comments were a mixed bag. My favorite memory of the place didn't even involve real food. Virtual food, yes. The guys kicked my butt in a round of Cooking Mama for the Wii.

Unfortunately there are no wine tasting, coffee brewing or sauce simmering games for the Wii. Yet. (There should be!) When they make those games, perhaps I'll challenge some of the folks at the new businesses going into the old Bistro space.

I stopped by Monday afternoon to see what was going on in the place and chanced upon Stephen McConkey, one half of the team that started Sound Bites Sauce & Spread Co. a few months ago. Maybe you've sampled their wares at one of the 14 farmers markets they participate in. In Pierce County they do Sixth Ave., Gig Harbor, Puyallup and the Tacoma Farmers Market. And they're subletting kitchen space in the old Bistro spot. Sound Bites will prepare their sauces and spreads there and sell them in the wine bar. Stephen also confirmed that the building will retain its events room and that the small space next door will be a coffee shop.

Here's the description Sound Bites uses at its site, a bare bones page at the moment:

Sound Bites makes hand-crafted sauces and spreads from around the world, prepared with ingredients sourced from right here in the Pacific Northwest.
 
Visit us at a Puget Sound farmers market for delicious dips and sauces including hummus, pesto and chimichurri.
 
All of our products are made with varietal grapeseed oils from the Yakima Valley. Try our buttery Chardonnay Pesto, refreshing Garbanzo Hummus with Riesling Oil, and Chimichurri made with the rich flavor of Cabernet Sauvignon Oil.

 
I called Rich Hines, the other half of Sound Bites (and the president of the board for the Tacoma Farmers Market) to get his take on the neighborhood and the sauce-making biz.

"We don't know the opening timeline, but just last week they put in a door and window for the coffee shop," he said. He added that the building could be buzzing again in as little as two months.

He said he and Stephen are impressed with the hip "all-hours" activity of the neighborhood and are "excited about being part of that little food and beverage community that's forming in that building."

They're in talks with other wine bars and a Kent martini bar as well as local wholesalers, Rich said, adding that one goal is to put their sauces and spreads into local grocery stores.

"We've been getting calls from restaurants that feature hummus on their menus," he said. "They want to offer a locally made hummus, and we believe we're the only craft hummus makers in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Plus virtually every item in the container except the lemon juice is from the Northwest."

Company catch phrase: "Fiercely Local."

Reporter Bill Hutchens and I have been on a recon mission for bacon. Sweet, sweet bacon.

It started with a conversation in our pod a few months ago about bacon and its universal appeal. Salty, smoky, chewy, what's not to love (besides the whole artery clogging thing, of course)? Our premise: we love bacon so much, it could be dessert, right? Right? Or at least that's our operating premise for a story for the Wednesday food section. I have to say I've been talking up the story and I've been pretty surprised to meet so many people who have scoffed at our lust for bacon dessert. To us? It makes perfect sense. What's there not to love? Bacon? Dessert? Come on.

We thought maybe we ought to consult some pros, make sure we weren't far off base. We enlisted restaurant owners William and Shannon Mueller of Babblin' Babs Bistro in Proctor, to talk recipes. William concocted bacon zen right off the top of his head. Take a look:

Elvis cookie: Peanut butter cookie with chunks of dried banana chips and pepper praline bacon bits.

Pepper praline bacon bits: Cooked, chopped bacon tossed in sugar, cayenne, worcestershire sauce and butter. Good sprinkled on, well, anything really.

Maple praline ice cream: Eggs, custard, vanilla and maple syrup with some of the pepper praline bacon bits.

Chocolate covered bacon: Dipped in melted chocolate and coated with coconut and nuts. A fun twist on an Almond Joy.

There were others, but we'll save them for the article.

A question: Which local restaurant desserts should have an added twist of bacon? Or, even better, is anyone serving bacon desserts here?

Here, a few pictures of the bacon-y creations courtesy of William at Babblin Babs. Watch for the bacon dessert story in September.

BEFORE (choco covered bacon):

AFTER:

The New York Times has a fascinating article today about the human sense of smell. A researcher quoted in the piece offers this little at-home experiment.

Get yourself a bag of gourmet jelly beans (I splurge on the sugar pellets in bulk at Metropolitan Market) and taste each flavor. Then hold your nose and give the beans another pass. What happens? No nose means no taste except a bit of sweetness, right? It's no coincidence that wine experts wax on about a bottle's smell. It's intimately intwined with taste. (Although I've never been able to pick up on the tobacco or leather undertones that some wine critics cite. Maybe my sinuses need a good shot of wasabi.)

More from the article:

Olfaction is an ancient sense, the key by which our earliest forebears learned to approach or slink off. Yet the right aroma can evoke such vivid, whole body sensations that we feel life’s permanent newness, the grounding of now.

Anyone care for a madeleine?

That last line is the one that resonated for me. I get a whiff of basil, and I float back to the first summer I spent living away from home as a young adult. I was interning at a newspaper in Springfield, Ill., and had been gifted a little pot of basil for my apartment balcony. It was the first time I'd been fully in charge of feeding and caring for myself, and my first homemade tomato sauce with shards of hand-torn basil was transporting.

I'm sure I have a thousand more sense memories if I sat down to parse it. But I want to hear from you guys. What smell sends you back?