Happy "1st day of Spring Training"!

Ok, so actually yesterday was the first day of Spring Training (pitchers and catchers), but I didn't realize it until late yesterday.
Anyway, since nothing says "day at the ballpark" like a hot dog (with chili and cheese, please), I give you Serious Eats' "Hot Dog of the Week":



I love the Serious Eats blog, and it's worth checking out, even if you don't like hot dogs. (But if you do, there's more here).

Phases and stages...

I think I'm misquoting Willie on my title, but that's ok.
My youngest daughter turns 7 tomorrow, so when I got home tonight @12:30, I broke out the streamers and "Happy Birthday" sign, and decorated the kitchen. Hopefully she'll like it and feel special. On your birthday, you should feel special.

On other 'phases... et al' notes, this is probably the best kiss-off song I've heard in a while, and it's by one of my favorite bands to boot.

I will write about food soon...

Two in one day!

I must be going for some kind of record here, but for my second post of the day...
Another link.
This one has a little bit of a back-story. A relation of mine (my mother-in-law's stepson) is a chef in Canada (who was recently on 'Iron Chef America', where he was completely robbed! How do you pick a 'secret ingredient' that one of the judges says he hates??)

But anyway, he's the executive chef for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (so he's apparently feeding all 12000 people involved in the Olympics), and the link is to two people who work for him.

Good stuff.

Fun food visualization

I've been getting interested in doing data visualization stuff lately, and saw a link on a blog I read about data vis, and since it seemed neat, I figured I'd pass it along.


(Plus, I haven't posted in forever, and I know someone who posts like 6 times a day, so I need to be less slack about this).

Why food is cheap....

Saw this article in the Washington Post titled "Gut Check: When Food Is Discounted, Consumers Should Ask Why".

It's an interesting morning read, basically a synopsis of a book that just came out. The article talks about the different forces contributing to changes in food prices, and uses the price of shrimp as an example of not-completely-understood forces affecting the price. This line jumped out at me during that discussion of cheap shrimp:

While a traditional shrimp pond yielded 450 pounds of shrimp per acre, the industrialized shrimp farms produce 89,000 pounds per acre.

That's amazing, and it makes you wonder exactly how that $2.99/$3.33lb shrimp that's mentioned in today's N&O "frugal feasts" post gets to be that cheap, and how differently it might taste from either wild shrimp or the low-intensity shrimp farm.

The book that Ezra Klein (the article's author, and a great blogger in his own right) is writing up is called "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture", and I've already put it on my Amazon wish-list.

Western Wake Farmer's Market news...

The Western Wake Farmers' Market (which, luckily for me, is located in my neighborhood) is celebrating "National Farmers' Market Week" today. The chef from Zely and Ritz (Sarig Agasi) will be there, and there's other stuff as well.
The chef from Heron's is also occasionally there, with samples etc. (but I don't know if he's there today).

If I weren't going to BarCamp today, I'd definitely check it out.

Lunch at Heron's...

Liz and I had lunch today at Heron's Restaurant, taking advantage of the "Market Menu" that they've started running (and which was listed in the N&O last week).
The menu's a prix fixe lunch, 3 courses for $20, plus wine pairings for an additional $12.

I took advantage of the wine (Liz didn't), and overall it was great.
The menu was:

• A Tasting of Heirloom Tomatoes (Tarte Tatin, Consomme, Local Mozzarella)


• Cane Creek Pork & Beef Meatball with Short Rib Ravioli, Ratatouille and Fresh Chevre


• Pan Roasted Local Figs with Brown Butter Cake, Toasted Almond Ice Cream

and the wine pairings were:

• Waterbrook 'Melange', Columbia Valley, WA


• Pinot Noir, Nicolas Potel, Bourgogne, FR


• La Yunta, Late Harvest, Torrontes, Argentina

Everything was perfectly cooked, and the portions were just right. It's a little pricey for lunch after you include wine, but considering the dinner prices, I think it's a good deal, and it's nice to treat yourself some times.