Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sea Breeze Suffering

One of the goals of this blog, for me, is to practice mindful speech - writing that is true, kind and necessary, while still interesting and hopefully entertaining to read. Despite the trend in blogging to be snarky, I try to find humor that doesn't denigrate other people, and try to celebrate those things I enjoy that relate to food.

Another purpose of this blog is to catalog my experiences with food, which sometimes aren't all positive, so that I can avoid repeating mistakes. I think this post falls squarely in the latter category, but hopefully I can remain mindful in writing about a challenging experience.

On Saturday, we bought two pork chops from Sea Breeze Farm at the U-District Farmers Market. Brandon usually works the counter, but two unfamiliar guys were working Saturday. We asked for two pork chops, and without showing us anything he wrapped them up, weighed them, and quoted us over $30 for them. We were both taken aback by the price, but thought they must just be big ones so we'll have plenty for a couple meals (like lunch leftovers). So we blew it off and kept shopping.

Tonight, when I unwrapped the chops, I was hit with a wave of frustration and disappointment. We've really enjoyed shopping at Sea Breeze, and have felt well taken care of in the past. But when I saw two chops that were over 1/3 fat each, it made me upset. The Buddha taught that suffering comes from attachment, and I was certainly attached to the idea that I'd be unwrapping two big, meaty pork chops, and I felt the suffering caused by my attachment to that idea when I opened the paper. I very nearly cried from the disappointment, but took some breaths, called Dan up to make sure I was justified in my disappointment, and then decided to simply catalog what happened and move on with dinner.



I pulled out one of our kitchen scales and weighed the two chops, as they were: 2 lbs, 3.95 oz. (aka 35.95 oz)



Then I cut off most, but not all, of the fat, and weighed the remaining chops: 1 lb, 7.20 oz. (aka 23.2 oz)



I also weighed the fat, which came in at 13.15 oz.



Doing the math, I found that the paper must weigh 0.4 oz. (the delta between the combined weights of the fat and meat, both weighed on the same paper, and the full cuts weighed on the paper). Therefore, the fat alone weighed 12.65 oz - 35.6% of the total weight of the chops - and thus over $10 of the cost of our chops.

I expect some fat on my chops - and would find it odd to not find any, in fact. It lends flavor to the meat and helps it avoid drying out. But I believe that over 12 oz of fat on 2 pork chops is excessive, and it made me feel taken advantage of. Had I wanted 3/4 of a pound of fat, I would've bought the rendered lard they sell separately.

I have no way to know the intentions of the guy who sold us the meat, so I don't know if he intended to unload undesirable, overly fatty chops on us or not. I don't know if he took advantage of us not specifying weight to sell us 3/4 lb of fat and make an extra $10. We simply asked for two pork chops, as we always do, and didn't specify the size or type.

Given that farm fresh meats vary in availability week to week, we start the meat counter conversation with what we want generally, and have become used to Brandon (and others we've interacted with at Sea Breeze) taking the time to tell us what they have available, show us some cuts, and let us okay the meat before buying. Brandon also always seems to give us two small chops that would make a reasonable dinner for the two of us, and they come in at a reasonable price for the quality of the meat. We've appreciated that service, and were surprised when we didn't receive it Saturday - but neither of us are very pushy - and we've never had reason to not trust that we'd be getting a great cut of meat. Thus, we assumed we were just getting a couple big chops that would make for a good dinner plus leftovers for lunch. We even picked up extra potatoes from Olsen Farms, so we'd have plenty of those for lunch leftovers, too.

From now on, however, assuming we continue to buy meat from Sea Breeze Farm, we'll be sure to ask to see the meat, and we'll be more specific about weight. I never want to feel surprised and saddened like this again. Food and eating are too much of a source of enjoyment for Dan & I.

For now, I've frozen the 12+ oz of fat, and will hopefully find use for it in making confit in the future.



For all the frustration related to the chops, they were delicious. I seasoned them, coated them with a reduction of apricots, salt, pepper, and onion, and then seared them off in a cast iron skillet before lowering the heat and cooking them through. We roasted some purple viking and red potatoes to go with the chops, and blanched and then quickly fried up some green beans from our garden with a little of the apricot reduction and some red pepper flakes.

Me & Dad & a Hog



Dan & I were in Hawai`i on Father's Day, and my Dad's birthday - so my Dad and I planned a special trip together when I got back. He drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and I'd never had a chance to ride with him, so he picked a favorite route for us to ride together.



I was a little nervous about feeling really exposed, but after gearing up and getting on the bike this morning, we took off and it felt really natural. The helmets even had a radio system in them, so we could talk to each other the whole trip. It was great to spend some Father-Son time - just the two of us.



We drove through Arlington to Darrington, and stopped for some lunch at the Glacier Peak Cafe.



Dad went for the BLT and I had a Turkey Bird - basically a BLT with Turkey. Despite the occasion prompting our trip, Dad adamantly refused to let me pay. I couldn't wrestle the bill away from him before he had it paid.



The food was good, but the trip was awesome. It was so cool to get to ride with him, and see some of his favorite spots. I understand his passion for riding a lot more now that I've felt the wind beating against me as we drive along crystal blue rivers, through green tunnels of trees, past rolling farm land, with snow capped mountains all around. You can smell everything, even taste it sometimes, and I didn't feel unsafe at any point.



In fact, after lunch, I got so relaxed on the bike I was damn-near sleepy.



After lunch, we looped back along Highway 20, into Sedro-Wooley, and then down Highway 9. On the way we stopped at my folk's house, to say hi to Mom and pick some red huckleberries - then got back on the bike and he brought me home.



We drove over 200 miles, but it seemed like it went by so fast. I can't wait to find an excuse to score another ride. It nearly made me want to get a bike myself - though I think replacing our 1993 Ford Tempo, and buying a house, are our first orders of business.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Robotic BBQ



Tonight, we were invited over to the home of one of the faculty Dan supports - Yoky Matsuoka (in the green above) - for a barbecue for her Robotics Lab. She's doing working to create a robotic, prosthetic arm that will be functionally and visually equivalent to a human arm, so that it will blend perfectly. Besides being brilliant, she's incredibly kind, friendly, generous, and supportive. When Dan has tough days at work, it's often a reassuring word from Yoky that helps him see the light at the end of the tunnel.



This Summer, her lab is full of folks of all ages - from middle school students spending 4 hours a day for a full week, to high school students doing Summer internships, undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs (like our friend Ashish). The BBQ included a bit of each (minus the middle school kids), though Dan was the only staff.



Yoky shares our love of Hawai`i, and we were greeted with leis when we arrived, and the food (intentionally or not) had some definite island flair. I got myself a sweet bun and made a sandwich with some barbecued chicken, and had it with steamed rice, pasta salad, and a little grilled pineapple.



Yoky and her husband, Simon, provided all the food and most of the drinks, but Dan & I couldn't resist picking up some fried bananas to bring along.



Since I only knew a few people, and I get kinda shy in groups, I did what I usually do - found the pets and kids. Yoky & Simon's twin daughters and I spent a good part of the party making things out of colored duct tape - brought by one of the grad students. I made them each a crown and a necklace, and they returned the favor - so I ended up wearing a crown and necklace made of duct tape all night.

15 Minutes to Bulgogi!



After sorting out groceries this morning, Dan & I decided to brave the crowds and ride the brand new Light Rail from the Beacon Hill station (a 6 minute walk from our house) to the International District Station. We needed to pick up some rice noodles (couldn't find the right ones on Fresh), some fried bananas (for a BBQ tonight), and figured we might as well be part of history.



After a 15 minute wait in line to get on the elevator, we descended down to the underground station beneath Beacon Hill, and then waited for the next train. In the meantime, we snapped some photos of the station - including cool, glowing diatom sculptures hanging from the ceiling.



The train ran a little slower than intended, I think, but it was smooth and relaxing - as well as clean and well designed. Once running full speed, it should take less than 15 minutes to get from our front door to Uwajimaya... even less for us to get to Columbia City.

I particularly like that an audible, clear automated voice announced all the stops - because in my experience, most bus drivers don't speak loudly or clearly enough for folks in the back of the bus to hear stop announcements.



It all felt very metropolitan... like Seattle's finally a big city. It's still not quite running to SeaTac, but that's supposed to be open by end of year. The North end of the track ends at Westlake currently, so Dan won't be able to ride it to the UW for a few more years, at least - but he may find it quicker and/or more comfortable to ride it downtown, and then catch an Express to the UW. Anything to get away from the 48, methinks.



Once in the International District, we got some lunch at the Uwajimaya food court. My office mate, Jason, has been talking about bulgogi for awhile - so I had to finally give it a try at Shilla Korean BBQ.



I got something called Bulgogi Dupbap - which was rice topped with a mix of fried egg, bulgogi (barbequed beef), and veggies, while Dan went for the Chicken Dupbap. We both scarfed it down, and have officially added Korean BBQ to our 'likes' list.

Amazon Fresh Expands Delivery Area!



At work yesterday, I discovered that Amazon Fresh (a home grocery delivery service started by Amazon.com) has expanded it's delivery service to new regions, including Downtown Seattle, First Hill, Bothell, Snoqualmie, and, well, BEACON HILL!!! Yay!

I've been waiting for this day, and have been perhaps a little bitter that they've delivered to our Zip Code for quite some time... just not to our part of the zip code. But given who I work for, I understood why they didn't roll the service out too quickly. With the history of Dot.com home delivery services being far from excellent, Amazon Fresh needed to prove it's business model and get some practice in the space on a small scale before building it out. It seems they've developed additional confidence that a) customers will buy their groceries online if they can trust the quality and service and b) Amazon Fresh can uphold the quality and service to retain that trust.

Having dabbled with Safeway.com for our groceries a year or two ago, I knew what I didn't like, and was very happy to see those issues were not present with Amazon Fresh.

Safeway.com let you order anything in their catalog, but you wouldn't know if you'd get everything until it showed up. So you might be planning to bake muffins, and order baking powder, only to find they didn't have any after all when the delivery guy shows up. They try to correct for this total lack of inventory management by letting you set up 'replacement' options - but those are equally flawed. I once ordered Ground Mustard from Safeway.com, and set my options so that they could bring the same product in a different size, or a different brand of the same product, if they were out of the exact item I ordered. They brought me a jar of Ground Ginger. How's that for quality and service? It's like going to the grocery store with your shopping list, putting everything in your cart, and then finding out you're missing a bag when you get home - so you have to go back to the store. With Safeway.com, we found ourselves going to the store every week, anyway, to get all the things we ordered but didn't get. We also kept finding things we didn't order inside our delivery.

By contrast, Amazon Fresh seems to be built on the same inventory management system that Amazon.com has, which gives customers complete transparency about what is and is not in inventory, so I can be confident that if I order Ground Mustard, I'm going to get Ground Mustard.

The selection is also amazing - like numerous types of bananas (ripe, unripe, organic, large, small, Mexican, Equadorian), for example. The depth of the catalog really surprised me, actually. I found products I've never seen on store shelves anywhere in Seattle, like pure passion fruit pulp (which I'll be using a LOT in the future, given it's just $1.99).

And the information on each product is also great - with origin information for produce, so you know if you're buying a banana from Mexico or Equador. The full nutritional info is there online, and you can even use things like 'High Fructose Corn Syrup Free' or 'Wheat Free' to filter down your product searches.

The delivery options are also amazing. We ordered groceries late Friday night, and they were on our doorstep when I woke up at 5:30am this morning (with a headache). Unless we have alcohol in our order, we don't even have to sign for anything or be disturbed. They just leave temperature controlled crates on our doorstep, sealed with easy to remove zip ties to prevent tampering, and we bring them in when we get up.

If our first order is representative, the produce is wonderful. Each area of the Amazon Fresh warehouse (from what I understand) is managed by an expert - so it's like you're produce is being picked out by an expert in produce, your meat is being picked out for you by a meat expert, etc. I definitely don't get that service at a grocery store.



Since our weekly meal planning always produces two shopping lists - one for items we can get at the Farmers Market, and one for items we can't - we can now order our non-market groceries Friday night, find them on our doorstep when we wake up Saturday, and put them away before heading to the Farmers Market for everything else.

One big concern is whether choosing to use Amazon Fresh will be a step backward for us in terms of sustainability. I was pleased to see that they carry a lot of locally produced items, and feature them prominently. They also allow you to pick your delivery time, and let you know what times they'll already have a truck in your neighborhood - so you can cut petroleum use by 'buddying up' with a neighbor, virtually speaking, by picking that same time. It just so happened that pre-dawn delivery this morning was popular in our 'hood, so our order came to Beacon Hill with other orders to be delivered to the area - better than all of us driving our cars individually to the supermarket. They give you the option of whether you want items bagged or not (though some items still come bagged, despite selecing 'not') - and encourage you to put the bags back in the totes, so they'll get picked up and reused. The origin information for produce and even some meats makes choosing items that traveled less to get to me easier than at the grocery store (though of course, not as easy as the Farmers Market).



Delivery is $5 if you order less than $150, and there's a $30 minimum order. Prime memberships from Amazon.com don't help out on the shipping costs (nor does working for Amazon.com). There is, however, a program where they'll waive the delivery charge for a month if (in the prior month) you spent over a certain threshold that suggests you're doing the bulk of your shopping on Amazon Fresh.

But for a limited time, you can score a load of free stuff if you plug in the promotion code BREAKFAST4U at checkout! Eggs, flowers, cereal, coffee... and pancake batter in a spray can (seriously), all for free with your first order!

Wondering if Amazon Fresh delivers to your house or apartment yet? Type your address in at https://fresh.amazon.com/checkAddress? and they'll let you know.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Spaghetti & Meatballs



Tonight, despite the heat (90 degrees at 5pm, according to my elevator!), I made up some Skagit River Ranch beef meatballs that had onions and garlic from the market, plus basil, oregano, fennel, chives, and parsley - all from our garden. I seared them off in a hot cast iron skillet (with a little olive oil), then plopped them in my paella pan with a jar of sauce, and let that cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, I cooked up some angel hair pasta. When it was all done, I grated just a little mozzarella on top.

We took our dinner down into the basement, where it's always nice and cool... great in the Summer as a getaway, with no air conditioning required.

Frugal Fridays: Zum Zum Redux



Back in June when I visited the Food Court at 3rd and Marion St, I noticed some price changes at Cafe Zum Zum. That day, I decided to go for something different, but also vowed to come back to Zum Zum to see if I can still live off their delicious curries without breaking a $5.



Thankfully, I can, and it doesn't look like that's gonna change anytime soon. In the windows, they now have numerous (apparently) commercially-made signs up adverstising their $3.99 Daily Special. What that $3.99 ($4.39 after tax) gets you varies every day, but always includes some type of vegetarian curry, rice, a tortilla (aka low-rent naan) and a 16.5 oz fountain drink.

This trip, the curry was actually two curries - one scoop of a lentil curry, and one of a garbanzo curry - paired with the usual rice & tortilla. For my drink I went for the ol' Arnold Palmer: lemonade and iced tea.

So my worries about Zum Zum - a staple of my M-F diet for years now - were alleviated, and those signs in the windows suggest a serious commitment to continuing their tradition of being one of the best lunch deals in town.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Pineapple Chicken Curry



Tonight we used some leftover chicken breast from the freezer (thawed, of course) to make Pineapple Chicken Curry using the pineapple shrimp curry recipe from the Quick & Easy Thai Cuisine Cookbook.

The only difference between making it with chicken and shrimp is that chicken needs a long time to cook, relatively speaking, so I tossed in the cut up strips of chicken breast right at the beginning, and let it cook while the sauce reduced a bit. I also tossed in some cauliflower from our garden, to use it up and to add some additional bulk & vitamins. I served it over jasmine rice.



Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Central Cinema Has Pretty Awesome Pizza!



Tonight we headed to Central Cinema for a Hawaiian Film Fest that Dan describes wonderfully over on our other blog.



This was our first time to Central Cinema, and we were very pleased. I've been to movie theaters in other cities (Portland comes to mind) that serve food and drinks, but somehow never made it to Seattle's own (and only) restaurant/bar/movie theater. I'm glad we finally did, because the food is not the afterthought one might think. The menu includes wonderfully prepared 10" pizzas, calzones, burgers, tapas, salads, desserts and more - plus a good selection beer and wine.



Dan went for the DIABOLO pizza, which includes Italian sausage, spicy greens, and garlic with marinara & cheese.



I opted for the BACIO - artichoke hearts, bacon, and spinach with marinara & cheese. Other pizzas have things like potatoes, bechamel sauce, eggplant, chevre, smoked mussels, or fresh rosemary.



We ended up sharing the two pizzas, and Dan & I both liked the pies a lot. They were the perfect size, and the crust was nice and crispy - ideal for eating while watching a movie. Half the theater is set up with little two-top 'tablettes', and a waitress periodically comes through to check if anyone needs anything. She was very attentive without distracting from the films - a challenge I wouldn't want to try myself, but which she executed seemingly effortlessly.

Dan also noted that a significant portion of the menu items are vegetarian - though it's well balanced by things like bacon pizza. So a little something for everyone.



And did I mention it's normally just $6 bucks to see a movie there? Hard to beat that! Dark Crystal is showing in early August... any takers?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

We Can Always Have Popcorn...



Tonight we made a comforting tuna noodle casserole - perfect to combat the dreary weather we've had. In it were some fresh peas from the market, that Dan shucked when he got home today, tuna and milk from the market, plus a can of cream of celery soup, cheese, and chips from the grocery store.



We used our usual recipe, but switched to a new type of noodle, based on both Carolyn & Lisa saying it makes the best tuna noodle casserole. Two Demibiczak women can't be wrong! Found in the kosher/Jewish foods section, Mrs. Weiss' Kluski Enriched Egg Noodles lived up to their reputation. They also bulk up a lot - an 8 oz bag is plenty for a big casserole, though I went for 12 oz and nearly overflowed the dish.



Dan skipped lunch today, so despite the hearty dinner, he was still hungry. When we're not sure what to eat, or we think dinner might not be filling enough, our joke has become 'We can always have popcorn', though we rarely actually do.



Tonight, my ravenous husband needed his popcorn, so I made up a big batch with butter and (a bit too much) salt. I just pray the kernels don't get stuck in my teeth and embarrass me at the dentist tomorrow morning.