Seattle Food And Wine Festival

Yesterday I decided to stop by the Seattle Food and Wine Show. The teacher traits in me suddenly emerged. I felt like saying " you have so much potential. Too bad you are not fulfilling your potential". This city is packed with foodies just looking for some new food ideas. Unfortunately, there were not enough products to taste, not enough booths and just not enough of anything! I have to admit that the list of
chef demos was pretty impressive though.
Some interesting finds..........

1. Poggio la Noce, A great tasting organic olive oil. It can be found at McCarthy and Shiering .
2. Tasty and cute handcrafted chocolates from Cantare Chocolate Company.
3. Kagome Juice- A sweet tasting juice that is made with veggies. Try the Yellow Mango Orchard.
4. New cooking videos by Sizzleworks cooking school. Formerly known as Rain City Cooking school. Instructional videos like poultry 101.
5.Oil and Vinegar- Interesting flavored oils and vinegars. All the oils and vinegars can be sampled at the store in Bellevue square.

Michael Ruhlman at the The Art Institute of Seattle

Michael Ruhlman visited the Art Institute this week to answer the culinary student’s questions and sign copies of his new book, The Elements of Cooking. Michael charmed the students with his direct personality, his culinary experience and his sincerely straightforward manner of sharing his food adventures. He made a strong point about salt being the most powerful ingredient in the kitchen. This he discovered from a conversation with Thomas Keller. He explained that one must know how to salt and when to salt. Never did I realize that such an important part of cooking is also the area in which I am the weakest. I am definitely lacking salting capabilities at this point. He kept sharing personal experiences with a passion that could only inspire one to get off their behind and write, write, write or cook, cook, cook.
After such a whiff of inspiration, what does one do first? He also answered personal questions about career choices individually asked by the students in line. He answered with sincerity and made sure to stress that if you want to be a food writer then you have to write everyday. I ran home to decide whether I should write or cook. I decided to read his book which inspired me to write and cook. Each page is filled with so much information that a bubble tea straw wouldn’t be big enough to slurp it up.

For more about this experience, read the Wine Wall.

Seattle's Food and Wine Festival

It's here again. The Seattle Food and Wine festival. Three days full of food tasting, chefs and wine.

Nigella on Northwest Afternoon

My day started in the audience of Northwest Afternoon. I knew Nigella Lawson was going to be there so I thought that it would be sweet to start my day with some cooking inspiration. Her smile was just as beautiful as it is on all her book covers with a magical nuance to it. She made a salad with halloumi cheese. Halloumi is salty with a firm tofu-like texture and it tastes great lightly fried. She also made a chocolate dessert which I will not reveal since all of you can catch the segment on Northwest Afternoon this Friday. Maybe you'll catch me drooling in the audience.
Nigella breezed through the cooking with a poise that would make any chef blush. Everything went by so fast and the segment was over before I could even digest what was going on. I was hoping that at one point we would get to sample the food but they took the trolley of goodies away. I was left intoxicated with a dominating chocolate aroma that is stuck in my head like the lyrics of song that I am unable to forget.
My day only got better. In the evening, I went to see Michael Rhulman, author of "The Elements of Cooking "who left me with enough inspiration to keep me motivated for the next few years. I will post about it tomorrow because such an interesting experience deserves a
post of its own.

Attention Seattle Food Bloggers

What do foodies do? They eat!


I will be organizing a Seattle Food Blog dinner sometime soon so please send me
an email if you are interested. kerenlovestocook@gmail.com

Nigella in Seattle

Hey foodies,
Just a reminder: Nigella Lawson will be signing books in Seattle tomorrow. November 13. If you don't have time to go then you can catch her on Northwest Afternoon.

Correction: The taping will be tomorrow but the show will air another day. You can call and still get tickets to see the taping.

Does Meat Make You Stink?

Spending two weeks with yogis taught me a lot about food. Most of the people in the yoga course were vegetarian and some were vegan. The other day I spoke to one of the guys and he mentioned that some other guy smells.
"He smells because he eats meat" he remarked in such an assertive but nonchalant manner. Thoughts ran through my head. Do I smell like a walking hamburger? Do all meat eaters need extra deodorant?

I did the odor test. You know, the one where you put your arm up to scratch you head and gently place your head near your armpit. Nope, no smell. Even after 3 hours of yoga. Would I give up meat if I noticed a smell? No, probably not. Not even if I could smell like basil! We continued walking until we got to Fremont Coffee where I ordered my favorite turkey sandwich with some adjustments. The turkey sandwich has cheese and mayonnaise so I always ask them to put lots of basil instead of these ingredients. The sandwich is served grilled with a side of those kettle-like chips. Great place to bring your laptop and surf the net for articles about meat and
body odor. Does meat make you stink?