The soon-to-be-famous pig truck

First of all, thanks to Keren at Frantic Foodie for putting together another great event last night!

As you can see from above, Seattle now has a pig-truck to serve your pork consumption needs. The name of it is MaximusMinimus. You can order your pulled pork sandwich as a “maximus” (savory-spicy) or “minimus” (sweet). This spicy or sweet choice applies to a number of other menu choices, from the drinks (ginger-lemonade or a hibiscus blend) to the slaws – I tried the sweeter apple slaw.

Overall there’s a general consensus among people I’ve talked to in Seattle that they don’t quite get BBQ here. But I have to say this was pretty darn good! Overall my minimus sandwich was the right balance of sweet and a little spicy, with just a little touch of cheesiness. Yes cheese, I figure the Beecher’s people would put good stuff on these sandwiches. My only off-key comments are that the bun was fresh but maybe not quite right for this type of sandwich, and my “chips”—mainly what appeared to be sweet potatoes and green beans—were seasoned well, but half of them were soggy.

I didn’t expect my sister to deliver her baby exactly on her due date.

I kept hearing that the first time a woman gives birth, she’ll usually do it a week or two after the doctor-codified due date. Because science isn’t that good yet. But guess what – in this case, the medical field got an A+ in predictability!

I’m already just over 6 months into my pregnancy, and I’m starting to feel big. Not in a bad way, it’s still rather novel to have to rock back and forth to get out of bed, and to have a firmer belly than I ever did before in my life.

I’ve heard a bit about the before-the-baby’s-born vacation, a last hurrah to get out with your partner before your life is taken over by your sweet spawn. Mike and I decided on a last-minute weekend retreat to San Francisco.

The trip was a warm and foggy lineup of walks up and down hills. I had a few flashbacks to a trip 6 years earlier, where we had also stayed at the San Remo hotel and munched on salmon-cream cheese-caper-topped bagels at Cafe Sapore. But more than anything, this was a trip to get great Italian food! The kind of Italian food with sauces that make you shake your knees with the first taste and make your breath smell like garlic when you wake up the next day. We weren’t disappointed!

Here is the dessert highlight of the trip – Torta della Nonna with Meyer Lemon Zabaglione.

As you can see, it was so tempting that before Mike could remind me to take a photo I just had to have a taste. It wasn’t as dry as I thought it would be, and the lemon cream was so tart and refreshing. Mixed with the fresh whipped cream, it was perfect. From Calzone’s on Columbus Ave in San Francisco.

I must admit I’ve had a bit of a fantasy about trying morel mushrooms. They always seemed a bit too expensive, but the extra kick of knowing that these were picked locally was enough to get me to buy about 1/4 pound. These guys were picked by the crew of Foraged and Found, and I purchased them at the U District farmer’s market. I’ll make them the highlight of a sauce with steak for tomorrow night.

Here we have something that is even more exotic, at least in my humble opinion. Lady Fern fiddleheads:

I think the biggest challenge for me is trying to imagine what they taste like. Will they taste like asparagus with a strange texture? Will they taste like dirt? While I was in line I asked the woman behind me what she thought about them, and she cheerfully said “a small portion is more than enough.” I asked her what they taste like. “Very earthy.” To be honest, that reply made me a bit skeptical, but I’ll find out tomorrow for sure!

As for dinner last night, we made Moules au vin blanc. I spent part my honeymoon with Mike in Brussels, Belgium, and their moules, frites, and ale combos made our taste buds sing.

Since I have a preference for Belgian-style moules, I tried to fix them as I remember. I’ve also tasted both the Provencal and cream styles of bases, but this simple wine broth just makes me happy the way the others don’t.

2 pounds fresh mussels, cleaned!
2 cups white wine (used Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 shallots
2 stalks celery
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Sautee the shallots and celery in olive oil on medium-high heat under just tender, not brown. Add a bit of sea salt. Now add the white wine and thyme, and heat until boiling. Now, say hello to the mussels and tell them they’re been very good but it’s time to go, and pour them into your boiling wine broth. Cover pot with lid and cook approximately 7 minutes. Those little guys should all be open – remember to toss out any that don’t open up. Spoon out the mussels into a large bowl.  Melt the butter into the broth that’s still on the stove. Once the butter melts, pour all the broth over the mussels.

Oh! Surely it’s nice to have this with french fries, but we just bought some rustic olive bread and sliced it up. This was done specifically with the intention of sopping up the broth from the bottom of the pot once we got down far enough through the shells.

Smaller zucchini, sliced diagonally
Olive oil
salt and pepper
mozzarella cheese

Now, the lovely part of this side dish in in the arrangement of the zucchini slices. You can make a rosette, square, triangle – whatever.

Heat oven to 325.
Line a pan with aluminum foil.
Arrange zucchini in a pleasing arrangement no more than 1 slice thick.
Sprinkle cheese on top.
Bake platter for about 10 minutes. Cheese should melt, but not brown.
Raise temp to 415, bake until cheese gets light brown, about 10 more minutes.

No, that’s not Mark in the photo, just me with some grand old brown magic liquid.

It’s already been a week, but I went to see the first of the “Coffee: From the Grounds Up” lecture series one fine spring evening on the UW campus. Mark Pendergrast led the hour and a half long introduction, and was an all-around funny and well-spoken fellow from Vermont. Here are some of the more interesting facts I jotted down in my journal.

On Robusto vs. Arabica coffee plants: Robusto is cheaper to grow, can grow at lower altitudes, and is less disease-prone than Arabica. Unfortunately, in spite of all its merits as a vigorous species, robusto tastes pretty bad. Arabica is a plant opposite robusto in almost every way – more finicky about its growing requirements, but it tastes damn good.

Coffee blossoms smell like jasmine.

Why does coffee have caffeine? It’s supposed to act as a natural pesticide, to protect the plant from being consumed. That pesticide just happens to have the side of effect of making you feel almost invincible and happy after consuming it.

Ever notice those little buttons on the side of coffee bags? That’s to release CO2, otherwise the coffee bag may explode. Before that nifty invention, in the time of coffee cans, they had to let the coffee get a bit stale so that the can wouldn’t explode.

That’s it for now, until the next lecture or pretty food photo!