Office Ec (aka office sciences): Pickles

Our IT guy Will gave me a great idea for a home project, which turned into an office project: pickles. Five simple ingredients: Rice wine vinegar, hot water, sugar, salt and cucumbers. The recipe comes from David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook. You’ll need: 1-quart mason jar, 2 large cucumbers, 1 cup of hot water, 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, 6 tablespoons sugar, 2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt and voila, that's it. Slice the cucumbers about ¼ inch thick and place in mason jar. Mix the hot water, sugar and salt till they dissolve. Add the vinegar and pour mixture over cucumbers in mason jar. Refrigerate for three to seven days. The pickles last a month.  It took me about 3 minutes to do this in our office kitchen. You can use other veggies too, radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and even watermelon rind. Deep fried pickles are delicious, by the way. 

(Side note. The picture looks funny because I used Hipstamatic on my iPhone for the picture.)

The best food ideas in the office are usually the most simple. A slow cooker is one of those the kitchen gadgets that can feed your office with minimal effort.

Monthly "Last Meal" Club, September Edition

On my way to PN on Monday, I stopped for one of my favorite breakfasts: Glo’s smoked salmon Eggs Benedict. This gave me an idea for “Monthly Last Meal Club.” Every month I would go out and have a “last meal” for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I encurage all to take a day and do the same.

I love to eat and as most people that love food have created a list of “last meals.” For this club, I have 12 breakfast, lunch and dinner last meals. For instance, on Monday: Glo’s smoked salmon Eggs Benedict for breakfast, a heaping BBQ chicken sandwich with pasta salad on the side for lunch from Mad Oven BBQ and mushroom risotto for dinner from Cafe Bengodi.

Eggs Benedict is one of my favorite breakfast/brunch items, though it can be a little intimidating at first glance and gut busting. The hollandaise and poach condition of the egg are the crux. Glo’s does it perfectly though. Perfect poach where the egg jiggles a little with an oozy yolk and a rich Hollandaise (egg yolk, butter and a little lemon). Smoked salmon elevates this Eggs Benedict to “Nomnomnom, drool status,” though not for the faint of heart.

BBQ is great, even if it’s "Plain Jane" chicken. Nuff said. Also, around our office here in Seattle there are five known BBQ places within a three block radius (that I am aware of).

I love risotto despite it just being rice, broth and cheese. I think that is the appeal, simplicity. Risotto has that same buttery, creamy, etherealness that Eggs Benedict does, like edible velvet with a little more texture. One of my goals this year is to make a truffle risotto from scratch and, hopefully, have it be delicious.

Needless to say, I had a light breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day.

On tap for October, the poor man’s last meal: full stack of blueberry pancakes for breakfast at IHOP, 10 piece chicken McNugget meal with BBQ sauce and sweet & sour for lunch and a peanut butter, bacon burger from King’s in Ballard with a can of Hamm’s for dinner.

Makin Whoopie...Pies

Yesterday, Oddfellows Cafe on Capitol Hill held the first annual "Whoopie Pie Bake Off." Yours truly was one of the lucky few vying for top prize of Whoopie Pie Champion. A whoopie pie (alternatively called a gob, black-and-white, bob, or "BFO" for Big Fat Oreo) is a baked good made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. The rules: bake an original, classic whoopie and bake your own rendition.

My first attempt was an epic failure. Tried to make Devonshire cream, but ended up with something resembling thin vanilla yogurt. I tested my second attempt at a classic whoopie pies on the staff here at Porter Novelli. Confident in my whoopie pie skillz I was ready for the big day.

My personal conception of the whoopie pie was comprised of white chocolate cake with a raspberry, marshmallow fluff and lil' bit of homemade raspberry jam dusted with cocoa powder.

The competition began at 11 am. The judges: the Long Winter's John Roderick, Chamber of Commerce head Michael Wells, ice cream entrepreneur Molly Moon, the Stranger's Christopher Frizzelle, Chelsea Lin of Seattle CitySearch and the community attendees. The challengers: 11 other amateur and professional bakers from the corners of Seattle. 24 different pies with 144 pies total. Gone by noon.

The results. I lost to a 7 year old girl, though her pie was super delicious. The little girl an d Audrey McManus tied for "Best Classic Whoopie Pie." "Best Overall" and "Most Interesting" went to Heather Earnhardt of Volunteer Park Cafe.

It is hard to get upset over losing a baking competition and I can honestly say it was a lot of fun. From the Slog, "[to] the baker who put raspberry jam in the filling. It was the perfect summer touch." Thanks Chris Frizzelle. In the words of Tugg Speedman, "It was an honor just to be nominated."



Fizzle-Pop Eats: Porter Novelli’s

 

At Porter Novelli, we’ve always taken pride in the high level of service we provide our clients. In an effort to carry this commitment to service one step further, we’d like to announce “Porter Novelli’s”, a restaurant chain that will provide fast, reasonably healthy food as well as a full suite of communication services, all under one roof. Now you’ll be able to enjoy a recently prepared hamburger while working with our team to craft the right messaging to make sure your new product launch is the talk of the town!

Whether you’re hungry, need an extensive, social media-based campaign or both, the folks down at Porter Novelli’s will treat you right.

To celebrate the launch, Porter Novelli’s is offering a “Buy One Shake, Get One Press Release Free”* deal all this week.

*Limit one shake/press release per customer.

Fizzle-Pop Eats: Mobile Chowdown III, The Hard Rock Cafe and Spring Hill

This past week was action packed, food-wise.

Saturday was the third iteration of the Mobile Chowdown at which representatives of Seattle’s burgeoning “food cart” scene convene on one location, making it easy for folks to try a little bit o this and a little bit o that.

The first two attempts at this gathering were well-intentioned but ultimately a nightmare of awkward locations, long lines, 86’ed menu items and just general disarray. With this third try, though, the organizers managed to put together an event that felt much more cohesive and thought out. The location was accessible (lot next to Safeco Field) with ample free garage parking, lines weren’t crazy, there was a nice variety of vendors (including four that came up from Portland, the land of plenty when it comes to street food) and it felt like a real “event”, with a covered eating area and music.

I took the opportunity to sample some of the food from local street food heroes Skillet, followed up by a donut from Top Pot. The nationally recognized Korean-fusion Marination Mobile had the longest lines, but thankfully, they normally set up shop in my neighborhood, so I’d already tasted what they had to offer. If future Chowdowns are as well organized as this one, you should definitely take a look.

On Sunday, some friends and I found ourselves downtown and decided to give the new Hard Rock Cafe a try, knowing full well we probably weren’t going to be blown away. It had been years since any of us had visited a Hard Rock, and we were just curious if anything had changed since then.

The interior of the place is sharp, with dark woods, spare metal accents and of course, music memorabilia all over the place. A lot of the pieces were Seattle-specific (Heart, Jimi, Soundgarden…), which was nice to see.

Technology was also employed in some interesting ways. Every table is equipped with a “buzzer” that allows you to summon your server. There’s also the interactive museum available on LCD screens at some tables. Finally, in the bar area, there was a Microsoft Surface table, which I’ve only ever actually read about. Pretty neat.

Food wise, it was fine. It won’t knock your socks off, but I was happy with my hamburger. My friends seemed please with theirs as well. I think the consensus was 'the food is fine’, but really, if you’re going to the Hard Rock, food is only part of the equation, isn’t it?

We did manage to leverage some good rapport with the wait staff into a tour of the rest of the place. There’s a second floor event space with a nice stage, a large bar and room for 400 of your closest friends and a rooftop deck area with an amazing view of Pike Market and the Sound.

Finally, on Monday, some friends and I gorged on the fried chicken feast offered by Spring Hill over in West Seattle. Available by reservation only, this $80 meal comes with all the trimmings, including brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy and cornbread. Oh, and the equivalent of two whole chickens, crispy fried.

This meal is not for the fainthearted. You’ll need friends if you have any hope of conquering all the chicken that’s brought out. The four of us managed to finished everything, but once we were told that only two other parties had ever done that, the gauntlet was thrown and it became a challenge to finish.

This was a week of “Pops”. We’ll see how next week does.