Only it wasn’t for this blog… it was for my very first LUPEC Seattle meeting.

So, here it is: LUPEC Seattle Goes to Ireland.

Maybe this will get me back into the swing of writin’… I am going to try to do better. In between job searching and church searching and all that, I am going to try to do better.

Heavy and old bourbon jug

As you may or may not know, I became a board member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), last year. They’re based in Louisville, Kentucky, so I get to go there several times per year now. And, up until I went to The Ville several times a year, I hadn’t really explored bourbon much. So, for my first trip, in July of 2010, I decided I needed to try it. I happened upon a great bartender at Proof on Main, which is the hotel restaurant for the 21C Museum Hotel. Good food, great gallery inside the lobby of the hotel, and if you go, you MUST check out the men’s restroom. Even if you’re not a dude, yes, you must check it out. Eric gave me some tastings of some bourbons, and told me why some were his favorite and some were not. Then added a bit of housemade lemonade to them, and also water to some others. So, that was my first experience with bourbon, outside of a small Buffalo Trace tasting as part of the Orange County Bartender’s Cabinet at least a year before.

On that trip, I don’t think I went to any distilleries (as I count back in my head), but I definitely was exposed to some bourbon that I’d never had before. In the past year, I’ve been to 6 distilleries so far, the first was Buffalo Trace, then Woodford Reserve, then then Four Roses, then Heaven Hill and finally the Bulleit Experience and Maker’s Mark this time. I was just informed that Buffalo Trace has a hard-hat tour, and now I want to go revisit that distillery. Next time – in February.

So far, the best two, in my very humble opinion, have been Buffalo Trace and the Bulleit Experience. Buffalo Trace wasn’t as much about the pomp and circumstance of “we are a very fancy distillery!” as some of the others have been. Four Roses was pretty chill, but they truck the liquid out to get bottled elsewhere. Heaven Hill had a giant fire some years ago, so they don’t let anyone near the liquid. Woodford Reserve was interesting, but the tour guide we got was kind of smarmy. The friends I was with had a great tour there the first time, so they were disappointed with this guide. I guess that leaves Maker’s as the 3rd favorite. I learned about the house that is a remake of the exact Samuels house just recently, so that was something I didn’t get while in Kentucky. What kind of bugged me was that Maker’s kept trying to make themselves sound like a craft distiller. Well, if you’re building 25 new warehouses to store the bourbon barrels, over the next ten years, I can’t agree that you’re a craft distiller. And, I like the Maker’s 46, but not really much else. For the price of a 750 ML bottle of Maker’s Mark ($20 in California), I’d rather have a 750 ML bottle of gin. I can get a bottle of Eagle Rare (I believe 12 year) here in Washington for $25, so yes, I’d rather have that. Anyway… on to what I decided to write about today (yes, I’m 3 paragraphs deep already).

In September, I flew to Louisville earlier than I normally do, mostly due to the whole lack of a job thing, and also because I like to stay extra days. This time flying home to Seattle on a Sunday would have cost far too much money, so I flew into Louisville early. Unfortunately my hosts had to work the next day, and my meetings didn’t start till Wednesday, so I had to find another ride to go tour some distilleries. I had previously met Hollis Bulleit, the global brand ambassador for Bulleit Bourbon, in LA and had asked her if they did tours. At the time, they weren’t quite open, but I kept asking her and lo and behold – they were OPEN the last time I asked.

I dragged my friend Scott up from Lexington to go visit The Bulleit Experience with me, and it was quite lovely. We were “subjected” to a tour by Bobby, and he was a great tour guide. Thank you Bobby!! I love the restoration of the old Stitzel-Weller distillery and understand the care that went into the offices. The artifacts that are in the offices are thoughtful and tell the story of Bulleit Bourbon. The Stitzel-Weller distillery was opened on Derby Day in 1935, so it has some history. It’s the closest distillery I’ve been to in all my journeys to Louisville. It’s also pretty close to Churchill Downs, where I’ve never been.

The Bulleit family has been making bourbon for years and years (Hollis’ great-grandfather used to take bourbon from Louisville down to New Orleans and disappeared while on that route many years ago.) but in 1987 Tom Bulleit revived the Bulleit family’s distilling legacy by using the recipe his grandfather used at that time. At this time, there is also Bulleit Rye and it won double gold at the San Francisco Spirits Competition this year. It is darned good. The bourbon is delicious as well, but I think the rye trumps it.

The family story helps to give Bulleit Bourbon & Rye much more of a craft distillery feel and I liked that. It was quite a juxtaposition to go from the Stitzel-Weller distillery to Maker’s Mark. I’m sure knowing Hollis helped as well. We also got to see barrels being rolled out of the warehouses, which was pretty awesome, since it happens so rarely.

Maker’s Mark was close to 2 hours away from Louisville, but it was a beautiful drive. Many thanks to Scott for driving. The Maker’s Mark tour is much more of a show, and much less of a craft distillery. They do show you the “beers (step 1)” (and step 2 and step 3) and the liquids, but they do quite a volume. One of my favorite things about Maker’s is that Mrs Samuels decided to recreate the design, to make it more appealing to women – but not to turn men off from the bourbon. But, the flavor went from “firewater,” to something more along the lines of bourbon from Maker’s Mark today. Additionally, she was the one who thought up the mark that signifies Maker’s Mark now – the wax. On the tour you walk the line to see where they dip the bottles after they’ve been filled and sealed. Then the bottles are boxed up to get shipped out.

The tour guide said that Maker’s Mark is a craft distillery, which I pretty much scoff at, because in the next breath she said that they were building another 25 warehouses in the next 10 years. So, I disagree. I do like the fact that the wheat comes from within 25 miles of the distillery, and that the corn is non-GMO corn from Indiana.

One thing is that Maker’s does have their own reservoir of water, and as an employee of Maker’s Mark apparently if you are caught around the reservoir, it will be your last day working there. Something to know, if you decide to go get a job there.

At the end of the Maker’s Mark tour we got to taste Maker’s 46, regular Maker’s and we had the opportunity to taste their white dog. I just tried the regular and 46. I think 46 is quite lovely.

Of the tastes I got today, I’d say that my favorite is the Bulleit Rye. I didn’t expect to like it, in all honesty. I pretty much thought I’d not like it as much as the bourbon – but it was quite smooth and well-rounded.

When I get back from Thailand, I’m going to have to go purchase some. Someone recently mentioned on twitter how good fig-infused Rittenhouse Rye was. I might try that with Bulleit Rye.

Or else get a local Seattle bartender to make it for me. Yeah, that one.

Or rather: Bartenders on Fire – a competition.

On Halloween, there was a competition sponsored by Novo Fogo Cachaça at Vito’s in Seattle. It pitched 3 local Seattle bartenders against 3 greater Washington bartenders. It was Keith Waldbauer (Liberty), Jim Romdall (Vessel) and Jay Kuehner (Sambar) for the Seattle All-Stars versus Chris Keil (1022 South in Tacoma), Dave Shenaut (Dave lives in Vancouver, bartends in PDX at Rum Club) and Gabe Pimentel (jimgermanbar in Waitsburg – which is apparently East of Yakima) as the Washington Challengers. I’d met all the Seattle bartenders and Dave Shenaut before, but I hadn’t ever met Chris or Gabe in person. I qualify the in person part because I have known Chris on the tvittah for quite a while.

What the challenge entailed was 3 secret ingredients and either Novo Fogo Silver or Gold Cachaça – or potentially both! The ingredients could be used pretty much any way at all. The winner of the whole competition would be the recipient of a stay at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island. The chef at the Inn’s restaurant was listed in The New York Times’ 10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride article from earlier this year. It was a great article, and I do want to go. I have about as much of a chance to go as I do going to the moon right now, though.

Dragos Axinte, one of the founders of Novo Fogo Cachaça Organico, unveiled the secret ingredients – each of which were somehow related to where the sugar cane for the cachaça came from – were Corn (grilled, cooked or creamed corn), Coffee (beans, ground or could be made into espresso or coffee) and Hops (fresh or dried). The teams got together and figured out who would deal with each ingredient and it was game on.

Jim and Chris used fresh hops – both lit them on fire (as per the name of the event) and made two very different drinks. Jim’s was citrus-based and Chris made a riff on a Manhattan, I believe. The judges chose Jim’s drink, which meant that we, the audience, got to try it. I would have liked to try Chris’ drink, but it was not meant to be. I’ll have to go to Tacoma to visit Chris and his wife (it was their 10th anniversary on Halloween – after I return from Thailand.

Jay and Dave chose the corn (or were elected to use the corn, not sure which), where Dave chose the creamed version, and Jay the cooked version (he ended up adding some creamed corn at the very end). Dave made his entire drink while in costume, except he took the crazy gloves off in the end. His drink was a very interesting flavor that a friend said tasted like Jaegermeister or Fernet. I didn’t quite get that, but I understood where she was coming from. Jay’s drink used muddled corn and a variety of other items, topped by a Belgian ale. Dave won this round, so we didn’t get to try Jay’s drink.

For the final round, Keith and Gabe were up against coffee in a drink. Which is fairly normal, perhaps not the coffee beans, but coffee is in drinks more often than any of the other items. Keith did a brief infusion with the beans and the aged cachaça, separated the beans from the cachaça and then ground the beans up with a muddler. I believe Gabe did a similar infusion, but in the end Keith won the final round. With Keith’s win, the audience tried his drink and voted his the overall winner of the night. I think it may have been the most approachable drink of the three, but of course I would have liked to try all of them. Who wouldn’t have liked to try drinks from 6 of the best bartenders in Washington?

If you aren’t one of those who wanted to try them all, not sure we should be friends…

Keith won the overall competition, and the 206 reigned. I might have to journey off the interstate when I go to visit my grandmother next time – after all, Waitsburg is between Yakima and the Tri-Cities!

The Hungry Cat’s 7th Annual Crab Fest.

Before the Carnage.

When I was looking at the website for all of The Hungry Cat locations, I happened upon the notification for the upcoming Crab Fest. It wasn’t really a notification even – just the notice that it was coming up. I immediately called and made my reservation. Almost 2 months in advance. They hadn’t even sent out the email to notify everyone!
Regardless, I’ve been to Crab Fest for the past 4 years, and every one of them has been amazing. I needed to make this year no exception to that rule.
My reservation was made for 10, and the call went out to friends who might have been interested. I quickly filled up my table, knowing that I’d lose some to other plans being made in the intervening 2 months.

Sunday dawned and I decided to fast for a few hours prior to the gorging that would take place – I knew there would be course after course. I chose to finish some veggies I needed to eat that were in the fridge. So, runner beans and carrots + tea became my breakfast. So nutritious and delicious!

Upon arrival, my friend Kimberly and I decided to start the insanity with oysters.

We started with 6 and quickly ordered 6 more. The accoutrements are 2 house-made mignonettes, lemons and house-made cocktail sauce. I am addicted to the Hungry Cat’s raspberry mignonette.

The drinks started with the Anne Arundel, and then alternated between a Howlin’ Wolf and the Midnight Run. The latter two drinks were spicy and you could both taste the spicy and smell it on the nose. Apologies for not being able to produce the ingredient listing.

In the meantime, I realized that two friends were sitting at a different table. One of them suggested I get a wine glass and that I would get some wine from her tables. The tables she was a part of were all sommeliers – or their significant others. So the wines were amazing and complex and I would very much like to try them again. All were white, except the first one was a bubbly rose, which was very dry and light on the bubbles. Zahra kept telling me to come over at each course to get the wine that would go well with that course. Until they left, that’s what I did! I realized, after a while, that one of the sommeliers at the table was someone I knew. I didn’t remember WHERE I had met the somm, and then it came to me when I returned the 2nd time. It was a guy named Jared, who I knew from my days at Anthony’s back in college. Insane. But I remembered!

The first course was a crab cake, followed by a crab soup and then a fried softshell crab po’ boy. The table had the mind that they were filling us all up on bread products. So, we did away with the bread and just had the crabs. It was all about the crab, wasn’t it anyway?!?

The sides were heirloom tomatoes with provolone and red onions – simple and delicious, along with grilled squash. There was an interesting flavor that went with the squash, fairly spicy too, but at this point the table was filled with 7 crazy crab-obsessed people. So, the steamed blue crabs showed up, ceremoniously dropped on the table. At this point I should probably mention that the tables were covered in saran wrap, followed by butcher paper and then topped with newspaper.

Because, as we all know, this sort of business is dirty. And delicious.
The table got quiet and everyone started handling their business, and the crabs.

See those forks up top? Yeah, we didn’t use them to save our lives. The mallets and the hands that we were born with – that’s what we used. I have the stab wounds to prove it.

The final course was a stone fruit crisp, and it was a perfect end. In the middle of everything, shots were had around the table – some were Fernet, some were Jameson. The later it got, the more ridiculous it got.

But, fun was had by all, and the girls ate more crabs than the boys. To be fair, there were 2 boys, and 5 girls. We ate our weight, though, in crab. And, Mr. Trickett, the last batch was definitely the best.

Who knew that spicy drinks went well with steamed blue crabs? I do now! I learned one thing in the crab fest insanity. So, it was worth it.

On a recent Sunday I went to a Chicks with Knives dinner that was just amazing. Not that the other two I have been to haven’t been amazing, but this time the group was a fantastic size and I just so loved it. There were only 18 of us, and the tables were close enough that you could heard some of what the peeps at the other table  were saying, but you could also have a nice conversation with the people at your own table.

I first found out about Chicks with Knives because of the fabulously halfway useless Daily Candy emails. But this one… this email was fabulous. I learned of something that I really wanted to take part in: a dinner club of people who enjoy good food that follows the SOLE principle. Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical food. I first met Rachael at an event downtown, where she and her bizness partner, Suzanne, were providing the apps for a loft shindig – I’m not sure what to call it. But it was great, and I vowed to go to a dinner. The first one was at a home in Silverlake that was amazing. The second one was mid-city and had yummy padron peppers (something I started after reading a tweet – weird). The most recent one was in Hancock Park and was I think the best. The entree was lamb, and I don’t generally order lamb, but I decided that it had been a long enough time that I needed to go to another dinner! Apparently this year is about expanding my food horizons.

I gave a friend at work the list of all the food, and she recommended some F&E wines – so, I brought four bottles of wine, obviously to share. The first course was an Autumn Chowder that consisted of butternut squash, clams and homemade chorizo. I could have been happy eating only that all night. But, knowing what I knew, I couldn’t fill up on only that. It was creamy to a good degree, and not overly heavy. The combination of flavors was just sublime. The salad was a persimmon, celery, red onion & fennel salad with La Tienda Spanish – amazingly light, but now I need to know what the dressing is! I’ve never had persimmons before this year, and now I’ve had them all the time in the last month. Rachael cut hers up very thinly, perhaps using mandolin (and now I know what a mandolin for food is!), along with the fennel. And the chorizo – wow – it added a great kick. In my spicy world, it could have been hotter, but mellow spiciness has it place! Crunch-tastic and full of flavor. Now I need to try to make it. But (hint, hint), I need the dressing recipe.

Oh, and now comes the piece de resistance: the lamb chop. It was gorgeous looking and this is when I wish I had taken a picture. But, I didn’t, so, you get to imagine along with me. It was on top of a puree of beans & eggplants, served with sauteed sweet peppers and I asked Rachael how to make it, because it was amazing. It took her days and days and I just don’t see that happening for me. If I do decide to make it, I’ll let y’all know. And then eat it all myself. For reals! I think with all the agony of making it, I would NOT share, nosiree bob. The flavor of the lamb chop combined with the delicious bean and eggplant yumminess was perfect. I’m not sure how to get all the complementary flavors together, but if I figure it out, I’ll be sure to let you know. I think in one sense, it’s better that only a few peeps have that talent, but I’ve gotten better. The buttermilk onion rings not JUST onion rings, but they were buttermilk battered Sweet Sierra onion rings. They were on top of the lamb chops and the flavor of those buttermilk rings may make me never again want any sort of onion ring that isn’t a CWK ring. It’s the principle, damnit. I was able to procure a picture, so you’ll get to see that too. Long blog post!

The desert was an amazing apple tart that was served with house-made vanilla ice cream – the apples were so flavorful and the whole shebang made me want more. That was the simple description, the complete description is this (again with the amount of time put into these meals – just no for me, but I will reap the rewards): the apple tart was a 24-hour apple tart with vanilla ice cream as above; candied walnuts with rosemary & dried apple sugar. I really enjoyed the apple dessert, mostly because it was delicious, but also because I wanted to go to Julian this year to get pie. Mass-produced pie from Julian. Instead, I got homemade apple tart by CWK. Yeah, that works better.

How could I forget the appetizer & drink? Amazing – me being a cocktail fanatic. So, here it is: the appetizer was house-made (HOUSE-MADE!) bacon jam served on a blitz puff. How does one even MAKE bacon jam? I will leave it to the pros. There were amazing picked candy striped beets (which I’ve recently made, and which I hope the beets in my fridge are, as opposed to yellow) and breakfast radishes with house-made butter. Yes, CWK makes butter. And then used the buttermilk for the onion rings. It was so sweet and delicious it makes me want to learn how to do it. And then I clear my head and come to my senses. The cocktail was called a 15 Cocktail. It had quince, clove, fresh lemon juice and 360 Organic Vodka with a lemon twist. The lemons were from a tree outside, so they certainly were local! It was tart enough to make this lemon girl happy and the cloves were just nice and spicy. Not hot, but full of spice, y’know? I’m game for trying it again. Only I’m adding my Voyager gin – therefore would have to change the spices, but the gist is there, right?

I got to share F&E wines with newbies and I got to share dinner with a fabulous crew! I took my friend Nastassia, who writes her own blog at LetMeEatCake, and she then took a class from Rachael & LA Food Works. Y’all know that I’m a networker, so here I am, happy to have brought Nastassia & LA Food Works together. I only wish I could have gone to the Great Pumpkin cooking class – but my lovely god daughter Caroline needed to get baptized in Seattle, so I went there instead.

Now everyone who reads this blog (which is like 2 people right now) needs to get tickets to the next Chicks With Knives dinner. Or take a class, or just general join in the awesomeness that is CWK. Rachael tweets recipes at times, or her favorite find at the market – you can always find her on twitter: http://twitter.com/chickswknives

Maybe next time I’ll get to take pictures and then you can see the amazing food. For now, use your imagination.

I have been a pretty big failure as a blogger in the last month and then some. I was scared of my blog for a little while. Mostly because I hadn’t updated it. I finally was able to update the blog, well, actually, my friend Rex updated it for me, a few weeks ago, or less, and now I’m back. So, I have to play catch up. Loads to discuss. And in the meantime, I’m without internet on the train to Seattle right now, so I am entering the blog in word and then I’ll transfer it later. The only person who’ll know anything is different is me. And I just admitted it to the internets. Oops.

Anyway, shortly after the last entry, (not counting the teeny one recently) I went to the Blogger Prom. It was a prom for bloggers, as the name implies. It was fun to see people whose blogs I read and whose tweets I respond to, in real life. I know the interwebs are real, but not real life. I tripped on the sidewalk the weekend before, coming back from my friend Mei-Lon’s house, and had a fun cast on my right hand. And my face looked awesome with the three scrapes and the giant horseshoe bruise on my chin. I looked like someone had beaten me up! Not super awesome, at all. I had a hard time wandering around and mingling and eating and drinking. I was super non-social for a time, as there was food to be had. It was comedy, though, watching a bunch of food bloggers see the food and then take pictures of it. They wouldn’t let anyone touch the cupcakes till peeps had all photographed it. I do admit, I have some of those pictures. The mini-cupcakes were so darling, though. Had to do it. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Sarah of TheDeliciousLife, Diana of DianaTakesaBite, Maya of ShopEatSleep, Sam Kim of LAist, HC of LAOCFoodventures and of course Caroline On Crack, Esther of E*StarLA, Lindsay of LAist, Tara of When Tara Met Blog and Natalie TheLiquidMuse. I had met Caroline, Esther, Lindsay, Tara and Natalie before, so it was definitely nice to see them again. The setting was the Andaz in West Hollywood, formerly the Riot Hyatt, and the view from the roof is beautiful. The event was in the event space + pool area on the roof. The pool has been beautifully redone, but the event space seemed to be just the same as it was in the past. I almost did an event for Jacob there, a few years back, but it seems to me that there isn’t much they updated in the room. Regardless, I would like to live in a corner of the pool area, that would be fantastic. Thanks.

I was invited to a party that Jo from MyLastBite was having, and it seemed that I knew quite a few of the peeps present – it’s an annual party, and her husband used to work at the DreamWorks, where my old work was based. So, I knew some of the people there. Made me laugh. And then I ran into someone who a friend used to date… um, it’s still a small world!! But, it was fantastic and jovial and just fabulous.

The next day I started something that I’ve done every Sunday after that, till this coming Sunday, when I’ll be in Seattle: make a trip to The Hollywood Farmers’ Market. Fabulous produce and food and coffee! I make the trip before church, or in place of it, depending on how I feel. Because I’ve made the decision to continue with The Bar Method (Oops, dropping a name where I haven’t told you anything about it yet. Bar Method is an exercise method similar-ish to Pilates. I love it, and my posture has gotten so much better since I started at the beginning of July. Oh, and my back hurts a lot less.), I will continue to get fresh veggies and fruit at the Farmers’ Market in Hollywood and cook at home. I know it’s shocking! At Jo’s request, I took some pictures of some squash dishes I’ve made. I’m getting more and more adventurous too! Very exciting.

I’ve spent more time at home in the months of June, July & August than I have in years, so I’ve been able to take more full advantage of all that LA has to offer in the summertime, and to keep the miles down on my car. Insane, I know. It’s been fun.

Due to a few peoples’ pictures and posts, I had started following a chef in LA, Ludo Lefebvre, who has a guerilla style pop-up restaurant that has since ended (tears). A few Sundays ago I was driving back to the South Bay from church and hanging out with friends when Ludo tweets his evening meal, and then that he has too much food for him and his wife alone. They invited anyone who was in the area to come over, if someone desired. I was a little shocked, so I said, “For real? I’m on my way to Hermosa.” And lo and behold, he invited me over. It was pretty funny, in that I was tweeting that I was heading to an unknown person’s house, and he was inviting an unknown person to his house. I got endorsements from two friends, Jo & Lindsay, so maybe Ludo & his wife Krissy felt better, but it was still a risk on both of our parts. It was fun, though! Sometimes in life you have to take risks… otherwise life is boring. At least by my way of thinking. They are lovely people and it was a fantastic evening.

The following weekend I went to LudoBites the pop-up restaurant with Jo, her husband Peter and a couple friend of theirs, who I had previously met at Jo’s Garden Jam party, Phil and his wife Katrina, and along with my friend Mei-Lon. LudoBites was at BreadBar near Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, that Ludo had up until 8/22. Ludo and his crew came in after that and made it into a highly sought after restaurant. Add a limited timeline/availability to the fact that it was AMAZING food, and you have a packed house. I was lucky to have gone once! I was planning on taking my friend Lisa with me to crash the last night of LudoBites, but the request was made via twitterverse to not have any walk-ins. I didn’t want to get onto a blacklist, so I went to AOC with Lisa instead. It was a great time, so nothing lost. In the meantime, Ludo has said that he submitted a proposal for a “real” restaurant, so I will wait to hear about that. And hope, and pray… and look over the pictures from my journey to LudoBites.

After LudoBites, we went to Comme Ca for cocktails, and my were they delicious. We had cheese too, and again, delicious. The cheese man (cheese sommelier?) went around the plate telling us about the cheeses, and when he got to one he just said, “This one is just a hot smelly mess.” Um, yeah, that is the one I loved. The cocktails were delicious, and I will go back and try more. I know I was supposed to write down what they were, and I forgot. I have to get back in the habit of bringing my notebook with me! Thanks to the Comme Ca website, here are the drinks I tried: Guadalupe’s Cup (tequila, cucumber, cilantro, black Hawaiian sea salt), Aviation No. 1, a Basil Gimlet and a Blooming Daisy. All except for Guadalupe’s Cup were gin based. You’re shocked, I know.

I was supposed to leave on the 27^th of August for Australia, but instead I decided to head to Seattle but to first have a mini-staycation in LA. My friend Lisa flew from Austin to hang with me, and that was super fantastic. I enjoyed just being able to wander and hang.

We went to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, made dinners at home, enjoyed happy hours, wandered through the neighborhood. And caught up ALL the way on True Blood on HBO. I was way behind, so much so that I had 8 episodes to watch! In addition, I got my bike all tuned up. So now I can ride it, knowing it’s all fixed and running. I do need a new seat, though.

Pictures to come… promise.