SEATTLE FOOD & WINE EXPERIENCE 2008

The Seattle Food and Wine Experience was huge fun! I attended the show as a food correspondent for Foodbuzz. If you haven't checked out Foodbuzz yet, you should! I tasted something like 30 wines and champagnes (there were a thousand available, but I had to pace myself!), discovered some new products, ate delectable small plates from several Seattle restaurants, picked up some recipes, but, mostly, enjoyed talking with people who are passionate about food, wine, cooking and eating.

Nearly all the mini entrees were excellent and I'm still going back and forth between two of them for my favorite taste of the show. I think Rover's chef Thierry Rautureau's Elk Bourguignon on Farro alongside Braised Rabbit with White Beans and Tomato just barely edged out my second choice. Barely. And that's only because I'm such a wild game freak. The elk was allowed to be itself in a sauce with hints of cinnamon and other 'warm' spices. Nothing overwhelmed - the flavors were perfectly balanced. And the "pop" of the farro grains was a nice counterpoint to the tender meat. The rabbit was shredded and tender, subtly flavored. Perhaps a little too subtly, but it is easy to bury the flavor of rabbit. I went back for seconds at the end of the day.

Next highest honors I give to Barking Frog chef Bobby Moore's Grand Marnier Prawns, which are the best prawn anything to ever pass my lips. The coating was sumptuous, creamy, with a perfectly light citrus flavor. The prawns were a major hit with everyone I talked to and chef Moore was kind enough to have the printed recipe there to share with his salivating crowd. Besides being a symphony in my mouth, they looked absolutely gorgeous. Food porn at its finest! These sensuous mouthfuls were enough to make me moan. And I did.

GRAND MARNIER PRAWNS

Exec. Chef Bobby Moore

20 peeled and deveined large prawns

1 1/2 c. cornstarch

1 c. Grand Marnier

4 c. orange juice

3 T. dried orange zest, pulsed in coffee grinder

2 c. mayonnaise

For the sauce, add the Grand Marnier to a sauce pan and burn off the alcohol, cool immediately. Reduce in a separate pan the orange juice to a syrup and cool immediately. Combine the Grand Marnier, orange syrup and pulsed orange zest powder with the mayonnaise and refrigerate.

To cook the prawns, heat frying oil to 350 degrees F. Dust the prawns in the cornstarch, shaking off any excess starch. Fry the prawns until crispy (about 2 minutes) and drain on paper towels. In a large bowl, toss the hot prawns in the Grand Marnier mayonnaise to coat. Serve on skewers. (My own note: I think these would be wonderful served as a starter on mixed torn greens)

There is much more to relay about the day and I'll be doing that over the next week. Reliving the tastes has made me HUNGRY, so I'm off to the kitchen to satisfy myself. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

SENSUAL GASTRONOMY

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of
life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of
loving to the making of bread.
James A. Baldwin

Gastronomical and sensual delights have been associated with each other for all of human time, and for good reason. The intensity of feeling, tastes, textures, scents, the visual presentation and, often, even the sounds parallel and heighten overall physical and mental pleasure. It's why it matters that a dish is plated to appeal to the eye as well as to the palate. We do the same with our bodies. Those who eat only to sustain or who make love mechanically are missing the whole point of being alive! I actually know people like this, which never ceases to amaze me. No one should fear the depths of pleasure, be it from a creamy pudding, a succulent glass of wine, an enticingly velvet blanket, or the smell of fresh air on warm skin. All of them delicious!

FIRST TASTES ~~ FIRST KISSES

The first taste of something or someone remains in memory long, long after the dish - or the love - is consumed. But there is always the next taste to come, and that keeps us alive inside. I thrive on the pleasures of the senses and I make no apology for it. If there were such a job, I'd choose to be a voluptuary, I think!
In her book, Aphrodite, Isabel Allende tells about the taste of her first kiss and how she can remember it still...forty years later. What did your first kiss taste like? Mine tasted of salty soy and sweat, followed by faint sweet-spicy ginger beer. I was 17 and he was 23. He was Greek and I was greeeeen! And ever since, having a man cook for me feels immensely erotic. I can recall the taste of every "first" kiss that followed...all wonderful and complex.
Some memorable first tastes for me are ~~ Roasted figs - a deep, wet sweetness that wasn't cloying with a touch of the fire that released their juices - and figs are erotic already! Raw oysters - saline and fresh, like chewing on the living sea. Russian walnut chicken - my mother made this when I was young and it tasted earthy, sumptuous in it's nutty creaminess...I requested it often. Montrachet goat cheese - for me, the taste of an alpine meadow in dairy form. Fresh Pesto - a symphony in my mouth and in my nose...florally green, sharp, immediate...and addicting. Taleggio cheese - cow breath, cream, grass and Italy...all contained in a smelly rind that only the adventurous will go beyond. Heidesand cookies - an early taste memory...it seemed to me then, and now, the very best thing you could do with butter. Tobiko (flying fish eggs) - orange, salty-umame, and that delightful POP. Forget the sushi, just give me the tobiko! Tauben (squab) - first served to me by my German friend...dark, succulent, smoky meat - it brought out my primitive food feelings. Risotto - that first one...I knew that if I could have only ONE dish, this was IT. Bartlett pear - that first, perfectly ripe, juice running down my chin, perfumed pear...heaven!
So....TASTE....just one of the senses, but a big one for me. Tell me about the tastes that have stayed in your mind. I'd love to know...

photo by Herb Nolan

EATING THE WORLD
I was born with my mouth open...
entering into this juicy world
of peaches and lemons and ripe sun
and the pink and secret flesh of women,
this world where dinner is in the breath
of the subtle desert,
in the spices of the distant sea
which late at night drift over sleep.
I was born somewhere between the brain and the pomegranate,
with a tongue tasting the delicious textures of
hair and hands and eyes;
I was born out of the heart stew,
out of the infinite bed, to walk upon
this infinite earth.
I want to feed you the flowers of ice
on this winter window,
the aroma of many soups,
the scent of sacred candles
that follows me around this cedar house,
I want to feed you the lavender
that lifts up out of certain poems,
and the cinnamon of apples baking,
and the simple joy we see in the sky
when we fall in love.
I want to feed you the pungent soil
where I harvested garlic,
I want to feed you the memories
rising out of the aspen logs
when I split them, and the pinyon smoke
that gathers around the house on a still night,
the mums left by the kitchen door.
-Excerpted from the poem by James Tipton, 1995