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Who you callin’ a broad, Downtown Grocery?!

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

I don’t know about you, but when I’m sick as a dog I strap my baby in a stroller and wander deliriously through downtown Salem.

I get it in my head that I need to drop $25 on hardback literary fiction RIGHT NOW and I set about looking for a copy of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad, hailed in numerous reviews as the best rock novel ever written.

(No dice).

Then I spend the whole afternoon poking around Salem stores as my temperature rockets to 102 degrees and discover some secret slices of Salem that I was often too harried, too distracted, or too busy, to notice.

Discovery number one: Downtown Grocery.

New to you? No. It’s been around since early May, when it opened to much small-town state capital fanfare — read: a few blog posts, a Statesman Journal article, and a rush of murmur that heralded it as the Thing Downtown Has Been Missing.

I don’t know about that.

What I do know is that the Downtown Grocery carries some awesome middle-eastern and European products and offers the kind of other-world-in-your-own-backyard shopping experience that I haven’t really had since I was living on Mt. Pleasant Street in the El Salvadorean district of our nation’s capital.

If you are one of those people that can’t recognize a cardamom seed pod by its face, then you are in luck. The staff at Downtown Grocery can help you sort your spices in a way that is oh-so-satisfying for the home cook with a curious streak.

I’ve heard from friends who are obssessed with the store’s sandwich counter — and its gooey, layered baklava — but have yet to hear from anyone who goes out of their way to buy some of the other packaged, processed stuff that lines the aisles.

Unless you’re talking about fava beans.

If you read this blog, you know that I’ve become wildly enamored of these little green guys after first working with them in California last year and then discovering at my produce paradise at E.Z. Orchards.

Sadly, favas don’t last forevah.

But now I have something akin to that in the canned broad beans (you cheeky Brits!) available for purchase at downtown grocery. No, they don’t have that fresh, green, plucked from the Matrix snap that fresh favas have. But creamed together with some tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon, it makes a nice hummus.

Don’t forget that you still need to remove the fava bean from the pod before blending!

This one’s for you, Amber. Now you can eat your favas without thinking about Anthony Hopkins.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has been supporting DSS’s advertisers this month. We have raised $75 so far to help feed hungry kids. And the month’s not yet over!

Posted in Food, Shopping | 7 Comments »

DSS teaming up with Marion-Polk Foodshare

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Before I had my baby boy late last year, I was a regular at the Table of Plenty, a Marion-Polk Foodshare distribution site in south Salem.

Once a month, I was helping the site’s customers navigate the system by serving as a personal shopper.

Sadly, I can’t get down there anymore. My son’s schedule and his own mess calls prohibit me from the 4-7 p.m. shift.

But hunger is an issue that is near to my heart. And hungry children? I can tell you that if you saw the faces of the families at Table of Plenty you’d wish you could do something, too.

Well, now we both can.

You might have noticed that I started taking ads on this blog last week.

I know my readers — a few hundred a day at last count! — care about Salem. And so, I will be donating the proceeds from all of the advertising from this blog to the Marion-Polk Foodshare for this entire month.

You Can also Show Your Face Downtown September 1

Hungry kids have trouble learning.

On First Wednesday, September 1, Go Downtown Salem and the Salem Assistance League are sponsoring a big back-to-school celebration during which they will be collecting school supplies, giving out information, and supplying other resources to Salem-Keizer students.

Because hungry children often have a very difficult time at school (learning problems, behavioral problems, health issues) Women Ending Hunger and Marion-Polk Food Share would like to call attention to the fact that we have a huge number of children who are probably going to school hungry by creating a visual image for the community of just what that number looks like.

The two groups are asking all friends and supporters of the fight to end hunger to join us in what they are calling a FOOD FOR THOUGHT STAND-IN: a long, long line of volunteers holding empty plates from the steps of the State Capitol through eight blocks of downtown Salem, from 5:00 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, September 1.

They estimate that they will need a minimum of 370 people to cover the distance, each representing 100 children — but they welcome many more.

Join us — for info contact Kat at the Foodshare at 503.581.3855 x322.

Posted in Food, There's something about Salem | 2 Comments »

Spice girl

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

I’m a terrible wife. No, an awful wife. No, the worst wife ever.

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and all my husband got was this stinking blog post (late at that).

In the meantime, what did he gift me but the spice rack that I’ve been wanting for about 10 years. (And you thought the fourth anniversary was fruits and flowers…)

Still bowling me over with his handiwork and vision after all these years, he created this under-the-cabinet spice rack using all of the old Earth’s Best baby food jars that I’ve been accumulating the past few months.

How will I ever tell our baby that I chose his nutrition based on the lines and form of this baby brand jar? In this case, Gerber just wouldn’t do.

It’s everything I needed in my light-flooded, raspberry-Yoplait-colored Barbie dream kitchen. And it’s just like us: a little utilitarian, a little upcycled, a little parsimonious, a little homage to getting by farther on what we already have.

I will make it up to Adam. But this time, I’ll let him watch me creating his gift for two weeks so that his heart, too, may be stunned into a similar inaction.

He wouldn’t admit it to you, but this gift of love is really an attempt to impose his world order on me in my own space. Otherwise, my spices would be a tumbling circus family of marjoram and garlic salt in an already overflowing cabinet.

The other sneaky thing? More spices = more originality = more creativity = more food for him. That cheeky monkey!

And so, I’ve been working my way through Modern Vegetarian cookbook, which I’ve charitably given back to the Salem Public Library on time. And the process has forced me to find out where in this town of secret places and impossible-to-find products you find spices fit for my glorious rack.

Stay tuned for Desperately Seeking Spices!

Posted in Food, Shopping, Uncommon gifts | 13 Comments »

Gaga for fava beans

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Maybe you’ve heard of them.

Perchance you have made a joke about eating them with a nice Chianti and your victim’s liver.

But it is likely you’ve never come across them in your neighborhood grocery store in Salem — until last week, when you stopped by E.Z. Orchards for a mixed berry shortcake the size of a 6-year-old’s head and happened upon them, hanging out conspicuously with the green beans and the potatoes.

They are fava beans and they are going to break you.

Favas are all about process. They are not the stuff of 30-minute meals — they are laborious, delicious, buttery little beasts that come wrapped in pods that look like Frankenstein’s fingers, all gnarly knuckles and spindly fingernails.

Buy enough of them and you could spend the better part of an afternoon shelling, blanching, shelling, cooking and eating.

Here is a great tutorial on how to handle your favas.

When you open the seed pod you will find as many as half a dozen, or as few as one, glorious alien seed sacks.

You will remove the seeds and blanch them in boiling water for a minute. Then you remove the meaty part of the seed from the alien-looking casing. Think of this as freeing all those little Neos from the Matrix.

My husband has likened the fava to the lima bean, but that does the fava a disservice. They are buttery kernels, slightly nutty, smooth like a good pinot. I sauteed these favas with half an onion and some fennel, added some fresh dill and half a cup of chicken stock. We ate them with couscous.

Is it worth all that time and effort?

I would just as easily ask you if it is worth it to wait for a wine to ripen. Or a novel to be written. Or a John Cage song to be performed.

I like seeing the hours pile up on the plate.

Posted in Food, Shopping | 9 Comments »

The most delicious thing I ever ate

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Once upon a time there was a wonderful woman named Jan, whose Oregon family did loads of Oregon-y things, such as digging for clams on the Oregon Coast, trolling for Dungeness crabs in Siletz Bay, and, occasionally, fishing for salmon in the waters that surround Portland.

Oregon was her bounty, and she shared it in turn with a bunch of schlubbs like us who went and had a baby and can’t find our way to the bottom of the diaper pail, let alone to a boat.

This Jan showed up on our doorstep one day and gifted us with a roughly three pound piece of salmon that she had just pulled from the waters five hours before.

I had never seen a piece of fish quite so beautiful. It glistened with the waters of the river, its skin firm and ruby red,its edges sliced pristinely into a chunk of hunka hunka burnin’ fish.

We like salmon very much in this house. We sometimes drip some soy sauce and a little peanut oil on the top, or slice some green leeks over it and poach it in some parchment.

But this salmon was different.

All this salmon asked for was a sprinkle of coarse sea salt and a quick wrist flourish of ground pepper. I baked it until it was just cooked in the middle and cut two smaller pieces from it to serve for dinner.

It is not a stretch for me to say that this salmon was — by leaps and bounds — the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my life. At one moment, as I flaked yet another forkful off of the fish, I felt as if I could feel its life blood coursing through its sinews.

Adam explains it this way:

“You could distinguish between the myomeres and even sarcomeres. It tasted like it was still alive. It was the difference between eating a salad and eating a stew. That fish tasted like it was still pulsing.”

The salmon didn’t make it through the night. I had my serving, then Adam had his, then he had another, then he had another, then another until there was nothing left on the plate but a wrinkled, drying but still sparkling skin.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Except for the salmon, of course.

Suck it, salmon, I don’t feel bad.

Posted in Food | 10 Comments »

Make new FRIENDS at the Salem Saturday Market

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

There comes a time in many a young woman’s life when she decides that she had better start putting her money where her heart is. For me, that means, for one, finally donating some money to This American Life, which we did last month.

It also means becoming a friend of the Salem Saturday Market.

I’ve got two words for how this fateful event has come about:

Baby goats.

It turns out that one of the best ways to get to know the valley– and maybe get to see some baby goats in the process – is by joining the Friends of Salem Saturday Market and accompanying them on one of their many field trips.

Picture it — no bus, no jerk in the seat behind you sticking gum in your hair, no tuna salad sandwich that goes bad on the journey — just your own family in a car meeting up with others to tour the facilities of a food producer in the Willamette Valley.

Say, one that makes goat cheese, such as Fairview Farm Dairy.

I need two hands at this point to count the number of people who have talked to me about the storied baby goats of Fairview. The achy green monster inside of me is long past slumbering on this one.

So last week, I sent my check in. Okay, it was only for 10 bucks, but I’m a member now and I’m not going to let another Sunday trip to a goat farm slip me by. A win for this cause is also a win for cuteness.

But really, isn’t it a shame that it took some baby goats to get me to join? I’m already addicted to $6 a carton XL eggs from Terra Vita (and the farm’s swarthy proprietor, Art).

I’ll say it again: Baby goats. Shout it out!

Posted in Food, Shopping, Uncommon gifts | 9 Comments »

Strawberry Season in Salem

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

These June weeks have been drab and grey, overcast and a tad glum until the sun hit hard and strong at the end of last week, leaving our love for summer in Oregon more than a little rekindled. All that unusual coolness has translated to a late season at area strawberry farms.

Am I wrong to believe that Oregon’s weather has conspired to save for me the most wonderful treats of the season — strawberries so beautiful, so ephemeral, so special that if you don’t do something with them right away, they’ll just waste away in front of you? Yes, they have come late this year, but for me, they are just in time.

We headed to Olson’s earlier last week knowing we wouldn’t have time to process more than a few pounds and spent the morning atop a hill overlooking the Willamette Valley, the din of I-5 masked by the crunch of straw and a crisp breeze. Yes, I know you can get U-pick strawberries for a little less per pound at farms in West Salem, but I’ll pay a few bucks more for the premium view.

Strawberries! Shout it out!

This is our first season of berry-picking with our own strawbaby — probably the first event of many in which we force him to do something together with us that he just doesn’t care for…– but he handled being strapped to my husband’s back pretty well.

But just like babyhood, everything beautiful doesn’t last, and neither do strawberries, especially local ones. The pickings were sparse that day, but I am hearing that those berries up there on the hill are warming under green cover into a delightful hue of red. Get them before they’re gone!

But what to do with all of these strawberries when they are the May flies of fruit, living for a day and then dying a glorious death? (I know this because no fewer than 10 of my perfect strawberries were already moldering by the end of the day I picked them).

Last year I made strawberry jam in an effort to share the taste of Oregon with my family members back East and in the Midwest. This year I’m being a little lazier and a lot more selfish and am working through my favorite new book, Rustic Fruit Desserts by Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber. It focuses on fruits that grow rampant in the Pacific Northwest including, yes, strawberries.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

On the docket we have Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries and Fresh Strawberry and Ricotta Tart. You may have to process these strawberries quickly, but my experience is that the pies are gone even faster.

Posted in Food, There's something about Salem | 6 Comments »

Trader Joe's debacle — Salem's the punchline

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

I remember the first time I walked into my first Trader Joe’s in Tyson’s Corner, VA. It was 2003, the signs were hand-written, the shirts were Hawaiian, the wine was cheap, and the brands were unrecognizable. Seven years later and Trader Joe’s is almost as ubiquitous as Bed Bath & Beyond and Joe might as well be my uncle.

Well, almost.

Kelly Williams Brown has a funny fake musical script over at the Statesman Journal this morning lampooning the silly sign snafu that happened last week, when a signmaker “accidentally” put up a sign for some businesses that aren’t to be found in the Keizer Station concrete shopping district, including Trader Joe’s. The error was a slap in the face to many Salemites who have been dreaming of access to cheap specialty foods and trips to TJ’s that don’t take minutes to get there.

I’ve been one of those people campaigning for a Trader Joe’s here in Salem. I too go over the moon for mini toasts, gaga for whoe grain , somewhat batty for baby beets. But as I was driving past the one off of I-5 last night on my way home from Seattle, I couldn’t help but be struck by how easy it is to get some of the many Trader Joe-like products here in Salem already.

And so, some consolation:

Life Source and Fred Meyer both carry the brand of stone ground oats I buy — stuff so good you can eat it for dinner.
If you want boiled beets you can do them yourself. And I do.
Olive oil is available in every sexy virgin non-virgin category under the sun these days.
E.Z. Orchards carry’s a 20-year balsamic that is younger and wiser than I.
If you really like wine, you probably can’t stand Two Buck Chuck.
Israeli coucous is seasonal at TJ. You can get it every day in the bulk bins at Fred Meyer.
Speaking of bulk. Why buy dried blueberries in a package when you can customize the amount at the bulk bins?
TJ hummus, as most packaged hummuses, tastes as if it were churned by feet.
Jarred marinara is jarred marinara is jarred marinara.

I would like to end by saying that I love paying for brie that costs $2.65 for a wedge, but I know that it comes at another price. But cheese is the one area where I will maintain that Trader Joe’s has everyone beat in terms of price and variety.

I cringe to pay $4.99 for a chevre log at Safeway when I can pay the same and get a log three times as long at TJ’s. But I really shouldn’t be driving 35 miles each way for cheese. And I really shouldn’t be eating a whole log of chevre now, should I?

I can only speak for my own consuming habits. What’s the real draw for people other than cheap specialty foods?

Posted in Food, Shopping, There's something about Salem | 7 Comments »

Five Guys comes to Salem

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Good news for people who like bad news. Five Guys just opened a location on Lancaster Drive, in the same strip mall where Borders is located. We saw the sign go up a few weeks ago and new there would be trouble. Why? Let me tell you the states I haven‘t eaten Five Guys in…

To date I’ve been okay with the occasional stop at the Beaverton Five Guys, which like the new Salem location, is located in a nasty strip mall and often has a line out the door preceding the counter, where you can see a team of far more than five guys assembling burgers and artfully placing pickles.

Okay, so they are not that artful. What you get is a big, delicious, messy, meaty, gloriously topped burger — and you eat it in a packed, red-and-white-themed setting that might as well be called a “corral.”

As I told the people who were still deciding whether to line up, people wait for Five Guys because dudes can really make a burger and you are gaurenteed to get at least a dozen perfectly fried in peanut oil French fries in your mammoth tub of taters.

Some advice: even if you have a big eater, a small fry is probably all you need. If you’re a lady or have a smaller appetite, for God’s sake, get the Little Cheeseburger, it’s big enough. And if you’re staying there to eat, obviously you should get a small drink to share, since it’s your job to fill up your soda cup.

Five Guys is great. But if you really want Salem’s best burger, try Rock-N- Rogers.

Posted in Food | 7 Comments »

Statesman Journal's Best Of's – Where the Masses Get it Wrong

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

It’s that time of year again, folks. It’s time to furrow your brow and shake your fist and cluck incredulously at how the public in Salem so often gets many of its own Best-of’s wrong. Say what you will, James Surowiecki, about the Wisdom of Crowds, but there are areas in our lives where it really helps to have a real taste maker tell you where to go and what to eat, what to see and what to do. Otherwise you might just end up eating your Cheap Eats in the charming digs of Costco instead of at La Perla downtown.

Some categories of the Statesman Journal’s annual best-of’s are obviously spot-on. Word of Mouth wins Best Breakfast? Yeah, I’ll agree with that one.

But man, are there some hilarious entries and hilarious winners in this year’s poll.

Best Place to Give Birth:

1. Silverton Hospital
2. Salem Hospital
3. At-home with midwife

What’s number 4? In the the back of your Subaru on the way to the hospital? Under the rotunda at the State Capitol building? Spontaneously in line at Fred Meyer?

Best Hot Dog

1. Casey’s
2. Costco
3. Mt. Angel Sausage Co.

I love a hot dog, but does the hot dog really warrant its own category? A better bet would be best grilled cheese. Casey’s would win that, too.

Best Coffee Shop

1. Dutch Bros.
2. The Grind
3. Starbucks

Love me some Dutch Bros. on the way down to Eugene to work sometimes, but people people PLEASE!, Dutch Bros. is not a coffee shop, unless you consider sitting outside on a lawn chair next to the water feature a coffee shop experience. Best coffee shop is the Beanery downtown. Best coffee SHACK is Salem’s Latte.

Best Food Cart

1. Casey’s Cafe
2. Capitol Dog
3. Adam’s Rib Smokhouse

Do these restaurants really have food carts or are they just selling food cart food? Someone please enlighten me. Where are the Salem food carts? I know there are a few on Silverton, and there’s a Latino fruit cart that parks sometimes on Savage Road. Can we count Canby Asparagus Farms at the Chemeketa St. Farmer’s Market as being a food cart? If so, they win.

Best Bookstore

1. Borders
2. Book Bin
3. Tea Party Bookstore

I’m done talking about how much Borders sucks. But here’s a note in case you’ve forgotten. My friend and I meet often at Borders for our Bored Meetings. Can’t find a book there because they never have what I want or need. I heard they carry Twilight, though.

Best Adult-related Business

1. Santiam Wine Co.
2. Enigma Adult Toy Boutique
3. Eve’s Boutique

That’s not a best-of list, that’s a recipe for a kinky Saturday night!

Ah, best-of’s. You say so much about Salem. I’m nominating this mobile from our nursery for Best Sculpture AND Best Zoo.

Posted in Books, Capital Shots, Coffee, Emily: Angry!, Food, Media, There's something about Salem, You are what you read | 13 Comments »

Desperately Seeking Salem