Toluu

Roots and Grubs

Dada, bring my beer in the living room

You got servedNovember 29

Iris and I did a pirate story called Root Cellar Island, in which K. Rool and his crew find a secret cache of root vegetables under Iris’s bed. They roast them over an open fire, with the help of Iris (a good fairy).

K. Rool: I have a question. What are you planning to do with that giant onion you wouldn’t let us eat?

Iris: I was going to eat it myself. Or actually…

SMASH.

Keelhaulin’ Katie: Ow! Quick, let’s get out of here.

Iris (dropping Q-tips onto the ship): Just then, 1800 rashers of bacon fell on their ship.

Matthew: Wait, is that bad or good?

Iris: Surprising.

How to create an adventurous eaterNovember 24

Travel around the world with your kids, exposing them to local foods from Kashgar to Hua Hin. Write bestselling travel cookbooks and test recipes on your children. The result:

“Tash hates onions, garlic, scallions, chives, and ‘every other oniony thing,’ and Dom’s view of seafood is ‘I have trouble being at the same table with a fish.’”

(From a profile of Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford in the New Yorker, November 24, 2008.)

The deluxe culinary vampireNovember 22

As Laurie put it, “You’ll have to admit that you saw the vampire movie, but…”

We saw the vampire movie. There was more brooding than in the average henhouse. It featured the surf nazi who killed Marissa Cooper, the guy whose main claim to fame on the OC was that everyone pronounced his name differently. This guy is going to have a long career as a guy with angry eyebrows who wants to kill you.

Anyway, I’m getting to the culinary point (spoiler alert) which is: when the vampire clan is attempting to make dinner for Bella based on Nick Stellino’s show, I believe Carlisle Cullen is using a Kramer knife. Bob Kramer is a cult knifemaker based in Olympia, Washington. If you want a Kramer, you can buy a factory version for $340. If you want a handmade knife actually made by Kramer, tough.

There’s a good profile of Kramer in the current New Yorker (the food issue), but it’s not online.

Anyone know whether I’m right about the product placement?

What the monkey dragged inNovember 18

East by southwestNovember 10

On Good Food this week, they mentioned that the current (November) issue of Los Angeles magazine is the Asian food issue. I managed to snag it at my local magazine store, and it’s worth getting even if you don’t live in LA and are kind of afraid of LA.

The best feature covers their favorite Asian candies, everything from black sesame hard candies to Botan rice candy to Hello Kitty marshmallows, most of which you can probably find at an Asian grocery near you.

Speaking of which, I’d like to see a Marukai (which I learned about in this issue) open in Seattle and start an all-out Uwajimaya-Marukai price and selection war.