Artisans

Sitting atop a batik Persian tablecloth on the kitchen table is an earmarked book, New Food of Life—Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanglij.

Ignore what comes to mind when you first hear, “American Traditions Picnic.” There are no pie eating contests, three-legged races, or bandstands festooned with red-white-and-blue bunting.

Number 6208 is a modest white storefront tucked way back on Phinney Avenue. The gate at the sidewalk is draped with fluttering noren, the rectangular entry banners that signal when a Japanese shop is open.

Yeah, that wormwood—the intensely bitter herb that contains the noxious chemical thujone, widely believed to induce hallucinations and insanity. Wormwood also happens to be the main ingredient in absinthe, the controversial “green fairy” of bohemian Paris that supposedly drove Van Gogh to sever his ear…

In the bowl of an electric mixer place the butter and truffles. Mix on medium-high speed until thoroughly combined. Season the butter mixture with salt and place into an airtight container, let set at room temp for several hours.

Years ago, a new restaurant opened downtown and invited their neighbors to an opening celebration. Never one to pass up free food, I attended and quickly found myself surrounded by flutes of champagne, and a bar top laden with sushi and oysters

In which edibleSeattle visits the home of a local chef and reports on the contents of their refrigerator, snacks served, truths imparted and other miscellany.

January has never felt like the right month for the year to start. It doesn’t have the back-to-school excitement of fall; it doesn’t have the everything-is-growing excitement of spring. In fact, January rarely has much excitement at all. More than any other place I’ve lived, the Puget Sound area goes into hibernation.

2009 feels different, though. On one hand, there’s an absolutely loopy degree of excitement, best illustrated by the flag-waving, national anthem-singing celebration that happened in my neighborhood on election night. (The anthem was led by a drag queen; the flag wavers took over several major intersections and passed around bottles of Champagne.) On the other hand, more than one friend has gotten a layoff notice recently.