Author: AJ

Hello To Gary’s Games And Hobbies

by A.J. Coltrane

Hello to everyone who got here through the Gary’s Games And Hobbies Facebook page!

Obviously, our principal focus here isn’t just games — it’s sports, food, and beer too.. it’s all the Good Stuff. You like all those things, right? (At least the games, food, and beer part anyway.)

A couple of minor site changes:  I’ve added a Recent Comments section to the right hand column, and I’ve added a new page describing our GNOIF — Game Night Of Indeterminate Frequency. (See the tab at the top for how we host our game night. It seems to work pretty well.)

Anyway, poke around, and we’d love to hear from you.

And speaking of beer – I believe we may be going to Chuck’s this weekend. Iron Chef Leftovers is a regular customer there and says it’s a great place.. I haven’t been yet, somehow.

Dot’s Delicatessen – A Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The stretch of Fremont Avenue between 41st and 43rd in Fremont is becoming a dining hotspot – you have old stalwarts Paseo and The Swingside Café (although the Buckaroo Tavern is missed) and newcomers Via Tribunali, Hunger, Uneeda Burger, Pecado Bueno and Dots Deli. On top of this, we now have the food centric bookstore, The Book Larder located here. This stretch of road has always been a good spot to eat, but it is starting to rival downtown Fremont for the best places in the neighborhood.

I took advantage of a day off to visit Dot’s Deli for the first time. Dot’s is located next to the Fremont Abbey, in a space which I believe used to be home to a bookstore and was empty for quite a while before Dot’s came along. Dot’s menu is small and consists mostly of meat dishes, predominately house made sausages and charcuterie. The prices are relatively good for lunch, with nothing really coming in at over $10. They also have a small dinner menu with about 5 items that mostly consists of comfort food items such as coq au vin and mac and cheese. Those entrees were priced in the $15 range.

The place is small – 4 tables that will seat maybe 10 people and six counter stools, so if you are thinking about going, you might have to plan on taking your food elsewhere to eat it. Everything is cooked to order, so it will take you a few minutes to get your order. I was there at 1:30 in the afternoon and the place was relatively crowded and the line was about 5 people deep when I arrived. I placed my order and had my food ready in a little less than 10 minutes and I was able to grab a counter seat (warning – the counter seat chairs are not comfortable). There were also a number of choices that were completely sold out (the Reuben, the Braised Ox Tail Sandwich).

I ordered the spicy polish sausage with sauerkraut ($8) and mustard and a small order of frites ($3.50). The sausage was a generous link (guessing somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 lbs.) grilled on what looks like it may be a specially made baguette like roll (it definitely was not a supermarket bought hotdog bun) topped with a nice amount of sauerkraut with caraway (not sure if this was house made or not). On its own, the sauerkraut was nothing to write home about and was very acidic with overpowering caraway, but the sausage had a nice heat and spice flavor to it and I could have eaten it by itself. The roll was a nice combination of soft and chewy. When you put all of the elements together, you got what may have been the perfect sausage sandwich – the acidity of the sauerkraut balanced the spiciness of the sausage and married well, but still allowed you to taste the individual components with the mustard playing a supporting role in boosting the flavor (it was yellow mustard – not an Iron Chef favorite, but that is for another show).

The frites were good – hand cut potatoes, which seemed to be only fried once, but not great. They were hot and well seasoned, but not as crispy as I would like. Texture aside, they were tasty and the small portion could easily be split between 2 people and I would order them again. My only other complaint about the frites was the lack of aioli. Can they really be called frites without aioli?

Dot’s will also sell you their sausages to bring home (they run about $8/lb) as well as their house made pates (at varying prices). They had a nice selection of both when I was in and I had to resist the temptation to bring home one of everything in the deli case. My only other complaint – no website (but here is their Facebook page). I really hate this trend of places not having websites.

A return trip to Dot’s is definitely in order for both lunch to sample more of their lunch choices and for dinner to get some potentially tasty comfort food on a grey Seattle winter day. Dot’s gets 4 polka(dots) out of 5 for the killer spicy Polish sandwich.

Calozzi’s – A Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about cheese steaks in Seattle. Today, I began my quest to find out if there are any good ones with a trip to Calozzi’s in Pioneer Square (they don’t have a website, but here is the yelp page).

Calozzi’s is nothing to look at – it is a pretty big space filled with a bunch of tables and a small counter. I am fine with that. Eating a steak isn’t exactly fine dining and the two best in Philly don’t even have indoor seating, so the large indoor dining area is a plus.

The menu is pretty bare bones, about 5 or six different steaks and one or two other sandwiches and your sides are pretty much limited to fries and cheese fries, pretty standard for a Philly joint. I ordered a stake, wiz, without (that would be a cheese steak with cheese wiz without onions – the Philly equivalent of a cheese pizza), the cheese fries and a bottle of water. The total with tax was $15.

The Steak – I am not a big fan of chopped steak on my cheese steaks. I think they tend to be much greasier than sliced steak, but that is really just a matter of preference. The sandwich is large for $8 and could easily be split between 2 people, and are served in a paper wrapper, just as you would get in Philly. That, unfortunately, is the nicest thing I can say about the steak. The steak itself was nicely cooked, but really wasn’t seasoned well and actually tasted like it was cooked with green peppers. The wiz, while the right amount, was put on top of the steak and I ended up with more wiz on the paper than I did on my sandwich. This lead to a handful of bites that involved all 3 components of the sandwich while most of the bites were just soggy bread and mediocre meat. The roll was also not up to the task. Despite being no more than a minute from the grill to my table, the bread was already falling apart from the grease. Sadly, this is not the worst steak I have had in Seattle, but I probably wouldn’t order it again.

The Cheese Fries – A healthy portion of nicely cooked fries and cheese wiz served in a paper bag. They were tasty, although a bit salty, but were difficult to eat because the bad bag was essentially breaking down from the heat and the grease. I would however get these again.

If it was just about the food, I would give Calozzi’s 2 out of 5 Amaroso Rolls and I would say that Calozzi’s is probably fine if you are really jonesing for a cheese steak, but I wouldn’t make a special trip to go there. I, however, am grading it 1/2 out of 5 and will not be returning for a reason unrelated to the food. The reason – the bathroom in there was disgustingly dirty and the sink had been ripped from the wall and was not functioning. I seriously wonder if the bathroom had been cleaned recently anyway and it made me wonder about proper hand washing facilities in the restaurant for the staff. I understand that it is an old building, but I have been in portapotties at beer festivals that were cleaner and nicer at the end of the festival than the bathroom at Calozzi’s.

Two Breads

by A.J. Coltrane

I’m always looking around at how everyone is making Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread. One day I ran across a blog post where the writer recommended *not* preheating the cooking pot. Her method was to place the the dough on parchment and let it rise in the pot prior to baking. I had to try it out — if it worked then it wouldn’t be necessary to transfer the dough from a towel into a smoking hot pot. The approach would be neater, cleaner, and easier.

The two breads below use the same formula, one of the two didn’t use a preheated pot:

 

One bread is significantly lighter, isn’t it? The darker crust was preheated, and it had a better crust that was more highly regarded by the crowd.

The Lahey recipe calls for a 4.5-5 quart heavy pot. I don’t own that size – yet.

The larger of the two is 7.25 quarts (#28). The smaller is 2.75 quarts (#23).

The lighter bread used the smaller container. The darker bread used the larger one. I mention this because it might be possible that the difference in pots changed the color of the crust, though I doubt it. I do think the difference changed the finished shape. (Related note:  From what I’ve read, smaller pots create a higher rise.)

So… In my opinion, the “no preheating” thing doesn’t work as well.

One change from the recipe that I think works is this:  I let the final rise happen in a bowl instead of on a towel. I put about 1 teaspoon of olive oil into the bowl and spread it around the entire interior with a paper towel. I then dust the interior of the bowl lightly with flour. The flour prevents most of the interaction between the oil and dough, which keeps the oil from tendering the crust.

I use a bowl that is slighter smaller in diameter than the final pot. I’ve tried it with just flour in the bowl, or just oil towards the bottom of the bowl, and in my experience the dough will stick somewhat to the sides and/or bottom when I attempt it one of those ways. Using both flour and oil, the dough plops right out:

No dough is stuck to the bowl! That’s my $.02 “improvement”.

Rat and the American Brewing Industry

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In case you don’t know Pearls writer Stephan Pastis is a beer lover, which makes this strip from 12/21 even funnier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is obvious that Rat is drinking a Bud, which is owned by Inbev, a Belgian company. Here is a list of the top 50 brewers by volume in the US from beerinfo.com:

Top 50 Breweries by Volume
1. Anheuser-Busch Inc.
2. MillerCoors Brewing Co.
3. Pabst
4. D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc.
5. Boston Beer Co.
6. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
7. New Belgium Brewing Co.
8. North American Breweries
9. Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc.
10. Spoetzl Brewery
11. Deschutes Brewery
12. Independent Brewers United
13. Matt Brewing Co.
14. Minhas Craft Brewery
15. Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
16. Harpoon Brewery
17. Boulevard Brewing Co.
18. Goose Island Beer Co.
19. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
20. Alaskan Brewing and Bottling Co.
21. Long Trail Brewing Co.
22. August Schell Brewing Co.
23. Stone Brewing Co.
24. Abita Brewing Co.
25. Brooklyn Brewery
26. Lagunitas Brewing Co.
27. Full Sail Brewing Co.
28. Shipyard Brewing Co.
29. Summit Brewing Co.
30. New Glarus Brewing Co.
31. Great Lakes Brewing Co.
32. Anchor Brewing Co.
33. Iron City Brewing Co.
34. Kona Brewery LLC
35. Rogue Ales
36. Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
37. Winery Exchange Inc. / World Brews
38. Sweetwater Brewing Co.
39. Mendocino Brewing Co.
40. Flying Dog Brewery
41. Victory Brewing Co.
42. Gordon Biersch Brewing Co.
43. BJ’s Chicago Pizza & Brewery
44. Stevens Point Brewery Co.
45. Odell Brewing Co.
46. BridgePort Brewing Co.
47. Cold Spring Brewing Co.
48. Rock Bottom Brewery
49. Oskar Blues Brewery
50. Straub Brewery

Numbers one and 2 are both owned by foreign companies, which makes Pabst the largest American-owned brewery in the country. What is interesting is that the top 3 make up something like 80% of the production of beer in the US. Apparently the American double standard of “Buy American” doesn’t apply here. We will buy Fords, which in a large number of cases are built in Mexico, because they are an “American” company, but we won’t buy Toyotas, which are largely built in the US, because they are not an “American” company.

I did find it interesting that the only Washington breweries on the list are Craft Brew Alliance, which make Red Hook, among others, and North American Brewers, which makes Pyramid, among others. There isn’t a single independent Washington brewery on the list.

You know what, I am fine with that. Just more good Washington beer that stays in Washington.

Lahey’s No Knead – On The Grill

by A.J. Coltrane

People have been grilling Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread, that’s not new. From what I’ve found they all put a Le Creuset on a gas grill and cook the bread normally. That doesn’t seem to me to be very far up the “fun” scale. (But who knows, maybe placing an enclosed pot on a grill is a party-and-a-half — I’ll probably try it when it gets hot outside.)

Back to the point:  My version of fun involved using the dough for grilled pizza and eating the results.

The recipe is based on Lahey’s No Knead Bread, with a couple of (related) differences. I halved the recipe, but kept the yeast amount the same, and I slowed the fermentation by refrigerating the dough overnight. In total, the dough got about 16 hours in the fridge and 6 hours at room temperature. I also did extra stretch and folds to the dough within the last two hours.

After the rising I oiled a pizza pan and rolled out the dough to about 1/4 – 1/3″. The dough went onto the pizza pan and I oiled the top. The dough was then covered with plastic wrap and allowed to rest for about 90 minutes. While the dough was resting I sauteed super thin slices of red pepper and red onion over medium high heat.

There was no chance this dough was coming off of the pizza pan easily. I put the pizza pan directly onto the medium grill for 2-3 minutes until the dough loosened and I could slide it off onto the grill grates.

After the bottom had nice grill marks I slid the pizza pan back under the dough and flipped it over. The pizza was then topped with a marina heavy on garlic, as well as the red pepper, red onion, and shaved parmesan.

Fin.

 

  The pizza came out with a medium thickness crust that was nice and airy, almost weightless.

I’m going to have to try more high hydration pizzas!

Iron Chef America – Margin of Victory

by A.J. Coltrane

Looking at the wikipedia page for Iron Chef America results — it seems like there have been a lot more blowouts the last few years. Here is the Victory Margin, as a 7 episode rolling average:

 

Looks like a trend to me.

 

I removed all of the team competitions and all episodes that used four judges. The chart goes through the end of Season 9.

Ignore the spike right at the start — Morimoto defeated Roberto Donna 50-33. Donna only completed two of the five dishes. It always kind of bugs me when I’m reminded that they gave Donna another chance; a second chance doesn’t feel very “Iron Chef” to me.

The other big spike is during Season 8. I wonder if the level of competition changed, or the judges really changed, or the new Iron Chefs have a much different talent level, or… what else?

The average margin of victory has gone from about 4 to about 6, I’d have to think that’s at least partly on the judges.

Sucks! Holiday Ale from Lagunitas

By Blaidd Drwg

I was recently at Chuck’s Beer Store on 85th in Seattle (a fine place for local beers and a great tap list – go if you haven’t been) and was talking to Chuck about a variety of beers, specifically IPA’s. Chuck was telling me about the Lagunitas “Christmas” Beer this year. It appears that something bad happened to their annual “Brown Suga’” beer and, as a result, they produced what is being called “Sucks! Holiday Ale”.

Buy this beer and your holidays might suck a little less.

I am generally not a huge fan of Lagunitas beers. They are ok, but I don’t go out of my way to buy them since with just about every style they make, there are several beers that I like better.

Skeptical about Chuck’s praise for this beer, I sampled it. This beer is an IPA, an unusual beer release for a winter beer. There is a strong citrus nose initially, giving way to a pleasant hop aroma and slight bitterness finished off with a clean crisp palate with a little lingering citrus. This beer tastes like a fresh hop (although it isn’t listed as one) and comes in at only 63 IBU, so it won’t kill your palate. This is a beer that you could easily put back several in one sitting, but it might hurt – Sucks! Holiday comes in at 7.6%. I walked out of Chuck’s with a growler and gave serious consideration to finishing it myself that night.

This beer is at the end of its release cycle – Chuck’s only had it on tap and is expecting one more keg, so get it while you can. The beer was bottled, so other area bottle shops may have one or two still floating around. Definitely worth tasting if you can.

Rating: 4 Christmas cookies out of 5.

The New Toy

by A.J. Coltrane

A little birdie told me this camera has a better macro. The birdie was right.

The new (to me) Canon SX230HS. The photo is using only natural light on a dreary and rainy Seattle day. Mints in a 2-1/2″ diameter ramekin:

Thank you birdie!

Is Brees/Brady the new Elway/Marino Debate?

By Blaidd Drwg

Raise your hand if you would ever thought that the first quarterback to break Dan Marino’s single season yards record would be Drew Brees and not Tom Brady (Brady is about 200 yards from passing Marino also). Brady gets all the press because of the “pass always” offense the Pats run, but it is the high-octane offense in New Orleans that should probably be getting more attention. Heck, you hear about Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski all the time – name any receiver on the Saints (I had to look them up).

The Saints are now 12-3, have scored 505 points (9 less than the Packers and 40 more than the Patriots) and unlike the Pats, have the best pass offense in the league and the 9th best run offense (the Pats are 19th). That is not really the point of this post.

The point of this post is that, to me at least, it seems like Brees/Brady could be the new Marino/Elway argument on who was better. From a statistical standpoint, they two are pretty close:

GP YDS TD INT Rating
Brees 153 40,353 276 145 93.6
Brady 160 39,641 297 114 96.3

The real edge that Brady has over Brees is Super Bowl wins – Brady has 4 and Brees 1. In the Marino/Elway battle, Elway had 2 and Marino failed to win the Super Bowl in his only appearance.

I know that the traditional who’s better argument in this century has been Manning/Brady, but I really do think that it should really be Brees/Brady.