Emerald Downs, Two Years Later

by A.J. Coltrane

1. I wound up at Emerald Downs last weekend. By coincidence, it was almost two years to the day after the last visit. I think late in the season is the right time to go to the track anyway — a lot of data has been collected for the year, which at least in theory should make it easier to gamble. Since I don’t know anything actually useful about horses, that data is critical to have any chance at all.

It seems a typical day at Emerald Downs features about eight races. Two years ago I made around $60 on a series on bets mostly in the $2 – $8 range. I may have gotten a little lucky, though it didn’t feel like I was especially lucky that day.

This year I made fewer, smaller bets, and made $11.60. I probably wagered something like $6-$12 per race — the total outlay was about $70-80. (A $40 bankroll — $20 was too small to allow any real flexibility.) Last weekend worked out to a ~15-20% return on investment, which I’m fine with given the lack research required. (And I threw away $14 on one race by ignoring the obvious, which didn’t help the end result. It was doubly bad because I threw away money and one of the eight races for the day.) Two years ago it went much better, but that’s why it’s called gambling, right?

I think the biggest difference between those outcomes is that I won about as many close finishes as could have been expected in 2011, but I lost almost every close finish this time around.

2. Many, many years ago I’d go to the library or the used bookstore to get books about “How To Win Betting On Sports”. Most of them would have a chapter about baseball (with rudimentary conclusions drawn from even more rudimentary box scores), one about football, one on the horses, and so on. One thing that continually came up was that something like 1 out of 25 people win money over time at the track. To put it another way: 4% of people who go to the track can expect to leave as winners.

This is the first image that popped up when I googled "pink horse." It seems it's Selena Gomez, and it's "controversial." Beyond that, no clue. — This is the first image that popped up when I Googled “pink horse.” It’s Selena Gomez and it’s a pink horse, and it’s “controversial.” Beyond that, no clue. I could not, however, find a picture of a pink horse with floppy ears. Pink unicorns, yes. Floppy ears, no. Go figure.

Given that I know less than zero about horses, and looking at those odds, I avoided the track up until two years ago, and even then I figured if I didn’t get shelled I’d be happy. I did better than that though, and I did better than break even this time too.

I’m beginning to think that maybe people are putting their money on a horse that they like the appearance of, or the horse’s name, or the color of the jockey’s outfit. Maybe they’re doing Daily Doubles and throwing their money away on those, or some other kind of stupidly improbable long-odds combination bet.

All I know is that it doesn’t seem that hard. There aren’t that many variables. I looked only at the numbers. I ignored the tip sheets. I tuned out the other players and the PA system offering advice. I didn’t want to be influenced. The horses I picked could have been pink, with huge, floppy ears, and I wouldn’t have noticed until after they took off down the track and I saw their ears trailing in the wind. Maybe after a couple more visits I’ll figure out I’ve been lucky all along. At this rate I’ll know the answer to that by 2017..

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Founders Imperial IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Since I decided to post 3 beer reviews a week, I came up with a rotation: the Friday and Sunday posts rotate between NW Peaks, Reuben’s and Populuxe since I have a major backlog from those 3 and the Wednesday post is always some other brewery. I plan on keeping that rotation for the near future until I can get caught up or at least somewhat caught up. Today is an exception though and it is because I wanted to get this information out there to all of our readers in time for you to actually try a beer.

So why break from the plan now? Well, I sampled a beer that was so extraordinary that everyone should run out and try it.

Populuxe recently hosted a party for their Founders Club and were kind enough to put out 3 new beers for us to sample. One of those beers was their Founders Imperial IPA. As you can guess, this was a big beer, coming in at 9%. The beer is supposed to be on tap at the brewery starting this Thursday for anyone to enjoy.

The beer pours deep orange in color with a major amount of hops on the nose and copious amounts of citrus and citrus peel. An incredible hop bomb that is front loaded with juicy citrus and just a touch of barely noticeable bitterness. The beer then moves into the realm of citrus peel and hops where great balance keeps the beer from becoming overly sweet or bitter but with an abundant hop character (citra were used) that would please any hop head. The finish is long, with more citrus and decent amount of bitter peel but not so much to be unpleasant. The alcohol was very well integrated and not noticeable on the beer and the beer has enough bitterness to let you know what you are drinking but enough balance that you get to enjoy its many layers of complexity.

I haven’t been this enamored with a beer since the Imperial Rye IPA from Reuben’s and I will go as far to say that this may well be one the 20 best beers I have ever had. I would put the Populuxe Imperial IPA up against just about any other Imperial IPA and I think it would come out on top.

Check the Populuxe FB Page on Thursday and if it is on tap, get down to the brewery and drink it. Just save some for me.

The Populuxe Founder’s Imperial IPA builds its case with a perfect 5 monuments out of 5.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming already in progress.

Your Sushi Impact

By Iron Chef Leftovers

When you are going to your local sushi joint, chances are you are doing something that is both bad for your health and bad for the environment. What and why? You might ask? Well, you may not realize this, but most of the fish used in sushi restaurants (even at the high end places – although this is starting to change) are the equivalent of factory farmed livestock. Here are some examples that I pulled off the menu from I Love Sushi in Seattle:

Atlantic salmon – raised in densely packed pens where they have to be fed antibiotics to prevent disease.

Shrimp – raised in stagnant pools of water in Asia and Latin America loaded with filth and diseases. Here is an example of how bad it is.

The same thing goes for most of your white fishes – sea bass, escolar, yellowtail, snapper, etc. There are very few farmed fish that are done in an environmentally responsible manner.

What about wild caught fish? Well, some are better choices than others. From the same menu:

Sea Eel – they are horribly overfished and the fisheries are on the verge of collapse.

Tuna – depending on the kind, it ranges from a good choice (locally pole caught albacore) to a lousy choice (critically endangered Bluefin tuna).

Sea Urchin – Depending on how and where it is harvested, it might be sustainable.

Clams/Scallops/Oysters/Geoduck – these are generally raised in heavily regulated beds and are an excellent choice for sushi. It doesn’t hurt that Washington has some of the best producers of these tasty critters in the world. If you are buying sushi here, there is a good chance that your bivalves are local.

Wild Salmon – a much better choice than the farmed stuff, especially if the fish is pole caught.

All of this came up from an article I read about Bluefin tuna recently in the Smithsonian magazine. (I highly recommend reading it). I am not saying don’t eat sushi; what I am saying is make informed choices.

The issue is a complex one and I am over-simplifying it here. If you want more information on good choices for eating fish, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program or the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program. We have many sustainable sushi places in Seattle, most notably Mashiko – the chefs there are passionate about what they are serving and are happy to guide you through unfamiliar but tasty choices on their menu. Whole Foods no longer stocks fish on the Seafood Watch red list. The best thing that you can do is to ask where the fish you are eating is coming from – whether it is from a sushi place, a seafood restaurant, a fish monger or a supermarket. If the person selling the fish can’t tell you where it was from, if it is farmed or wild and how it was caught, you really should not buy it. Don’t be afraid to ask a place to carry more sustainable choices. In most cases, they are willing to do it because they don’t want to lose the business. If they aren’t willing to do it, go somewhere else that is.

There is much more information on this topic out there, so I will let you decided what your feelings are on the subject. I would recommend the following though to get you started (and I have all of these books if you want to borrow them from the Iron Chef Lending Library):

Four Fish by Paul Greenberg

The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson

Tuna, A Love Story by Richard Ellis

The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America by H. Bruce Franklin

The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson

And finally a video from a chef who gets it:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1399191810
Oh, and in case you are skeptical and you think that all of these books are written by academics who have never been on a boat, Trevor Corson worked as a professional lobsterman for several years and spent a number of years living in Japan. Greenberg, Ellis and Franklin are all avid sport fishermen and really know their subjects (I have had the pleasure of having long conversations will all 4 of these authors). I am trying to get the dialogue started and at least make people aware of their choices, and getting the information out there is the first step in the process.

EarthBox Update — September 15, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

It feels to me like fall is coming, and the plants agree. The lemon cucumbers will need to be pulled soon. The regular cucumbers aren’t far behind. More and more fruits are dropping off of the plants, especially when the hard rains come, so today we pulled all of the tomatoes that looked like they were at least 95% of the way there — I’m not sure that some of the varieties are intended to be uniformly red all the way to the stem, anyway.

(All pictures taken during a heavy rain.)

Today’s harvest. The Brandywines in the back right average about 5″ in diameter and 1-1/4 pounds each. It’s basically six tomatoes weighing 8 pounds total:

At the start of the year the cucumbers were straight, dark green, and relatively round on each end. Then we started seeing more twisty ones with bulbous ends, and straight ones with tapered stem ends. Now they’re coming in much lighter in color and misshapen. The first little one to rot on the vine happened this week. Note the two different colors here, and the moldy leaves — I’m guessing this is how the cucumbers tell you they’re about done:

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — September 15, 2013” →

Let the HOF Debate Begin

By Blaidd Drwg

I happened to be watching the America’s Cup race (don’t ask, it is one of my guilty pleasures) and I noticed on the crawl that there were two retirements announced from baseball today: Vlad Guerrero, who actually hasn’t played in the majors since 2011, and Todd Helton, who made his effective at the end of the season.

Guerrero will always hold a soft spot in my heart. Back in 2003, in what would be Vlad Guerrero’s last game as an Expo, I remember him getting a 5 minute standing ovation from the crowd as he was replaced in right field by Ron Calloway. Everyone knew that Vlad, who was going to be a free agent at the end of the season, was going to sign somewhere else. Vlad will also be remembered by me for being listed at 10-1 in Vegas for the 2004 AL MVP. Needless to say, my bet paid for my 2005 trip to Vegas.

Helton is an interesting case – he is a guy who put up some pretty good career numbers but played half of his games in Coors field.

Just for comparison, here is how they both stack up:

	AVG	HR	RBI	H	SB	OPS	OPS+	WAR
Guerrero	.318	449	1496	2590	181	.931	140	59.9
Helton	.317	367	1397	2505	37	.954	133	61.1

They had very similar career numbers. Sadly, I doubt that either of them will end up in the HOF, although they both have a pretty strong case that they belong. Vlad would get my vote and I think Helton would get mine eventually – heck he is a much better choice than either Tony Perez or Jim Rice.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Wheat IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the most amazing things about Populuxe is, that despite their tiny brew capacity, they manage to put out a wide variety of beers. The generally have around 8 taps on at any given point and still occasionally manage to sneak in new beers once in a while.

They recently released their Wheat IPA and, of course, I had to give it a shot.

The beer pours hazy orange in color and the nose permeates with citrus and lemon with notes of green hops and hints of wheat. The beer has a very interesting flavor profile; lemons dominate the beer at the beginning win a slightly tart way before moving into a completely different set of flavors. Grains appear next and dominate the middle of the beer in a complete change from the citrus heavy beginning, providing a nice change of pace. The beer finishes with just a hint of tannic hops that lingers with a light bitterness mixed in and what tastes like lit could be a small amount of rye at the very end of the beer, probably from the combination of wheat and hops.

Overall this beer is well integrated and refreshing; perfect for a warm summer day, plenty of hops and character to keep it interesting, but light enough that you could easily find yourself going back for more.

Populuxe Wheat IPA sings in at 4 amber waves of grain out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Nitro Roasted Rye PA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sometime last year, I reviewed the Reuben’s’ Roasted Rye PA (short version, I liked it a lot, long version is here). Like everything else in my notebook, I never bothered to getting around to posting a review of the nitro version of the Roasted Rye, so here it goes:

The beer pours brown with hints of orange hue, almost looking like iced tea, and a short tan head. Light notes of rye and toast appear on the nose with a faint hint of hops hiding in the background. When you take a sip, a quick hit of hop bitterness gives way to a long, heady rye drag that seems to last forever before finally yielding to a burst of citrus and citrus peel on the very end. This beer has a creamy mouth feel from being on nitro. Some of the more interesting flavors from the regular version are subdued, but the rye is really the star of this beer; not quite the heavy rye bread flavor of the Imperial Rye PA, but a really pleasant rye/grain beer that feels the need to be its own beer.

Reuben’s Nitro Roasted Rye PA smokes it with a solid 4 kilns out of 5.

An American Coach in London

By Bliadd Drwg

The NBC Sports network has been advertising their upcoming EPL coverage with a brilliant set of commercials titled “An American Coach in London.” As I was looking for them to post to the blog, I discovered that they are actually just segments of a much larger promo video that NBC Sports put together. It is about 4:45 long and has some pretty funny stuff in it.

For your viewing enjoyment:

Beer of the Week: Speakeasy Payback Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It sometimes boggles my mind that a brewery that widely distributes its beer does not have one of its regularly available beers listed on its website. Speakeasy is a brewery like that. For a place that distributes to some of the bigger beer markets in the country and has been around for 15 years, you would think that you would be able to find information on their beers via their website. You would be wrong. So other than being a porter and being 7.5% ABV, I can’t tell you much about the beer, so here is the review (consumed in a 22 oz. bottle):

Jet black with a tan head. Notes of coffee and caramel dominate the nose with lots of roasted malt to accompany it. Much sweeter than you would expect, with coffee, chocolate and caramel dominating the palate in the beginning before yielding to a long coffee/roasted malt finish. This beer reminds me of drinking a caramel macchiato with a hint of bitterness and feels like it is a coffee porter without any actual coffee in it (as far as I can tell). Plenty of depth and complexity, with no single flavor overpowering the others and balanced with the alcohol. On a side note, this beer pairs extremely well with Mt. Townsend Creamery Seastack Cheese.

Speakeasy Payback Porter is a great beer to drink on a cold winter’s day if you are looking for something big and bold to get you through your evening.

Speakeasy Payback Porter breaks in with 3 revenge killings out of 5.

The Two Dollar Food Mill

by A.J. Coltrane

I had (and have) no idea what to shop for in a food mill, but when the next-door neighbors sold grandma’s old food mill at our multi-family garage sale I figured I’d take a flyer on it. The worst case scenario is that I’d be out $2 that someone had just given me for some of my junk.

Here it is:

The pic makes it look smaller than it really is. It fits comfortably over a medium size pot. As a flat guess it dates from the ’60’s or ’70’s. The little spring goes on the bottom and the wire scrapes the bottom of the food mill. There are no removable extra size screens, or anything fancy like that.

In one of her tomato sauce recipes Marcella Hazan recommends: Cooking tomatoes covered over medium heat for ten minutes (we’ve been tossing in some basil and salt), hitting them with the food mill, then returning the sauce to the stovetop to simmer, uncovered. The food mill is a little more cooperative the longer the tomatoes break down on the stove, but overall, it works great for making sauce. It’s also super easy to clean, so that’s nice.

Does anyone have a food mill recommendation? (I’m looking at you, Iron Chef Leftovers.)

——–

We’re having “big” work done to the back deck. The one million pound grill had to be rolled into the living room while the work is going on. The boy cat immediately decided that it was a good, high place to hang out.

The girl doesn’t feel the need to explore. The couch is just fine.