Author: AJ

How to Soften the Blow of a Bad Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have never met Guy Fieri, but I really don’t like the guy who Anthony Bourdain once called “The Poochie of Food Network.” I have never been to any of his restaurants, so I can’t comment on if they are any good, but he recently opened a 500 seat monstrosity in Times Square in NYC. It seems that the place is terrible and has met with many bad reviews, including one recently from the NY Times writer Peter Wells (you can read that here – he actually gave the place 0 stars).

Eater.com, it all its wisdom, took some of the worst criticisms from Wells and in a shout out to Fieri’s feelings and in an attempt to soften the blow, added them to pictures of kittens. There is brilliance in this – I am going to have to remember this the next time I write a negative review on something. I highly recommend reading the review first then going here to see all the pictures, but here are two of my favorites:

 

 

 

Beer of the Week: Fremont Brewing Cherry Almond Dark Star

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really like Fremont Brewing – they have great beers, a dedicated mission to reduce their carbon footprint and a really great tasting room located just a couple miles from the Iron Chef abode. One of the benefits of their tasting room is that they carry some one off beers on cask. The downside of this is that they tend to be very small production and are gone almost as quickly as they show up. A recent trip to the tasting room yielded a Cherry and Almond version of their very tasty Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout. It was a blustery day when I visited so something dark was in order and how could I pass up a beer with two of my favorite things – cherry and almonds.

I couldn’t find any info on the beer online, so here is what the regular Dark Star is described as:

Roasty, chocolate tones swirled with oatmeal smoothness and dark as the night. The Dark Star crashes, pouring its light into ashes, so follow as the Lady of Velvet in the nights of goodbye. This one is too smooth…and at 8.0% ABV, dangerous.
Down & Dirty: 2-Row, Roast Barley, Crystal-60, Chocolate, & Carafa-2 malts with Flaked Oats and Magnum, Wilamette & Cascade hops. 8.0% ABV
Availability: Year-Round

This beer pours jet black with the faintest hint of cream on the head, and was served at room temperature. There is lots of roasted malt and grain on the nose with a background of almonds, so subtle that you may not notice it if you were not looking for it. Taking a sip of this beer is an experience – lots of malt and roasting coffee initially, giving way to almonds, chocolate and dried cherries in a very long and lingering finish, which is good, since this beer is a bit boozy and a couple will do you in. There was also a bit of bitterness in the initial few sips, which might be off putting to some, but I thought was a nice balance to all of the flavors that were in the beer, and the bitterness did eventually disappear. There is a pleasantly mild residual almond flavor that lingers on the tongue between sips, and overall the beer makes me think of an unsweetened cherry almond dark chocolate bar – so much so that I could actually imagine it in a solid form.

This version of Dark Star was a very fun drinking experience and wish it was more widely available. My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more cherry flavor on the finish, but that is a personal preference as I love the combination of cherry and stout. Other than that, this was a great beer and you should rush down to the Fremont tap room if it does make another appearance.

Cherry Almond Dark Star pulls is a heavy 4 gravity wells out of 5.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

By Blaidd Drwg

Way back in January, after a spending binge, I wrote a scathing article and my prediction for the future of the Florida Miami Marlins. As a refresher, here is what I wrote:

My prediction is the circus in South Florida yields a .500 team this season and they are breaking the team up by June of next year.

I think I was harsher than most people on the future of the Marlins; most people predicted them to be a contender for the playoffs. Now that the season is over, I find myself thinking I was overly optimistic – the Marlins managed a stellar 69-93 record, traded Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez and ultimately fired Ozzie Guillen. They then kicked-off the hot stove league by dealing Heath Bell to Arizona. I wasn’t as far off as I could have been.

I also wrote this nugget of wisdom:

It gets really ugly in 2014 for the Marlins. On top of the salaries above, their 2 best pitchers, Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, are both free agents in 2014, Hanley Ramirez is scheduled to make 16 million and their stud first baseman, Mike Stanton, is eligible for arbitration. Just counting Reyes, Buehrle, Bell and Ramirez, the team is on the hook for 59 million in payroll. Heck, for 2013, the Marlins are projected to be somewhere between 125 and 145 million for payroll, which I don’t think is going to happen. I think we are going to see a repeat of a disturbing trend that has been there since the beginning in South Florida – owner bumps up the payroll to a long term unsustainable level to make a World Series run, sells off the players returning the team to mediocrity and then sell the team.

Flash forward to Wednesday and you have this come across the wire:

The Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a multiple-player trade that would send shortstop Jose Reyes and pitcher Josh Johnson to Toronto, sources told ESPN. Also going to Toronto would be pitcher Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck and infielder-outfielder Emilio Bonifacio.

So, the Marlins have just basically reduced their payroll from about 125 million in 2013 to about 35 million. Sure as hell sounds like history repeating itself. The Marlins are receiving a bunch of prospects (most of whom are at least 2-3 years from having a shot at making the big club), noted bigot SS Yunel Escobar and spare part catcher in Jeff Mathis back from the Jays, and, as far as I can tell, the Jays are assuming all of the salaries they are acquiring. You think Albert Pujols is glad he didn’t sign with the Marlins now?

Lost in all of this is Giancarlo Stanton, the lone remaining Marlins player with any real talent. He is a little put out by this move:

“Alright, I’m pissed off!!! Plain & Simple,” Stanton tweeted.

I have a feeling that Stanton will not be sticking around beyond 2013 since he is then arbitration eligible and will be in line for a big payday.

My favorite quote to come out of this was from douchebag Marlins GM Larry Beinfest:

“We’ve kind of lost our Marlins way,” president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said less than two weeks ago. “The real Marlins way was we always outperformed our challenges. Whatever our challenges were, whether it was playing in a football stadium or weather or a lack of fans, or lack of revenue for that matter, we always found a way to outperform our challenges.”

What he really means is: “The Marlins way is to be as cheap as possible and not actually care about the team or the city, despite the good folks of Miami giving us a shiny 400 million dollar ballpark on their dime.”

Actually, this isn’t so much the Marlins way as the Beinfest/Loria way. In case you are unaware, Jeff Loria was the owner of the Montreal Expos who basically ran the team into the ground so that he could get a huge payout from MLB, oh and a shiny new team in Miami.

Last Night’s Pizza

by A.J. Coltrane

Not the world’s most awesome title for a post. I’d guess most people would just “twitter” their pictures of the pizza.

First off though, a piece about Marv Albert at Grantland. Marv finally got to broadcast an NBA game from Brooklyn, which is where he grew up. As kids, Marv and his brothers would turn down the volume on the TV and do play-by-play of the baseball games. He’d lug a tape recorder to almost any sporting event and “call” the game. There’s this bit too:

“Kenny Sears’s stale jokes put the other players to sleep,” Marv wrote in the Lincoln Log in 1957. Now, fast-forward three decades. Remember when Michael Jordan hit six first-half 3-pointers in the ’92 Finals and gave that I-can’t-believe-it-either shrug? It’s often forgotten that the guy he was shrugging at — his co-conspirator, you might say — was the NBC announcer whom he liked so much that he’d feel hurt if he didn’t get asked for an interview. The guy MJ was shrugging at was Marv.

There’s more. It’s an interesting piece.

Onto the pizza. Before:

After:

 

Sopressata, sausage, red onion, mozz, goat cheese.

 

Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In celebration of the potential end of the world (according to the Mayans), Elysian Brewing introduced their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series – a monthly release of a really off the wall beer. The story from the Elysian website:

In a year-long run-up to the end of all time (according to the Mayan calendar), Elysian Brewing Company and Fantagraphics Books, both of Seattle, are releasing a series of twelve beers, issued on the 21st of each month in 2012 and featuring the label artwork of Charles Burns taken from his weirdly apocalyptic work “Black Hole.” The “Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse” will feature the creativity and unusual ingredients for which Elysian’s brewing team is known. What twelve beers would you brew (and drink) if you knew they would be your last?

The August release was the Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale. I love blood orange, so I had to try this one. The description from Elysian:

Down, down, down Maelstrom will go, pulling the hapless beer enthusiast in with a beguiling blend of blood orange, Northwest hops and sweet orange peel. Stray to close and you may not escape the currents of this tender trap. Blood orange provides tartness and the blush of a brazen sea, Citra and amarillo hops from the Yakima Valley offer bite and aroma, and orange peel suggests a little something else on the wind. Maelstrom is brewed with pale, Munich and Dextri-pils malts bittered with German Northern Brewer and finished and dry-hopped with Citra and Amarillo.

The beer comes in at a hefty 7.25% and is available in a limited release in both 22 oz. bottles for around $7and on tap. I poured mine from a bottle.

The beer pours a cloudy light orange in color with a white head, very reminiscent of a hefe. Hints of hops, blood orange peel and malt dominate the ones on this beer – if you did not know what you were drinking, you might think it was a funky IPA. The initial sip yielded very little character (it may have been a touch too cold) with a hint of grain and a hint of hops, but subsequent sips build up, first with a slightly sweet, orange juice punch, turning into slightly bitter orange peel which lingers for a few seconds before fading. The finish is a bit tannic but very interesting with a lasting bitterness of orange peel and hops that linger well after the sip. The bitterness becomes slightly more pronounced as the beer warms, but it is more enhancing rather than detracting from the overall experience.

One thing that I did try with this beer was pairing it with a classic flavor combination to orange – chocolate. Paired with a single origin Tanzania, 72% chocolate (it had a fruity flavor profile), the beer is enhanced to pack an incredible orange punch and becoming very IPA like with significant presence of hops and notes of bitterness. The chocolate really enhanced many of the flavors that I loved about this beer.

Assuming the world does not end, I would love to see Elysian bring back this beer. It was fantastic; definitely one that I would want to drink if I knew that it was going to be my last one.

Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale gets a sacred 4 blood sacrifices out of 5.

Long Cold Fermentation Baguettes

by A.J. Coltrane

Baguettes inspired by Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. One of her recommendations for rustic loaves calls for combining all of the water with an equal weight of flour, then letting that marinate in the refrigerator for up to three days. (A poolish.) I targeted 63% hydration for the baguettes, and I wanted two loaves as an end product. 600 grams of flour is about right for two shortish baguettes, so:

Poolish:  378 grams refrigerator water, 378 grams AP flour, 1/16 teaspoon Instant Dry Yeast. Mix with a spatula, cover the bowl, and let rest in the refrigerator for 3 days.

The poolish after three days.

One hour before you are ready to combine the rest of the ingredients with the Poolish, remove it from the refrigerator.  Note the fabulous shower cap. Another idea that I picked up from interweb forums. It should help cut down on the plastic wrap use.

Fashionably coiffed. Note the Space Invaders cutting board lurking in the background.

 

Add 222 grams of AP flour to the Poolish, as well as 12 grams of salt (2% of the total flour weight) and 1 teaspoon of Instant Dry Yeast. Knead in the mixer for 6-8 minutes at low speed until the dough is smooth. Cover and let rise one hour. Divide the dough into two pieces and let rest 15 minutes.

Post-shape and pre-rise.

Shape into baguettes, cover, and let rise 1.5 hours. Slash the loaves.

Slashed. I really need to get better at that technique.

 

Place a baking stone on the middle rack and a sheet tray on a lower rack. Put three ice cubes in the sheet tray and set the oven to 425F.

They came out a little paler than I would have liked. I think the flavor suffered a little bit as a result.

Load the loaves into the oven and add a couple of ice cubes to the sheet tray. (I’m still working on figuring out how many ice cubes to use and the timing, though this combination got high remarks on the finished bread crusts the first time I tried it, and it’s about what the guy at the Restaurant Supply Store recommended. It seems like a good place to start.)

The crumb. I was visualizing a more open hole structure. To get there I may need to increase the hydration, or use bread flour, or just work the dough a little more. Probably all three.

I think the end result was fine but not exceptional. I need more practice. Fortunately this is one of those things where nobody minds eating the experiments, and even the less than ideal loaves still taste pretty good.

 

I Don’t Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Hello, hello.

October and November are cruel months for the Seattle dining scene. By the end of November, we will have said goodbye to Iron Chef favorite emmer&rye (where I had possibly the best burger in Seattle one night), the venerable 35th Street Bistro and my favorite pizza place in Seattle – Crash Landing Pizza (whose pies were nearly as good as the ones I grew up eating in NJ – who says that Seattle has no good pizza). Those places will be missed as they were regular stops in the Iron Chef family dining excursions.

Do not shed too many tears though, as we also get to welcome the reopening of Revel Joule in Fremont, the much anticipated opening of The Whale Wins, right next to Joule and Eltana Bagels just a couple of blocks up from Joule. Eltana does a “Montreal” style bagel (if you have not had one, you should try it) and they are as good as the ones I have had in Montreal.

Beer of the Week: Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Kili Wit

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Logsdon Organic Farmhouse Ales is a small brewery located in the hills above Hood River, Oregon and they are dedicated to producing farmhouse ales using traditional methods and organic ingredients and they donate some of their profits to social programs.

Their Kili Wit (Kili referring to Mt. Kilimanjaro), is a white beer coming in at 5.5% ABV. From the Logsdon website:

Our Kili Wit is a traditionally brewed white beer with refreshing flavors and creamy smoothness. This is a 100% certified organic beer brewed with local organic barley malt, wheat and oats along with whole cone Oregon hops and African spice. This beer is made with a portion of the proceeds going to the K2 Adventures Foundation that provides community service, medical and educational enrichment for African children.

The beer has recently become available in Seattle, and can be found in 750ml bottles for around $10 at both Bottleworks and Chucks Hop Shop.

The beer pours very cloudy and yellow. There is lots of yeast and grain on the nose with slight notes of orange, spice and coriander with the subtlest notes of hops. When the beer is first poured at around 45 degrees, lemon and yeast dominate the palate hints of very mild spice and coriander, leading to a short, but intense finish. As the beer warms, it becomes drier with notes of banana chips, orange, citrus peel, lemon and coriander. Not the most complex Wit I have ever had, but it would be more than satisfying on a warm day lounging under a tree.

Overall, Kili Wit is an enjoyable experience, just one that you probably can’t afford on a regular basis because of the price. I really like this beer, but at $10 for a 750ml bottle, it is more of a special occasion beer than a regular drinking one, slightly more frequently if you like their social mission.

Kili Wit explodes on the scene with a respectable 3 stratovolcanoes out of 5.