The Greens and the Beer

Greendrinks Seattle
http://www.seattlegreendrinks.org/

In most areas and issues, the environmentalists and the corporate world are at odds. However, apparently there exists some common ground. I am speaking of the benefits of networking and of beer. Once a month, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable organizations host a happy hour for people in the green business (or just people who recycle) so that they can mingle, talk, hang out, listen to music, and have a few beers on the house. Kind of like a business networking event without the business cards, suits, and pretension.

Populated heavily by students and graduates of the UW in departments such as the Evans School (not surprisingly, the founder of Greendrinks is an Evans School grad), landscape architecture, and environmental studies, these events are also a great place to meet other 20-30 somethings who have some free time during the week and have the same "values". The events are all free and recent locations include the SAM Sculpture Park Pavilion and the Sightline Institute. The organization has just recently started a website where they post job openings, local events, and even member blogs (I don't think I will make the cut). It's worth a look and a visit.

Tonight the event was at EVO in Fremont - a business that appears to be a skater shop (I don't know, I'm not cool enough to shop here). Sierra Nevada donated the beer, Herban Feast catered, and there was a band for an 8:30 party afterwards. People are friendly enough but it pays to go with a few pals- the green circles in the city are pretty tight and I got the feeling most people knew each other from outside circles (such as grad school or the Sierra Club).

More Bush Lies and Denials coming to Light

As many of you know, I work for a news media organization, so every morning I read through the daily headlines. I can't get past one of the articles this morning, buried in the international news section, regarding child mortality rates in Iraq. It can be pretty easy, and very tempting, to bypass these articles to read up on, say, the newest details of Paris Hilton's impending incarceration - especially since it appears that articles of this nature never receive front billing in our news. I can't help but hope that many of our leaders will be forced to admit that they have been purposefully lying about the true cost of this war and the price innocent Iraqis are paying for our mistakes.

A contributing factor to my strong reaction at this news is the fact that last month one of the co-authors of the Lancet report was denied a visa to speak at the University of Washington - reportedly because of the information on Iraqi civilian deaths contained in the paper. For those who aren't familiar with the report - it suggests that civilian deaths are higher than what has been reported and that children in particular are dying at an alarming rate. The report also suggests that unlike other wars, where the majority of civilian deaths are usually caused indirectly by conflicted related issues (such as decreased access to medical care, clean water, etc), the Iraqi war fatalities are, in high number, caused directly by military violence. President Bush denounced these findings, both the numbers of Iraq civilian casualties and the cause of the casualties, and called the report "politically motivated". The methods used to collect the data by researchers is particularly fascinating, as the researchers went door-to-door to collect their information and sometimes found themselves in dangerous situations.

Articles:
Today's headline- Child Tragedy: Infant Mortality Soars in Iraq
Seattle pi - Iraqi doctor who disputes official death tolls is denied visa to visit UW
NPR interview with Dr. Gilbert Burnham, co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at Johns Hopkins University; lead author of the study- discussing research methods and findings

Back in the Saddle

PCC Cooks

With burn marks still visible on my hands and wrists from the unfortunate Cinco De Mayo tart debacle, I bravely attended my first PCC cooking class last night. With the kicky name of "Spring Fling" and an instructor that reminded me of the perky doctor on Greys Anatomy - I couldn't pass it up. Besides, I had pre-paid and God knows I need some instruction in the kitchen.

The menu for the night: Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate sauce, Sweet Pea and Mint Risotto, Fresh Corn Salad, Mediterranean Lentil Salad, Roasted Veggies with Feta, and Strawberries with a Balsamic Reduction and Cracked Pepper. We were split into teams of 3 and I luckily got placed on the "lamb" team - lucky because we received the lions share of the instruction and because I am even worse at cooking main courses than I am at deserts. The instructor mentioned that she brings her class from the Seattle Culinary Academy out to a farm in Washington to learn how to slaughter lamb - to better understand their relationship with the food they prepare. I momentarily thought how cool this would be - wouldn't it be so "Omnivores Dilemma" of me, so in now with the food awareness wave - then I woke up and realized that I wouldn't make it one minute in a slaughterhouse. As soon as the knives came out - I would hitching my way home.

The class was made up of mostly people in their 40's+ with a couple 20-somethings that appeared to be the children of some of the other students. This is not one of those cooking classes you go to if you want to meet people or get a date- but everyone was nice and pretty knowledgeable about food and cooking. We finished all the dishes in about 2 hours and then sat down to enjoy the meal. Afterwards, I hit the store to stock up on groceries - well, actually I stocked up on all things delicious mentioned in the class, not all of which went into the dishes (hazelnut smoked blue cheese from the Oregon Rouge Valley, french mustard, ice cream)- and the $10 coupon towards groceries you receive from the class helped me out a bit.

I made it out of the 2 hour class with no cuts, burns, and with my pride intact - so it was a pretty successful night.

I fought the good fight...and lost

When Cinco de Mayo officially took a turn (for better or worse) and became an American drinking holiday- I'm not sure. All I know is that it is a pretty good marker of when it is time to put away the red wine in favor of summer margaritas. As a pretty big fan of margaritas (the tuna margarita at Agua Verde my personal favorite in Seattle, runner up is the blackberry margarita at Rays boathouse), I was pretty excited to attempt creating my own margarita mix for the occasion. However, I was also in charge of making a Mexican desert for the party/dinner I was attending that night.

Those who know me know that I am not a cook, and I don't pretend to be one. Making margarita mix from scratch might even be pushing my culinary skills to the limit. However, I felt particularly ambitious on Saturday and decided to attempt a lime tart (after ruling out flan - is there anyone who doesn't think this desert is gross? I mean, the texture alone is unappetizing). My thinking was that lime = margaritas = tart. I dug up a Barefoot Contessa recipe - she seems to have easy recipes and I have seen an episode where she made a lime tart - it appeared doable.

The crust was the easy part - four ingredients. I make it through the mixing and baking ok, but when attempting to take it out of the oven, the removable bottom from the tart pan jumped off, burning my arm and causing me to drop the tart crust. Turns out it was salvageable, but at this point, I should have thrown in the towel. However, I had already put in too much effort to give up - so I continued (actually, I went to my hair appointment and I pawned the custard-making off on Graeme).

Turns out - custard is really hard to perfect. I returned home to a very sad tart. It was brown. Not the crust. The custard. The custard is actually supposed to be lime green (think key lime pie). It was carmel brown - and gooey. Poor Graeme had attempted to spiff it up by adding fresh lime slices as a garnish. It didn't work.

We ended up picking up a pre-made pie and ice cream at PCC on the way to the dinner party - which was actually pretty delicious. We did attempt a bite of the tart after arriving home, which just re-enforced that is was, in fact, completely inedible.

Congratulations!

Last Friday Nathan asked my sister to marry him, and she accepted. I am so excited for them and couldn't be happier that they found one another and have made the choice to make a lifelong commitment to each other. Congratulations Leah and Nathan!

Behind the Red Door

Erin is out of town this weekend, which means that I am free to wander off in Ballard and explore a few of the places on my hit list that she has deemed unacceptable for date night, trivia night, causal drinks with friends night, or basically any other night. This weekend I am looking forward to trying Mike's Chili Parlour (1447 N.W. Ballard Way), a restaurant and bar located prominently to the left as you cross over 15th street towards Market on the Ballard bridge. In spite of my many pleas, Erin has routinely objected to a Friday night date at Mike's, and has gone so far as to actively discourage me from going to Mike's on my own. I am assuming this ban will be temporarily lifted if she doesn’t have to come home and share a small house with me at night.

Mike's Chili now stands as my number one curiosity restaurant/bar in Ballard. It is hard to argue with the concept of a chili bar, which I am confident will live up to my high expectations of serving Chili con Carne and cold beer. Before Mikes topped the list, I had wanted to try several dive bars near downtown Ballard. I visited my favorite of these—the Golden City Restaurant’s Lounge—the last time Erin left for Portland.

I had for a long time been curious about the establishment located behind the crimson red door next to A-Scream Barbershop, located at 5512 20th just off Market in downtown Ballard. Judging from steady grouping of black haired punks and retired pipe fitters smoking outside, I was convinced that the red door would prove to be a rarity in 21st century Ballard--a dive bar unencumbered by either irony or the infinitely hipper, better looking, better dressed, younger, and richer clientele who go for the drink and a haircut combo at Rudy’s and Kings Hardware.

As is often the case with dive bars that pique my curiosity, I spent several months trying to convince Erin of the pressing importance of discovering the untold possibilities behind the nameless red door. On a recent Saturday night after a movie at the Majestic Bay I made my first pitch. “Think about it Erin, how cool might a place squeezed between a Chinese restaurant and a barbershop be?” To her credit, Erin remained steadfast. “I’ve thought about it Graeme. You’re taking me to the Balmar.”

At other times Erin had to apply more forceful persuasion. “Sweetie”, I would intone hopefully, pointing as we passed the A-Scream façade on the way to the Bank of American teller. “It’s noon Graeme. We’re here for the farmer’s market.”

When Erin headed down to Portland, I managed to persuade my friend John to walk into Ballard for a cold beer. John is generally a fairly easy sell for mild adventures in Ballard. I called him while he was in the middle of torturing a formal model explaining the various mutual incentives for coalition building between Austrilian labor unions and Australia’s center left political party. John was pretty sure he needed a beer after 12 hours of game theory. I was pretty sure I was going to need a beer after a twenty minute walk into downtown Ballard and hearing him talk about his dissertation research.

As it turns out, the bar behind the red door is the stand-alone lounge for the Golden City Chinese restaurant (5518 20th Ave) located next door. For anyone interested in ranking bar/barbershop combos, the Chinese restaurant distinguishes the Golden City lounge/A-Scream from the upstart Kings Hardware/Rudy’s combination. At the Golden City, not only can you get a cocktail while you wait for a haircut at A-Scream, you can also take in the $4.25-$5.95 daily lunch special of authentic Ballard Chinese.

Although the “red door” is officially the Golden City bar, it is otherwise bereft of any Chinese themed decorations. In some ways this is too bad. As far as dive-bar décor goes, mid-1950s Sino-American kitsch is fairly hard to beat.

The interior of the Golden City lounge comes close. It is a narrow space with a small seating area in the front, and a long traditional 60s or 70s bar extending in the back. The room is sparsely populated with cheap coffee shop furniture and benches; many bruised by cigarette burns and held together by duct tape. The bar is accented with a string of small white Christmas tree lights haphazardly highlighting the liquor selection. I didn’t see a jukebox, but the somebody clearly had impeccable taste in dive bar music, and was cycling through mid 70s to mid 80s classic and hard rock, interrupted by an occasional breath of late Motown soul.

What makes the Golden City bar stand-out are the bizarre tile murals depicting river-boat life on the Mississippi. One shows a steamboat billowing as it pushes its way out of Dixie. Another takes a more expansive view of the banks of the Mississippi framed by Spanish moss. Coupled with an interior decor that is not immediately identifiable as Southern, the art gives the bar a familiar feel of a San Diego or New Orleans dive--a small space that where someone chased a concept halfway before pulling up and deciding they had done enough decorating for one weekend.

Once seated, my friend John and I were helped immediately by an unbelievably friendly bartender. We were told that the bar had no taps for draft beer, so John settled for Bud Light, while I worked on a Rainier. I made a mental note that the bar also carried the Polish Beer Okocim in case I needed to convince Erin to join me on a future trip.

The room was filled with a diverse range of characters, all seemed friendly and none raised the hair on the back of my neck, as can happen in the occasional dive. At a corner table near the door was a thirty-something male hipster (looking thrilled) and his two female companions (who looked like they’d rather be at the Balmar.) We struck up a conversation with the middle aged guy to our right, who was apparently hanging out and watching Lethal Weapon 2 on the single bar TV. The conversation was pleasant enough, but ended awkwardly after he embarked on an extended impersonation of Joe Pesci characters, cycling through his favorite Leo Getz quotes before moving to the “How am I funny” diatribe from Goodfellas.

My major regret is not trying the Chinese buffet. There are few instances where I am eager to eat Americanized Chinese delicacies like hot and sour soup or sweet and sour pork. Sitting in the Golden City lounge at 9:30pm with a cold Rainer could well prove the exception. I actually don’t know when the restaurant side of the bar closes, ‘cause with Erin gone this weekend, a 1am meal of Kung-Pao Chicken, cold Rainier, and whatever action reruns they are showing on the tube could definitely be the exception.

Barnyard Orgy in Your Mouth...

Conor Byrnes - Brainiac Beatdown Trivia
http://www.conorbyrnepub.com/

There you have it- the winning name at Conor Byrnes Trivia Night last night. This was an actual quote from the food channel- describing the experience of eating a mixed meat sandwich. Not only did it crack me up - it also netted our team a round of drinks.

It was a big night for our team - in addition to winning the best name, we also walked away with the highest score and 30 bucks. We also managed to convince Graeme to participate in the bonus round which required him to speak in a fake french accent on stage (not to mention follow a scandalous performance by another contestant). Joining our team for the first time, and showing an impressive knowledge of random indie music, were Katz and Jess - still reeling from their domination of the Kings Hardware weekly Wednesday night Ski-Ball tournament.

The heartbreak story of the night belongs to Arkan and Paige's team - "It's Ok, She's my Half-Sister". After leading the competition by a 3-point margin heading into the final two rounds, they fell by 1-point to second place. Not even being the only team to correctly identify "Dinosaur Jr" during the music round could prevent their plummet. Better luck next time guys!