Finally made it to Retro Dogz

Despite the Z in the name, I've been wanting to try Retro Dogz ever since the Bremeloger mentioned it way back in september. And despite walking right by it every day on my way home it's taken me a full three months to manage a visit. I had to take time off (I know, boo-freakin-hoo, right).

Rakka has been making chicago dogs for me ever since I've known her, but we can't get the proper ingredients. So when I walked in the first thing I notice is the honking great chicago dogs sign by the counter I got very excited.

Chicago Dog (veggie)

I'm sorry to say, that this was much better than Rakka's chicago dogs. It's not that she does anything wrong, but honestly when was the last time you saw nuclear relish in a Seattle area grocery store? Never, that's when. Retro Dogz get's it from somewhere and it's worth it. Combined with a bunch of other subtly more appropriate ingredients they achieve a balance that's both quite pleasing and impossible to match at home. It's not quite perfect a chicago dog (no grilled onions, no sesame seeds on the bun, not enough cucumber) says Rakka, but still good.

Everything being equal, I wish they were open more. I'd like to go back. Oh, hey, they have other stuff too. Check out the menu.

menu

[where: 701 Pacific Ave, Bremerton, WA 98337]

imma sharpen my own damn knives

Author's Note: Normally I keep it pretty clean here, despite the fact that I'm a serious vulgarian. But it's been a long week. So watch out.

Ok, the background. We made turkey for thanksgiving, and it came out really well. It was really easy, and it fed us 3 meals a day for four days. Oh, and it was twelve dollars. Such tasty value for money is hard for us to pass up. So we're going to do it all the time. And this brings me to knives. Carving all these turkeys will require sharp knives.

a whetstone, you know
for sharpening shit

Watching cooking tv for years has given me a weird perspective on knife sharpening. The message comes through loud and clear: "oooooh, this is soooo hard and you are soooo dumb. you're gonna fuck it up so don't even try." I actually thought today that I should buy a $150 automatic knife sharpener so I could cut up my $11 turkey with my $20 knife. You know what? Fuck that.

America's Test Kitchen can keep their fucking $150 gadget that'll break down in a year. Alton Brown can show off his professionally sharpened knives all the fuck he wants. This is the same mentality that insists on $100 underpants before you can take a goddamn walk in the woods. I'm mad as hell at this gearhead mentality and I'm not going to take it anymore!



You know what, my grandfather sharpened his knives himself, and they were sharp as razors all the time. If he could learn it, I can learn it. And I fucking will. I don't care if I wear my knife down to a nub before I get it right. And the whetstone won't wear out after one goddamn year either.

food drops

drop candy!
Originally uploaded by Rakka

Rakka got a whole pile of food drops in the mail (from Chotda). I took part in the great food drop taste test. I'll summarize, but you should follow that link for the in depth review.

Right. So, food drops are sugar candies that come in flavors of regional Japanese foods. We're talking beer, octopus balls, udon... you get the idea. We tried 8 kinds. How was it? The short answer is: most of these foods were not meant to be sweet; not, at, all.

Bento Kudasai

I haven't been to Japan, so I can't speak to the authenticity of Bento Kudasai. But authenticity doesn't matter when lunch is on the line; it's on value for money that we judge places on around here. 'Course, perceived authenticity is a factor in the formula, so maybe it does matter. Well, either way, Bento Kudasai has it. So lets get to it.

nigirizushi bento

The most important question is, is it good? Yes it is. They say they make pretty much everything themselves, including the kimchi (which, omg, kimchi! you know i'm going back again and again). It shows; the quality is really high. Though, to be honest, the vegetarian boxes have tasted better to me than the fishy ones. The vegetable boxes are full of subtle flavors and textures. I think the fish is pretty low on the sashimi quality scale though.

zOMG! Kimchi!

But then it would be, he segued, because the price is right. Lunch for under $10, come on down. Well, unless you're me and fail to resist the mini box full of kimchi. But I usually manage to get away for $11. A box and kimchi is a pretty ideal portion for me. I did a full box and udon once; man, was I stuffed.

case full of bentos

Other notes: CG seriously digs the gyōza; I think whenever he suggests Bento K, he's got the gyōza on his mind. It's pretty small, just a bench with about 4 stools. The lady that runs the front is really friendly.

In conclusion, get on down the street and get you some bento.

[where: 95 Marion St, Seattle, WA 98104]

damson gin

As I mentioned over on casa rakkaleff, we have this damson plum tree in our back yard. The plums aren't really hand fruit, but they're good for canning and stuff. As soon as we figured it out, I ordered a bunch of canning stuff (which I wanted anyway). Everything got here quick, with the minor exception of the actual feckin' jars. So the jam is on hold.

The le parfait jars did make it here, and so did a couple of fifths of gin. And that's all we need for damson gin. Rakka found this recipe on cottage smallholder. It's super simple, and we both love gin, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Damson Gin

We don't have a kitchen scale (yet), so I had to estimate how many plums in a pound. I thought about rigging up a stick with a can of beans on one end and a bowl of plums on the other and yadda yadda yadda. Sounded like work though. And really, we're talking about gin that will be more or less plummy depending, right? Should be fine.

'Course, we won't know if I screwed it up for three months. Assuming I didn't, it's important that you get your name on the casa rakkaleff new years party guest list. The gin should be about ready then, and seats are limited. natch.

Fritz European Fry House

To be honest, I've only been to Fritz European Fry House a handful of times. The trouble is that I love fried potatoes and Fritz fries a really good potato.

Portrait of a Fry Cone

If I don't keep it in the special treat category, I'd soon be rolling down there on a hoveround and reserving 2 seats for myself on airline flights. As special treats go, they're fantastic.

The fries come in a cone, street food style. The tables, which are more bars to stand at, have holes in them just the right size to hold a heaping cone of fries. There are 10-15 different sauces to choose from. Plain ketchup and tartar sauce, obviously (it's close enough to seattle that the tartar sauce is a given), but they have some unexpected stuff like thai peanut sauce, bbq and red pepper parmesan. This time, we went with curry ketchup.

Large Cone and Spicy Curry Ketcup

There are a selection of belgian beers to compliment your fries with, which makes sense.

If a giant cone of fries isn't enough fried food for you they have fried chicken and sausages. I've never tried any of that stuff though. I'm just there for the fries.

[where: 94 Washington Ave, Bremerton, WA 98337]

bread and butter

Rakka got this cheese making book. I thought she was taking this whole self-sufficiency lark a bit far, but I picked it up and flipped through it. And of course, I'm the first one to attempt one of the recipes. Butter!

it's butter, which I made

It turns out that making butter is astoundingly easy. You don't need an official churn or anything, just an old pickle jar or something. Make sure to wash it out pretty thoroughly though. Learned that the hard way.

Anyway, put your room temperature heavy cream (has to be heavy milk, learned that one the hard way too) in the jar, put the lid on tight and shake for 5-10 minutes. That's pretty much it. You've just got to pour off the buttermilk, push the rest out with the back of a spoon, and rinse it a bit. You can mix in some salt.

It's the best butter ever.

And the best thing to put it on is homemade bread.

sourdough came out pretty good this time

This is a recipe from the book of bread. Or, two, really. I made the sourdough starter a couple weeks ago. Attempted the bread last weekend, and it sort of worked. It worked better this time, but still not great.

I have a long way to go before I really understand bread. I always end up using nearly twice as much flour as the recipe calls for. The sourdough in particular always sticks to every freaking thing. The work surface, my hands, the bowl, the pan. Everything.

Maybe it's like driving a stick shift. Keep grinding the gears long enough and one day you just get it.

update: changed "whole milk" to "heavy cream". Whole was the stuff I tried the first time, and it didn't work at all.