Double Tall Iced Mocha, Lite on the Chocolate

So I occasionally post some food related things. I think this weekend has inspired me to do some more. I was honored through a string of coincidences have my house be a stop on the 2006 West Coast FoodHacking tour.I was introduced to Marc via a good friend. After discussing the possibility of Hack Lab this weekend, discovering Marc’s recent espresso deviriginization and newfound coffee lust it was on.

Marc mentioned he had just read one of David Schomer’s books and itchin to work on some coffee hacks among other things. Luckily I was able to round up some coffee geeks friends, including Chris the roaster from Zoka and Jacob from La Marzocco. Everything said and done I think we had ten participants over the course of the day. It was a kick ass time, everyone consumed waaaay too much espresso, I learned a ton although its just the tip of the iceberg concerning Molecular Gastronomy. Mucho props to everyone involved for sharing their food, gear, humor and knowledge.

I will go lite on the details here as I imagine the diligently kept notebook of Marc and Jules will be transcribed to the wiki shortly. Here are a few highlights from memory, although this does not nearly cover everything that was done:

• Omlete Hacks:
• Instruction on preperation of an omlete Frances style
• Making omlette’s with eggs that have been soaked or rubbed with ingredients including vodka and chocolate
• Poaching an egg yolk inside a cooked omlete. When the omlete is cracked open it oozes like an egg over easy… Yum
• Rosetta Hacks:
• Cream and Sassafras mixture for pouring Rosetta
• Preparation of a tomato cream to use in place of Milk for rosetta design
• Salmon Smoking:
• Salmon smoked w/Alder wood soaked in Arak Haddad, a liquor made from grape and anise
• Salmon smoked w/Alder wood and green (unroasted) ethiopian coffee
• Salmon smoked w/Alder wood and green Sumatra beans that were vacum infused with essential oils
• Cuban shots
• A portafilter of ground espresso roast coated with ground glucose and/or sucrose and pulled as a shot
• Coffee Roasting
• Roasting of columbian, sumatran, and ethiopian coffee beans in a columbian ball roaster over open fire
• Roasting of ethiopian coffee beans with essential oils
• Education of the cupping (tasting) method employed by coffee roasters/purchasers
• Cupping of all the different coffees roasted at the hacklab

Well yet another thing to add to my travel schedule next year, Brat Fest. Claiming to be the worlds largest festival of its kind.

I really found the Brat stats to be the most impressive. 189,432 Brats consumed in 4 days, which would be 17.94 miles of brats stacked end to end. 98.7 BPM, no not Beats Per Minutes for all you djs our there, but Brats Per Minute.

Well between this, Lebowskifest and my usual hacker con trips, I am going to have a pretty booked up summer next year. Hopefully my plan of retiring by then materializes.

Among some of the more interesting things are:

• Worlds Largest Touring Grill
• Weiner Mobile
• Mustard Museum
• Rock Climbing Wall, in case you are not near your regular climbing gym (sorry couldnt resist)
• Celebirty Cashiers
• Pictures, look at all those Brat fans!

First things first:

I am not alone. I must say that OneFineJay is braver man than me to experiment with a McDonalds cheese steak.

I was having a conversation yesterday about Cheese Steaks and was reminded that I never posted anything about my Roxy’s Deli experience.

Sometime last summer Jason and I went for a bike ride on the Burke Gilman. On our return we stopped at Roxy’s. A typical sidewalk A-frame sign screamed “Authentic Philly Cheese Steak” or something along those lines.

Well I can’t refuse a challenge like that so I decided to take them up on the A-Frame offer. First off the environment in Roxy’s is very lively and the staff friendly. I informed the person behind the counter of my desire for a Philly Cheese Steak, not brandishing my badge from the Cheese Steak Police.

Upon accepting delivery of the sandwich, I immediately noted that the bread did not appear to be the traditional hoagie, but a haute monde grain product. As I looked deeper into the sandwich I also observed that provolone cheese was melted over the chopped up rib-eye steak (some will disagree that provolone is not acceptable, the streets will flow with the blood of the non-believers). Roxy’s 0, Cheese Steak Police 2. The last short coming which could be seen as a benefit to the health conscious, the grease or lack there off. Cheese Steaks should ooze grease, yes it aint pretty but that’s the facts mam.

To there credit the meat was of good quality, and all in all the sandwich tasted fantastic, however it did not taste like a Cheese Steak.

I had a good dining experience as did Jason. On a side note, Jason returned a couple of months later and claims to have had received food poisoning on his second visit.
This may have just been an excuse to get out of hanging out with his friends, but we’ll let you decide.

3019 Martin Luther King Jr Way S
Seattle, WA 98144 - 6007

It has been almost 8 months since my last commentary on Cheese Steaks in Seattle, so for those of you wanting to catch up, I suggest reviewing the following posts:

Jun. 28th 2004
Since when does a Cheese Steak have lettuce, tomatoes and mayo???

Jul. 11th 2004
The State of Cheese Steak in Seattle

Oct. 20th 2004
Cheese Steak Satellite (hmm a new a take on the DMB song?)

While helping a friend with some construction in his new warehouse space on Saturday I was treated to a Cheese Steak from “Philly’s” (no website found for this one). The order was take out so I did not get a chance to check out the establishment, however I was told it is on the corner of MLK and Rainier in what use to be a Fish and Chips place.

First things first, Philly’s typical “Cheese Steak” comes with steak, cheese, and some onions. As you know defaulting to the lettuce, tomato, mayo is a big no-no. They do have a name for such heathenry, its called the *Deluxe* Cheese Steak.

Deluxe
de·luxe also delux

adj.

Particularly elegant and luxurious; sumptuous: deluxe accommodations; a de luxe automobile.

Well if you ask me lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a Philly cheesesteak is not elegant or luxurious. But I digress.

.
The sandwhich itself was good. I found it to be a little heavy on the salt, very similar to “Philadelphia Cheese Steak” (formerly Philly’s Best). The bread was good, but I don’t think it is the same authentic bread that “Philly Fevre” uses. All in all it was a good Cheese Steak experience, I would consider eating there again. Once again I have to commend my old stand by of Philly Fevre as the best cheese steak in town hands down.

It has been a while since I spent a Sunday cooking. Lately I have been on a soup kick, eating soup with almost every meal. So Sunday I decided to whip up a huge pot of soup and some dinner.

After looking through my various cookbooks I finally decided on a Corn Chowder recipe out of the Joy of Cooking. I consider this book a must have for any wanna be home chef. The recipes are generally basic but have always turned out better than expected. Probably though the most valuable part of this book, is the great lengths it goes to teach basic skills ( sautee, bard, stir-fry, taking apart a whole chicken, making stock etc…) that are required to cook consistently good food.

While I was picking up the ingredients for chowder at Safeway, I came across the game hens and decided they would make a good main course. Except for the corn (ended up using organic, canned, whole kernel corn) I used all fresh produce and spices.

For the corn chowder I started off with:

You may remember my Cheese Steak investigations at the beginning of the summer:

So if you read my earlier post, you could tell I was little peeved at the actions of some cheese steak vendors, making lettuce and tomato part of the default cheese steak configuration. I stopped by Philly Fevre the other day since I remember them offering an authentic cheese steak experience. Thank God they still do. I talked to the people working and they informed me that the owners are from Philly and know the true cheese steak. I really enjoy supporting a place that takes pride in their food, and suggest to meat eaters in the area that you stop Philly Fevre

Philly Fevre

When I was in SF last week. Some friends of mine went to a “Philly Cheese Steak”
restaurant. Some opted for what was thought to be the classic cheese steak, while others went for the vegetarian version with substituted seitan for the thinly sliced rib eye steak.

I have only visited Philly once, and admittedly, I did not have an authentic cheese steak while I was there. However having grown up on the east coast, I at some point had the knowledge implanted in my brain that a cheese steak consisted of steak and cheese, possibly onions but nothing else. Matt had the same belief. So you could imagine our dismay when the sandwiches arrived with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo!

What is this? The devils work? Who could possibly think that a cheese steak requires these horrid accessories? What part of CHEESE and STEAK dont they understand? At this point I wrote it off to a San Francisco thing and moved on with my life. End of story until…

This past Sunday I walked down to Philadelphia Cheese Steak (formerly Philly’s Best) in Seattle’s Central District. Upon my arrival I expected to order a cheese steak to go and be on my merry way. Wrong! I was informed by the counter employee that a cheese steak comes with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I was also informed that if I wanted what I have come to know as a proper cheese steak, that I was to order it by the name of Cheese Whiz which I was assured didn’t have cheese whiz on the sandwich.

This post is my plea for someone to answer the question that has left me sleepless, Since when does a cheese steak come with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo?

I have sent a query to Frank Jr. at Pat’s King of Steaks in Philadelphia, PA. This is where the cheese steak originated in 1930 a brainchild of Pat Olivieri.