Jul

08

“Crocin’ in the USA,” plus, the Belton Chalet

unfiled

When we left our house last Saturday our only stop on the way to Portland’s Union Station was the Thai Laundromat (er, Monsoon Thai Cuisine on N. Mississippi and N. Skidmore). Strapped into our backpacks, we aroused only a mild interest from our server/hostess. “Are you doing laundry,” she asked sweetly as she sat us, “or going on a trip?”

A trip, we replied, two weeks, all over. When she returned with our food and our eyes got big she said, smiling and nodding in understanding and empathy, “Last Thai food in a long time.” It was delicious as always, a great way to see ourselves off.

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Jul

04

The No-Brainer That J9 Forgot

Essays

In planning a menu, for heaven’s sake – consider when it will be consumed!

In mid-April, when The Squeeze and I met with the catering manager at Oakway Wine and Deli in Eugene, it was cold outside. And drizzly. And it had been cold and drizzly for as long as we could remember. We thought, perhaps even justifiably, that it would be cold and drizzly forever, even during the last week of June. So when we sat in Jessica’s office, snuggly in our late Winter sweaters, to taste Oakway’s blackened fish and roasted chicken and skewed prawns, the weather did not cross our minds once. Or, more likely, it did – probably we were grateful to be out of the cold and drizzly weather and inside the warm office, eating hot, delicious, free food.

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Jun

29

Thai Palace

reviews

I think it must be a great trick of theirs, to produce all of these dishes in such a way that their texture, flavor, and presentation all land squarely at the midpoint between good and bad. The food is perfectly edible, though you may hardly notice that you are eating, aside from perhaps a stated feeling in your stomach by the time the plate is empty.

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Jun

19

Summer Food Porn

unfiled

Though the change in season is not official until Saturday, it’s sure been feelin’ like summer around here. What is it about cooking and eating outside that makes food taste better? Simple salad with greens and nasturtium from my garden. Chicken legs, yellow corn, and asparagus grilled in the backyard fire pit. Thanks to the [...]

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Jun

07

Food. According To Me.

Essays / sustainability / urban agriculture

According to me, food is about more than fancy garnishes and the latest fine dining trends. Food is about more than how a thing looks, or even how it tastes. Food is about communion, and about creation – but not only. It’s complicated, see? According to me, food is about the dirt in which it is grown. It’s about hedonism, which may seem contradictory but I promise you that it’s not.

Food is about farmer’s markets and a floppy hat to keep the sun off my face and hybrid cars and the chickens roosting on my back steps. It’s understanding some chemistry, and being able to manipulate a recipe so it comes out how I think it ought to – it’s making six batches, if that’s what it takes, to get it right. According to me, food has everything to do with politics and environmentalism and ethics. I use food for calories, for pleasure, for stress-relief, and, occasionally, for triggering emotional breakdowns.

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May

21

Just Like Candy

urban agriculture

It is finally, certainly, springtime. I was away over the weekend, and when I returned, I could see exactly how much the squashes and the peas and the lettuces in the garden had grown in my absence. When I tucked them in on Thursday night, the summer squash were only very new sproutlings barely arrived [...]

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May

08

Freedom!

urban agriculture

The hens have been loosed into the world at large – or into our backyard, anyway, which is plenty large for three not-particularly-bright birds. It’ll still be weeks before they are laying, but their duties of soil aeration and enrichment, pest control, and providing me with a sense of simple, Little-House-on-The-Prairie-esque contentment are well begun.

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Apr

06

Our Lady of the Circular Causality Dilemma

urban agriculture

I was introduced to urban chicken keeping in a Spanish class a few summers ago. We were practicing “having a normal conversation” and a woman in my group was trying to tell the story, in our nonnative tongue, about how she had discovered over the long weekend that one of her gallinas was actually a [...]

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Mar

29

The Return of the Cook

in the kitchen

When the gas range landed, I knew that I wanted to cook. Correction, to cook. Before The Slump, dinner was a moment of inspiration, realized. It was a show of my affection for those with whom I shared meals, an opportunity to do more with my time than just acquire nutrition. But lately it hasn’t [...]

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Mar

25

Now We’re Cookin’ With Gas!

in the kitchen

I accidentally bought a gas range yesterday. The house that I purchased about 18 months ago came with an electric flattop range in its itty bitty kitchen. They say that most real estate decisions are emotionally-driven – since the kitchen is in the rear of the house, I saw all of the rest of it [...]

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© Janine Eckhart. Except where noted, natch.