Rebekah Denn at Devouring sEATtle follows up on her previous article about the surprise and sudden shutdown of fledgling cured meat emporium The Swinery. Getting the story from the Seattle and King County Public Health department, it sounds like a series of straight-ahead permitting problems, for both the sale and previous production of the meats. A hearing is set for today.
Additionally, the article has attracted plenty of anonymous grousing about proprietor Gabriel Claycamp and Culinary Communion. Take appropriate anonymous-internet-commenter precautions when reading.
This page lists the food establishments in the 98144 area code. As you can see by browsing through them, most restaurants have a few points against them, so don’t take the presence of a few points as an indication you shouldn’t eat in a particular restaurant.
When we visited London recently, we noticed the “Scores on the Doors” program, in which restaurants had stickers in their front windows touting their recent inspection results. This would be a great idea here, wouldn’t it?
Thinking about tonight’s dinner? You might be interested in this announcement which was forwarded to us earlier today. I’m posting it in its entirety so I can get this online for you as soon as possible, since I wasn’t here to post it earlier:
Dear Foodies:
Tonight: “Surf and Turf†is a classic combination of flavors but what happens when seafood and meat are in the adept hands of one of our favorite local chefs? Find out when you join us for a purely delicious meal from renowned local chef Bobby Moore of Barking Frog. Succulent, sweet Dungeness crab is in his lineup as well as tender and flavorful Kurobuta pork. Though our mothers tried to raise us here at Vagabond with polite table manners, we can’t guarantee she’ll be proud as we gather around for this menu…
Braised Kurobuta Pork Shank
Controne Beans, Swinery Bacon, Laccinato Kale
Artisan Cheese
Oregon Blue Cheese Souffle, Fig Jam, Marcona Almonds
Invite friends and neighbors to join you to celebrate winter’s delicious bounty at its best and receive recipes to re-create the feast at home. Vagabond is the best deal in town especially this month!
Chef Bobby’s Vagabond dinner takes place tonight at 6:30pm and will be held at the CC House at Beacon Hill. Cost for our Vagabond demonstration class is $45 per person. Wines by the glass can be purchased at the event. Register now!
Thanks and see you soon!
The Culinary Communion Team
Orient Express restaurant on an icy night in December. Photo by Wendi.If you eat at Orient Express (the old Andy’s Diner on Fourth Avenue South) on Thursday, February 12, the restaurant will donate 20% of your food bill to the Maple Elementary School PTSA. The money will be used to help fund fourth and fifth grade camp next fall.
We reviewed the Orient Express in November, and found the food to be excellent. With the economy the way it is now, this probably isn’t the easiest time to be opening a new restaurant, so by visiting the Express on February 12, you can both help a Beacon Hill elementary school and contribute to a new local restaurant’s success.
The Orient Express is located at 2963 4th Ave South in Sodo, and they serve Chinese and Thai food in vintage rail cars, including one once used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Meats galore. Photo by Timothy Vollmer.After selling a half-ton of bacon in less than one day, The Swinery at Culinary Communionannounces another half-ton currently curing will be available later this month, just in time for the holidays! You can pre-order on their new Swinery website, and they’ll even deliver orders of 50 pounds or more.
If bacon’s not your thing (what??) they’re also offering other meats, from duck to veal to pancetta. And they’re looking for contacts that can help them get their delectable wares into farmers markets around town. Let ’em know if you can help out.
But it’s now safe to make wine sauces and other spirited dishes at CC’s cooking classes; the school was approved for a spirits, beer and wine restaurant/lounge license on November 26. (You can find the info at this page by choosing King County.)
Perhaps now their “Living Room Wine Classes,” which were held in a private living space, can move into the class space at CC House instead.
Pumpkin Pi! Photo by Paul Adam Smith.It’s Thanksgiving, and here at the BHB Jason and I are thankful for our wonderful readers, who have made our first month and a half of publishing such fun! To thank you, here’s a great pumpkin pie recipe from my grandma’s recipe collection. I’ve used this recipe many times and it is very good.
Pumpkin Pie
Start with 1 recipe pie crust. Set the uncooked shell aside.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Put 2 cups pumpkin (or one small can) into mixing bowl.
add:
2 eggs beaten slightly (Egg Beaters work just fine if you want it to be lower-fat)
add:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
then add:
1 c. scalded milk (skim milk works fine if you wish to use it, and so does
soy milk)
Mix all together. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn
the heat down to 350, bake 45 minutes. It’s done when you can stick a knife in the
middle and it comes out clean.
Makes 1 pie. For two pies, use a large can of pumpkin and double everything
else exactly.
Calling all friends of Culinary Communion, bacon lovers and foodies alike, we need your help! We need to move 1,000 pounds (yes, you read it right, 1,000 pounds) of bacon. It’s a long a story . . . but, in order to secure permitting and to start selling at farmer’s markets in 2009, the city needs to do one final inspection of our new space and 1,000 pounds of our house-cured, incredibly delicious bacon is standing in the way!
So, we need you, your friends, family and co-workers to buy our bacon! Selling for only $10/lb., our famous bacon is made from 100% organically-raised Berkshire heirloom pork and cured on-site at the CC house. It has been gaining considerable acclaim all around the city and you will see why when you taste it! Plus, what better time to have a couple pounds of homemade bacon on-hand. Think: Thanksgiving stuffing, weekend brunch, hostess gift or freeze a bunch to use throughout the year. This is an opportunity not to be missed (and a great way to support a local business during these crazy financial times)!
Swing by Culinary Communion any time to get your bacon on (even until noon on Thanksgiving Day). Not sure you have time to make the trek to Beacon Hill? Give us a call and we’ll do our best to bring the bacon to you! And, one more thing, consider starting a “Community Bacon Drive†at your office. Forward this to your co-workers, collect their orders and we’ll stop by your office with a special delivery. (Plus, we’ll throw in an extra pound for your help.)
Thanks in advance for helping us making our goal of selling 1,000 pounds of bacon a reality! Who knows? Maybe we’ll even make the Guinness Book of World Records . . . Most Bacon Sold in Least Amount of Time!
Our very best to all of you this Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the continued support you’ve given us over the years and the enthusiasm and excitement you’ve shown for our new endeavors. Thank you for being a part of it!
Yours,
The Culinary Communion Team
Our Founders: Chef Gabriel & Heidi
The Kitchen Staff: Katie, Tom & Pip
The Office Staff: Zora, Michael, Adrienne & Jenny
House Managers: Gloria, Virginia & Teresa
Not a Culinary Communion pizza, but looks darn tasty, doesn't it? Photo by Gio JL.Rhonda from the Mortgage Porter blog recently took a pizza-making class at Culinary Communion on Beacon Avenue, and posted a Flickr set of photos of the class. If you’ve wondered what their classes are like, this gives you a good look at a class in their kitchen, and at some very tasty-looking pizza! My favorite photo, though, was the one of the chalkboard with ideas for different topping combinations: pear, prosciutto, bleu cheese; egg, bacon, spinach, feta; pumpkin, cranberry, sage, and bleu cheese… hey, that sounds like Thanksgiving Pizza!
