​Even though most Americans don't have to worry about scoring touchdowns and avoiding sacks on Super Bowl Sunday, the game still poses significant challenges for many of them.

"It's the topic we've been addressing all week," says Debbie Hugo, a Weight Watchers leader in Seattle. "An abundance of food and drink doesn't go hand-in-hand with success."

For dieters who made losing weight a New Year's resolution, Super Bowl Sunday is the first major temptation on the calendar. While the association between pizza and the Super Bowl dates back decades, party hosts have lately upped the calorie count of their spreads, knitting bacon explosions and erecting meat stadiums for fellow fans who have nothing to do for hours but watch television and eat.

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​Upon learning that salmon barbecue is a non-starter in Seattle, I was beginning to worry about Washington's low and slow scene. But having spent Saturday at the judges' table for the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association's Winter Burn-Off in Snohomish, I'm inclined to think the state of regional barbecue is growing stronger.

Best as I could tell, the Burn-Off was arranged by a very talented pit master who was in the mood to win a contest: He and four other cook teams prepared chicken and pork ribs for a panel of judges headed by the inevitable winner's wife (To be fair, she didn't vote: He would have out-smoked the competition without her involvement.) I learned of the event while exploring the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association's website; Since the unsanctioned contest didn't require official PNBWA credentials, my Memphis in May judging certification made me a viable volunteer.

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Soda Pictures

Like this, but without clothes.

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The Dinner: Tempura at Kiku Tempura House (5018 University Way NE)

The Movie: Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori) at SIFF Uptown (511 Queen Anne Avenue North)

The Screenplate: Tumultuous, passionate, fragile--all three describe Tokyo's youth culture circa 1969, the backdrop of director Anh Hung Tran's Norwegian Wood, based on Haruki Murakami's international best seller of the same name. Making its U.S. debut earlier this year at the Seattle International Film Festival, Norwegian Wood's return to SIFF Uptown revisits the delicate sexual confusion of young adulthood, set to a soundtrack of the band Can and original work by Radiohead's Jonny Geenwood. It thus seemed fitting to seek a second dose of Japanese culture and college lifestyle, so I ended up at Kiku Tempura House for dinner.

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Ilustration by Andrew Saeger, tHE ARTdept.

​Hey fellow lushes! Do you ever get fed up paying 10 bucks and up for a glass of wine?

I think it's high time restaurants and bars and cafes and cute little bistros start offering an affordable alternative. Let me climb up on my soapbox to sound the battle cry. Oh, and by box, I mean a box of wine.

That's right. The time is ripe for list-makers to be open to pouring box wine. After all, loads of restaurants serve cheap-ass beer, making cans of PBR and Vitamin R seem downright cool. So, why not embrace wine in a box as the Hamm's of the glass pour?

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The Perlini. (Photo courtesy of ideasinfood.com)

​Seattle has been enjoying carbonated cocktails since Jim Romdall put them on the menu at Vessel in 2008. He worked with Evan Wallace, the designer of the Perlini system, which offers models designed for home use or professional use. There are similar, cheaper tools available for home use, though they are not specifically designed for cocktails. That hasn't stopped some people from trying, because well, bubbles taste better.

What's more refreshing than a little extra effervescence? So why not just add soda or sparkling wine to give your cocktail some fizz? With something like a French 75 or even a vodka and soda, you dilute the drink a great deal when you add sparkling wine or soda, instead of injecting bubbles into all the ingredients. Some experiments are best left to the professionals, and thankfully many bars have fizzy drinks for you to try.

Bars like Canon, Liberty, Montana, and the soon-to-be-revived Vessel all have carbonated cocktails on the menu. The professional version of the Perlini system is preferred over all others. Romdall says they allow for dilution and agitation, just like a regular cocktail shaker. Jamie Boudreau at Canon agrees. "Perlini is the only one that operates like a cocktail shaker and allows us to truly make carbonated cocktails to order. "

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​In The Lexicon of Real American Food, Jane and Michael Stern lament that no one has catalogued all the sandwiches in America made on tubular lengths of bread, and that there is no complete dictionary to explain their names. Sure there are po' boys, banh mi, Cuban sandwiches, hoagies, and subs. A lot of tubular sandwiches get their names because of what they resemble: Subs, for example, resemble submarines. So what the hell is a grinder? According to the Sterns, "The sandwich known as the grinder throughout southern New England is supposed to have gotten its name because one must grind one's teeth to eat it."

At Grinders in Shoreline, the sandwiches earn this name and reputation. Bread ranges from chewy Italian sandwich rolls to tough yet tender ciabatta, but all the grinders have one thing in common: They will give your jaw a workout. These things must weigh at least a pound, if not two. And packed with everything from salamis, spicy roasted peppers, and caramelized onions, to housemade meatballs and sausage, the jocular workout is worth the effort, as you bite into the juicy meat and flavorful sauces.

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​When the BlogHerFood conference opens in Seattle this June, the annual event will be celebrating its fourth anniversary, which means many attendees have already learned how to shoot video, correctly attribute recipes and use their blogs as a political platform. That's why this year's programming is organized in three different tracks.

"We're really acknowledging the growth of food blogs, so we're targeting beginning, intermediate and advanced bloggers," BlogHer co-founder and chief operating officer Elisa Page says. "It doesn't mean you're going to be stuck in a track, but we're focusing on levels."

The Seattle agenda, announced this week, includes a beginners' session on food literacy, in which participants will learn the meaning of buzzwords such as "natural" and "organic" that pop up in press releases; an intermediate session on trends in food photography and a session for advanced bloggers on "pushing boundaries." There's also a session on humor.

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Got tater tots?

​Highly anticipated restaurant Skelly and the Bean has announced plans to open on February 23 at 2359 10th Ave. E. on Capitol Hill, according to Seattle Met. Run by Zephyr Paquette, formerly of Cafe Flora and Elliott Bay Cafe, the establishment will feature gussied up comfort food like mussel po'boys, geoduck salad, and house-made tater tots. Skelly and the Bean will also serve as a space for classes and demonstrations by up-and-coming chefs.

​There are dozens of smart phone apps allowing shoppers to digitally plan their shopping trips, but a new survey says 34 percent of low- and middle-income families don't use grocery lists.

The numbers reported by Share Our Strength mirror other recent statistics: Studies conducted last year showed three out of every 10 shoppers habitually don't bother with list-making.

"Some of our shoppers describe their grocery shopping habits as "European"," PCC Natural Markets nutrition educator Nick Rose says. "They go to the market every night after work, check out what looks good, see what foods are 'speaking to them' that night."

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​Most Major League Baseball teams have followed the Mariners' lead and added a clubhouse chef, but M's chef Jeremy Bryant remains the only ballpark toque who uses white tablecloths.

"I do it because it looks nice," Bryant says. "And then the guys put guacamole all over it."

Bryant was hired in 1999, when chefs were expected to satisfy players' culinary whims, no matter how lowbrow. "They were so used to telling the bat boy to go get them a Whopper," Bryant says. "I came in with a pizza machine and a hot dog roller. It looked like 7-Eleven."

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