Voracious Is Looking for a Few Good Food Bloggers

Posted Jan. 26 at 3:01 pm by Mike Seely

​Do you like what you see on this blog and are itching to (pun alert!) enhance its flavor with your own exceptionally engaging prose? Or rather, do you view this blog as an undercooked stew, and think your contributions will improve the hell out of Voracious?

Either way, we'd like to hear from you, as we're looking to expand our stable of freelance food bloggers now that Sheehan's here and kicking out a veritable online novella per week.

If you're interested in contributing to Vorcious, email a resume and writing samples to me, managing editor Mike Seely, as soon as you feel inspired. Or hungry. Or both.

Topics: Food Media and Shameless Plugs

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Which Restaurant Should Our New Food Critic Review First?

Posted Jan. 22 at 2:51 pm by Jason Sheehan

​So yesterday, having been in town all of about twenty-four hours and not yet having much of note worth saying, I decided to burn a little digital ink by introducing myself to all you fine folks.

And that was all well and good. I said hello. A few of you said hello back, and offered your heartfelt welcomes (which I appreciate, by the way—and no, I'm not just saying that). It was a successful virtual handshake, if I do say. All except for one thing.

See, I am more than happy to answer any questions you good people might have for me. As we go forward, I might even have some useful answers to offer—about food, primarily, and the people who cook it, those who serve it and where to get it. But right off that bat, SeattleDee hit me with the one question that I can't answer.

Welcome, Jason... SeattleDee wrote. Can't wait to check out your style as you check out ours. So, how DO you decide where to start?

That's been the big question I've been asking myself for the past couple weeks, the one that plagued me during the (few) quiet moments I had on the road, the one that's hung over me like a small but persistent cloud for every step I've taken in my new home. I've got an entire city laid out in front of me. Thousands of restaurants. Thousands of cooks and chefs, crazy bakers, frantic owners, blooded grillmen and bent sauciers. There are a million plates out there just waiting for me. So which one do I get my face into first?

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Topics: Food Media

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Rebekah Denn Talks Food Writing This Saturday (SOLD-OUT)

Posted Jan. 14 at 12:00 pm by Adriana Grant

​To all you food obsessives, food journalists, and/or food bloggers, here's there goes your chance to meet and eat with one of Seattle's most decorated food writers, Rebekah Denn of the shuttered Seattle P-I.

UPDATE: Word just in from Rebekah herself: this event has been sold-out, AND there's a wait list.

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Topics: Events and Food Media

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John T. Edge Gives Kauffman's Teriyaki Opus Its Due In the New York Times

Posted Jan. 6 at 9:31 am by Mike Seely

Kevin Casey

Toshihiro "Toshi" Kasahara, widely regarded as the godfather of Seattle's teriyaki craze.

​Erstwhile SW food critic Jonathan Kauffman won a truckload of national awards for his work here, but I'm not sure he took home any hardware for my favorite feature of his, a wildly informative archaeological dig into Seattle's teriyaki craze. But, really, what's better: an engraved plaque, or recognition—and imitation—by the great southern food writer John T. Edge in the New York Times?

"In Seattle, teriyaki is omnipresent, the closest this city comes to a Chicago dog," writes the Oxford American food columnist, in a rare assignment above the Mason-Dixon line.

Sound familiar? It should. In his 2007 cover story, Kauffman wrote: "San Francisco has its super burrito, Philadelphia its cheesesteak. And in the grand picture, someday Seattle's hallowed salmon, voluptuous berries, and cloud-kissed mushrooms may be eclipsed in the national imagination by another local specialty: teriyaki."

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Topics: Blogwatch, Food Media, and News

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Foursquare Goes Nowhere? A Critic Emerges...

Posted Dec. 30, 2009 at 3:18 pm by Mike Lewis

​The pattern repeats itself; New phone app comes out. A review lauds its "game-changing" nature. A few weeks later someone points out that the game really wasn't changed after all. Ho hum.

Enter Foursquare. If you've not heard of Foursquare, you likely don't have an iPhone or an Android-based phone, or you don't go out for food, coffee, or drinks. For the uninitiated, the smart phone application blends Big Brother social networking media with a GPS-activated city guide and a game. So what's wrong with it? Only this, points out a Slate article. It seems the writer believes that the application takes the fun out of socializing by turning it into a competition. Sounds like high school.

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Topics: Coffee & Tea, Food Media, and News

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Obamitas = LOCO

Posted Dec. 18, 2009 at 12:15 pm by Angela Garbes

Does this look like President Obama to you?

​Normally, I am a big fan of the website Eat Me Daily. Their observations about food and culture are sharp and witty, and they consistently put out some of best cookbook and food book reviews around. However, yesterday's Eat Me Daily admission that they are "charmed" by Obamitas, "the artisanal chocolate cookies out of Spain that feature the likeness of President Barack Obama," leaves me scratching my head and saying, "Aw, hell no."

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Topics: Food Media

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Needed: The Extra White Meat

Posted Dec. 18, 2009 at 8:03 am by Mike Lewis

​
The White Center Food Bank, which has seen a massive increase in customers in recent months, is putting out the call for holiday and post-holiday donations. According to the West Seattle Blog: "Last month, the food bank served 1,966 families. For Thanksgiving alone, they served 913 families. (Executive Director Rick) Jump tells us that one of the hardest effects of the economy is watching kids deal with what is happening. 'Kids don't understand unemployment and bad economic times,' he said. 'They have high hopes. Families can't do what they have done in the past this Christmas. This year, they are surviving,' he said."

​ Peet's Coffee & Tea has stepped up to raise money for victims of the Greenwood arsonist. Peet's stores will match donations. The fundraiser started Thursday and continues through Christmas Eve.

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Topics: Food Media, News, and Restaurant Gossip

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How to Take Better-Than-Crappy Bar and Restaurant iPhotos

Posted Dec. 16, 2009 at 10:31 am by Maggie Savarino

​​

So many bars and restaurants have far too little lighting to get a good shot of anything that you're eating or drinking without looking like a complete nerd. Back lighting and overhead lighting can also be a pain. Short of annoying your companions with incessant adjustments to your too-much-for-you SLR, you can add a little fairy dust to your common iPhone photos with two apps: Camerabag ($1.99, link goes to iTunes) and Best Camera ($2.99, link includes quick tutorial).

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Topics: Food Media

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Urbanspoon & Citysearch Add Restaurant Twitter Feeds

Posted Dec. 7, 2009 at 11:47 am by Jonathan Kauffman

​Urbanspoon announced on its blog today that the Seattle-based online restaurant guide has added Twitter feeds to its restaurant listings. For example, if you search for Monsoon East, you'll see the restaurant's latest Tweet ("I will tell you about it tomorrow. We'll catch up!") as well as a link to its Twitter feed. IAC, Urbanspoon's parent company, also owns Citysearch, and Citysearch also announced today that it has Twitterized its listings. Not surprisingly, Voracious learned about the news via Twitter (thanks, @RebekahDenn).

This would be a good time to remind you that Seattle Weekly's online restaurant guide recently partnered with Urbanspoon Rez. Now, not only can you search hundreds of restaurant listings written by our editorial staff, you can make reservations through our site.

Topics: Food Media and News

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Worth a Read: Maira Kalman's "Back to the Land"

Posted Nov. 30, 2009 at 9:06 am by Angela Garbes

​The Monday morning after a long holiday weekend is always a downer. As an antidote, consider taking five minutes to read this: "Back to the Land," an opinion piece by Maira Kalman that ran in The New York Times on Thanksgiving day.

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Topics: Food Media

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Save Your Carcass and Use Your New Julia Child Cookbook

Posted Nov. 25, 2009 at 8:34 am by Jonathan Kauffman

​Rule number 1 of Thanksgiving leftovers: Don't. Ever. Throw. Away. Your. Turkey. Carcass. Do what you will with the stuffing and cranberry sauce — I spread the latter on toast until it runs out — the carcass is a freebie, a couple of great meals packaged up in one hideous, meat-fringed pile of bones. Three years ago, the Weekly's former food editor, Roger Downey, passed me his post-Thanksgiving tip. "I make French onion soup with roast turkey stock," he told me. Julia Child's soupe à l'oignon gratinée, turkey-style, has become my ritual for the weekend after Thanksgiving. Here's how to make it.

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Topics: Cook This and Food Media

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Controversy: Alaskan Salmon, Seattle Restaurants, a Pit Mine, and a Blogger

Posted Nov. 18, 2009 at 11:30 am by Angela Garbes

​What started as a press release landing innocently in the Inbox a few days ago has erupted into a little storm, complete with an AP story featuring Seattle restaurants and local food blogger Ronald Holden being picked up by The New York Times. So, what the hell happened?

Continue reading "Controversy: Alaskan Salmon, Seattle Restaurants, a Pit Mine, and a Blogger"

Topics: Food Media

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Delancey's Getting Friskier and Friskier for the Cameras

Posted Nov. 16, 2009 at 2:00 pm by Jonathan Kauffman

Kevin P. Casey

​Husband-wife team Molly Wizenberg and Brandon Pettit, owners of Delancey, have been justifiably getting a lot of press for their pizza. We're also noticing a trend in the photo coverage of the two. First, for the Weekly, we see the two in a side-by-side clutch. Then the Stranger photographed Brandon kissing Molly. For yesterday's edition of Pacific Northwest mag, the kiss got much steamier.

Wizenberg and Pettit are a handsome couple, but we'd suggest they stop here.

Topics: Food Media

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To Do Tonight (Stay-at-Home Edition): Watch "Good Food"

Posted Nov. 12, 2009 at 8:37 am by Angela Garbes

​Seattle foodies don't need much convincing when it comes to supporting small, regional family farms by eating locally and sustainably. But tonight offers the chance to learn about the lives of the people working (and working their a**es off, at that) to get all that organic, grass-fed, heirloom goodness into our hungry mouths.

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Topics: Food Media

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Got Two Hours to Spare?

Posted Nov. 5, 2009 at 9:33 am by Angela Garbes

​Good news (especially for all you oh-so-proud non-television owning types out there): the full-length video of the recent PBS special The Botany of Desire is now available online. Based on Michael Pollan's book The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World from 2002 (back before Pollan's writings prescribed how we should eat and were taken as gospel), the program shows "how four familiar species - the apple, the tulip, cannabis and the potato - evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control."

The Botany of Desire is a fascinating read (you'll never think of witches and broomsticks the same again) and the program is a fascinating, well-executed documentary that looks at everything from domestication, evolution, and GMOs to the passionate (and, of course, endearingly oddball) cultivators of these crops today.

Topics: Food Media

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