rudis dot net

Mary & I did one of the monthly event dinners (part of the week-of-birthdays for her) at Monsoon last night and had a wonderful time. Eric did an amazing job giving us all a taste of Vietnamese new year with the fusion twists the restaurant is famous for.

We weren't expecting it to be family-style, but that only added to the collective enjoyment and we were lucky enough to meet the owners of Yama Japanese Restaurant and Red House Beer & Wine Shoope, both local eateries that we now are anxious to sample.

Here's what you missed last night:

• grilled flank steak with green scallions and vermicelli noodles
• fisherman's soup with morning glory greens
• five spice washington chicken "roti"
• braised leek and asian eggplant salad with crispy tofu paper
• braised baby back ribs with coconut juice and longevity egg
• kurabuta pork belly with pickled cucumber and banh bo
• mung bean sweet soup with tapioca

Ever since getting here I've wondered why there are *so* many teriyaki joints in and around Seattle. This Seattle Weekly article goes into great detail:

Food: How Teriyaki Became Seattle's Own Fast-Food Phenomenon (Seattle Weekly): "Nothing seems to stop the exponential growth of teriyaki shops in Seattle and its surrounding environs, including market saturation. To wit, the Washington Restaurant Association recently generated a list of all the restaurants in its master database with "teriyaki" in the name, listed by date of entry. As of 1984, the database contained 19 (that is, restaurants still in business). That number doubled by 1987. In the mid-1990s, 20 to 40 teriyaki joints appear to have been opening every year, and the database now contains 519 listings statewide (there are more than 100 teriyaki shops within Seattle's city limits alone)—which doesn't include restaurants that favor "Bento," "Wok," or "Deli" over "Teriyaki" in their titles.

And that's far from the extent of the dish's omnipresence. Pho shops pad their menus with chicken teriyaki. Asian-operated burger joints like Herfy's, Stan's and Dome Burger all feature teriyaki dishes. A Somali cafe down in Tukwila that I reviewed last month offered halal chicken teriyaki; not to mention sushi restaurants, even ultratraditional ones, which offer teriyaki chicken and beef on their menus—something (surprise) you'd never see in Japan."

Foreign Policy magazine has a blog (obvious if you've ever looked to the right block column at all) and one of their recent entries lends some credence to my milk post earlier in May.

All but the very rich are going to feel the food cost crunch and it's going to hurt. I suspect this is one reason we now have Diet Coke Plus, so the kiddies (and adults) can get their vitamins in a non-dairy, cheap beverage.

As the FP post suggests, why can't I have some of my tax dollars back so I can afford the outrageous food prices. Why am I subsidizing farmers who clearly are gouging consumers?

While it may still wind up costing more in the end, you can help stick it to these multinational, multi-billion dollar farming outfits if you:

• buy local
• buy organic
• grow your own (if you can), and
• consume less

Writing your state and federal representatives would be a prudent item to add to your to-do list as well.

Eventually, I'll use my "Christianity" tag for something a bit more serious, but it's far more interesting pointing out the crazy stuff folks will attach to that word. I almost wish there were a different way to refer to my faith, just to separate myself from these wackos.

Take Pastor Reynolds and his faith-based dieting Sunday morning tirade:

About 40 percent of you need to lose weight," he tells churchgoers..."When you love potluck more than God, it's serious."

Thankfully(?), folks from other faiths are doing the same thing, though you can't beat the creative crew who came up with the URL of www.fatfree4jesus.org.

From everyone @ RUDIS DOT NET (Mary, boB, Tori, Jarrod, Liz, Ian and Nana) have a food and fun-filled day with family & friends!

If things turn out well, we'll post snaps of the feast. Dinner today includes a ~20lb organic, free-range turkey (brined then roasted), wild-rice & fresh herbed bread stuffing, sour cream mashed potates, fake jellied cranberry sauce, homemade fresh cranberry sauce, whipped sweet potatoes, fresh crescent roles, peas, brussel sprouts in a maple-walnut sauce and some nice, fresh veggies. Dessert includes chocolate chip cookies (baked by Mary) and the traditional pumpkin pie with a wicked-good chocolate ganache.