For All The Chocolate Lovers Out There

By Steve Gersman


Have you ever been to France? Have you ever had “chocolat chaud” there? For chocolate lovers, it’s the nectar of the gods. It’s not like a bar of chocolate, or those sumptuous desserts with hot, thick chocolate oozing out of them. It’s not like “pot au chocolat” or even a dreamy mousse.

Chocolat chaud stands alone.

It’s a liquid, comes in a cup, but is almost too thick to drink. So you get a spoon. But I never use the spoon. For me, tiny sips give the most pleasure, like savoring the first sip of a superb vintage wine. Made from three different types of solid chocolate, melted, then blended with cream and sugar, this is not for the faint-hearted. The drink is so rich that I have sometimes, when I am not feeling totally self-focused, shared a single cup with a friend.

To call this potion a hot chocolate is to call Versailles a house. If I wax nostalgic, that is only partly true. I always order chocolat chaud when I’m in Paris. Put it down to my love of chocolate and some of the finer pleasures in life.

But it’s not just about Paris. It’s about pleasure. If you haven’t been near Pike Place Market in years, you now have a reason to make an exception. On First Ave, just one storefront down from the SW corner of Stewart, is a French bistro called Le Pichet. If you live in Seattle or are lucky enough to visit, Le Pichet or its sister restaurant, Cafe Presse make it as only the best in France do. Le Pichet or Cafe Presse

Oh, and if you like French cuisine, they make the best French onion soup too, but only in winter. Bon appetite!

The Menu Project

The Menu Project

by Ellen J. Wallach

You’ve probably never thought about what happens to old menus.  They are made to be disposable.  Used, abused, and soiled by unwashed hands and random food splatters, they are unceremoniously thrown out or, more recently, recycled. I’d never thought about them either until two months ago.

In an effort to purge our possessions for an anticipated move, my husband arrived in the kitchen with a pock-marked 1950s white suitcase, the kind that weighs 40 lbs. empty. I had seen it in the basement over the years, but never knew where it came from or what was in it. He inherited it twenty years ago when his neighbor was moving.  It contained almost 100 menus from the 1940s through the 1970s. The neighbor “liberated” menus from restaurants mostly in the Northwest where he lived. This was his collection.

Some are plain. Some are beautiful. Some are works of art. All are interesting. They are in all sizes and some are shapes- a clown head for a children’s menu, a slab of steak for the Old Country Kitchen, and an arrowhead for the Indian Village Restaurant.  Each menu is a peek at a culture that existed 40 or more   years ago. What did we eat? What did we drink? How much did it cost?  This is anthropological research I couldn’t recycle. Now what?

Thus, began the menu project- finding homes for over-the-hill  cartes. These were not pristine beauties. Where to begin? Google. Most of the restaurants no longer exist. Even extensive restaurant chains have disappeared and so have the prices!

The Camlin Hotel in Seattle (described in their 1947 menu as “Smartness in Hotel Accommodation,” had a restaurant with great views, The Cloud Room.  It is no longer a hotel but part of the Wyndham Vacation Ownership group.  The Cloud Room is now a number of upscale penthouses.  The most expensive menu item was Filet Mignon for $3.25. Coffee was $.10.

Inn at the Quay in Spokane, Washington specialized in flaming desserts- Cherries Jubilee and Peach Flambe for $1.75. The house specialty was Tips & Tails- tenderloin beef tri-tips and imported lobster tails. The price included soup or salad, baked potato, and individual loaf of bread and coffee. Price? $5.50.

As you might guess, restaurants in the mid 20^th century were featuring a lot of meat, all inclusive meals (salads, potato, rolls and coffee,) and coffee meant caffeinated. Sanka was decaf. There are menu items  rarely seen anymore: Pineapple Welsh Rarebit, Flaked Chicken a la King, Finnan Haddie, and Hot Mince with Rum Sauce.  

The menus are finding their ways to new homes- the amateur historian for the city of Palo Alto took three of them; Ivar’s, an institution in Seattle, is now home to a large menu cutout of The Captain; and the Heathman and Benson Hotels in Portland have repatriated their menus.

The next time you are out, think about what people in 2070 might say about us. Look at the prices we consider high. I bet you’d rather be ordering from my menus.

Ellen J. Wallach is an organizational development consultant in Seattle, Washington. She is fascinated by how people in other cultures and times live. 

Agriculinary Tourism

Awaken your Senses with Agriculinary Tourism

Heidi Siegelbaum (written originally for the PURE Travel Collaborative)

Grazing cows dotted the horizon line like toy pieces, cumulus clouds high in the sky framing red barns and ancient twisted fences lining dirt roads. This was Vermont in the 1980s when I lived there. There were no billboards, no overhead telephone wires and a fierce sense of community that still breaths politically through town hall community meetings where local decisions are made.

Part of this economy is our own promise in Washington State as well- helping farms to stay in business, celebrating and promoting local foods within local food systems, introducing people to new foods they have never eaten, bridging the rural-urban divide and connecting people through one of the most fundamental and life affirming social forms on the planet-- the table.

Agriculinary tourism, the many ways to share, celebrate and support farming and food, has old roots in Europe where farm stays are standard fare. In many ways, the desire to engage with farmers, ranchers, fishers, chefs and food artisans-- whether through kale chips or working on a farm, or through our own gardening, the burgeoning rise of city chickens and goats, food trucks and yummy dripping sandwiches-- reflects a deep seated desire to connect with the land, feel alive, connect with people over food and breathe deeply in a visually rich and sumptuous environment. Many urban dwellers are stressed beyond their capacities, wired to the hilt with technology and living in less than clean air environments.

Agriculinary tourism provides a way to relax, to breathe and to reconnect with things that matter in our lives, including building local economies.

Farms and food as expressed in agriculinary tourism offers direct marketing opportunities for farmers, ranchers and fishers which can spell the difference between failure and ensuing development sprawl, and staying in business, being profitable and keeping cultural traditions and places alive.

Agriculinary tourism also offers a historical reference point that can help reconnect us with what matters- community, relationships, land, the people who grow our food, beauty and a desire to protect what is worth protecting- many of those things are intangible. Washington had total farm sales in 2007 of $6.8 billion but net returns to farmers has been declining since 1997 (WSU School of Economic Science). Small and medium sized farms are rapidly disappearing from our landscape and this is a disaster for families, communities and tourism as we understand it.

But there is reason for hope and celebration-- many reasons. Cook books are the #1 book category in sales; we are awash in the Food Network, a return to canning and gardening, a return to food love and importantly, local food as part of a more regional, locally based economy. Washington State residents and visitors love to buy directly from our farmers and the statistics reflect that: 13.7% of all farms in the state are engaged in direct marketing compared to 6.2% nationally (Office of Farmland Preservation, WA).

The first tangible forms of direct marketing were farm stands, followed by U-Pick operations (WA. Grows a lot of fruit, our second highest food production area after beef), farmers markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) subscriptions in which residents buy a “share” up front before the growing season and receive whatever a farm or group of farms grow during that season. At this point, boasts over 100 Farmers Markets and that number grows nearly every few months.

Agriculinary tourism is everywhere if you look for it: value added food products like jams, salsas, breads, butters, sauces, juice, crackers, beer and wine; places you can visit and learn such as 21 Acres, a plethora of wedding sites, wine/spirit/beer tasting and tours, places to stay such as Dog Mountain Farm and Bull Hill Ranch, farm tours, harvest celebrations and kid friendly farm activities such as corn mazes, pumpkin patches and visits with friendly farm animals.

Savor Washington has links to many of these places, people and events, as do WSU extension offices across the state. Some of the regulatory barriers to more fully developed farm stays, cooking schools, community conversation space and a linked trail system that connects farms with value added food, restaurants and the broader tourism context include local zoning laws, labor issues, population growth and land values (which push farmers to sell their land), succession planning, and available water for irrigation.

If you own a restaurant, an inn, a tour company or guide service, you can help grow agriculinary tourism and its real promise by buying from local farmers, ranchers and fishers, supporting farmland preservation efforts and building community by supporting local food systems. Bon Appetite!

Heidi Siegelbaum and Steve Gersman

www.pugetsoundfresh.org/farm-profile (Puget Sound only)

www.agr.wa.gov

www.visitwashingtonfarms.com

http://industry.traveloregon.com/