Eating & Drinking
Beating a Dead Goat
Raunchy Downtown Salt Lake Staple Closes its DoorsAfter years of controversy concerning its prime downtown locale, the Crazy Goat Saloon, formerly The Dead Goat has shut its doors forever. The Goat drew ire from the LDS church when its owner, Daniel Darger received permission from the city to transform his dive (I mean that in a good way) into a semi-nude “dance club” a few years ago. Details behind the bar's closure are still unknown.
After the city’s 2003 decision to allow the club’s formal strip down, as it were, the LDS church stepped in, suing the city just to make it clear that a nudie-bar was not welcome on their turf. The city eventually won the suit, but lamented their original decision to allow the club’s sex-up, which led the City Council to banish any future naked-bouncy-type businesses from opening in the downtown area.
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Common Ground, Uncommon Food
Gorge Grown Envisions ‘07Gorge Grown Food Network is hosting a winter meeting at Celilo Restaurant in Hood River on January 22nd. Members, supporters and new-comers are welcome to attend. A menu has been prepared by chef Ben Stenn. RSVP is necessary—for more information visit Gorge Grown online.
What makes some grassroots activism so successful? A just cause, global awareness, the commitment and hard work of dedicated community members? Yes, those are all essential ingredients of social change and reform—and Gorge Grown Food Network has all of that in spades. But they have something else that not all non-profit organizations can offer…great food and fine wine.
GGFN Coordinator Katie McKendrick says Monday night’s gathering will be “a chance to share committee progress and needs, and plan for a Gorge Community Food Conference in late March 2007.” Also, GGFN is looking for ideas and volunteers to help take the highly successful Farmer’s Market on the road, creating a Moveable Feast this summer that can travel to several Gorge communities throughout the week—bringing it back to the people—and fostering this Gorge-wide cause...
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Bend's first microbrewery makes it big
Bend’s Deschutes Brewery Expanding To Portland
For the first time in its young history, the Deschutes Brewery has decided it will open a branch of operation outside the city limits of Bend with a move to Oregon’s largest city, microbrew-loving Portland.
The jump will put Deschutes in the thick of a city with more microbrew operations per capita than any other city in the country. The headquarters for Deschutes will remain in Bend, where they have been since 1988.
Dave Wilson, the director of sales and marketing for Deschutes Brewery, confirmed with me Tuesday afternoon that the company is indeed heading north to Portland. Top executives at the brewery made the decision at the tail end of last week to physically expand beyond Bend.
No official public announcement has been made regarding the Portland pub. However, Wilson said the new site will be very similar to the pub that sits in downtown Bend.
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Lithuanian Raisin Bread
Ethnic Christmas Recipes To Share
Even in Idaho, there are Lithuanians. Altogether now: I'll be darned.
Both my husband and I are of Lithuanian origin - he is first generation and I'm second. We met on a blind date, set up by my cousin Gila, with the Lithuanian-ness in common being part of the intrigue. When I opened my Los Angeles apartment door to the adorable Vince Uzkuraitis, I fell hard, and nearly 25 years later, still do, every day.
His mother, still with us at a vigorous 83, and my late mother had much in common. One of them was cooking, and I have a treasure trove of interesting ethnic recipes from the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Some of them are, frankly, awful - a lot of sauerkraut, beets, and pickled cold meats - the old-world solutions to a lack of refrigeration. But the sweet things are delightful, and I especially like them because they're not overly sweet. Here is one of my favorites: Lithuanian Raisin Bread. It's traditional for any holiday, and you can make it this afternoon for a Christmas breakfast or brunch.
Why not share a family or ethnic holiday recipe in comments? A great collection could be born, right here on New West.
Merry Christmas, or, as we say, Linksmų Kalėdų!
INGREDIENTS FOR LITHUANIAN RAISIN BREAD
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The Future of Food film screening
The Future of Food film screening in Jackson Hole
Panelists urged a Jackson audience to "keep the fire burning" after The Future of Food film screening Thursday night. Nearly 100 people gathered to watch the documentary on how corporations control the food we eat and are infusing it with genetically modified organisms without our knowledge. [more]
Don We Now Our Invisibility Cloaks
Homo for the HolidaysThe sacred imagination is an ancient thing. An archaeologist in Botswana recently uncovered evidence that seventy thousand years ago, the Sanpeople worshipped a snake god. The archaeologist, Professor Sheila Coulson from the University of Oslo, found a stone, six meters long by two meters tall, in the shape of a python in a cave in the Tsodilo Hills. Buried in a pit beneath the snake’s mouth were more than 13,000 artifacts, mostly red spearheads that had been trekked to the site from hundreds of miles away and burned in some kind of ritual.
On these ritual occasions, did Mr. and Mrs. Snakeworshipper expect their daughter Patience and her girlfriend Sarah to pretend that they only shared a hut back in Pythonburg to save on wattle and daub? Probably not. Homophobia is a comparatively recent phenomenon. We know that in the animal kingdom, mammals, birds, fish and reptiles often engage in same-sex relations. Ten percent of rams have no interest in mating with ewes. They prefer to consort with their fellow rams. Male penguin couples have raised borrowed eggs; same-sex swan couples have mated for life. So much for the homosexuality is against nature and the barnyard argument. Birds do it. Bees do it. Sheep, dolphins, and giraffes do it. Why are human beings expected to pretend that we don’t?
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OLD LEFTISTS THE NEW PALEOCONS?
Has Your Ville Come Of Age As A ‘Latte Town’?Heaven knows that folks in the go-go West love their cups of morning java. We are as addicted to caffeine as we are adrenaline-lusted for feats of athletic hedonism.
But is your community a "Latte Town"? Nine years ago, political commentator David Brooks penned a wonderfully sneering piece for The Weekly Standard in which he created a new social category for certain lifestyle communities.
Like De Tocqueville, Brooks has a special fetish for traveling through the hinters of America identifying trends based upon patterns of conspicuous consumption that he believes translate into expressions of conservative or Liberal ideals. I'll get to the punch line later but meantime, read on:
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Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Right Under His Hat)
Where Food Comes From
On a recent trip to Six Flags Over Albertson's to buy groceries, the kids and I wheeled our cart into the produce section to get some healthy stuff. As we approach the fruit, there’s the sound of thunder, and the misters come on, dousing all the green veggies. This is amazing to the kids, who run over and put their hands in the spray.
“Pretty cool, huh?” I say. “When we get to the milk case, you hear cows mooing.”
“Coooooool!” they say in unison.
“And when you get to the eggs, you hear chickens clucking,” I continue. “But I’m kind of afraid to go down the toilet paper aisle.”
(Here is a photo of fresh pork chops. Some assembly required.)
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Thankful for Hunting
The Thrill and the MeatThe dirt was hard and cold and the yellow grass brittle. I lay quietly watching a herd of mule deer feed across an open hillside, slowly making their way into the coulee. I was propped up on my elbows, my rifle in my hands. The fog of my breath disappeared behind me in the slight breeze.
The deer were only a couple hundred yards away, but with the wind blowing the way it was, they had no idea of my presence. The herd held a few small bucks, which were busy nosing does around. The bucks looked frisky. The does looked tired.
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WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM?
Like Many Counterparts, Bozeman’s Community Food Co-op Finds Strength In NumbersThe Community Food Co-op in Bozeman has, in many ways, become a flagship for the co-op movement inside the inner West. Thriving within an atmosphere of enormous competitive pressure exerted by national grocery chains, including Wal-Mart, Co-Op General Manager Kelly Dean Wiseman says that an emerging unified front among many different co-ops is leveraging buying power. It is resulting in lower prices, better and safer product choices, as well as giving individual stores a greater say in how organic and homegrown foods can change the way America eats and shops.
In his essay which follows, Wiseman discuses the purchasing power of the National Co-op Grocers Association which ranks second only to Whole Foods in its ability to deliver healthy food to the marketplace every day.
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