By Ethan Chung
This might sound a little gluttonous, but it’s a great time to be a food-obsessed writer. There’s no shortage of tasty treats in the Northwest. Culinary savants run restaurants. The number of local farmers, foragers, winemakers and other food artisans is mind boggling. And there are so many food trucks and cupcake shops.
Is it too much for you to handle? Do you prefer to pick and choose your food info at your leisure? You’re in luck. There’s an abundance of local food bloggers out there, all with different personalities and tastes that are sure to strike a chord with you. Some of them write about their latest local food discovery, some of them create things that would put many professional chefs to shame. Some cater to audiences who love high-style cuisine, others to folks who might be more interested in everyday fare, and more who simply like to entertain. All of these bloggers enjoy sharing things they learn with readers. We thought it would be fun to pick the brains of the (not-so) elusive food blogger. What we found was delightful. And delicious – we asked for recipes, but decided to challenge them: the recipe had to be no more than a tasty tweet of 140 characters (or really close). Enjoy, then log on and visit their personal sites. You will probably be entertained, informed and definitely hungry.
Christina Dudley
Blogger for Bellevue Farmers Markets
Blog Urban Farm Junkie,
Twitter @CNDudley
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from blogging about food? “The biggest thing I’ve learned since blogging for the Bellevue Farmers Market is that people feel a lot of guilt around food. They think they aren’t cooking enough or that they don’t buy organic or local or sustainable or what-have-you enough. Our food sources and how to handle actual ingredients have become lost knowledge. I would love people to rediscover the joy of getting in touch with food: knowing where it came from, what’s in season when, what to do with our local bounty.”
Make This Peach Salsa Chop/mix 1 ripe peach, 1 tomato, 1/2 jalapeno, 1/4 c Walla onion, 1/4 c Ital. parsley + lime juice + salt to taste. Serve over salmon/pork.
Denise Sakaki
Blog Wasabi Prime, wasabiprime.com
Twitter @wasabiprime.
Why do you blog about food? “I like rediscovering dishes that are simple favorites because for all the high-end dining options out there, I think people always return to the comfort foods. When you realize how much joy food can bring a person, it elevates a meal from just eating to true nourishment on all levels.”
Make This Cold Spicy Tofu Salad Cubed cold tofu, chili sauce, squeeze of lemon, dash of soy sauce and shredded scallions.
Jamie McQuary
Blog Jamie of all Trades
Twitter @jmeofalltrades
Why do you blog about food? “When I find a good recipe I want to tell everyone and their mother about it. A blog is a great way to do that! Plus when people ask me for a recipe I can always point them to my blog, saves on typing time!”
What was your favorite entry you wrote on your blog? “My key lime pie cupcake recipe. It’s the first recipe I ever wrote, people went bananas for it and it’s become my signature cupcake.”
Make This Roasted Butternut Squash with Parmesan Arrange 1” pieces of 1 peeled Butternut Squash on bake sheet. Drizzle w/olive oil. Bake @ 400 20 mins. Sprinkle ¼ c. cheese, bake for 3m
Jamie Peha
Blog Table Talk Radio
Twitter @tabletalkpeha
Why do you blog about food? “I’ve been a foodie all my life and it is not only a passion for me it is one of life’s pleasures. There is absolutely nothing like what happens around the table while sharing food. It’s magic. I have so many great food experiences that I want to share them with others and engage them into this fascinating world.”
What have you learned from blogging about food? “That there is always something to learn and share about food. Especially about the people who grow or raise the food we eat, the people who create fabulous food in the dining scene, people who make artisan products, and of course the people who want to learn more about how to cook and the food system.”
Make This K Chips 1 bunch torn curly kale, EVOO, Kosher or flavored Salt – work EVOO into Kale, toss w/salt. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 20 min.
Jess Thomson author
Blog Hogwash
Twitter @onfoodandlife
Why blog about food? “I blog because food is a way to humanize all the things – good and bad – that happen in our lives. My blog’s tagline, on food and life, is meant to convey the idea that you really can’t have one without the other, but that the combination of the two is never quite predictable.”
What have you learned? “It would have to be that some of the foods that I’ve loved my entire life are actually making me sick. This fall, I learned that I’m sensitive to gluten, eggs, and soy, the same week my first cookbook (about doughnuts) was published. But food is infinitely flexible, so I’m learning that I can love it in a very different way.”
Make This Marinated Feta Sprinkle 7oz block feta w/ 1T chopped oregano, garlic, sundried tomatoes. Drizzle w/spicy evoo, + S/P, crushed red pepper. Recipe based on Thomson’s Marinated Spiced Feta, from her upcoming book Pike Place Market Recipes, Sasquatch Books, spring 2012.
Keren Brown
author “Food Lovers Guide to Seattle”
Blog Frantic Foodie, franticfoodie.com
Twitter @franticfoodie
Why did you start blogging about food? “I started blogging about food over four years ago as a way to discover a new passion. I wanted to explore food. It started off as a blog about cooking and then evolved into a blog about the Seattle food scene. That is the beauty of a blog, you don’t know where it is going to take you but you know that by persisting, you are learning something.”
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from blogging about food? “You have to be focused. It is about focusing on what you believe in. There are so many topics, food styles and trends and people reading your blog want to get to know you. There is no right or wrong. It is OK and important to discover and try different things but at one point you have to figure out what works for you.”
Make This Labneh, Yogurt Cheese (a pita dip) yogurt, drain liquid into cheesecloth over bowl, refrigerate for 12 hrs, spread on plate w/out liquid, drizzle w/oo + Za’atar spice.
Linda Miller Nicholson
Creator of The Nudie Foodie cookbook
Blog Salty Seattle
Twitter @saltyseattle
Why do you blog about food? “I blog about food because it’s something everyone can relate to, whether it’s on a top Michelin-tiered level or a burger from a greasy spoon. Food is visceral glue that bonds us all together.”
Any disastrous creations? “Every once in a while I get too big for my britches and I make something that is so excessively elaborate that it turns out downright disgusting (she references her Marrow-Poached Lobster Tail with Beet Risotto, Wilted Amaranth & Citrus Crème Fraiche). I look at this as an impetus to keep me on my toes. Every time I think I’m an expert in something, I discover an area within it that I know very little about. It’s important to keep learning, and I think learning from failures is often better than learning from successes because they push me to go farther. To learn more. This is true in recipe development, but also in life. It’s good to have a few hard knocks once in a while.”
Make This Candied Grape Tomatoes Small pot: Boil 1.5c sugar & 1c H20 to 330F. Remove heat, dip tomatoes, dry on parchment, eat like candy.
Marc Schermerhorn
Blog Baketard
Twitter @marcseattle
Why blog about food? “I love cooking and food and spend most of my free time perusing recipes, digging through the hundreds of cookbooks I hoard or throwing big dinner parties with friends. I’ve always had a recipe distribution list of a few hundred people to whom I’d send only the recipes I deemed 9s or 10s and complete “keepers.” A friend suggested I get with the times and put it in a blog so I could share that stuff with more people.”
What is a baketard? “As much as I am proud of my culinary prowess when it comes to cooking, I am clueless with the baking side of the house. I attended culinary school a few years ago (flexing my Microsoft schedule around it), graduated top of my class and spent my weekends cooking in some of the top restaurants in Seattle, but I never touched the baking and pastry discipline … when I touch a bag of flour and some butter, the result usually looks like something that crawled out of Chernobyl. The photo header on my blog is not a joke. It was a recent attempt to make a childhood favorite bundt cake! Seriously.”
Make This Fresh Grilled Figs with Feta and Basil 2T RWineVin,2T honey, 16 fig, 16 basil lvs, 2oz feta, lavndr flwrs. Heat vin+honey, halve+grill figs, put feta+basil in mid, drizz sauce+lav
Scott Heimendinger Interned at Modernist Cuisine
Blog Seattle Food Geek
Twitter @seattlefoodgeek
Why do you blog about food? “Because it’s more socially acceptable than grabbing people in the street and yelling, ‘Have you heard about sous vide cooking? It’s AWESOME!’”
What did they teach you at modernist cuisine? “The coolest thing I learned from my internship at Modernist Cuisine is that starting an unbalanced centrifuge is the fastest way to get everyone’s attention.”
Make This sous vide salmon Cook salmon sous vide @ 50C for 20 mins. Serve with 50/50 mascarpone and 63C sous vide egg yolk. Garnish with fresh centrifuged pea butter.
Alexandra HedinBook author and “Invite with Alexandra” writer for 425
Twitter @alexandrahedin
Why blog about food? “I started blogging as a way to connect every day with magazine readers and friends over food and inspiration and to make every day lovely.”
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from blogging about food? “I have learned a lot over the last three years about what people care about and how people actually cook at home.”
Make This Roasted Pears Halve & core pears. Roast 10 m @ 350 deg. Top w/vanilla ice cream & caramel sauce. Sauce = 1c b sugar + 1c cream cooked 5 mins over low.