West Seattle Herald / White Center News - Food

Shop abundance of fresh produce, handicrafts at Burien Farmers Market

ericm — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:01:29 +0000

Press release:

Stock up on just-picked produce, locally crafted food items and one-of-kind handicrafts at the Burien Farmers Market, which opens Thursday, May 2.

Market hours are every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through October 31 in Burien Town Square in downtown Burien.

A major benefit of shopping at the market is better prices for fresher food, according to Debra George, event manager for the Discover Burien Association, which operates the market. The fresh-from-the-fields fruit and vegetables are from Washington State farmers, mostly local, who sell directly to market customers.

Don’t miss new market eatables that include locally concocted Full Tilt ice cream and chocolate biscotti. Among the many returning food vendors, expect to see organic berries and other organic produce, freshly baked goods, shaved ice and hand-made dried pasta.

New this year, handcrafted wood furniture will join the line-up of unique handicrafts. Greenery will feature freshly cut flowers of all sorts and such plantable vegetation as rhododendrons and rose bushes.

Buy lunch from the market’s hotdog cart and other market vendors for a great price to eat al fresco at one of the market’s patio tables. Enjoy live music by Eric “Two Scoops” Moore from noon to 3 p.m.

Buskers are sought to perform live music from 3 to 6 p.m. for tips, and they may also sell their CDS. Check-in at the yellow Discover Burien tent is required before busking.

The Seattle Humane Society MaxMobile will park at the market on the second Thursday of each month for on-the-spot adoption of loving pets.

Market customers may make their purchases with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, debit cards, WIC or EBT cards. Some vendors accept credit cards directly. Otherwise, shoppers can use debit, credit or EBT cards by purchasing market tokens at the Discover Burien Association booth. Debit and credit tokens can be spent like cash with the majority of the market’s 40-plus vendors. The nonprofit Discover Burien will not charge a fee for debit card use.

Discover Burien is a nonprofit organization that works on Burien’s economic development, promotion and education.

Sponsored primarily by Prudential Northwest Realty Associates, LLC, the market will be situated on Fifth Place Southwest off Southwest 152nd Street in Burien Town Square. For more information, call 206-433-2882 or go online to www.discoverburien.com.

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ericm

04/25/2013

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The Mark and 909 win Burien Top Chef contest

ericm — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:48:27 +0000

The people have spoken.

So have the critics.

The people’s choice for Burien’s top chef is Rogelio Rios of the Mark Restaurant.

The food critics picked chef Ryan Nielcen of 909 Coffee and Wine.
Those were the results of the Burien Top Chef competition held March 20 at HomeTask Network in Burien.

All this was a preliminary event for the second annual Burien Bites on Sunday, June 2 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Participants will tour Burien restaurants sampling special bites prepared at each establishment. They will then vote for their favorite bite and the winning restaurant will be awarded the Burien Bites trophy.

Rios won the Top Chef people’s choice award with 56 points for his corn and black bean salsa fresca.

Second place went to 909 with 51 points and Sidestreet Kitchen garnered third place with 44 points.

Top Chef participants sampled dishes prepared at each competing restaurant. Each sampler was given five stones to vote with. They could use all five stones to vote for one chef or distribute them among multiple chefs.

The critic’s choice, Nielcen prepared two dishes—asparagus salad with a cilantro vinaigrette and fettuccine with mushrooms and asparagus.

The four critics awarded 98 points to Nielcen and 909. In second place was Joe Ladine of Chef 2 the Rescue with 93 points and Sidestreet Kitchen with 89 points was third.

“I’m pretty excited about this,” Nielcen declared. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Nielcen has worked at 909 in Olde Burien for three years.

The competition began with the chefs picking up a sealed box of four ingredients supplied by Freggies.com, an organic produce supplier that services Burien and other neighborhoods. The ingredients were cilantro, asparagus, tangerines and garlic.

The chefs took the boxes back to their establishments and prepare dishes using the ingredients. They could use other supplies from their restaurants but needed to highlight the four ingredients in their preparation. They had to return to HomeTask within 90 minutes with their finished dish for the critics and participants to sample.

Meanwhile, a videographer who filmed their adventure trailed each chef. The films will be available on YouTube. The volunteer videographers are also competing for prizes.

Jerrod Sessler, HomeTask CEO, estimated 120 people plus 30 to 40 additional members of participating restaurants and film crews crammed into HomeTask’s small downtown Burien headquarters for the event.

Proceeds from the Top Chef and Burien Bites events will go to local charities including the Highline Schools Foundation, Highline Food Bank, New Futures, YETI and HomeTask Cares Foundation.

The four food critics share an interest in healthy eating.

Burien resident Julia Bringolf is a food and wine enthusiast with special experience in fresh, healthy family meals that are easy to make.

Candice Clem is a local nutritional consultant and certified kettlebell instructor.

Annie Easter is the mastermind behind Annieeatsclean.com.

Deanna Morauski writes for her food blog, theoldhen.com, as well as hosting guests at her Snoqualmie bed and breakfast.

Other participating restaurants were Arcadia, Archie’s Mexican, Bison Creek Pizza & Pub, El Fogoncito, Emerald Cove Catering, Mama Sambusa’s African Kitchen, Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub and Osteria de Primo,

More details on the upcoming Burien Bites are available at Facebook.com/burienbites or BurienBites.com.

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ericm

03/22/2013

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Five Highline schools now offering after-school meals

ericm — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:30:57 +0000

Press release:
Bow Lake, Madrona, Mount View, and White Center Heights Elementary Schools and Chinook Middle School are now offering the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) After-School Meal Program.
The USDA program was expanded as part of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, and is available to schools where 50 percent or more of the student body qualifies for free- or reduced-price meals and where there is a planned after-school program. There is no charge to participating students.

“Seventy percent of Highline students qualify for free- or reduced-price meals, so many of our families are not able to provide their children with a nutritionally-balanced meal at home,” said Chris Neal, director of Nutrition Services.

“This program helps students receive the balanced nutrition that is so important to their health, minds, and bodies," said Neal. "My hope is to expand the program to other schools in the near future."

The after-school meal program operates Monday through Thursday. Where formerly a snack with two items was served, now a full meal with five different items is provided. The meal includes an entrée with protein, a grain, milk, fruit, and a vegetable. Students must take three of the five items offered.

The program is being coordinated with after-school learning activities provided by Community Schools Collaboration (CSC). CSC provides activities such as homework support, recreation, and enrichment opportunities that support student success.

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ericm

02/15/2013

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City of SeaTac welcomes SeaTac market

ericm — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:26:29 +0000

Press release:

The City of SeaTac is pleased to announce the opening of SeaTac Market, a multicultural grocery store and bakery. The 10,500 square foot grocery opened to a crowd of 500 people on January 24.

“This is the only grocery store of this size to serve the nearby community,” said Jeff Robinson, economic development manager for the City. “Not only does this market allow the neighborhood to have access to fresh produce and a large selection of grocery items, but it creates a more walkable community where people don’t have to get in the car or on the bus to shop.”

Located in the SeaTac Center on 152nd and International Boulevard, the store is dedicated to a mix of food and grocery options including American, African, Asian and Mexican food, a bakery and coffee shop. The second floor includes a growing collection of furniture from around the world that is for sale.

“We wouldn’t be open if it weren’t for staff at the City of SeaTac,” said Abshir “Ali” Mohamed, SeaTac Market owner. “The Department of Community and Economic Development helped us obtain our permits and understand the process of working together with their engineering, building, planning and permitting offices. The City really helped us make this happen.”

The market is open Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

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ericm

02/15/2013

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Empty Bowls raises $17,000 for food banks

ericm — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:25:35 +0000

Burien’s CC’s Lounge serves best soup

Press release:

The 8th Annual Burien Empty Bowls was a great success! A huge thank you to the Burien community for joining us for a meal and helping raise $16,762 for the Highline and White Center Food Banks! Over 930 people came to the event on Friday, Jan 25th.

This annual fundraiser, always on the last Friday in January, is a great opportunity to support the food banks and have a meal with your neighbors! All the food is donated by local businesses, and all the bowls are made and donated by potters at the Moshier Community Art Center…and even past potters from as far away as Chicago! The event is hosted by Burien Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services and Discover Burien.

We would like to thank our wonderful donors:

The Moshier Art Center Potters, 909 Coffee & Wine, Ace Hardware, Angelo’s Ristorante, Archies Mexican Restaurant, Azteca Restaurant, B-Town Blog, Burien Fred Meyer, CC’s Lounge, Clay Art Center, Day Star Retirement Village, El Dorado West Retirement, Elliott Bay Brewery & Pub, Emerald Cove Catering Co., Fernwood at the Park, Grand Central Bakery, Highline Medical Center, Ivars Seafood Restaurant, Kayak Bar and Grill, La Costa Mexican Restaurant, Mark Restaurant & Bar, Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, MS Mubarek Restaurant, Normandy Park Senior Living, Panera Bread Company, Pho Lilly, Puget Sound Skills Center, SideStreet Kitchen and Bar, Simply Fresh, Sterling Savings, Taco Time, The Company, The Tin Room Bar & Grill, Veracruz Mexican Restaurant, Waste Management, and musicians Jini O'Flynn, Chris Butler, and Clara McMichael.

We would also like to congratulate the winners of this year’s best soup contest! Our esteemed judges (former Burien Mayor Noel Gibb, Kevin Fitz--former owner of Meal Makers Restaurant, and Shellie Hart--On Air Personality at Warm 106.9, and former Burien Resident) gave the following awards:

1st prize—CC’s Lounge for their Ham Chowder
Tied for 2nd—Ivars for their chowder and The Tin Room for their Creamy Potato
3rd place – Elliott Bay for their No Doubt Triple Threat Chili

We look forward to seeing you at next year’s event on Friday, January 31st, 2014!

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ericm

01/30/2013

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Federal officials to visit SeaTac school on Monday

ericm — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:03:16 +0000

Madrona and 3 other Highline schools honored for healthy living programs

Federal USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and USDA Regional Administrator Allen Ng will visit SeaTac’s Madrona Elementary on Monday to recognize four Highline elementary schools that received Silver honors in the Healthy US Schools Challenge.
Concannon and Ng will eat a school lunch with students in the cafeteria.
Four Highline elementary schools have received recognition in the Healthier US School Challenge (HUSSC). Beverly Park, Madrona, Southern Heights and White Center Heights Elementary schools are all being recognized for creating healthier school environments through promotion of good nutrition and physical activities.

To qualify for recognition, schools must meet stringent criteria for the school meal program, nutrition education, physical activity and school policies which support a wellness environment, with efforts to:
improve the nutritional quality of the foods served,
provide students with nutrition education, and
provide students with physical education and opportunities for physical activity.

Four levels of awards are given: bronze, silver, gold and gold of distinction. Only 17 other Washington schools earned recognition, all at the bronze level. Highline’s silver awards come with a $1,000 prize for each school.

Last week, USDA announced new healthier standards for school lunches. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cga/PressReleases/2012/0023.htm

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ericm

02/02/2012

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Burien teams up with farmers' co-op for delivery of organic produce

ericm — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:30:46 +0000

Burien residents now are able to get fresh organic produce and local artisan foods delivered conveniently to the Burien Community Center. The City Parks Recreation & Cultural Services (PaRCS) Department has teamed up with Full Circle Farms, a farmers' cooperative, to be a host site for their delivery program of Farm-to-Table produce. The program in Burien is modeled after a similar effort at Tacoma's community centers. The first delivery in Burien was on May 3.
Residents can sign-up online to receive routine delivery of customized orders containing fresh fruits and vegetables. Boxes are delivered to the Community Center on Tuesday mornings. Members are able to pick up their boxes on Tuesdays from 3 - 7 p.m. or Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
The PaRCS Dept. is participating in the program to provide a healthy service and promote good nutrition in the community as part of the "Healthy Highline" initiative. PaRCS also hopes to attract new community members to the community center through this program and expose them to its many programs.
To sign up for the program or for more information, go to the website: http://www.fullcircle.com/

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ericm

05/05/2011

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Yulefest draws in thousands

amrook — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:57:11 +0000

More than 5,000 people started off the holiday season in Scandinavian fashion this weekend at the Nordic Heritage Museum’s Yulefest.

The annual Scandinavian Christmas festival has been an organized event in Ballard for nearly thirty year and included dance and musical performances, hundreds of hand-crafted gifts and traditional Nordic cuisine.

Jolie Bergman started volunteering at Yulefest as a 14-year-old in 1994 and has been involved ever since.

“Yulefest is a great thing to maintain as it opens minds and taste buds to Nordic culture,” Bergman said.

Holiday revelers could indulge in the round Danish pancakes called Aebleskiver in one room, watch Finnish dancing in another, and listen to a Swedish accordion duo while drinking Glogg or Nordic beer in the Bodega.

Bergman said that this Yulefest is the largest festival in the Northwest which highlights all the Nordic countries.

“Music, food and dance are the entry points of an ethnicity,” said Ralph Koschi, a dancer who performed Finnish folk dance at the festival.

“So maintaining a tradition like Yulefest to showcase these dances and cuisine is huge," he said.

Koschi became involved in Scandinavian folk dance ten years ago when he met his Scandinavian wife.

“The patterns and formations are similar to other nationalities but the style of music and footwork make it uniquely Finnish,” Koschi said. “It’s happy, pleasant music.”

Koschi’s heritage is Finnish and he pointed out that the fabric of the vests worn by the dancers carries the pattern specific to the region from which his family originates.
“It’s authentic styling and it makes it personal’” he said.

One of the musical acts was the band, Mäd Fiddlu, which consists of one guitar player and two nyckelharpa musicians. The nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish folk instrument which looks like a cross between a violin and a key instrument. It has 16 strings and 37 wooden keys arranged to slide under the strings.

“It has all the keys that are on the piano and plays kind of like a fiddle,” said Bart Brashers, a second generation Swede. “They’re still a big tradition in Sweden and mine was built in 2002.”

Brashers, an atmospheric scientist from Ballard, got to playing the nyckelharpa when he was 12 years old. “We had one laying around the house that my dad built in Sweden,” he explained.

Brasher said that the complex instrument is easier to play than a fiddle in the beginning but it gradually becomes harder in the long run.

Greta Buuf, a first generation Dane, oversaw the making of aebleskiver. She has been involved with Yulefest off-and-on for the last ten years and said that it gives her a little taste of home.

“It’s been the same very year and it’s always been popular’” she said. “It’s a good start of the holidays and the money goes to a good cause.”

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amrook

11/22/2010

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http://www.westseattleherald.com/sites/robinsonpapers.com/files/images/Ballard%20News-Tribune/%5Byyyy%5D/%5Bmm%5D/Yulefest_1.JPG

Photo credit:

Kelly Purnell

Thousands attended Yulefest for Nordic dance, music and Scandinavian cuisine.

You Are What You Eat: Ginger is Hot!

amrook — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:38:43 +0000

By Katy G. Wilkens, MS, RD
Northwest Kidney Centers

Ginger – you either love it or hate it. That spicy hot, somewhat sweet, savory taste is hard to describe. Eat enough at once and it can almost make you cry.

It turns out that ginger doesn’t fit into the usual categories of sweet, sour, bitter, or salty flavors. It fires up your taste sensation by stimulating your trigeminal nerve. Other foods that do this are hot peppers, carbonated beverages, horseradish and wasabi. If you like these tingly, spicy flavors, you will love ginger.

You can buy fresh ginger in any grocery store now and it keeps for about two weeks. Put it in a brown paper bag and keep it in your vegetable compartment. To keep ginger for longer than that, put it in a resealable plastic bag and freeze it. Whenever you need to add zip to a meal, or make a wonderful sweet/spicy dessert, just take it out of the freezer and grate it frozen. Some people like to peel the brown skin off with a vegetable peeler but you don’t have to.

Some great ways to get ginger in your diet include:

gingersnap cookies
ginger ale
ginger tea
ginger candy
pickled ginger
pumpkin pie
gingerbread
candied ginger (which is delicious by itself or added to hot tea or cider).

Gingersnap Cookies

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening, unsalted butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
½ cup finely chopped candied ginger.
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly.

Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg and molasses. Sift one-third of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture. Stir to blend thoroughly. Mix together until a soft dough forms. Stir in candied ginger. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Yields 36 cookies.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 92
Carbohydrates: 14 g
Protein: 1 g
Sodium: 117 mg

Cranberry Ginger Ale

4 cups cranberry juice (preferably no sugar added)
2 tablespoons grated ginger (roughly a 2-inch piece)
1 lime, juiced
2 cups lemon-lime soda

Bring juice and ginger to a simmer for about 20 minutes, until the ginger is fragrant. Let cool. Add lime juice and stir. Add soda.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 115
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Protein: 1 g
Sodium: 12 mg

Katy G. Wilkens is a registered dietitian and department head at Northwest Kidney Centers. She has a Master of Science degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Washington.

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amrook

11/19/2010

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http://www.westseattleherald.com/sites/robinsonpapers.com/files/images/Ballard%20News-Tribune/%5Byyyy%5D/%5Bmm%5D/You%20Are%20What%20You%20Eat%20Logo.jpg

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Courtesy of the author

Nutrition expert Katy G. Wilkens