Author Archives: mamster

Pickles of distinction

Pickles are tasty, aren’t they? Not just dills, but Vietnamese pickled carrots and daikon, kim chi, Japanese _tsukemono_, whatever.

I have a couple of favorite Seattle pickles. One is the spicy Parker Pickles from Woodring, sold at area farmers markets and Pike Place Market. These are the best pickles I’ve ever had for putting a sandwich or eating alongside–crisp, sour, and quite spicy. (They also make them non-spicy. You’re welcome, Iris.) Last night Laurie asked me to turn a couple of these into relish for our hot dogs. Good idea.

Renee Erickson of Boat Street Cafe has long been known for the pickles served at her restaurant, and she’s now selling them in jars under the Boat Street Pickles moniker. All of them are good; my favorite, predictably, is the onions. Iris likes the pickled prunes; she’ll pull one out of the jar and lick it clean. According to Renee, next in the lineup is pickled fennel; I can’t wait.

I’m not sure if there’s any way to mail order the Woodring pickles. Boat Street Pickles are available by calling Delaurenti at 800-873-6685. But I’d rather you seek out your own local pickles anyway. That is not some kind of euphemism.

Bottoms up

Iris and I were doing a pirate story today. Captain K. Rool drank a tainted milkshake and died, and Keelhaulin’ Katie delivered the eulogy.

**Katie (me):** He wasn’t a nice person, and he wasn’t even a very good pirate.

**Iris:** (shaking her head) But he made the best drinks.

Postmodern pancakes

The one time I went to Shopsin’s, I don’t remember what I ordered except that it was exceedingly normal. It was for breakfast, and I got potato shreds, some kind of eggs, and maybe some kind of toast, and probably orange juice.

Before I talk about Kenny Shopsin’s book, here’s the background, courtesy of Calvin Trillin. Shopsin’s is a NYC cult restaurant with an encyclopedic menu that is like a cross-section of the brain of eccentric and foulmouthed proprietor Kenny Shopsin.

Anyway, Shopsin has a book out now. It’s called Eat Me, and I think it’s a classic. The food is good; the language is colorful; and it has personality out the ying-yang. I have only one big complaint about the book, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Kenny Shopsin thinks about food a lot. He doesn’t seem to care about anything other than whether it’s fun to make and tastes good. Therefore he reminds me a lot of myself, albeit an older and more psychotic version of myself. To make crepes, he dips flour tortillas in eggs and cream. I tried this and it’s awesome.

Shopsin’s serves like six dozen kinds of pancakes. Here is a list of them, recited by Iris:

[Pancakes](https://www.rootsandgrubs.com/podcasts/IrisOnPancakes.mp3)

Postmodern pancakes are pancakes with chopped up pancakes in the batter. Looking at the current menu, it looks like he’s added a whole category of pancakes with candy bar chunks in the batter.

Which brings me to my big complaint. Kenny recommends Aunt Jemima frozen pancake batter. It appears that this is a wholesale product and if I want some I have to buy a commercial quantity. I could be wrong about this. Anyone seen it in a store? I totally want to try it.

_Eat Me_ is not all breakfast. Kenny has many uncensored thoughts on burgers, sandwiches, salads, and other diner classics. This book is so much fun.