In today’s Seattle Times:

King Clam: Innuendo aside, geoduck is the stuff of regal repasts

Innuendo aside? Maybe the headline writer didn’t see the part about Moby Dick.

At some point I’m planning to work up a home version of Seis’s Korean chowder, sans geoduck. It’s a spicy, brilliant soup.

There are plenty of tips on how to clean pastry brushes. Dip them in a bowl of salt. Wash with soap and lemon juice. “Lather, rinse, repeat,” offered one message board posting. I tried various things and then gave up and bought silicone brushes.

Silicone has been insinuating itself into all sorts of kitchen gear, and lately I’ve seen various articles debating the merits of particular pieces, including a treatise by Marian Burros in the New York Times. The brushes I’d been using were almost great. Their only fault is that they just don’t hold liquid like the natural-hair brushes too–especially if the liquid is water- rather than oil-based.

Good Grips to the rescue. The Good Grips silicone brushes, which are available in two sizes, have these hole-punched flaps in the middle that pick up liquid. They work about 95 percent as well as the non-silicone, and they’re dishwasher safe or easy to hand wash.

While brushing some butter onto Iris’s waffle the other day, I realized that this isn’t the first time I’ve been delighted to dump an all-too-natural utensil. It’s been years since I replaced my wooden spoons with Matfer Exoglass spoons, and I’ve never missed the wood. Pretty soon I’ll be preparing seasonal organic produce using nothing but synthetic tools created by eggheads in lab coats.

I love packaging redesigns. I’m sure Laurie has lost count of the number of times I’ve come home and said, “Hey, look, Doritos redesign.” Actually, the most recent one I can think of is Fritos, which Laurie pronounced “retro but not retro enough,” and I concurred.

But I have never seen so radical a redesign as this one. On the left is the old Safeway Select potsticker package, and on the right is the new one. It’s awesome.

Laurie was in California for four days, so for Iris’s and my last dinner on our own, I told Iris she could have whatever she wanted. Of course, she said, “Lobster!”

“Okay,” I said. “Tomorrow we’ll go down to QFC and see if they have any lobsters in the tank.”

Iris thought about this. “But the best lobsters come from University Seafood and Poultry.” I had to concede this. “What is poultry?” she added.

“It’s birds that you eat,” I said. “Like chicken, duck…”

“They should call it University Seafood and DUCK!”

So while Iris was at the morning babysitter, I called and placed a hold on a lobster. Iris thought this was hilarious. “Are they holding the lobster?” We went to pick it up in the afternoon. It weighed a pound and a half and we brought it home in a box. On the way home we passed Sarah, the babysitter. “Got your lobster, huh?” she said.

When we got home, Iris asked if she could eat the claw meat. “Sure,” I said. “Could I have one and you can have one?”

“I should eat both of them,” she replied.

So I boiled the lobster and cut up both claws for Iris. But there was really only one part of the lobster she was after. Here, I’ll let her tell you.

Iris Out Loud 2: Lobster