Valentine’s Day is underrated as a drinking holiday, particularly if you’re single. It’s no New Year’s or St. Patrick’s, but everybody is either toasting or drowning their sorrows. Sometimes both. If you’re going out to celebrate/brood, Arcata’s Plaza Grill has a pretty enough bar for a date (you don’t want to do hipster-dive-slumming on Valentine’s), […]
On the Table
Posted inEat + Drink
Chorizo: A Love Story
To set the record straight, I wasn’t trying to murder my ex per se. But he deserved it for cracking a joke with his Poblano buddies that American women only know how to take food out of the freezer and stick it in the microwave. What did he think he was getting when he chose […]
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Hum Plate
A brown bag lunch is a great idea. Very healthy, economical — but life is short. When you need to treat yourself (just once in a while, OK?), don’t go halfway. Break free from the tyranny of turkey on wheat and think outside the bag a little. Brunch for Lunch T’s Café has taken over […]
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A Little Kick
It’s not spring. I wish it was, food-wise, but it isn’t. My diet is suffocated by a robotic procession of root vegetables. British cookbooks extol the pleasures of cozy winter cooking, but I live in California, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and I can’t eat any more cottage pie. Plus, your name is ridiculous. No more mashed Swedes, […]
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What the Pho?
If we count the Toni’s Taste of Thai truck in front of Toni’s diner in Arcata (1901 Heindon Road), there are eight Southeast Asian restaurants in Humboldt. That’s only one fewer than the number of sushi restaurants, mathematically proving that Southeast Asian cuisine is pretty damn popular. If you doubt, ponder this: There is a […]
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Straight From the Farm
On a light-drenched afternoon back in October, the pumpkin patch at Organic Matters Ranch on Myrtle Avenue was thickly dotted with pumpkins of various shades of orange and some green Marina di Chioggia squashes, too. Chickens dressed in lustrous feathers tasted pumpkin in front of their coop. Two shiny black pigs enjoyed the sunny weather. […]
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Hum Plate
Maybe you overindulged during the holidays. You might still be trying to Bloody Mary your way through a New Year’s Eve hangover or gulping down liquid lawn trimmings as part of some sort of cleanse. Sorry. Here are some of the delights that await you when you return to the pleasures of eating. (You’ll be […]
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Crab.
Decadence does not have to be complicated. Christmas dinner in our family consists of three simple ingredients: homemade mayonnaise, sourdough bread and crab. That crab sandwiches have usurped ham and turkey at our table for close to a century is no surprise: The rosy-limbed crustaceans hold a special place in the heart of Humboldt County […]
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Wintery Booze
The official start of winter is days away, but the brutally low temperatures aren’t waiting for the solstice. That deep chill has set in, and fingers, toes and noses are feeling it. You can bundle up in mittens, coats, scarves or those weird half-face mask things to stave off the cold momentarily, but sometimes you […]
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Beans and Greens
Loyal readers may recall my rant from a few years back concerning my dizzying plunge into penury. Thank goodness I adjusted comfortably and today can happily report that good food is not dependent upon full coffers. In this interim of gift buying between Hanukkah and Christmas, I have been pinching my pennies more than the […]
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Game On
There will be blood. Don’t think that just because you didn’t shoot the beast yourself you don’t have to deal with it. The blood will leak through the plastic wrap and butcher paper, making your kitchen look like a crime scene. It will puddle and congeal at the bottom of your refrigerator. The hunter in […]
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Fieri in the Belly
Even over the phone, you can hear the hair. Guy Fieri is talking about his old job as table-side flambé captain at the Red Lion hotel in Eureka with the same fist-bumping joy he has over a drippy burger on his Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. “It was the best job. Food is […]