Seattle Food Blogger Dinner (With Brief Review of Quinn's Pub)

Tuesday night we had a gathering of a bunch of Seattle food bloggers at the relatively new Quinn's Pub on Capitol Hill. I'd never met any of these folks before, so it was exciting for me to see everyone, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce you as well.

The night's organizer was the fabulous Keren Brown, author of the Savvy Savorer, which is also mirrored over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as the Frantic Foodie. She has a knack not just for alliterative titles, but also creating very welcoming gatherings and bringing great treats to share. My favorite was the fig flavor of Greek Gods yogurt, but the Bacon Salt was good fun too. Who knew it was vegetarian?!? Keren was recently married in Israel and brought along her new husband Erez.

Then we have Katrin Rippel, who is actually not a blogger, but a specialist in menu translation and cultural customization for the dining and hospitality world. She's built her own company around this fascinating niche. She told me that she can look at a plate of food and see what state of mind the chef was in when they made it, which I thought was fascinating! Katrin brought homemade candies to share, which I'm fervently hoarding.

Next we come to Ronald Holden, author of the very popular Cornichon.org and connoisseur of aged grape juice. I asked him a question about Hermitage wine and he instantly described not just the style and general area of France it was from, but the layout of the town and vineyards. As someone who can concentrate that way on food but never had the brain for wine, I was thoroughly amazed.

Candace Dempsey writes both about eating and travel in her Italian Woman At The Table blog and in books. She also teaches other folks how to write about food via an Internet class. She brought me a special treat of cumin powder direct from the souk in Tunis which tastes unbelievable! Candace came with her friend Annie Beckmann, who is a writer and editor at Antioch University.

Chow Foods, operator of 5 Seattle restaurants, is lucky to have Naomi Bishop as their marketing coordinator. She's passionate about food, and you can read her about her personal cooking and dining experiences at The Gastrognome. Naomi is in no way gnome-like in real life. (Go back and read her blog name if that made no sense to you.

Rachel Belle isn't a blogger (yet?), she's a reporter and co-host of the popular Stick a Fork In It show on 710 KIRO radio. At the site you can download their short programs and listen to her amusing hidden-microphone banter with Dan Restione.

And last but not least, Jay Friedman, who is a staff author at Seattlest as well as a sex educator. Heck, sex and food go great together, makes sense to me! I hear he's also working on a one-man show, which I'm guessing will be hilarious. He got my Maldon Sea Salt in the gift exchange, can't wait to hear if he likes it as much as I do.

Quinn's was an ideal place to hold this get-together. They devoted a big communal table to us, giving us lots of space to share drinks and food There are a handful of vegetarian dishes on the gastropub style menu of relatively small plates.

I had a grilled romaine and bread panzanella-style salad that was super tasty, but I thought the bread could have been less soggy. My second dish was curried roast cauliflower, black lentils, and fresh mango with raita. Unlike many Seattle restaurants, Quinn's is not afraid to use salt properly, which I greatly appreciate, especially with drinks. I'm not surprised that the food is delicious, Quinn's is owned by Scott and Heather Staples, who also own the outstanding Restaurant Zoe.

So that's the roundup! I hope you'll check out the sites of some of our other fine bloggers and Quinn's is well worth a stop.

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Published on December 06, 2007.

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Jim Fowler commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Thanks for honest and thoughtful writing on this subject. I am very like you but not as eloquent... Jim

renato commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

When I say umans, I'm meaning HUMANS.

renato commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

I've always seen myself as a "potential vegetarian" or an omnivore with vegeterian tendencies, or whatever, but that was never something I gave thoughts about.

Since childhood I've prefered salads and vegetables over meat - with the exception of fish. But you know, living with people who eat meat all the time, you end up eating meat too, even not liking it at all.

Well, I went to Argentina, my favorite neighbour country (time to say, I'm Brazilian). In Argentina all they eat is meat. They are much more carnivores than omnivores. So, that was ok for me, cause since then I didn't have any concern about eating meat, except its taste. But one week of it made me so sick.

When I returned to Brazil I thanked so much God or the deities or the powers of nature (you see, I have no standard religion) for the incredible amount of vegetables we have here - I believe it doesn't compare to anywhere in the world. Fresh vegetables! I decided to stop eating meat. Many of my friends were going vegetarian at the same time. Thanks to the Universe and its forces, or to simple coincidence. And most importantly, add to that that my pet dog was run over by a bus and I could see all that suffering and trauma in her eyes. And my own despair. There came the realization that there are feelings between us umans and animals. "Do animals have feelings?" is not a necessary question for me, since I have feelings towards them, and that's enough. For your curiosity's sake, she recovered very very well. Dogs are so resistant!

I do very ocasionally eat fish and seafood - so I'm actually pescetarian, which is a specific kind of omnivorism. But meat... since I made my decision I tried meat one more time, but it tasted quite rotten, like a dead thing (which indeed it is). I can't stand the smell of animal fat anymore.

Hard to put up with people that think you'll die or get terribly sick if you don't eat meat. So to deal with it I started reading a lot about vegetarianism, and related issues. You know, a little database to try to argue with meat lovers. Most of the texts I've found are just ideological pamphlets, just too irate to be valid. Yours, Michael, is one of the few that address the issue in a nonpassionate, tolerant way. It made me realise that a diet is a matter of choice and should be adressed in a simple, natural way. It's as simple as choosing a pair of shoes to wear (assuming you're not a girl), especially when you feel good about it.

Sarah commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

My reasons are similar to yours, but slightly different. I just find the idea of eating the flesh of another living creature, a creature that can feel pain, and has free will, simply barbaric. We're all connected, I don't see a tremendous difference between eating a cow and eating a human, both disgust me beyond belief. I don't think we should be feeding ourselves on death, it just seems wrong. Armed with this, I can combat any possible circumstance people hypothetically construct for meat eating.
It frustrates me when people demand explanations for my choice, and mock me for my lifestyle, thank you for writing such a well voiced and intelligent article that helps to combat the antipathy many meat eaters seem to feel towards vegetarians.

Michael Natkin commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Thanks Amber! I started when I was 18, so I remember well how much flak you take at that age. For what it is worth, it gets a lot easier as you get older and the people around you are more accepting.

Spa Flyer commented on How to Make Fluffy Couscous - Easy Couscous Recipe:

Wow, thanks for the tip. I only recently discovered cous cous and just love it. I was curious why it was fluffy sometimes, and not others, and thought it was the water. I think now it was the depth or narrowness of the various bowls I was using. I'll use my big, flat roasting pan next time. Thank you!

frantic foodie commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

Michael, love the way you wrote this one, was a vegetarian for 5 years. You should print this and wear it on your forehead, that way people won't even have to ask

Amber commented on Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit:

I've been a vegetarian for 4 years. I'm only 17, so I seem to get more flack from meat-eaters about my decision. It's always pretty hard for me to get my point across to people who ask because I tend to get angry or flustered and I just drop the subject before I start crying or yelling. This article explains exactly why I made my decision and continue to live by it. So, when people ask me from now on, I do believe I will tell them the URL to this article. Thank you, and I will also be checking out this website from now on.

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