Treats and Deets

I don't have an overwhelming amount to say on the food front. I spent the day doing procurement type work. Calling vendors and discussing products and specs and just how quickly we can get samples. It is kind of amazing though. If you have a contract with a vendor (and in some cases even if you don't) and you say "I want 5 lbs of sweet potatoes sent to this address" the sales rep not only says "okay" they overnight FedEx it to you-- for free. It's pretty amazing. On tap for a Monday delivery are two #10 cans (weighing in at 6.5 lbs each) of marinated mushrooms. That's a ton of marinated mushrooms and that is actually my fault. I asked for the weight of the sample size of mushrooms in ounces. He said "it's a #10 can...so...6.5". Me being the retail consumer that I am I assume, naively, that he means 6.5 oz. I even write an e-mail to our chefs saying that two 6.5 oz cans of mushrooms will be arriving shortly. Imagine my surprise as I'm reviewing specs and discover that the cans are 6.5 POUNDS each. That's a pretty big error by me. Thankfully A) it was free B) the people around these parts probably didn't even read the e-mail I wrote C) they are all very forgiving. These kinds of mistakes are better made in quantities of low number ounces to low number pounds rather than on large scale procurement whereby we might move 3,000 lbs a week of something like corn.

In non-food oriented news, I've been going running at Greenlake a fair amount. And just for the sake of diversity I'd like to discuss some of the regulars that I have seen because they are quite a group...albeit not attractive, as is the gold standard in this city...but highly dynamice. (I know what you are thinking "Wow, Kitchen Assassin, that is incredibly rude". Actually my friends, do a Google search. That is common knowledge among the rest of the world and even some locals. I didn't come up with it on my own, I just happen to agree.)

1) Old St. Nick. This guy is the reincarnate of a more svelte Santa. Same white hair, same white beard. He walks around the lake wearing a smock with red lettering that reads "Spanish Lessons". I'm wondering if he is wearing it because he is looking for lessons or because he gives them or because the smock is a nice way to keep cool. Today I saw him sitting down on a bench with a young guy. I slowed down my pace in an attempt to determine if they were speaking Spanish-- when I passed, the young guy was saying "ooooohhh" not indicative of much. This will require more investigating.

2) Husky Guy. He is not husky, but his dog is. Everytime I've seen him he is wearing all navy blue and is hanging out with his snow white husky. Once he was just sitting on a bench; the enormous dog draped over him. He looked pretty chilled out and so did his pooch. I dig him. He and his pup make a good team.

3) Roller Boogie. So along with some of the other more sweeping generalizations I could make about Seattle, I'd have to say this city loves its rollerblades. I don't get this at all but I'm trying not to judge and thankfully the people don't wear neon spandex while doing their shuffle. However, there is this fella at Greenlake who is a large black man who roller blades with his iPod. This is not abnormal except that he dances while he blades. At some point I'll have to ask him what he listens to because he looks so sublimely happy while he does his triple step-side kick-shuffle that I want whatever he's got...except for the blades. I don't really want those.

As I write this I am standing in the kitchen. Randy is over my right shoulder making beer. The Mariners game is on in the background-- in the distance you can hear the trains whistling by. All is peaceful in Seattle.