I had a friend once who saved the corks from wine bottles. He said that he sent them to his brother for some reason or other I can't remember now. Now there really is a reason to save your corks (and not just for all those cork stamps you've been planning on making).

According to Chow: The Grinder, a new program called ReCORK America is operating in Oregon and California. ReCORK America collects and recycles used wine corks. It's sponsored by a Portugese cork manufacturer, Amorim, and works mainly with institutions that go though a lot of corks. However, they also have drop off centers so individuals can also participate.

I turned my browser to the New York Times Dining and Wine section yesterday morning and was startled to discover that the headlining story was about the burgeoning restaurant movement in my very hometown of Portland, OR. As I began to read, I was totally delighted to discover that the very first restaurateur they mentioned and then quoted was none other than my cousin, Andy Ricker. Forgive me the familial pride, but I'm bubbling over with excitement that what started as just a little Thai take-out shack in SE Portland has become enough of a city institution to merit a mention in country's newspaper of record.

Oh, and if you happen to get an opportunity to go to Pok Pok, make sure to have the fish sauce glazed wings. It's been nearly ten months since I had my last taste and I still dream about them.

Photo link

This summer, you may send your kids off to camp deep in the woods to eat bugs, make crafts out of tree bark, and sing sings in rounds around a campfire, but for the adults, the real summer camp is the three-day International Pinot Noir Celebration, being held this weekend (July 27-29) in Oregon Wine Country.

The Wine Advocate calls the event "unquestionably the finest in the world," with a hedonistic three days of seminars, tastings, tours and one-of-a-kind meals with 60 international Pinot Noir winemakers and food prepared by renown chefs in the Pacific Northwest. More information about the festival on the website.

Of course, it's only for a few weeks, to see how the other half lives.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and his wife are going to live on just three dollars worth of food stamps a day raise awareness of what poorer people have to face in their everyday lives.

It sounds great I guess, but is it really an accurate representation? I mean, what car is the couple going to drive to the store in? When they get back from the store, what kind of house are they living in, what kind of bed, what kind of TV are they watching, how much money do they have in the bank if they need it for an emergency? When I was a little kid, my family was on food stamps for about a year, and I think a lot of other factors weigh in on what happens to you when you have to be on them.

Utah has a claim to fame other than Mormons and The Osmonds. It's fry sauce. The pinkish concoction has been around for more than 50 years and is the states condiment of choice for French fries.

The stuff is so popular at home and in fast-food spots that there was a fry sauce pin made for the 2002 Olympics. The basic recipe for fry sauce is simple: one part ketchup to two parts mayonnaise. Of course there are numerous variations on the coral-colored condiment. Some restaurants add salt, spices, garlic, relish, horseradish and even pickle juice.

As with many flavors that have captured the public's palate, there's a secret recipe. Gary Roberts, president of Arctic Circle restaurants, which claims to have invented fry sauce in 1948, keeps his fry sauce formula in a safe.

Utah, however, no longer leads the country in fry sauce consumption. Washington and Oregon now consume more of the stuff than the state where it originated. Go figure.

Would you say that you love donuts? Even if your answer is "yes" and the employees at your local Dunkin' Donuts have your order ready and waiting for you every morning, you probably don't come close to the donut-love of Blognut. Not only does he blog about doughnuts, but actually took a trip across the country, from New York to Portland, OR, to get his wedding vows (with his wife, not a donut) renewed at Voodoo Doughnuts, one of the best donut shops in the country. And not only did he trek out to Voodoo, he blogged the whole experience - including what seems to be every donut on their menu. He and his wife visited Voodoo at least 5 times in one weekend, including stopping in three separate times on their last day in the Pacific Northwest. Multiple donuts were consumed each day.

The trip is blogged in five parts (part one, part two, part three, part four, part five) and is a must-read for any donut lover. Or if you just want to see some really great pics of some really unusual donuts (like the giant cat-donut above).

Only a few days after we were told that it was once again safe to eat spinach, the FDA issued a recall on lettuce from the Salinas-based Nunes Co. The recall only applies to lettuce purchased from October 3-6 in seven western states: Oregon, Idaho, Montana,California, Nevada, Washington and Arizona, and "the recalled lettuce was packaged as "Green Leaf 24 Count, waxed carton," and "Green Leaf 18 Count, cellophane sleeve, returnable carton." Packaging is stamped with lot code 6SL0024."

The reason that the lettuce was recalled was due to a concern over a possibly E.coli contamination in the water supply to the fields, although no E.coli has been found in any of the lettuce and no people have reported illness. The owner of the family-run company says that they have strict safety protocols, which were strengthened when the "spinach scare" broke out.

At this point, all lettuce covered by the recall should be off shelves, but it could be a good idea to check the bags in your fridge just in case.

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A fabulous service offered in the metro areas of both Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA, is called Organics to You. The food service began in 2001 in Portland, but due to the high demand of quality fruits and vegetables and the competitive prices of the merchandise, it quickly expanded North to Vancouver. Organics to You uses local farmers who are dedicated to growing food in the nurturing environment of chemical and pesticide free soils. Not only is the company committed to pure foods, it is also devoted to the environment and local communities in numerous ways. The trucks used for deliveries are currently being converted to bio-diesel engines, incentives are offered to members who also convert to green power for their own transportation. Local schools benefit from donations of the organic fruits and vegetables, as well as community fundraising and social events.

The service is user friendly and easy to begin. By signing up on-line a customer can choose from various bin sizes that suit their needs. Bins range in prices from $23 to $52 depending on individual needs. The company provides the bin and delivers it each week straight from the farm. Contents can be customized for specific tastes and the size can change depending upon customer request. A small variety of other organic items, such as milk, eggs and cheese, can be delivered as well. This is a wonderful way for customers to enjoy clean food while the farmers benefit from working with a small company that is interested in encouraging a healthy lifestyle.

One of the pastry classes at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute took on a big task this year. They learned how to recreate preservative-laden childhood favorites without using the preservatives or the machines that are typically used to engineer candies like gummy worms, Zingers and lollipops. And then they made them giant.

At their final exhibition, there were cupcakes and candies that would have fit in perfectly at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Perhaps the most impressive was the creation made by Brandon Finley: a giant tootsie pop. Pictured here, the lollipop weighed more than 40 pounds and used a 24-inch french rolling pin as a "stick." The chocolate tootsie center weighed about 15 pounds alone. Finley said that he had planned to make the confection larger, but the school actually ran out of sugar after the other students finished their projects and Finley used more that 25 pounds of it in his.

I wonder how many licks it took to get to the center of that pop.

[Image The Worldlink]

Yesterday I picked "Ethiopia Sidamo" from the thermal pot at my fave local coffee shop, on a whim. I almost never go with the boring, ordinary Colombian house blend. Sometimes I'm wowed by my alternative selection, other times it's just coffee.

Color me wowed. I can't get enough of this stuff. It tastes like berries. No lie. And I'm sure you're thinking, coffee that tastes like berries? I totally passed that raspberry-flavored stuff up in the coffee aisle at my grocery store. But this is more a terroir thing (do they call it terroir in coffee?). The coffee beans, they're not that different from grapes, after all. Roasting brings out these amazingly complex and, yes, fruity flavors. According to the roaster, Stumptown Coffee, "The cup is Neopolitan ice cream... Intense chocolate, strawberry and creamy vanilla flavors in every sip." Plus it's organic and fair-trade and ohmigod I am so in love with this coffee. I wish I could give you a taste, you'd never be the same.

I'm not what you would call a sushi purist, but I really hate "California rolls" and other constructs meant to make sushi palatable to picky eaters and those fearful of raw fish. My favorite rolls include spicy tuna, barbecued eel, or soft-shelled crab, and I have a guilty love of that spicy mayonnaise served with some tempura rolls.

But when I visited a little sushi joint in downtown Portland at the insistence of my three-year-old son (he loves "slushli" and has been eating barbecued eel since before he was one), I almost didn't order the peanut sauce roll. But it had everything I love in one roll - spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber, tempura shrimp. And Thai-flavored peanut sauce. Why not?

I tried it, and though I felt a little silly, I loved it. It's terribly frou-frou and not "real" sushi. But it's good. I don't know - it works for me. Would you order such a silly piece of sushi?

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]

I ate my Danish for D-day but didn't get a chance to write about it. Now, I do.

This Danish is... literally... six inches across. It's the most decadent thing for breakfast within a good 17-mile radius, scented with cinnamon and butter, dotted with crumb topping crumbles, sparkling with icing and swirled with raspberry jam. These delectable pastries, in a variety of flavors and many studded with whole blueberries or sliced local peaches, are baked fresh every day by Bowers Bakery in Portland. Just wait until you see the height of this ultra-yummy pastry.

I didn't really believe it, at first. A vegan cupcake? Yet there they were, almost glistening in the rainy late morning light. If any place is going to have a delicious vegan cupcake, I suppose, it would be here, in Portland, Oregon, at this strangely gourmet cafeteria where everything is vegan. The space used to be a the lobby of a grand downtown hotel, but now it's Veganopolis. I've tasted their almond pate, and it was wonderful, so I dared to try the cupcake.

And, yes, it was lovely. I picked the cranberry orange variety 'cause the waitress got teary-eyed in her description. It was fruity, it was pleasingly sweet, the frosting (most importantly) tasted just like buttercream. I still haven't had a chance to call and ask what was in it - silken tofu, maybe, or (yikes) shortening perhaps. Either way, the huge mound of frosting was even more than I dreamed. Too much more, in fact; it was so rich I couldn't finish.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]

I'd like to confess some sins of the edible variety. 

I may be a slashfoodie, a gourmet wannabe, a woman whose credentials even include the word "chef" after "position" on her résumé. But still, when I'm hungry and busy and in the car for any reason, I'll stop at the burger joint more often than not.

At least it's Burgerville. The Pacific Northwest-based fast food chain is the slowest on the burgers-and-fries scale. They get their beef from Oregon-grown, free-range cows. They get their cheddar cheese from Tillamook. They use local tomatoes when they're in season, they only make onion rings a few months a year from Walla Walla sweets. Their salads feature Oregon hazelnuts and blue cheese and they even offer apple slices in their kids' meals.

It may be fast food, but I still feel a little bit good about it. Now if I could only figure out a justification for skipping breakfast...

[Photo Sarah Gilbert, Burgerville via my husband]

It's a testament to a truly consistent and excellent chef when foods that are nearly always disappointing at your run-of-the-mill restaurants are, instead, perfectly prepared, texturally impeccable, the promise realized. So it was with Tani's fried oysters, a special that my husband often orders but (at any other establishment) I always find greasy, improperly cooked, gritty and fishy tasting. But these oysters, these were enough to make me fall in love all over again with the mollusk. The breading was crisp but not fat-laden, light but flavorful, the dish an amazing juxtaposition of fleshy oyster, delicate coating.