I think I've died and gone to heaven. I just had another bottle of Widmer Brothers' Snowplow Milk Stout. (This is a beer for those who are not hop-saavy.)

This is an incredibly smooth, chocolately stout with an amazing finish attributed to the milk sugar they add to the beer before fermentation. It's really quite unlike any beer I've ever had. (And I've had a lot of beer...)

I think I'll go have another.

Michelle and I had dinner at the Herbfarm this week with Scott and his wife Patti, our friend Angie, and our friend Mike. We've been to the Herbfarm several times before, although this is the first time in their new location (their first place burned down, then they were in a few temporary locations.)

Both Angie and Scott beat me to writing about the dinner in their blogs, so I'll leave you with their descriptions of the menu and evening. I will say, though, that dinner at the Herbfarm is always great and interesting, but boy, it's long. Six hours is quite an endurance test. I think it's easier to bear when the weather is nice since you can walk around outside between courses. A good group of friends who are active and scintillating conversationalists is a must as well (fortunately, we were covered there.)

Anyway, it was nice to see the Herbfarm is still wonderful. I'm looking forward to our next meal there -- after I've slept a bit.

Angie's view Scott's view

Yesterday in Taipei, we had a little press interview and went to kick off the Microsoft booth at InfoMonth, an immense trade show that was packed with people. We saw some cool stuff, especially the Cappuccino computer, a tiny desktop PC with full specs. Lots of cute booth babes (especially the Microsoft booth) topped off this great geek fest.

Afterwards, we had a great lunch at Ting Tai Fung. This is a super popular restaurant in Taipei (so popular they've opened additional branches including some in Tokyo.) It was listed by the New York Times as one of the ten best restaurants in the world. I don't know if that's true, but it was pretty damn good. The restaurant is nothing fancy and specializes in dumplings, which really I love. We had way too much food, but it was amazing.

We finished up the day with a trip to the National Palace Museum (great, but under renovation), a stroll through the Shihlin Night Market, and some shopping in the great electronics district.

The tropical storm took a turn out to see, so the rain eased up and didn't really cause much hassle for us.

I'm in Seoul now, and just had a great Korean bbq dinner. There's nothing better than a little kalbi (bbq'd short ribs) washed down with soju (Korean rice wine) -- except maybe a lot of kalbi washed down with soju. We had a lot of kalbi.

More meetings and MVP stuff tomorrow. Wahoo.

We picked up the last share of the season from the Root Connection, the cooperative farm that we belong to. As I noted at the beginning of the summer, I love the produce we get and the principles the Root Connection stands for.

It's always sad to see the last bag come. I'll have to savor the last bunch of carrots and Honey Boat squash (this is a real treat!) and make the memories last until next summer.

I finally went to the XXX Root Beer Drive-In today for lunch. This Issaquah, WA restaurant was the first drive-in restaurant in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to a fun 50's car atmosphere (they have huge classic car get togethers here), they have great root beer (I think I saw in The Week Magazine that they were on the top 10 best root beer in America list.) The burgers and milkshakes were good too.

Anyway, I can't believe it's taken me 14 years to go there. It won't be 14 years before we go back.

I have never been particular successful making truly great s'mores. In particular, the chocolate never melts; I've always envisioned a sticky, luscious mix of melted chocolate and marshmallow squishing out between the graham crackers. But last night, I think I hit on the right approach (now obvious).

First, the marshmallow must be thoroughly melted and hot. This means a long roast time to get the inside as goopy as the outside. No flaming torches here. Lots of turning and patience here.

Once you have the completely soft marshmallow and assemble the s'more, you need to let the whole thing sit for a few minutes so the heat of the marshmallow can melt the chocolate. This is hard with eager kids, so in practice, I could only do this after handing a frankly half-done s'more to each kid. M-m-m.

I suppose you could this with chocolate sauce instead of a chocolate bar, but that seems like cheating and frankly un-American.

That said, I discovered that I like just marshmallow and graham cracker better than the normal way with chocolate. It's a lot less cloying and doesn't have any of that annoying waiting around.

Since my trip to Provence, I've been jonesing for pastis, the anise flavored liqueur so popular in Provence. I've found a few restaurants around here that have it but have been unlucky about finding a bottle in the state owned liquor stores here (I'll rant about that another time.) I've been combing the liquor stores across Seattle for them, even using their website that purports to accurately reflect the inventory of the stores (it doesn't).

I guess Michelle got sick of me pining for my pastis and being gone for hours at a time wandering from liquor store to liquor store like some kind of desperate alcoholic (I know it might look like that...) She called around (she's the smart one) and found a store that just got a shipment. Happy day!

Much to my glee, I found not only the Ricard 45 I was expecting (this is the most common pastis in the US) but Granier as well. I haven't had Granier yet, so I bought both. Not sure I can tell the difference between the two yet to be honest, but I'll keep drinking both until I can. My dedication to my craft can be tedious, but it's all I know...

For a good article on pastis, check out this Taste Magazine (Williams-Sonoma) article.

How could something as tempting as a deep fried pork sausage kebab be bad? (Remember, everything is better deep fried.) Well, I guess "The Stonner" and its 1000 calories are bad enough to be considered the most dangerous fast food in Britain. It's bad enough that there's a sign in the shop saying they'll only sell one per customer per week.

I gotta get one.

More on this on the Washington Post.

Another one from Boing Boing.

You might think the chocolate coating on a Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie would protect it from becoming stale. You'd be wrong.

I just finished cleaning the 12-gallon bag of organic produce we get each week during the summer from the Root Connection, a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in nearby Woodinville, WA.

Basically, you buy a share of the farm's output and pick it up each week. It's theoretically possible to get nothing, but in practice, we get a huge bag a week. This week we got six heads of lettuce (a.k.a. a shitload of lettuce), a mess of zucchini and yellow squash, two bunches of carrots, and two bunches of red onions. It's too much for us really, but I support what the farm does and want to help. Realistically, a half share would probably be plenty for us most weeks (except when carrots are in season...)

If you've never tasted really fresh produce, you're missing out on one of life's great treats. Furthermore, the varieties of produce from the Root Connection are optimized for flavor, not appearance, mechanical harvestability, or shelf-life like virtually everything you get in the grocery store. The carrots are amazingly sweet and crisp (the kids won't eat store-bought carrots anymore), the lettuce tastes like something more than crunchy water, and the corn (later in the season) is like nothing you've ever had. Plus, everything is organic, so no scary poisons for the family, the environment, or farm workers.

I've come to love seeing stuff come and go over the course of the summer; I really look forward to each crop as comes into season and enjoy its run fully. Eating seasonally is something of a lost art in this era of a global food supply, cold storage, and hot houses. Too bad.

I'm also happy to that the boys can see where food comes from. There are u-pick fields and kids gardens plus flowers and herbs for members. The guys love playing in the fields, pulling weeds, and picking beans. A well-educated friend of ours from a wealthy LA family had never seen a corn plant until well after college (amazing to me, since I grew up in Minnesota). I don't want the kids to be so ignorant of where food comes from and what it looks like au natural (pre-bags and neat store displays). I don't think it's good to be so separated from something so vital.

Finally, I'm glad to see this rich land being farmed instead of turned into strip malls, grass farms (with heavy pesticides), and golf courses like all the land around the farm. I believe that we should use land in the ways it's best suited rather than what's most convenient or even economical. In the end, I think we'll all be happier for it and the ecosystem will be healthier.

If it were just great produce, our farm share would still be a good value. That it's good for the kids, good for the land, and just makes me happy makes it unbeatable.