Sunday brunch by the park in Georgetown

Do I need to actually say how good The Corson Building (Georgetown) is? Do you actually need reassurance that Matt Dillon's friendly and relaxed slow-food haven is worth a visit, and many more after that? How's this: brunch is only $23 per person, plus libations (e.g., "Bomb-Ass Bloody Mary").

















↑Plain and whole wheat-with-nuts baguettes, butter and brie; French press coffee. From the sideboard: plums & blueberries with yogurt; baby turnips and potatoes.

↓Fried egg (thank you, chickens) with Pecorino, pickled peppers, pumpkin seeds, and broccoli

Reservations not required, but a good idea.

Not supposed to be sliders

Six Arms (Pike/Pine) is one of my favorite brew pubs, and has been for a long time. I've been going there since ACT moved to 7th and Union, which means it's been more than ten years.

In the last four years life has taken me away from that part of town -- Dad Watson, the McMenamin's outpost in Fremont, is my usual place to enjoy the chain's Hammerhead, nitro stout and Ruby beers -- so upon a recent visit to Six Arms I was shocked at the burgers.

Still fresh tasting, the natural beef patty still amazingly grease-free, the bun still bakery fresh. But it looked like it had been accidentally exposed, briefly, to a shrinking process. Maybe the one from Fantastic Voyage (Fox, 1966).

Everything was proportionally smaller, maybe three fifths the size of a customary hamburger. Worse, I was still hungry after. And they skimped on the fries, much less than Dad Watson or McMenamin's on Roy Street.

My philosophy is, if you can see the plate through the pile of fries there aren't enough.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

5 Things That Should Be in Your Kitchen

#4 - Food Processor

Yes, they can be expensive. Yes, the potential number of available attachments threatens like baseball cards.

But a good food processor can do certain things that are time consuming when done by hand, which might otherwise be a deterrent.

Here's the thing: you can ignore almost all the attachments.

I use a garage sale special Cuisinart DLC-7, and I only own four attachments: the dough hook, the vegetable chopper, the grater and the metal blade. Of these, I only use the last two with any regularity.

I fear skinning my knuckles, so I would never shred potatoes or grate cheese if not for the Cuisinart. Those also take too long by hand, whereas the Cuisinart is like lightning. I'm not being a baby -- prep time is important if you're making a lot of dishes at once.

The metal blade can handle almost everything else: kneading bread and pasta dough, powdering chili pods, milling smoky tea for barbecue rubs, and pureeing anything.

One thing -- a Cuisinart is only mostly indestructible. Parts will break, so know your model and part numbers when cruising garage sales and the Goodwill.

5 Things That Should Be in Your Kitchen

#3: Bacon

Don't give me that "Noooo, it's greasy" crap: you love bacon.

If it will help, you can call it American Pancetta, because that's really all it is.

The great thing about bacon is its versatility. Not only can it be cooked to so many different outcomes (soft, medium, crisp, ultra-crisp), and used in so many different dishes (omelets, BLTs, burgers, salads, soups, appetizers -- the list is almost endless), even the leftover liquid fat has uses.

I usually cook up a half-dozen rashers every other week just to have them handy, and refrigerate them wrapped in Saran. The fat from the skillet should be poured into a metal container with a plastic lid and also kept in the fridge.

Then consider using a teaspoon or two of bacon fat when you ordinarily might use corn oil, olive oil or butter -- when browning chunks of beef or chicken, for example. Or massage some into a whole chicken, season and roast.

I like the Niman Ranch applewood-smoked natural bacon, which is raised using humane and sustainable methods. Most supermarkets stock it now, often on sale for under $6.

5 Things That Should Be in Your Kitchen

#2: Noilly Prat Vermouth

If you like to make Asian food, especially stir-fries, "sherry wine" is an ubiquitous ingredient in many cookbooks. The problem is that most people likely don't have sherry, and since it seems like a lot of trouble for something you drizzle around the sides of the wok when the dish is almost done, I think most of us just leave it out. I know I used to.

But once you do use sherry, the difference sans sherry is glaring, and you can't go back.

Don't buy expensive sherry. Since you're cooking with it, the alcohol boils off and the remaining essence mixes with the food. Thus 'quality' sherry is not required.

Instead, $7 will get you a bottle of Noilly Prat that could last you a decade. Vermouth is just sherry with more sugar, and gives dishes the same flavor.

Try Noilly Prat in Chinese meatloaf, or in a regular stir-fry. Only a half-capful needs to be added, as noted just drizzle it around the sides of the wok at the end, just before you combine all the ingredients. You won't be sorry.

5 Things That Should Be in Your Kitchen

#1: Toasted Flour


You know those times when you're trying to make a soup, gravy or sauce, and it turns out too thin? It's too late for the corn starch, a trick that works best before you add the water. Sure, you could try to mix some corn starch with a TINY bit of water, but there is a very high probability of a lump of unblended corn starch staring back at you from the pan. No one wants that.

Toasted flour is what you want in such situations, a teaspoon or two blends nicely into just about any hot liquid. Here's how to do it.

Tools:
A wok. I prefer the round-bottom kind.
A metal spatula, business end curved to match the curve of the wok

Ingredients:
White or unbleached flour

Procedure:

• Heat wok to almost-high.
• Put a quarter- to a third-cup of flour in the wok bottom. Sift through a wire strainer to remove lumps.
• After 30-45 seconds start scraping/stirring flour at 10-20 second intervals. Make sure you scrape/stir the flour off the bottom of the wok.
• Adjust heat as flour heats up; do not let it brown too fast or it will burn. Watch the edges of the pile of flour for browning.
  
• After a few minutes the flour will start to darken. Now scrape/stir continually.
• Flour is done when medium-golden. Dump it into a bowl and toast another batch.

After you think you have enough, let the flour cool. Store in an airtight container.

A word about Wondra. It is flour product that dissolves fast even if the liquid is cold; this is achieved by removing most of the protein and adding gelatin and some malted barley flour. This is all well and good, but I never need to thicken anything cold, and toasted flour achieves the same thing with ordinary flour. So if you have flour already, why spend another three bucks on Wondra?

The best use I've found for toasted flour is that it speeds up the creation of mac & cheese. No more trying to brown the flour-butter mixture for umpteen minutes! Just melt the butter, throw in some toasted flour, blend, and proceed with the cheesy goodness as you normally would.