P I C N I C

Lindsey stopped by yesterday and dropped off some bacon jam from a Seattle food cart called Skillet. It’s kind of an unappetizing name. Why don’t they just call it rillettes? I had it for breakfast. It’s pretty good, although the smoke in the bacon seems out of place here. Skillet makes burgers where they use this in place of mayonaise. I should give that a shot.

Lindsey is very connected with all sorts of foodies. A week ago we had dinner at Suzette with Marlowe, later stopping by her homestead. She has a compost with a green roof above where she grows herbs, 2 bee colonies, irrigation in the garden, pullets in the basement, and a large quantity of jam tucked away from last fall. Her green tomato chutney is totally delicious. It’s got a BBQ sauce character, with cinnamon, cloves, and possibly soy sauce in there as well.

(click for a higher resolution photo)

The PSU monthly newspaper did a spread on their nearby food cart lot. I’ve been debating where my location should be, but this is exactly the argument for why I would want to be downtown. Exciting food cart clusters like this.

I met Elle downtown for lunch at Addy’s, at SW 10th and Alder. This cart just opened a few weeks ago. She uses bread from Little-T, the excellent bakery just down the street from me. The sandwiches seem to be very simple. Elle got the brie and cucumber and that’s all it was. I got the duck confit with apricot sauce, (which was really apricot jam.) Both sandwiches were so tasty! Everything else sounds dreamy. The chocolate sandwich is toasted with a big slab of melted dark chocolate. The pate she makes herself. I asked what kind of pate it was and she says, a little nervous, ‘it’s got pork and fat and umm, more fat.’ I’m totally hooked! Also there’s the cutest little porch to sit at.

Well, the little lunch booth at the letterpress fair went very well. I think the sandwiches were pretty popular, people seemed to really like them. The ham and cheddar and also the garbanzo and tomato were popular, but I didn’t sell a single nut butter and jelly. The sign simply read ‘peanut butter and jelly’. The descriptions were all made last minute and were very simply. Originally the ham sandwich was listed as ‘ham and cheese,’ but then Kate changed it to read, ‘smoked ham with cheddar,’ at which point it began to sell better. I’m not really good at thinking about the public image and the marketing and all that.