Skagit Valley

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taco crawl: Burlington

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are you having tacos tonight? If not, don’t worry – we ate some for you.

Last weekend, Jon and I went taco-hopping with the help of three intrepid friends. Piled into our minivan, we confused the hell out of the workers at three different taco trucks along Burlington Boulevard. A clown car full of gringos, weird. Eventually we ran out of known taco truck locations as well as appetite, but I think we did pretty well.

Heading over the Skagit River to Burlington, we kept our eyes peeled. There used to be a carniceria in this area, which sometimes set up a big grill out in its parking lot, but sadly it closed last year. We found no sign of tacos until we had passed the mall, but just after Office Max we saw our first target, Taco Express.

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Posted in eating out | 2 Responses »
Tags: Burlington, food carts, Mexican food, Skagit Valley, taco wagons, tacos, taquerias

giving back

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

One issue that food bloggers generally don’t have to deal with is not having enough food. There may be days that I have no idea what to make with the weird ingredients in my pantry, but starving is not usually much of a problem. Being well aware that this isn’t the case for everyone, I’d like to use today’s post to make a small plug for a bit of charitable giving.

For most of us, this is a hard time to scrape up anything to give, but it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to take much. Food banks and cold weather shelters are always in need of more supplies, if you have spare canned food or blankets lying around. You can volunteer your time at a food bank or soup kitchen. Or you can, if you have it, give cash, which gives the charity the option of getting what they need most.

Many food bloggers are taking part in Menu for Hope, the brainchild of blogger Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim. Featuring prizes donated by food bloggers all over the world, the event raises money through raffle tickets and donates it to the UN World Food Programme. I think it’s a fantastic event, and encourage anyone who’s interested to participate.

sfsa

For myself, I prefer to look for needs closer to home. Jon and I donate to the Skagit Food Share Alliance, a program run by the Skagit Community Action Agency. By purchasing locally grown produce for food banks and hot meal programs, they work against hunger and support local farmers at the same time. It’s a win-win situation, in my opinion. If you live in the Skagit Valley or support the preservation of Skagit farmland, please consider donating.

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Tags: charity, hunger, Skagit Valley

sheep farm

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Last weekend we were delighted to have the chance to visit Martiny Suffolks, the farm from whence comes the lamb we’ve been eating all summer. As part of the Skagit Festival of Family Farms, many small farms up and down the valley opened to the public for the day, including great places like Taylor Shellfish, Golden Glen Creamery, and Gordon Skagit Farm (to see the festivities at Gordon’s, check out this post at Willow Basketmaker). There were all sorts of activities, but we were there for the free samples and to give a few sheep noses some scritches.

We probably would never have ended up as customers if Linda Martiny (who owns the farm along with Mike Donnelly) hadn’t decided to try running a booth at the Mount Vernon Farmer’s Market this year. We saw the sign for local lamb on the first day and made a beeline, immediately buying a selection of chops and ground meat. We ended up buying half a lamb, and I suspect it will only be the first of many.

Martiny Suffolks

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Posted in hunting & gathering | 2 Responses »
Tags: farmers, farms, lamb, local foods, sheep, Skagit Valley

Festival of Family Farms

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Just a reminder to anyone in the general neighborhood: this weekend is the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms, when many of the local small farms open their gates to visitors and feature tours, activities and goodies for the general public. If you want to visit a working farm or see where your food is coming from, now’s your chance. There will be hayrides and corn mazes and all kinds of fun stuff. Make a day of it!

The list of participating farms can be found here.

Posted in hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: farmers, farms, local foods, Skagit Valley

Skagit Eat Local Week

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

eatlocalposter2

Today is the kickoff of Skagit Eat Local Week, sponsored by the local Slow Food chapter and the Skagit Valley Co-op. If you’re in Skagit County, now’s your chance to take advantage of all this amazing area offers. Participating restaurants will be featuring local food specials, and residents are encouraged to shop at farmer’s markets, farmstands and shops selling local products. Are you cooking at home? See how much you can do with Skagit Valley-produced ingredients. Remember, Eat Local Week happens mostly at the end of your fork.

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Posted in eating in, eating out, hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: farmer's markets, farmers, local foods, restaurants, Skagit Valley

lunch on the slough

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

On our way out to Larabee State Park for a walk in the woods, we stopped in the town of Edison for a bite of lunch. My original intention had been to have some fried oysters and a beer at The Edison Inn, but as we walked past Slough Food we spied a sign advertising lunch in their courtyard. Whoo!

This place is one of our favorite shops in the whole area. John DeGloria, the owner, sells an intriguing mixture of European imported foods, such as pasta and anchovies, and locally produced specialties such as duck eggs and chanterelles. He has an incredible cheese case, plus cured meats from Salumi and other sources. Most of the shop is dedicated to wine, with a special table set aside for high quality chocolates. There is no better place to build a picnic. And even better, now you can have the picnic right there in the back yard!

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Posted in eating out | 5 Responses »
Tags: Edison, lunch, restaurants, sandwiches, Skagit Valley

Mount Vernon taco crawl

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

It recently occurred to me that we’ve lived in Mount Vernon for twelve years now and have never done a comparative study of all the taco wagons here in town. With the able assistance of my husband and two taco-loving friends, I set out to do so last Saturday.

(Mount Vernon, by the way, is a particularly good place for taco tastings, as our population is about 25 percent Hispanic. This crawl just covered taco wagons, but if you included groceries, taquerias, family restaurants, carnicerias and ladies-who-make-awesome-tamales, you’d be kept busy for quite some time. Anyway – on to the tacos.)

Our first stop: Taqueria La Bamba. This truck has been set up on College Way for at least ten years, but since we moved out of the neighborhood we hadn’t visited. Its location is prime, near both the community college and the largely Hispanic Kulshan neighborhood. It boasts a large permanent dining area, several outdoor tables and a highly dangerous looking rope swing.

We decided to order four types of tacos, getting two of each so we could all taste. We picked lengua (tongue), asada (beef), adobada (pork) and tripas (tripe). We also picked up a couple of bottles of tamarind soda pop, one of the best things to drink with a taco besides beer.

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Posted in eating out | 11 Responses »
Tags: food carts, Mexican food, Mount Vernon, Skagit Valley, tacos

corn dogs & wine

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Another street fair has come and gone. This one had beautiful weather, which made a nice change after the last few years. A lot of vendors had given up on this fair after getting blown away or hailed upon, but there was still a good turnout of both vendors and customers.

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Posted in eating out | 1 Response »
Tags: corn dogs, food & wine pairing, fried food, junk food, Mount Vernon, Skagit Valley, street food, wine

Empire Ale House

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

As you may or may not know, April is a time of great confusion and rejoicing in the Skagit Valley, being the time of the Skagit Tulip Festival. What this means is that there are a few weeks of blissful quiet while the daffodil fields bloom (why does everyone ignore the daffodils?), then a weekend or two of complete mayhem when the tulips finally deign to show their colors and the tourists flock in, getting lost in downtown Mount Vernon in need of bathrooms and maps.

This particular weekend features the Tulip Festival Street Fair. They were setting up for it as I walked home today, and for the next three days we will continue to be very very glad that we live walking distance from downtown – because god help anyone who’s trying to park down there. We can also be grateful that the weather forecast is looking promising – a few years ago there was a howling windstorm that swept away the craft tents, and last year it hailed. A lot. We’re all hoping this year will be better.

If any of you are planning to come up and join in the festivities, you might wonder where there is to eat. We do have a few good places here in town, and it’s an interesting fact that most of them are pubs. Within just a few short blocks we have The Porterhouse, Trumpeter Public House, Empire Ale House, Draft Pics Sports Bar and Skagit River Brewery. Apparently you can never have too many places to drink beer.

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Posted in eating out | No Responses »
Tags: beer, Mount Vernon, pubs, restaurants, sandwiches, Skagit Valley

a good food day

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

After a successful food safari out on the Skagit Flats on Saturday (including a truly amazing brunch at the Rhody - I mean, seriously, potato pancakes with sausages, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce!?! Not to mention those little cranberry walnut things – yum) we came home prepared for a cozy November evening inside.

We brought home bread and strawberry jam from the Breadfarm (we bought fresh macaroons, too, but somehow they never made it home), fresh leeks, celeriac, broccoli, shelling beans and chioggia beets from Dunbar Gardens, and a nice bag of groceries from Slough Food: multicolored eggs from Osprey Hill Farm, farro from the Methow Valley, guanciale (cured pork jowl) from Salumi, Humboldt Fog and Petit Basque cheeses, and a bag of fresh chanterelles. Dinner almost cooked itself!

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Posted in eating in, hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: cheesy goodness, local foods, mushrooms, pork, rice, risotto, Skagit Valley

Food on the Brain

Is it wrong when all your conversations end up about food?

Skagit Valley

...now browsing by tag

taco crawl: Burlington

giving back

sheep farm

Festival of Family Farms

Skagit Eat Local Week

lunch on the slough

Mount Vernon taco crawl

corn dogs & wine

Empire Ale House

a good food day