The Daily Bite: The Whale Wins

Family Food Fest 2014 ended with a bang thanks to the deliciousness supplied by "The Whale Wins"

***Spoilers***

According to remodelista.com, Erickson, the creator of "The Whale Wins", was inspired by a painting by American folk artist Mary Maguire depicting a whaling scene. Because of this, "The Whale Wins" can be seen as an homage to the ending of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The whale does indeed win. It is actually quite a coincidence that I am currently working my way through Moby Dick. But that is a post for another day.

To kick off our fabulous meal, we started with Sea Wolf & Columbia City Bakery bread & butter. I usually try to avoid salt and butter, but let's be real, the salted butter and bread was simply amazing. For entrées, We ordered the Hama Hama roasted clams with polenta, greens, tomato broth, and shallots; the Smashed avocado toast with green garlic spiced butter, mizuna, and cilantro; and the special for the day, a pork sausage with artichoke hearts, carrots and baby lima beans. The sausage was delicious and the clams were delectable, (as was the sauce they were swimming in....in fact I very un-daintily used some remaining bread to soak up the sauce. Charming I know, but it was too good to waste!) Even with how good the clams were, My favorite would have to be the smashed avocado toast, which tasted piquant. I am still convinced it had a flavor in it similar to coconut korma, but my husband did not agree. I reminded him I am somewhat of a coconut korma connoisseur, as it is the dish I almost always get when ordering Indian food. He of course had to concede. 

Finally for our last entrée, we had scapes with salbixada sauce & clabrian chilies. They looked like food from a Dr. Seuss book! Scapes are actually the tops of garlic plants, which I had never had before. They were roasted to perfection and reminded me, flavor wise, of roasted pumpkin seeds. If I ever grow my own garlic, I am definitely going to use the tops! 


For dessert we each sampled a bit of Shirlee's brownie with crème anglaise; some yougurt pistachio cake with poached apriums; and some butter roasted zucchini bread with crème fraiche. They were all divine, but I would defiantly order the roasted zucchini bread again. Although, I would suggest taking it with a grain of salt. Seriously, they sprinkled some sea salt over the top and it highlighted the sweet flavors beautifully.

Little Women

I just finished Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  It was my first time reading Little Women, and I loved it.  It reminded me of my mother, three little sisters, grandmother, aunts and cousins.  I have so many memories of wonderful times we shared doing womanly things such as canning, cross stitching and gardening.   My mother has always been a shining example of a capable, classy and loving woman.  Furthermore, I can truly say my sisters are all finely accomplished ladies.  Although, unlike the girls in the book, we sisters are lucky to have a wonderful big brother.

Throughout the book, Alcott uses the kind voice of Mrs. March to remind us all to be better.  Mrs. March sets a good example for her girls and gently reminds and teaches her daughters important lessons.  Furthermore, as the little women endeavor to make their mother proud and improve, it inspires the reader (and consequently me) to work on becoming more grateful, patient, and humble.

Amazingly, Louisa May Alcott's father was told by an editor of The Atlantic magazine, James T. Fields, "Tell Louisa to stick to her teaching; she can never succeed as a writer".  To this, Alcott told her father, "Tell him I will succeed as a writer, and some day I shall write for the Atlantic!"  She did write for the Atlantic and proved Mr. Fields wrong.  Ironically, Alcott's literary achievements are now significantly more famous then her pessimistic critic's (Smith).

Works Cited

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. New York: Baronet /Playmore, 1989. Print.

Smith, Bonnie H. "Advice from Louisa May Alcott." Www.historysmiths. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Sept. 2012. <https://historysmiths.com/Alcott.html>.