Sugar. It's the most under-utilized seasoning agent in any cook's pantry. I think it's because we've been so conditioned in the USA to think that sugar == sweet == dessert that we don't even think of the possibilities of using it in savory dishes.

Soup? I use it all of the time.
Sauce? Just today I used it to balance out a slightly acidic pasta sauce.
Meat? Sure. If you want some extra special caramelization, sugar is the way to go. Try dusting your scallops with sugar the next time you saute a batch.
Veg? Any tomato dish that has tomatoes that are slightly out of season would benefit from sugar.

The list goes on and on.

In the past six months I've gotten more and more used to the idea that sugar is an essential seasoning agent along with salt, acids, spices and bittering agents (careful! a little bitterness goes a long way). In the back of the house we doctor things up all of the time to make them taste better and I guarantee you that one of those things that you would never guess that we add is sugar.

Try it the next time you have something that is missing a certain roundness that salt, acid or spice can't bring it. You'll be surprised.

So if you've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, you'll understand just how much of our culture is based on corn. Most of the meat on your table is corn fed (with dramatic environmental and health consequences) along with the fact that processed food is filled with processed corn. It's a disturbing fact, which leads to the importance of eating sustainably.

This past weekend I was struck by the notion that maybe we need to drink sustainably too. Bottled water becoming passe is the new trend at upscale restaurants and, after visiting the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, TN, I was struck by how the language Pollan used to describe food could also be applied to booze.

Pollan used the term "supermarket pastoral" to describe how many companies, mostly organics, use very wholesome images and language to make their products seem natural, sustainable and healthy when they might not be. Similarly, the pastoral images, folksy tone and emphasis on tradition tried to portray Jack Daniel's as a product that was associated with a small time distillery that was made in harmony with nature.

In fact they were trucking in #2 corn from over 10 states listed by my tour guide in order to feed the gigantic needs of a company that was rapidly scaling up production to meet overseas demand. Yes, there are corners you can't cut such as barrel aging and fermentation, but the scale and rate at which they were producing their booze was on an industrial scale.

Just goes to show the need to be suspicious of any marketing.

And as a marketing major, I should have known that.

So in relation to my post about dancing at competitions, someone has kindly posted video of the blues competition. This is the third of five, but shows of Karissa and I the best (I'm the guy with the obnoxious LED belt buckle). We got second place and won ... a pair of passes to the Emerald City Blues Festival. Well, that's one less freebie I have to give away.

In any case, this was the first time I've seen myself dancing on video in about five years. I suck a lot less.

So the chef of Sitka and Spruce gets named as one of Food and Wine's 10 best for this year and I have to scratch my head. I wonder if the award is getting given out only for the food and not the whole restaurant experience.

Don't get me wrong, when I went there back in January of this year, the food was excellent. Thoughtful use of PacNW ingredients with an Italian finish, well seasoned and perfectly cooked. However, the service was atrocious. I know that they are going for casual service, but the degree of abandonment and lack of attention to detail displayed was unforgiveable. The servers stood behind the bar while our water bottle needed a refill multiple times over the course of the evening ... ostensibly the bottle was there so we could serve ourselves, but what happens when the pitifully small bottle needed refilling? And then there was the poor timing, unpolished flatware and the worst: the glassware, from Crate and Barrel or the like, that had not had its stickers removed. There was a layer of sticky residue on the bottom of the glasses that resulted from just dumping them into the dishwasher right after they were purchased.

My sister and I ended the meal half full ... we ended up getting burgers.

As I've gotten trained up in front of the house issues, these service issues bug the shit out of me. Today at a restaurant in Portland, my dining partner and I ordered a cured meat plate. It was perfunctorily dropped off; the server didn't mention what the meats were and I had to stop her to tell me what they were. She got the first one right and couldn't tell us what the other two were ... that's when I remembered what the other ones were supposed to be and I blurted them out (an aside, one of the items, supposedly a bit of lardo was actually pork belly).

The inattention continued. The drinks weren't refilled properly, the server was timid and shy and didn't really sense the timing of the table very well. If she had, she would have sold at least a couple more drinks and increased her check average (another aside: the menu was difficult to read in all lower case, single spaced courier ... my eyes hurt ... and it made me scratch my head too since the menu also was a weird mish mash. Pure Italian for the apps, but the a weird mash of Italian and other cuisines ... how did a bangers and mash get on the menu?)

The food was great, but the service was horrible. I've seen it time and time again at good restaurants and, honestly, I'm beginning to tire of it. I am in the industry, so I tip well, really well, and I rarely ever feel like I'm getting my money's worth. As a cook, I can't really afford to tip that well and still get god awful service. It almost seems like the servers feel entitled to their tips and the place they work at and we're doing them a favor by being there.

I'm not asking for much ... a little more attention to detail, reading the table better, product knowledge, basic shit that they should be doing already because, honestly, it's their job.

*sigh* if you like eating out, don't eat out with me unless you also like to be super critical and a bit catty. Sure it's fun, but sometimes you just want to have a great meal and not have to go to the busser station to mark your own flatware for dessert.

I still don't plan on having competitions at the Emerald City Blues Festival. I don't like how they break up the evening and, honestly, they're a bit faddish right now. Wait for it ...

But as far as what they can do personally for a dancer, that's a different story.

I used to think that they didn't have very much value and that I wasn't all that hot when it came to flashy dancing that was needed in comps. But I was in the final round of the blues competition at Andrew Slac's recent event and I happened to get paird up with Karissa.

Before we started dancing she whispered in my ear, "I want to do some solo blues." I think that was the key. I never do solo blues. So if I was going to go there, might as well just let it all out.

Trying to put how we danced into words, well, I just can't do it justice really. I was just filled with sheer joy, nothing was held back and we danced as close to perfect as I have ever danced with that much raucous energy. My heart was pounding and that grin was plastered to my face.

Where it came from, I'm not sure, but I've felt that for the past 3-4 years my dancing had plateaued. Maybe it's the cowboy boots, maybe it's the obnoxious pimp jewelry, maybe it's Karissa, maybe it's Steven doing the DJing. Doesn't matter, it just got kicked up a notch.