Instead of the usual single-subject newsletter, this week is a potpourri of food-related topics that have been ping-ponging around in my head!
This story is adapted from The Nosh with Rachel Belle newsletter. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up here.
Granny candy
Grandmacore has been trending, particularly among Gen Z: crocheting, wearing embroidered or crocheted clothing (every time my best friend wears her long, colorful granny square coat, she is mobbed with compliments), spending evenings baking, playing mahjong, decorating with thrifted quilts and maximalist florals.
Perhaps this is why I’m seeing a resurgence of granny candy?? I have recently encountered baskets of Strawberry Bon Bons, a candy most commonly found in the depths of old lady’s purses or crystal candy dishes, at the host stands of two trendy downtown Seattle restaurants (and one in Tucson!).
I LOVE this candy! The soft, chewy center, the adorable wrapper. And its history! As I learned when researching it for a Your Last Meal episode last year, Strawberry Bon Bons were invented in France in the mid-1800s and were an affordable luxury during the American Great Depression. Today they are manufactured by the world’s largest hard candy company, in Argentina.
Let's not leave the grandpas out: I also spotted a basket of Werther’s Originals at a suburban restaurant host stand!
Salad Party
I love a Ladies Who Lunch Salad, an Elaine Benes Big Salad, but if a salad is going to be the whole meal, there better be some buttery chunks of avocado, half a jammy egg, a scattering of fragrant herbs; some buried treasure lurking beneath the lettuce, like a toy at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.
A fantastic restaurant salad is hard to find, but I am smitten with the ones they’re tossing at Salad Party, a to-go only spot that opened six months ago on Seattle’s Phinney Ridge. I wasn’t expecting a fast-casual salad to deliver greens slicked with just enough, perfectly balanced dressing, a slab of salmon cooked to a silky medium rare, and an overall freshness and seasonality that had me exclaiming, “Oh my god, this is SO good!”
Much of the menu feels personally catered to my tastes: a summer little gem salad was tossed with sliced plums, goat cheese, toasted almonds and a honey-lemon-dijon dressing; a farro salad over arugula with roasted cauliflower, feta, Castelvetrano olives, cucumbers, radishes, radicchio, a lemon vin and dill and chive confetti (that’s how you know it’s a salad party!).
Crust the process
Back in October, I wrote about Country Club, the project my friends and I created where we’re cooking dishes from every country in the world in alphabetical order.
Every year we go away for a weekend and rent a house with a big kitchen so we can cook the country of the month. We recently cooked Great Britain on Whidbey Island. On Saturday night we had a classic British Roast Dinner with Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese, roasted potatoes, a rosy-centered Beef Wellington and sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
But it was the simple, Sunday morning brunch I keep thinking about: little crustless tea sandwiches!
Normally, I am a big proponent of vivid flavors and crunch: iceberg lettuce on a burger, peanuts on a fish-sauce-laced Thai salad, potato chips on a sandwich. But there is a time and a place for softness, or softness on softness like these sandwiches deliver in both texture and flavor. Squishy white sandwich bread spread with cream cheese and thin sliced English cucumbers and mayonnaise-y egg salad, where the strongest flavor is a few cranks of black pepper and a shake of salt.
I took home a bag of crusts and promptly blitzed them into breadcrumbs that are now living in my freezer.
For newsletter-exclusive content, including my Taste of the Town Q&A with a notable Pacific Northwest person (this week it’s Out & Back host Alison Mariella Désir), subscribe below!
Have a food- or drink-related question? (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
XO
Rachel Belle
