Northwest Specialties

Once you've made tzatziki, it's pretty much a given that you're going to start thinking about making your own gyros. For those of you thus far unfamiliar with the gyros, it's a Greek "fast food" sort of dish. The name refers to the large turning spit containing a roast; (gyros is cognate with Modern English gyrate, to turn). Slices of the moist-but-crispy meat are combined with tazatziki, Greek yogurt-dill-and-cucumber sauce, on a pita. Other ingredients, like tomato, or feta, or lettuce or even pepper, salt, and paprika, are optional. In Greece gyros are common fare at small cafes and street carts.

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Hops are largely associated with beer today but in terms of the history of brewing beer they are a modern addition, since they date to sometime in the middle ages, probably sometime around the late tenth or early eleventh century. It's hops that give beer that characteristic hint of bitterness, sometimes with a nod at citrus. Hops contribute to the aroma, as well as the taste of beer. It's generally assumed that hops were initially added to beer as a preservative, and an antibacterial. There was a long tradition of adding other herbs as preservative before hops, but the theory is that some brewer somewhere noticed his hoppy ale stayed fresh longer. One of the interesting and important qualities of hops is that while they are naturally antibacterial, they do not destroy the yeast that is so very vital in terms of fermenting the wort, the grain and water base, that all beer begins with.

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The commercially-presented version of the "Mediterranean diet" does not, alas, mean "eat all the Mediterranean food you want," but rather, it's based on some assumptions about why people whose diets feature olive oil, yogurt, feta, fresh vegetables and fruit, whole grains, red wine in moderation, fresh fish, and low amounts of salt, processed foods and sugars, and red meat tend to have better overall health, particularly in terms of lower rates of obesity and diabetes. A lot of the positive effects are attributed to the low saturated fat percentage in terms total calories consumed, largely because of the emphasis on olive oil, and the high percentage of fruits and vegetables.

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Boundary Bay
1107 Railroad Avenue
Bellingham, WA
(360) 647-5593‎

Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, Washington celebrates the arrival of Friday all summer long with a fish fry in their beer garden every Friday from 4 to 8pm. They beer-batter and then fry fresh locally caught rockfish in a giant fryer, and serve it up with an order of fresh french fries and freshly made tarter sauce, with an optional beer, and if you want, a side of cole slaw. The fish is light and flaky, the fries are hot and fresh, and the beer, well Boundary Bay brews are just about as good as it gets, in my opinion. The fried rockfish (two good-sized pieces) and an order of fries is a mere $8.00; you can substitute onion rings for a $1.50. Rockfish is locally plentiful; it's a white-fleshed saltwater fish that occurs in Washington waters in a variety of species. The beer batter and the freshness of the fish are a fabulous combination. For those of you who are not beer fans, I note that Boundary Bay makes their own very tasty root beer. I further note, that there's a happy hour barbecue on Thursdays during the summer, featuring $5.00 burgers (beef, salmon, or veggie) with a dollar off all brews, from 4 to 6. Thursday nights are also when Boundary usually cracks one of their special and very limited barrels of cask ale.

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