Urban Honking

We may not be our own best critics. That becomes crystal-hops-pale-ale clear when Alex Macy pours the first tiny pintlet of our homebrewed beer and we tip the red-brown tonic toward our lips. Wow, that smell? Kazowwwww! We made this?! It’s been 6 weeks and 10 days since we sterilized the fermenter and went to […]

Being into drugs often breeds innovation. Wait, we’re not junkies — but psychedelic experience has been a fairly consistent encounter throughout our now over-a-quarter-century hill lives. Lets not mince ideas: This is a blog partly dedicated to an ancient fermented grain juice that gives you the happies, gimmies, and giggles. (After all there’s an illicit […]

In the beginning, there were Eskimos, who found a use, or a dish, for every drop of fatty, pink seal blubber. Nowadays we have white celebrity chefs who ask a premium because they’ve found a small plate for every ounce of piggy. Well, we plant eaters can do that too, kinda — find a use […]

The way we remember our first misadventures with amateur homebrewing back in college – it was fun but lacking in results. Steering Alex’s Saturn toward rural Riverside on a weekday morning after loading up on black coffee and death rock CDs, we pulled in to the parking lot of “Beer Beer and More Beer,” a […]

I’m always excited to find new ways to ingest stimulants and Energy Gel has such a futuristic name that I knew I was destined to like it. However, the problem with Energy Gel comes not from the Energy, but from the Gel. The Gel is, as one expects, gelatinous. This is not a nice feeling […]

Observatory – 8115 SE Stark St (map) The veggie burger is made of quinoa and mushroom served with vegan cheese and a side of French-styled potato fries for $8. Plenty of toppings and a side dish of both ketchup and veganaise. “A melted cheddar or american-style vegan cheese.” “Is it Daiya? I thought it might […]

Drafted to come up with a summery, picnic-friendly kale salad, Hot Knives undertook a brutally fibrous campaign of taste tests. With its texture somewhere between a dishwasher scrubby and a garden plant, kale often gets gussied up with winter veg (caramelized squash…) and/or harsh dressings (balsamic reduction…) – the salad equivalent of a scratchy sweater. […]

If you know us by now, you know that we don’t cater events often. Just the occasional Buddhist-gay wedding or Bavarian arm wrestling contest. But it was too hard to resist the e-mail request we got six months ago asking if we were game to do the food for a Southern themed “swanky hoe-down” on […]

Date: May 17, 2010 Location: Mike’s house Present: Steve Schroeder, Mike Merrill, Curt Merrill, George Wietor, Josh Berezin JB: It’s a special edition. MM: It’s true, birthday edition! JR: And special G-rad guest edition. GW: Goodbye edition. MM: And it’s Calvin’s first 1000 beers! And Josh’s last. JB: I’m passing the torch. MM: Okay, which […]

Date: May 17, 2010 Location: Mike’s house Present: Steve Schroeder, Mike Merrill, Curt Merrill, George Wietor, Josh Berezin JB: It’s a special edition. MM: It’s true, birthday edition! JR: And special G-rad guest edition. GW: Goodbye edition. MM: And it’s Calvin’s first 1000 beers! And Josh’s last. JB: I’m passing the torch. MM: Okay, which […]