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Tacoma’s 52nd Annual Greek Festival
October 4-6. Authentic Greek Cuisine, dance, music and more. Free admission. S. Yakima and 15th Street, Tacoma. Fore more information, visit them online. -
Harmon Brewery & Restaurant 16th Annual Brewmaster’s Dinner
October 3, 6 p.m. 5 course meal paired with 5 Harmon ales for only $35. Please call 253-383-2739 for reservations.
- Harvest Fest
October 5, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Fall fun and good food for all at Tahoma Farms, 21108 Orville Rd E, Orting. Chow down on locally sourced, Southern-inspired fare with a modern twist from the food truck Seattle Biscuit Company. Savor fall ice cream flavors from Ice Cream Social and snack on organic kettle corn and corn dogs from the Organic Kettle Corn Company. See where your food is grown and meet the farmers who harvest it in person! Peruse our farm stand and buy fresh produce from the very farm where it was grown. Plus, browse our market area and purchase items from artisan vendors like OlyKraut . $15 per carload (includes a pumpkin!). Pay at the gate or online. - Puyallup Art and Wine Walk
October 5, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. Enjoy wine & food pairings, along with live music and an art show. Tickets are $25/advance or $30 the day of the event. Purchase tickets online. - Tacoma Chocolate Festival
October 4-5. Cupcake Clash Bake-Off, chocolate cocktail hour, chocolatier demonstrations and more in Tacoma’s Proctor District. Tickets are $5. For ticket locations, see the Proctor Neighborhood Facebook. -
Toscanos Fall Wine Dinner
October 9, 6:30 p.m. Toscanos first Wine Maker’s Dinner of the fall will be hosted by Charles Cline, Owner of Cline Cellars & Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. Mr. Cline will be showcasing some unique wines from both wineries. A four-course dinner will be prepared by Toscanos Chef, Tom Pantley. Each course is designed to highlight these wonderful wines. The cost of the Wine Maker’s dinner is $70 per person, tax & gratuity included. No-host cocktails are at 6:30pm, followed by the dinner at 7pm. For reservations, call (253) 864-8600. - Tacoma Farmers Market 2013 Banquet of Bounty, A Farm to Fork Fundraising Celebration
October 11, 6:30. The Tacoma Farmers Market Board presents “Banquet of Bounty”, an annual fundraising dinner that connects our community to our farms. Dinner will be prepared by Chef Matt Stickle at the Hotel Murano, and will feature the bounty from local farmers and producers. The special guest speaker Molly Wizenberg, award-winning food blogger (‘Orangette’) and author of New York Times bestseller ‘A Homemade Life’. $75/person. Tickets are available online. - Primo Grill Cooking Classes
October 12th, The Cuisine of Tuscany. $65 inclusive of recipes, instruction, lunch, a glass of wine, tax and gratuity. Call 253-383-7000 to reserve.
October 19th, The Cuisine of Spain. $65 inclusive of recipes, instruction, lunch, a glass of wine, tax and gratuity. Call 253-383-7000 to reserve. - Bayview School of Cooking Classes
Various days and times. See their class schedule for more information. - Tacoma Food Co-Op Party
October 16, 6-9 p.m. At Bluebeard Coffee and Cork! A Wine Bar, located next to each other on 6th & State. All are welcome to attend! There will be live music by Billy Pratt, fabulous food, and drinks, and member-owners will have their last chance to vote for the new TFC board members. Free to attend. - Dishcrawl
October 16. 6th Avenue Tacoma Dishcrawl. Eat your way through various restaurants on 6th Ave. Restaurants are kept a secret until two days before the event, at which time the meeting location is revealed to ticket holders. Reservations are $45 a person and can be purchased at dishcrawl.com/theave. - Nordic Lutefisk Dinner
October 20, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Includes, all you can eat Lutefisk, Meatballs,
Lefse and all the trimmings. Adults $ 20.00, ages 7-12 $ 10.00 , 6 and under are free. For more information, see their Facebook page.
Author Archives: adrienne
Order This Now: Royal Thai Bistro’s Beef Noodle Soup
I recently went to Royal Thai Bistro for the first time, at the recommendation of some of my Twitter buddies. Feeling a little peaky, I really was in the mood for pho, but didn’t want to drive all the way to my favorite pho spots (Pho V&V or Pho King).
Browsing their menu online, I saw they had beef noodle soup. Consider me intrigued. I’d never seen beef noodle soup on a Thai restaurant’s menu before.
I ordered it take-out, brought it home and was pleasantly surprised. First of all, it’s a huge portion if you order it take-out. I’ve since been back to the restaurant and ordered it eating in, and it was probably half the size. When you order it take-out, you get a full soup container of broth and herbs, and a full container of noodles. Let’s just say I ate it out of a mixing bowl, and it was a good four servings.
The soup has a deep, rich beef broth — more unctuous and flavorful than any pho I’ve ever had. I keep comparing the soup to pho, but it really isn’t the same thing. The noodles in Royal Thai Bistro’s soup are more akin to the rice noodles in pad Thai. When you order, they ask you the level of spice you’d like (as opposed to pho, where you add your own). The broth is laden with cilantro, crushed peanuts, some bean sprouts and lots of quality beef. I’m not entirely sure the exact cut of beef they use, but it’s a higher quality than you’d normally get in pho. It’s more of a tender steak.
Ginkgo Forest Winery Grand Opening Saturday
Did you know a new wine tasting room opened in Old Town? I’ve driven past a few times, making mental notes to check it out. Tomorrow is the perfect time to do so. Ginkgo Forest Winery, from Mattawa, WA (just outside Vantage in Eastern Washington) is having its grand opening tomorrow, September 28 starting at 11 a.m.
There will be food and wine pairings and live music from guitarist George Turner and art from Bill Colby. You can also enter to win a gift basket, and there will be specials on wine.
Even if you’re not able to make it to the grand opening, stop by Ginkgo Forest in Old Town and give them a nice welcome to Tacoma.
Here’s a handy-dandy video to learn more about Ginkgo Forest Winery.
Ginkgo Forest Winery | 2221 N 30th Street, Tacoma | (253) 301-4372 | Open Wednesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m.
Drink Up: Dune Cocktail Event at Hilltop Kitchen
You may or may not be familiar with author Frank Herbert, a Tacoma native, who wrote the original Dune series of books. He’s well-loved with the science fiction literature set, and he’s got quite a fan base here in Tacoma, including Hilltop Kitchen’s own Chris Keil.
Why not combine your love of literature and booze? Hilltop Kitchen is hosting a Dune Cocktail Event on October 8 from 7-10 p.m. It’s a day that also happens to be Frank Herbert’s birthday, so you can raise a glass…or two…to him.
I had a chance to preview the cocktails that will be available at the event. And no, I did not drink all of these by myself. If I had, you would have seen me on the news in handcuffs with the title, “Tacoma Foodie gets rowdy and publicly embarrasses herself”, or something like that.
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- Bene Gesserit Cocktail
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- Harkonnen Cocktail
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- Honored Matre Cocktail
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- Orange Catholic Cocktail
There will be six special craft cocktails in honor of Dune and Frank Herbert, including the Harkonnen Cocktail, Orange Catholic, Bene Gesserit, Duncan Idaho, Honored Matre and the Golden Path (not pictured). All cocktails will be priced at $10.
My favorite was the Harkonnen Cocktail, with mezcal, Zaya rum, and smoked demerara salt, served over one of their signature hand-carved giant ice cubes. Those ice cubes get me every time. Conveniently, here’s a video from Brian of Better Cocktails at Home demonstrating how to make it yourself.
Though I didn’t get to taste the Golden Path, it sounds pretty amazing. It’s served hot, with cinnamon-infused tequila, mulled apple cider and Becherovka, which I’ve termed “a fancy version of Fireball”.
If you want to learn more about Frank Herbert and his writing, or about the event and cocktails, Post Defiance has a nice piece about them both.
Whitewood Cider Co. Wants Your Homegrown Apples and Pears
I really love this idea — Whitewood Cider Co. (which I wrote about recently for the Weekly Volcano) is looking for your homegrown apples and pears to use in their ciders. For more details on how to participate, check out Whitewood Cider’s blog.
Just think…you could be part of Whitewood’s amazing story, just as they’re blowing up big time. Imagine stopping by Pint Defiance or your other friendly retailer, popping open a bottle and knowing that you had something to do with its production. Their South Sounder cider (which I’ve had, and it’s delicious) is made up of 100 percent local apples. So very cool.
According to Whitewood Cider, thousands of pounds of fallen apples go to waste each year. So if you’ve got extra apples or pears, be part of this hyper-local business and drink to sweet success.
Image via Whitewood Cider Co.