I grew up in a charming and picturesque resort nestled at the base of the beautiful Cascade mountain range in Central Oregon. The Deschutes river flows wide and calm through the resort, and nearby you’ll find the Little Deschutes tagging along like a younger sibling. So you can see it was aptly named Sunriver.

We moved there from the Bay Area when I was around five, my parents wanting a more wholesome place to raise their children. We frolicked in the lakes and rivers in summer and skied the powdery slopes of Mt. Bachelor in winter. Best of all, we drank crystal clear mountain water fresh and cold from the tap.

Some people say you can’t taste water, but after growing up with clean water I certainly can. Too often water tastes metallic, too “minerally,” or like you’re drinking a swimming pool. When your thirst needs to be quenched, that’s fine I suppose, but outside of Sunriver I prefer my water well filtered.

One thing I had never considered, until recently, is how the taste of water affects the flavors of food and wine. I don’t know why this never occurred to me. I mean, if you brush your teeth you know that then drinking a glass of orange juice is going to taste horrible. So why would it not dawn on me that salt, minerals, and chemicals in water could alter the flavor of the wine I so carefully selected?

I sat down with Chef Jason Wilson of Crush and Sam Giertz, CEO North America of Nordaq Fresh, for my first ever water tasting. Nordaq Fresh is a purification system that filters impurities and unwanted flavors from tap water while preserving the water’s natural salts and minerals. Sam suggested that I cleanse my mouth first with the Fresh water, so I swirled it around a bit. The best way I can describe this water is simply “neutral” – just the way I remembered my Sunriver water, only much better. I took another sip, then I tasted the nice chilled Chardonnay that Jason had selected. Very nice. I did the same with the tap water, then tasted the wine again. Good, but not great. I mean, it was a lovely wine, of course it would taste great, right? But I could definitely taste the difference. We repeated this process again and the distinction was remarkable. The flavor of the wine had much more pronounced depth than I could taste with just plain tap water.

It was like the water gave the wine Dolby surround sound.

In 2007, Thomas Keller was invited to attend a culinary event in Stockholm where he was first introduced to the Nordaq system. Seeing the potential for its application in his own restaurants he had the system installed in The French Laundry, Per Se and Buchon. Now, more fine restaurants around the U.S. are following suit and having the system installed.

But it goes beyond taste. Nordaq Fresh is  water with a conscious. Because the filtration system comes with water bottles (and beautiful sleek and sexy ones to boot) restaurants are significantly reducing the amount of glass they are recycling. Jason says he has saved roughly four thousand bottles per year (about five thousand pounds of glass) from recycling. Beyond that there’s the elimination of the transportation of bottled water from production plant to restaurant to recycling center.

To me, that alone makes everything taste better.

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Categories:	Environmental • Interview • Restaurants	3 Comments
Tags:	crush • filtered water • Jason Wilson • Nordaq • Nordaq Fresh • purified water • seattle • Thomas Keller • water

Last night we happily dined on wine and swine at Cochon 555, a culinary event that features 5 chefs, 5 winemakers, and 5 heritage pigs. Presented by the Taste Network, the six-city event is a friendly competition of local chefs created to benefit The Endangered Hog Foundation and raise awareness for the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance and the Good Farmers Fund.  The Endangered Hog Foundation is helping to preserve nine critically endangered hog breeds in the US. through breeding protocols, genetic research, placing pigs on family farms and developing a market for heritage pork.

To put it bluntly: we porked out! All 5 chefs did such a fabulous job it was difficult to decide who knocked it out the park. I’ll give you highlights of some of what I thought were the evening’s “wow” dishes, but first let me introduce the breeds of pigs featured:

Berkshire-Duroc from Whistling Train Farm. The Berkshire breed, originally from the English county of Berkshire, is said to be “Britain’s oldest pig breed.” The Berkshire-Duroc cross-breed is rich and creamy with a slight nutty flavor.

Duroc from Good Farm. The breed originated from two strains of hogs from New Jersey and New York in 1830. The Duroc is a purebred with fatty flecks in its muscles making it tender, juicy and mild.

Red Wattle from Holthaus Farm. Because its meat is colorful and tender the Red Wattle is often referred to as a cross between beef and pork. (Two pigs in the competition were Red Wattles).

Berkshire from Newman Farms. The Berkshire has brightly colored meat that is heavily marbled. Like the cross-breed above, it is rich and creamy with nutty hints.

When we arrived we were greeted with glasses of sparkling wine from Elk Cove Vineyards then, I spied a big bowl of chicharrones from 4505 Chicharrones. It’s no wonder my liver is screaming at me today as I’m quite certain I ate a whole pig’s worth (regardless, I’m tempted to order these in bulk). Ever so light and crisp and dusted with a bit of spice these nibbles were absolutely divine. We also noshed on potato chips with creme fraiche and caviar (shown above). Out of this world! Both were the perfect treat to start the event.

The crowd was in full force in the main tasting hall, so I didn’t get details on every dish, but I’ll do my best to describe what the chefs prepared. Our first taste was bologna sandwiches from The Corson Building’s Matt Dillon. Beautifully crafted pistachio studded mortadella folded into soft white bread. We also tried a lovely pork soup with kale and a country-style pâté with marmalade.

We moved on to the station of John Sundstrom from Lark where we had an amazingly juicy and oh so yummy smoked pork served with a delicious demi glace and hush puppies. Had i not been saving myself for the other features I would have hung out for seconds…even thirds.

Tamara Murphy from Brasa had tasty (and darling!) pig-shaped cookies made super-duper flaky from pig lard – move over Crisco! We also sampled a lovely trio of pâté. Mmmm..

Anthony Hubbard of CHOW Foods – this is where we really, well, chowed down. Not only did Anthony have a huge “swine shrine” but he prepared about 5 beyond delectable dishes. His passion and hard work clearly paid off as he was the winner of the evening. First, we had a Chilled Pork Belly Consommé With Brain Mousse. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I was hesitant at first (having never tried brain), but it was out of this world. Not only was it the most unique and clever (I was going to say “brainy”) thing served that night, but it was perfection in a tiny cup. The brain was a cloud of light and creamy mousse, something I never would have guessed was brain. I feel so much smarter now!

Another CHOW favorite of mine was a Milk Braised Pork Loin With Gorgonzola Mousse. I absolutely love anything braised in milk as it comes out utterly moist and tender. I think I heard angels singing when I ate this dish.

What surprised me the most was that I fell in love with the Bourbon and Bacon Ice Cream served in a bacon cone and sprinkled with bacon bits. Seriously, folks, bacon is the reason I have never suceeded at being a vegetarian. This little dessert was one of those foods where the devil on your shoulder clearly drowns out the angel: “Do it, eat it! Eat more!” Madness, pure delicious madness.

Last on our pig-out tour was a visit to Jason Wilson from Crush. Unfortunately for us he was so popular he ran out of what we heard was roasted pork (?). But what we did have was pork sausage rolled in a bacon tapioca powder. Holy cow, I mean, pig! Simply fantastic!

The Washington wines that we tasted throughout the evening were K Vintners (one of my favorite Walla Walla wineries), McCrea Cellars, Fidelitas, Cadence Winery, and Buty. All were pouring liquid dreams.

It was a lovely evening of porking out and I would definitely attend again. Although I have to say, I’m  going vegetarian for a solid two weeks after that culinary debauchery.

There are more Cochon 555s coming your way: next stop is Boston, but check their schedule for a city nearest you. Fun times and for a great cause!

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Categories:	Events • Meat & Poultry • Restaurants	2 Comments
Tags:	Brasa • chicharrones • CHOW • Cochon 555 • Corson Building • crush • culinary event • heirloom pork • heritage pork • lark • pig • pork • Restaurants • seattle • Seattle events • taste network • washington wineries • washington wines