(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

Some of you might remember how a group of us took on a silly challenge last year, called 7vs7. The idea was to only live off seven ingredients for seven days. It was hell, and only one contestant made it through.

We’re nothing if not suckers for punishment, and starting next week your favorite Spokane Food Blog will host a new incarnation of the challenge. This time we will (try to) go seven days without eating processed food. Simple? When you start thinking how much out there is processed—anything canned, boxed, bottled… tofu…—it’s easier said than done. Who will win? Who will power through to the end? Lord knows, but stay tuned to this site to stay up to date!

The contestants are from blogs you probably know, and some you might not have heard of:

• Burger, Revised, represented by Andrew.


• Down to Earth, represented by Bart and Paul.


• I put the me in awesome, represented by Becky.


• Librarian Lateralus, represented by Mark G.


• Rhymes with Almonds, represented by Mark S.


• Spokane Food Blog, represented by Jordy, Remi, and Unknown Neva.


• The Spovangelist, represented by Mariah.

God help us all.

So here we are. January 20th, 2009. It will be remembered as a historical day. It will be remembered as the day change came. It will be remembered as a day of hope. It will be remembered as the day Taste Everything Once, the only restaurant guide in Spokane, launched the beta version of its new design.

It is true, Taste Everything Once, or TEO as we lovingly call it, has grown up and into a brand new version. No major testing has been performed yet, so if something looks wrong… Let us know in the comments. A few of the major changes:

• Restaurant tags now show up in the main listing.


• Easier access to core functions: all menu items and search functions are located “above the fold.”


• New larger maps: Switched from Yahoo! maps to Google.


• “Find near-by restaurants.” Click this, and the map will be populated with restaurants within roughly 1.5 mile radius.

And as time moves forward, we are also moving away from supporting older technologies. This means those of you who, for whatever crazy reason, are still using Internet Explorer 6 will be left behind. Also, recommended minimum screen resolution is 1024*768. In other words, nothing a five year old computer should have any issues running.

Later this week we also hope to put Spokane Food Blog in to the new design too.

So that’s it—run and beta test it now! Run and be part of change!

(Oh, and some guy is apparently moving into some house today also.)

I hope I piss you off with this one. By you, I mean the collective. The meat-eating public. The fact of the matter is: vegetarians are better cooks. Now I'm not claiming that I, myself am a culinary genius, so don't challenge me to a cook off or anything macho. I'm speaking more"?in general terms.

Vegetarians are more creative when it comes to cooking. Perhaps it's because there are fewer ingredients to cook with. Or perhaps it's true. Vegetarians are just better at everything, including cooking. Ok, so I made the latter part of that sentence up, but the first fact stands. A narrow list of ingredients forces a chef to be creative. Meatchefs (I hope this word catches on), on the other hand"? just add chicken.

For example. What do meatchefs use to add flavor to everything from meat, potatoes, soup, bread, casseroles, mixed vegetables, and cardboard if given the chance? The answer: animal stock. A substance most commonly made from beef, chicken and veal bones. Mmm.

When truly, I don't have much of a problem with meatchefs. They can go on leading their boring little culinary lives, while I'll enjoy a feast of vegetarian flavors. What really upsets me, is when a meatchef starts murdering vegetables.

There's nothing so obvious, as when a traditional meatchef attempts to make a vegetarian dish. A perfect example of this is at the Sour Dough Place at 821 N. Division. This might be Spokane's epicenter for meatchefs who try to cook with vegetables.

I recently tried their cheesy cauliflower soup. Although the sourdough bread bowl was rather good, the soup tasted like liquefied Cheez Wiz combined with water and a few cauliflower florets. Silly meatchefs, you can't just throw vegetables into a tub of water and call it soup.

Side note: I used the word meatchef seven times in this blog post. I've done my part. Now it's up to you, the general public to make it catch on.

This is the restroom Josh Hartnett and Matthew Davis famously used without washing their hands. I am just going to assume this was on separate occasions. Hollywood trash aside, Far West does provide clean restrooms early in the night, and they’re also roomy places to get some thinking done. Sure, space might not be that important, but it’s definitely an added bonus.

Even better is the large blackboard gracing the wall in the men’s room. This might seem like a strange feature until you think about all those moronic tags you find in most restrooms: the board really contributes to give the restroom a cleaner feel.

The problems start surfacing a bit more later at night when the aim toward the urinals get a bit more shoddy. Come midnight, and there’s a little lake of urine on the floor which is not good, and, in fact, a bit gross.

Far West is a highly recommended place to do your business early in the day, but the impression fades as the night goes on. Josh Hartnett and his ilk should be ashamed for disgracing it with his poor hygiene.