(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

You already know -- at least if you read the introductory post -- that 10% of SpoCUP sales will go to Big Table, an organization (for the lack of a better word) that helps support those in the service industry. What? Why? How? Who?

Let's see if we can sum it up fairly consisely.

Service workers is, as most of you know, one of the largest employment groups in the country, and it's also an incredibly hard industry to work in. Crazy hours, often low wages and no health insurance, high turnover... It's definitely a high pressure industry, and it's easy for all of us to forget that.

Big Table was set up to provide support for those in the service industry in a number of ways. One is to build a community through no cost dinners around a -- you guessed it -- big table for. The chefs who have cooked for these dinners have been of quite the pedigree too.

Through this community they find ways to assist those in the industry who may be in need of it. In other words, they create a true industry community.

It's a unique, interesting, and good concept, one we all found perfect for the inaugural SpoCUP to suppoer. Make sure to check out Big Table's website for a lot more information about the work they do. 

SpoCUP is less than a week and a half away now, so you sign up now for the $20 registration fee. That's $10 less than it will be if you wait to do so in person on the day of.

We learned somebody were getting married at Rebate today, after reading our post about the spot. Therefore we figured a repost would be in order.

Located in the hills and orange groves north of Pilar, Spain is Rebate, a restaurant worth the trip to the border of the Valencia/Murcia regions should you visit the country. I mean, really. We could toss out superlatives here, but the dishes we sampled should speak for themselves:

Iberico pork confit in a port reduction. Ravioli filled with foie gras in a mushroom and duck sauce. Cheese stuffed chicken breast rolled in iberico ham with mushroom sauce. You are clinically dead if those dishes don't excite you.

Of course, good menu ideas hardly matter if they are poorly executed, but here we're talking amazing quality. The pork confit, for example -- the sauce wasn't overly sweet, just a perfect compliment to the wonderfully tender pork confit that was allowed to speak for itself. It came accompanied with a selection of glazed vegetables and mashed potatoes. As far as a taste of Spain goes, good pork tends to have it covered. This iberico pork wasn't just good, it was great, or even something beyond that.

Foie gras stuffed ravioli? Excellent. Creamy texture, with small slices of duck in the sauce. And, again, iberico ham with the chicken -- it's a great combination. Pick from a large selection of local wines at standard affordable Spanish prices, and you can have yourself a good evening here.

There are few places we 100% recommend, but Rebate is on that short list. Here you can taste the best of Spain, and it's affordable, cheaper than meals at many local restaurants. What's not to like about that?

In fact, stop reading this, and run out and book some tickets to either Alicante or San Javier! Sure, that might add to the price of the meal, but we think that's worthwhile.

Here's an ale you probably won't too easily find in Spokane, but is well worth tracking down if you have the chance. Yazoo is a Nashville brewery, and if Sue, a porter that received an almost unheard of perfect score from the Beer Advocate Bros, is anything to go by, you might just as well book some tickets down to Tennessee right now. 

It pours a color reminiscent of tar -- there's black and then there's this. The head is darker than tan, standing about a finger and half tall. You get the idea of how heavy it is just from the looks of it in other words.

The nose somewhat literally kicks you in the face with a heavy smokiness. As you get over the initial shock, you'll find a more subdued maltiness and coffee toward the back. But really, judging by the nose alone, this is the beer version of the Smoke Monster.

That might be why the flavor is so surprising. There's a lot of stuff going on here, and even though the smokiness sits pretty heavy, the sheer creaminess of the body might be the initial attention grabber. Smack through it, and you'll find a world of wonderfulness opening up for you. The coffee plays alongside chocolate, and a cherry like sweetness contrasts the aforementioned smokiness. There's even a bit of hopiness to it, which is surprising for this style of beer.

Keep tasting through it, and more will reveal itself, be it hints of coffee or fruitiness. Didn't Willy Wonka come up with a gum that kept changing flavors? That's what this beer is like.

I had expected a crazy smoke fest here, and in a sense I got that. Yet there's so much more to this beer, and that's what makes it great. The Sue really is brewed to a high standard. Who'd have thought something like this would come out of Nashville?

Oh, The $100 Mac & Cheese Challenge is not over, although we did visit Manito without the man who issued the challenge in the first place...

... largely because Manito doubled down. Sorta. Though not really. We have tried one of their mac and cheeses before, and this time the Blackened Mac & Cheese is quite a bit different than Manito's previous Green Chili Mac & Cheese. The current incarnation is just a bit more traditional, yet different enough to be a stand-out in our minds.

Frankly, they could have called it the Balanced Mac & Cheese -- the real beauty here is how the flavors work together. There is a mild smokiness pulling everything together, with just the perfect amount of spice. The second part is impressive; as both a Spiceavore and a SpiceaWARRIOR, I can take some heat, just as I can live without too many spices in my dishes, but here the spices really are perfectly balanced. It's the type of dish where you can take a bite and say, "this has a nice kick to it... and I am OK with that!"

Blackened chicken can sometimes be a bit chewy, but that isn't the case here, and the bacon -- not an original addition, but welcomed all the same -- adds just a bit of salt to the palette.

And as the photo below shows, that inviting top layer of cheese is well present, perfect for digging into.

Like always, it's not up to us to decide if this should be The $100 Mac & Cheese Challenge winner. That's between you and Patrick; we're just the curators here. For us, this places rather high up on the list, and it goes well paired with Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale.

Definitely give Blackened Mac & Cheese a try, but note that it's not on the menu. That's right, you can feel all special and in the know, ordering something from the secret menu.