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Spam-O-Rama Comes To Interstate Fair

Rick Bonino Food Editor

In yet another sign of our area’s increasing culinary sophistication, the Spokane Interstate Fair is featuring its first-ever Spam cooking contest.

The Sept. 9 showdown is one of 70 such competitions at fairs throughout the United States. First-place winners from each event will face off for the national championship in January.

There are cash prizes for the top three local finishers - $100, $50 and $25 - along with certificates and Spam aprons. And everyone who enters will receive a Spam recipe book.

Entry deadline is Aug. 15. Send your recipes, using at least one 12-ounce can of Spam, to: Spam Contest, Spokane Interstate Fair, 404 N. Havana, Spokane, WA 99202.

Galloping gourmets

It seems like cowboys are always rustling up some russets for dinner on the range (or in the microwave).

Well, so can you, pardner. Ten toe-tapping tuber recipes from such country singing stars as Charlie Daniels, Chris LeDoux, Mel Tillis and Alan Jackson are available in a free booklet from the Idaho Potato Commission.

Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: Country Music Cooking with Idaho Potatoes, c/o CDB, 1633 Broadway, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

Feedback time

Speaking of spuds, reader Edith Roper of Davenport wrote in response to our recent report about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s “Super Tuber,” a hollowed-out potato baked with a hot dog stuck through it: “I was making those for my three kids in the ‘70s. I called mine a potato dog.”

And an anonymous caller said she was entertaining friends from Buffalo, home of the famed Buffalo chicken wings, when they asked about Spokane’s food specialty. “I was at a total loss,” she said. Any ideas? Send us your suggestions, and we’ll print some of the best ones.

On the trail

And speaking of cowboys, Tom Davis of the Green Mesquite Restaurant in Austin, Texas, is in town this weekend to promote his picante sauce and barbecue sauce, which are becoming available in our area.

Davis will cook and entertain (he’s also a fiddler) at a patio dinner Thursday evening at Makena’s Restaurant, 11723 E. Sprague. Cost is $11.95; call 924-5011 for reservations.

He’ll also appear Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Resort Cellar wine shop in Coeur d’Alene, and Saturday at the Palouse Prairie booth at the Spokane MarketPlace in Riverfront Park.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.

We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.