Add Some Spice To Your Life At Fiery Fest
Looking for a hot time? Try the second annual Pasco Fiery Food Festival the weekend of Sept. 9-10.
Sure, it includes the more mild-mannered stuff, like arts and crafts, a farmers’ market and kids’ activities. But at the heart(burn) of the event is the almighty chile, in all its incendiary glory.
Competitions are scheduled for hot sauces, salsas, barbecue sauces and pepper recipes, with Chile Pepper magazine editor Robert Spiegel again serving as a celebrity judge.
Public tasting of the entries will be available. For information, call (509) 545-0738.
On your mark
Next on the recipe contest scene: The Mushroom Council’s Cyberspace Mushroom Lovers Challenge, for recipes using at least 8 ounces of ‘shrooms. Prizes total $10,000 in U.S. savings bonds. Deadline is Sept. 30; write to Mushroom Lovers Challenge, 49 East 21st St., New York, NY 10010, or e-mail to LANSHROOMS@AOL.COM.
The Spice Islands/Cooking Light magazine “The World Is Our Garden” contest, for recipes using at least one Spice Islands seasoning. Grand prize is $1,000. Deadline is Oct. 15; write to Kate DeWitt, Cooking Light, 2100 Lakeshore Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209.
And the Oct. 16 deadline is fast approaching for the mother of all cooking contests, the Pillsbury Bake-Off, with its $1 million grand prize. For an entry form, call 1-800-598-8753.
I beg your pardon?
Remember that “Grey Poupon Upon” call-in telephone poll that asked people what sorts of foods they used mustard on or in? Potato salad was the winner, followed by hot dogs and chicken (although pork placed second in Washington state). Among the more unusual responses: pizza, ice cream, marshmallows, chocolate bars, shots of tequila and opossum.
Slightly disoriented
Responses to our own request for readers to name Spokane’s signature food - sparked by the woman whose visitors bragged about their Buffalo chicken wings - ranged from Zip’s Papa Joes to Dick’s Whammys to the Longhorn Barbecue’s ribs.
But the most impassioned argument came from an anonymous woman who said the answer was obvious: Chinese food.
“I’ve eaten the authentic Chinese food from San Francisco, and it may be authentic, but it’s not as good as Spokane’s Chinese restaurants,” she said. “Ours has less grease and fat, and more taste … The best Chinese food you can get anywhere in the world is right here in Spokane, Washington.”
, DataTimes 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.