A short tale, considering I gobbled them down as fast as can be.  One of the highlights of my week is my grading session at Belly Taco Night.  It always puts me in a good mood, which one needs when one is grading.  Held just once a week on Mondays (5:30-9 pm), Belly Taco Night [...]

And we have a brewpub in Eugene with food I like!  You may have a hard time finding a seat, since Falling Sky is already popular since their soft opening last week.  Grand opening will be February 7, and they hope to have at least a couple of their beers ready to go. Executive Chef [...]

We heard Boondockers Farm last weekend on KLCC’s Food for Thought discuss the capital needed to run a small farm.  So many of our fledgling cottage businesses in Eugene and the surrounding countryside that provide us with exceptional local food operate on a slim profit margin and often can’t raise the funds for

Feeling flighty?  Try the Flight and a Bite Tuesday tastings at Izakaya Meiji.  Bartender and Flight Captain Elliot Martinez hosted a Islay single malt scotch whisky flight earlier this week.  Nice pairing with a piece of singed house-smoked salmon hakozushi (that Osaka-style boxed sushi I like so much) and salmon roe, t

My latest article, originally titled “Truffles for the People” with a subheader “Truffles, featured at a local festival, are more affordable than expected,” is out in the Eugene Register-Guard today. You can check it out online here. We’ll be continuing our conversation about Western Oregon tru

Gung hay fat choy! May your soup bowl contain many treasures. This is a Fujian classic, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup, served at the Silks Palace Restaurant next to the National Museum in Taipei.  It was set up for a photo shoot during our luncheon when I was in Taiwan.  They took a bunch [...]

Life, it is said, is like a carousel.  I like mine historical and full of cats.  You may recall my post last summer mentioning the carousel in Spokane, a 1909 Louff carousel in Riverfront Park, in fact. When I heard the city of Albany in Linn County was fundraising for their own carousel, my interest [...]

I’m sad to say I ate the last plate of gnocchi last night at Chef Mario Tucci’s beloved neighborhood joint, the Friendly Street Café.  So many fans thronged the little café on what was to be the last weekly Gnocchi Night on Wednesday that Mario couldn’t seat everyone.  That meant the first and last Gno

I’m in the middle of writing a story for the Register-Guard on Oregonian truffles for Oregonians, which aims to demystify truffles for the home cook of modest means. One of the many wonders of our world is a decent supply of winter truffles, both white and black.  And they’re cheaper than you might think in [..

Thanks for coming to today’s “Fermentation Basics” demo at the Fun with Fermentation festival, and a big thank you to Christina Sasser and the entire WVSFA team who worked so hard to make the festival a success!  I loved the mix of old and young people, farmers, hippies, yuppies, foodies, students, and pa

What’s that smell?  It’s not you, it’s me.  I’m working on kim chi, sauerkraut, and fermented pepper samples for my live demo at the Fun with Fermentation festival tomorrow, Saturday, January 14.  The festival, a fundraiser for Food for Lane County and the Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Allia

Frillies for Raoul.  It’s a Joyce joke.  For everyone else, these are my fond memories of two dozen oysters, sampling the best of the moment in Washington and British Columbia at Elliott’s Oyster House. Filed under: funny ha-ha, seafood, taste test, travel Tagged: oysters, pnw, seattle, travel

Nothing quite like sharing an afternoon meal with someone whose company you’ve always enjoyed.  And yes, I meant my dining companion, not the beets. Sitka and Spruce small plates for lunch.  Share ‘em.  We opted for the delicious (compulsory, even) wafer-thin beet slices with an itsy bitsy bit too much feta,

Seattle Taipei I’m at a loss for words, really. Life has sent me two orders of Taipei-based megadumpling chain Din Tai Fung’s juicy pork-truffle soup dumplings in one month. Just imagine this: minced pork with a spoonful of broth in fluted wheaten skins, all sealed up and steamed in delicious, juicy packages. No

Food for thought.  When you blog regularly, or profess, or editorialize, or report, or essay, it is hard to turn off the tap, the flow of thoughts to words that organize themselves like little labor unions, and keep you on the straight and narrow. A picture like the one above, for example, of two Christmas [...]

As we did the rest of the holidays in this dread year 2011, we’ll be celebrating its good riddance quietly, with a few friends.  If you are in need of inspiration, however, consider the links that make up my fantasy NYE party: Blini made with local buckwheat flour, with a simple topping of caviar and [...]

Part V of a photo essay of my trip to Taiwan.  See Part IV on paparazzi in the night market here, Part I on crabs here, Part II on fish/seafood here, and Part III on fruit here. As a certified Master Food Preserver, I was quite interested in master food preserving in Taiwan.  I already [...]

Many Eugene restaurants are open for New Year’s Eve, and several have special menus.  I’m posting (with slight edits for formatting) two special New Year’s Eve menus that have appeared on Facebook, one from Red Agave and one from Osteria Sfizio.  Do call for reservations, especially if you’re plann

Close to 900 hits on my blog yesterday from people looking for restaurants open in Eugene on Christmas.  Any thoughts, local entrepreneurs and/or businesses who were open and didn’t update your websites? I am almost hesitant to admit I found Christmas a bit much this year.  But what I found at Safeway, above, took t

Merry Christmas from all of us chez Culinaria Eugenius! Filed under: eugene, holiday, local products, seafood Tagged: christmas, crab, oregon coast

Part IV of a photo essay of my trip to Taiwan.  See Part I on crabs here, Part II on fish/seafood here, and Part III on fruit here. We got off the bus at the Ningxia Night Market and I saw the cameras.  Oh, someone famous must be here, thought I, as we headed toward [...]

One of the things I hated most about being relatively attractive in my 20s was that it was impossible to sit and get lost in my thoughts in public. It always really, really bothered random men — became a veritable challenge — to see how fast they could interrupt my reverie.  Does this kind of [...]

What’s open in Eugene on Christmas 2011? Thanks to commenter MJM, who reminded me that I need to post my annual search for Christmas restaurants.  MJM notes:  “According to  http://kezi.com/page/200147, last year [in 2010,]  Shari’s, IHOP, Sixth Street Grill, Marie Callendar and Empire Buffet were all

The news team at Culinaria Eugenius (consisting of one hardworking, underpaid indentured servant/culinary assassin) brings you this special update in the midst of our 24/7 Taiwanese food blogging marathon: Go. Right. Now. to the Holiday Farmers Market at the fairgrounds.  Yes, it’s inside.  Because next Saturday is

Part II of a photo essay of my trip to Taiwan.  See Part I on crabs here and Part II on fish/seafood here. More Taiwanese food, on a day we could all use a little tropical sweetness.  (24 hours to go ’til grading is due!) Fruit is one of the main daily luxuries in Taiwan; [...]

Part II of a photo essay of my trip to Taiwan.  See Part I here.  One of the chief delights of Taiwanese cuisine is seafood in all its divine mystery.  I already gave you a hint with my pictures of crabs in the last post.  That was merely, only, scarcely, barely the beginning.  Above: uni [...]

Part II of a photo essay of my trip to Taiwan.  See Part I here.  One of the chief delights of Taiwanese cuisine is seafood in all its divine mystery.  I already gave you a hint with my pictures of crabs in the last post.  That was merely, only, scarcely, barely the beginning.  Above: uni [...]

…and that mountain was deepfried softshell crabs with crunchy fried garlic crumbles.  At Shin Tung Nan Seafood Restaurant in Taipei. Accusing stares from their friends.  Delicious, delicious friends. Filed under: recipes

…and that mountain was deepfried softshell crabs with crunchy fried garlic crumbles.  At Shin Tung Nan Seafood Restaurant in Taipei. Accusing stares from their friends.  Delicious, delicious friends. Filed under: recipes

Yes, I’m in Taiwan. These two pictures and the one above are of the Grand Hotel, once owned and run by Chiang Kai Shek’s wife, the infamous “Dragon Lady,” Madame Chiang.  See? The trip was pretty much a surprise.  Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to visit Taipei and the surrounding countryside t