Food & Wine

If you are not familiar with the town of Wenatchee, it's located east of the Cascade mountains, in the center of the state, population around 36,000 and it's known as the Apple Capital of the World.

Pangborn Airport currently has only one scheduled flight a day and its airport code is EAT. I like that. Here's an aerial view, spoilt by wildfire smoke drifting down from BC and some other fires in WA.

For dog fans, here's their purebred 3-yr-old Doberman Kona, who is both lovable and somewhat terrifying to non-dog owners.

Chelan is known for -- Apples.

My brothers go there a few times a year - to Blueberry Hills Farm where we stopped for lunch.



Decor is somewhat eclectic; prices felt moderately high for being "out in the sticks" and self-service involves ordering at the counter and bussing your own plates (due to lack of staff).



Brother Dan couldn't resist grabbing a blueberry cinnamon muffin. It took all 4 of us to finish it.



Trying to be healthy, I ordered a Nutty Baby Salad. I was stunned when it arrived. I had to put it on a pile of napkins because there was so much food piled high in the bowl that it kept falling off the sides. Blueberries, cranberries, grapes, apple, carmelized pecans, grilled chicken, spinach, a berry-glaze dressing, etc. I could only eat half of this. The rest went home to make another meal. I would bet on more than a pound of blueberries and apples.



We wandered around town for awhile, trying to work off the lunch, then headed back towards Wenatchee. We stopped at the largest produce warehouse complex I'd ever seen, called Stemilt Growers, so we could inspect the multitude of apple varieties for sale. 



Dan and I quickly tired of that side of the shop and ended up at the ice cream counter, ordering "single scoop $3" cones of pistachio & almond ice cream.




I can't remember when exactly the next meal came about (the days are a blur), but Bonnie pulled a pound or two of fresh Whidbey Island crabmeat out of the refrigerator, and we made pasta that night, with fresh asparagus and tomatoes from the garden.

Typical plateful. Served with local wine, another agricultural specialty of the region.

The next morning, we finished up the crab with an "Eggs Benedict with Crab" breakfast, but no one was awake enough to get pictures of that meal. 

NOTE: Here are some pictures from an identical breakfast a couple years ago:

After we walked off our overly-wonderful breakfast, my other brother Brian showed up, from Western Washington. 

He works at Chinooks at Salmon Bay, a fish restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf in Seattle, and in recognition of his many years of service we had a seafood platter.  Trouble arose though, because we had no platters large enough to hold the food!

So we split it into two.



The local wine was great, from a company called Jones of Washington. It won a couple NW wine awards and they describe it by saying,

"Tropical aromas of mango and papaya jump from the glass followed by Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and a bit of Pomegranate juice on your palate with a lovely bright finish."

Can't say I agree about the description, because it was just washing down fine seafood for me, which it did quite nicely. 

The platter contained clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, rockfish (snapper), Italian sausage & roasted potatoes, all sprinkled with olive oil and smoky paprika, served with breadshticks (after a couple glasses of wine).

In case the first photo didn't tempt you enough, here's another angle.

Myself with my two younger "little brothers" who if standing, would tower over me.



Brian works with several wineries as a volunteer during bottling season, so he brought some local recent bottlings to accompany the next few meals.

The finale was based on a huge Costco fllet mignon pack, cooked on the grille with mushrooms, asparagus (Hollandaise sauce from breakfast), potatoes, salad, etc. etc.

And a fine wine which Brian had given us. I'm not sure it's available for sale yet from Soos Creek, but he had a sample from the bottling:

"This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented in a modern concrete tank, using native yeast, and aged in 50% new French oak barrels. It has a very dark ruby red color, extremely concentrated flavors of black fruits, a long aftertaste, and great structure from the tannin and acid for long-term aging."

No aging for this bottle! It was gone in less than an hour.

So that's our vacation experience of the cuisine of Central Washington state. I hope you enjoyed this "taste". (Mrs C and Bonnie in the Pybus Market, in Wenatchee).

Cazalea

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