Spew

5 Things To Do: Friday

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, NOV. 27, 2009 >>>

1. Paradise Theatre presents its version of A Christmas Story at 7:30 p.m.

2. The Gritty City Gift Fair will host 25 alternative, quirky, unique and hip vendors from noon to 6 p.m. inside The Robert Daniel Gallery.

3. The cool Lelavision Physical Music Performance will get all physical and musical at 1 and 3 p.m. inside the Museum of Glass.

4. Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium turn on the Zoolights from 5-9 p.m.

5. The Pawnshop Playboys do their thing at 8 p.m. inside Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill in Spanaway.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Peppermint Ice Cream Pie with Hot Chocolate Sauce

JAKE DE PAUL: IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE … >>>

The fine folks at Randall PR sent us the recipe for Peppermint Ice Cream Pie with Hot Chocolate Sauce by Executive Chef Robert Green of Sip in Gig Harbor. “Succulent hot chocolate meets festive peppermint in this easy-to-make dessert,” claims the agency.

Here is the recipe:
 

Peppermint Ice Cream Pie with Hot Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:

1 gallon peppermint ice cream
1 container Cool Whip
1 package of Oreo cookie crumbs
1 small can of Hershey’s chocolate sauce
3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Combine finely chopped cookie crumbs and melted butter. Pack into the bottom of pie pan and up the sides. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Press in peppermint ice cream and top with Cool Whip. Freeze overnight. When ready to serve, heat chocolate sauce and cut pie into desired portions. Top one piece of pie with hot chocolate sauce and serve. You will be all the envy on the block!

Bogels, $1 cork fee

RON SWARNER: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Show Off Your Wine: The Dockside Bistro and Wine Bar in Olympia offers a $1 cork fee every Tuesday.

This Is Bogels: Panera Bread has invented Bogels — bite-size pieces of their Cinnamon Crunch bagel coated with cinnamon and sugar prepackaged in cup holder friendly containers of six or 12. Panera Bread is in the Lakewood Towne Center, along Point Fosdick in Gig Harbor, at the Lacey Market Place and on South 320th Street in Federal Way.

Plan Ahead: Chef John Edwards will teach a class on How to Cook a Thanksgiving Dinner Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6 p.m. at the Bayview School of Cooking in Olympia. The school will also teach a Cranberries Beyond Relish class Nov. 15. Reserve your space at 360.754.1448.

Food For Thought: If your plate is bigger than 9 inches across, you're going to eat too much, one expert says.

Good day to taste wine

JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Wine Tasting: A bunch today.

Plan Ahead: The Washington State Liquor Control Board will open a Liquor and Wine Holiday Gift Store inside The Commons at Federal Way Nov. 1-Dec. 31. It will almost make driving South 320th Street worth it.

Food For Thought: Embrace the urban backyard chicken trend? NYTimes says proceed with caution: "Chickens, it turns out, have issues."

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: Wine and beer tastings

Tour of horrors

STEPH DEROSA: SOUTH SOUND HAUNTED HOUSES >>>

I’ll be brutally honest here: I have yet to find a haunted house in the South Puget Sound that will make me poop my pants like the huge ones down in Texas did. Even back in the ’80s we’d drop a cool $20 on admission into a three-story deserted warehouse turned death house. You should count your blessings that you’re here in your safe, humble surroundings of evergreens and vegetarians.  Here, admission is usually at a fair price, and the haunting is done in a controlled, well thought out environment. 

Are the haunted houses here scary?  Are they worth the money?  Do those adult-sized diapers really hold?  These are questions only a haunt doctor can answer. Aren’t you in luck?  Dr. Steph DeCapitated DeRosa at your service right here.

5 Things To Do: Friday

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, OCT. 16, 2009 >>>

1. Viva Oz Vegas, the Vegas-style floor show extravaganza, hits Olympia’s Capitol Theater stage at 8 p.m.

2. The Gig Harbor Film Festival with more than 60 features, documentaries, shorts, and foreign films begins its three-day run today.

3. Tacoma mayoral candidates Jim Merritt and Marilyn Strickland will discuss questions posed by the public and CIVITAS, a student group, about urban issues facing Tacoma at The University of Washington Tacoma in the William W. Philip Hall’s Milgard Assembly Room from 5-6:30 p.m.

4. The Heroes of Improv Comedy performs at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at the Midnight Sun Performance Space in Olympia.

5. Andrew Vait & The Lonesome Pioneers and Danny Godinez play an 8 p.m. gig at Krickett’s Family Restaurant in Parkland.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

New Gateway to India didn't open

JENNIFER JOHNSON: I LOVE LAMB. LAMB, LAMB, LAMB >>>

Folks at Gateway to India in Tacoma have confirmed that their sister site in Gig Harbor did not open last weekend as planned. Now they’re shooting for mid-October at the earliest.

“No, it’s not open yet. We’re still waiting on deliveries,” explained Tacoma Gateway staffer over the phone last night.

Not that I’m holding my breath or anything, but I am very impatient to see what dishes will be on the Gig Harbor menu. My curiosity has been piqued with their promise of a bigger kitchen and more meat dishes.

I love lamb. Gateway in Tacoma makes a wonderful creamy korma ghost lamb. With more space for larger broilers, I can only imagine what they can turn out across the bridge.

Dare I dream of rack of lamb?

Possibly some lamb chops that melt off the bone?

Oh, let it be so.

[Gateway to India, 6565 Kimball Dr., Gig Harbor, 253.552.5022]

Lele goes Uptown

ANNOUNCER: TACOMA FAVORITE TESTS THE WATER IN GIG HARBOR >>>

Sitting next to Gig Harbor’s new Galaxy Theatre is sitting pretty indeed. Lele Tran, who owns Tacoma favorite Le-Le Restaurant with husband Andy, made the adventurous choice of opening another restaurant in Gig Harbor. Swinging open the doors nine years ago, the original Hilltop Le-Le’s and the sadly failed Lakewood venture of 2007 provided great practice for the spotlight attention and scrutiny restaurants receive when opening in Gig Harbor’s latest hot spot — Uptown Gig Harbor, a planned shopping, dining and movie-going complex that looks as though it were a Bellevue transplant. Elegant, graceful and beautifully appointed, this smaller space offers Vietnamese and Thai cuisine. Prices are not the easily affordable ones of Tacoma.

The boys review Lele Restaurant (yes, they slightly changed the name) in Gig Harbor on the Weekly Volcano's Web site.

It's pouring today

JAKE DE PAUL: TODAY IN WINE TASTING >>>

Wine tasting, noon to 5 p.m., Tacoma Wine Merchants, 21 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, 253.779.8258.

Georges-Phillipe Bouyer from Pacific Rim Wines offers tastes of California and Washington wines, 1-4 p.m., $5, Dockside Bistro & Wine Bar, 501 Columbia St N.W., Olympia, 360.956.1928.

Domaine de la Mordoree tasting, 2-5 p.m., Water to Wine, 9014 Peacock Hill Ave., Gig Harbor, 253.853.9463.

Wine tasting, 2-5 p.m., Harbor Greens Wine Bar, 5275 Olympic Dr. N.W., Gig Harbor, 253.858.8033.

Wine tasting, noon to 4 p.m., The Wine Basket, 2118 S. 314th, Federal Way, 253.874.3070.

The curtain rises

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: SOUTH SOUND THEATER SCENE IS SET TO GO OFF >>>

The regular season for most theaters in the South Sound starts this week, so prepare yourself for a steady stream of theater now that the summer slump is over. Cue the sound of rejoicing.

I preview three production on the Weekly Volcano Web site. Check it here.