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Rewards-based Health Plans Aim to Keep Workers Lean
Local employers discover that giving employees incentives to stay healthy helps everyone’s bottom li
When former King County Executive Ron Sims, now deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, launched the Healthy Incentives Program in 2005, he started biking to work. He lost an impressive 60 pounds and dramatically reduced his blood pressure, cholesterol levels and body mass index (BMI). “And he did all of…
Navigating Washington State’s Medical Marijuana Maze
Legal users of medical marijuana in Washington still have to break the law—hazy as it is.
Whether people smoke it, bake it into a cookie or spread green butter on their toast in the morning, medical marijuana use—and the controversy surrounding it—is growing in Washington state. Cancer patients are using it to alleviate nausea caused by chemotherapy. AIDS patients smoke it to help regain their dwindling appetites. And grandparents who once…
Ethan Stowell’s New Pasta Project
Ethan Stowell’s Lagana Foods partnership honors tradition in conjuring the shape of things to eat.
Ten years ago, before he was a Seattle superchef, Ethan Stowell met specialty-food-market veteran Kaela Farrington while cooking on the line at Nell’s Restaurant in Green Lake—and the makings of a future partnership began. Before opening his pasta-focused restaurant Tavolàta in 2007, Stowell bought an Italian pasta extruder. Farrington, enamored of the device, began urging…
Prickly Pear Cactus: It’s What’s for Breakfast
Looking for a green pepper substitute? Columnist Lorna Yee shows us a South American substitute.
What it is: Prickly pear cactus pads, also known as nopales (singular: nopal), are commonly consumed as a vegetable in Mexico and Central America. The cactus pads—the flat “paddles” that grow from the main stems—are sold both fresh and canned. Their flavor lies somewhere between green beans and green bell peppers, with a slimy texture…
Five Spots Serving Up Perfect Lasagna
Bubbling molten cheese layered between wide noodles and homemade sauce—lasagna warms us with a littl
Bubbling molten cheese layered between wide noodles and homemade sauce—lasagna warms us with a little extra love during chilly times. Here are five local favorites that have us exclaiming, “Deliziosissima!” Osteria La SpigaIn the lasagne verdi, layers of green house-made spinach noodles are smothered in a pork-and-beef Bolognese sauce (also made in house), doused in…
Noir City at SIFF Cinema, Feb. 11 – 17
SIFF Cinema goes nuts for black and white classics
2/11–2/17 Listen here, skirts and palookas, it’s time to get off your keisters, put on your glad rags and high-tail it to the fifth annual Noir City, see? This year’s theme is kooks and goofs—crazies, got it? We’re talkin’ a coupla psycho twins (Among the Living, 1941, and The Dark Mirror, 1946), a sexy-creepy heiress…
Marination Goes Brick and Mortar
Seattle's favorite Korean-Hawaiian taco truck is setting up a permanent shop in Capitol Hill. Alliso
We’ve long been fans of Roz Edison and Kamala Saxton’s Korean-Hawaiian truck, Marination Mobile. Now comes news that Edison and Saxton are setting up a stationary shop in which to sling their vittles, tentatively called Marination Station. It’s scheduled to open in early April in the Harvard Market, on the Harvard Avenue side of the building housing…
Sustainable City: The P-Patch Approach to Growth
Pugetopolis is going to continue to urbanize, but we still lack key ingredients for success
I attended the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, and it shaped my expectations for the 21st century. I expected to live in a world of atomic cars, video phones and Space Needle penthouses. I can take pictures with my cheap Nokia cell phone, but other parts of that future remain elusive, perhaps for the better….
Shopping find: Sport Seahawk pride in style with locally-made earrings
Jewelry designer THINKNOW gets you playoff ready with limited-edition green and blue danglers
Though many of us wouldn’t have predicted the Seahawks improbable and spectacular journey into the playoffs this year, now that they are in the second round (they meet the Bears in Chicago on Sunday in the divisional playoff smackdown), we can’t help but feel an extra dose of hometown pride this week. One of our…
Tequila 101: Get a Spirited Primer on Agave from Matador Owner Zak Melang
What’s the difference between a $15 bottle of tequila and a $300 bottle? How do you cure a tequila hangover? Matador owner Melang answers our burning agave-related questions in this Seattlemag.com piece produced by our new video intern Alex Kummerow. Tequila 101 from Seattle magazine on Vimeo.
Spotlight: Screaming Flea Productions’ Third Season of Hoarders
With a third season of Hoarders in the works, the Seattle-based production team offers a behind-the-
Let’s get this out of the way: The name Screaming Flea Productions (SFP) is not a reference to the conditions commonly seen on Hoarders, the popular reality show the Seattle-based company produces for A&E. Though the SFP team is all too familiar with infestations—and other unpleasant consequences of living amid piles of newspapers and herds…
Revel Introduces Brunch THIS Weekend
Head to Fremont this weekend for a Korean brunch from the folks that brought you Joule
Fremont’s newest casual Korean dining spot, Revel, starts its brunch program this Saturday. From what we’re hearing, the brunch menu is taking a nod from chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi’s Asian-inspired dinner menu (which features noodles; dumplings; salads; rice dishes; etc.). Head to Fremont this weekend to find sweet and savory pancakes, sandwiches and…
Fashion + Style Friday: Locally-made, must-have essentials for 2011
A luxe calendar for the new year, the weekend’s big wedding show and save the date for our 2011 Seam
Happy New Year! You may have noticed that Seattlemag.com got a facelift for the new year, one of our office’s goals for the year. Personally, I can’t say I’m much for New Year’s resolutions normally, especially since I have a tendency to make crazy-sauce vows like giving up all sugar and caffeine (I did not…
Tune Into KUOW for Food Convo with Allison Austin Scheff and Sara Dickerman
Seattle mag's dining editor takes it to the airwaves tomorrow to talk Comfort Food with Steve Scher.
UPDATE: Listen to live, streaming video of Ali’s KUOW debut, here. Public radio geeks and foodies, tune your radio dial to 94.9 FM at 9 a.m. TOMORROW morning. Ali told me via email that she and former Seattle mag dining editor Sara Dickerman will be talking about new restaurants that opened, and the restaurants that closed this year…
From Picasso to Spring Hill’s Sunday Night Supper, Our Top To-do’s of the Week
Last chance to see Picasso, Hamlet at the National Theatre Live and more
MUST SEEMasterpieces from the Musée National PicassoThrough 1/17 – Unless you’ve been working at the International Space Station for the past six months, you’re probably aware there’s a Picasso exhibit in Seattle this fall. It’s a genuine big deal, featuring more than 150 works—representing all 80 years of Pablo Picasso’s career—pulled from his personal collection,…
Food News: the Latest on Local 360, Serious Pie in South Lake Union, High 5 Pie, More
Worthwhile openings in Belltown, Fremont, South Lake Union and Capitol Hill
Local 360, a Melrose Market-esque collection of shops anchored by a restaurant, is slowly, bit-by-bit opening in the former Flying Fish space in Belltown. Right now the coffee bar is open, and soon (in the next couple of weeks, I’m told) they’ll add breakfast and lunch. The butcher and cheese counters will follow in February….
Cookus Interruptus: Steel Cut Oats for Breakfast
Man up to a big bowl of hot oat cereal in the morning.
Breakfast sets the metabolic pace for the rest of the day. A good one contains carbohydrate, protein, fat and fiber. All of the nutrient groups. Don’t leave one out. Put some nuts or granola and a little butter on a warm bowl of steel cut oats and you’ve got it all. Printable recipe here. Cookus…
Most Influential: Mike McGinn and Dow Constantine
Mayor McGinn and Executive Constantine made their mark
One sports a revolutionary’s beard, a feisty personality and a bike habit. The other evidences a Boy Scout mien, a let’s-get-along approach and a well-exercised iPod. Both have nearly one year in office, Mike McGinn as mayor of Seattle and Dow Constantine as King County executive. Each has made his mark—by notably different methods. First-time…
Most Influential: King-5 News Susannah Frame
King-5 News Investigative Reporter Susannah Frame
When Susannah Frame launched her “Waste on the Water” series in March, detailing a state ferry system financially running amok, she unleashed a wave of citizen ire seldom seen in Seattle. Among her revelations: a decades-long tradition of reimbursing some ferry employees—mostly relief and so-called “special project” workers—for their time and mileage to and from…
Aloha Ramen
The Japanese staple gets a Hawaiian twist at Greenwood
The food obsessed never tire of the hunt for the area’s best (and most obscure) ethnic eats, be it tongue tacos, geoduck crudo or panchan. To them I say: Time for a trip to Greenwood. Okinawa-born, Hawaii-bred chef Lorenzo Rangel moved to Seattle last year, and in early June, he and his wife, Reiko, opened…
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