Food & Drink

I have to admit it; some people think it tastes like fermented garbage, but I’m a huge kombucha fan. It’s the earthy taste mixed with effervescence and the lift I get afterwards. Since I’ve given up alcohol, it is the closest I’ve come to drinking a beer.
Kombucha is reported by many to be a detoxifier of the body, and an energizer of the mind.
Of course, since there are conflicting stories about these benefits, let me just say that I feel them myself and leave it there. I will also say that, contrary to popular belief, it is not a mushroom that creates the kombucha culture, but rather a symbiotic combination of bacteria and yeast (the acronym used for this combination is SCOBY).

I spent more than a decade living in the Sunriver area, watching my babies grow into kids amidst a sea of seasonal tourists. It became a family pastime to watch and laugh as these visitors tried to navigate the roundabouts, pedaled their way around the bike paths or slicing it into the water on the par three.
With wallets as open as their gaping mouths, they’d wine, dine and shop till they dropped. But then the real estate bubble burst. The once-thriving Village Mall of shops and restaurants became a ghost town with sparse tenancy. And the steady stream of tourists was reduced to a trickle.

With a new menu, 15 beers on tap and more than 500 bottled beers upstairs in The Brew Shop, the Platypus Pub is ready to be seen as a serious contender in the ever-expanding Central Oregon brewpub market.
When the place opened last year, it didn’t make a huge splash in the beer scene, but that’s the way owner Tom Gilles, a former Bend mail carrier, wanted it. Instead Gilles and his partners have quietly tweaked their operations, morphing their bar into a Mecca for local beer lovers who crowd the cozy basement pub in the former Ernesto’s to get a taste of a British-style bar on this side of the pond.

The concept behind Level 2, located in the Old Mill in the old Bend Martini Bar spot, is unique in this town. There are places here serving a wide variety of fusion small plates, places whipping up noteworthy desserts and places mixing spiffy cocktails.
But only L2 is doing all that.
And though it may seem a little unbelievable out here in the middle of the desert, the owners are actually pulling off a certain San Francisco swank that transports diners off the corner across from Jimmy John’s and into a world that feels like Velvet, Astro and 5 Fusion combined.

When I was 18, I had a solar-powered smoothie cart here in Bend. Every morning I’d wheel my cart off the trailer hitch of my ’87 Four Runner, push with all my might to get it up the sidewalk ramp, then lift the solar panels into position. Next to Starbucks downtown by the bench with the statue of a man—his wallet open—I would eagerly blend frozen fruit and juice, sure I could change the world, one smoothie at a time.
It was the beginning of the “health” boom, or so I thought. I was sure that within a decade we would recognize that “real” food was affordable. Nutrient rich food was marketable. And consumers could force the McDonalds of the world to offer healthier choices in smaller portions.

Not long ago, I was faced with the dilemma that so many of us contend with regularly, the question of what to cook for dinner. Being a chef should exempt me from such difficulties; but having two kids that do not always agree with my avant-garde creations, I do get stumped. Inspiration is what I needed, and I knew exactly where to go.
The Savory Spice Shop is my favorite place to go for culinary inspiration. With 400 herbs and spices, and over 140 unique seasoning blends, all available in amounts from ½ ounce to pounds, the Savory Spice Shop is a true Mecca of flavoring opportunity.

There are still a handful of tickets left for the July 21 not-to-be-missed culinary event of the summer: A five-course wine and beer-paired dinner with live music and special guest speakers—all in the evening sunshine at Field’s Farm on the eastside.
This first-of-its kind Farm to Fork dinner in Central Oregon will feature a cornucopia of fresh organic veggies, locally produced cheeses and locally raised meats paired with a 10 Barrel brew and three of Maragas Winery’s Central Oregon-produced wines.