It’s What’s For Dinner : Can you read your horoscope in a steak?

Posted inFood & Drink

It’s What’s For Dinner : Can you read your horoscope in a steak?

Mike Bookey

Here’s the beefI love steak. All kinds of steak. But steaks vary tremendously in flavor, texture and tenderness. The steak I might recommend may not be the best one for someone else's taste. For just that reason, I put together a "steak personality primer" to identify some of the differences between the different cuts and the people who like them.

For the purposes of this article, the term steak will refer to a choice cut of beef. While steaks are cut from many different kinds of animals, this is the most common. The best steaks come from the short loin, sirloin and rib sections of a cow, where muscle movement is minimal and fat content is high.
My favorite steak is the rib eye. Cut from the rib section, this is the juiciest of steaks. Also known as Spencer or Delmonico steak, this cut is a great piece of meat to throw in a blackening pan, since its marbling turns to juice when it touches the sizzling hot iron. If you're in the rib-eye camp, you (like me) think flavor is everything. You probably tend to shy away from frou-frou presentations and towards simple, rich foods.

Posted inFood & Drink

It’s What’s For Dinner : Can you read your horoscope in a steak?

Mike Bookey

Here’s the beefI love steak. All kinds of steak. But steaks vary tremendously in flavor, texture and tenderness. The steak I might recommend may not be the best one for someone else’s taste. For just that reason, I put together a “steak personality primer” to identify some of the differences between the different cuts and the people who like them.

For the purposes of this article, the term steak will refer to a choice cut of beef. While steaks are cut from many different kinds of animals, this is the most common. The best steaks come from the short loin, sirloin and rib sections of a cow, where muscle movement is minimal and fat content is high.
My favorite steak is the rib eye. Cut from the rib section, this is the juiciest of steaks. Also known as Spencer or Delmonico steak, this cut is a great piece of meat to throw in a blackening pan, since its marbling turns to juice when it touches the sizzling hot iron. If you’re in the rib-eye camp, you (like me) think flavor is everything. You probably tend to shy away from frou-frou presentations and towards simple, rich foods.

Posted inMusic

Eyes for All Ears: Eleven Eyes wraps jazz around hip-hop and electronica to throw a nice little par

Mike Bookey

It might not be the first description the band would like attached to its name, but Eleven Eyes is a party band. The Eugene sextet (which sometimes morphs into a septet) isn't a party band in the vein of booty shaking or "Brown Eyed Girl" covers, but they can throw a good party.

This is probably why the band is booked (or was booked depending on when you're reading this) for a New Year's Eve show at the legendary Eugene watering hole and music venue, Sam Bond's Garage. And this is also why they rocked the town's historic McDonald Theater (along with fellow Eugene band Reeble Jar) on Halloween.
Eleven Eyes, not unlike other Eugene bands, has roots in the University of Oregon music program, where Tim McLaughlin earned the classical training he employs on the trumpet, keys, sampler, percussion and effects. The band has morphed over the years, straying from its jazz roots to become what might best be described as a cluster-F-word of jazz-fusion, electronic, hip-hop and world music. Sometimes Eleven Eyes is one of those things, but mostly, it's all of them all at once.

Posted inNews

Dining in a Downturn: In the midst of a recession, restaurants close doors, change things up

Mike Bookey

The once brisk bar at MerendaOver the past half decade Bend's culinary scene has made waves on a regional and national level - even garnering a mention in The New York Times. But you don't have to look too hard to notice some significant changes in the local industry - eateries of all types are opening, closing or changing their approach all over town.
Just this week, news broke that Deep, the chic downtown Japanese bistro, would be closing and then the following day, Jody Denton announced that his other restaurant, Merenda, would also be closing up shop. Both eateries' last day was slated for New Year's Eve.

Posted inOpinion

The Great Fox Shakedown Attempt

Mike Bookey

Rabbit ears work just fine for rabbits. They don't work so well for TV reception, especially here in Central Oregon, aka "The Middle of Nowhere," where over-the-air TV signals are few, weak and far between.

But rabbit ears will be the only technology available for Bend-area viewers who want to watch Fox Network programming after Dec. 31, unless KFXO, the local Fox affiliate, and BendBroadband, the only local cable TV provider, can come to an understanding before then. At this writing, negotiations appear to be stymied.
The dispute is pretty basic: KFXO says BendBroadband should pay it for Fox Network programs and BendBroadband says it shouldn't. From where we sit (parked in front of our 46-inch flat-screen high-definition TV watching the Giants play the Vikings on Fox) it looks like BendBroadband has the better argument.

Posted inOpinion

Frozen Burritos on BachelorCountdown to extinguishing and the little blue pill

Mike Bookey

It's no trade secret that any story or report related to Mt. Bachelor, good or bad, has a built in readership in this town. So it was with more than a passing interest that Upfront listened to a recent tipster who told us that Mt. B brass were getting ready to enforce a long-posted — but never adhered to — ban on sack lunches at Mt. B's slopeside lodges. Upfront didn't wait for the receiver to cool before putting in a call to Mt. B's marketing director, Alex Kaufman, who set the record straight on sack lunches. Contrary to what we had heard, Mt. B is not cracking down on brown baggers at Sunrise or Pine Marten lodge, Kaufman said. Quite the opposite, he said, the staff at Bachelor have actually added microwaves to allow more skiers and boarders to reheat food on the lower level of the main lodge. In addition, he said Bachelor has revamped the menu at the lower level café to focus on wallet-friendly foods like hot dogs and sandwiches.

Voila PR disaster averted.

Posted inOpinion

Obama Errors With Warren

Eric Flowers

This week's letter of the week comes from local activist Michael Funke who calls out president elect Obama for selecting anti-gay evangelical pastor Rick Warren to perform the invocation at his inauguration later this month. Thanks for the letter, Michael. You can pick up your prize, an Old Mill pint glass and a cool beverage to fill it, at our offices, 704 NW Georgia.
President-elect Barack Obama has thrown gay and lesbian supporters under the bus by inviting Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren to provide the invocation at his inauguration. I support Obama. But, I strongly disagree with the selection of Warren and have joined thousands of other supporters in registering my opposition at www.change.gov.
When Obama selected Warren to do the invocation, the Saddleback Church website included the following statement: "someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback Church."
Since Warren was selected, the church has erased that statement from the website.

Posted inOpinion

Tripping in Totalitarianism

Eric Flowers

The modus operandi of empires throughout history has been to create crisis, generate fear and promote panic. The current empire is no exception.
911 offered the empire the opportunity to rush through the Patriot Act essentially gutting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The attack was a criminal act, not an act of war which is military aggression by one government against another. A declaration of war empowered the empire to attack Afghanistan even though most of the alleged perpetrators were from Saudi Arabia.
Weapons of mass destruction were used to justify the war against Iraq. Fear and panic led to the acceptance of torture, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, Quantanamo Bay, the elimination of habeas corpus and other practices characteristic of closed societies.

Posted inOpinion

He’s No Stud

Eric Flowers

I'd like to nominate H. Bruce Miller and his rant against studded tires for this week's WTF. He claims, "They're somewhat better at stopping a vehicle on glare ice". C'mon, we're talking about metal spikes here. As a snowboarder and waterfall ice climber, I've yet to see a rubber edged snowboard or rubber ice axe. Edges and ice picks are made out of metal because it gains purchase on "glare ice" like nothing else. Period.
Admittedly, studs marginally decrease stopping power on dry roads. So do cinders. Should ODOT stop putting those down as well? Like cinders, studs increase stopping power when roads are at their worst.

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