We watched the snow swirling about with great anticipation. At first it was flurries, wispy little flakes. And walking amongst them was more like a visual treat than the feeling of impending doom storm that was coming.

A few hours later there was a lot more of them. Flakes of fury, not just “flurries”, yet nothing was sticking and it seemed like all the hype of the biggest storm since the blizzard of 2016 was going to evolve into a nothing burger.

After a satisfying nap, a much needed relief from reading about who would get signed or not after the Super Bowl, and as the sun settled below the horizon, the little flakes were en masse and the space between the buildings was filled with a wash of white, like gesso on a canvas. Yet the roads were still clear of snow and nothing was sticking.

The trees by now had a wonderful delicate painting covering of white, allowing one to appreciate the gentle approach that nature can have.

And then, it felt like, suddenly the rooftops went from dark to snow covered, and the balconies changed too. The most convincing change that the snow was indeed falling was the window air conditioners were now like little ledges of snow hanging off the cliffs, the sides of the buildings.

It is early, but now more than ever, the blizzard of 2026 is real!

As the windows make noise as the weather is forced upon them by the accelerating wind, we will have Thai food delivered rather than take the step out in the blustery breath of this storm.

And like so much of the food here you can get really good food delivered just by touching your phone!

Take out food is not a new thing. The history of takeout food is surprisingly ancient.

The earliest evidence points to ancient Rome as one of the first cultures with a structured takeout food culture. Roman cities were filled with thermopolia (singular: thermopolium) — street-level shops with built-in stone counters containing large ceramic vessels (dolia) that kept food warm.

Since most urban Romans lived in small apartments (insulae) without kitchens, eating out or grabbing food to go was a daily necessity. Pompeii alone had over 80 thermopolia discovered by archaeologists.

But Rome wasn't alone. Ancient China also had a well-documented street food and takeout culture going back thousands of years, particularly in cities along trade routes. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), urban food stalls and restaurants offering food to carry away were extremely common and well-documented in writings of the era. Ancient Egypt and Greece similarly had street vendors and public food stalls catering to people who lacked home cooking facilities.

China's street food traditions have been continuous through to the present day.

The concept evolved dramatically in the 19th and 20th centuries. Fish and chip shops emerged in Britain in the 1860s as an early modern takeout institution. Chinese restaurants in the United States began offering takeout in the late 1800s, and the iconic folded paper takeout container (the "oyster pail") was actually patented in the US in 1894. The post-WWII rise of the automobile and suburban life in America turbocharged drive-through and fast food culture, cementing takeout as a cornerstone of modern life.

In Thailand, nobody calls this dish "yellow curry" — if you order "kaeng leuang" (which literally means "yellow curry") at a restaurant in Thailand, you would get a different dish entirely: a sour, water-based curry from Southern Thailand, not the coconut milk curry known abroad as "yellow curry."

The Western name "yellow curry" was essentially invented for export, following the convenient red/yellow/green color-coding that made Thai curries easy to market internationally. True Gaeng Kari remains the proper name — and as we now know, it literally means "curry curry," a delightful double reminder of its Indian-Thai heritage.

In ancient Rome, while most people picked up food from thermopolia themselves, wealthy households would send servants to collect meals.

There's also evidence in ancient China of food being carried to customers, particularly to merchants and laborers who couldn't leave their posts. This was less a formal "delivery service" and more an extension of household labor or vendor mobility — street hawkers would walk through neighborhoods with food on poles or in baskets, essentially bringing the market to the people.

In medieval Islamic cities like Baghdad and Cairo, sophisticated urban food economies included vendors who circulated through streets and markets delivering to homes and businesses. Medieval European cities had similar itinerant food sellers.

One of the most remarkable delivery systems in history emerged in Mumbai (then Bombay), India, around the 1880s. The dabbawala system involved workers collecting home-cooked lunches in stacked metal tins (dabbas) from people's homes and delivering them to their workplaces — and then returning the empty containers. This system is still operating today with legendary efficiency, and has been studied by business schools around the world.

In the United States and Europe, dairy and bread delivery to homes was common by the late 1800s. Milkmen were a staple of American and British life well into the mid-20th century.

Grocery delivery by neighborhood shops was also standard practice before the rise of supermarkets — customers would phone in orders and a boy on a bicycle would bring them.

Chinese restaurants in America were early pioneers of modern meal delivery, beginning in urban areas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

By the mid-20th century, pizza delivery became one of the most iconic forms of food delivery in America, exploding in popularity through the 1960s–80s as chains like Domino's (founded 1960) built their entire business model around it.

The story of Son Fish Sauce is really a love story: boy meets girl, boy wants to give girl the world, boy gives girl anchovies and the rest is history.

Now in its fourth generation, Son Fish Sauce, the dream of one young man in love, has grown to be the largest employer on the Vietnamese Island of Son Rai.

First, let's get past the name. Yes it is sauce and yes it comes from fish. Anchovies, actually, little tiny fish.

Did you know that Worcestershire sauce is a fish-based sauce?

And did you know that ketchup started as a fermented pile of fish, long before tomatoes were added?

Some of you probably have a jar of fish sauce tucked away in your refrigerator somewhere, bought for a recipe and rarely used since.

We want to convince you that fish sauce should be a pantry staple and not to be used in big glugs, but by the teaspoon or so. And, more often than not, you're not adding the flavor of fish, fish sauce is the ultimate liquid Umami, a magical elixir, that makes the rest of your ingredients open up and shine in an expressive, explosive, harmonious unison of love.

And not just any fish sauce will do. Not all fish sauce is created the same way.

Son Rai Fish Sauce, winner of many Vietnamese gold medals, has arrived. It is Brady Williams' - James Beard Foundation Awards Winner - choice for Fish Sauce in his new restaurant Tomo. And it is now our favorite too!

Several things make Son Fish Sauce special.

The anchovies around the Son Rai Island have very small stomachs, which yield fish sauce with more protein and a nuanced fragrance.

Once the anchovies are caught, they're salted on the boats, with local sea salt, and the fermentation process begins immediately.

A unique microclimate prevailing winds from the sea, fresh morning dews from the mountain peaks, tropical storms, intense humidity, and equatorial heat - contributes to the fermentation process.

Son Fish Sauce anchovies are fermented for a full year, using no engineered bacteria to speed up the process, no chemical salt, no sugar or fructose, no preservatives and no other types of fish. Many other commercial brands, including other ones from Vietnam, are full of artificial ingredients and chemicals.

Unlike other producers, Son thoroughly washes their barrels clean to begin the process anew with every batch. This cleanliness creates a fresh environment for the next batch. Many companies use the unwashed barrels to get the most fishiness they can, because they don't age the sauce like Son does.

And Son bottles only the first 3 presses compared to the typical 6th or 7th press as almost all the other producers do. Clarity of product is obvious when you taste and use it!

Their artisanal, time-honored production methods are unique and reflect four generations of family pride and expertise, as well as a healthy respect for their culture and heritage.

As the Son family says: there is no secret to high-quality fish sauce, all you need is the right environment, the right anchovies and sea salt, and most importantly . . . time.

100% natural Vietnamese fish sauce made from wild anchovies caught off the coast of southwest Vietnam. Anchovies are cured for one year in sea salt before processing into sauce. Gluten free. No shellfish. No MSG added.

The quintessential Chinese takeout box was invented in Chicago in 1894 by an American named Frederick Weeks Wilcox.

He patented it as a "paper pail," and the design was inspired by principles of Japanese origami.

Wilcox's invention was made from a single piece of paper folded into a virtually leak-proof container and secured with a wire handle. It evolved from existing oyster pail technology — wooden containers used to transport raw oysters — which is why Chinese takeout containers are still sometimes called oyster pails.

As for how it became associated with Chinese food, that didn't happen right away. For most of the 1900s, the little box was plain and white. That changed in the 1970s, when a designer at what is now Fold-Pak added a red line drawing of a pagoda onto the side, along with the words "Thank You" and "Enjoy" in a Chinese-inspired font.

Interestingly, the image on the box is believed to depict the Porcelain Tower, a pagoda built in 15th-century Nanjing.

Perhaps the best irony of all: the structure has come to represent the idea of Eastern cuisine in Western society, even though this packaging is not used in China. As one packaging designer put it, "We don't sell them in China."

So it's a thoroughly American box, dressed up with Chinese imagery in the 1970s, that became one of the most recognizable food symbols in the world.

A full flavor classic Italian dish that gets its wonderful flavor from Calatura, Italian fish sauce. Though it is quick to make the reward is as if you have been working hard to make it.

Son Fish sauce works well with this recipe.

Avocado ceviche is a great summer dish. Originally from Latin America, it consists of raw fish which is thinly sliced or cubed, and then marinated in citrus juice which "cooks" the fish. Served chilled, it makes for a great summer starter. I think the combination of the sweet strawberries, the buttery avocado, and the sour marinated white fish sounds fabulous.

What's Happening in the Store

Did you know the store often has more?

Come, taste and check it out! Pick your favorite and meet friends new and old who all love food. We love it when you hang out!

Monday to Saturday: 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

French Honeysuckle honey (also known as Sulla) is a type of honey derived from the nectar of the French Honeysuckle plant, Hedysarum coronarium. This plant is native to the Mediterranean region, particularly in southern France, Italy, and parts of North Africa, where it grows in abundance.

This honey has a delicate and gentle sweet flavor with notes of floral with hints of fruit.

It has nice properties and is slower to crystallize making it a nice spreading honey.

A wonderful and rarer honey with distinct, yet subtle flavor.

An excellent showcase for honey, maple syrup or molasses. This recipe works best with a runny honey - like Wilelaiki Honey. If using a solid-style honey, you can heat the honey up to 95 degrees - hot enough to liquefy the honey but not hot enough to kill the natural health qualities of the honey - before using.

Having consumed our fair share of bagged corn nuts with overly giant-sized kernels, we were intrigued. You know the old saying, bigger is better? More fun to say than it is in practice! It is when it comes to corn nuts, anyway!

When it comes to taste, flavor, and crunch, these little, normally sized corn kernels are da bomb!

Crunchy through and through, each one crunches just right. Eat one at a time, and you will get 11 crunches (of biting) before you are done, depending on your crunch speed, about 6 seconds of time!

It's hard to explain exactly why we love these so much, but they are the perfect munch food. For your desk or a long car ride, they are the just-right grab-and-bite-sized treat.

No nonsense here, pure and simple. The ingredients list is short and sweet, just like these shortbread biscuits.

Island Bakery is a wonderful Scottish success story rooted in community, sustainability, and a love of good food.

Island Bakery first began as a bread bakery in 1994, when recently graduated Dawn and her boyfriend Joe Reade set up their business in Joe's brother's garage in Tobermory on the Scottish Isle of Mull. The local baker was retiring, and the islanders needed someone to keep them in lovely fresh loaves.

Joe had deep roots on the island — he had lived on Mull since the age of 11, and met Dawn in Edinburgh when they were students.

In 1996 they bought a shop on Tobermory's colourful Main Street, which became the Island Bakery Delicatessen. It was through stocking the deli with tempting speciality foods that Dawn realized there was a gap in the market for organic biscuits.

In 2001, Island Bakery Organics was born, initially with just four varieties. Their first biscuit customers included Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, and within the first year they picked up several Great Taste Awards and an Organic Food Award.

By 2007, the biscuit side of the business had overtaken the deli, and the Reades made the difficult decision to sell their shop to concentrate entirely on biscuits.

Plans were made to build a new bakery, completed in June 2012, powered by local renewable energy — wind and water for electricity, and wood for heating the ovens.

The range also includes sweet biscuits, Isle of Mull Cheese biscuits for savory lovers, and a gluten-free vegan range called Sweet FA.

All are made in small batches using traditional ingredients and methods, and contain no palm oil, artificial colors, or flavors. Delightfully, the sweet biscuits are presented in small cardboard boats named after neighboring islands.

It's a love story of two young graduates who moved to a remote Scottish island, filled a gap in the community, and quietly built a nationally recognized artisan food brand — all while staying deeply committed to their island home and its environment.

Lakrids Love smells good! Unscrew the top, pull back the protector layer and out comes this wonderful smell of, just as you wanted, strawberry and cream. Like the perfect Good Humor bar, Strawberry Shortcake. (Though it doesn't smell like that anymore.)

The look is multicolored, or red and white creating pink. The first bite flavor is like the ice cream if you use your tongue to move the soft stuff. Then you bite into the licorice and it all changes. A mix of unexpected flavors blending to make something new.

The flavor of this PREMIUM rice vinegar has been likened to that of the finest Japanese sake, and it has impressed Michelin-starred chefs around the world.

It's sought after by professional chefs and serious home cooks who treat vinegar the way wine lovers treat a great bottle — as something that fundamentally elevates a dish rather than just adding acidity.

About the Company

Iio Jozo was established in 1893 in Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture — a coastal town famous for Amanohashidate, one of Japan's three most scenic spots. Originally rice farmers, the family began making rice vinegar as a side business, eventually turning it into their main trade. Today, fifth-generation owner Akihiro Iio continues the tradition of using exclusively 100% new-harvest, pesticide-free rice.

The company's commitment to pesticide-free farming has a compelling origin: in 1964, the third successor, Terunosuke, observed that pesticides were killing every living thing in local rice paddies. He spent two years going door to door convincing local farmers to grow without chemicals — and five years passed before the first pesticide-free vinegar was ready. Today, Iio Jozo works with about 15 local farmers, managing cultivation carefully and checking for pesticide residues. The purchase price for rice is roughly three times that of ordinary rice.

How It's Made

This is where Iio Jozo truly stands apart. The entire process takes over a year:

It starts with sake made from new harvest, pesticide-free rice. The rice is mixed with koji and sits for three days before being pressed and fermented for 45 days. The finished sake is then combined with equal parts spring water and vinegar mother, and fermented for another 100 days. After that, the rice vinegar is aged for another 8 months, rounding out the flavor and softening the tangy bite.

They use a hand-powered wooden press to squeeze the sake from the fermented rice — a deliberately laborious process that huge modern vinegar companies would never consider, as they can produce a batch in a single day.

The rice ratio is what makes the Premium version extraordinary:

The Premium is crafted with 320 grams of rice per liter — significantly more than the 200 grams in their standard Pure Rice Vinegar, and vastly more than the 40 grams used in conventional rice vinegar. That legal minimum of 40g/liter means Iio Jozo's Premium uses 8 times the rice required by law.

Why Higher Quality Matters

The higher rice content results in a richer, more rounded flavor with pronounced depth and natural sweetness, making it ideal for dishes where the character of the vinegar truly shines.

It takes about 8 months to produce their vinegars, while a regular modern company might take just one day. That slow fermentation and long aging process produces a vinegar with a fundamentally different character — less harsh, more complex, almost sake-like in its refinement.

The resulting vinegar is a clear, pale yellow color with a mild acidity of around 4.3%. It is unseasoned, meaning it contains no added salt or sugar, allowing cooks to control seasoning more precisely.

Ideas and Suggestions on how to use it:

Iio Jozo recommends using it not only for vinegar-based dishes and sushi rice, but also as a secret ingredient in stir-fries, simmered dishes, and noodle dipping sauces. Because it is rich in flavor, it can be used to make tasty dishes even while reducing the amount of salt and sugar.

Think of these ideas:

• Sushi rice — the definitive use; the mellow depth is irreplaceable

• Ponzu sauce — whisk with yuzu juice and soy

• Salad dressings — drizzle freely given its gentle acidity

• Pickled vegetables — the rounded flavor shines without sharpness

• Marinades and sauces — adds umami complexity, not just sourness

This is a chicken and rice dish recipe where you need to "feel" your way as you go. Changing out and adding and reducing to match your palate. Use your instinct. You can't really overdo it.

I love pureed soups. Easy to make, uncomplicated, and when food is so simple, if the ingredients are the best, so is the soup! Freshly dried split peas are exceptional and make a soup like this worth sipping every spoonful. It's the blending of the starch and other ingredients that give this soup its wonderful body. Use a food mill, food processor or your stick blender, to achieve different consistencies.

Start with the very best split peas and don’t forget the mustard powder!

This Deep Dark Dutch-processed dark unsweetened cocoa powder is in a class unto itself. We have removed less fat from our cocoa (22-24% fat content), which results in a more intense and immediate chocolate flavor.

This "service pack" of ChefShop cocoa powder is designed for commercial users like baristas, bakers, and gelato makers. It is sealed in a thick zip-lock style bag for production baking with a Plain Jane label.

Price relative to quantity is also a crucial part of the commercial kitchen — quality and consistency relative to cost. The resealable bag keeps the cocoa powder fresh for a good long time.

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