I know what you're thinking " That Freakazoid Freddy, he must be in his 50's, but you'd never know it by how mentally sharp he is. He's sharp as a tack . Hasn't declined one iota. I wonder what his secret it?" Here's my secret: http://www.medicaldaily.com/drink-beer-ward-dementia-antioxidant-found-hops-prevents-oxidative-stress-cognitive-320296 Yup. An antioxidant in hops apparently helps ward off dementia, and the Seattle area has many breweries that specialize in hoppy beers.  Renton has two breweries, Herbert B. Friendly, and Strong Arm. Both of these are tiny, and the beer is made adjacent to the brewer's homes. Renton does not have a brewery tap room where you can hang out and drink and eat. But nearby Tukwila does. Odin Brewing opened their facility in Tukwila last summer, and serves all of their beer, and barbecue made on the premises. They've got Trivia every Wednesday. It's a friendly, comfortable space, and the beer is a...

Welcome to another exciting episode of " What's That Sandwich?" This sandwich is corned, smoked jackfruit, which I call Jackstrami, served with sauerkraut, melted mozzarella cheese, and "secret sauce" containing chipotle mayonnaise, plain kefir,relish, regular mayo, and a drop of dijon mustard, on rye bread. Say what? I've been reading and experimenting with jackfruit, as a meat substitute. I'm not a vegetarian, but I like vegetarian food. I'm not convinced one way or the other whether meat is healthy for humans or not, but I can tell you one thing: It's not healthy for animals. I feel physically good after eating meat, but I don't like contributing to fatten the profits of evil meat producers, who don't think of the animals as sentient beings, but rather just contributors to the bottom line. Anyway, jackfruit. It's a thing. Vegetarian restaurants in various places are selling jackfruit tacos, jackfruit carnitas, and jackfrui...

King Donuts, in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood( 9232 Rainier Ave S.) and The Local 907(907 S. 3rd St, Renton) both made the national news over the last few days. The owners of the King Donut( and teriyaki and laundromat) , Heng and Chia Pol Hay,were robbed and beaten as they were locking up for the night. They're in the hospital recovering. This is the first time in their 30 years of owning the place that they've had any incident at the business, minor or major. Rainier Beach is not considered one of Seattle's more desirable neighborhoods, but King Donut has been a community treasure, a haven with a very diverse clientele. The donuts are superb, the teriyaki is delicious, and you can wash your clothes there while you dine. It's a family run business, with the daughters now in charge. Very friendly place with good, inexpensive food. Don't let this incident scare you away. There's been an outpouring of support since the story hit the news. May it stay t...

Much of Seattle is in mourning over the closure of Paseo, a very popular Cuban/Caribbean sandwich joint. Paseo had a couple of locations, one in Fremont, and one in Shilshole(Ballard). Nobody's quite sure why they closed, but a lawsuit is ongoing filed by employees who said they weren't paid,weren't allowed breaks, and were discriminated against because they were Hispanic. The owner was Cuban, a guy with the best name ever of Lorenzo Lorenzo, and the employees were Mexican. Both locations had lines out the door, so I don't think it was a case of the old Yogi Berra line " Nobody goes there anymore, it's too popular." In Renton, many are mourning the closure of A Terrible Beauty , the Irish pub on S 2nd ST in downtown Renton. It too was very successful, often crowded( in a large space, even), had a great selection of beer, and very possibly the best Reuben sandwich in the Seattle area. Really out of this world, maybe the best Reuben on the planet. After op...

I'd been meaning to post something about Seattle's Hitchcock Deli since I tasted their pastrami a few weeks ago. While I mostly avoid meat for health and ethical reasons, if a place is supposed to have good pastrami, I'll give it a try. And being originally from the east coast, I grew up eating pastrami and know it well. I've eaten Katz's from the lower east side in New York City, and Langer's in Los Angeles( which is really insanely good). But you know what? The pastrami at Hitchcock Deli might be the best I've ever tasted. It's not lean, as good pastrami should not be lean. They cure and smoke their own meats at the Hitchcock Deli, and they know what they're doing. But then, a few days ago, I read that Hitchcock Deli now had a 3-7 PM daily Happy Hour( Monday-Friday), which features discounted beer and wine, fresh mussels, fresh oysters, as well as their home cured meats. So resistance is futile, and I could not resist writing about them any longer....

If you enjoy drinking beer as I do, it's a real blessing to live in the Pacific Northwest, which has many hundreds of small breweries. Washington State also has the second largest number of wineries in the country, and probably ranks in the top two or three in total number of marijuana dispensaries. You want intoxicants? You've come to the right state. Washington is also the largest producer of hops in the country by far. Washington's hops get dried or pelletized and shipped to breweries all over the world. But not all of them. Some of them are used fresh to make fresh hops beers, something that can only be had for a short period of time. Like right now. Over a hundred years ago, the Seattle area grew most of the country's hops, in places like Kent and Puyallup, just southeast of the city. In the early 1880's, hops blight destroyed most of the European hops crop, and Western Washington became one of the world's major hop growing areas. But ten years later, aphid...

About five days ago, I read on Smoking Monkey Pizza's Facebook page that they were issuing a challenge. Eat an entire fourteen inch "Scorpion Ghost" pizza within 25 minutes, you'll get the pizza free, and they'll throw in some gelato as the prize. The Scorpion Ghost pizza is topped with Trinidad Scorpion peppers, ghost peppers, habanero peppers, and the marinara sauce is infused with cayenne, hot pepper flakes, and Tabasco. I'm a pretty good real estate agent. But I'm a great pizza eater. About 33 years ago, The Broadway Merchants association on Seattle's Capitol Hill sponsored a bunch of eating contests as part of their street festival. I ate an entire sixteen inch pizza then in four minutes and thirty seconds, so it seemed to me that even if I've slowed down with age, twenty five minutes seemed generous. What I didn't account for was how quite hot it was. Dang! But I did it, yesterday. Ate the whole thing in fourteen minutes. It was painful,...