Food & Wine

So, it’s E.B. White’s birthday on July 11. I propose we hoist a cocktail in honor of the most famous Seattle Times reporter. Yes, it’s true, the author of “Charlotte’s Web” and co-author of every writer’s bible, “The Elements of Style,” used to live the ink-and-paper life, tapping away on our metro desk from September 1922 to June 1923 before he was, uh, fired.

Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White was a reporter for the Seattle Times. Photo archive

White reflected on his time with the Times:

If our country’s famed Copper River salmon runs were threatened by a massive mining project, I think diners nationwide would be protesting the plans. Why, I asked journalist Paul Greenberg a few years ago, wasn’t there a bigger outcry about the proposed Pebble Mine project in Alaska and its effect on Bristol Bay…

Food writer Hsiao-Ching Chou once said that the best potstickers can’t be bought. In a restaurant setting, she wrote, cooks often take too many shortcuts because of time and money constraints. Her own homestyle potstickers, though, will be on the menu at the FareStart Guest Chef dinner on Thursday, July 10, a version of…

From about the minute Westward opened on Lake Union in August, diners were thinking about how good Seattle’s July 4 fireworks show would look from its dock (pictured above.) The good news: There’s a big viewing party planned there for Friday, with a paella dinner, sides, lots of beer, wine and sangria, plus a DJ….

Pop-up restaurant Kraken Congee has drawn plenty of Seattle fans over the past year with its sophisticated takes on traditional rice porridge. On Tuesday, viewers can see the three chefs behind the “insanely popular” eatery cooking for a tougher audience. Kraken Congee stars on the first episode of CNBC’s “Restaurant Startup,” where…

File photo by Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Instead of looking for kaffir lime leaves when cooking Southeast Asian or Indian recipes, try just asking for lime leaves.

That’s how the ingredient is now classified at PCC Natural Markets, just days after staffers saw an article on racist connotations behind the original name. “The k-word is akin to the n-word in South Africa and some other African countries,” reporter Mia Stainsby wrote in The Vancouver Sun, noting a social media campaign to use the less common term “makrut lime” instead.

PCC now refers to them simply as “lime leaves,” a term approved by the Oxford Companion to Food, said PCC food writer Jill Lightner, who saw the original article and worked on the changes.

Why take such drastic steps?

This year, the Fourth of July brings with it the usual fireworks, barbecue and midsummer sun (we hope), but also another special something: a genuine three-day weekend. And for that, we’re cracking some Independence Day beers. Here are our five favorites (roughly in order of cachet).

We just got done talking about Brad’s Swingside Cafe counting down its final months, not long after recovering from the news of Piecora’s closure, while still mourning El Puerco Lloron. Now, brace yourselves for this weekend, when another old-school classic, Louie’s Cuisine of China, will serve its final meals after 37 years…

Seattle Times wine columnist Andy Perdue reports that a Washington winery has earned the top award for red Bordeaux varieties at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards. L’Ecole No. 41′s 2011 Ferguson Vineyard, a red blend that is a new wine for the Walla Walla Valley winery, brought home the trophy June 24. L’Ecole was the only American…

Start the countdown to say goodbye to another longtime Seattle restaurant, and the “famous” aglio e olio and memories that went with it. Brad Inserra, owner of the 24-year-old Brad’s Swingside Cafe in Fremont, said he is in the final stages of selling the building. He plans to close his cozy Italian hangout in February, though…