This week in my food writing class I brought in ten potential trail mix ingredients and had the students divide into teams and create their own trail mix, then write a recipe. I deliberately brought along some weird-ass ingredients, mostly from Trader Joe’s.

The students kindly gave me permission to share their recipes. Here’s what they came up with. Oh, avellanas are apparently Chilean hazelnuts. They’re seriously crunchy.

**EXOTIC NOSH**
by Rose and Aisha

*When backpacking in your neighborhood or an exotic land, this mix will revitalize your chi! Young coconut can be replaced with shredded (dried) coconut!*

1/4 cup almonds
3/4 cup peanuts
1/2 cup young coconut chunks
1/4 cup tamari cashews

Combine ingredients in bowl and hand mix. Note: Make in a Ziploc bag for easy shaking access.

**TRAIL MIX FOR MASOCHISTS AND THOSE WITHOUT TASTE BUDS:
An adventurous recipe**
by Dave, Nick, and Adrian

*This recipe is not quite as bad as the title suggests. This recipe tends to include many spicy ingredients such as wasabi peas. Serve to people who you know.*

2 palmfuls wasabi peas
1 handful rice crackers
5 of the spicy crackers (white ones)
3 tablespoons peanuts (salted or other)
1 tablespoon almonds

Combine in bowl and hand toss.

**POOL-MIX**
by Chloë and Myell

*It tastes good, has a sweet, salty, and spicy taste. Good to eat while watching a movie.*

1/4 avellanas (or substitute hazelnuts)
3/4 cup coconut
1/8 cup yogurt raisins (or substitute chocolate covered raisins)
1/4 cup peanuts
1/8 cashews
1/4 cup almonds
1 teaspoon salt-chile mangoes

1. Mix items except for mangoes in plastic bowl.

2. Dice mangoes into small pieces.

3. Mix mangoes and other mixture together.

On Monday I was downtown shopping for a new yo-yo (I’m not really any good with a yo-yo, but I wanted to impress Iris with my three yo-yo tricks). I was planning on lunch at Takohachi, which I’ve been meaning to post about for ages, but on the way there I passed by [Tat’s Delicatessen](http://www.tatsdeli.com/) (WARNING: web site has audio).

I’d walked by Tat’s before, but always at the wrong time. There are a few Philly cheesesteak places in town, and I’d been to a couple of them and thought they were fine. The cheesesteak has to be one of the most likable foods there is–I mean, it’s hot meat and cheese on a roll. The sandwich I got, though, totally blew away any cheesesteak I’ve had before (I’ve never had one in Philadelphia). It was fantastically juicy, with a roll that was just crispy enough to hold together, and the salt level was right. It had some pickled hot peppers and fresh sweet peppers, and onions, and white American cheese. Next time I’ll go all the way and get Cheez Whiz.

Now, Tat’s has been reviewed by various local media, including the Times and P-I, so I’m not breaking any news here. In fact, I’m probably the last person in town to try it. I always feel silly when I try to talk up a place like that, as if I were saying, “You’ve got to try this restaurant I discovered–it’s called Canlis!”

Recently, though I had an experience that put this in perspective. I was listening to [KEXP](http://www.kexp.org/), and I heard this song that totally grabbed me. It had loud guitars, a great singalong chorus, and vocals that were kind of familiar. I waited for the DJ to announce it, and, well, it was the new Morrissey single.

So I bought the record. Why not? Turns out Morrissey is as easy to like as a cheesesteak.

**Tat’s Delicatessen**
115 Occidental Ave S
Seattle WA 98104
(206) 264-8287
Mon-Fri: 7am-4pm

My friend Stacy was looking at the Upcoming Dinners, and she asked me whether we eat any vegetables. (She didn’t mean it as an accusation.) I said, first of all, that I wasn’t always mentioning vegetable sides, but there’s more to the story than that.

This year, we’ll be eating tons of vegetables from May 14 to November 19, and very few vegetables the rest of the year. Those are the opening and closing dates of our neighborhood farmers market. It’s not that I’m dogmatic about local ingredients–since I love to cook Thai food, how could I be? But for all the usual reasons, the produce at the farmers market inspires me to take it home in a way supermarket produce never does. It challenges me.

In the winter, we eat broccoli, kale, potatoes, and frozen brussels sprouts and peas. That’s about it. The other night I did a chicken stir-fry with bok choy, and Iris loved the stems. But yes, there are many nights when we eat a main dish with with some canned tomatoes in it, and that’s our vegetable for the evening. (Not that there’s anything wrong with canned tomatoes.)

I’m not sure what a nutritionist would say about a diet that includes far more than the recommended amount of vegetables for half the year and far less for the rest. Laurie pointed out that this is just how people ate in the good old days before refrigeration and long-distance trucking. Of course, is the good old days, people were always getting pellagra, beriberi, scurvy, shingles, the consumption, and rickets.

Man, I can’t wait until May 14, if for no other reason than to cure this touch of scurvy.