A few weeks ago, Iris invented this game called Sack of Potatoes, where I find an abandoned sack of potatoes (Iris) in the dining room and carry it into her room to make it into dinner. Did you know that potatoes can be made into, among other things, lasagna?

We had people over this afternoon, so I needed to come up with a quick dinner afterwards. Home fries came to mind, but I wasn’t sure I’d have time. I moseyed over to the freezer section, in the same way you might accidentally sidle up to the adult section at the newsstand. It turned out that Ore-Ida hash browns are just frozen cooked potatoes, with no vegetable shortening or even salt. (They do have some innocuous preservative.) So I took a bag home to try.

They took longer to cook than the package promised, but only about 20 minutes total. How did they compare to fresh? Not as good, but certainly not bad. They had a bit of freezer taste which was easily masked by a bite of scrambled egg, and not as much flavor as a fresh potato. But I would certainly consider using these again in a pinch. Probably I should have sprinkled them with some smoked paprika.

Is there a web site devoted to revealing which convenience foods are good and which are terrible?

Something I’ve often read in the media is that there’s no difference between eating chocolate and baking chocolate. I can only assume that the people who say this are selling very expensive chocolate.

Now, I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t pay a lot for good chocolate–I love some of Pralus’s $8 bars, and the bar I carry with me whenever possible is Valrhona Le Noir Amer, which is thankfully $2.29 at Trader Joe’s. But my baking chocolate of choice is Ghirardelli.

Ghirardelli’s 60 percent chocolate chips are the ultimate choice for cookies, and I say this having tried just about everything, including chopping up various kinds of chocolate bars. Their semisweet bars are quite good.

And I was just introduced to their 4 ounce unsweetened bar. Finding quality unsweetened chocolate is a problem. Few recipes call for it, but one that does is Alice Medrich’s New Classic Brownies, found in her book Bittersweet. I’ve tried using bittersweet chocolate and reducing the sugar, but the result just isn’t the same. No way am I going to buy Hershey’s or Baker’s unsweetened chocolate. Frankly, even if it were good, which it isn’t, it would so conflict with my self-image that I would explode, right there in the chocolate aisle.

What I’ve been buying is Scharffen-Berger. I can’t argue with the quality–it makes great brownies. But I can argue with the price–$12.99 for 10 ounces at my local supermarket. It’s not like I make brownies so often that this represents a major expense, but I’d prefer to reallocate those funds toward Pralus bars if possible. When I was at Whole Foods yesterday, I noticed they had Ghirardelli unsweetened bars, and not only were they about half the price, but they’re 4 ounce bars, which is exactly what the recipe calls for. With the Scharffen-Berger, I would end up with this lonely unsweetened nugget at the end.

I made brownies today with the Ghirardelli, and they were just as good as the S-B version.

Ghirardelli also recently introduced a 70 percent bar (aimed at bakers), a 72 percent bar (aimed at eaters), and some flavored bars in their new Intense Dark series. I tried the espresso bar, and what is not to like?

Really, I’m delighted with Ghirardelli. In most supermarkets, it’s the only chocolate in the baking aisle that doesn’t suck. So it don’t have to be good, just better than lousy. They’re busting through the glass ceiling of low expectations and–er, anyway, good chocolate. Mmm.

On my way to Whole Foods at Denny and Westlake, I stopped at Koots Green Tea, the new Seattle location of a Japanese tea chain. On the one hand, it’s a chain, with Starbucks-style design (high design standard, but canned feel). On the other hand, a tea chain is a cool idea, the prices are low, and the wi-fi is free. I got my genmaicha in a nice ceramic cup. They also serve a cup of organic matcha for $2, which is a steal.

I question the wisdom of serving only green tea, given that tea as a whole is a tiny market in the US.

If you’re looking for a Seattle tea shop to call your own, I’m still partial to [Remedy Teas](http://www.remedyteas.com/). But if you’re stopping at Whole Foods (and sooner or later you will, right?), give Koots a try.

Oh, what’s the deal with the name, you ask? I don’t know. I couldn’t find an explanation on their web site. You’d think this would be everyone’s first question.

First of all, I promised to link to my new articles, but I forgot to do this on Sunday, when I had a piece in the times about tartines.

[Here you go](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw02042007/2003549663_pacificptaste04.html).

Jean-Michel Omnès, proprietor of [Saint-Germain](http://saintgermainseattle.com/) restaurant, said something that stuck with me even though I didn’t use the quote for the article:

> It’s like you’re eating your plate.

I like that this idea resonates at all levels, from the injera lining the plate at an Ethiopian restaurant, to the bread bowl of chili at the Claim Jumper. And I was reminded of Jean-Michel’s quote last night when we were having steak with arugula and Parmigiano again. We had a nice crusty baguette from Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle (which for obvious reasons I hesitate to call a new bakery, even though it is) and were using it to scrape our plates clean. Laurie suggested that next time I make it, I should put a slice of bread under the salad to be eaten after the steak is gone, and it would be the best part.

It also reminds me of the great beef teriyaki at Hana restaurant on Broadway, which is not a gloppy-sauce version, but thinly sliced beef and onions with a bit of sauce atop a big bowl of rice. The rice left over after you finish the beef is the best part.

Price is everything. A problematic $25 lunch is reason for fist-shaking and [burning things down](http://www.mamster.net/ratcm/). A troublesome $7 lunch is comedy.

Yesterday I went to the local community college for lunch. Their culinary school runs two restaurants. I chose the international cuisine restaurant, which was serving a Oaxacan menu. For about $7, you get an entree and soup or salad. I had already decided on the pork mole when the waiter (who is also a culinary student) came over and said, “We have a special today of spicy halibut soup.”

“Great,” I said. “I’ll have the pork mole and the spicy halibut soup.”

“Man, I knew this was going to be a problem,” said the waiter. “The soup is actually available only as an entree.” So I ordered pork mole and tortilla soup.

The tortilla soup was very nice, aside from a few chunks of dried chile that should have been strained out. The mole was foul. The sauce tasted like fish. I called the waiter over and explained the problem. “Let me take it back to the kitchen and see what’s going on,” he said.

He returned and explained that the pot of fish stock for the halibut soup was right next to the chicken stock for the mole, and the cook had mixed my mole paste with a ladle of fish stock. In other words, I got screwed by the same soup twice. But I had a new and tasty mole in five minutes.

I figure the culinary school is kind of like NASCAR. You’re not getting your money’s worth without a few crashes.