Homemade strawberry ice cream, on my deck.

The raw unpasteurized whole milk and cream came from Meadowwood Farm in Enumclaw. The milk is $10 per gallon, the cream $6 per pint.

If you’ve got any health hangups about drinking raw unpasteurized dairy products, this milk isn’t for you. If you have no qualms, then this stuff’s for you: It tastes like fresh grass. It’s creamy yellow in shade, and thick and creamy to the mouth. Stays fresh in the fridge for two weeks. Great for drinking, making cheese, yogurt, creme

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I drove to Enumclaw yesterday to buy farm-fresh raw, unpasteurized milk and cream. (I’ve got one batch of home-spun Cherry Garcia in the freezer, and I’m waiting for my strawberry custard base to chill before I start the next batch of homemade ice cream. Stand by for pictures.)

On my way to Meadowwood Farm, I swung by Olson’s Meats & Smokehouse, where I scored the last two orders of pork on sticks.

These little piggies deserve a

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Thea’s Market opened on Dock Street last week. It’s the closest food market to downtown Tacoma.

I was sniffing out reports of at least one restaurant under development in the Esplanade condo project on Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. I saw a few nice, empty spaces. Two of them face the water, such as the view goes: an unimpeded look at the Martinac ship yard. Whatever food and beverages will be served in whatever restaurants go into the Esplanades, I hope they stand up on their own.

While searching for

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I fell asleep soon after dinner last night. Fitting, since dinner was a dream.

Now that the ice in Alaska’s Yukon River has melted and the Eskimos have taken their share of the fish, Yukon River king salmon are in markets and restaurants. I bought a filet at Johnny’s Seafood in Tacoma yesterday.

It was $35.99 a pound. Johnny’s fishmonger said it would be a buck higher today.

I brushed the fish with my dad’s chimichurri (parsley, garlic,

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Yukon River King salmon has finally arrived. I bought mine today at Johnny’s Seafood on Dock Street, $35.99 a pound. Turns out I could have got it for $29.99 a pound at Metropolitan Market. Northern Fish on Ruston way reports it’s still waiting for its catch.

Jon Rowley, the Puget Sound food marketer who turned Copper River salmon into gold, does PR for a Yukon River outfit. Here’s a snippet of

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Floyd’s mom is Vin Floyd, who opened East West in 1993. Floyd said his 71-year-old mother "is still a firecracker."

"She kind of retired last year and I took over," he said. "The restaurant business wasn’t for me. East West is such a big part of my mom’s life. She’s looking at keeping it going."

East West Cafe Proctor, which opened in 2005, is unaffected by East West Cafe’s situation. Vin Floyd’s relatives own and operate that restaurant independently.

Not many vegetarian meals are served at La Huerta International Market. Those who eschew meat may wish to avoid one of two entrances into the restaurant – the one that takes customers past La Huerta’s meat counter, where peeled beef knuckles and top round rest cheek by jowl with pork fat and pig’s blood sausage.

Juan and Rossy Murguia opened La Huerta three months ago, duplicating their thriving market in Kent: grocery products from Latin America,

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East%20and%20West%20Caf%C3%A9There’s been some feather shuffling at Ezell’s Famous Chicken in Tacoma, where the owners of the Seattle-based fried chicken restaurants have taken over the local franchise, spiffed up the facilities and pledge to improve the quality of food and service.

Ezell’s opened at Pacific Avenue and 72nd Street in 2005. The franchise closed in March. Ezell’s founders, Ezell and Fay Stephens and Lewis Rudd, re-opened the restaurant on May 10, with new staff. I stopped in for a

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