Article: Chicken-Fried Vision Quest

This is an article taken from Seattle's The Stranger about a woman from the South who went out of her way to find Seattle's best chicken-fried steak. Did she find it? Find out by clicking here.

Straus Organic Milk (1% Low Fat)

Yeah, it's milk but not just any milk. For me, I grew up never seeing or trying milk from a bottle. Honolulu always had cartons and plastic, so watching my share of Sesame Street made the idea tempting. My curiosity finally ended when I went to Yoke's and saw half gallon bottles of milk made by Straus Family Creamery out of California. I know of a farm in Western Washington that still bottles their milk with glass bottles, but this was something that I had to try.

I do realize that for a lot of you, milk from a glass bottle is ordinary, but again this was something from my mom's time, when people would deliver your milk to your front door. I decided to try the 1% one even though I drink 2% and could go for the whole. At $5.99 it is pricey, but it is organic and I'd rather pay a good price knowing it's decent milk and not something random. Before I had a taste, I did some research and discovered that some people feel that Straus' milk, even the 1% and fat free varieties, were creamy. The milk I normally buy isn't, it's just watery milk with no flavor or grip.

I then poured it (in an glass, no less) and tried it. It was excellent, it was not unlike a decent carton of whole milk (flavor-wise). At $5.99 a bottle I made sure I consumed it slowly but surely.

The cool thing about the bottles is that the creamery recommends returning the bottle to the store of origin for a deposit, not unlike soda bottles. I did that, and the lady I gave the bottle to had no idea what to do with the bottle. She asked the cashier and she told her to punch in a code. My return fee was $1.50! The cost of the bottle of milk is actually $4.50, which is not bad at all.

The creamery takes the bottles back, sterilizes them and puts them back into the market. I like that