"Watch Anchovies Fly!"

"Looks so good and smells even better!"

This could have been uttered at many moments during my marriage, and this video, courtesy my friend Holly Heyser, of her mate, Hank Shaw, a prolific author, blogger, hunter, forager and cook, is a testament to the patience (and sense of humor) it takes to live with a cook. Thanks, Holly!

More Hanksperiments.

Have Dinner with Hank!

This is a shameless plug for an upcoming event here in PDX featuring my friend, author and blogger Hank Shaw. Now, you could just say, "Aw, isn't it nice that she's doing this for her pal." But you'd be missing the point.

Which is: Hank's on a 43-city, 39-state tour promoting his new book, "Duck, Duck, Goose," a comprehensive but approachable guide to cooking those birds, including species and breed identification, hunting advice and, for those of us who prefer our birds already plucked and cleaned, tips on buying them from the store. Not to mention scads of recipes. He's coming to Portland on Dec. 8th for a sold-out class on duck butchery at the Portland Meat Collective, and the next day he'll be working with chef Aaron Barnett of St. Jack to prepare a four-course dinner.

Barnett says there'll be two seatings, one at 5:30, then one at 8 or 8:30—details are still being worked out—and he's hinting that, yes, even dessert will include some ducky ingredient (can you say cracklings?).

This might lead you to say, "Well, that's all very well and good that Mr. Shaw's publisher is flying him all over the country so he can peddle his books and make money off of a bunch of expensive dinners."

But you'd be dead wrong.

First off, publishers these days provide some help with editing and production, but mostly they're in the printing business. Any sales and marketing efforts are largely the responsibility of the authors, and Hank is no exception. Plus he's a little crazy so, like his tour for his first book, "Hunt, Gather, Cook," he's hopped in his old Toyota Tacoma with boxes of books and a sleeping bag. Here's his reasoning:

"Why do it? Because of you, dear readers. Two years ago, when 'Hunt, Gather, Cook' came out — God, has is been two years already?! — I started with a modest tour schedule. Then I heard from you, over and over again, asking me to come to your city. I threw down the gauntlet: I’ll come if you think you can help me sell a few dozen books. You picked up that gauntlet, and again and again, showed me the kind of hospitality and generosity that still gets me a little teary-eyed, even now. That tour was a highlight of my life."

So there you go. A valiant effort to spread the gospel of a sustainable, not to mention delicious, wild food that he's dedicated the past two years, and a great deal of his career, to. I think that's worthy of some support, and I think you will, too.

Details: Hank Shaw's "Duck, Duck, Goose" Dinner with Chef Aaron Barnett of St. Jack. Sun., Dec. 8. Two seatings, 5:30 and 8 pm; $65 for dinner, wine pairing with each course add $35. Full bar and wine list also available. Reservations required. St. Jack, 2039 SE Clinton. 503-360-1281.

* * *

Menu update:
French Duck Feast at St. Jack

• Goose Terrine: poached quince, pickled mustard seed, cress
• Stuffed Duck Neck: pork sausage, port soaked prune, pistachio, pommes puree, madeira jus
• Roasted Duck Breast: fermented apple, liver sauce, cumin carrots
• Caramel Creme Chiboust: duck cracklings, hazelnut dacquoise, cinnamon apples

Photos of Hank and ducks by Holly Heyser from "Duck, Duck, Goose."

Finding the Forgotten Feast

Hank Shaw, in his new book Hunt Gather Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast has a devious agenda. His aim is to get you to open your eyes and not just look at, but actually see the world around you. And the bastard actually succeeded, at least with this reader.

I took the brand new book to the beach with me, thinking I'd scan a few chapters and write about it. The house we'd rented for the weekend was a block or so off the beach, a short walk that took me past an overgrown yard on one side and a wetland on the other.

After reading the first couple of chapters, my single-minded march to the beach turned into a completely different experience. I slowed down and started scanning those patches of green with different eyes, wondering what that blooming shrub might be, whether its bell-shaped blossoms would turn into berries in the next few weeks and if they might be edible. What would I make with them?

At this point I have to interrupt this review to tell you that I know Hank personally. He's the younger brother of my friend Loo, who mentioned a few years ago that her brother, a newspaper reporter by trade, had started a food blog called Hunter Angler Gardener Cook about hunting and foraging around his home in Northern California. On a trip through the area, Dave and I stopped and had lunch with him at a restaurant near the capitol in Sacramento where he was reporting on some government meeting or other. We talked a little bit about blogging and writing, which was new to me at the time, but when the conversation turned to food it was obvious that this guy had a huge passion for the subject.

The next time I saw him was up here in Portland, and we were passing by a vacant lot on our way to breakfast at Tasty n Sons on North Williams. Where I saw just a patch of urban decay, Hank was pointing out the mallow growing in cracks in the cement, and at least a dozen other greens starting to take over the broken ground.

And that's what this book, written in a very approachable, unintimidating style…he uses phrases like "Trippy" and "Holy tartness, Batman!"…does so successfully. Earnest, informative and chock full of recipes, it reminds readers that the world out there is a rich, abundant, tasty place, not something to be tamed or avoided or, even more pertinently, forgotten.

"We live in an edible world. It's all around us, if you look closely. You can see it in lawns and at the beach. It thrives along every river, on hillsides, and deep in swamps. You can even steal glimpses of it growing between the cracks of abandoned parking lots and on untended mounds of earth forgotten long ago by construction crews. Nature's garden grows, yes, but it also flies through the air, runs through the brush, an swims through the water."

- Hank Shaw, "Hunt, Gather, Cook"

Photos by Holly A. Heyser for Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.