Sometimes you feel like shelling nuts...

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Food Dude once made an appetizer out of grapes, pistachio nuts, cream cheese and blue cheese. It took me four nights to open all those pistachio nuts, chop them up, coat all those grapes in cheese and roll them in the nuts. It didn't matter, though. Those little grape bombs were the hit of the party. Later, I found out I could buy preshelled pistachios and reduce my nut-chopping time by half using a little device that looked like something you'd buy on late-night television. Eventually, I cut my total prep time down to one night, but those morsels never tasted as good as they did the first time.

It makes me wonder how great restaurant cooks are able to pull off cooking miracles on a daily basis. I guess it's the same way Broadway actors are able to turn in great performances night after night or the way newspaper reporters publish riveting stories day after day (ahem).

Practice.

If you know how to make my grape-bomb appetizers taste as good as they once did, or if you've got a question for the Food Dude, write to the address at the end of the column.

Dear Food Dude: Can you recommend a way to get pistachios open besides whacking them with a hammer? Can you roast them open or something?

- M.S.

Dear M.S.: To answer your question, I turned to Alan Turanski, operations manager at GloryBee Foods, which, in addition to honey, sells nuts. If you're really frustrated, he recommends his company's preshelled pistachios, but says many people think that's cheating.

Food Dude agrees.

In order to appreciate pistachio nuts, I think you've got to work for them. It's even better if your lips turn bright pink like Leslie Nielsen's did in "The Naked Gun."

But you shouldn't have to work too hard or pistachios stop being any fun. The California Pistachio Commission suggests using half of an already opened shell as a wedge to pry open a slightly split shell. Sounds like a clever solution to me, but how do you get that first nut open?

Because GloryBee sells pistachios but doesn't grow them (98 percent of the country's supply is harvested in California), he referred me to Paramount Farms, a Los Angeles-based company that sells nuts under the Sunkist brand name. The company calls itself the world's largest "vertically integrated supplier of pistachios," which, as far as Food Dude can tell, is sort of like the Cartagena cocaine cartel, only these guys are nice and they sell nuts instead of narcotics.

But you don't care about any of that, M.S. You just want to know how to crack a tough nut. The short answer to your question is, don't bother. The best nuts in the bag are the ones that are already slightly opened.

That's the word from Paramount's Sonya Grigoruk, who says that if you've got a pistachio that's harder to get open than a time capsule, it probably isn't worth your trouble. And although you probably won't be able to tell the difference between a sealed nut and an open nut once you've removed the kernel from the shell, technically a closed pistachio is one that never ripened.

Pistachios mature naturally on trees in heavy, grape-like clusters surrounded by a fleshy hull, Grigoruk says. As the kernel grows, it expands until it splits the shell open. Ideally, nuts are harvested only after they've ripened naturally, but immature nuts sometimes get mixed in with the harvest and make it past quality control. If you've got a bag full of sealed pistachios, that's probably a sign of an inferior brand.

And wouldn't you rather eat your pistachio nuts the way Mother Nature intended?

Apparently, M.S., there are lots of other people out there like you who don't like messing with tough pistachios. Enough that Paramount is unveiling a new line of "always open" nuts. Marketed under the brand name Everybody's Nuts, these new "super premium" pistachios will be sold with a guarantee that every nut in the bag will be open. Grigoruk says Oregon shoppers can expect to see the nuts in the produce sections of local grocery stores starting in December.

Dear Food Dude: When I went to the Bier Stein, I noticed that they pour their beers in a variety of different glasses. Why does it matter? What are some general rules for pairing the right beer with the right glass?

- B.B.

Dear B.B.: There are as many different styles of glassware as their are styles of beer, says Bier Stein owner Chip Hardy. There may even be more given the fact that many European breweries like to create glasses that are tailored to their specific beers. Hardy points to a bar in Belgium that stocks more than 2,000 different kinds of glasses.

The Bier Stein carries a mere three dozen styles of glassware, which is still more than you'll find at a typical micro-brewery. American micro-brewers tend to pour their beers in standard pint glasses, which are a fine neutral glass for many brews, Hardy says. But for more exotic beers, it may be worth experimenting with different glassware. The glass a beer is poured in can affect its aroma and, as a result, its flavor.

Hardy says that while his bottle shop is not quite as discriminating as some Belgian bars - he might, for example, serve a Paulaner Hefe-Weizen in a Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier glass - he tries to stick to some general rules.

He pours some of his maltier beers into goblet shaped glasses, which allows the aroma of the hops to dissipate and highlights the malted barley character of the brew.

Other beers with intentionally stronger hop aromas are better suited for tall fluted glasses that preserve the aroma, Hardy says.

Hardy typically serves Belgian dubbel-style beers in goblet-style glasses and Belgian trippels in fluted glasses. He pours German hefeweizens in large schooner glasses that hold the aroma of the wheat.

To avoid tainting the flavor of his beers with the chemical residue left behind by dishwashing detergents, Hardy rinses all of his glasses with water before pouring. Contrary to common belief, he says, chilling beer glasses is not a good idea since it hides the aromas of the beer.

Incidentally, the Bier Stein sells most of the glasses it uses for about $4 apiece. If you're looking to start a collection of glasses at home to accommodate several different types of beer, Hardy says, you might want to start with a pair of pilsner glasses, a pair of goblets and a pair of pint glasses.

Or, you could do what one co-worker of mine does and just stick to pint glasses.

"As long as it holds the beer and allows it to get into my mouth," he says, "that's good enough for me."

Send your questions to www.registerguard.com/blogs/ index.php/fooddude. Or, do it the old-fashioned way at: Food Dude c/o The Register Guard, PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.