LOCAL BLOG ROUNDUP >>>

Another week, another six days of cruising the local blogosphere for decent reading.

This Morning's Breakfast: French Toast Sticks ($1.79)

Where: Best Burgers in Lakewood

Taste: They have a golden crunchy outer layer that caves-in from the pressure of our first bite, revealing a soft and chewy warm center. The taste is similar to real French toast, and the texture reminded us of a cake-donut that had just been cooked.

Friday in his Mise en Place column on Exit133, Scandinavian descended food-o-phile John Isdtrom stated his hatred of his motherland staple lutefisk.

Where I come from, lutefisk transcends simple status as a food item. Some call it the "Cod that surpasseth all understanding" but I think that is no more than a bad translation of the King James version. I understand that some people hold lutefisk in reverent regard, and that most of those people are somehow related to me, but I simply can't get past the fact that a plate of the stuff looks like a gelatinous heap that smells like a bag of tube socks circa 1976.

Idstrom did profess his love of Dungeness crab in the same post ending with a recipe for Creamy Roasted Tomato, Leek and Crab Pasta.

Downtown Tacoma clothing store urbanXchange - vote Best Vintage Store in the Weekly Volcano's Best of Tacoma 2009 issue - announced back in December it would launch a new blog Saturday, Feb. 6. The blog will concentrate on art of life and its many expressions, specifically fashion, which the store believes is one of the best examples of post-medium art:

Art has become almost impossible to classify and categorize as in the past. There once were guilds of sculptors and painters, etc. Art was a lifestyle of specific and singular dedication. Now, art has jumped right off the canvas, fallen through concepts, and landed right into everyday life in a myriad of expressions of who we are individually and collectively. Art is about how we live.

A launch party for the blog has been set for Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. inside the store's music room, The Den.

Julie Bennett, owner of urbanXchange, has also created the zine, Plog - "post blog, paper log" - as she describes it in her first issue, which we found at the Mandolin Café.

The magazine-size, black and white sans staples zine's mission is "to be something of relevance and a useful means of expressing ideas, facilitate communication and encourage critical thinking," Bennett writes in he Letter From The Editor. Although dotted with urbanXchange promotions and trends, Bennett states she is appalled by Consum-o-tainment - "the tearing of the sacred membrane between advertising and content" - and she doesn't "have interest in profit goals beyond paying overhead, being able to pay the employees, taking care of basic needs etc."

Keep an eye out for the zine, or drop by urbanXchange at 1932 Pacific Ave. and grab one.