Dude: Nirvana Wok is not named after a Seattle rock band

Welcome to our newsletter!

Yes - that Nirvana band is great, but I wanted to find a name that sounded like your average generic Chinese-American restaurant. To me the word Nirvana refers to a state of higher consciousness more than to the band that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon - a band that I know way too much about. I do like Nirvana, the band. Great songs, Kurt is a great rock guitar player. The story of their rise and fall is an epic tragedy that would have impressed the greatest storytellers of the ancient world.

Met Krist a few times when I lived in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood - a nice guy. Saw his band “Sweet 75” more than once - a post-Nirvana effort where he played guitar, I think, with a person who he discovered busking on the street, Yva Las Vegas. No magic.

Unfortunately, Krist is now a Libertarian, or worse: Nirvana's Krist Novoselic praises Trump's 'strong and direct' speech against George Floyd riots.

Nirvana means many things in quite a few religious and cultural contexts. It also means really good comfort food made in a wok. Not in the pretentious sense - we’re just having fun with the name. We also use induction cookers for some projects, not open flame. This is a low-budget operation, too, not some sort of world-changing innovation. Hopefully our food will bring people close to a state of enlightenment and liberation. Providing hot meals to hungry people will be a start.

Speaking of fun, Kerrang! ran a piece about Nirvana (the band) AND woks (the cooking utensil)! People On TikTok Are Playing Smells Like Teen Spirit… On Woks is about a brief trend where people made silly videos of themselves “playing” the opening bars of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on their woks. I don’t get it. The wok “plays” like three notes and then it’s just a lip sync of wok movements with the song playing over. I’ll have to ask one of my younger children what Tik Tok is.

–Alex

UPDATE: This newsletter is gonna appear weekly. Next week we’ll be looking at Rocket Fresh2U, an amazing new food delivery service based in Tukwila, Washington with, of course, delivery to Seattle. Rocket is designed for folks who cook Asian food. They deliver all manner of groceries, including hard to find seafood like large live scallops, and Gould's Razor Clam (Solen strictus) - a Japanese native that is smaller and more slender than the razor clams (Siliqua patula) that thrive in the Pacific Northwest. They also sell restaurant-style dishes including Szechuan Food, some of which might be too adventurous for the uninitiated, including spicy classics like Dry Pot Fei-Chang (Pork Intestine). It’s like they designed this company especially for me! I love it! Our third Rocket order comes Wednesday. We’ll do an unboxing, talk with the owner, and post a story next week.

Razor clams (Siliqua patula) at Seafood City in Tukwila, Washington.