mamster

So many of my threads turn into cooking threads that I'm starting to think it might be my fault or something. Sometimes I make breaded chicken cutlets for dinner from a recipe in Cook's Illustrated. The chicken is pounded and then brined, and it is amazingly juicy. I've found that a brine with too much sugar can give chicken kind of a hot-dog flavor that I don't like, so now I typically cut it to just a teaspoon or so.

Laurie and I went to Le Pichet Friday night for our anniversary and had the famed roast chicken. True to their word, it took almost exactly one hour. In the meantime we enjoyed a demi-pichet of white Bordeaux and a couple of appetizers. I had the French onion soup (a nice version with good homemade broth) and Laurie a broiled ramekin of brandade with some slices of toast and olives. This was excellent, with a powerful marine flavor and silky texture. Does anyone know if they sell salt cod at Delaurenti or elsewhere convenient? We also enjoyed listening in on the high-roller regulars at the table next to us. They brought their own wine including what I imagine was a very nice old bottle of Nuits-St.-Georges, and brought their own balloon glasses (Riedel, I think) and while they were waiting for their own chicken were discussing their upcoming trip to France. With our chicken we ordered a demi-pichet of that Corbières everyone enjoyed at the eGullet gathering. Now, the raison d'être of roast chicken is of course to maximize the acreage of crispy skin without overcooking the meat, and of course this was perfectly executed. The chicken is served atop a bed of savoy cabbage and chestnuts with Armagnac cream sauce. I don't mean to name myself an arbiter of taste, but think it's fair to say that if I enjoy a roast chicken, it's a spectacular one. Too many bland roast chickens of my youth, no offense to heyjude. The next day we headed to Portland so I could learn to make Cornish pasties, but that's another story. To turn this into a potential thread, who else in town is doing interesting things with chicken? Anyone getting especially good product, or coaxing amazing flavor out of otherwise ordinary birds?

I hope we can avoid any scarring experiences at the Seattle potluck, even though I may be deep frying. We're taking the precaution of preannouncing our contributions and clearing them via grunts of group consensus. This is how chimps run their potlucks, and I figure what's good enough for one primate is good for another.

Cumin seemed to be everywhere when I was in Paris about a year ago. My wife had a dessert with a (really bad) cumin-orange sauce; I tend to concur with those who say that the French haven't really figured these things out yet, but it's not truly a new thing, is it? Doesn't Escoffier call for curry powder? Or is he talking about something different?

They're a summer fruit, mostly. I saw them at Whole Foods last July. I should probably admit here that I don't like lychees, but a friend of mine was very excited to find them.

Central Market is a winner. I have still never been to the Great Wall Mall. The idea of regionally organized groceries sounds brilliant. GC, want to bring me along next time? I've gotten fresh lychees at Whole Foods, but probably not as cheap.

In some intangible way, Portland continues to be a better restaurant city than Seattle. ÊI suspect it may have something to do with the UGB, but that's my explanation for everything. Portland has better pizza (I'd take Escape from NY over anything I've had in Seattle), to start with, and its fine dining establishments seem to have more local spirit and be less influenced by thirdhand whispers of east-coast trends than the Belltown set. ÊWe have nothing like Castagna, Genoa, or Cafe Des Amis here, as far as I know (but I'd be delighted if someone proved me wrong). ÊI hate to dis the Emerald city, and I'm not moving back to Portland anytime soon, but if you gave me a weekend free eating pass, I'd spend it in the Rose City every time. Then again, Portland has nothing like Osteria La Spiga, Herbfarm, or Etta's, so maybe I'm just playing grass-is-greener.

Yesterday I had a brisk walk from Fremont to the U District, intending to stop at that new Thai place on the east edge of Wallingford along the way. Turns out they're closed Tuesdays. (Closed Tuesdays? Come ON!) But it wasn't a total loss--I stopped in at City Greens on 45th, and they've converted it to an Asian grocery, complete with all the sauce and seasoning items you'd find at an I-district store. The prices are pretty competitive, too. They have a number of fish sauces to choose from and I got a bag of dried Thai chiles for 59 cents. They're not doing anything unusual, but it's nice having an Asian grocery so close to campus. Where do the rest of you like to shop for Asian ingredients? I go to Uwajimaya a fair amount, but I buy Chaokoh coconut milk by the case at Hop Thanh (12th and Jackson) for 59 cents a can. At QFC they charge $2 for the same stuff.

The other good thing about eating at home is that you can have meals no restaurant would serve you. The other night Laurie and I bought a kalamata olive loaf and made some peperonata and some crispy bits of pancetta. We toasted slices of the bread, topped it with the bacon and peperonata, and ate this with a knife and fork. Then we ate a bunch of LU cookies. At my dinner parties there has to be Balderdash or Scotland Yard at the end. These things are also frowned on at restaurants. When I go to a restaurant, I want food that I would have trouble making at home. The more things I learn to make at home, the less I enjoy eating out. Then again, not along ago I had a hugely satisfying Italian restaurant meal of pasta with peas, pancetta, and tomatoes with a bottle of cheap barbera. I certainly could have done it at home, but not with a view of the Sound and everyone beaming at me for choosing exactly the right wine. (At home there's no wine list. At least, not at my home.)

What I like about Vij's is the free appetizers. While you wait at the bar you get free pooris, naan, and chai. Obviously it's not really "free"--they're making the cost up in other ways, although the menu is cheap, but last time we went to Vij's we waited over an hour for a table and actually enjoyed our wait. That's a restaurant doing something right.

Surely Shaw picked up the Thai phrase meaning, "Don't mind him--he's just the Fat Guy."

Going to Thailand made me realize what fun it is to eat with a spoon. Plates are more common than Chinese-style rice bowls in Thailand, so chopsticks don't make any sense. But given that most dishes are in small pieces, a fork isn't any more logical than a spoon. So you hold the spoon in your dominant hand and use the fork to push food onto it. Also, the spoons in Thailand are enormous. I think a lot of these flamewars erupt because people see something being done in a certain way in a certain context and jump to the conclusion that they've identified something universal.

Yeah, Szechuan Chongqing is more of a Chinese-American (I mean Chinese-Canadian)-basics-done-right place. I'll head over to Richmond when I'm in Van next month and post a report here.

I've been eating at the same Chinese restaurant in Vancouver since 1987: Szechuan Chongqing. Since then they've moved once, possibly changed ownership, and lost a Best Places star or two, but the food hasn't changed at all. Still the best dandan noodles, scallion pancakes, and orange peel beef I've ever had. I'll never forsake the place completely, but I'm planning to head up to Van next month and would like to try something different. Where should I go for dim sum? And where should I go to order off the menu?

helena--What kind of weather do you like? The Pacific Northwest has perfectly sunny days for most of the summer. You might get lucky with sun in the spring, but if you don't want it to be gray throughout your vacation, come in the summer. That said, I prefer to travel on the off-season and grew up with the spring weather here. The weather in southern California (even without the smog) knocks me off-kilter, but I feel right at home in London. Dahlia and Etta's are both great choices. I prefer the menu at Etta's, although Etta's can be packed with tourists if that's a concern. If you're looking for a place that concentrates on Northwest ingredients, try Cascadia; I haven't been there, but I know Steve Klc thinks highly of the chef. Tom Douglas restaurants: http://www.tomdouglas.com/ Cascadia: http://www.cascadiarestaurant.com/ I wish I could tell you more about foraging, but I'm out of the loop. Seems like there must be someone among my ecology program buddies at school who knows all about it--I'll ask around.

Some of my favorite things to make cost very little. Polenta or bruschetta with peperonata makes a perfect light meal. A handful of polenta, a touch of cheap extra virgin olive oil, butter, a touch of red wine vinegar, a couple of bell peppers, and an onion--find red peppers on sale and we're talking a couple bucks. Cornbread and greens is a family favorite, even though we're from nowhere near the South. A simple skillet cornbread is best made in a $5 cast iron skillet with nothing more than cornmeal, bacon grease, buttermilk, an egg, baking soda, and cream of tartar. I serve it with a bit of cheddar cheese and a side of stewed kale. Hugely satisfying, cheap, and easy. We mail order stone-ground white cornmeal from Rhode Island for a rather embarassing $3 a pound, but a five-pound sack goes a long way (40 servings of cornbread, the way we make it), and if we lived in the northeast this would be cheaper. Pasta. Eat lots of pasta. Even if you can afford not to. Thai curry. I get a can of coconut milk for 59 cents, a tub of curry paste for $2.50 (don't get "Thai Kitchen" or "Taste of Thai"--the quality is okay but it's way overpriced), a quart of fish sauce for 89 cents, a block of tamarind paste for $1, and a block of palm sugar for another dollar. This sets the stage for any number of great curries on a moment's notice. Even medium-starch potatoes and frozen green beans make a perfect curry. Add some chicken thigh meat for a couple dollars more. Finally, in terms of cheap meat, I contend that nothing beats a supermarket chuck roast (most carry bottom blade roast, I believe) on sale. My local supermarket puts chuck on sale once a month for $1.59 per pound, which means you can get a four-pound roast for not far past six dollars. It's so versatile--you can make a classic beef stew, grind it (much better than the supermarket stuff, which is too finely ground), or make curry.

Laurie and I had a conversation about this topic recently. We discovered that we were both raised with a reasonable instruction: if you go to someone's house and are served something you're not sure about, give it a good faith effort and never complain. There are good reasons for this bit of etiquette that go well beyond simply "being nice to people." Food sharing is a powerful practice, and both culturally and biologically, it seems reasonable to be quite offended by someone who refuses an offer of shared food. If you have a genuine food allergy, that's one thing. But although there are some foods I really dislike, I'll never mention this when someone asks me to dinner, and I have no allergies (lucky me). Yes, this means I think you should be deceptive when served something you don't like in a person's home. It's a level of deception I can live with, because the consequences of not being deceptive are worse.

At any time in the spring it could be sunny, warm, and beautiful, or it could be gray, chilly, and wet. That's life in the Pacific Northwest. But there's plenty to see and eat either way; just bring a raincoat. I haven't done the Herbfarm (waiting for someone else to pick up the tab), but by all accounts it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience like the French Laundry. Not that the food is the same, but you're not going to find a similar place anywhere else. I've met chef Jerry Traunfeld a number of times and eaten some of his cooking at trade shows, and he clearly deserves his hype. Reserve as far in advance as you can. As far as places to go to pick berries and gather mushrooms, I'm not the expert. I know Blue Heron and her husband have done some mushroom hunting. Any ideas, BH? Helena, give us an idea of what you like to eat, or some of your favorite restaurants elsewhere, and we'll be glad to recommend some restaurants in Seattle, Portland, and nearby.

As Malawry said, I think this is quite a common technique especially in Chinese cooking. Have you ever made Szechuan shrimp with garlic sauce? You deep-fry the shrimp, then pour off the oil and toss them with the sauce. No wonder it's so good, right?

Thanks, BH! Let's all start referring to these as "Blue Heron's green beans." You've got to love a cookbook that includes the phrase, "If you have only one wok..." I love the Szechuan green beans at Wild Ginger, but I love all Szechuan green beans. This is what I always order if I see it on the menu at an iffy Chinese restaurant--even tired, tough supermarket green beans emerge from hot oil transformed.

Okay, I read the page. Great stuff. I especially liked the Thackeray poem, which seemed more that a little dirty. I've never read Hobson-Jobson, but I have a collection of essays by William Warren ("The Truth About Anna, and Other Stories") which includes a paean to H-J, and periodically I reread it and think, "I should find a copy of this."

I had a really good fish dish at Nazim's in Vientiane last year. The fish had been fried, then briefly stewed, so it retained some crunch and moistness despite the large quantity of spicy sauce. So, like, when you're in the neighborhood.

I think most American diners (and I've certainly been guilty of this kind of oversimplification) think of "curry" as being something like a Hindi-derived word for "stew," and any stew with some cardamom, cumin, and turmeric in it is then called a "curry." I've heard the word is actually from the Tamil, and I frankly have no idea how widespread these spicy stews are in India. The "history of curry" link is coming up very slowly for me; I was hoping to be set straight. Not having traveled in India, I'm sadly ignorant of regional Indian cooking, even though I know it's hugely diverse and could bring me much pleasure. That's why I'm watching this board closely.

The bar at Typhoon! is also a good place--they have a number of different noodle dishes to choose from, and it's quite inexpensive for a "name" restaurant. Last time I was there I had the Chiang Mai Curry Noodles (khao soi), which was a nice bowl of noodles in spicy coconut broth with some fried noodles on top. Zaina is a great place for a first falafel. It won't be unadorned, so you won't necessarily be able to tell which is the falafel taste and which is the other stuff, but the whole thing is so good, you'll get the idea. It's a weird little restaurant, too, so plan to sit.

Laurie gave me a couple of other ideas (what, no Cheesecake Factory?). The Six Arms is a McMenamin's pub right across the freeway on Pike. Just a couple blocks walk uphill. You can also hop on the #7 bus on Pine and ride free directly to Salumi or take the bus tunnel, also free, to Uwajimaya.