mamster

I recreated papachef's pancakes at home, and they were also better at his place, but that's why they call him the chef and me the home-skillet. Blue Heron, if you find any gems up north, please let us know. In addition to the general interest on the board, I'm always looking for less centrally-located places to review in the paper.

I've heard good things about Doong Kong Lau (Chinese) at 97th and Aurora, and mixed things about Koryo, a Korean restaurant that's further north.

Or make southern-style cornbread several nights in a row. With plenty of bacon grease, y'know, for the good of the pan.

I actually went to La Spiga for my birthday last year. It's a very small, casual, and inexpensive place, though, so if you'd like to go all-out, this isn't it. There are several pastas, a good green lasagna with ragu, and unusual sandwiches on a crispy, bland flatbread called piadina. The desserts are excellent and there are a number of good, rustic wines by the glass. I enjoyed my birthday there, but I could also see wanting more of a splurge. Hey, speaking of outings on Capitol Hill, has anyone been to the 1200 Bistro?

My top pet peeve is an old saw: the empty water glass. I like to drink a lot of water--tap water--with dinner, and I consider a perpetually full glass a natural right. This is almost never a problem in Seattle; in New York, I often felt like a panhandler, holding my water glass out for alms. As for awaiting the check, I agree with Bux. Knowing that I won't be shooed out until I request the check is one of my favorite things about dining in Europe.

Another great thing at Sunfish is the Fish-kebab, chunks of halibut with veggies on a skewer. The fish gets a nice char from the griddle and the vegetable juices run all over it. My current standard when we get out to Alki. The lunch menus at Dahlia and Palace Kitchen are scaled way down from their dinner offerings; I'd pick Etta's for lunch. How about Osteria La Spiga? There's nothing particularly Northwest about it--it's Italy all the way--but it's surely quite unlike any Italian restaurant your guests have visited before, unless they've been to Piadina in New York, or to Romagna. I can't believe I still haven't been to Le Pichet. They're going to make me turn in my foodie badge. Someone take me, eh?

Not far from papa's place, at 65th and Roosevelt, is the Primo Burger. The burgers are weak, but they have really unusual fries that I often get a craving for. They're essential potato chips cut thick enough that they don't crisp all the way through. I like fries with a lot of surface area, and theirs fill the bill. This does not, of course, answer the original poster's question about burgers; I actually like Kidd Valley pretty well, haven't tried any of the steakhouse burgers, and occasionally make one at home from home-ground chuck in the cast-iron skillet. Hard to beat. Hey, why don't any of the local bakeries make burger or hot dog buns? There's the Grand Central bolo, but it's too substantial for a burger, and it seems like there's a real niche for a better-than-Franz bun. Anyone know of something I've missed?

Looking forward to it, Roger! I liked Cafe Juanita under the previous regime and heard that the new chef/owner is even better. I'll take your soup experience as a confirmation and make a note to get back out there.

Last Thanksgiving I brought a big bowl of homemade potsticker filling and a couple packs of wrappers and made everyone help me stuff them, then fried batch after batch and watched them disappear. Best side dish ever. As far as veggies go, I have baked broccoli and a sauteed broccoli staples. For baked, put the florets in a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and a bit of chicken (or turkey, of course) broth, dot with sliced garlic, and salt and pepper. Bake covered for 20 minutes, then uncover, top with parmesan, and bake another 5-10. (Thanks to Mark Strausman for that one.) For the sauteed broccoli, peel the stalks, cut into quarters or smaller, and steam a few minutes, then brown in a pan with lemon zest. Serve at room temp. I'm not a fan of any of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, but I'm proud to say that nobody ever complains about the stuff I bring.

Shaw, I don't know if I ever mentioned that Laurie and I took friends to Vij's based on your cross-country recommendation. It was a truly memorable meal--the free chai and pooris while you wait were a nice touch, and the service was dynamite. Despite the fact that it's a very trendy place and was packed to the gills that night, they made us feel like they were honored to have us (extremely nontrendy people who didn't drink very much) in their restaurant. Of course, the food was great. I had a curry of farmed musk ox, which basically tasted like beef but allowed me to say things like, "My, this farmed musk ox is delicious," throughout dinner. Then the next day we went to Szechuan Chongqing. Man, I should move to Vancouver.

What does it mean that your fish was served in an "enclosed container"? For a modern Seattle classic you might try Flying Fish. They do the ethnic-accented seafood thing very well. So does Tom Douglas's restaurant Etta's, which is my top recommendation among his three because the other two seem like clones of better restaurants elsewhere. You can look up my reviews at http://www.seattletimes.com (search for "Amster-Burton") to see whether any of my low-budget picks strikes your fancy. Are you going to papachef's place? I think it's great. There's an unusual little Italian place at Broadway and Union on First Hill, called Osteria La Spiga. I talk about it a lot on my site (the Broadway restaurants link). Another Italian I like is La Rustica in West Seattle; you should definitely drive around Alki Point even if you don't eat over there. Kingfish Cafe does great Southern food, but they're closed weird days and don't take reservations, so call (320-8757). There's a nice little Malaysian place at 12th and Jackson called Malay Satay Hut. They're best known for their roti canai and satay, but almost everything I've had there was great. Are you going up to Vancouver? I can make some more recommendations for that if you like. Hope this helps you get started, and sorry I don't know more of the top places in town; I just haven't had the money to adequately explore them, and so far the paper is only having me review places that I can already afford. Do you want to meet up for a meal?

I vigorously second the recommendation of Five Brothers, particularly the Marinara with Burgundy Wine flavor. It often goes on sale for Ū/jar near me. I use it as the basis for my vodka sauce: saute some pancetta, add vodka and reduce, pour in a jar of 5 Bros and some cream, and you're set. I remember liking one of the Barilla sauces, too, but I haven't bought anything other than the 5B in a while. Also, what does Fat Guy's homemade sauce entail? I mean, smash a clove of garlic, toss it in a skillet with some olive oil, pour in a can of diced tomatoes, and boil it for ten minutes. That's called sauce in my house. (Edited by mamster at 7:34 pm on Oct. 20, 2001)

Some results of the Seattle Mag reader's poll are at http://www.seattlemag.com/issue/2001/10/feature3_1001.html and their editor's choices are in the zine itself. Not to go negative or anything, but does anyone else detest Taco Del Mar? I've tried a number of things there and never detected a pinch of flavor.

Hey, Shaw, does your rice cooker have a nonstick coating? If so, does it do any good? I have a Rival rice cooker that I got because it was cheap and recommended in Cook's Illustrated, but the rice sticks to it like #### and it has to be soaked. So I'm willing to make it a hand-me-down and get a Zojirushi or the like if the teflon helps. As long as it has Fluffy Logic, of course.

Or, as an alternative to Singha, look for Beerlao next time. It's not nearly as widespread in the US, but I've seen it a few places in Seattle, so it can't be that rare. On our recent trip there was unanimous agreement that Beerlao blew Singha away; the trip across the ocean seems to smooth out the difference a bit, but the Lao stuff is still better. Of course, with imports it depends a lot on freshness and handling.

The other night my wife and I went to a mexican restaurant and bar that someone suggested I review for the newspaper. Everything from the appetizers to the tacos to (especially) the rice and beans was cavity-inducingly sweet. It was incomprehensible. Luckily, they didn't sweeten the beer. I normally try to avoid writing negative reviews--I'd rather just recommend someplace else--but I'm going to make an exception just so I can rant about sweet food.

I've never tried to grind dried shiitakes, but dried shrimp can be smashed to a fairly dry paste in a mortar and pestle. It's still more of a paste than a powder, though. I wonder if crushing shrimp chips would yield a useful shrimp-flavored powder.

Kettle Chips also distribute to the UK, but in different flavors than in the US. I tried a couple of different kinds last time I was in London, including Mature Cheddar & Burgundy and Salt and Malt Vinegar. They were good. I like flavored chips when they aren't in X-TREME flavors.

Yeah, it's the weirdest thing, GC. I can smell shrimp paste or gorgonzola like anyone else, but durian just smells mildly fruity to me. Maybe it's one of those genetic things like PT-tasting and tongue-rolling.

They have durian IC at the House of Gelato in Vancouver. It's the only one of all their flavors (including garlic) that they have to keep a lid on lest it infect nearby flavors. Oddly, I think I have a decent sense of smell and yet have never found the odor of durian to be offputting at all.

Off the front page at http://www.grubshack.com I have reports on Bangkok restaurants and street food. We were only there for six days, but it was the kind of trip where I stopped on the way to lunch to buy pre-lunch on the street. In the rain.<p>It's hard to recommend specific food stalls, so the best advice is to wander around and look for stalls with a long line. The variety of street food in Bangkok is practically infinite, just in the Thai neighborhoods; then you go to Chinatown or the Indian enclave and there's a whole new world of stuff.<p>I will warn you against one restaurant that I didn't mention on my site: the Vijit Restaurant (or VR) by the Democracy Monument served really lousy curry. It could have been a bad day; I didn't want to post a negative review based on one visit, but if you do get hungry by the Democracy Monument, try the Sorndaeng instead, maybe.<p>I'm going to be back in Bangkok next week and will post a whole new restaurant roundup on my site in late September. Watch for it.

Plus, the measurement will come out the same for you, Andy, because in the UK they measure dry ingredients properly: by weight. It is extremely frustrating to work from an American recipe where a large amount of flour is specified only in cups and they don't mention how they measured the cups (dip and sweet? scoop into cup?). On the upside, this had led me to become more proficient at adjusting flour and liquid amounts.

Okay, I made the greatest thing last night and nobody knew just how dead-simple it was. A few years ago in Cook's Illustrated, Nick Malgieri gave his method for simplified puff pastry. I've never made puff pastry before because of its reputation, but last night I had friends over and felt like going crazy, and there's always decent takeout pizza down the street. Here's the idea. 9 oz flour in the food processor with the metal blade. Mix in 4 tbsp cold butter until well mixed. Then add in two more sticks of cold butter and pulse, adding 6 tbsp water and 1/2 tsp salt. Add a little more water if necessary and just mix with 1 second pulses until it comes together into a rough ball. Take the ball out, form into a rectangle, and then roll it out into a 12"x18" rectangle between two sheets of well-floured saran wrap. Remove the wrap, fold into thirds along the short side, and roll up like a jelly roll. Flatten it back into a thick rectangle by hand, wrap it, and refrigerate one hour. Then roll it out and do whatever you like with it. Here's what I did. Rolled the dough out to about 1/3" thick. Cut out 3" circles with a biscuit cutter. Pureed prosciutto with olive oil and garlic. Spread the proscuitto mixture to within 1/2" of the edge of each circle and topped with halved cherry tomatoes (I had some colorful green, orange, and red ones). Baked 15 minutes at 400 F. Topped with julienned basil. Looked like a million bucks and tasted better. Served it with a side of black mission figs with chunks of parmigiano and a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The tart recipe was inspired by the cover recipe from Tamasin Day-Lewis's Art of the Tart. I don't know if my retelling of the pastry recipe gives you enough to go on, but it's almost impossible to screw it up, and I'm generally terrified of pastry.

Papachef, you hijacked this thread! You're banned! Just kidding. I like the part about putting the kids to work in the coal mine.

Gorgeous room, some buzz, haven't read anything about it yet. I'm especially curious about breakfast, just because I enjoy having breakfast in opulent surroundings. Anyone been there?