ScorchedPalate

I found Seville oranges last year at the QFC (a Kroger's chain) in Seattle's University Village, of all places. Never have seen a bergamot, tho. ~Anita

Dredging up this old thread: My previous ringing endorsement of St. Clouds is now officially recinded. We used to go there for breakfast at least once a week; the food was never gourmet, but it was always tasty and made with love. We stopped going (regularly) a few months ago when we started getting worse and worse food. Specifcally, the eggs went from 'the well-done side of done' to 'burned rubber' -- even when requested "soft" -- and the other elements of the food were slipping as well. Still, it remained OK for the price, we rarely had to wait, and we loved the people there... especially Mike, our regular waiter. We made a half-hearted claim of "we're not going here anymore" after a miserable breakfast about 2 months ago. Things were burned, things were raw, things were sad. We gently complained and they were halfheartedly fixed, partially comped. But it seemed like the end-game of the problems we'd been noticing. And they'd hired a number of young, female servers who were at best curt and at worst surly. So yesterday we were hungry, and I hadn't had my chicken-friend steak fix in eons. We'd already gone to Coastal Kitchen on Saturday, and it was too late to sneak into Glo's without making it a 2-hour meal. So we headed to St. Clouds. There was no wait, and we were welcomed like long-lost friends. We snuggled into our favorite booth, with Mike as our waiter, reading the sunday paper. We were even feeling a little guilty for having so harshly judged our old friends. And then the food came. Cam's pancakes were badly burned, on both sides; I can't grasp why anyone would plate them, much less serve them, in this state. His bacon was overdone beyond a crisp -- I personally like crispy bacon, but this was just dessicated and nasty. My Country Breakfast was almost as sad: raw-and-burned hash browns, gravy all over the fruit, rubberized poached eggs floating in vinegar-water, and huge chunks of unappetizing, unrendered bacon in the gravy. [Heretofore it had always been 'bacon gravy' in the "made-with-bacon-drippings" sense; this was way-too-many medium-sized pieces of flubbery bacon suspended in a way-too-salty gravy.] The batter on the steak had been badly applied, and fell off the second you touched it. And the meat itself (while never a prime cut by any stretch) was half gristle. I wanted to cry. Cam asked Mike to replace the bacon, and the second plate was almost as bad: spots were just as over-crisp as before, and other parts were nearly raw. <shudder> We ate what we could salvage, paid our bill, and left feeling very downhearted. It's sad to see a favorite slide off the rails. ~A Egg-doneness is a huge weakness there. Cam routinely orders his scrambles "very soft" and they come out well-done. I think the cook either lacks the talent to do this on a hot griddle (much harder than in a pan) or just has a phobia against 'undercooked' eggs. ←

Have heard many not-so-good things about Blue C. I am a huge stickler for freshness, and Chiso is one of the two places in Seattle where I will eat sushi; Chinoise on Madison is the other, but only when Jae is there. I agree with Cam that the non-sushi-bar items (at both places, actually) are vastly inferior to the sushi, and that service (again, both Chinoise and Chiso) is dramatically better at the bar. ~A

Or a "White Redneck" ?

FYI: Kyle's started a new thread: Help a Recovering Vegetarian.

I answered you over here.

Kyle: How about "(G) None of the Above." - Dick's: It's a sentimental favorite of old Seattle, but I can't believe that anybody really goes there for a good burger; they go there for the experience. - Burgermaster: Good, for what it is: A guilty pleasure in a retro environment. Still, it's also not a "good burger." - Kidd Valley: Ew. I'd rather eat McDonald's, and that's saying a *lot*. - Red Mill: Nicest of those listed (that I've tried), but it's still a typical flat, grey, Seattle-style smash-patty. - Daly's: Never been - Deluxe Bar and Grill: I know this is an eG favorite, but they're pre-formed food-service patties and they've got no flavor. (Caveat: I've never had their big one, but I figure if they can't get the normal cheeseburger right, I am not forking over extra cash.) - Two Bells: It's more like a ball-of-ground-round hoagie than a burger, as I recall. And the two times we've been there, they overcooked the sh*t out of it. I vote for Palace Kitchen: Best burger I've had in Seattle and some kickin' fries to boot. It's also made with Oregon Country natural beef, which means you don't have to worry about getting mad cow from some machine-formed Sysco patty. Or, even better: Grind a piece of chuck at home, season liberally, don't overwork it, and cook it on the grill to medium-rare. Mmm! ~Anita

I have a number of things that fall into this category, for different reasons: Southern Comfort -- I don't think I need to explain this one. (Not that I miss it, anyway... but I can't even be near someone who's drinking it.) I couldn't eat ice cream sundaes for years after having worked at a gourmet ice cream parlor during college; luckily, this aversion has passed -- though in general I am still not a big fan of sweets. I still have the same problem with Danish pastries, as the result of too many years at the bakery in high school. I got really sick as a kid after eating an over-ripe banana. To this day, I can't handle the texture of bananas (this includes smoothies) without gagging, no matter how firm they are, but I love the scent and flavor. Banana bread and other banana-flavored items seem to be OK. My mom refused to make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for 25 years; she'd served it to my dad the night he had his heart attack, and never could shake the association. One Christmas, he begged her, and she made it. I haven't seen it since, though. ~Anita

So, if i follow you, what makes the ice cream french is the preparation, not the vanilla. This theory might stand, however I don't think it was the intention...Then how do you explain french vanilla coffee, or french vanilla candy? Having called france home for 20 something years, I can assure you that there is no such thing as french vanilla in france. The vanilla you find in france most likely comes from madagascar or polynesia where it is harvested. ← I'm with Toliver on this one. So-called "french vanilla" ice cream in the U.S. is distinguished from typical (american) vanilla ice cream by its rich, custardy consistency, and pale yellow color; the term has been around since at least the 50s, probably longer. I suppose more accuately it would be called "vanilla French-Style ice cream" or "French-style vanilla ice cream" since it isn't made with vanilla from France, after all. I suspect that the term was adopted by marketing types as an adjective for other things (like coffee; I have never have heard of F.V. candy!) to imply the same sort of richness. And it sounds a lot better than "vanilla coffee" ~Anita edited to add: I'm not surprised to hear that there's no French Vanilla in France, much as there is no French toast, French fries, French dressing...

Hi Sean... Welcome to eGullet! Cameron [aka SeaCrotty] and I really love Ooba's: they have two locations, one in downtown Redmond and another -- slightly more upscale -- in Woodinville. We haven't been to the Purple Cafe in Woodinville, but we've found the one in Kirkland is a little more show than go, foodwise. ~Anita

I really don't mean to be snide, but if you're expecting Maccioni-level service, then you need to be at Le Cirque, not Via Tribunali. [[Edited to add: ...and I am the biggest b*tch I know about bad service.]] ~A

Same stuff, also at the King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalogue -- they've been known to work shipping miracles. Good luck! ~Anita edit to add: they do FedEx Overnight; $11-19 for that weight to the lower 48, depending on location. 2-day price is a little less shock-inducing.

Tuna fish? ← Pizza pie? Speaking of which, was at a faux-talian joint at a shi-shi resort on Maui last week that had a series of pizzas (or should I say pizze?) that all had masculine endings, such as "Pizza Toscano" -- made me want to go in the back and give someone a rudimentary Italian lesson. Of course, this was the same place where the waiter proceeded to tell us that the tiramisu was "not very traditional" and used "um, some other liqueur in place of the rum." When pressed (really just for our idle amusement) he ran back and told us it was "a liqueur called masala." I didn't have the heart to explain to him that marsala (which is not a liqueur, at that) is the traditional zabaglione flavoring and that we Americani are the ones who decided rum was a suitable substitute. ~A

I do something similar -- put one whole chile (and some adobo) into an ice-cube tray section, and then freeze. I actually have a whole collection of ice-cube-sized leftover fluids (lemon juice, chicken stock, condensed milk, chicken fat) in the freezer. I put each type of cube in a snack-size ZipLoc and then group by type (savory, juices, other) in a quart or gallon bag to prevent freezerburn... I've got a whole slew of ready-to-use nuggets of flavor. If you can find a tray that has 1oz-sized cubes, it's even cooler. But maybe that's just my inner food-geek talking. ~Anita

That's the case here in Washington; you can buy Angostura in the supermarket (despite the absence of other 'hard' liquor) even though it's plainly marked 45% alc. Although we did have to hunt pretty hard for the Peychaud's, at least our crummy state liquor board has a product-lookup function on its website. As for substitutes, I'd perhaps try the merest hint of Ouzo or Sambuca to get the liquorice flavor. ~Anita ps: After having (a few!) Falling Leaves at a fellow eGer's house a few weeks back, and we liked them so much we served them to our more-adventurous Turkey Day guests... they went over quite well.

I'm fond of Blood and Sand with dark rum instead... would that be a Blood and Tropical Sand?

I have the santoku; bought it for about half the list price on ebay. It's really gorgeous. I love it a LOT more than I thought I would. It has replaced my 10" wusthof as my main knife. It's very nimble and I love the handle shape. The only thing I would caution about is that the handle is molded for right hands, so if you're a southpaw, you may not be as delighted as I am. (I'm primarly left-handed but I use implements like knives right-handed.) ~Anita

We took my visiting sister and bro-in-law to Union last night for the $25 tasting menu. A quick perusal of the menu confirmed all previous posts that this year's offering is not as generous as last year's blowout -- but still a fabulous deal at $25. Courses were amuse, salad, soup, main, first dessert, second dessert; missing from the regular lineup were the tasting amuse (in addition to the amuse every diner gets), fish course, cheese course. We were all disappointed to see that they do not offer paired wines by the glass with the $25 menu. Luckily, we had 4 people, so full bottles weren't a problem. Amuse: Rabbit liver mousse. A tiny quenelle; pleasantly grainy, gamey, plum-colored Salad: Dungeness-and-avocado salad. A small cylinder of the crab+avocado mix, topped with frissee. Good textures, fresh flavors. Soup: Cream of baby turnips with date puree. The usual Union presentation: dollop of date (more like a paste) in the bowl, soup poured tableside from a sauceboat. Lovely, subtle flavors. When you put a bit of the date on your spoon before filling it with soup, the taste was very autumnal and thanksgiving-esque. Extra: an order of foie gras with 50-year balsamic and small-diced butternut squash (off the regular menu) to share; the chef added an order of almost-too-beautifully seared ahi with flageolet beans Main: Hangar steak with wine reduction. Served on mashed potatoes with chives and cabbage leaves mixed in, then the whole thing drizzled with a hint of truffle oil. Cam adds, of the taters: “Felt odd on the fork, but in the mouth? Once again, Chef Stowell renders a master class in textures -- al dente crunch underneath creamy mashers. Yum.” Steak was on the rare side of med-rare, good and meaty, delicious sauce. First dessert: Quince sorbet with goat yogurt. My plate didn't get quite the right balance of yogurt-to-quince, so I didn't finish; the quince needed the yogurt to cut its intense sweetness. It was also a bit too much like the date puree in color, texture, and form for my preference. Not a clunker, but not a favorite. Second dessert: Vanilla panna cotta with cranberry-orange compote. Another variation on a Union standby. Nicely done, as usual. 2 bottles of wine: a just-what-we-wanted Eyrie Pinot Gris, and a superb Bordeaux-style red blend from Beresan in the Walla Walla Valley, recommended by Hans. All in all, a lovely evening and a phenomenal value. If you haven't been there this month, I'd encourage you to go while the gettin' is good. ~Anita

Jason: This is great news! I understand -- I'm picky, too... which probably explains why I haven't had a pizza delivered in a year. I'll put a reminder in my Palm for 6 months from now as pester you again ~Anita

My recent "floored" experience is the opposite of the normal "why do you bother" situation many have mentioned (and that I, too, have heard all too often). Last week I was busy most evenings, so we did a lot of eating out. On a couple of these nights, there were no leftovers, or at least no leftovers I wanted to face again. At lunchtime on one of these no-leftovers days, my officemate and I went to the employee cafe to grab a salad from the salad bar. Alas, someone had left the lettuce too close to the fridge condenser and it had frozen to translucence. Ew. Knowing better than to gamble on the cafe's other options, we hopped in the car and headed to the grocery store around the corner. We both bought frozen entrees: Jen's was a "wet" veggie burrito from one of the chi-chi organic brands, and mine was a bowl of asian-style peanut noodles from Seeds of Change. We took 'em back to our work kitchen and heated them up, smugly proud that we hadn't resorted to eating at one of the mediocre restaurants close to the office. As I was stirring my noodles midway through their nuking, one of my co-workers came up beside me and saw what I was doing and said: "Aren't you a gourmet cook?" "Yeah?" "Why on earth would you eat *that*?" I looked down at the bowl: Whole chunks of red and yellow peppers, carrots, tofu that didn't look like moldy sponge, noodles with some tooth to them. Admittedly, I wouldn't serve it to company, but for an emergency meal, it looked pretty damned good. The snappiest retort I could muster was: "Uh, it's organic and actually pretty tasty." What I should have said was "Oh, are you offering to cook me a 3-course lunch when I haven't planned ahead?" Sheesh... I actually used to keep sandwich fixings in the work fridge for such emergencies, but stopped when I discovered fork-marks in my mayonnaise (!). ~Anita

New location of Kurry King opening on Jackson near 5th. ~A

Had a batch (ok, two batches) of these over the weekend and they were scrumptious. You could taste all the elements of the drink separately, but they didn't compete with one another. ~Anita

Hy Wendy! Finally had time to prowl though the whole blog (so far) and am loving it! You're making us Seattleites look good. But your Uncle John is right: He's in the heart of Mexican food central. John -- have lunch at Taco Mesa for me, will ya? ~Anita

What's your point? Neither is much of the food served at (a) chain restaurants and (b) italian restaurants in the U.S.

We -were- going, but we've cancelled; this month was getting too rich for our budget. I'm sure you'll have a blast. ~Anita