MGLloyd

Here in the Seattle area, we now have two Whole Foods stores: one in north Seattle and the other in Bellevue. We fondly refer to them as 'Whole Paycheck'.

Olivina, I am quite the fan of apple desserts and have made several different apple cakes over the years. I generally lean toward the heavy, dense, moist strongly-apple flavored end of the spectrum. Would you say this cake qualifies?

The Alder Smoke, Sour Cream and Onion and Parmesan and Garlic flavor are also very good. The Steakhouse and the Ketchup flavors were kind of odd, though.

From time to time, I will add dried cranberries or substitute dry-roasted peanuts for the walnuts.

Canned Campebell's cream of tomato soup spiced up with some garlic and chili powder and crushed Ritz crackers. A lot of crushed Ritz crackers.

Hiroyuki, that is a much better looking roast than your earlier attempt. I am sure it tasted a lot better, too. Congratulations

Vanilla Cinnamon Garlic Rosemary Oregano

I agree with Owen's comments. The beans look under-roasted to me. I would try perhaps a higher temperature and more time. If the coffee does not reach a complete first crack or the beginning of second, it will probably taste relatively insipid.

The Central Markets in Shoreline and Mill Creek sell pre-made demi-glace.

No. It is part of a small local chain called Town and Country Markets. They own stores in Ballard, Greenwood, Bainbridge, Poulsbo, Shoreline and now Mill Creek. The Poulsbo, Shoreline and Mill Creek stores are called Central Market.

Although the original poster has already had his/her needs met, I thought I would post an update in case anyone else ever reads this thread. There is a new source for Asian groceries in the Everett area. The new Central Market in Mill Creek opened two days ago, and I stopped by last night on my way home from work. Although not to the level of a Ranch 99, it has a significant selection of Asian groceries, frozen foods and produce, including the items by the case that the original poster sought. The rest of the store was pretty darn good, too, especially the meat, produce and fresh/live seafood areas. The interior layout and selection is almost identical to the Central Market in Shoreline, but I thought the Mill Creek store had a better deli/prepared food area. I have long wanted something like a Larry's or similar upscale grocery in the Mill Creek area, and it looks like we have it. And when they finish the University Book Store branch right next to Central Market, well, I can tell where lots of my money will be going!

Jackson street, and 10th avenue in the International District (formerly known as Chinatown in less-sensitive days) is just a few blocks south and east of downtown Seattle. It is not far from I-5 coming north from Sea-Tac, but parking in the area can be a bear.

The closest place that I can think of that might meet your requirements is the Ranch 99 Market in Edmonds. This is approximately 15 miles south of downtown Everett, and is along Highway 99 in the 230th street block. It is just north of the King County line and is on the right side of the street as you travel north on Highway 99. Edited to add that Ranch 99 is a large store with a correspondingly large selection. Most of the other Asian markets in Snohomish county are essentially holes in the wall, except for the Pal Do Korean market, and thus Ranch 99 is possibly the most likely store in this area to have your items by the case.

Speaking as the parent of a 13.75 year old daughter, I can confirm there are light-years of difference between someone of that age and an 18-19 year old. I am gritting my teeth and waiting for the 18-19 year old range to arrive! And I think that the Cheesecake Factory would be right on point for that demographic; lots of variety so every kid could probably find something they want.

You are absolutely correct. And I should have known better, being born and raised in south King County (Renton). All I can say is that in recent years, I would only go through White Center on my way to or from the ferry at Fauntleroy.

If you go a little further south to White Center, you will certainly find a large number of Hispanic and Mexican restaurants there.

I have three wall units placed side by side. Each unit is 3 feet wide by 6 feet tall with four shelves each completely filled with cookbooks including those books stuffed in the space between the tops of the books and the bottom of the next shelf up. I have counted them, and I have 356 cookbooks. This does not include the two shelves filled with back issues of Cook's Illustrated and Gourmet magazines. And yet, just yesterday, I sent in a Jessica's Biscuit order for six more cookbooks. I wonder if I should go to a 12 step program or something.....

I have had the same dilemma but complicated by the fact that I don't have ground coffee on hand. I roast my own green beans and then grind them right before brewing. I often use a french press so I had the brewing method taken care of. But all my grinders are electric. The idea I had for 'grinding' the roasted beans was to put the beans into a ziplock bag, and then use a rolling pin on the bag repeatedly. After a few minutes, I was able to crush the beans into small enough particles to make a pretty decent coarse 'grind', just perfect for the french press.

They are still trying to get food service on some of the cross-Sound routes, but I think that no route actually has it yet. The major sticking points were if the galley personnel had to be members of the Inland Boatmen's union, and thus paid union wages, and the question of whom would provide and pay for workers' compensation insurance. In a nutshell, the potential operators felt they could not make a profit or even cover their costs without some compromise on these issues. I think the Vashon ferry route came closest to establishing food service; Sound Food on the island was trying to put something together but was not able to do so during the summer high season.

I second the suggestion to try one of the many Hispanic groceries down in the White Center area of Burien.

As a medical malpractice consultant, I do a lot of public speaking to medical audiences: usually physicians and hospital personnel. And as anyone in healthcare knows, if you want people to show up, serve them food. So many's the time I have been showing slides of some medical catastrophe and noticed a crowd of servers and line cooks watching with looks of horror or rapt fascination on their faces. Of particular note was a seminar I was doing on plastic surgery malpractice, and of course I was showing several slides of implants gone bad and the like. I noticed about ten female servers watching in the back, and about half of them were unconsciously clutching their breasts. I am sure there must be a doctoral thesis in there somewhere.

My wife and I would certainly be up for any kind of lobster feast in the greater Seattle area!

I was in Boston earlier this week to attend a seminar on patient safety and healthcare quality. I seized the opportunity to eat both a lobster and lobster rolls. I was staying in Cambridge in Harvard Square. I had two lobster rolls done by local restaurants. Both of them used a Pepperidge Farm top-loading hot dog roll. Of note, I have never seen such a roll anywhere in the Seattle area, but they looked like a very handy type of roll given that the contents would not fall out, unlike a side-loading roll. The first restaurant served the roll with chunks of fresh lobster that appear to have been cooked and then given a light saute in melted butter. I don't think they were cooked only be sauteing insofar as the lobster chunks were too tender for that. It was fabulous. The second restaurant used chunks of cooked lobster in a mayonnaise binder. It too was very good, but I think I preferred the butter-sauteed version. I had a fresh lobster at the Legal Sea Foods in Charles Square. They offered me the opportunity to select one from a tank, which I passed on. It was a whole steamed lobster that had been split lengthwise down the body. It, too, was truly delicious, but for a 1.25-1.50 lb. lobster, I was surprised at the yield of the meat. I would estimate that perhaps five-six ounces of meat was retrieved. Now mind you, I ate the meat from the tail, the body and cracked the claws. I noticed that some of my fellow diners were sucking the meat from the legs along the side, but darn if I could really see any meat in there. For dessert, I had something I had never heard of before: grapenut custard. It was a soft egg custard, almost pudding-like in consistency, that was served in a parfait glass. It had grapenuts cereal added in. Very interesting. I have had the occasional lobster here in Seattle, but I have to say the one I had in Boston seemed better, based on my very small comparative sample.

So now I am quite intrigued by the postings that suggest to substitute butter for the oil in the carrot cake recipes. However, I note that some bakers here suggest either a full or half substitution of the oil with butter. I wonder which way I should go. Would using only butter change the taste or texture too much?