col klink

Nah, just brown bag it. Bring a bottle of bourbon, keep it in a brown paper bag and order a 7up. I bet you even get free refills on pop! If I can get away with it at Safeco all of the time, you should to do so at Brasa.

Just to let everyone know, Uwajimaya is now having an anniversary sale where EVERYTHING in the store is 10% off, even sale items. Today I bought daikon and ginger to go with my tobiko, albacore sashimi (frozen), salmon, izuma tai, unagi and scallops. Mmmm, sushi.

I've had a number of Okanagan wines and have been quite happy with them. They've been around for about 10 years and they're really getting their act together. My favorite is Red Rooster, from Naramata. They have a good Chardonay, a decent Pinot Noir and their own blend that's inexpensive and highly poundable. And since it gets nice and chilly up there, almost every winery I visited had a last-harvest or ice wine, all of which were pretty tasty but tended to be more than the $10 to $18 CDN I was spending on everything else. I live in Seattle and I vastly prefer the Canadian wines to the Washington wines which are 2x to 6x more expensive and not nearly as complex.

Yeah, but it sure sounds good to the ignorant eh?

For the life of me, I can't remember. Guess we'll have to go and refresh my memory.

Traitor!!!

Thanks! I have a theory on why they're no longer open for lunch, but it's only a theory and it might not put Mashiko's in a good light but I'll try to explain the situation as I see it. It seems that three or four months ago the health inspector came around and forced Hajime and anyone else preparing food to wear plastic gloves. This was a disaster and I personally witnessed a long rant. For sushi chefs, they need their bare hands to tell if a fish is still fresh, if their cutting boards needs to be wiped, if they need a new towel, etc. Hajime was concerned there would be problems if he had to wear gloves. Well guess what? Most health inspectors work 9-5. Now, Hajime is only open from 5-10. Hajime is the owner of Mashiko's and the primary sushi chef. Back in the day, I used to see him about half of the time at lunch. I believe there are two females who work there, Kirsten his wife of a year and 4 months and another blond who was working last Friday night. As far as I know, Mashiko's is the only sushi bar in Seattle with women sushi chefs under it's employ. Hajime actually mentioned the company that he purchases his sawagani and explained why he didn't have any for so long. Apparently there was a big tiff with their supplier over religious matters and big supplier stopped doing business with Hajime's supplier. I haven't seen any place that sells the mini crabs, fresh or salt water. If you do, let me know! I'm curious as well as to the difference between fresh and salt water crabs. If you get a chance, catch a couple! Just throw them in a deep fryer before you eat them. That is only if there isn't a red tide or anything. I suppose if it's safe to go claming, it's safe to go crabing eh? Can anyone chime in on this?

Hah! One of my first posts! To celebrate Batgrrrl's return, we went to Mashiko's on Friday of last week (yeah! for too many reasons to list here). We had yet ANOTHER singular meal at Mashiko's. It seems that at least every other time I go to Mashiko's it's a singular event, thus necessitating the use of a different word, but that's what happens when you go to the best sushi restaurant in the Northwest. The first thing I noticed is that on their list of specials was sawagani. I asked if that was true and immediately the order went in. For those of you who don't know what sawagani are and haven’t heard me rave about them before, they're small fresh water crabs about the size of a 50-cent piece, including legs. They're found on the shores of streams and rivers and if they're not cooked, can be very deadly as Hajime pointed out. He told us that as a child he would pick them up and always wanted to eat them live but his overbearing parents never let him. I would like to give his parents a big round of applause. Sawagani are thrown in the fryer and eaten whole, including the shell. These were the best sawagani I've ever had. Somehow they were juicier and had more flavor. Damn, I love those little guys. However, that was not the first course, we had the seaweed salad (sans baby octopi) while we waited for the kitchen to return its bounty. Hajime even remembered us, mentioning “aren’t you here early” when we came in and our first course of omakase (I can’t stress this enough people, always order the omakase) was the albacore nigiri which we always order and consequently give high accolades. I don’t care where you’ve tried albacore before, if you haven’t had Hajime’s, you don’t even know what it is. Our next course was skipjack tuna. The preferred method of serving it at Mashiko’s is sashimi style, on a bed of marinated cucumbers and pickled onions, topped with tobiko, spicy daikon and his soy-based (I believe) vinaigrette and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Skipjack tuna is also called bonito and it’s similar to maguro in texture, but has better flavor. After the skipjack and the albacore came a series of nigiri plates. First, and a first of mine at Mashiko’s, was a soy wrapped toro, the scrumdidlyumptious fatty tuna. Does anyone know the name of this style? It’s a thin bed of rice, with a soy (or nori) wrapper making a cylinder cup holding the main item. The next was a boring salmon. It’s funny, salmon doesn’t do anything for me unless smoked, but it was of nice quality. The inari wasn’t actually a nigiri piece, but it was the same size. It’s a deep-fried tofu pouch. It’s semi sweet and ours was filled with rice and topped with marinated bamboo. I just loved the next course, hamachi sashimi slices wrapped around each other, topped with tobiko resting in a sweet sauce of reduced plum wine. Garnished on the side with a cucumber peel (better than it sounds, it looked good though not eaten) and two long strips of clam with knife perforations to tenderize every ¼ inch. Of course we couldn’t leave without ordering a spider roll, one of Batgrrrl’s favorites. It’s a standard sushi roll wrapped around tempura’d soft shell crab. Very pretty and of course the textural and temperature variances are what makes the roll so interesting. For the next course, Hajime overheard Batgrrrl and I reminiscing about the "ankima hamburger” (see first post) but mentioned that although ankima is usually in season right now, alas the season hasn’t started but he did ask us for any requests. I asked for “anything with scallops.” Remembering we like the hamburger, he made us a new one, though this time with crabmeat (real) and his spicy mayo topped with tobiko and curry powder. I’m continually amazed at how creative Hajime can be. I should mention that he takes special care with his large scallops in that he doesn’t get the water infused, cheaper scallops, but gets the scallops that are basically just shucked, to give the customer the best scallop s/he/herm can get. One more albacore for desert, then after that, we decided to actually order desert! We were so excited about the last time we were at Mashiko’s and mistakenly ordering desert, we couldn’t resist ordering it for real. We mentioned the last one, light (in flavor, not in a low-calorie sense) strawberry ice cream, mint sprigs, tempura’d pineapple slices in a sea of plum wine and the kitchen made the same dish but with plum sorbet instead of the ice cream. It was very, VERY tasty. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Batgrrrl and I were the first to arrive and lasted over two hours at the bar, outlasting at least three other parties. It was fun listening about Hajime’s childhood and even better when he offered us an albacore “mistake.” Not only that, before we left he gave us and the couple seated to our right some free premo sake! I can’t remember the name (I had enough of a time remembering most of the courses) but the style started with an “I.” It was cloudy and very smooth. One could get mightily drunk in a hurry if said one had an ample enough supply. I’d be even more remiss if I didn’t mention that Hajime’s prized garlic sauce, which I’m trying to facsimile myself, will be available to public in small quantities in December. Also on December 7th, there will be a store party with lots of sake to celebrate my birthday. Actually it’s a coincidence that that is my birthday, but there’s a party nonetheless. If you’ve ever tried sushi and liked it, you owe it to yourself and your children and children’s children to go to Mashiko’s. Not only is it the best sushi in town, but also it’s affordable and can’t be beat at any price. Our sushi, with two large house sake’s totaled $67 before tip. Can you put a price on a meal that will last you the rest of your life? I don’t think so.

I'm particularly proud of my smoked leg of lamb. It's smoked over 3 hours at a low temperature, served medium-rare. Most recently I took the marinade, reduced it in half, removed the olive oil and added a stick of butter. Made for a real nice accompaniment. I've slayed dozens with it. It's something I've tinkered with for the last year and a half and it's probably the tastiest thing I can do.

I've been there twice and the only food I've ordered was the grilled chicken burger. What can I say? It was cooked well, came with tomatos and lettuce with a pickle on the side and fries. It was a decent lunch, just boring. I don't know about their burgers. I've never really gone there for the food.

Oh yeah, the fries were better than normal. They're the over-cooked, British variety: tan to dark brown, and if they sit too long, they're a little soggy. That doesn't sound too good (at least to me), but they were good enough that I ate every one of them. Remembering those fries reminded me of Wednesday's Daily show. John Stewart said: "In Britain, or England for those of you with a stick up your ass, ..." Ahhh, those crazy limies. Or is it limey's? Anyone know?

Thought I'd revise the original best burger thread and mention that I had a cheeseburger at the Wedgewood Ale House. It was a hand patted, juicy and flavorful burger with ample tomato, onion and lettuce with real cheddar cheese. Oh yeah, a damn fine burger for only $6.95 (or $6.99). I would prefer to have pickles on my burgers, but somehow I forgot about them until just now. The icing on the cake was the Rogue Red double dry-hopped on tap, absolutely marvelous. Wedgewood Ale House & Cafe (206) 527-2676 8515 35th Ave NE # A Seattle, WA

I went back to Kau Kau on Thursday before the last M's home game of the season (boo Oakland and Anaheim!). Needless to say, I ordered the roast duck again and boy was I dissapointed. I hardly got ANY MEAT AT ALL for my duck. No less than 2/3 of my duck remained on my plate. At least my buddy got a drumstick. Granted the skin was still good, but who orders duck back? No one! Anyways, probably the best thing to do is order roast duck by the pound, I haven't done this, but if you order a whole duck, I'm sure it's nothing less than phenominal. Of course the pork that went with it was just stellar. Next time, I'm going for all pork if I order the lunch special. At only $4.95, the lunch special can be a great deal.

raw fish.

Sweet. Oh wait, like I need an excuse to drink.

If you don't mind me asking, what makes the women's bathrooms so cool? Is it the floor to ceiling windows?

With alcohol carrying a lot of calories, what does that mean for whiskey? Say an 80 proof Jim Beam? They don't exactly put the specs on the bottle.

Nope, especially when you mix in some ground pork.

Like I said above, anyone who knows his way around pork and duck like he does can basically get away with murder in my book. For the record, I did not see any creepy crawlies (icky nature things) that weren't meant to be seen. I just feel bad for that fish in the window, it's about 2 1/2 feet long and just about as high in a 6 foot tank long tank. I don't think he can even turn around. I believe I read they got him from the children's hospital when he outgrew the tank. I can easily imagine they moved him to a smaller tank.

Mmmmm, popped blisters. Oh wait, mmmmm, lady fingers. So what are the floating islands of Floating islands with ladyfingers?

Oops, I forgot to mention the particulars, 6th and King in Seattle's International District.

I went to Kau Kau yesterday before the M's game and after hemming and hawing for a while (not knowing exactly what the procedure was), I orderd the roasted duck lunch special. Aaustin mentioned Kau Kau in the "Favorite Chinese Takeout Dish" thread so I gave her a whirl. The duck skin was fabulous, though not exactly warm. There was a great crispy exterior and as soon as you bit into it, the duck fat just poured out. Wow. Unfortunately I didn't get much breast meat with my portion, it was about 1/3 breast meat and the rest had a lot of bones and stuff, I didn't recognize where the rest came from actually. Luckily the lunch special also came with some of the bbq pork. Believe it or not, I preferred the pork. Not only was it juicy, but it had the right amount of fat content and was wonderfully rendered. A very acidic sauce was presented as well and it did a good job of cutting through the rich meat. Along with the duck and the pork was a decently sized portion of fried rice that was pretty boring. I spiced it up though with the bowl of chilis. My final verdict on Kau Kau is that I can't wait to go back! That and the owner really needs to shave his beard. When you see him, you'll know exactly what I mean. But how can I question a man who knows duck and pork so well? For that, he can do whatever he wants.

Big John's Pacific Food Imports, but you probably already know about them mamster. It pains me to buy cheese anywhere else in the city.

You're a freak! Then again, I never understood the whole cheesy-poof thing.

If the local water supply fine, no. In Texas, where the water just tasts AWLFUL I got by with the standard water filter. However at my parents cottage in Upper Michigan, we're on a lake and we have a well that's basically filled with lake water. Back in the 50's and 60's there was a lot of um, waste (not toxic, just human) and the water was unsafe to drink. Today everyone has a septic system and the water is much cleaner but we still have to go to town and get water. We just take our milk and water jugs and go to the fresh spring, tasty but a little metallic from all of the iron ore in the area.