col klink

Hmm, I know there was a decently sized thread on the very subject of sending back wine. Some people had no problem and suggested ways of doing it so nobody is offended. But then some people HAD tried that and were charged for new bottles as well as old "bad" bottles. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding the thread.

Looks like I'm the only one who uses Miracle Whip instead of mayo. I also add chopped pickles, mustard, s&p, hot sauce and Vlassic pepper rings. Basically I just add condiments to canned tuna. However, I have added celery and in the future I will be adding onion, that sounds pretty good.

I was up in West Seattle for lunch yesterday too. For a while Mashiko's was open on Mondays so I thought it was worth a try but they were closed. I justified the trip because if they were closed, I could go to Tacos Guayamas (sp?). Of course I didn't know exactly where it was (I now know it's right next to Mashiko's) and ended up at Guadalajara. The PI has a pretty good fish and chips. The cod is breaded with plenty of herbs which is nice at first, but grows tired after a while. I believe they also have halibut as well. The chips aren't half bad plus they have Woodchuck cider on tap.

Heh, heh. That's exactly the same way I introduced my roomate to Mashiko's. Wow, that sounds great, a heckuva cool meal if you ask me. I have no idea where that came from as I only had nigiri for my omakase. I'll be back though when fugu is again in season, sometime around September. Maybe he had an epiphany after reading eGullet?

Good question, whenever I've had geoduck at sushi restaurants, I've just assumed they were raw, likewise octopus.

When I do salmon at home, my favorite way to prepare it is smoked as well! Linda, when you say you lightly smoke it, how do you mean? Duration of cooking? A lightly flavored wood like alder or apple wood? I've had the best results (so far) with maple wood, at around 150 to 175 degrees F for an hour and a half. How about you? I'll grant you though, I've been primarily cooking with maple and haven't had a chance to "spread my wings." By the way, I noticed that you used lime on your salmon. I like lime much better with salmon than lemon. As a matter of fact, there isn't anything you can do with a lemon that isn't better with lime (except for a caesar salad, I've tried, but you have to have REALLY good lemons).

How sadistic! :wow: At least with my sweet shrimp which are torn in half whilst alive are given a quick death. I'm sure that the post-trauma twitches are simply nerve reactions.

What we drink!!! That is a little scary. But on the plus side, does the software allow to put in good comments for regular diners? As a diner myself, it would be cool to give a restaurant a little reminder that a "good" diner is coming, and thus maybe get a little comp or extra attention. A reward for diligent loyalty? This would apply to more expensive restaurants that I can't afford to go to every week AND make rent. I'm sure that if you can frequent a restaurant at the same time every week and tip well, they'll remember you. But if you can only go once a month, then it's more difficult.

Very nice article, though it's a little New York centric, don't really care for that. Someone should tell the editor.

Thanks!

This weekend I took out the blackberry vines (a friend asked if I was picking the blackberries or harvesting kittens) and replaced them with Roma's and Celebrities. Celebrity tomatos are also called beefsteak tomatos right? The first time I went to a Morton's restaurant they had a beefsteak tomato salad which looked pretty good. So after I finished my first glass of wine, I asked for the "beefcake" tomato salad. I wonder if the waiter thought I was coming on to him?

Woo hoo! Pacific Northwest's 100th topic! Nope, haven't been to South Park yet, Colorado right? If not Colorado, I'm assuming you're refering to a part of Seattle? Where is it?

I find that sake does a better job of cutting the saltiness. Then some more sake, then some albacore, then some sawagani, then some live sweet shrimp (still twitching) . . . mmmmm, sweet shrimp . . . Huh? Where am I?

I've only had salmon roe at sushi restaurants and I can't say that I prefer it over other roes like flying fish roe. The roe is so big and so salty that it's a little too overpowering. Though as a salt lover, I can definitely see the appeal.

Usually tuna and salmon are not previously frozen, but the more exotic items are like the big scallops. Hajime, from Mashiko's, was saying that he orders the "dry" fresh scallops from Alaska. These scallops are more expensive because they aren't infused with water before shipping. I assume that local seafood is fresh and non-local is previously frozen or cooked. Good to know about Anisakis simplex, guess I'll have to stop eating those baby seal "club" sandwiches.

damn, that sounds awlfully good Jinmyo. I'll be on the lookout for bottarga now.

I would gladly take the risk of Toxoplasma for another bite of the raw CPS I had at Mashiko's. I rarely get salmon when I go for sushi because usually it's so boring, but that CPS was ethereal. Bascially a doctor would have to tell me I'd die if I have another bite of sushi before I would stop eating it. Here along the coast of the Pacific ocean I'd have a hard time imagining having any kind of problems with sushi. On the other hand, there's very little chance that I'd ever get pregnant, all I'd have to worry about is a bad flu. But do watch out for sushi joints where the health officials force the chefs to wear plastic gloves during preperation. A chef's bare hands tells the him everything. With gloves he can't tell if his towel or cutting board is dirty or if his scallops have turned. Gloves are very frustrating to sushi chefs, well the ones that care and take pride in their work.

Thanks for starting this thread BH because I LOVE PHO. But I'll confess, I've only been to the Thanh Bro's on Aurora and 78th. Deep rich broth and a lot of different pieces of beef to throw in. I always stick to eye of round but I'll vary the other meat, I've tried brisket, well done flank and tripe. I liked the tripe but that was mostly because I liked the idea of eating tripe more so than the tripe itself. I throw in all of the basil and lime that I can as well as some jalepeno and bean sprouts. I usually throw in some of the rooster sauce or the crushed red chiles in oil. I don't throw in any hoisin because it's just too sweet and destroys the complex profile of the broth. But of course the icing on the cake would be the homemade cream puffs that come with every bowl. You can also purchase a package of 15 separately for $6.50 (at least I'm pretty sure it's that much).

Pancho Villa has finally received their liquor license! But it's only beer and possilbly wine. Sunday morning I dropped in for a couple of tacos and after I found out they had menudo, I had to sit down. Ordered a Dos Equis (came with lime) and a bowl of menudo. Since I've never had a bowl of the stuff, I had no idea what to expect, but it wasn't unwelcome. I have had tripe before, actually quite recently at Thanh Bros in a bowl of Pho (pronounced fuh) but I couldn't really get a feeling on how it tasted. Now I now. It's a little chewy and there's a certain mental thing you have to get over. Basically it's a rich Mexican spiced beef broth soup with tender tripe. The soup also came with four homemade flour tortillas and bowl with minced onions and cilantro. The tripe with the condiments and a little salsa were quite tasty and made it difficult to back to soup. Now menudo is listed as a "hangover" soup. This I don't understand, I guess you have to have grown up with it. If I'm in a full-on hangover replete with nausea, the texture of tripe would be enough to trip the gag reflex. But I'm just a gringo, what do I know. Anyone else try it? Here or otherwise? I will say this, you get a lot of tripe for the money, ~$6.50.

If you don't have a real smoker, it's very difficult to smoke better than a commercial establishment. There are stovetop smokers that are closed containers that you line with sawdust and place on the burner but these don't work for large pieces of fish or extended smoking, say over half an hour. Since it's raining salmon in Seattle at the moment, I think I'm going to have to smoke some up. My last salmon I smoked was cripplingly good. I say if you don't eat it raw, then smoke it. Although I've had great results with just simple salt, pepper and lime or lemon juice.

Saturday I went to Mashiko's where Hajime had Copper River Salmon on special. It was easily the best salmon I've ever had in my life. He served it sashimi style after an initial light salting. Both batgrrrl and I thought that it was slightly smoked but were quickly corrected. Apparently a lot of people when they try it raw believe it was smoked as evidenced by one of the other customers. All I can say is that CRS was fantastic! Smooth, creamy and bursting of great salmon flavor even from the tiniest pieces.

I mentioned my wine shop in the inaugural bbq thread and I am curious about other wine shops in the Seattle metropolitan area. My favorite shop is Le Savoir Faire on 15th and Lake City Way on the outskirts of Maple Leaf. It's run by a cute little French guy named Samy who's specialty lies in fantastic French wines between $8 and $18 but carries a wide variety spanning the gamut of prices and localities. I bought some great Italian and Washington wines there as well. So far my favorite wine is (and this was a winner at the 'que) 1998 Domaine Fond Croze Cotes du Rhone that sells for $11. I'm sure I've bought at least 2 cases of the beautiful stuff over the last year. Samy's is the only shop that I know of that carries the Fond Croze. Every Saturday from 1 to 3 he has a wine tasting and usually picks a cheese or spread to go along. I usually end up leaving with at least two or three bottles in my hand. Occasionally I've dropped in to McCarthy & Schiering Wine which is adjacent to A&J's Meats on Queen Anne and they seem to have a decent selection as well.

She already did. In fact, she posted it in General before she posted it here. Currently it's about half down so that's probably why you missed it.

BH, you're too cool for words, great find. I can't believe they have so many menus. I was going to say, "I can't believe they have so many menus for Seattle," but then I remembered that Amazon is based in Seatte. It still is alarming how many menus they do have though.

I should mention that groups for the bar shouldn't be larger than four people and if your group is that big and wants to sit at the bar, get to Mashiko's early. They generally open by 5 most days for dinner. Last week I had a party of five. I called at 6:10 and they were empty. Got there around 6:45 and the bar only had two open spots and we had to wait 45 minutes. Granted, they were really cool about it and lavished us with extras like edamame and at the end, a whole lotta sake. They were really cool to us while we waited and served us sake whilst at the door before we were seated. I highly recommend reading Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion. Oh, another awkward thing about a party of five. Of course we asked for omakase and at times, the number five doesn't divide well into a roll of six. Sometimes it confused the chef when it was time for divvying.