lala

Did anyone see Iron Chef last night? I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but Tom Douglas was the epitome of grace under pressure

Is there something wrong with going to Esquin for lunch?! ← Absolutely nothing! Although it does seem that SoDo comestibles seem to mainly involve BBQ and Vino. Now, if my Boss doesn't notice the spicy booze breath, we'll all be just fine... Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Andy's Diner scared the hell outta me, but thank goodess I'd already enjoyed a fine lunch at Pig Iron BBQ. Pho Cyclo was Packed, with diners everywhere slurping down to the last drop (a good sign, I think). Haven't been to Kolbeh, but it's on the list. And if I may make a non food related comment, check out Marenakos at First S and Horton. This company sells stone to garden and house designers, but this is where they show what an artist can do with stone. There's an area with examples of stone in the garden, and a lovely little gallery of stone sculpture. Worth a detour when you're on that Costco trip.

Thanks for the tips, Pleeeeease keep them coming! I'm afraid that my list will have to include the fast food joints! Food Hell!!!!! The restrictions made Georgetown verboten, ..."within walking distance"....but I think it's going to have to sneak on there, as well as West Seattle, as it's an easy hop across the bridge. I know that one of my reccommendations for the staff will be brown bagging their lunches!

Our office is moving waaaaay down into the deepest Sodo, near Spokane St. I've been charged with coming up with a neighborhood guide to food and fun places. To me, this is, well, a bit of a black hole, as I've only ever been to Esquin and Costco. Help! Please give me your reccommendations for anything remotely edible from 1st ave So to 6th, between Holgate and Spokane St. Unfortunately, Salumi and the ID don't count Many thanks in advance!

A friend and I experimented with blue pancakes once. Not a regret, just hilarious. My regret? Not going to New Orleans last year... or ever...

This is why you have a contract with the terms spelled out in advance. It's not your problem that they miscounted, it's theirs.

Ow! Ow! Ow! Volcanic cheese too deep to eat!

Cooking something that produces a small amount of waste- use the empty produce bag. Cooking something that produces large amount of waste (shucking many ears of corn, cooking multiple dishes)- bring the garbage can out from under the sink, and park it next to me. No composting or grinding here, live in an apartment, without these options.

I love Paula Dean. In this health concious age, she firmly goes her own way, with lashings of cream, butter, cheese, sugar, and all the other things we're not supposed to eat. I used to watch Emeril so I could yell at him, but it became too easy. Now I watch Paula and egg her on, living vicariously, imagining how delicious that full fat food is while I eat my salad and steamed fish. BTW: I always buy two Pannetone at the holidays and make a wonderful bread pudding with one of them.

I adore my DeLonghi. It has the convection, warm and dehydrate options (haven't used that one yet). I use it for breakfast every day (toast and soy sausage patty - heated directly on the rack, no extra fat used!). I live alone, so everything goes in there. Batches of 2 biscuits for dinner. Cheese/Garlic Toast. My bowl of French Onion Soup goes in to bake and toast the cheesy top. Small pieces of meat are roasted - one of my favorite summer dinners is roasted salmon (I use a rub and drizzle of olive oil for seasoning) in the toaster oven, while an ear of corn gets nuked - dinner in minutes, and the kitchen stays cool. It's fabulous for reheating foods, especially pizza, and I make individual serving casseroles in the 1 pint Le Creuset dish my friend gave me. Love It!

I've been happy with the Pences (I think. Not the organic ones) at Met Mart. And I got some awesome peaches at Frank's a few weeks ago. They called them the "Princess" variety, but they may have been yanking my chain. Anyhoo, they sure were tasty!

I understand the importance of assuring that I'll actually show up for a reservation. I've never been a no-show, so my appearing is not the issue. However, I am too aware of credit card fraud, so when I'm asked for a number to confirm a reservation, I give it, but alter one number so it cannot actually be used. Since most of the restaurants either write it down, or log it in the computer without verifying it, it's not a problem. When I appear, I can pay in any manner that I like. Again... I do this because I'm never a no-show, it's not hurting anyone, but I sure as hell am not giving my credit card to anyone unless I'm actually making a payment for something at that moment.

If you backtrack from those double reviews, you'll usually see that that restaurant was discussed in food forums about a month before...like here on EG. Sometimes I just pull up the reviews and our thread and laugh and laugh and laugh... While I generally like Penelope's work, this was a bit much. It's good to lay down your parameters, but not to bitch slap your entire audiance. I lay this at the feet of the editor, who has also been letting a lot of crap through in Hsiao-Ching Chou's pieces, too.

I dine out alone at least once a week, and since I tend to travel alone, I do it on vacations, too. I love eating out alone! I'll bring a book, but usually don't read it, as it's delightful to just enjoy the food and setting, and eavesdrop on my neighbors. There have been times when I've automatically been led to a seat at the bar, but I've never had a problem if I preferred a table. And I'm not at all shy about asking for a better table if I'm put in the dark, dank corner - it helps to ask for a specific table: "Could I sit at this table?", as I walk towards it always works.

I hate those skinny, useless straws that too many places use, and often take straws out of the drink. However, I adore bendy straws for using at home, as I like to lounge sideways on the sofa while reading, and bendy straws make beverages so much easier to drink! I also use straws if I'm drinking soda out of a can, because you never know how clean that can is. As an aside, a chiropractor I saw many years ago said that everyone should use straws because drinking out of a glass/bottle/can puts your neck in an unnatural position, particularly when shaking those last drops out of an iced drink, or a can. I'm thinking he had shares in a straw company!

Christmas dinner, quite a few years ago. Group of friends at my house, two of us cooked, one was supposed to clean up (let's call her Sal). Others were strictly guests, all of whom brought nice hostess gifts and behaved themselves. We planned a nice meal, and I used the last bottles of a case of stellar, no longer available Cabernet for the main course. Apps went well, with first wine. Soup was fantastic, with another wine. Entrée served, enjoyed, with a glass of that fab Cab left over (I hoped to enjoy it the next day with leftovers)... Until, as I was clearing the table, Sal dumped the remaining contents of the bottle into her glass saying how good it was. Dessert was served (with another wine). Sal bitched that the Cab didn't go with her dessert and dumped it down the sink. Then, after dinner, she laid herself down in the middle of the living room floor and proceeded to belch several times. After the other guests had left (in a bit of a hurry, after that floor show), Sal wandered into the kitchen. After running a sink of hot water (I don't have a dishwasher), she put a few dishes in, and came into the living room holding her finger. Said she'd cut herself on a paring knife (which was nowhere near the sink or dirty dishes!), and couldn't do the dishes for fear of infection. This cut was barely visible, and didn't even bleed. I passed her a pair of gloves, which she rejected, because they were too small for her. She promptly left, praising the dinner and saying we should all do this again very soon. Needless to say, Sal hasn't had the opportunity to darken my door since!

If you're hungry before you hit the coast, you can get really good fried oysters at a restaurant in South Bend. Now, this is not a destination restaurant, certainly nothing fancy, but being on Willapa Bay, those oysters are minutes out of the water, and the cook knows how to treat them right. Don't know the name of the place, but it's on the right as you drive through town, on the river. Just pull into the main parking lot, with the visitor center/booth. If it's a nice day, sit outside, watch the river slide by with a brew, and feel your blood pressure drop.

Ok, ok! Y'all convinced me! I'm taking a week in September and splitting it between Manzanita, and the wine country. Can't wait!

Been reading a few articles on this wine lately, including the Bon Appetit issue. I'd love to find this wine in Seattle, and get feedback from those who have tried it!

This stuff sounds interesting - does anyone know which shops/restaurants in Seattle carry this wine?

I'd heard about the cherries and milk thing... rumor was that President Taylor died after eating this combo: "Longstanding theories that Taylor had been poisoned were finally dispelled in the early 1990s when Taylor's remains were exhumed and examined [1] (http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev27-12/text/ansside6.html) for signs of arsenic poisoning. This forensic pathology demonstrated that Taylor was not poisoned and had probably succumbed to food contaminated with typhoid or cholera. Taylor had in fact eaten a large quantity of iced milk and cherries on the hot day prior to falling ill, one of which may have been contaminated, and which likely led to a still-extant old wives' tale stating that milk and cherries become toxic when consumed together." link to encyclopedia entry on Zachary Taylor

I'm not a scientist (and don't even play one on tv...), but I'd always heard that the pits from summer fruits contain a small amount of arsenic/cyanide (cherries, apricots, peaches). I did a google search and came up with this: "A Natural Poison Cyanide is commonly thought of as a gas, but you also can be poisoned by it if you ingest wild cherry syrup, prussic acid, bitter almond oil, or large amounts of apricot pits. Cherry seeds, peach and plum pits, corn, chickpeas, cashews, and some other fruits and vegetables contain cyanogenic (i.e., cyanide-forming) glycosides (such as amygdalin) that release hydrogen cyanide when chewed or digested. As a result, some cyanide can also be found in fruit jams that contain these pit and pip extracts, such as quince. However, since the concentration of cyanide in these compounds is small, accidental cyanide poisoning from a food source is rare. But, if the correct materials are deliberately concentrated it can make an effective poison, as the Romans and Egyptians knew. They used to grind up peach kernels to make poisons" Article on poisons in fruit pits I'd assume it'd take a lot of pits, but other articles I found said that these pits were poisonous to small animals (dogs, cats, etc.)...

I'd love to see the ad, too... anyone?

link to Rain review In the review, she notes greasy tempura, "off" tasting edamame, oddly conceived dishes, and sloppy service. Seems she's right about the attitude, if that's their response. "Not that I would ever consider such a crude response, but is there an argument to be made that if critics can dish it out, shouldn't they be able to take it?" Unless I'm missing something, it looks like it's more about the Restaurant not being able to take it, not the reviewer...

While I was exposed to good fresh foods on the family farm in northern Minnesota, I think it all really started when I was 4 and my brother was 5. We spent the school year in England while my Dad worked in London, then spent the summer driving around Europe. I remember preferring the champagne to red wine when we toured wine regions, watching Italian women making ravioli by hand for lunch at one place we stayed in Italy. And I particularly remember Greece - those fantastic sesame rings sold by street vendors in Athens, and the great fun we had on Mikonos. The locals thought it was funny to try to make the small American kids to eat foods that adult Americans wouldn't eat, but we ate everything - octopus, hummus, moussaka. The lovely hotel people even made me a birthday cake, which we shared with our new friends. Who wouldn't love food after such a fantastic introduction?