LaurieA-B

If you can get over there RIGHT NOW (I'm typing at 10:15 am) the U District Farmers Market is hosting their annual cooking competition featuring Joseph Jimenez de Jimenez of HARVEST VINE vs. John Sundstrom of LARK We had to leave due to other obligations, but saw both chefs setting off to select their produce. I'm sure it will be great. Last summer or the one before, Matthew and I watched the chefs from the Herbfarm and Cafe Lago face off. Watching the cooking process and what they chose to make was entertaining and instructive. We bought peaches, onions, green beans, tomatillos, and jalapenos at the market today (also duck legs from USP). U District Farmers Market Calendar of Events

tsquare, how did you know that we ate at Union on Tuesday? Here's the complete menu, which may tempt you to lunch at Union. I think it's a great deal. I enjoyed the meal very much. The menu does change daily; by coincidence, Judy had lunch there Wednesday and there were several different items. Though you will recognize certain themes from our lunch and the dinners described in this thread. Union Lunch (August 10, 2004) Choose one from each course for $20 All items available a la carte First Mixed garden greens with toasted almonds 8 Chilled tomato soup with avocado and Dungeness crab 8 Heirloom tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella, aged balsamic, Serrano ham 10 Oxtail terrine with micro greens and horseradish cream 10 Grilled lamb tongue with baby beets and frisee salad 10 Second Seared ahi tuna with artichoke and olive salad, saba 12 Fluke in brioche with romano beans, lemon and capers 12 Grilled squab with baked figs and balsamic 12 Grilled beef loin with roasted baby onions and shallot sauce 14 Seared sea scallops with fresh corn polenta, basil oil Dessert Assorted cheeses with pecan bread and frisee salad 10 Chocolate espresso pot de crème 7 Affogato 7 Fresh berries with tarragon sabayon 7 My lunch was the tomato soup, fluke, and cheeses. The soup was a lovely presentation and very, very delicious. A generous circular mound (there's a culinary word for this shape that I can't remember) of shredded crab and ripe avocado is in the middle of the soup plate, into which the waiter poured the luscious cold tomato puree. He said there was also a layer of tomato gelee beneath the avocado. Wonderful textures and the tomato flavor was fabulous. "Fluke in brioche" is fluke very lightly breaded with brioche crumbs. It was placed on a bed of sliced green beans and topped with capers. I loved the flavor combination of this dish. The fish itself was very mild; the lemon-caper worked well with it and the beans. As Matthew mentioned, the cheese plate was slightly disappointing; they were a bit too cold and exteriors a bit too dried out, the Lancashire in not good shape. But it was a lovely presentation with a tuft of lightly dressed frisee, generous portions of cheese, and I especially liked the gorgonzola dolce on the pecan-fruit bread. Service was very good and I thought the room attractive (too bad the windows are facing a construction site right now). I'd like to see it at night with the oil lamps burning. I hope we'll make it to Union for dinner this fall or winter.

Union already has the three-course $20 lunch, as described here; I'm not sure if is is summer only or will continue (not to say that dinner wouldn't be great too, especially as I am back at work during the day in two weeks).

I haven't been there in a while, but enjoyed the food (nice antipasti) at Nonna Maria (530 First Ave N).

Picked up a postcard in the Seattle Weekly for the Dinner at 8 promotion. 8 refers to eight neighborhoods; the meal is a three-course prix fixe, $20, Sunday-Thursday. The website includes menus for all the restaurants (though these may change, I'm sure). I'd never heard of the Cellar Bistro on Capitol Hill, and until a couple of months ago I lived on 10th Ave E. Anyone been there? The restaurant list looks to be a nice combination of newer places, old favorites, and a few less-than-favorites. Definitely neighborhood restaurants, for the most part, compared to the destination restaurants of the 25/25 promotion. Looking over the list, the places I'm most interested in are Supreme (never been) and Cafe Lago (haven't been there in too long).

My wonderful mother-in-law (when's the last time you read that phrase?) brought us some Pence and Frog Hollow peaches from Metropolitan Market in Queen Anne yesterday. (For historical purposes, let me explain that the Thriftways mentioned earlier in the thread are now Metropolitan Markets.) The Peach-o-Rama website is still up, but it hasn't been updated and the Peach Hotline is disconnected, so I have no additional information right now about what's coming in and how long they'll be around. From our small sampling, the Pence are large, Frog Hollow small. The Frog Hollow are more than edible, but the Pence I ate yesterday was absolutely wonderful, sweet and juicy (though far from the level of sweetness that is sometimes reached). Current prices are $2.69/pound for Pence, $3.69/pound for organic Frog Hollows. We bought a couple of peaches from Rama at U-District Farmers Market last week, which were just okay. I'm guessing that they'll be better this weekend. Hsiao-Ching Chou on local peaches

The Seattle Weekly Happy Hour Guide is useful too.

That was Miyi Australian Pies. I didn't know they had closed. Matthew reviewed it a while back and we both enjoyed their food; the pies were tasty. Puerto Rican sounds good too, though. (And when I want a meat pie, I like those at Pies and Pints even more.)

That table looks nuts to me. Whipped cream will last for two weeks, but yellow mustard only lasts for 6-8 months? I don't think so. I'm no expert but I wouldn't worry much about the age of fish sauce.

You also forgot to mention your meal. What did you have? How was it?

Penelope Corcoran reported in the P-I last week that Union "now offers a three-course tasting menu at lunch. For $20 per person, guests may assemble their own prix fixe from the a la carte lunch menu, which changes daily. Lunch hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. Reservations are accepted." Sounds like a great deal to me; I'm looking forward to my first visit to Union.

The Broadway Market is being revamped as a super-size QFC (more like the U Village and Harvard Market stores, with bigger deli, sushi bar, etc.). The Whole Foods thing was just a rumor, definitely not happening now. Edit to add: Most of the small business, the health club, etc. will continue to operate in the Market; it won't all be QFC.

That's surprising because, at least the last time I looked, they were using jars of Fran's sauce as an ice cream topping. A far cry from Hershey's. It seems like the best chocolate shakes are made with chocolate ice cream, and I think Tully's only has vanilla and espresso ice cream. I tried the orange cream shake the other day and it was good (I've loved orange/vanilla ever since I devoured those Dixie cups when I was kid).

The common wisdom seems to be that men love pie. What about individual tarts? Perhaps chocolate cream, or fruit with ice cream/whipped cream/creme fraiche. My grandfather's favorite dessert is lemon meringue pie, which makes a beautiful small tart.

Here's a recipe filled with crackery goodness: Soda Cracker Toffee

So true--when I was pregnant last spring, I didn't want to share the news until I was past the first trimester, so I hid my saltines every day at work. My mother-in-law (heyjude) gave me the recipe for Soda Cracker Toffee, which I have made with saltines several times for Christmas. It's delicious. Even when I haven't liked to drink milk very much, I've enjoyed a snack of saltines and a small glass of milk. It always reminds me of the movie Roman Holiday, because the princess is served milk and crackers for her bedtime snack. My first cooking, as a very small child, was to crunch up saltines in a pan on my Fisher-Price stove and liberally salt and pepper them.

Soda Cracker Toffee This is one of the first recipes that my cookbook collecting mother-in-law Judy Amster (heyjude) shared with me. I've often made it at Christmas. A friend of mine makes a Passover version, substituting matzoh for crackers, that she says is delicious. 40 soda crackers (unsalted saltines) 1 c (2 sticks) butter 1 c packed brown sugar 6 oz chocolate chips 1 c chopped nuts or sliced almonds (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 10x14 inch jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with vegetable oil. Place the soda crackers in the pan in a single layer, covering the bottom of the pan. Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Pour hot butter mixture over the crackers and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips (more or less, depending on how thick you want the chocolate layer to be). When the chips have melted, spread the chocolate evenly with a knife or spatula. (If the chips are not melted enough, put the pan back in the oven for a minute.) Sprinkle nuts over the chocolate, if desired. Refrigerate before cutting into squares. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Candy ( RG1121 )

Soda Cracker Toffee This is one of the first recipes that my cookbook collecting mother-in-law Judy Amster (heyjude) shared with me. I've often made it at Christmas. A friend of mine makes a Passover version, substituting matzoh for crackers, that she says is delicious. 40 soda crackers (unsalted saltines) 1 c (2 sticks) butter 1 c packed brown sugar 6 oz chocolate chips 1 c chopped nuts or sliced almonds (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 10x14 inch jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with vegetable oil. Place the soda crackers in the pan in a single layer, covering the bottom of the pan. Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Pour hot butter mixture over the crackers and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips (more or less, depending on how thick you want the chocolate layer to be). When the chips have melted, spread the chocolate evenly with a knife or spatula. (If the chips are not melted enough, put the pan back in the oven for a minute.) Sprinkle nuts over the chocolate, if desired. Refrigerate before cutting into squares. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Candy ( RG1121 )

Iris and I went down to Dahlia Bakery this morning and checked out the menu at Lola, as it's across the street. The breakfast does sound enticing; most notably, besides those items mentioned by tsquare, the fresh doughnuts with mascarpone and jam. I had these for dessert at the Dahlia once and they are fab-u-lous. Anyone been for lunch or dinner yet? There seemed to be many skewered items. Mr. Douglas himself was eating breakfast there this morning, sitting at the bar watching TV--so I guess the breakfast is indeed delicious.

Matthew and I were in Portland a couple of weeks ago and went to Noodlehead for dinner with friends. The food was delightful. The spring roll noodles, while not the same as those in my memory, were delicious (we had vegetarian as we were with vegetarian friends; next time I want pork). Everyone enjoyed the prawns in tamarind sauce, and the green beans were great. I can't remember everything we had, but it was all good. The surprising thing was that the restaurant was empty while we were there, and our friends went back on a Saturday night and said it was empty then too. Support your local Noodlehead. (It is definitely not the same Noodlehead--I swear that one was a few blocks west on Broadway from the present one, and that one had a very distinctive, totally different decor, and different style of menu--but it sounds like, from nwells's post and the similarities we observed, that it must have some of the same owners or staff. The decor is very pleasant, by the way, light and airy.)

Thank you, it's a new word for me. Sounds like a delicious item to have in the pantry.

Matthew was in Portland over the weekend and he brought home a loaf of Ken's country blonde that he picked up at the farmers market. OH, was it good. SO SO GOOD. Very dark, crisp, flavorful crust, wonderful stretchy/creamy crumb. (I was pleased to run into the French word alveolage, "the inner structure of holes and bubbles", while reading Steingarten last night, since I'd run out of words to describe how much I liked the texture of Ken's bread.) My purpose is simply to remind you all that when you go to Portland, you need to EAT KEN'S BREAD.

Lark in Seattle serves chocolate madeleines with a little pot of warm chocolate sauce to dip them in. I didn't actually try the sauce; the madeleines, tipped into a cloth napkin warm from the oven, were enough chocolate for me. So delicious. Cook's Illustrated March/April 1996 has a brief article on madeleines and, as LT Wong stated above, recommends using a mixture of 2 t melted butter and 1 t flour brushed onto the pan. Their variations are lemon/orange, rosemary, chocolate, and almond. I haven't yet baked madeleines, but I have the pan now and was thinking of trying the Chestnut-Honey Madeleines from The Last Course.

trillium, what is pomerola?

Matthew is opening a box of Hardy's Chardonnay right now. QFC, on sale for $12. I'm relieved that it's quite compact and won't take up much fridge space. Expecting risotto in our future.