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Interesting....usually I think that if I have to drink it from a bottle, then its probably not worth my time. I've never had anything from GB that rose above swill, frankly. As much as I'd love to respond to this statement, I can't think of anything that won't sound even more condescending that what I've already said...

I can never remember the name, but for special occaisions we often get meat from one of the butcher's (the one near the fish-throwing) at Pike Place. I've always been impressed with how helpful they are and their willingness to tolerate my ignorance about meat. I got it into my head to make pate de compagne one time and my wife called them and basically read off the recipe. By the time she got there they had all these small quantities of different meats wrapped and ready to go.

WARNING: I have a very hard time not being irrationally defensive of La Spiga.... As tempting as they may often sound on the menu, I think that meats, stews, etc. are really not the restaurants strengths. As Laurie indicated, their pastas, along with the piadina and crescione sandwiches are where they really shine. In my opinion, the soups are some of the best anywhere in town. For those of us who love tiramisu, La Spiga's is exquisite, the best I've had outside Italy by a wide margine. I believe that too often we make the mistake of lumping all Italian restaurants together. I don't think a comparison of La Spiga to Il Terrazzo (or Troiani) makes any more sense that comparing Le Pichet to Campagne for French food, they're fundamentally different kinds of restaurants with different aspirations. I too love Sostanza, but for whatever reason, I don't think of it in the same kind of place as Spiga. If you didn't like La Spiga, I'd be surprised if Assiago does it for you, doesn't hold a candle as far as I'm concerned. If you're ever in the mood for really good 'red-sauce' Italian food, head south to Filiberto's in Burien.

Funny, but I've talked to a lot of people about Lark, and I've never heard anyone say either a) or c). I guess I just don't hang with the kind of food cognescenti that Laura does.

Cassis does that too. That's the only thing I don't really like about the place. So does Harvest Vine....

Sometimes its even hard for me to tell..... I would be interested and I'll check with Scrat on it.... Edit to add: I'm in, Scrat is a definite maybe...

Show you how to be an ignorant white person in an ethnic restaurant?....I'm your man! I guess I'm a little confused by this thread. Are there two different Sechuan restaurants in approximately the same location that we're saying are both good or is all this talk about one place that is known by a several different names?

So what you're saying is that all that it will really take for me to replicate it at home is to practice it a few thousand times?.... All the more reason to just go back to Paris and save myself the effort..... Now that I've started thinking about my meal there, one of the other things I wondered about was the foie gras brochette. My experience is that foie melts away extremely fast when being cooked, but the brochette was three good sized cubes, perfectly seared on all sides. Do they have to start with giant blocks of foie to end up with these cubes?

Must be George's, the place that we talked about some on this thread. Certainly deserves mention here on the sandwich thread.

Another favorite sandwich place.... Philadelphia Fevre on Madison just east of 23rd does a great cheese-steak sandwich along with some other variations on the theme. The chicken "cordon-bleu" sandwich is another favorite of mine there.

Maybe the best sandwiches that Seattle has ever seen dissapeared when the INS hauled off the owner of Bistro Antalya. That doner was out of control! Porta, on Eastlake, does excellent roast pork and roast lamb sandwiches. I had a good sandwich yesterday at Crave that was a riff on the traditional Croque Madame. This one was toasted brioche with fried egg, prosciutto, cheese and mustard. My dining companions had a ruben and a grilled cheese with smoked bacon respectively, which they pronounced excellen. I also like the Croque Monsieur at Cafe Campagne.

Pyramid has its detractors, but I really like the Draft Pale Ale (DPA) for a more lightly hopped beer. I believe its only available at the brewery or in a keg. For pub grub, I think Pryamid does a solid job.

Wow, this is great news for our lunch next week at Salumi....Irwin's got us covered...

I realize I'm way late to the party here, but when I went to L'Atelier I thought the pot de creme was a knockout. So lou, is there some secret there that you know of in the way they make it? Thanks. Enjoyed your 'blog post....

Scrat and I had dinner at Crave on Monday night and were very happy with it. As others have noted, its a small space, with a total of about 24 seats. The food style is bold flavors using good quality ingredients and straight forward preparations. Given that entrees max out at $16, this place has be a serious contender for the best price/quality ratio in town. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that prices will creep up after they get more established. The details... To start, I had the Living watercress salad and scrat had roasted beet panzanella. No duck confit that night, so the spinach salad lost some of its appeal for me. Extremely fresh and spicy watercress balanced with sweet oranges and candied almonds. Very nice manchego on top. The panzanella was grilled bread on the side of a mix of greens and beets, not a bread salad, per se. Beets went well with the goat cheese For entrees, I had the pork chop and scrat had the roasted chicken. It wasn't the tenderest pork chop I've ever had, but it was powerfully flavored, mostly from the ancho, shallot sauce that was made to order. The baked beans served with it had good flavor, but were under-done for my taste. The chicken was very moist and the cabrales mashed potatoes (a little under-cheesed) and gravy were good, if not spectacular. In many ways, dessert ended up being the highlight. I had a 'frozen Grand Marnier souffle' and scrat had small profiteroles covered with dark chocolate sauce. The souffle was a small tower of ice-cream with a chocolate ganache cap, resting in a pool of warm strawberry sauce. The best part to me was how clearly the Grand Marnier flavor came through. The profiteroles were primarily a vehicle for the excellent chocolate sauce. The wine list is small, extremely reasonable and interesting. Unfortunately they were out of the first 3 wines I asked for, probably just a new restaurant hiccup. I ended up with a serviceable pinot noir for only $4.50. Service was very friendly with the only significant foible being that our server asked if we wanted the check, before offering dessert. She seemed quite embarassed when said we were interested in seeing the dessert menus. The whole dinner only ran us $67 before tip!

Sorry, I think I started it..... When I was in Paris in September I stayed in a residential area and did notice new looking signs exhorting residents to "take care of their neighborhood and pick up after their dogs." I don't want to get into estimating actualy poo-density per square foot of sidewalk, but I know it seemed heavier in that part of town than in other areas of the city. And with that choice little post.....dinner anyone?

I like Tango too, but on my one visit it seemed almost more pan-Latin, rather than "traditional Spanish." It's entirely possible I have no clue what I'm talking about too....

There is a newish place at 6th & Wall called Madrid. The only thing I know about it is that it got a luke-warm review over on the web site who's name shall not be spoken....

Here's a link to the brunch menu at BM. I've never had anything that I didn't like, but I think the omelettes are particularly good and they make great quiches. Scrat swears by the eggs bene. The other "rule" on the patries is that someone at the table has to order one of the 'breakfast' type items to get them. It's weird and random, but that's the way it goes. My only issue with Le Pichet for breakfast is that the only real breakfasty item they have is the oeufs plats, which are great, but I think I'd go there more if there were other choices. I want to give brunch at Crave a try too, tasty looking menu.

I'm repeating myself here, but I REALLY like Brasserie Margaux in the Warwick for breakfast. Good mix of traditional items and some more refined selections plus a complimentary basket of warm pastries.

Harvest Vine....end of story....

Dog-doo everywhere however, is not one of the more endearing aspects of Paris. It's a little hard to stroll les grands boulevards, gazing at the architecture, when you really know your eyes should be focused on the pavement directly in front of you.....

Adding to what Trillium said.... The main place I've seen seville oranges used is in Yucatecan food. There's a recipe call Tikin Xic where you marinate a whole fish or fillets (snapper, grouper, whatever..) in anchiote paste and sour orange juice (what they call seville oranges) and then grill it on banana leaves. The one time I've done it, it turned out great. There are many recipes for Tikin Xic online and I believe Diana Kennedy has a recipe for it in one of her books.

I just a did a detailed reading of the menu and am even more stoked about it. This may be my favorite 'option' I've ever seen on a menu: I mean, wouldn't the world be a better place if duck confit was an add-on to just about everthing? This could be a close second though: Can anyone muster a good argument why one wouldn't have the spinach salad w/poached pears, pickled red onions, Cabrales cheese, warm bacon vinaigrette and duck confit? Damn.

Last March I spent some time at Xpu-Ha Palace which is about 20 minutes south of Playa and absolutely loved it. Unlike the othe Palace properties, it doesn't have the big resort feel at all. I know that they offer wedding packages too. I remember that there was a fairly secluded spot next to one of the cenote where they held the wedding ceremonies. I wrote up some details of my trip here.