tighe

I zeroed in on this one too. I'm completely conflicted over the pork bellies vs. the Kobe beef. If only all of life's choices were these types of no-lose situations... The soup and the souffle are locks...

Not for me they don't, not for ANY of the restaurants. Oh well. Maybe you should take the hint! OK, so now they're back for me too.....this is freaking me out.

That is a great link. Thank you. What's the deal with the frickin' menus on NWsource.com? They were there, they were gone, they were back and now they're gone again?!?! I wonder if they got too many complaints about restaurants not offering the exact menu that was posted on their page.....

I'm assuming this was more than just chocolate mousse in a dome shape? Could I impose upon you to describe the composition and what made it so good? By the way, thanks for writing up your meal. Damn, I was afraid I was going to get grilled on this one by our local dessert-master. First and foremost, the quality of the mousse was exceptional, very rich chocolate flavor. It was, in fact, in a dome shape and had been chilled so that the consistency was quite firm. The outside was thinly coated with some type of chocolate cookie crumbs (I think) and there was a thicker chocolate crust on the bottom composed of said cookie crumbs and I think some pieces of mille feuille (?). Gave it very nice, but subtle crunch. The plate had been drizzled with a good, but simple caramel sauce. The only improvement that I think could have been made would be a dollop of whipped cream. I will say that I have a pretty high 'sweet' tolerance and this dessert may not appeal as much to the "I don't like my desserts too sweet" crowd as it did to me.

I had the roast suckling pig at Brasa during the first Dine Around Seattle promotion last March. Quite tasty definately/nitely pork-oriffic.

I'm afraid I'm not seeing any menus - am I missing something? Holy crap! The menus have dissapeared since last night?!?

Interesting that you should single out Le Gourmand in this regard. Matthew and I had dinner at Le Gourmand on Friday--a wedding anniversary gift from the Amster parents--and found the service lacking. One large error: I ordered a Kir Royale, which was on the aperitifs menu, my order was verbally acknowledged by the waiter, and it was never served. Following that, a few minor errors, and a general lack of attention due to the fact that two women were the entire front-of-house staff for a full restaurant. Our courses were served in a timely manner, and we were never actually neglected (we did refill wine and water glasses ourselves), but it was simply not possible for them to give the level of service that I expect from a restaurant of this caliber. I was also somewhat annoyed by the waiters' constant gushing about the chef, the restaurant, and the food. Actually, she did not gush about the mains that Matthew and I ordered, and they were not worth gushing about. One of us will probably write about the food; I just wanted to comment here about the service. I have never dined in a Seattle restaurant that had remarkable service (I haven't been to Rover's, Herbfarm, or Canlis), but I recall having good service at Dahlia Lounge, Palace Kitchen, Cascadia, Cafe Campagne, and the bar at Brasa. Laurie, what a bummer that that you had a dissapointing experience at Le Gourmand. After all the time I've spent talking it up, I kind of feel like a jerk. I've never experienced service lapses like what you were subjected to, but service has never been the strength of the place in my opinion. I look forward to seeing your run-down of the food....

If you haven't noticed it, most of the participating restaurants have their 'Dine Around Seattle' menus posted on their NWsource.com page. If you click the link on the main Dine Around Seattle page, select a restaurant link, and then scroll to the bottom, voila. As we learned tonight, they are, in fact, subject to change. Scrat and I went to Andaluca and had what I would say was a middle of the road experience. I had lamb dolmas to start, roast pheasant and a chocolate mousse bombe for dessert. Scrat had tomato, bread soup and a filet with a cabrales crust (was supposed to be on the $25 menu, but wasn't). The only really stellar item was dessert. The soup tasted distinctly Cambell's. The dolmas were very nice. The pheasant was pretty good, but mostly tasted like slightly chewy chicken. The beef was of very pedestrian quality although the crust was good. The chocolate mousse bombe was outrageously good, and quite possibly worth $25 all by itself!

I must have missed the mai tai drinking geckos when I was there! Would have paid to see that. Is Gaylord's the place way around the south end, just before you start up the mountain towards the canyon? If it is, I really thought it was a cool place and would like to try staying there in one of the refurbished plantation houses sometime. Oh, and....welcome to eGullet troy!

The one down the street from me is officially in Burien I believe (S 128th & Des Moines Mem Dr). My guess is there's at least one in Burien proper too. I know there's a 'carneceria'.

I'm not trying to say that violations are OK, but I imagine that if you looked at comparable data for high end restaurants in any city, you would see about the same frequency of violations. The best record I've seen so far is Nishino, one blue violation two years ago. For whatever reason, I haven't been able to locate a record for Le Gourmand. Do you think Bruce is operating without a liscence?

Tighe, I'm so in on that. We could pitch it to Sasquatch for a book deal! Taco Trucks of South King County. Who *wouldn't* buy that? Ye-Ye Girl, I am sad to report via hubby that the Meeker taco truck is GONE (it was near the post office/elem school where the irritating traffic-stopping construction was going on for so long)! Without a trace. Gone. Hubby's co-workers think they were operating illegally without a permit. I have no idea when they split. I *just* heard moments ago that a Thai place opened up on that same block on Meeker this week. ANOTHER THAI PLACE IN KENT!! I believe that makes 10 now. gc...While embracing the concept, I think you also identified the biggest inherent problem with the project....it would be a full-time job keeping the thing up-to-date. Barring writing an actual guide, when the weather improves, maybe we could organize a 'taco truck crawl' starting in White Center and working our way south-east to Kent.

Depends on how many meals per day you're planning to eat at the restaurants and whether you're calculating your average cost per meal or per day.....

If 727 Pine is doing the Kobe beef thing again, that will be at the top of my list. Has anyone tried Waterfront ($25 or otherwise)? I've shied away from it because it seems very pricey, but would consider giving it a shot.

Too late! Hey, there's a couple recently opened taco trucks down the street from my house. Maybe we could go in together on some research and write a guide to south King County taco trucks! It would be a best-seller I'm sure.

AS IF!! (Ya see what I mean about the downtrodden minority part??)

Whether she wants the title or not, gc is, in fact, the font of all south-end dining knowledge. I'm merely an interested bystander.

Welcome Ye-Ye! Always good to have someone else from the south siyeed around. Girl chow and I feel like a downtrodden minority sometimes.

I had an enjoyable dinner at Haruko's with my mom the other night. I believe someone on the board was lamenting the lack of bento boxes in Seattle but I had a really nice one at Haruko's. It included sashimi (5 types), tempura (veggies, shrimp, oysters), rice balls, pickles, fruit, tofu, scrambled egg, and some other stuff. Miso and cucumber salad were served before the bento box. Not the best Japanese food by any means, but tasty and only $13.

Well, the Westin and the Federal Courthouse are not exactly next-door to each other, so if that is 'walking-distance' then his choices are going to be pretty vast. Two Seattle eGullet favorites that are bound to be brought up are Le Pichet and Matt's in the Market, both in or near the Pike Place Market. For lunch near the courthouse, I would definately reccomend Tulio in the Hotel Vintage Park (a couple blocks south) or The Hunt Club in the Sorrento (a few blocks east). For more casual fare, there's a lot of little hole-in-the-wall places in that area. Near the Westin, I like Brasserie Margaux in the Warwick a lot and Dahlia Lounge.

It wouldn't be surprising if there are similarities since the Balkans (except for Greece) were part of the Ottoman empire for a long time. Also the reason that there is a significant Muslim population in the region.

I had one of the truly great dinners of my life at the Ciragan Palace Hotel mentioned in this piece. The complexity and sophistication of the dishes rivaled anything I've ever had.

Havuc (with a 'tail' on the 'c') is the word for carrot. This post reminds me of another different between Greek and Turkish cuisines. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but Greece doesn't have kofte do they? Yes they do. Bifteki Kebab. and KEFTETHES. Beef Kofta, right? They also do it with ground lamb. And chicken. OK, so my ignorance of Greek food comes shining through!

Havuc (with a 'tail' on the 'c') is the word for carrot. This post reminds me of another different between Greek and Turkish cuisines. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but Greece doesn't have kofte do they?

It seems to me that Greek and Turkish cuisines share similarities at the level you would expect of two adjacent cultures, but to say the two are indistiguishable would simply be wrong. Just for starters, and this was already pointed out I believe, neither are homogenous cuisines. Comparing traditional Ottoman cuisine to the cooking of the south western coast of Turkey to the cuisine of Gazantiep in the southeast shows at least as much variety as the regional cuisines of Italy or France. I agree with Steve that at its most refined level, Turkish food is more complex in its technique and structure than any Greek food I've ever had although I will admit my experience with Greek food is limited. If one is looking for specific differences between the two, there are a couple I can think of off the top of my head. Turkish food features pilafs made with rice, lentils, etc. which I've never encountered in Greek food. I believe this reflects the influence of Turkey's neighbors to the other side, Iran. I also think it would be hard to argue that Greek food uses spices in as pronounced a way. In fact, I have generally found Greek food to be relatively bland. 'Mezze' is a word in Turkish in fact, although I assume the same word is used in other languages in the region as well. Someone mentioned that many Turkish restaurants bill themselves as 'Mediterranean'. This is true here in Seattle as well, and my guess is that it is because most Americans would have no idea what to expect from a 'Turkish' restaurant, but 'Mediterranean' doesn't sound very threatening.....