reesek

my god woman - you are pornographic...i'm blushing but i can't look away. i'm buying your book immediately.

FG - glad you liked it. were they cool about you guys sharing food (an entree) there? was the spinach creamed spinach? i love me some creamed spinach.

anything they do in front of you is great. definitely share everything - the portions are ridiculous - but damn, best ceasar salad ever, and their bananas foster is always a sexy good time.

i had dinner at macrina last night. i don't think i'd go back for dinner - though i think their brunch and lunch menus are interesting enough to keep it on my list. the dinner choices were very limited. last night the best thing we tried was an appetizer of 3 halved stuffed roma tomatoes. they needed a little more salt and olive oil, but what's not to love about warm fresh tomatoes with pecorino and herbs? i had a cup of the yellow lentil soup with chili oil and walnuts. the soup itself was good, if not very exciting - but the oil and untoasted nuts did nothing for me. entrees were rockfish filet with corn poblano cakes & chanterelles and a steak salad. there are only 3 entrees per day - and i think they change every day - the third last night was a pork tenderloin. the salad was fine, the fish was fine but the flavors in the dish didn't meld very well and the corn cakes should have been crisper. not a total bust, but there are enough choices in seattle - and in belltown in particular, that i don't think i'd go back to macrina for dinner.

lmf- the salon we're going to is frenchy's in madison park. chapel - right. i think that opened the moment i left capitol hill. i appreciate the irony of going to a funeral parlor-bar for a bachelorette party, but that might be why i'm still not engaged...i'll definitely check out crow...i hadn't thought of the pink door, but it's a good idea. nightscotsman - you used to work at tango right?...in 5 tries, it's only been good once. (in the private room, we asked the kitchen to bring whatever they wanted us to have and it was great) so - maybe i just order badly... but i feel a little gun-shy about it. thanks a million for the advice given thus far - please - keep it coming. 5th and aloha - what's near there - the sitting room? that would be good for afters. rk

i'd thought of palace kitchen...but more as a place to go afterwards - pie and cocktails, anyone? i think the fish might be a little too high end for some of these girls...i'd hate to feel bad about the cost of the night or make anyone feel uncomfortable. what is chapel?

i'm hoping someone on this board might be able to help me out with a couple of ideas. i'm planning a pre-wedding small event for 8-12 women in early october. we're starting at a salon from 4-6 and then planning to go out. i'd like to find someplace with ambiance - but not a hipster hangout, and someplace that's relatively convenient to post-nosh drinks...a night on the town without tp veils or anatomically inappropriate drinking vessels. topping my list so far is madrid 522 but i'm hoping for some other suggestions. i guess what i'm really looking for is sambar light...a little cheaper, a little bigger and a little less discovered - but still sassy. i've also got zigzag on the list as a possible...any other ideas? for food my preference is small plates but i'm open. thanks all - rk

i agree with other posters for the most part... matt's is wonderful...and what about chez shea? i haven't been since it changed hands, but i had an excellent meal there last year at sunset and it was breathtaking. (neither are technically seafood/fish restaurants - but i have eaten fish at both places) i caution against salty's and palisade - unless you just have a drink at salty's and see the sunset and then go have killer sushi at mashiko (where there are also tons of cooked items) vivanda? anyone been? i had lunch there once (nice view) and it was fine - we weren't really exploring the menu too much though. i second LMF's suggestion of waterfront if you want the best fish that you can get on the water...keeping in mind that the best fish is not on the water. definitely avoid fish club - huge disappointment and hugely expensive.

omg. i just found this thread and hoovered the whole thing while pretending to work. mel - you ROCK! i hope through all the bullshit you must deal with every day - you are still massively proud of what you've built. the sweets and savories alike look amazing. i think i need to talke a roadtrip down south! how's business?

so last night we ordered take-out from pailin in west seattle. as i was picking up our food, i happened to notice a waitress taking an order of fish cakes out to a table. (pailin does good fish cake - not as good as jamjuree, but damn fine nonetheless.) when i got our food home, i noticed that we'd been given 4 fish cakes instead of 5. the plate i'd seen coming out of the kitchen had the ususal 5 on it. so - was the table in the restaurant a table of 5? (i didn't notice) were they giving short shrift to the takeaway crowd? it didn't matter and as always - we had plenty of food...but it did make me think about portions and expectations. what if we'd ordered the fish cakes planning on getting all 5? smaller portions are fine - just let me know so i can plan. a note on the menu - tod num pla (4) or even (4 to take out) would have sufficed.

wasabi cashews...the peas are delicious too - but how can you deny the power of the cashew?

recently returned from a wonderful vacation in spain. for a variety of reasons, we very rarely ate anything that wasn't attached to a hoof at one time in it's life cycle. so i've spent the last couple of days cackling in my tomato jungle as the juice runs down my arms. sunday dinner - nettles farm ravioli (roasted shallot) with many-tomato puree. the tomatoes from our garden are so luscious the sauce was almost creamy. i added lots of chili flakes, olive oil, salt & fresh basil, & served with grated pecorino. and 4 superfluous prawns. they were intended for a totally different meal, but i ended up adding some into the sauce at the end. last night was even better. rob made green papaya salad with green beans and more of our cherry tomatoes and the best rendition yet of the dressing (a fish sauce, garlic, thai chili, lemon and sugar combo) i used a scoop of the dressing to saute a couple left over prawns to munch while we plated. cooked, the sauce was delicious! i can't wait to use that dressing as a marinade for grilled scallops. i also pan roasted a slab of swordfish i'd liberally salted and peppered. flipped once in the pan, topped with minced cippoline from the garden and a big squeeze of orange juice and popped it into the oven until done. widmer blonde to drink.

what a prescient topic...having just returned from a vacation my SO couldn't take with me - every moment together has felt stolen. ripe juicy fruit. tomatoes from the garden, strawberries and perfect peaches are personal favorites. cream optional.

Do they do breakfast?? they do indeed do brunch. the old takeout counter is gone and has been replaced with a bar - so the days of oaty scones and takeaway coffee are gone - it's definitely trying to eradicate the expectations people might still have about the space. i had brunch there on saturday. i had a nicoise salad with real tuna that was excellent. also on the menu was eggs benedict, a strata, a soup, french toast...upscale brunch. my one quibble was that the service was glacial. nice but sooo slow. still - i'd have that nicoise again in a heartbeat. some just wrote an article about it. i'll see if i can find it. edit - i see tsquare found it -- lightening speed!

i am so torn...i don't eat meat but i do eat fish...i've got one night in chicago in august - spring or green zebra? is spring's menu also a sampling menu? the review makes GZ sound so good - but Tarka's description of Spring had me sold there. what about ambiance - how are they different? thanks all! i wish i had more time in chicago - i'd drag some of you out!

your menu looks great - i wish i'd eaten like that when i was a kid. do your kids like spicy food - or do you make a couple of versions of the same dishes? peach crisp sounds so good. ("crisp" is always a harbinger of good)

looking forward to your blog, tejon! are you a native californian?

i had a slew of very peculiar illnesses when i was young. my mother alternately had attacks of worry, and bouts of apathy about them. 1) soft boiled egg, ice chips, dry toast - wheat (or whatever we had) flat coke, occasionally campbell's chunky chicken soup. 2) no healing properties 3) no. though i do sometimes think about that soup. the noodles were about an inch long - like thin legos and flat and barely held together. i loved them. 4) tom yum for a cold (as spicy as possible) coke - bubbles allowed 5) mom is a coney island jew of baltic extraction edit - tense. she's still here

"taco sauce" from an old el paso (or like) kit is picante sauce - vegetarian. typically of course, the preparer adds the large envelope of powdered seasoning to ground beef, but the small aluminum lined box of sauce is meat-free. my problem with the taco packages - which i loved as a kid - is how salty they are. oh and the shells always seemed stale. warming in the oven (which we did on a sheet pan) never seemed to help. they were alway bendy.

hey, i think i know that law office...if it's who i think (my parents are among the lawyers) it's not so bad...at least there are cream puffs and hopefully bean paste filled sesame balls next door.

nullo, your poppers look amazing and i am definitely going to have to try the cauliflower technique. i have loved your blog!!

batuta, thanks for posting the results! i'm glad you have the perspective that you do - despite not achieving the "goal" you had a great time - and had some of our fabulous seattle salmon! will you share your tomato jam recipe?? thanks!!

sorry - maybe i wasn't clear - i do go to rustica - just not with rob (who i live with) because he's holding a grudge. since i can't get him to go (and he's really a very good guy - this is one blind spot) i don't go often enough to give them the opportunity to charm me into overlooking the flaws and adding it to my rotation. i have been without him - and continue to try to cajole him into going again. i do live in WS and absolutely 100% agree with the need to support local business. i forget about rustica...and do think rob would like it if he gave it another chance in a less stressful setting. i'll make it a point. :)

i have been to la rustica - i'd totally forgotten about it...but i guess it misses my mark for 2 reasons - no reservations except for large parties and the complimentary salad. i know it's silly, but the salad thing bugs me. i usually get something different and tell them i don't want it... it feels so olive garden to me....a $15 plate of pasta is going to push the value envelope for people who have a small envelope - a plate of iceberg doesn't really change that imo. the reservation thing has burned me in the past so i can't think of rustica as a definite "go-to" - when my parents are in town or for a special occasion. all that said - i think the food, in particular, the pastas, are excellent. the wine list is interesting and the courtyard is lovely. it's a pretty, warm-feeling place and if my bf wasn't so dead-set against it i might have enough good experiences there to bump it up a notch in my ratings. (burned reservation issue was valentine's day a couple of years ago...someone took a reservation over the phone from rob but they don't actually take reservations so we had to wait for 2 1/2 hours in their tiny cramped adjunct space in february with no staff in there to ply us with wine. then they seated us at a tiny makeshift table next to the women's room and the food (predictably on v-day) was mediocre. it didn't matter, i didn't care, and it didn't totally ruin the night, but he'll never forgive them)