geoff

Sears is generally dreadful, and difficult to work with. Delivery dates can change with the wind and customer service reps are belligerent. We use American Meter on Westlake. While prices are higher, their people are agreeable, and delivery service lightning-quick.

Bravo to Dick's. The day they start accepting special orders is the day they start selling chicken nuggets. Incidently, this policy doesn't seem to hurt Dick's business. But has anybody noticed the dearth of "have it your way" Burger Kings?

Does anybody know a Seattle source for raw pork cheeks? A & J and Don and Joe's don't sell them.

Zoe and Palace feature well-made drinks and humming scenes (both vital for drinking out). The bar at Le Pichet is super-cool. Union has interesting offerings but it's almost always empty. Oliver's does a fine martini of course but the crowd is just this side of shuffleboard.

Beautiful! It looks like my letter-writing campaign paid off.

Shrimp are fun to eat but painful to prepare: all that peeling and deveining gets in the way of mixing a decent Plymouth martini. So last night I used frozen Costco shrimp for the first time and my shrimp-prep effort consisted of cutting open a bag. The results were as good as those from my supermarket or fishmonger, at a third of the cost and 1/1000th of the effort. Heretofore, I'd confined my Costco edibles to wine and the occasional three-pack of Flavor-Blasted Goldfish. But the 2-pound resealable bags of raw peeled and deveined 31-40 count shrimp are a godsend for shrimp lovers like myself who loath the manual labor inherent in shrimp preparation. (They also sell the precooked variety, but I like the flavor shrimp releases as it cooks.) I don't know if they offer larger sizes but the 31-40 specimens are perfect for pasta or ceviche or any number of other dishes. The bags sell for about $12.00 each. And the flavor? Well, for me the taste difference between good and great shrimp is miniscule. Costco's compare favorably with those I've caught in Hood Canal and eaten right on the boat. Yes, there are other types of frozen shell- and finfish in Costco’s hangar-sized freezer units, but why bother with those? One surely doesn’t have to forgo cocktail hour to prepare fresh halibut or cod.

Today at University I bought some "Chinese" spinach. It looks like giant purple basil and tastes like old dollar bills soaked in petrol. Avoid it like you do that hazelnut seller.

I suggest welders' gloves to guard against that sharp 'n' jagged bread of theirs.

I have never forgiven Tullys for coining the term "Swirkle." But I can move past that and will have me a shake by sundown.

I don't fancy Whole Foods because their cheeses are pre-cut and wrapped in plastic. Can't fault their selection, though. I prefer DeLaurenti or Beechers, both in the Market, where they hand-cut your cheese to order.

Speaking strictly of ground beef, I've had no finer hamburger experience than going to Whole Foods, picking up some extra-lean ground beef (17% fat), a chunk of 2-year-aged Vermont Cheddar, and soft buttermilk buns and then grilling said beef over hardwood charcoal. Add the cheese near the end and cover the grill briefly until the cheese is just sofened. Spread mayo and ketchup on yer toasted bun and my lord it's good! Don't forget to salt and pepper your meat before grilling.

Hasten to Mutual Fish on Rainier Ave S.

Today I made the pilgrimage. The space is nice and airy, with three marble tables and only nine chairs. The counter along the wall is begging for stools (perhaps they’re on backorder) and the front window needs both stools and a counter. The pork loin beckoned, but I went for salmon gravlax. Upon seeing the pile of mouth-cutting crusty baguettes atop the food prep station, I thought they couldn’t possibly make a gravlax sandwich out of that. But they did, and as with Mamster’s Drunken Chicken, this was a sandwich more in concept than execution. The bread was simply too crusty and tough. OK, enough about the bread. On to the glorious filling: gravlax topped with shaved red onion, radish coins, lettuce, and the genius of thin tarragon-lemon mayonnaise. Balanced flavor, perfect texture. Really, really good. Beware: Armandino’s groupies are slowly discovering the place. Two well-dressed women squealed in delight when they saw the Salumi cured meat baguette.

Yes, the food at Union is superb, but the tomb-like atmosphere deadens the fun. A recent Friday evening found the bar empty, its forlorn bartender gazing out the window. The handful of dining patrons were pushing retirement age. I saw two separate groups seated only to immediately get up and leave (one pair even used the emergency exit). In short, the place is dull, despite the amuse bouche we're all excited about. Clearly Mr. Stowell knows his way around the kitchen. But his dining room kills the soul.

A word to wafflers: Beware the yeasted waffle recipe in Bittman’s “Everything” cookbook. Repeated tries have produced nothing but thin, lifeless waffles. I suspected the unheated milk Bittman uses was killing (or at least crippling) my yeast. (He calls for “milk” and doesn’t say to heat it. Since milk is generally kept cold, one must conclude it should remain so in the recipe.) After trying Marion Cunningham’s yeasted waffle recipe (calling for warmed milk) and now reading Matthew’s article and recipe, my suspicion is confirmed. Thank you.

All of these dishes sound smashing. I recently tried this: toss the hot roasted cauliflower with garlic and capers that have been simmered in olive oil. The capers provide nice little salty explosions.