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[Hi girl chow, I'm wondering, what's your secret (or at least one secret) to growing basil? I've had no luck, trying several different times (every time from a small starter plant). Apparently I water too little or maybe too much? -- seems no matter what I do, it dies within a month or so. Maybe it just doesn't like me. SusieQ ← I had the same trouble with basil, until I decided to tackle the problem by planting basil in many different ways and see what worked best for me. I planted basil in pots on the hot porch steps and on the deck (hottest part of deck), I planted it in the garden, I sowed it directly from seed and I transplanted from starts. I used a rich, composted soil, kept the plants watered but not drowning, let the plant dry out a bit between waterings, and pinched off lots of basil leaves on a regular basis and deadheaded any sign of flower buds. Weirdly enough, after years of coming up empty handed on basil, that summer every method worked just as well as the others. Go figure. I haven't had a problem with basil since. I grow it in pots so I have it near the kitchen door, and I grow it out in the garden in the tomato beds. Some varieties of basil grow much better than other - the standard Genovese or Sweet Basil grow into the biggest, bushiest plants for me. Some of the other specialty basils grow more slowly and are smaller plants, such as the Thai, Lemon, Holy, Globe and Cinnamon. I even found a curly, ruffled leaf basil this year, but it has not been a good producer, so I won't plant it again. As for our tomato report, we must have the forces of global warming going bigtime in our Seward Park backyard. We have been harvesting tomatoes since early June. Weirdest summer on record for tomatoes - I have never had a ripe tomato before mid-July in my life. Winners for flavor in our family are:1) Sungold (golden cherry tomato, beats every tomato in the world for flavor)2) Sweet Million (best red cherry) 3) Fourth of July (similar to a Stupice or Early Girl in size)4) Cherokee Purple (beefsteak in size, pale purple/pinkish red mottled skin)5) Early Cascade and Green Zebra are a tie - different flavors, but both very tastyI am still waiting on one very, very slow to ripen tomato of a french name - I can't remember it at the moment, but I will let you know. Other than that, my harvest report is typical to the time of year - I can't keep up with the squash and beans. For beans planted purple, wax, Romano, Dragon's Tongue, Blue Lake and French Filet this year, and so far, the French Filet is the tenderest and tasties eaten raw, but they are all great after steaming. All pole beans. Squash was just three varities - Zuchetta, Tromboncini and Yellow Patty Pan. I am getting ready to plant the winter garden - I just have to find room!

Abra, that was better than reading a fairy tale story, because the beautiful illustrations were entirely of colorful, wonderful, creative food and the story was non-fiction - two wonderful real life people actually got to EAT and drink everything described in the fairytale! Sigh. Thanks for sharing your wonderful evening t'was truly delightful.

1) Cafe Lago - went there last night, go there often, always feel well loved, well fed and continually delighted by the entire experience. 2) Shanghai Garden - at least once a month for 14 Flavor Tofu, Szechuan Eggplant, Shrimp with Pea Vines, Dry Roasted Green Beans, Barley Green Shaved Noodles, Moo Shu Vegetables, Brown Rice. 3) Probably a tie between Siam on Broadway (we don't go as often as we used to, but it is our standby for Tom Kha Gai when we need comfort soup), Pho Cyclo, and recently we've re-discovered La Medusa, and will be going there more often after our last stellar dinner.

Where did you get the Holy Basil plant? --Dave ← I got it at Portland Nursery. I haven't checked this year yet to see if they have more. ← If you run into difficulty finding a Holy Basil plant, I bought extra starts today, just contact me at eldinlet@yahoo.com. And a shout of thanks to lalalala for the squash tips!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh, good lord. Because I was in the neighborhood, and have been curious about it for quite a long while, I went to Sweet and Savory yesterday. Big mistake. HUGE. I'm addicted for life. I got an apple gallette for myself, a pain au chocolat to take home for my beloved, a sandwich for lunch (salami, cheese, sliced tomato, grilled asparagus on baguette), and a short latte to go. I hopped into my car before deciding to take one teeny tiny bite out of the pain au chocolat intended for S.O. Waiting until I got into the car to bite into that pastry was the only smart thing I did all morning, because with every bite, my ecstatic moaning got louder and louder, and then slowly faded into a whimper as I realized I had eaten all but one bite of it (Yes, I did save it for him - but it wasn't the same thing to eat one tiny bite as compared to the huge rush of successive bites...) IN other words, the pain au chocolate was divine. I have taken a LOT of bites out of a LOT of different bakery's renditions of pain au chocolat, and I can honestly say that up until now, that pastry didn't do a thing for me, that is until I tasted the Sweet and Savory version. Going back today for more meant driving a good 15 miles out of my way, and I arrived at 9am to learn they had already sold out for the day (they open at 7am). That's a good thing. Now I can pretend like I am not powerless over their pastry. (By the way, the apple gallette was lovely, too, but I really don't want to try anything else because then I will just have to have THAT every day, too!)

Tighe - If you can afford to do so, experiment. If you can't wait any longer, or you feel your plants might be getting rootbound, plant one or two warm weather garden plants (tomatoes, squash, beans, peppers. eggplant), but keep most of your tomatoes and other warm weather plants in pots indoors at night, and then put them outside in the sunshine during the day, and wait to plant them until after this weekend. Other than risking the plant getting so big it becomes rootbound in the pot, there is no pressing reason to plant early, the warm weather plants will "catch up" if you wait to plant them in a week or two. Don't wait to plant spinach, peas, onions, potatoes, beets, carrots or leeks - it is past time to plant them if you want an early harvest or succession plantings. After a few years of being in your current home in Burien, you will learn what your neighborhood and personal garden conditions can tolerate. Whether or not it is warm enough to put your tomatoes out depends on how warm your particular neighborhood is (is it sea level, higher elevation, near a large body of water, etc), whether or not your garden beds are raised or in ground, whether or not your garden is protected from wind exposure, and how much sun exposure you routinely get to warm up the soil. The safest rule of thumb is to wait until after Mother's Day....but it is so dang warm in the city of Seattle that I think you are safe in the sunny southern climate of Beautiful Burien. For years I lived in Olympia, and this week the nights there are still hovering near 30 degrees. WAY too cold to plant summer stuff there! We live in what could be considered the south end of Seward Park or, equally apt, the north edge of Rainier Beach, and it never ceases to amaze me how warm the soil is in our backyard all year around. We have several well composted, raised garden beds, and my first succession planting of sugar snap peas are almost 3 feet tall and already blossoming, the basil is thriving, the kale, spinach and lettuce from the winter garden are about over, the potatoes are happy, and the parsley is a shrub size. I planted the first succession of pole beans tonight after work. I planted the Sungold, Early Cascade, Sweet Million and Purple Cherokee tomatoes yesterday, but I will wait to plant the Green Zebra, Brandywine and Striped German until after Mama's Day. Every year I wager bets on which will be the first tomato plant to produce, but most years an early producer called Fourth of July wins - and I am not planting that tomato this year, so all bets are back on the table. I am also waiting to plant summer squash and cukes until I find the trellising Italian pale green zuke I like the most....if anyone out there has seen starts of Tromboncino squash - let me know! I think I have a source..but...it would be good to know of a fallback. In maniacal gardening I trust....

Thanks for the photos and detailed description al La Figa's great work - the food looks so delicious I might have to attempt to re-create some of it for an Easter brunch tomorrow - although it would be serious fun to have it created for me! Looks like you had a lot of fun at this party - great idea.

Lovely evening! After months and months of intending to go, we had our first dinner at Union tonight. Our excuse was needing a place to dine before going to hear Itzahk Perlman conduct Mozart's Requiem at Benaroya Hall (oh, joyful night, that is a story in itself - what a magnificent, piercing concert!) I had some apprehension about having dinner at Union. From the general buzz, I feared it to might be overly pretentious and a bit of a much-ness. I warned my dining companion to expect vast quantities of perfect white plates enveloping a few bites of artfully arranged, colorfully styled food. Well, yes, that turned out to be true, it was definitely visually All That, but what I couldn't predict was how sublimely sexy and exquistely delicious the food would taste! Oh, good gracious, when the first tip up of a Totten Oyster slid into my mouth and hit the tip of my tongue and then I bit further into the juicy fresh wisp of metallic rich oysterness it was beyond heavenly. Before ordering, I had questioned our server quite thoroughly, making him promise on a stack of menus that the oysters would be FRESH! He assured me that they would be, but I was still hesitant. No need. I will tell you that I used to live in a cabin on Totten Inlet, ate oysters off the beach, and they were never as good as the 8 oysters that we had tonight. Beyond lovely. If we hadn't been pressed for time, I would have been tempted to ask him to set up another 8! We also had the avocado/crab appetizer in basil oil that is photographed in one of the above postings. Ours was served with a little top hat tangle of curly white mizuna instead of the watercress in the posting photo, but I can't imagine how it could have been any tastier. Each bite was like pulling away the sexiest food imaginable into my mouth. Quite divine. My dining companion had the Seared Ahi Tuna with diced Green Beans in butter sauce sprinkled with Red Pepper (also pictured above). The crust of the Ahi was quite salty, but the inside was rare, and the green beans were surprisingly tasty. I couldn't quite place the flavor of the green beans... I had the Roasted Squab, served with a red wine sauce reduction, and it was accompanied by a tiny black cast iron lidded pot filled to the brim with "Creamed Spinach". I put that in italics because it wasn't like any creamed spinach I have ever eaten! Oh, comfort food, let's hear it for butter and cream and bright green steamed spinach, eh? The squab was tasty, but very strange. Trying to cut it was almost an exercise in futility - I might as well have been sawing away at truck tires - but when I finally managed to wrestle away a bite, it was as tender and flavorful as it could be! What the heck are the physics at play in that phenomenon? My dining companion said I needed to improve my knife skills...or perhaps the knife needed sharpening? Je ne sais pas. But, each bite was well worth the brief wrestle - it just all tasted so good. I had never eaten a squab before, but I believe I may now be too spoiled to have it elsewhere even if I see it on another menu. We (unfortunately)did not have time for dessert or coffee. Between the two of us, we enjoyed three very deliciuos glasses of wine, a white bordeaux, a French Rhone, and a California Rhone. For some unknown but exceedingly generous reason our delightful server decided to comp our last glass of wine. He was lovely thoughout our meal...informative, friendly, helpful, and honest. I would ask for him in the future, he added a lovely dimension to our memorable dining experience. So. We will be going back to Union. Entire meal came to $103 before tip. That is more than we typically spend on a meal just for the two of us, but I know we will be back, I want to experience the food again when we can linger longer.

Funny, there's a discussion on Chowhound right now about this very issue. The overwhelming consensus (including my own) is the Grilled Salmon Sandwich at the Market Grill. ← I've never had a salmon sandwich that wouldn't have been better without the bread.... ← Yes! Eggzacktly! As I read through the posts, I kept thinking of Jack Nicholson growling ala 5 Easy Pieces "I wanna Grilled Salmon Sandwich, hold the baguette, hold the lettuce, hold the rosemary mayo, hold the onion, hold the tomato and bring me a wedge of lemon and a beer!" I am not a native (I have only lived here for 35 years) but for me Seattle food is the stuff that has always been here, and unless we wipe it out with pollution and development, the stuff you will always be here along the beaches of Puget Sound (oysters, manila and butter clams) from in the waters of the sound (mussels, dungeness crabs, rock scallops, salmon, ling cod) and the forests along the sound (chantrelles, morels) and the bushes in the forests and mountain ranges (blackberries, salmon berries, wild huckleberries). Hunting and gathering never tasted more divine...so I agree with Tighe, fresh, native ingredients prepared simply are our finest Seattle foods. What better than to grill a native fish over an alder wood fire? Can't think of a better use for alders unless you have an alder tree sporting a singing Varied Thrush!

We had a delightful happy hour experience at Maximillien's tonight. I was afraid the bar might be overly crowded since it has received a lot of hype on the "other" board in recent months, but it was only half full between 5 and 7pm, the official "happy hours". I wanted to go there because it is so intensely romantic and a great escape from what we really needed to do tonight - wrap, decorate the tree, make the cheesecake, etc. It was just the spot. We ordered two bowls of mussels in garlic broth, two french onion soups, two plates of bread and butter, two glasses of red wine and two 'french martinis" - grey goose vodka, pineapple juice and cranberry juice served chilled straight up. The entire bill came to $29 - and the ambiance - priceless. We got into a friendly conversation with a woman at a neighboring table who was a craftsperson from the Market, we half understood bits and pieces of the lyrics sung by the morose french chanteuse, and outside the windows it was all rainy Elliott Bay in December. Other Happy Hour menu items besides mussels and french onion soup (all priced at $2.95 each) - croque monsieur, pommes frites and sauce, brie flambe, and peach melba. Something else too....I am forgetting! Must be the two French Martini's still settling sweetly into my cerebellum? Might be the best part of Christmas, this little escape... glad it is here all year round. Best to you and yours - egulluteers!

Our eleven year anniversary of True Love interwoven with Real Life was this week. We had originally decided to try out one of the the 25 for $25 places on Thursday night, but when the eve rolled around, after a long, difficult week at work, I just couldn't NOT go to Cafe Lago to have my spirits and soul comforted and restored. Even though he wanted to try a new place, one of the reasons we are still together after so many years of Real Life was illustrated by his willingness to go to Cafe Lago instead of trying out a new place. Sweet man. Consistently, the dining experience at Cafe Lago is the best example of everything the dining out experience should be for me. The menu needs to offer items we could not either make or improve upon at home, the service needs to be offered by well informed, friendly, polite humans who are seemingly delighted to be attending to our needs, and the ambiance needs to provide a setting we want to spend a few hours enjoying. Cafe Lago provides all three, beautifully and graciously. Last night we started with our usual antipasto misto platter, and for some odd reason (since I usually rave over the grilled eggplant), the simple little garlicky crostini were may favorite item. Adding a tiny smear of the herbed goat cheese made me even happier, and then adding a bit of the caponata with the soft golden raisins amped it all up just a tad more. My beloved happily ate up all the roasted red peppers and the olives, and we both enjoyed the nutty wedge of parmesan and the roasted garlic. The slices of fresh mozzarella tasted especially fresh in contrast to the richer, spicier items on the platter. The lasagna is legendary, and last night did not disappoint our memory of this amazingly light, fresh version of the dish. Just because I couldn't NOT, I also ordered a pizza, half with a very fennel-y sausage, half with goat cheese. As per usual, the pizza has a well deserved reputation as being all that and a bite more. We split an apple crostada for dessert, and it was tasty, but my beloved's favorite part of the dessert was the honeyed whip cream dollop on top. We went home very content with our evening out, and with each other, and then they all lived happily ever after...

Bergamot is a citrus fruit? I had to Google "bergamot" to learn that much - and now I am really curious. Cupcake and docsonz, do you peel it and eat it fresh, or use it in some other manner? Mmmm, I wonder what Bergamot Marmalade would taste like...? I am going to have to try it for myself, and invent from there. Reading egullet is very educational - should be required eating, er reading. Perhaps then we could base the WASL on the truly important Questions of Life.

We had a decent breakfast at Coastal Kitchen on Saturday, which is nothing new since they usually do breakfast reasonably well, but they did have a new item - gingerbread waffles. Our waitress said the group had sold the Jitterbug, but part of the condition of the sale was being able to take the Gingerbread Waffles with them and add them to the permanent menu at the Coastal Kitchen. I ordered them and thought they were too sweet (duh), but if you like the idea of gingerbread with maple syrup poured on it for breakfast, it might work for you. The waffle is served with orange honey butter, two slices of bacon and two eggs for about $8.50. My sweetheart had the two crabcake, eggs and fruit breakfast. I tried a bite of his crabcake and I didn't like their version at all. I thought they were way too sweet, too, but maybe I just had O.D.ed on sugar for the morning so I couldn't even take the sweetness of a crabcake in panko crumbs. I also thought it was too buttery/greasy. That said, my bacon and scrambled eggs were very tasty, and the coffee was good. In the future, I should just stick with the Rainbow Rumble - I like it very much, but always order it, so I thought I would venture out into CandyLand with the gingerbread waffle...

Yes, interesting location indeedy. At first glance it seems like a far cry from the original Boat Street Cafe location, but some of those NW Work Loft spaces have superb westerly water views out over Elliott Bay, so the close-to-the-water semi-industrial feel might have some carry over from the original spot. It will be fun to see what kind of space they will create as well as what they select for the menu.

Okay, this might not be a very helpful post, because the Columbia City Farmer's Market is only held once weekly on Wednesdays from 3 to 7, but I picked up a couple of the "Princess" variety peaches tonight, along with a tart-er peach - "White Star" and a some absolutely stellar nectarines that almost rocked my taste buds out of their seats. My guess is that since a lot of the vendors at Columbia City travel to the other markets (my favorite, Stoney Plains Organic, does Olympia, University, Columbia City and West Seattle), you will find fresh peaches at the other farmer's markets. AND, unlike most grocery stores, you can actually taste a little sample before you buy the peach or nectarine. The sample I had of the Princess yielded an absolute pure peach sugar flavor, while the White Star had a little bit more punch to it, a little tart, perfect for pie or for folks who like a more pronounced flavor. Not that I think there is anything in the world wrong with sugar masquerading as a fresh peach, but variety in fab peaches makes me happy. The new Gala apples were also in, and they were fantastic. I also bought fresh green and purple okra which I will slice and saute in sweet butter with a few new Walla Wallas and a LOT of fresh white corn shaved off the ear and into the pan. Add a little basil and a little fresh oregano...okay. Wait. We were talking about peaches, but did I tell you they were selling fresh blue huckleberries for $7.50 a pound? The mushroom guy had 'em. August and September simply ROCK when it comes to northwest produce. Makes me SO very happy to be hungry this time of year. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and have a bowl of greek yogurt with some sliced peaches and berries...

I am on vacation this week (yippee) so to celebrate we went to the Tamarind Tree tonight - first timers. Finding The Place: Even though it is a mere 6 miles from our house in Seward Park, I was glad my beloved used his Philadelphia cab driving skills to locate the place - I never would have found it. It is advertised to be "on" Jackson but it is set a,ways back from Jackson at the edge of parking lot mentioned in another post. We arrived at the Tamarind Tree at about 7:30 pm and was told we had about a 20 minute wait/ No problem, that gave us time to wander into the Minh Tam Market next door. What a fabulous experience! It was completely amazing to go up one crowded aisle and down the next and see who could find the most inexplicable ingredient. The best aisle was the butcher case...I won't spoil the surprises by going into details here. We left with a tin of Green Tea and 3 green limes to make mojitos later this week (more vacation decadence). Once seated at a table (some would have disliked the location but I loved it because it was situated directly in front of the kitchen "order up" window) we waited a little overly long before we received menus and tea (no water, had to ask for that later). We started with the Tamarind Tree spring rolls, and they proved to be the best item of the three dishes we ordered that night. The flavors and textures were simultaneously sweet, salty, fresh, crunchy and tender. Even though we have had plenty of spring rolls, this dish was unlike anything either of us had ever eaten. Delicious, wonderful, and I am certain there are other dishes of this caliber coming from the kitchen - I saw so many come up in the window I wanted to follow them all to their destination! After the appetizer, we shared a platter of grilled eggplant. I happen to love eggplant, and while I likely would not likely order this dish a second time (too many other interesting possiblities to eat the same thing twice), I was amazed by how soft and sexy and delicious they were able to render this dish. They split two or three eggplants down the middle, grilled them (and perhaps steamed them?) until silken soft, sprinkled them with chopped nuts and mint and green onion and then served the eggplant with fish sauce. Delicious again. Then we had one of the platters described in a previous post - lots of basil and mint and lettuce, vermicelli noodles, matchstick carrots and some grilled pork, an eggroll, sugarcane shrimp, and a grilled heads and tails on prawn. All served with dunk 'em yourself wrappers - good thing I had some previous experience or I would have been stumped! Delicious, but again, I would not order this dish twice. I left regretting we had no room for dessert - I would have wanted the toasted coconut homemade ice cream or the white chocolate ginger mousse. I also would love to know if anyone has ordered the Escargot Meatball Noodle Soup - I mean really, when's the last time you saw that on a menu? We will be back, with more people than just the two of us. I think we owe it to ourselves to make it through the entire menu, somehow, and to get through that menu we are going to need a Little Help from Our Friends. This is the kind of place that were I younger, I would have begged for a waitstaff job just so I could experience the food more thoroughly....but as a somewhat mature adult, I will have to satisfy myself with frequent visits before baseball games!

Re: Geraldine's Counter - Like the other folks, we have gone back again and again, each time as good, if not better than the time before, that is up until the last time my daughter went with her friend. She ordered her very most favorite - Geraldine's french toast - and it arrived completely burned - solid black! She asked if she could have a new order that was not burned, and they came back with an order of French Toast that was barely cooked on the outside and raw on the inside. Blech. She was very surprised and thinks they must have had a different cook that day, or the same cook having a devil of a time controlling the griddle temperature.

We had dinner there in June when my family from St.Louis was here, so there were 6 of us and we had several items from the menu. My mother selected it because they were staying at the Inn at the Market and the waiter was on the sidewalk in front of her hotel handing out flyers earlier in the day and he promised her a fine dining experience. In other words, he charmed her socks off Turned out he was our waiter that night, but the service was surprisingly terrible. We waited a very long time for the menu, even longer for water, and longest of all for the inital round of drinkis and wine. Food was served in long staggers - some folks were half finished with their meals before others had been served. We were seated at a table in an alcove in the furthest reaches of the restaurant, and it was rather close quarters to put six in that spot. The food was palatable but not memorable, perhaps overshadowed by the poor service, and my daughter commented that it was rather dungeon like in atmosphere (no windows except at the front door). I can only guess that the lunch experience is better and the service was just off that night, or that place won't be able to stand up to the many vastly favorable alternative dining spots in the Market.

Geraldine's Counter: We went to the fairly recently opened Geraldine's Counter in Columbia City for breakfast this morning. Maybe I was just hungry for something different than our usual round of breakfast haunts (Hi-Spot in Madrona, The Dish in Fre-lard, Etta's downtown, Cafe Flora in Madison Valley, Both Ways and Susan's 5100 in Seward Park), but I thought it the MOST delicious breakfast we have had in the Seattle area in recent memory. Apparently the place is jammed on weekends, but there were several open tables, booths, and places at the counter to sit when we strolled in at 10:30 on a Friday morning. (They serve breakfast all day, I think their closing time is 3pm). We slid into a booth, ordered two cups of the drip Vita coffee, and although I like a strong cup of coffee, the aroma of this coffee was enough to give me a buzz and it needed a larger-than-usual splash of cream to tame it down for my palate. After a lot of indecision on our parts, because everything sounded really tasty, we ordered a short stack of the "pancakes of the day" and an "Emerald Scramble" with a side of bacon. I can't tell you much about the Emerald Scramble because they mistakenly brought us the White Corn scramble, but what a GREAT mistake that turned out to be! Pancakes: The special of the day were corncakes. They were served with real maple syrup, fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. I like pancakes, but it is very difficult to find a place that can serve up pancakes that are cooked all the way through without being tough and rubbery. These pancakes were not only cooked perfectly, they were TASTY. The cornmeal was a little grainy, the cake light and fluffy and very flavorful. When I was in high school my boyfriend used to grind his own cornmeal, and that's the last time I had corncakes that approached how delicious Geraldine's pancakes were this morning. I hope they have corncakes on the menu the next time we return. White Corn Scramble: Eggs scrambled very fluffily with havarti cheese, lots and lots of fresh white corn, and a bit of basil. Each bite was delicious. The scramble was served freshly grated hashbrowns (not greasy at all), wheat toast with raspberry jam, and fresh fruit. Yum. Side of Bacon: Thickly sliced, grilled perfectly. Our entire meal came to $20, $24 with a tip. The service was great, even with the mistaken order, I think we came out ahead on that error. When they brought the corn scramble out, we just couldn't bear to send it back, it looked too tasty. Even though the place is rockin' noisy when it is only half full (acoustics of linoleum and bare walls and high ceilings are pretty intense) I have a feeling we will be back soon, one of the folks jamming in on a weekend. The lunch menu looked VERY tempting...

Yes! It fits the bill in several ways: 1) It is outside the 5 mile radius 2) It is close to Seward Park, Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach and Mt. Baker (and all of these neighborhoods BADLY need a good place to dine) 3) In the summer you would have bountiful produce across the street at the Columbia City Farmer's market every Wednesday. 4) I will bring you flowers from my garden to put on your tables. 5) And if there weren't enough clientele already, there are new condo's being constructed a half block away on 39th.... By the way, the new Columbia City Bakery is selling at the aforementioned Farmer's Market, and the mixed seeded baguette is killer. Fennel seed is in the mix and it gives the bread a little licorice pop that is quite tasty. All in favor say "Red Rover Red Rover, send Chef-Wannabe-Bum right over!"

Celebrating his recovery once again, this time from a 4 week bout with fever, beloved and I again chose to celebrate our first dinner out and aid his healing along with a small feast at Cafe Lago. Everything that has already been praised about Cafe Lago remained true that evening (okay, the spicy eggplant on the antipasto misto platter was ESPECIALLY delicious but then it is always ridiculously heavenly and I always find myself muttering amen praises when I eat the first mouthful). The only difficult part of the evening was deciding what to order, I wanted to eat one of everything on the menu. At first I wanted the arugala pizza with prosciutto and bianco sauce, then I toyed with ordering the papardelle with prosciutto and lemon and spring peas (and something else in that dish too, I forget), and then I looked longingly at the lasagne at a table nearby, but the waitress claimed that the ravioli with chard filling was her favorite, and I figured she had tasted it all so I took her advice and ordered it. Oh, my goodness gracious, it tasted even better than the lasagne and at Cafe Lago, that is saying something. Silky little pillows of the tastiest ravioli filling ever invented, topped with an incredibly light red tomato sauce and a swirl of pesto. The phrase "melt in your mouth" is overused, but nothing else will do to describe the texture of the ravioli pasta. It was amazing, the sauce outstanding, but the chard filling stole the show, it was supreme. My beloved orderd one of the specials, a lovely dish of braised short ribs served over ribbons of pasta, and it was delicious, but not quite as shockingly so as my chard raviolis. Apparently the ravioli stuffed with chard isn't always on the menu, but if you see it, I recommend ordering it. I am looking forward to going back with my daughter just so I can watch her take her first bite.

We had dinner at Cactus in Madison Park tonight, and a lovely black and white spotted dog sat quietly by her owners as they dined outside in the cordoned off sidewalk seating area. The seatting hostess said that people often brought their dogs and sat outside to eat. Dinner was very tasty. My beloved had the mojito special of the night (lime juice, mint, cucumber, honeydew and white rum) a tapas plate full of cornmeal coated fried calamari and jalapenos and a spinach salad with bermuda onions, crispy bacon, toasted pecans and ruby red slices of grapefruit. I had a dark beer and the chopped chicken salad.

Anita - Thanks for the link to the thread commenting on what appears to be Brasa's universally rude servers during the 25f$25 promotion. It makes it a real good news/bad news situation...at least we know it wasn't personal to us, but geez, you mean they treat EVERYBODY that badly? Sheesh. Why do they bother with 25f$25? I had a similar reaction to yours when it came time to tip...not wanting to leave her a full 20% tip, but feeling that would confirm her opinion of us. Bad kharma all the way around. That said, that was the only restaurant where we had that reaction to a 25f$25 meal....and I asm still looking forward to some new dining experiences thru the promotion in March.

Last year we went to Brasa on this promotion, and unlike other restaurants with smaller selections, Brasa's offering was just shy of any appetizer, entree, and dessert from their regular menu. There were a few "off limits" items, but very few as I recall. I don't know if they plan on being as expansive again this year in their offerings. As a result of the large menu of choices, and the deft hearts and hands in the kitchen, we had our most sumptuous $25 for $25 meal at Brasa. There was no problem with smoke because we were seated upstairs. The catch? The service was way this side of rude. While we don't like to be fussed over, our server really couldn't be bothered with checking in with us at all. We left feeling very odd after being ignored for the entire meal. It was just plain eerie. I still like the 25f25 promotion, and I am specifically looking forward to trying Nishino this time around.