kiliki

I like that it's now a restaurant that the neighborhood will enjoy but I'm irked that they had to put "DRINK" in huge neon green letters up the outside of the firehouse tower. Don't we have historic preservation rules in that area to keep this kind of tacky stuff off? Am I the only one that loves Vera's? Hardly ever a wait, great family (owners) and staff, comfy booths, tasty reliable better-than-diner food, terrific diner fries (for lunch), and when you go on Sunday, so convenient to the Ballard Farmers Market.

Laurel-where is that? Is it one of those secret dinners? Is the post just to make me jealous?

*bump* If anyone else has received emails or notices of special NYE dinners, I'd love to hear about them. I'm looking for one but am not on anyone's mailing list, and I'm surprised at how few local restaurants have web sites.

Carmelita notes their vegan options, and their menu is online: Carmelita

I don't know how I missed this blog earlier. Placebo, thanks for showing the behind the scenes work at Beecher's. I had been wishing someone would make fresh butter here for years and Beecher's made me so happy when they started. I also love the Blank Slate. Thanks for making such great products and doing the blog.

I used to drink (not eat) at places like the old Rendezvous occasionally, too, but from the outside it looks like the Turf is in a whole 'nother category. But since I've never been in, I guess I don't really know.

No way. The Turf looks beyond scary.

More chipotle uses: My favorite roast chicken (courtesy of Cook's Illustrated) has a mixture of softened butter, chipotles, honey, pressed garlic and lime zest, mixed together and spread under the chicken skin.

I don't know that it is ALWAYS this way in Italy, since usually when there I ate pizza by the slice from takeout places, but I did once or twice order it in a restaurant and it came unsliced. So perhaps Via is staying true to the Italian way of serving pizza.

Okay, so if that is a good example of NY pizza than it is not like Via Tribunali or Italian pizza at all. There is wayyy more cheese on Pazzo's, and if the sauce is garlicky/spicy, that is also quite different that the very fresh tasting crushed tomato sauce of Italian pizza.

A friend who works nearby said that that Whole Foods isn't scheduled to open until 2006.

Ditto. www.spl.org lets you reserve online, which I always do as the selection on the shelves if often quite slim.

We ate at Via Tribunali last night. Deborah, the pizza is very close to "real" Italian, and I'm still not sure how this differs from NY style. It has a very basic fresh tasting sauce of crushed tomatos, a chewy yet thin crust, and is sprinkled with dabs of fresh mozzerella. It is not cut into slices-you cut it into bites yourself. It was quite tasty but I think there is some pyschological thing about eating foods one falls in love with elsewhere...ie to me, pizza just tastes better if I am in Italy. I am not particularly fussy about the dining experience in general, but the whole experience at Via was kind of odd, and I'm not really dying to go back. First, there was no sign on the door, leading us to tentitively walk in and ask for a menu to see if we were in the right place. We wanted wine by the glass, which wasn't on the menu, so our server pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her apron with the choices but not the prices. The menu was untranslated, which is fine when you are looking at pizza but more confusing when trying to figure out the dessert list (which contained items like ricotta cake with candied fruit. My Italian just isn't that good.) My green salad was oversalted (and I love salt). Wine comes in tumblers. Water comes in the same small tumblers, so you drink it in about three gulps. The music was loud for a restaurant (the volume more appropriate for a bar). So all of these things may sound somewhat trivial, but it added up to a not very relaxing or fun dining experience.

La Cocina del Puerco, on Main st. a block or so west of 8th in Bellevue, is some of my favorite mexican anywhere in the Seattle area. Card tables, cafeteria style, but everything is great (and under $10). Homemade tortillas. Beers come in big buckets of ice. Not tex-mex-there are no giant plates covered with a layer of melted cheese.

Excellent timing-I am craving an oyster po'boy and am heading up to Matt's. I'll check out the sale.

For years I've had a tradition of going for Asian food on Christmas eve. I always call to make sure the place I've picked is open (once calling Huong Bihn, they answered my question with a slightly miffed "Of course we're open! We're Buddhist!"). If your friend likes Chinese and Seafood, I'd call Seven Stars or T&T.

For just ourselves (not dinner parties): We walk the dog to the store almost every night after work and just see what looks good (or we talk about what we feel like having on the way there). I do usually have a well stocked pantry and in season, produce from the farmer's market on hand. Neither of us have ever been able to meal plan-what if you don't feel like having what you've planned that night? For more elaborate meals (on weekends)and dinner parties, there is nothing more fun that sitting down with a pile of cookbooks and magazines and choosing a menu, based on what is in season (and easily available-I no longer have time to run all over town finding specialty items).

We just returned from thanksgiving in Vegas. I want to thank Foodie Girl (I THINK it was you) who recommended Emeril's-I wouldn't have thought it would be that good, but we had some delicious food there (the lobster roll appetizer and cornmeal crusted oyters were outstanding). And, I want to give a big thumbs down to the Bellagio dinner buffet. The desserts were terrific but everything else was mediocre. Maybe I expected too much, but in retrospect I would have rather gone to a buffet that had less ambitions offerings, but done better (things like crab stuffed sole, coconut curry mussels and other seafood items were bland and didn't hold up well on the buffet. Meat selections were all cooked well done. The few salad selections were anemic looking. Etc etc).

Grand Central and Essential are available in almost every grocery store-they should be easy to find and try out. Tall Grass and Macrina are also excellent and area available in some stores, so you don't have to make a trip to their bakeries. None of these breads are German but all are chewy, crusty, hearty, etc.

Another Ballard addition...Cafe Moose, on Leary across from Olympic Athletic Club. I peered in the windows after going to the gym tonight-it looks like a neat spot, lots of art on the walls. Breakfast and lunch, nothing unique on the menu (except the oyster sandwich special) but it sounded good.

Than Brothers Pho (multiple locations) does a nice chicken pho.

I have been disappointed by restaurant chicken soup so many times I don't even have hope anymore. My favorite basic chicken noodle soup recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated cookbook "The Best Recipe." I also make a delicious spicy chicken soup with roasted poblanos and serranos (or whatever kind I have), peppers, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lime, garlic, chicken, stock and whatever else I feel like adding. I think I originally based this on the tortilla soup from the Coyote Cafe cookbook but over the years it has really morphed into something else entirely. If either of these sound interesting let me know and I'll elaborate.

There's a new Asian place called Oysy on Phinney at 60th...I've only driven by, haven't peered in or seen a menu yet.

What kind of rolls do you like? For crusty artisanal rolls, Macrina (never had Dahlia's). If you like the squishy slightly sweet old fashioned American kind (like my grandma always made), Ezell's Fried Chicken sells them by the dozen and they are soooo good.

My mom cooks in the same way as yours, RSincere, but luckily she likes to be relieved of the task of entertaining. What my parents may not like as well is my need to be in control of all the cooking at all family gatherings-I won't LET them make anything anymore. I'm always appalled at what my parents will serve to guests (old coffee heated up in the microwave! Gravy from an instant mix! Foods that are CLEARLY well past their prime ie brown lettuce!) and I think they are a little hurt about this. It may be insensitive, but I completely ignore any hurt feelings they may have as I put them in charge of supplying wine and only wine.