kiliki

Two new places near Greenlake on Aurora: One, a Thai restaurant on the corner of 79th and Aurora (west side of the street), and just a couple doors south, a Mexican place that looks like it could be good. It's called Barriga Llena ("full stomach") and it's at 7815 Aurora Ave N, 782-1220. They are going to open on Friday, the owner said. It's small and doesn't look like it will be the usual tex-mex-it looks more like a littel taqueria-so I am hopeful.

I would think brick beds would look nice in winter even if they were empty. But you could fill them with winter annuals-flowering kale, pansies and such. Or plant winter interest plants-forsythia, winter blooming daphne, etc-somewhere else in the front yard to draw people's eyes toward those and away from the beds. I am eager to hear how everyone's hot peppers do. I've never planted them and have always heard that they don't do well in the PNW since they love it hot. I know the Territorial catalog has varieties adapted to the PNW (like an early jalapeno) but I couldn't find any of these at a nursery.

I too just had the Phoenix for the first time and was blown away. This is the cake that won a prize at the world pastry championships (2005?). I had to redo my whole party order after trying this-goodbye praline dream, hello phoenix.

I bet that's beautiful-I love the way ornamentals and edibles look together. I have zero fruit and one of them hasn't even flowered. Grrr. The cukes are just existing, too, rather than growing. These below average temps we've had are not good.

I think it's illegal to plant anything besides rhodies in your front yard in the 'burbs. Expect a knock on the door soon. I've considered planting a cherry tree in the past but everyone I know who has one says they lose all of their crop to birds, etc. Does anyone have a different experience?

Who's not sick of blogs these days?

We're having a party for about 70 people soon and so I've been knocking myself out trying to find the best desserts in town. I can't tell you how many tarts and mousses and slices of things I've eaten this past week. Bakery Nouveau has won on almost all counts-though I still like Dahlia a lot (they definitely have the best lemon meringue tart), I think Bakery Nouveau is, in general, making the best stuff in the city right now. (You could argue that the bar isn't set that high, but I won't go there). They are definitely heads and tails above the rest when it comes to presentation (I couldn't believe how sloppy Le Fournil was in comparison!).

Lol, thanks. With so many yuppies on the Eastside you'd think there would be more choices. Where do these people go to drink??? Twisted Cork doesn't look too bad. Thanks everyone.

Ditto. I've never had a pre-packed gelato that even reminded me of what gelato is supposed to be like.

I was afraid of that. What about Seastar? I haven't been but I know they have a bar. I'm also not averse to drinking something out of a pineapple at Trader Vic's, if I have to.

Is there anywhere that makes a really good cocktail in Bellevue? Or if not a great cocktail, a nice atmosphere (waterfront/outdoor seating, for instance)? Some of us need to loosen up before our 20th high school reunion in Bellevue.

How is everyone's garden doing? I have snap peas and english peas producing very well, and more lettuce (8 kinds-I always go overboard) than I can eat. The carrots, haricot verts and radishes are getting pretty big but have a ways to go, and the radishes are probably screwed since it has been hotter than they like-I planted them too late. The spinach and arugula are done and have been replaced with tomatoes, basil, pickling cukes and tomatillos.

Ditto on the roast chicken. Honestly, I like it better than thyme and tend to substitute it. If you end up not liking it as well, it does make a very nice landscape plant-I have it in my perennial border as well as my herb garden.

I think a lot of us do the pistachio test-gray pistachio is a good sign, bright green pistachio is not. I don't really get the labels thing, though-why can't a good gelateria use printed labels? I can't remember ever (here or in Italy) seeing a gelateria without professional looking labels. Even in some of the best places they use those labels that have the pictures of the fruit on them. It Italy it's easy to tell-there will be a sign that say produzione propia or nostra produzione to indicate they make it themselves. It would be nice if there was the same thing in the US, though I just had some fantastic gelato from NYC's GROM, made with flavor bases, so maybe it doesn't ALWAYS matter. It's not really that hard for me to imagine places in the US making it themselves but still being substandard.

If it's an insanely long wait and you really want to eat there why not pop over to Death and Co for a drink while waiting? It's within walking distance.

I noticed a list of rules for patrons-no smoking out front, no catching cabs out front, no congregating out front, etc. Go down the block to the corner do everything. Was that a recent comprimise with the neighbors or was it always like that?

My husband, who loves a well made cocktail but likes very traditional drinks, was blown away by the Manhattan here, even though they put their own twist on it (wheat whiskey, tea-infused vermouth). He still talks about this drink. I loved mine, too, and we had a nice time chatting with the bartender about the drinks. We went early-before dinner-and had the place almost to ourselves (same with Pegu the next day).

I only went there once, on a recent visit, and we only waited 20 minutes for a table on a Sunday night (around 7:30). This was high on my list of places to visit, too, but you can add me to the list of those that weren't blown away. Nothing was bad-we followed our servers recommendations and had the buns, the pickles, the raw scallop, the Edwards ham and the roasted mushroom salad-but it was all just pretty good, not great. They also forgot our last two dishes, and totally ignored us (and our empty wine and water glasses) for 45 minutes, before coming and asking if we wanted dessert. Then we pointed out we were missing almost half our meal, but we actually said that it was okay, we'd just take our check. The other dishes had come really slowly, they took almost no time to eat, and frankly, we were bored and tired of listening to the first date next to us at the communal table. They did bring the missing dishes right away, and they comped them, so I guess it was okay. I'm not sorry I tried it but wouldn't bother going back (no big deal, you can't blow everyone away). I don't think this was a case of overly high expectation, since we visited a number of places highly recommended on this board (from cocktails at Death and Co and Pegu to lunch at Jean George) and were very happy with all of them.

Lol. Yes, more or less-they were crunchy and brittle at the same time, the way that bad or stale macarons are. They were adorable, though-it's too bad they aren't good.

Funny-we were there at the same time on our vacation last week! I saw your party (assuming you were the only party of 5 young-ish people). And we had the very funny experience of sitting right next to Mr. Shatner and listening to him loudly dominate the conversation throughout his business lunch. He was the worst dressed person in the place-jeans, t shirt and an awful, dated leather jacket. It was a lovely experience overall and I'm so glad I'd read about it here, so thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I had the asparagus with morels, the shrimp with yuzu and the scallops-the first two were good but not the most fantastic things I've ever had, and the scallops were quite good. My husband's black sea bass was one of the best fish dishes he'd ever had and he loved his crab salad and squab. We both loved our desserts as well (I remember they were called "citrus" and "spring" but I forget their exact components). This is a tiny thing to complain about but the macarons in the petit four service were awful. The worst I've ever had. And does anyone eat all those marshmallows?

I stopped by on a recent trip and was really wowed by the place. I've eaten a ton of hazelnut gelato all over Italy and GROM's hazelnut really knocked me out. I also loved that they had real granitas-the kind that are scooped out of the metal tub, as opposed to the kind you usually see here in the US, that come out of a slurpee type machine. That was very good as well.

Muir Glen-I get the fire roasted for some Mexican dishes, regular for most things. Though I have been succumbing more and more to the Whole Foods brand. $1.09 for 32oz, $1.29 for organic.

Just a heads up-go early or be prepared to wait, even on weekdays. We waited ages last weekend and even last night (thursday), an estimated 15 minute wait was actually 45 (we arrived at 6:40). When we left at 8:15 there were still about 20 people out front waiting.

Their menu seems to be slightly larger since they came back. They now have 3 kinds of crab-tamarind, salt and pepper and ginger onion-on the menu! The owner is SO nice, he brought out little nibbles of grilled meat for all of us waiting and waiting for a table last weekend, and he thanked us many times for being patient.

If you do use the tubes, be sure not to leave them unrefrigerated longer than 30 minutes, or they'll go bad despite the preservatives. Seattle P-I article