little ms foodie

I love the look KK is giving you!!!

Yes, Frank's Produce in Pike Place market has them right now, in mid-April. Frank's is in the Sanitary Market building by the cheese shop. I bought four bunches on Saturday, I think for $3 each. That's the only place I've ever seen them. Ask Frank for his special ramps pasta recipe with prosciutto and parmesan. ← I was just there last night and was going to post the same thing (not the pasta recipe but the ramps were in)

...Crumb, Carve, Cupboard, edited to say sorry- I was going with C words, not CR duh!!!

does anyone know if there is any place to get ramps out here??

Abra you can practice with cash all you'd like on me!!!

Once in Whistler a group of 6 of us didn't have reservations on a busy saturday night and were told the wait would be over an hour. I 'shook' the hostesses hand with a $10 bill and said anything she could do would be great and we were seated in about 10 minutes

Last night we cooked out of my 'Sweet, Salty, Sour' book for the first time. Dayne made gingerini's to have with dinner. Spring rolls wrapped in lettuce leaves with dipping sauce. Chicken and potatoes with curry over jasmine rice. I know it's not all Thai but it's all good!!!

thanks rhinopias, that is almost exactly what we were thinking- some bubbly and a nice Pinot Noir

Anyone eaten here lately?? TallDrinkOfWater and I have reservations for the chef's table next Saturday night while in town.

wahooooo, a friend and I will be dining at Schwa next Thursday! Suggestions on wine to bring?? I'm use to a wine list!

I just used up the last of my 6 legs of duck confit. I had them stored in a large jar- the kind that bars and restaurants get their olives and pickles in- huge. So I have a lot of duck fat left of course but there is some meat parts that came off while I was digging out the legs at different times. Do I just render this all down, strain it and then freeze my cleaned fat for future batches?

fantastic report and photos doc and molto! thank you!

I also loved Aqua in vegas and loved Aqua when in SF but Mino had already left. It was our favorite meal in SF 2 years ago. I agree that things like waiting for wine, wrong vintage, overcooked food, etc in high end restaurants is more than a bit annoying. But your photos are great! Thanks for sharing (I'm still reading!)

The next day we were walking around the Capitol so we stopped in at the Hawk & Dove for lunch and a beer. Great dive bar! After some more museum going we had a beer at the Dubliner before taking a much needed nap. Dinner was at Bistrot du Coin which was good but not great. We have a few french bistrot places here in seattle that I am a bit more impressed with. But the atmosphere was fun and friendly. Kimpton bar tour continues with Rouge after dinner. Tuesday we spent the day at RFK stadium for the Nationals opener. We have never had to stand in lines like that for sausages and beers. Yikes!!! It was very frustrating. Dinner that night was at Jaleo which was good but again I didn't care for the interior. Our tapas were all great, wine was excellent and service very nice. Dayne thought the value here was fantastic! Wound up the Kimpton bar tour across the street (how convienent!) at the Monaco bar Post. Our last day we had breakfast again at the Tabard Inn then shopping in Georgetown. We ended up having a pretty good lunch at J. Pauls on M street. So you can see that we did a lot but missed a lot. We really wanted to go for Ethiopian food but it just didn't work out and there are still quite a few restaurants we'd like to check out. I think we did all the bars though unless Kimpton opens some new ones! haha!

Sunday morning we had brunch at the Tabard Inn just next to our hotel. A couple at Corduroy told us about it- wonderful eggs, house made sausages, hollandaise sauces, etc. Then we worked it off by walking around all the memorials on the Mall and Tidle Basin. A late day snack of oysters and sauv blanc at the Old Ebbitt Grill were just what we needed to tie us over until dinner at Cirtonelle. What a beautiful restaurant and we were excited to finally get really nice stemware! That was strange to us, in seattle it seems that most places use Riedel or Spieglau (sp?). We didn't have the full tasting but each had 5 courses. Amuse (can remember what kind of fish tartare but was excellent!) First course I had the Lobster Begula which was amazing! even after all the hype I loved this! Dayne had the tuna nicoise napoleon which was also beautiful and delicious! One trip was that we had to wait for the sommelier after the dished were put in front of us and then for him to go get our selections to have with the course. I'd say that the Sunday sommelier wasn't quite up to par. He didn't know the vintages of many of the wines Dayne was discussing with him and also seemed quite slow and a bit unprofessional at times. Back to the food. Next course was the Rabbit Tasting for me. Loin with mustard sauce, roasted leg and confit with pasta- OMG, yum!!!! Dayne had the Chautenbrian (sp) which was perfect and amazing too. We both loved our food here. A nice but not over the top cheese plate was next. Then we ordered our dessert- the waiter knew we were from Seattle so he sent the Tasting of Apples on the house. We also had the Breakfast at Citronelle which was surprisingly not hokey and was all very good. And the Chocolate mushroom was excellent. Too stuffed to continue our Kimpton bar crawl we headed home. This was our favorite meal.

We had the tasting menu on Saturday night, erved with wine pairings: Amuse of mussel with mussel foam Red Mullet, foie gras, fava beans, orange vineagrette Salmon tartare, salmon roe, salmon ice cream on cucumber soup (excellent!) Lobster, morel, fiddleheads on pea puree Lamb, topeka, peas, bluefoot mushrooms and jus Zuchini cake, buttermilk icecream, carmel (one of the 10 best things ever!) Roasted pinapple, crisp pinapple and ice cream Selection of 7 cheeses (including one delicious and illegal blue) Chef Matt Secich came out and talked with us for a while, he is incredibly nice and really cares about his food. I can't believe he has only been here 4 months!!

Had dinner here on Friday: We stayed at the Topaz in Dupont Circle and after checking in on Friday night we headed to Corduroy for dinner. I had forgotten it was in the Sheraton, the only thing we didn't really care for (low ceilings, hotel-y feel). We had the torchon of foie gras which was great and the mozzerela porcupine which was good but needed s & p or something. Next up was the striped bass with trumpet mushroom sauce and the lamb sirloin with mini goat cheese ravioli. both were excellent! We mentioned to our waiter Tom that we were thinking of heading to the Firefly for drinks and would he recommend that? Tom let us know that his brother Derek was the manager and he was heading there too! Small town...... Drinks at Firefly (a Kimpton hotel) were great and Derek was really nice to comp us a round.

Thanks all for the excellent suggestions! I'm reporting here

When do we hear about the rest of your trip? ← I just started posting here

TallDrinkOfWater and I just got back last night after a very fun trip to DC! We didn't take the camera out with us for meals but we had some really nice dinners and thought I would share. Thank you all for steering us in the right directions! We stayed at the Topaz in Dupont Circle and after checking in on Friday night we headed to Corduroy for dinner. I had forgotten it was in the Sheraton, the only thing we didn't really care for (low ceilings, hotel-y feel). We had the torchon of foie gras which was great and the mozzerela porcupine which was good but needed s & p or something. Next up was the striped bass with trumpet mushroom sauce and the lamb sirloin with mini goat cheese ravioli. both were excellent! We mentioned to our waiter Tom that we were thinking of heading to the Firefly for drinks and would he recommend that? Tom let us know that his brother Derek was the manager and he was heading there too! Small town...... Drinks at Firefly (a Kimpton hotel) were great and Derek was really nice to comp us a round. The next day we did a bit of musuem going and then stopped into the Willard Hotel for drinks at the Round Robin Bar. Great old atmosphere!! That night we had dinner at The Oval Room. It was a very nice evening! We had the tasting menu with the wine pairings: Amuse of mussel with mussel foam Red Mullet, foie gras, fava beans, orange vineagrette Salmon tartare, salmon roe, salmon ice cream on cucumber soup (excellent!) Lobster, morel, fiddleheads on pea puree Lamb, topeka, peas, bluefoot mushrooms and jus Zuchini cake, buttermilk icecream, carmel (one of the 10 best things ever!) Roasted pinapple, crisp pinapple and ice cream Selection of 7 cheeses (including one delicious and illegal blue) Chef Matt Secich came out and talked with us for a while, he is incredibly nice and really cares about his food. I can't believe he has only been here 4 months!! Helix lounge after for cocktails (another Kimpton! haha!)

Was there yesterday for a dozen on the half shell and a bottle wine, quite fun and a good atmosphere- sat at the main bar.

Besalu is just down the road from our house and it is the best!! Grand Central in Pioneer Square would also make a good stop for comparison round ups!

When we had lunch there last May they did not do any type of wine pairings but had a great selection of both full and half bottles and had excellent recommendations for us.

We took some out of town friends to Lark last night and as always the food was fantastic. We tasted many things but the winners included the tuna carpacio, sauteed mushrooms, rillettes, pork belly, braised shortribs, lasagne and chocolate madelines. They said the bar should be open late this month......

gorgeous gratin <sigh>