little ms foodie

I like to serve it in martini glasses with a bit of shredded lettuce in the bottom and crispy tortilla chips. love the guac addition also!

I love ceviche and have made it with halibut and shrimp. Not sure if Fluke is available on the west coast and I've never heard of King Fish either? Is there a regional difference in the dish in it's spelling? seviche or ceviche? When I've made it I've actually let it 'cook' a few hours, maybe this also is dependant on the fish?? not sure. Last time I made one I did it with shrimp and pomegranates....gorgeous!! Welcome SS and thanks for the info!

I'll echo the above, thank you to Paul and Lauren for hosting a pre funk. What a beautiful house you have and how nice to be able to visit for a while with everyone before dinner. Rocky...you are the man! What a great dinner, place and menu you chose. Wow!! Dayne and I were still talking about the food this morning. Our favorites were the spicy soup served in the beginning, the spare ribs, the duck and the scallion pancake. Oh and I loved the rice and just realized I left it at home...very sad! An insane amount of food, all so interesting to try. And the company....top notch guys! Thanks for such an awesome evening. We really, really enjoyed it. Wendy and Dayne

too funny! While driving home last night we passed this and both wondered about it and when it went in as we hadn't noticed it. Definately on the list to get in and try!

We sit side by side if possible when eating out. If we sit face to face Dayne always makes sure I get to face the restaurant- he is very considerate. If we eat out with friends then the ladies will usually sit side by side, men with their back to the restaurant. I like the right angle thing too, that's how we sit at home. Dinner parties also have us at each end of the table.

Making my reservations for dinner....anyone with recent experiences? We are staying at the Crown Plaza Resort- is this close? Is there another restaurant that you think is better in the same area?

Shopping made easy for those of you still wanting to make the cassoulet: Cassoulet Kit

After googling to find that this is steamed buns I am in!!

Good for you! great blog and great progress!!

Excuse the blurry picture....or did you all just drink too much! or did I?? Whole trout with apple cidre butter sauce and carrots sauteed in herb butter with scallions then glazed with balsamic. served with a Lange Reserve Chardonnay (OR) excellent!!

My husband and I will be joining some friends on a (hopefully) warm weather cruise thru the eastern caribbean next month. Obviously coming from the ship we will have limited time in each port. I'm looking for suggestions on where to have casual, fun, traditional food and drinks! In San Juan we have from 4pm until midnight so we will be looking for suggestions on dinner and bars In both St Thomas and Tortola we are only there from 8am until 6pm and we will go diving both locations weather permitting. So maybe some recommendations for casual lunch and/or snack and/or bars. Thanks!!!

wow! John can eat A LOT of truffles!

I'm totally in! This helped me remove my fear and do something that I may not have motivated myself to do otherwise! hmmm....I like the idea of the BBQ pork buns and the pho....also what about something like paella or jumbalaya or gumbo?? just in time for mardi gras!

Was just at Costco last night and they still have some for $89 (South Seattle location)

we had this recently too! I agree it is a great food wine for $10

If they get it from D'Artagnan it still has buckshot??

Neil, that was it exactly. And we thought it was bland which is why we didn't enjoy it. But the donuts were in the running so next time they will get the go ahead nod!

Julia is Julia Child and you understand correctly. Welcome chefzadi! I make mine with beef marinated in burgandy, lardon, mushrooms and shallots left whole. love that- they get a yummy carmelized flavor. I like to rub garlic on toasts and spoon the whole thing over it. Like HERE

We met friends at Burger Bar for lunch on Sat. The first thing that struck me was how it looked like a diner from the 50's. I guess I was expecting a little more upscale style. Anyway Dayne and I both had the Kobe burger done medium rare. Very good, done perfectly. I had proscuitto, cheddar and carmelized onions on mine. We shared some sweet potato fries- very good. Again we liked it but both of us thought we would probably continue to try other spots vs going back again. We did stop in the very cool wine shop 55 degrees on the way out. such interesting display! Sat. night dinner at Fix. There was a huge line to get in, we had reservations. The interior is very cool- like Gehry designs I thought. But it is open to the casino and the main hall which dumbs it down a bit IMO. It use to be Necter for those who remember. Started with Forks of smoked salmon, creme fraiche and caviar. Awesome! Our waiter told us he could swap in beluga for a small price but we skipped. Then we shared a half order of homemade ravioli filled with pumpkin, ricotta and sage in a brown butter sauce. The pasta was soooo good. I had the bass on creamy shrimp risotto. Perfectly done fish and risotto. i don't think it needed the shrimp. Dayne had the pork chop which was huge and done wonderfully at med. We had this with a Chateauneuf du Pape. Dessert shared was a carmel something?? I'm forgetting, maybe a bread pudding?? I only had one bite and it was forgettable. D We loved Fix but thought that their wine list was very mediocre and the dessert wine list was dumb! The waiter knew a lot about the dishes but next to nothing about the wine or offerings. Prices were excellent. I will revisit this place this spring/summer hopefully. Lunch on Sunday was at Olives. I've had dinner here twice before and loved it, lunch was no different. The newly remodeled interior is very nice- better tones IMO. We had a bottle of Tuscan white. I had the orchietto with bolgenese and creamed spinach sauce. WOW!!!! The bolgenese had all spice, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove in it. Fat shards of parm on top. The creamed spianach was a vibrant green sauce around the outside. REally, really really good. My favorite dish of the weekend. Dayne had the seared ahi, cooked perfectly- it was a loin shaped piece that was breaded with panko and then cut into perfect cubes. on a bed of arugula tossed with a creamy vinaigrette. We shared the carmel apple crisp for dessert. It was topped with a green apple sorbet and a vanilla ice cream. The dish got licked! Best espresso of the weekend too. Olives has consistantly been great and we'll continue to eat here! Wines are a tad overpriced though.

Susan it's nice to see you back!

we had a similar dish in Barcelona but it was garbonzo beans and baby squid. YUM!

There use to be an "I love Sushi" on eastlake, is it still there??

Dinner tonight was homemade fettuccini for the first time ever with our new pasta attachment for the KitchenAid! We made an alfredo sauce with a black truffle cheese and parm, along with butter that had roasted garlic in it. Served with a salad of greens, red scallions, carrots, radish, onion confit, EVOO and balsamic. Excellent!!

I agree with all points that Jack made about Bouchon. The salt thing really struck me, I love salt but the foie gras was done with a very heavy hand. The interior is nice and large but the noise level does get very high. Also I thought the wait staff to be average at best. The sommelier seemed to only know what was on his list. Our waiter kept referring to everything as "prepared very traditionally" yet I doubt he knew traditional from French Toast. He told us the sturgeon was like chicken! haha! Without a doubt the most interesting thing about eating at Bouchon was talking with Jack and all the amazing things he is involved with. Fantastic company. Friday night my husband and I went to Emeril's at the MGM for dinner. We had 10PM reservations so we decided not to do the tasting menu but it looked very nice. I really liked the interior here and the staff was great. We started out with the BBQ shrimp- good but not outstanding. Then we shared the mushroom, duck confit spinache salad with Humboldt Fog cheese and fig vinaigrette- excellent! The duck confit could have been more tender but the flavors were fantastic. For our mains Dayne had the 2lb. lobster stuffed with mushrooms and topped with truffle oil. Unfortunately the truffle oil completely overwhelmed the lobster. It wasn't a good match IMO. I had the Cedar Plank Campfire steak. I've never had planked steak- we make a lot of salmon on cedar- the steak was done perfectly and the smashed potatoes served with it was the hit of the night. I can not even begin to describe the creamy almost cheesy taste (although there was none) of these taters! We had a nice bottle of a French Burgandy, thought the wine was very fairly priced and they used very nice stemware which I appreciate. espresso was barely passable- what is up with this? how hard is it to pull a decent cup of espresso. And they only served white sugar packets. No cubes or at least sugar in the raw- ick! I liked the restaurant, not sure if I would go back because there are so many to try still but I like it. Burger Bar, Fix and Olives reports to come.....

Not in NYC but I've had Scottish Woodcock on a tasting menu here in Seattle. It was definately hunted as we were warned, and found, some buckshot. I liked the flavor, I remember it being delicate but still having a bit of that 'gamey' flavor you have with wild game. We were told that it had been FedEx'd in that morning.