Eden

Coincidentally I had just run across my mom's recipe for sock-it-to-me cake ala 1972, so I dug out the bundt pan from the back of the cupboard last night and made one as my little contribution to the theme*. I took it to a potluck comprised of fellow cooks & we all sat around wondering why we don't make things like this anymore. It was simple, tasty & beautiful. (sorry the digital camera died so no pictures) And my kitchen smelled so fabulous while it was baking! There is nothing like real cake fresh from the oven filled with cinnamony-nutty goodness! Now that the pan is out anyway I might make one of those tunnel of fudge cakes for a party tomorrow - I seem to be in a bundt cake frame of mind suddenly Eden *actually I made the cake from scratch even though mom's recipe calls for cake mix (the shame!)

Vuelve a la Vida! best mexican I've had since escaping from California! Real tamales & posole, Good guacamole and per my fish eating friends kick-ass Ceviche. look for the sign with the sombrero-wearing octopus shaking his maracas 5310 Pacific Ave

Oh my god! Usually I eat in good ethnic restauraunts or the occasional higher end place & avoid chain restaurants like the plague, so I don't normally see a lot of the behaviors discussed here, but tonight I got dragged into a Chili's and we had JUST been reading this thread before we left - it was SO funny. I honestly think "Fernando" had a check list from the article mentioned above. Not only did HE kneel down, but the girl he was training knelt too, to the point where WE actually had to look down at THEM! We got the upsell, the head nod, the fake smile(s), the positive comment on the weather, and probably would have gotten the hand on the shoulder if I hadn't looked WAY too dangerous to touch Every time they left the table we just about burst laughing. Thank you all. without this thread I would have just been cranky & appalled. As it was I had a highly entertaining evening in spite of the food, ambience & obsequious service. Eden even if I am a food princess, I still don't want the waiter to kneel before me - at least not unless everyone else is kneeling too

sign me up for the Burger of the Month Club! But must we really forgoe bacon? Given all the raves about Palace Kitchen do we start there, or. to be kind to the contenders do we finish there? I had to stop by Kid Valley this afternoon because reading all of these posts earlier in the day had infiltrated my brain & they were the only burger place near where I was driving at the time. Dissapointing compared with what I really wanted, but it filled the void. [what DONT they put in thier tartar sauce that it is so bland? And WHO doesn't put salt on thier FRIES??!!??] Later this week I will probably have to go buy some good beef & all the fixings & make the real thing at home...

In addition to Uwajimaya (land of unusual animal parts ) you can also find pork belly at the Central Market. (I didn't check but I think it might cost a bit more.) And of course D&J can order it for you. Where are you getting your tarbais beans? Looking forward to reading about your cassoulet! Eden

I've gotten duck legs for cassoulet at Whole Foods, but thier supply is sometimes limited so I'd call, and by all means support Don & Joe's first if possible. Has anyone tried the new butcher who went into Crystal's old space? Ooh it never occured to me that Don & Joe's could order duck fat for me. I always do my confit in a mix of pork fat with however much duck fat I've saved up over the year... So who else here in the NW is doing the Bourdain cassoulet Cook Together? I'll be doing my annual cassoulet extravaganza at the end of January, so I wasn't going to join in, but now that I think about it, it would be interesting to see how his recipe compares with the one I use. (from Bruce at Le Gourmand with my own modifications) Eden

I have the best husband EVER! For boxing day breakfast I just got served French toast made with leftover pompe a l'huile (orangey brioche) drizzled with grand marnier syrup! And then people wonder why I'm a big food princess & turn up my nose at mediocre food

dinner itself will be very simple. acorn squash & wild rice bisque baby greens salad with whatever strikes me in the moment :-> Grand Central's Columbia bread Hedgehog mushrooms sauteed in butter with fresh herbs. Oh and we carnivores might sneak a bite of Salumi's lamb prosciutto when the vegetarian isn't looking but we'll be following that with the not-quite-traditional 13 dessert Provencal extravaganza! the Pompe a l'huile is rising in the refridgerator right now to be baked tomorrow Miss Lara is making her fabulous Lemon Lavendar cake we have Callisons from Provence Italian Nougat Scottish shortbread And there will be chocolate fondue to dip all the lovely fresh & dried fruits in. Eden - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! [edited to add: and mulled wine, because when you come back from the snow you need mulled wine!]

where are you finding "heirloom oranges"? And what varieties? Does this include seville oranges by chance? I would love to play with some new & different orange varieties! Eden

There was a woman selling good hand-made caramels at the Ballard farmer's market back in the Fall. I think they were called Beth's Caramels. I haven't been recently so I can't promise she's still there, but if so she's worth a visit. I also saw her caramels at one of the local grocery stores; maybe Ballard, maybe Central? sorry I can't recall for certain... Lavender caramels = yumm! Eden

Thank you all! We went to Chambar last night & had a wonderful meal. We started with frites for an appetizer. Oh My! I haven't had good frites in SOOO long! perfectly crispy on the outside, rich & potato-y on the inside, without being remotely greasy Mis Lara had a beautiful looking boulliabase which made her very happy over on the fishy side of the table, and I had the lamb tajine with couscous which was sublime. So very tender & with a cinnamony, fruity sauce & lovely bits of fresh fig, Yumm! (WHERE do they find fresh figs at this time of year???) We finished by sharing the waffle served with a little scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a baby pitcher of chocolate sauce. there was pearl sugar baked into the waffle, which was very light, & just the right level of crispyness. simple, but very tasty. The dishes were all beautifully arranged, but the one off note I felt was that the two entrees were awkward to eat gracefully. The boulliabase came in a large ramequin-like bowl sitting on a narrow rectangular plate which had a molded pile of black rice on it. The second Miss Lara touched the rice with her fork some of it tried to escape off the plate and there was also not a lot of room between the rice & the bowl to put the shell bits. The tajine was incredibly soupy (rather than saucy) so that trying to add couscous into it made the couscous run away & disperse too much, and the tajine dish was too big & heavy to move aside in order to eat from the little coucous bowl by transferring bits of lamb onto the couscous. Fprtunately there was so much lamb that I ended up using about half of it to set my couscous on while eating the other half. But really this is a nitpicky detail. Overall it was a lovely meal followed by a beautiful opera & we're looking forward to our next trip when we can try some of your other restaurant suggestions! Thanks again, Eden

For my previous trips to Paris (and elsewhere in Europe) I have found http://www.smokefreeworld.com/ very helpful although it also at times has outdated information... My husband is very allergic to smoke, so we plan our trips fairly carefully and always cary a list of local smokefree places with us in case we want to stop for an impromptu meal. Thank you all for the additional resources. I am so grateful that more of Europe is becoming available to people for whom smoke is a real problem. Eden

Skating in on the last possible night we also tried union's $25 tasting menu this evening, and it was lovely. Almost identical to and yet occasionaly different from the menu skyflyer3 enjoyed, so I will repeat much data to highlight the differences. Amuse Bouche 1: Little teaspoon filled with chopped tuna tartare, but this time with gently sauteed shallots and chives. My Bill is not a worshiper of raw fish & said this was very nice for him but would have been awesome for a sushi lover... Amuse Bouche 2 (Zipped together to accomodate the fact that I can't eat fish or seafood): a bite of grilled? rabbit that was perfectly tender with just the right balance of caramelization & saltiness, served over the sauteed shallots & chive (dash of pepper?) that had been mixed into the tuna. I would have ordered the rabbit as an entree then & there if I hadn't read skyflyer3's description of the duck... salad 1: Salad: some kind of long thin strips of green veggie (I missed the description), frisee, beets, and seared Ahi towered up over a pool of creme fraiche. Bill loved the flavors here in general, but said the ahi added nothing but a bit of structure betwen the creme & the salad, it could have been anything in there. Salad 2 (for anti-fish girl): mixed greens with toasted "walnuts" & a generous bit of goat cheese. I have issues with walnuts which is what the waitress said they were so I just shoved these aside at first & enjoyed the simple greens & the lovely creamy goat cheese, but then Bill actually looked at them & realized that they were toasted pecans, so I mixed them back in & yumm! Soup: Potato leek soup with shredded bits of rabbit confit which had a lovely bit of spice mixed into it that I couldn't identify, and wow the contrast of the spicy salty bunny against the velvety soup was sooo good. Meat: Muscovy Duck breast, on slices of persimmon "carpaccio" with huckleberries cooked in port (and some stock?) to sauce it. "Awesome" is exactly right. Bill doesn't like his duck too rare, but since mine was less so we just switched plates & then all was well with the world. Palate cleanser/First Dessert: A little dollop of goat yogurt sorbet with pomegranate seeds. Oh my yes! the goat yoghurt was not too sweet, it was just light & tangy & somehow rich at the same time, and the contrast of the pomegranate seeds flavor and texture was perfect. Second? Dessert: Vanilla Panna Cotta with "grapefruit honey soup". A lovely panna cotta, on the stiffer side, but having had a range of panna cottas in Italy I don't have a set idea of how this dish must be made. It was creamy and sweet but not too much so, and the vanilla seeds sprinkled on the outside per very pretty. It was set in the midst of perhaps 2 tbsp of "grapefruit honey soup" which would have been lovely as a _very_ lightly sweetened juice drink, I scraped up as much as I could with my spoon & loved it on it's own, but it was wrong wrong wrong with the panna cotta, too sour & just the wrong flavor to go with this particular dessert. Overall I had a lovely meal and would happily dine there again. I think the chef has some brilliant inspirations, like the raw persimmon with duck, and am willing to have one or two little wrong notes in the mix for the sake of letting him try creative combinations. Interesting that here I felt like the unusual combos were a sign of creativity while at Cascadia I considered them nothing but pretension, I don't knwo where/how one draws that line (an interesting seperate topic which may well have been done already) especially since there were definate signs of pretention in the menu descriptions "persimmon carpaccio" - please! I'm glad to have a good restaurant in this space again & will defiantley be sending friends here. Eden [edited to clarify that MY Mr. Bill is different from the Mr. Bill already in this forum - with apologies]

It was called Max & Boomers. As far as I can tell (I go by there frequently) they were only open for about 4 months in the first place and then closed a while back now. There was a weird sign, back in the summer after they closed, about an auction, but there's been no activity in the space since. It used to be a Burger King before the Max & Boomer people whizzed through. I'd sure love to see something nice come in & stay long enough for me to at least try it, but it's an awkward building - obviously ex-fast-food - and that kind of space always tends draw the bad chinese restaurant business for some reason, and we have enough of those in Ballard already speaking of new(ish) in Ballard has anyone here tried Carnegies? What did you think? Eden

OK has anyone tried the shaped scoops, because I would love to buy them, IF they actually work well. I'm just afraid that they'll A) be weak & bend in harder ice cream and/or B) be difficult to use & get the cute shape to actually work. Any opinons? Oh and my favorite newish kitchen gadget is the serrated peeler! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00...M/egulletcom-20 Mr. Bill said "what are you ever going to use THAT for?" when I brought it home, but you've never seen anything like it for peeling difficult items like quinces and stone fruits, and though I haven't tried it yet, I'm suspecting that butternut squash will now bow down before me in Fear Eden

A friend who lived in Germany for a good while tells me Han's Delicatessen (mentioned above) gets in German style rye bread twice a week from a bakery in Canada, and says it's mighty tasty. I keep meaning to get down there & check them out myself (they're supposed to have good sausages too), but it's in Burien, and I'm pretty sure I need a passport to go anywhere south of the Kingdome Eden

I'm curious: are their scallion cakes thick & crispy fried like potsticker bottoms or more like a soft crepe with scallions in the batter or some other happy variation ??? I admit to being less adventurous when it comes to Asian cuisines in general, but I could eat just scallion cakes for dinner & walk away happy Count me in for any thursday in January! Eden

if you don't mind a few matzoh balls swimming in your soup then go to Kosher Delight deli on First Ave at the Market. They have lovely rich chickeny soup. I've seen him straining the broth and can vouch that it is made from genuine chickens. mmm matzoh ball soup Eden

It's 9am, so cold in my office that my fingers hurt, the first storm of the winter is brewing outside and thanks to stumbling across this topic I WANT AN ICE CREAM BAR!!! and y'all made me miss ITS ITS, which I havent' thought about in years. So no-one has mentioned anything like my favorite novelty popsicle flavor to date: Cucumber with chili pepper! For really hot miserable weather there is nothing to beat it. The cucumber is refreshing & the slight bite of the chili peppers not only tastes great but helps you endure the heat.... Sadly I have no idea of the brand name, but I beleive it was from Mexico, certainly the labeling was in Spanish. I bought it from a guy with a rolling ice-cream cart at a park in northern California (I think his usual customers were the local farm-workers) and have never seen it again since Maybe next summer I will just make my own. In the meantime I need to 1) turn up the heat and 2) see what flavors of ice-cream we have in the freezer for breakfast Eden

The Pike Place Creamery has a selection of non-chicken eggs that I beleive includes quail on a regular basis. Eden

egullet folks just rock! Thank you all for the suggestions. Villa del lupo with Puccini is a lovely pairing, and the descriptions of Chambar make my mouth water! I'll discuss all the options with my fellow traveller & look forward to an excellent meal however we go. Eden

A friend and I are coming up to Vancouver for the Opera next month (from Seattle) and would really appreciate some suggestions of where to dine that would be in walking distance of the Queen Elizabeth theatre. the last few trips we've just eaten dinner in other parts of town at 5pm so we could go drive back to the hotel & change in time for the performance, but that's really hideously early, and it would be nice to dine nearby & not have to fuss about hurrying back... I've skimmed through the postings in this forum, but not knowing the area well it's hard to know where something is, and the restaurants that I try to track down always end up being too far away. Thanks for your advice, Eden

I've been generally pleased with the 25 for $25 meals I've had, and felt they were a good representation of the general menu just scaled down slightly. We went to Brasa last night & they simply included everything on the regular menu as a 25 for $25 option and had a few pricier special dishes excluded so you knew exactly what you'd be getting if you came back. Tragically their lemon mousse did not set last night so I missed one of my favorite desserts but they gave me a lovely cheese plate (not part of the 25/$25 deal) in apology I love the 25/$25 program. it helps me push a sweet but financialy cautious husband out the door to some great restaurants, which we then can go back to once he knows they're worth the hype... Eden

Ditto. I'd love to actually meet folks. Mr. and Mrs. Toast Really Nice Matsutakekichigai Sparrowsfall Eden

I will vouch that the Bronze we ordered form Thundering Hooves last year was wonderful! Well worth the higher cost vs. a regular bird. I don't think anyone who dined here last year will ever go back to mass produced turkeys... rich meaty Turkey flavor, no scary faux turkey flavor injected into it. yet it didn't dry out on me at all, and the stock I made afterwards for the obligatory post-Thanksgiving Turkey-Noodle soup, WOW!