girl chow

Yum! Cicchitis! My food knowledge of B'ham is about a decade ago, back from when I was a student at WWU (Vikings rule). I looked up a bunch of favorites and was glad to see they're mostly still there. One of my favorites was Cicchiti's. We'd stumble from the Up & Up Tavern or Buck's Tavern (now Boundary Bay Brewing Company, or The 3B Tavern in recent years), and wind up next door at Cicchiti's. The pizza is great... really thin crust with a bit of a chew, great tomato sauce and the perfect amount of cheese. Some people probably would consider it NY style pizza, but I just considered it a great way to end a night of beer and great music. I was in shock when I returned to B'ham a few years back and they were MIA on State Street. I was very happy to discover they had just moved to Holly Street. I also have great memories of eating burgers at the drive-in in Fairhaven. Also, The Black Cat (Le Chat Noir) was a fabulous place for a cocktail and a great bistro meal. I'm glad it's still around. Cafe Colophonin Fairhaven had great vegetarian food downstairs. Sorry, don't know anything about newer B'ham restaurant, i be old.

So I went to Gig Harbor this weekend in search of milk at the alleged Whole Foods Market I found on the Internet ... you guessed it, it's a totally sound alike grocery store (what a ripoff). It was closed on Sunday, but I looked inside and it looked nothing like the actual Whole Foods chain (who granted them their biz license?). I was mad for about 20 seconds and wondering why I just didn't call before driving the 30 minutes to GH. BUT, alas, I walked down the street and found myself in cheese heaven at Isa Mira, a brand new gourmet cheese shop and cafe (3313 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor; 253-857-7511) They had a stellar looking cheese display case. Hubby and I bought a hunk of Cahills Farm Cheddar, an Irish cheddar cured with Guiness. Oh yeah, it's good. I just finished it off with a pink lady apple about five minutes ago. Here's the best part: THEY SELL CHEESE CULTURES. That's one thing I've had trouble finding locally, so now I know where to go once I start making hard cheeses (it's just a matter of time). Debbie, the owner of Isa Mira, said that she'll be carrying more cheesemaking supplies in the future and they might even start making cheese there (her shop is small, so she'd probably have to expand). Placebo, thanks for the info on Smith Farms. I actually work about 2 miles from the dairy, but I don't think they have a retail store (I'll call or drive by and check today). I might have to find a retail source closer to home for them. My quest for good milk and cheesemaking supplies continues... I made mozzerella this weekend with fresh sage from my garden and garlic. Milk came from the Faith Dairy. I also picked up a quart of Faith Dairy ice cream. It's decent in an old fashioned ice cream kind of way, but not blow-off-your-socks quality. I had the butter brickle.

Burrito Loco's ceviche makes me salivate just thinking about it. Clicky here for lots of info on Burrito Loco and other local taquerias.

Hey Schielke! I have a bottle of my first batch of sarsaparilla saved for you! Hopefully we'll meet up at a PNW egullet event sometime soon, before the shelf life of my first batch expires, so I can give you a bottle. Otherwise, I'll save you a bottle from the next batch. UPDATE: I did not make root beer or ginger ale last weekend or the weekend before because my entire family was wiped out by the awful stomach virus that is going around and I didn't want to bottle up any pop with all those germs in the house. I think it will be safe to resume bottling this weekend though. My plan is to make ginger ale on Saturday, and then it will be about a week before I'll have anything to report.

I forgot to add that you have excellent taste in restaurants. In N Out is another burger favorite. I understand why that chain doesn't want to expand beyond California (and Nevada?), but I sure wish they'd open a restaurant or two here. They really make great burgers. And those fries are sooooo good. I last visited an In n Out in San Francisco last September -- the one on the Pier. A good time was had by all.

Oh, how unfortunate for you. I'm a big fan of Burgerville and I have yet to have a bad meal there in the 20 or so years I've been eating there (I have family in Mossyrock/Yelm/Chehalis, so Burgerville is always on our to do list when we go visit). I do recall the place being a pit on more than one visit, but I'm willing to overlook a few dirty tables that if a restaurant does well in other areas (bugs are another matter, however). What a bummer of an experience you had! I'd say give 'em another shot. The good thing is that it's not much of a financial investment if you are disappointed. Hey, you should also call the manager and let him/her know when you were in and what craptacular service you had. That is very lame, even for a fast food joint. My favorite at Burgerville are the marionberry shakes (served when marionberries are in season). And I'm a big fan of Tillamook cheddar burgers. Considering how few fast food places bother to use anything beyond processed cheese, it's a nice extra step. For me, a Burgerville burger is all about *the sauce.* It's a really excellent special sauce, sort of a cross between tartar and Thousand Island and ?? I'm not sure. It's addictive. What I like especially is their effort to feature local produce and seasonal ingredients. There aren't many fast food places that support local purveyors.

Thanks for the link Laurel! I have sent out some e-mails for some more information. Some of those look promising. Schielke, give us the goods on your raw milk source! After you, like, get married and all that stuff (isn't the wedding this week or something?) Chuck, thanks for the tip on Whole Foods selling Straus Farm Milk. I was doing some research and just discovered there is a Whole Foods in Gig Harbor, which is only about 30 minutes from my house. I went to the Whole Foods web site and did not see the Gig Harbor site listed, so maybe it's a different chain? Sound alike company? I'll have to go check it out this weekend. I already went to Metropolitan Market in Tacoma. They sell all kinds of organic milk, but all of it is homogenized. I called Marlene's in Tacoma, a fantastic natural food store, but the lady on the phone said they don't carry non-homogenized milk (I'll have to go there and see for sure, she thought homogenization meant pasteurization ... I tried to explain it to her, but she wasn't getting it). Thanks to all for posting potential sources. I owe you all cheese!

I am now absolutely obsessed with making mozzarella cheese thanks to Laurel's cheesemaking party and I think I've found the perfect combination: garlic, fresh herbs and mozzarella. People at work are expecting me to bring a fresh batch of mozzarella every Monday (this weekend, I made fresh mozzarella with roasted garlic and thyme. It's delicious). So now that I'm actually making the cheese, I've found a problem. I can find citric acid and rennet and all the usual supplies online or at Beecher's. No problems there. But I need milk. Good milk! And, as it turns out, with cheesemaking, the milk requirements can be pretty specific. When making mozzarella, cheesemakers suggest using non-homogenized milk. Why? Becuase, in simple terms, the process of homogenization distorts the milk proteins and you seriously have to shove the curds together to get a good solid piece of cheese. (I'm sure a food scientist would just love my horribly oversimplified explanation). I've found when making cheese with non-homogenized milk that the final product is creamier and is a lot easier to work with. My experience with homogenized milk has been a royal pain. It makes an OK product, but there's a lot of heating of the curd, kneading and stretching and patience involved. So I have found one decent place in my neighborhood that sells non-homogenized milk, the Faith Dairy in Tacoma. They sell non-homogenized milk, called Creamline, that produces a creamy, rich mozzarella. But are there other dairies out there in the greater Puget Sound area that carry good cow's milk that is not homogenized? I'd like to try a wide range of cow's milks to see if there are different flavor profiles from different cows. How about raw cow's milk? I think I read that to get raw cow's milk here, you basically have to buy a share of a cow or a share in a farm because you can't technically purchase raw's milk (or is that totally wrong?) Also, where do I go to get goat's milk? I really want to make chevre. If you know of any resources, please post here. If I use your source, I'll make you some garlic mozzarella

Welcome dubkat, and kudos for making one of your first posts *from* the place you were posting about. Extra points.

More potential Top Pot locations south of Seattle: In Renton, 3rd and Burnett near the new downtown development and the new transit center. High traffic area. Only a few coffee joints in the area (Met Coffee and Wine Bar is fabulous, but a different beast than Top Pot) Alternately, a location in Kent at the new Downtown Train/Transfer station. Heavy commuter area and lots of retail spaces planned; construction beginning soon. In Tacoma, on Proctor near Metropolitan Market/Europa Bistro/Pomodoro neighborhood... or possibly in the Sixth Avenue neighborhood near Il Fiasco and the Harbor Bread Bakery. Both are foody destinations, near UPS.

Oh, it is so sad that this place burned down! I'm going to check around because it's been awhile since I heard anything. It was such a tragic thing. Here's a link to our discussion on Far Far's from, like, years ago a link about durian shakes and another link about Far Far's and durian ice cream

I can't imagine a childhood without neon colored kool-aid, that is so unfortunate! What a rip-off! Do you bring kool-aid with you to family gatherings now, just to make your point? I'm a native Seattleite and most of us from here call it "pop" although I've heard the transplants call it "soda" and "coke" (when they mean 7-up). I've even started calling it "soda" now. Damn Californians (kidding!). And it's water fountain here. Bubbler? What the heck is that?

Joshlh, I don't know of any mail supply houses, but I really would love to hear if anyone has suggestions (Mayhaw Man?) I get my sassafras "potpouri," sarsaparilla bark, licorice root, juniper berries, vanilla beans, yada yada at local brew supply stores. Do you have any in your area? They're pretty good resources for soda brewers, naturally. I've stopped in at a few natural food stores, but none of them carry sassafras (carcinogenic) and actual licorice root can be very hard to find (most of the ones you find at brew supply shops are actually processed licorice sticks, not actual licorice roots). I would love to find a reliable resource that ships out quality AND fresh herbs and roots. It would probably really improve my final product. This weekend, I'll be making either root beer or ginger ale. My report: next week.

CONGRATS!!! That is fantastic news! So when is the party to celebrate?

Thanks for the link Mayhaw Man. I've tasted the Rainbow Flavor extracts and haven't been all that impresed (they need doctoring). I'm curious about Zatarain's. What a bargain at $1.80 a bottle. That will be great for experimenting (and affordable). I really enjoy experimenting with mixtures of different herbs and sweeteners, and it's affordable enough for an occasional hobby, but I've been working on cream soda, and the vanilla beans are getting expensive As for the carbonation, this is the same thing everyone tells me. I'm just thrilled my first batch was a success. I wonder how often that is true for home brewers. I hope I don't get too cocky and wind up with a closet full of a pop explosion. edited: to add Rainbow link

Last June, I met a guy who changed the way I think about soda pop. His name is Chris Webb and he owns a company called Real Soda, a company that can find just about any soda pop, so long as it’s still being produced in some corner of the world. Together Chris Webb and business partner Danny (who works out of a California office) are the “soda hunters.” If a soda pop you gurgled down in the 1970s is still being bottled somewhere, they will find it for you. Just ask Webb about Delaware Punch. It’s an old school soda they have to ship from someplace in Mexico. And if anyone knows where to find any Strawberry Nehi, Chris Webb would like to talk to you. So when I met Chris Webb in early June last summer, the Seattle area was on the verge of an amazing heat wave that would prove one of the hottest (some would argue longest) summer in recent history. Webb was getting ready to run a soda garden at the annual Washington Summer Microbrew Festival (held every Father’s Day Weekend in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle). So we started talking about soda. His loving description of sipping down a bottle of Bubble Up on a hot summer day struck me as pure nostalgia. It made me want to run out and get a bottle. So I did. I found it at Larry's Market, an upscale market in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle. There, I found row after row of fabulous soda pops I drank as a kid in the 1970s: Bubble Up, Green Riverand Grape Nehi, among them. I remember sucking down a bottle as a kid, drinking so fast that my head hurt. Of course, my soda pop drinking would drastically change in the 1980s with the invention of Tab in a can. It was the bastardization of soda pop, as we all now know. Chris Webb said something that struck me as so absolutely true and really upsetting. “Commercial soda today is just nothing like it used to be.” Why? Because of competition. As each manufacturer struggled to beat the other with lower prices, the product suffered. Mass manufacturing would change how soda pop would taste —forever. So during the heat wave of 2003, I made a choice. I was going to spend the whole summer drinking only bottled soda. Of course, this was not possible at all times, but for the most part, I avoided most canned sodas and only tried to drink the stuff in the glass bottle (and preferably an old fashioned style soda). It was a great summer. I tried Moxie’s and Vernors. I sipped Bubble Up and Green River, just like when I was a kid. Oh Nehi, sweet, sweet Nehi. Then I thought, why don’t I make my own soda? That’s when my obsession started. I went to a local beer supply shop, and started researching the ingredients of soda pop. I started messing around with brewing teas made from sassafras and sarsaparilla, juniper berries and licorice roots to see if I could find a combination that would taste like what I imagined old fashioned root beer and sarsaparilla would taste. I came up with a strange assortment of concoctions using molasses and honey and cane sugar. I read Stephen Cresswell's "Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop" It would prove to be a great resource. I knew after reading Cresswell's book that natural carbonation is the ultimate in the soda pop experience. I knew that if I wanted to take my soda to the next level, I would have to eventually experiment with yeast to naturally carbonate the soda, but frankly, the idea seemed daunting. There were so many variables. What if I bottled incorrectly and a dreaded microbe gave my soda a funky taste? What if I used too much yeast and all my bottles exploded? What kind of supplies would I need? I put off the yeast experimentation and focused on making homemade syrups that I could combine with sparkling water to make Italian style sodas, if you will. They were great. I wondered what they would taste like with natural carbonation? So, finally, I stopped being a chicken. On Feb. 28, I took the plunge. I went back to my local brew supply shop and bought a bottle capper, a case of bottles and caps, some champagne yeast, a brewing bucket, a good thermometer and some sanitizer. I was ready to roll. And I only had to lay out about $50. With the help of my handy assistant, my husband, we set to work on making soda. I brewed together a combination I like: sarsaparilla bark, sassafras, licorice root, molasses and cane sugar. I let it boil, then let it rest for a half hour while we sanitized the bucket and bottles. It was an easy process, using a bleach and water solution and then following with the commercial sanitizer that our local brew expert recommended. Then, it came time to activate the yeast. We followed all the instructions, making sure the temperature was just right to activate the yeast, but not hot enough to kill it. We combined the syrup in the brewer’s bucket and added enough water to bring it to the proper temperature. We added the yeast and paused, noting that my fascination with soda pop had just gone to a whole new level. We started filling the bottles, capping them off. We placed them in a large plastic box, equipped with a lid that would capture any accidental explosions, and put the box in a closet. Then, we waited. Stephen Cresswell suggests checking for proper carbonation after 72 hours. The brew expert at the brew supply shop said carbonation shouldn’t take longer than two or three days. And so we checked after two days. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. No bubbles. I wondered, did I not get the yeast hot enough? Did I get it too hot? Egads, did the yeast die??!! Day three, another check. Still, no carbonation. The same goes for day four and five. Ahhh, disappointment. I was convinced I had failed. I told everyone at work my first batch of bonafide sarsaparilla was a flop. I was thoroughly orange crushed. So I left the remaining bottles at peace in my closet. Finally, on Sunday, I got around to opening another bottle, thinking, well, maybe there is a chance that I didn’t wait long enough. Houston: we have lift off!! Bubbles. Lots of ‘em. It took eight days, but there they were. Natural carbonation. And it tasted just like I imagined: sweet and crisp and what I guess some grandpa used to make in his basement to give to his grandkids. It was delicious. I shared some with a few friends over the weekend. They’ve all asked me for any extra bottles from my next batch. I’ve even given a taste to friends at work and they all want more. Maybe they’re being polite, or maybe they really like it. We’ll see. Next week: I make homemade root beer and then, ginger ale.

Shoooooot! Wish I had seen your post Vengroff before dinner at Union last night. We never made it to the half bottle section, but we were fairly pleased with our wine rec. Dinner was a real treat. One thing I really appreciated is that the service unfolded just as it should: they brought us food, we ate food, they took plates, they brought us new flatware, more plates arrive, we eat food, they take plates away (there were three people involved in this process). The pacing was fairly well executed. They weren't very busy, so I can't say how this process might work on a Friday night. I wish our waiter could answer more of our questions, but at least he went to the kitchen for the answers (he kept saying, "the menu changes so much, we can't keep up." Fair enough). Funny enough, Ye-Ye Girl and The Dude were at Union last night too! And they were seated right next to us. Small world, eh? Here is the tasting menu from last night (Ye-Ye Girl, please post more details, I'm sure I'm missing things here): amuse: beet salad. Interesting, but not good if you're not a beet person. I liked, Mr. Girlchow did not. soup: chilled watercress with just a light drop of lemon creme fraiche and a Canadian Stellar Bay oyster on top. Lovely. fish: grilled smoked salmon with avocado cream that was divine and velvety and a shaved fennel salad with a vinaigrette that was just far too tart for the dish. more fish: monkfish with a white bean puree and an anchovy and olive tapenade. The textures and flavors of this dish were perfect. now for some duck: muscovy duck breast with cardamom dusted oyster mushrooms and a port reduction. Yum, yum, freakin' yum. This was my favorite course. I want to pay someone to make duck in my kitchen for me every night that tastes this good. stinky cheese course: a really stinky blue that was just yummy (made from raw cow's milk! yeah!) with a frisee salad and pomegranates. Hmmm. Don't like those little red seeds. Never have. sorbet: Pink Lady sorbet and an apple compote. The apple flavor was concentrated by like 5,000 percent yum yum yum. It was like an apple bomb. yummy stuff at end: a profiterole with malted vanilla ice cream and a bittersweet chocolate sauce. Nice finish. A few other notes: the butter was plugra, the bread was Essential (the currant/almond bread with the cheese was fabulous, and we liked the rye). All sorbets and ice creams are made in house. For $25, this is a screaming bargain. The regular menu also seems a steal. How are they going to make any money?

Hahaha, thanks MsRamsey for bringing that up! I'm getting ready to go to this year's event and it's good to look back at last year's event to plan better this year. Ok, here's my report. I got to go free last year, so the whole event, of course, was worth the price But would I pay $85 (or whatever it costs this year) for the event? Most likely. This year, I think I want to hire a town car to drive me around before and after because this is an event where one can get hella drunk really easily. You also have to be a careful eater. There are dozens and dozens of restaurants and wineries, with each one offering a cornucopia of beautiful food. It definitely is worth the price to pay the surcharge to get the VIP entry an hour (or two?) before the event. I got to go in early and I'm glad I did because I was pretty much done when the rest of the crowd started coming in and it was getting really really packed! Surprisingly, I saved a draft of the report I was supposed to provide last year, but never posted (bad me). I'll try to provide some notes/thoughts here about the kind of food and wines that were served to give you an idea of what the food was like. It was interesting how the WWC arranged the booths last year (I heard they haven't done this in the past). The booths were arranged alphabetically by restaurant (not by winery). Wineries that were paired with restaurants were located right next to the matching restaurant booth. This makes it easier for foodies to navigate. Just look for your favorite restaurants and go to those booths first (that's what I did). My hands-down favorite: Cafe Juanita: A chilled octopus salad with a chickpea puree and a parsley shallot sauce with capers and olive oil. MAN, this was really really good. Somehow, the texture of the octopus was remarkable, really rich and creamy, like I've never had octopus before (I should have asked how she did it). The chickpea puree was very hummous like. The wine was a Cavatappi (Peter Dow's winery, the one that is/was? located at Cafe Juanita) and it was a table wine, a mix of Sangiovese and Cab? I can't read my notes (I had already started drinking). And now for some of my other faves: Cascadia: Morel mushroom flan with black cherries and a veal demi glace. Can't recall the wine (I had probably stopped drinking at that point). Herbfarm: herb-smoked duck breast with a tart cherry strudel paired with a Columbia Winery syrah. Yum. The cherries and duck were sublime together. Golf Club at Newcastle/Culcutta Grill: A mini kobe beef burger with crispy sweet onion strings and a spicy aioli (cute little golf tee holding sandwich together) paired with a Desert Wind Vineyard merlot. Very tasty little burgers. I wanted to eat 10. I think I ate 3. They didn't even give me a dirty look. Matts' Rotisserie and Oyster Bar (the Redmond restaurant): Penn Cove oysters with a mignonette and paired with an EB Foote (Burien winery) merlot. Very, very, very good oysters. I slurped away. Wine didn't really go with it well. It's possible I grabbed the wrong wine, they might have been paired with the restaurant on the other side, or they could have poured me the wrong glass for what I was eating (that happened a few times). This is something to pay attention to. Oceanaire: An octopus ceviche with crispy sweet potatoes and a blue fin tuna poke that was hot as all of hell paired with an Eroica riesling. This was the most dramatic pairing for me, but only because Kevin Davis burst out laughing when he saw my expression after I popped the *whole* spicy poke into my mouth. Ouch. I drank two glasses of riesling down fast, which was not a smart move considering how drunkish I was getting. I think I stopped drinking at that point. Waterfront: smoked sturgeon with caraway cognac. Yum, yum, yum. I can't remember the wine that went with this one and didn't write it down. But I really remember the sturgeon it was luscious and goooooooooood. Harvest Vine: They served Basque style salted and cured ham on toothpicks. I really liked the simplicity of what they offered. It was just simply a piece of meat on a toothpick. And it was funny to see the simple preparation juxtaposed with a hugely elaborate version of a similar concept a few booths down at the Earth and Ocean. E & O served this "meat on a stick" contraption that was duck prosciutto wrapped around old chatham ewe's blue wrapped around a medjool date wrapped around and fixed atop a really long breadstick. It was clumsy to eat and everyone who was carrying them looked really silly. I ditched mine in the garbage. It would have been better as a small bite with just the meat, cheese and date skewered with a toothpick. And speaking of Earth and Ocean, the desserts that Sue McCown, who actually was the one who was serving the desserts to the passers by, were so damn good. She made her cherry crackle pop tart and it was reaaaaaly sweet, but I really like sweet sometimes, so it worked. She also had a lemon citrus cake and a "Mr. Fig Newton to You" fig dessert that was just a yummy blend of figs, cinnamon and cloves. Her desserts were paired with a Bainbridge Island winery Siegerrebe and it was really a nice little apertif, very sweet and (I think) they said it was a late harvest wine. Other dishes I liked: Brasa: Chorizo with a nice creamy cheese with marinated red onions. Nice and simple. Szmania's: Duck with polenta. Nice and simple. Third Floor Fish Cafe: Seared sea scallops with a ginger cream sauce. With a viognier from Zefina Winery that was the bomb. Salish Lodge: Sesame cornets with beef carpaccio and a cabarnet marmalade; also grappa cured salmon with a really unusual cucumber relish sorbet. Andaluca: Green gazpacho. Simple and really refreshing compared to some of the heavier dishes. Assagio: Spinach salad with prosciuotto, pears and walnuts. Axis: Tenderloin in puff pastry. Dahlia Lounge: Lamb sirloin with merlot onion jam. YUMMY! This was outstanding. Uli's: Three kinds of sausage. Yum. He gave you like 10 pieces. He was hilarious. Going again this year! Maybe I'll get a free ticket to bring a pal (I hope so). edit: to add stuff/horrifying typos

Thanks for the tips and musings uberleet!! I totally need to find that Thai joint (if it's still around). The sandwhich shop you were thinking of.. could it be the Antique Sandwhich Company? It's actually in Ruston, not along the waterfront. Hmmm, maybe you're talking about something more down around Katy Downs/RAM, etc, on the waterfront? In search of Thai joint with folding tables now...

White Lotus, you are right, there are very few of us from Pierce County here. I'm so glad you posted because that means we get to ramble on about great eats in the South Sound region and hopefully other Pierce County lurkers will start posting. I'll ramble on about a few of my favorites and let's see if we can make people's eyes glaze over! I live in East Pierce, but am a frequent Tacoma diner. I agree with your post about the 6th Avenue eating district (and as a whole, the district is fantastic for all kinds of shopping and nightclubbing, Jazzbones is too cool for words). In that neighborhood, I really like Engine House No. 9 (great atmo, fine pub fare) and Il Fiasco is a wonderful dining experience. They do seafood particularly well. The owner is an interesting guy (do a search on the Trib web site about his recent court battle with a jerky waiter to get a good laugh). Gateway to India is great. They never seem to advertise and you don't hear much about them, yet they're packed, even on weeknights. I just recently tried them and I think they're better than many Seattle area Indian joints (haven't tried the buffet, only dinner). Have you ever been to Wendy's II Vietnamese on Tacoma Mall Boulevard (over by Chuck E. Cheese)? If not, I recommend it for the pho you posted about in the other thread, but I think their real specialty is the noodle dishes and bubble tea AND wonderful bahn xeo (stuffed with prawns!). I really really like their hot pots. The broth they use is just killer, perfectly balanced spiciness. You might already know about this place, but near Wendy's II is the East West Cafe, which does a hodgepodge of SE Asian cuisine pretty well, although some dishes are really lacking in flavor (like the 'Viet Curry,' a dish that really underwhelmed me). I like the elegance of the restaurant, but I think other places in Tacoma do better SE Asian food (I haven't tried Wild Orchid yet). Sometimes I think I'd rather just head up the S. 38th Street Hill instead of going to pretty little restaurants! I love the 'Little Saigon' neighborhood on S. 38th Street. Have you tried the La Vie deli? Not always, but they sometimes have banh mi style sandwiches (the chef at Wendy's turned me on to them). They're located at 773 S. 38th St. I think it is Nhu Thuy (?) that is on the corner of Sixth-ish and S. 38th Street that always has the steamed up windows? I've had some great soup there. And I've tried the barbecue place near there and it is decent, but I think they need to use better cuts of meat and let it cook longer to render out a little more fat (just my dumb opinion). I would LOVE to organize an eGullet outing to this neighborhood on some random Saturday, there's a lot of good shopping and eating within a few blocks. Ok, I'm tired from this post already. Anyone else, please feel free to pipe in on your Tacoma/Pierce County finds. By the way, here are threads on other Tacoma/Pierce County restaurants: Breakfast spots in Tacoma area Gig Harbor restaurants

Welcome back Really Nice! We missed you! Thanks for the Union report!

Hahaha, great post Marylyram! And welcome! Ahhh, if only I had encountered Jeff B. before he became the totally jaded ubercrappy waiterboy he has become. So sad!

I so wanted to bust out the whup-ass on Jeff B.

My dinner at the Seattle Melting Pot with my mom and two sisters was a horrifying ordeal. The food was just terrible and it was almost hysterical how bad the service was. Jeff B. was our server's name, that bastard. If it wasn't one thing it was another with Jeff B. He took forever to get our drinks, then he wouldn't let us move to a table with two burners (offering no explanation), so we had to limit our selections as we only had one burner -- and that burner didn't even work very well (we had to get a manager to come fix it). The pauses between courses were painfully long -- and the place was dead and they DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO ACTUALLY COOK OUR FOOD FOR US. I was the designated 'complainer' of the table and when dessert rolled around and we had yet ANOTHER complaint, Jeff B., the bastard, actually *rolled his eyes* at me when I told him that the brownies and poundcake were frozen solid and were inedible. He didn't bother bringing us any that were defrosted, so we didn't bother leaving a tip. Needless to say, we left pissed, with $150 less in our pockets and nauseated from all the grease. We all vowed never to return and we still haven't. I bet Jeff B. is still working there.