jkonick

I've been repeatedly disappointed by U-District banh mi. I'll have to check this out, but three bucks for banh mi seems a little steep

Has anyone been to Kaname, the new Japanese place that is now occupying the former Takohachi space? I'm not sure how long it's been there, but I just walked by today. The menu looks pretty similar to Takohachi's; they've still got the saba shioyaki, but no bacon fried rice Looks like they also have a good selection of shochu/sake.

Looks like the new Samurai is going in on 43rd and the Ave.

I would suggest Tea Garden, on Rainier, just south of Jackson. It has a parking lot, and at least last time I went there the dim sum was good, comparable to Jade Garden. Unfortunately I haven't had any dim sum in four months - I've been out of the country. Anything new on the dim sum front in Seattle? I need to get back into action!

Having now been in Nantes for three and a half months, I have a few things to add... Nantes has a great market every week I believe from Tue-Sun, although Sunday is the best day to go. It's called Marche Talensac, and it's at Place Talensac. Great seafood selection including some Bretagne-only specialties. The Christmas market just started up here yesterday - it runs from late November to late December. There are lots of booths with seasonal Christmas foods, as well as craft/gift type things. Unfortunately I can't recommend any restaurants since on my student budget I haven't eaten out much, but if you want something cheap I would suggest going to any of the many kebab places around the city. Ok, so it's not really French at all, BUT it's cheap and the only thing open at 2 a.m. when you're stumbling out of a bar and really hungry. It's pretty much like your average gyro/shawarma/etc, only they come in a sort of hybrid pita/baguette thing and come with a fried egg. Order it with sauce blanche or sauce samourai if they have it.

Merci beaucoup! I will be sure to check those places out and report back.

I will be leaving soon for Nantes, where I'll be spending four months studying at the University of Nantes. In those four months I plan on doing a lot of eating, so, what's good around there? Does anyone live in or near Nantes? If so, I'd love to get together to eat and get a local's perspective. Thanks!

George's Deli on Madison (907 Madison) has a great selection of mostly Polish meats, plus a lot of other great Polish stuff if that's your thing. My Polish roommate swears by this place.

Jeniac42: I found this on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/506XG4015-Takoyaki-P...79107709&sr=8-1 It's an actual takoyaki pan, and not much more expensive than the one you found. I actually got mine at Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store in Seattle, I think for around the same price. The only problem with using an aebelskiver/other non-takoyaki specific pan, is that the indentations might be too big. But I mean, it's not like really big takoyaki would be all that much of a tragedy!

Hiroyuki, I'm so excited to see you blogging. Your posts on the Japan forum are always great, so I'm looking forward to this week! What kinds of local foods do you have in your area? Rice obviously... I'm also interested in the close attention paid to food in season in Japan, so I hope to see some examples of that in your blog.

MSG on everything. Or plain, by the spoonful. Not that great on ice cream though... I posted about this in the 3 am food thread, but a few weeks ago I made deep fried pizza. The batter was made from fettucini alfredo with shrimp, pancake batter, milk, and mashed potatoes. It was then wrapped with ham and nori, and dipped in barbecue sauce. The thought makes me want to vomit now, but at the time it was amazing.

Racheld: I don't even know how to thank you for that honor. I will wear it with pride. Jende: unfortunately there are no photographs. I actually felt pretty good the next day, although I woke up a few times in the middle of the night with sharp pains in my stomach...

If anything, I'd say that serving bottled water is more pretentious than refusing to serve it. Personally I think the idea of paying for something I can get for free is just absurd, and I've never really seen the purpose of bottled water, aside from foreign countries maybe. The environmental impact on top of that just makes it a stronger argument.

I've never worked in a restaurant with a closed kitchen, so I can't really compare, but I've been working in a restuarant with an open kitchen for the last year or so, and it has been a sometimes great and sometimes not-so-great experience. Some of the things I love about it are that you have a direct connection with the people for whom you're making food. It's very rewarding to see whatever you've been working on being enjoyed by someone rather than just having it go off to a mysterious invisible table. It's also nice (or torture, depending on how long my shift is..) to, in my case anyway, be able to see outside and have lots of natural light. There are also lots of downsides. Customers sitting around the kitchen asking lots of questions while you're totally swamped is annoying, as are incessant little kids and drunk people (there's really not much of a difference), or people wearing so much perfume you can hardly smell the food you're preparing. You also have to be constantly aware of how you're presenting yourself, what you say, how you act. Once a customer complained because I pulled my pants up (they were sagging a little, and I only touched the waist line) and didn't change my gloves. What are your experiences working (or on the other side of things, eating) in open kitchens? How do they compare to closed kitchens?

Had to resurrect this thread to add: olive, green pepper, mushroom and sausage pizza, dipped in a batter made from fettucini alfredo with shrimp, mashed potatoes, pancake batter and milk, deep fried, then wrapped with ham and seaweed, sprinkled with furikake and dipped in barbecue sauce. I wouldn't have believed it myself if one of my friends hadn't mentioned it again this morning. Edited to add, as my memory becomes less hazy: The night started off with three pounds of shrimp, which went into the aformentioned pizza, as well as: Shrimp chowder/bisque made with shrimp stock (made with the heads, some red onion, and just about every spice and herb in the kitchen, simmered for a few hours), salmon cream cheese, butter, milk, mashed potatoes, and more shrimp. Deep fried shrimp shells sprinkled with salt, deep fried shrimp shells filled with salmon cream cheese and pureed shrimp. Deep fried shrimp dipped in hot sauce/barbecue sauce/cream cheese. Also, everything was deep fried in olive oil, which is the only oil my friends had.

I have eaten this before. I think it is a Teochew style dish, offered in some Teochew style noodle houses? (They call rice noodles "quay teow"???) ← I've actually eaten this dish a few times, but at Vietnamese restaurants. Usually it's just called something vague like "fried rice cake." I think it has more rice flour in it - it's usually less creamy than turnip cakes.

To flip it, I usually slide it on to a plate, cooked side down, then put the frying pan over the top. Turn it over, and voila! The uncooked side is now face down. Always works, no spatula maneuvering required.

Hummingbirdkiss - agreed on no good Middle Eastern. Ever since going to Israel I've been on the search for shawarma as good as the stuff I had there... I've been to TONS of places in Seattle, nothing comparable at all. BUT Vancouver does have some great places that are just as good as the stuff in Israel... I've made my own too but it's a pain and doesn't taste quite the same unless it's fresh of the spit. Oh shawarma...

Last summer I was in your exact position - I'm currently a sophomore in college, studying French and comparative literature, but I also have a love for food (and need for money) so I figured I'd try to find work in a restaurant. I basically just started looking around craigslist and found a job as a prep cook at a pretty new restaurant, and applied for it. Partly I think it helped that it was a newer place, because they were still working things out, plus a lot of the staff was new to the restaurant business as well. I basically went in and said "I haven't had any experience in the food industry aside from working at Subway, but I have a real passion for food, I'm willing to do what it takes to learn, and I look forward to the challenge of working in a professional kitchen," and I got the job. It is definitely different from cooking at home - something which I do avidly, but it can be just as rewarding, in a different way. It is very fast paced, so you don't get the same leisurely pleasure out of it as cooking at home, but if you love food and cooking then there's really nothing better than working with good ingredients and making good food.

Ah Leung, this is so exciting, I love your pictorials and I can't wait to see an extended week long version.

Almost as fun as the munchies is making pot-laced food. You can get pretty creative if you think hard enough, a small amount of butter can be put into pretty much anything. Despite the stereotype I've never actually had pot brownies. I think it matches better with savory dishes, particularly strongly flavored ones such as: pot stickers with butter in the filling (pun intended), oil-based Vietnamese soup mix = pot pho, pot scampi, coq au vin (whisked into the sauce at the end), etc. I've been thinking about "special" hollandaise or maybe some pot buttered rum.

I had to pull this thread back to add: szechuan peppercorns (preferably eaten plain, by the handful). Especially if followed by ginger ale. The sensation is almost overwhelming. Pretty much anything texturally interesting though, since it's both increased appreciation of taste and physical sensation. Pudding, raw fish, avocado, really spicy Korean food, dim sum, egg nog, scrambled eggs, wine, raw garlic/ginger...

I once went to a restaurant that had a salad with "forged greens." Forged from what???

During the dinner rush, yell "sharp coming through" then poke someone in the back with your finger. We make this stuff at work that has about 2 cups of vinegar, among other things, and it sits in the oven for about half an hour. If you've ever smelled vinegar that's been in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes, you'll know the pain I've inflicted on several waiters. Steal all the towels.

I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!