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This is a great list! Thanks for your help....and recommendations. Clearly I need to spend some more time with my copy of Tom Douglas' "Seattle Kitchen." Nice! And I've been happily investigating some of the other recommendations...Cookbook junkie confession: I go looking for suggestions for my friend and I end up making a few purchases for myself...LOL! Thanks again everyone.

These are great recommendations everyone. Thank you! I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a little cookbook shopping now too! By the way, if any of you have the Tom Douglas "Big Dinner's" cookbook, the Chinese clams are delish. I get serious cravings for that dish. (Sadly, so far, that's the only stand out for me in that book) I also have the Feenie's book and have really enjoyed everything I've made from it. It's the kind of book that if I lost it, I'm sure I'd buy another copy. The Traunfeld books are real winners. I've enjoyed every recipe I've tried. Many of the recipes are so easy and yet deliver such great flavor. Amazing. I've see several folks mentioned they liked Tom Douglas' "Seattle Kitchen." Can you point me to which recipes you enjoyed the most?

These are great recommendations. In fact, I have a couple of these books myself, but haven't cooked from them. I'm glad others are enjoying them...it makes me want to take a closer look! I was wondering....I'm not very familiar with chefs out of Portland and Vancouver, BC. Are there any cookbook authors that haven't been mentioned here yet? Is there anyone else worth looking into?

Also, to maximize your book buying possibilities, I'd consider making your purchases online instead of the bookstore. For the same $40 face value at the bricks and mortar bookstores, I can often buy 2-3 books online...especially if you're willing to buy them used. Check out Fetch Book to find the best deals online.

Help! My friend asked me for PNW cookbook recommendations. She wants to buy a couple books for a chef who is moving to Portland. I'm stumped. I've recommended the Herbfarm book, but she's looking for a couple more. What else would you suggest as a good intro to Pacific NW cuisine? And why?

Thanks for the update....It should be interesting to see what makes it through the editing process. It sounds like at least one segment will be used in the international airing...but I got the impression, it won't be used for the one aired in the US.

I picked up some more nibs at the Whole Foods by my house (Bellevue). They sell the Del Rey brand and it was located by the fine chocolates display (near the bakery). I'm thinking the other Whole Foods have nibs too...perhaps in a different place than I'd expect (end unit vs. baking isle). It's worth asking...

I just bought nibs at Theo's on Friday. They sell them in 6 oz. portions... BTW...the entrance of Theo has moved since the last time I was there. It's now on the North side of the building.

Abra...these are so beautiful! Since I was without power just before Christmas (9 days!), I didn't get a chance to do any baking. I'm doing Valentine's Day carepackages instead...and I just placed my first order with Nashville Wraps. Thanks for the tip! Question: the box size you have here looks perfect. Do you recall what size box you used? There's the 7" or the 5", square or oblong... Now, cross my fingers, hopefully I can replicate something almost as lovely as your boxes!

← SATURDAY Breakfast: Ken's Artisan Bakery or Pearl Bakery ← Ooohhhh Ken's! I had my first canele there...and I've been fantasizing about them ever since! Next time I'm in Portland, I'll be making a beeline for Ken's.

These are beautiful! I'm assuming you cooked them for a shorter time in these molds. Do you have any idea how long they baked?

I've now made the Cranberry Upside-Downer cake 3 times and I love it! I almost panicked when I couldn't find cranberries at my local grocer. Yesterday I was baking for a big group (100 people) and featured the Upside Downer as part of a collection of cookies and brownies. I tripled the recipe and baked it in a half sheet pan with a collar. The finished batch was cut into squares like brownies. YUM! Earlier discussion about the cranberries creeping into the batter seems to be easily solved if you freeze the cranberries. Dorrie notes in the recipe that the frozen berries will cause butter congeal...not to worry. I find the congealed butter actually helps keep the cranberry & nuts in place as you spread the batter over the top.

Hi everyone! I just received an update from the No Reservations/Travel Channel folks. The Pacific Northwest episode has a new air date: January 22nd. If all goes well through the editing process, expect to see some familiar faces!

Tamiam shared some of her Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake with me and it was delish! I loved the contrast with the peanut and the caramel. Her caramel seemed to be really dark and had the most wonderful flavor. The fleur de sel on top was a nice touch. YUM! I made the cranberry upsidedown cake and it turned out great. I did use frozen cranberries and perhaps the cool cranberries, congealing with the warm butter helped my cranberries stay in place. By the time the dough was ready, the butter/cranberry/walnut mixture seemed more of a solid mass and that seemed to do the trick. I shared cranberry cake with a friend of mine today and he meant to take only a bite and save the rest for later....somehow he managed to polish it off on the spot. I've been invited to bring samples from THAT BOOK anytime!

In September, I took 3 full days of classes at the Chiang Mai School of Thai Cookery plus a 2 hour private class in vegetable/fruit carving. I thought the classes were excellent. 2 of the 3 days, we had less than 10 people with 3 instructors available at all times. $22/day including transportation. I know they offer private classes as well. If I had the chance to take a private class from a guy named Ollie, I'd jump at it. I liked his style and he was very good. Ollie has a terrific attention to detail and flavor. He's also lived both in the UK and US so his English was flawless. If you check the website, the classes vary each day. I'd highly recommend taking one of the classes that start with the discussion about Thai ingredients. It was very through and although I had cooked Thai food before and have easy access to the ingredients where I live, I still learned a lot. On the grounds at "the house" location, they also grow their own green pepercorns, pandan, galangal, etc. If you go, ask them to show you the plants. I regularly take classes at home (4-5 times a month...or more) and I thought the Chiang Mai School was great. It exceeded my expectations.

Thanks for the scoop about the salad. I'm going to play with that a bit and see if I can't get close...I loved it. No, the restaurant was not in Sukhothai. It was just outside of Chiang Mai...along the pottery/umbrella/jewelry/Indian carpet trail (apparently there's a concentration of those on one road). The restaurant was about a half mile off that road, on a little lake. It was HUGE and nearly empty...I'm assuming mostly due to the low season. But given the size of the place, it looked like it accommodated tour groups. They easily had seating for 200. I hired a guide for the day and that was one of the places he took me to.

Okay, I get it...salty, sour, sweet and spicy...and bitter. Good to know my experience was exactly how it should have been. Now I know I just don't like them. Thanks also for the link to your blog and the curry recipe. I love curries, and I've enjoyed perusing through your blog. I appreciate the analysis and find there's a ton of useful content. Thanks Austin. I fell in love with this "salad" while I was in Chiang Mai. It was fried morning glory vines. The dressing/sauce was served on the side and it was sweet, sour and spicy with bits of ground pork sausage. The two times I had it, one had a fried egg on top, the other time it didn't. I never did catch the name of that dish. Do you know that dish? Also, is the coating typically just flour? I was told in the US you can substitute deep fried spinach for the morning glory vines (I had no idea they were even edible). That dish was one of my favorites on my most recent trip. I only wish I could get a recipe. None of my Thai cookbooks feature that dish.

RE: the pea sized eggplants...I found them quite bitter. Maybe when I had them (September) that wasn't the peak season. The outer skin is quite leathery and perhaps they would benefit from being thrown in the mix earlier. Based on the bitterness I experienced, I would want to leave them out of recipes. Have you all experienced those eggplants as being bitter? Just curious. By the way, I've finally loaded up photos from my September trip to Thailand. Just in case you want to take a look, photos are here. There are a bunch of photos, but if you click on the Slideshow feature and adjust the speed faster, it should take about 10 minutes to view. Many thanks to everyone for helping me decipher some of the food stuff post trip....

Tony Bourdain and his crew were here in Seattle (and Portland) this summer...filming for the No Reservations show. I've just heard from their production folks and it looks like the Seattle episode is due to air February 5th. I heard Tony's effort at goeduck hunting was absolutely hysterical! I can't wait to see what else makes the cut.

I'm so happy to hear you had a wonderful time here in Seattle! You've hit on some of my favorite restaurants...and some I've been meaning to try. Thanks for the excellent recap Cheers!

Austin...thanks again! Please let me know when the guidebook is released with your food and drink content. I'd love to check it out. One thing that frustrated me on my search for information is that most sources I found give just an overview. "Here's what you will most commonly encounter"....kind of thing. While I can appreciate that, I'd love to see a book that encompasses the foods in Thailand or even SE Asia that are more uncommon, regional, or seasonal. I'm sure, like all things, economics plays a significant factor. I'm not sure how much of a market there would be for that kind of book, but personally, I'd love it! In the meantime, I appreciate your willingness to crack the mystery on some of these things. Are you currently based out of Thailand?

I believe Oyster Bill from Taylor Shellfish is the best place to get fresh oysters. I bought some clams from him and the pull tag on mine says they were harvested on 10/13 and I bought them the morning of 10/14. I'm sure the dates for oysters would be similar (or at least close, depending on where they came from). Not only that, if you catch OB without a crowd, he'd be more than happy to talk to you about the oysters--which oysters harvested from which location have the best flavor, what impact seasonality has, etc. He's a great resource.

You beat me to it! Wow, that's one combo I never would have thought of! "I just happened to have some caviar lying around..." Crack me up! One fun thing to do is visit Seattle Caviar. It's been a while since I've been there for this so you'll have to call them for the latest details, but they used to do caviar and champagne tastings on Saturdays for $5. They have skimpy details about tastings on their website, but it looks like they do definitely still have them. Anyone else been to Seattle Caviar for their tastings lately?

Shalmanese...I had a great time running around with you today! I'd love to hear what you end up doing with the Taylor Shellfish clams and the house made rigatoni from Union. Sounds like you had an awesome plan for those.... As for your cultural bakery stop....um...let's just say...we were in the neighborhood. Where else...in all your travels...have you ever seen a place like that???? Sorry I couldn't join you and heyjude for PFI...those small kiwi were calling me back to the Farmer's Market. I'm not sure what they did with them, but they ended up on Union's menu tonight! I'll look forward to hearing more about your Seattle adventures. Cheers!

Hi Dandelion. Here's the scoop on what's up with the Bruschettina lady... Ironically enough, I met her beau, Federico. He's a lovely man and I wish them all the best!