malarkey

Speck and I will make an appearance at this dinner (and we'll sit and EAT too!) so if anyone else is planning on coming, let me know!

We actually discussed this, because, believe it or not, we HAVE read Kitchen Confidential and we are STILL willing to do a Eggs Bene crawl. We wondered, are we risking gastro-intesinal melt down? Should we limit it to finer establishments, and go when they first open? We pretty much decided that keeping to the last two might help us avoid disaster. But yes, we are STILL willing to do it, because goddamit, Eggs Benedict, washed down with champagne, is nirvana. And all that said, I've been eating Eggs Benedict out in finer establishments for YEARS without incident. knock on wood... I do love to make it at home also. It is a great start to a Sunday morning...

35th St Bistro is having a wine dinner this coming Wednesday, the 24th. I've had 3 meals here now, and I think this place is shining ! ________________________________ Subject: J.Christopher Wine Dinner Just a reminder... One of Oregon's best winemakers will be with us next Wednesday: Wednesday, August 24 Jay Somers, J. Christopher Winery Jay Somers got his start making wine at Oregon’s boutique winery, Cameron. Jay is now making his own wines, heralded as among the most interesting wines to come out of Oregon. We’ll be enjoying his Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noirs, paired with Jay, his wife Rhonda, and six delicious courses of summer's luscious ingredients, including. Please Join us for this very special evening. The cost is $75/person, excluding tax and gratuity, and reservations are required. This dinner is selling quickly - book a table between 6 and 9:30 by calling the 35th Street Bistro at 206.547.9850, or by email at jchrist@35bistro.com. The Menu: Heirloom Tomato Salad, baby greens, balsamic syrup '03 Chehalem Vineyard Chardonnay Rabbit Stuffed Crêpes, melted leeks, summer vegetable succotash '03 Cuvee Lunatique Chardonnay Seared Sea Scallop, fresh angel hair pasta, fines herbs '04 Croft Sauvignon Blanc Roasted Black Cod, organic baby vegetables, parsley coulis '03 Willamette Pinot Noir Lamb Two Ways: Grilled rib chop over braised lamb sweetbreads '02 Cuvee Saskia Pinot Noir Apple Tarte, aged Grafton Farms Cheddar '04 Willamette Riesling

next time we'll be equipped with the camera!! But yes, Rocky is right. The eggs bene at 35th St Bistro rocked my world. Its the best eggs bene I've had in years, since the old Illiterati closed.

I am extremely interested in charcuterie. What I'd like to attempt is Saucisson a l'Ail and Saucisse de Morteau. Also duck or goose proscuitto. MMMmmm.

Had lunch at 35th St Bistro on Tuesday with a friend. We order moules et frites and the Smoked Trout Salad. The moules came in an aromatic broth flavored with fresh thyme, with a tiny brunoise of garlic & carrot, accompanied by great crunchy frites! This was so tasty and it warmed me on a cool fall day (yes I know, its August and I said the F word). The trout comes with arugula and triangles of toasted brioche with a creme fraiche/horseradish drizzle on the side. I'm wondering if they smoke their own trout..? It was a lovely salad, very good flavors. Brouwer's could take a page from these folks on how to make Moules et Frites. Dangerous to know this place is within a short distance of where I live.. And the dinner menu sounds really inviting!!

We paid a visit to this wonderful little establishment while in Victoria this past weekend. How divine it is! We sampled various delicacies: a savory bread pudding with cheese, tarragon and sausage; a dried chorizo type sausage, some of the brioche crostini, the porcini pâté, the rabbit dijon pâté, I tasted the Lyoner sausage and the truffled sausage, oh my. How I wish wish wish I could have brought back some of these fresh sausages. But, alas, timing wasn't with us. confit!!! What a gem you all have here!! I'm envious!

OK, well despite everyone's kind suggestions here, we decided (well, *I* made the executive decision ;-) to go to Paprika Bistro last friday night. Why? Well, because we have lovely classic French here in Seattle in the form of Le Pichet, Brasserie Margaux, Cafe Campagne... so we opted for something different. Started with a charcuterie plate, which had a foie torchon, a chicken liver pâté, and a veal sweetbread & duck rillettes terrine. Wowie! These were great. For dinner I had saltimbocca. Now, it was really REALLY hard for me to choose an entree, because I was torn between about 4 of their offerings. One of the specials was the saltimbocca, pieces of veal pounded thin and layered with sage and wrapped in proscuitto. OK, so not very hungarian, but hey, I had to choose something. The SO did opt for something with hungarian flavors: Lamb 3 ways: one was a lamb sausage with olives (killer good) and a ravioli with ground lamb and paprika and other spices and a lamb chop served with something that I can't recall because it was the first thing he wolfed down. Had a Kettle Valley Cab Sauv with the dinner. I can't believe I didn't order duck here. They had 3 duck offerings, one was a special. NEXT time! er, NO, next time I have the goulash!! er... I really liked this place, and would go back in a heartbeat. Our waitress was very nice and we had a great time.

Spent this past weekend at Sooke, indulging in the "gastronomic adventure." Here's the menu: Parsley Root and Pear Cream Soup: warm smoked salmon and lemon thyme potato salad wrapped in borage leaf, a grainy mustard tuile, pepper cress, rose petal and a toasted walnut oil drizzle. 2000 Brut Rosé Venturi-Schulze Smoked Albacore Tuna with a red currant tuberous begonia flower sauce and a sea lettuce, feta and sunflower seed pesto (this was killer) served with a daikon wrapped corn, chickpea, daikon pod and balsamic vinegar salad, pickled red onion and alaria seaweed. 2002 Ehrenfelser by Lake Breeze Winery. I've never had ehrenfelser before, its a riesling cross. Fairly sweet. Chile Crusted Crispy Squid with a green onion emulsion and a sweet and sour beet sauce accompanied by a buckwheat noodle, manila clam, wilted chard, tamari salad and lily petals (stargazers!! I had NO idea stargazer lilies were edible. They are not as sweet tasting as they smell, nor are they strong tasting. mild, with a slight flavor that is like the aroma) This was one of the most amazing dishes. The flavor combinations were hugely varied but nothing clashed. 2003 Schünberger by Kettle Valley, this is also a new grape to me: its a pinot noir crossed with muscat, I liked this wine a lot. Steamed Port Renfrew Lingcod in a Salt Spring Island honey mussel corn broth with a day lily cumin oil and dungeness crab with a lobster mushroom lemon verbena bread pudding, green beans, a salad of oxalis cucumber and yellow beet. Another amazing dish with a plethora of flavors, and another lily variety to taste! 2002 Quail's Gate Family Reserve Gamay. I loved this wine, YUMYUM, I'll try to find some, but it might be difficult. Lemon Verbena Buttermilk Braised Cedar Glen Farm Suckling Kid Shoulder served in its own braising liquid with a basil pumpkinseed Montana cheese pesto, a braised lamb lemon hyssop ravioli, red cabbage and wilted greens. goat!! this was so rich and luscious, the sauce was a sort of au jus and the flavor was just outstanding. 2001 Rock Oven Red by Kettle Valley, a blend of cab & shiraz. Very dark and rich, great with the dish. Cheeses: Cow's milk: Moonstruck's Organic Jersey sheeses from Salt Spring Island: White Moon and Baby Blue Hilary's in the Cowichan Valley: Belle Ann (this one kicked ass) Goat's milk: David Wood's (from Salt Spring Island) Blue Juliette Hilary's in the Cowichan Valley: Waxed Cheddar 2003 Brandenburg No. 3, by Venturi-Schulze: fabulous dessert wine, also very unique flavors, appley, almost sherry-like. Varietal is Madeleine Sylvaner. Lavender Infused Alpine Strawberry Custard Tart with a chocolate mint field strawberry skewer, strawberry puree, pineapple sage sauce and rose petal glacé. Fabulous dessert. Usually by this point I'm too full to enjoy dessert, or more often than not, the dessert isn't nearly as fabulous as the other dishes. Not so with this one, it was really great. The 'skewer' was a chocolate coated mint stem. Very interesting and the glacé with rose petals in it was beautiful. 1999 Gewurztraminer Ice Wine from Poplar Grove We did have mignardises come, and I can't say exactly what they were :-/ but I did taste them all and they were yummy. One of the things that I really liked about this dinner was the use of herbs and flowers. Quite frankly, it struck me that a lot of the flavors (don't shoot me for saying this) reminded me of Jerry Traunfeld's cooking (yes, the Herbfarm!) But I think this guy's stuff is a bit more daring with the flavor combinations. Everything worked really well, and some of the dishes were outstanding-- Very unique flavors. And the ambiance of the place is just so cool. Very relaxing, very sensual. Breakfasts: Saturday breakfast: a puffed pancake ala dutch baby style, with strawberries, butter, fennel and maple syrup. Great combo of flavors. Killer cappaccinos too! Sunday breakfast: Baked eggs with parmagiano reggiano, bacon and greens with a thyme scone, & 2 capps ;-) Sunday picnic lunch: A sort of "borek-spanokopita" thing, but I'm guessing not with the usual ingredients. There was feta, and greens and maybe seeds of some kind, all wrapped in philo pastry, then wrapped in fresh nasturium leaves. This also came with a KILLER good dessert-fruit bar type of thing with cranberries and blueberries and I highly suspect dessert wine in the mix or in the glazey frosting. major yum. We had this while on the ferry returning home.. *sigh*

Kiliki, get thee down to Geraldine's Counter and have their pancakes. High on the YUM factor, and meeting your "soft as butter" requirment.

this is fabulous!! Thanks Arne!

hmmm we are bringing the cooler with us....anyone know what the current border crossing rules are as far as bringing meat back in the U.S.?!?! malarkey, who has a habit of bringing back dangerous and suspect food items in her cooler... man those border guards do NOT have a sense of humor!

I'm very familiar with Jim Drohman's place. It's high on my list too! Thanks Memo!

We are going to be in Victoria for dinner Friday night, and I think I have the choices down to Brasserie L'Ecole or Paprika Bistro... somebody help me before my head explodes!! ..which one ?!?

ohhhh and I'm gonna be in Victoria this weekend. This place is SO on my list!!

I was in DiLaurenti just the other day and they only had ONE type of Salumi salami. ONE?! Either they sell out frequently, or they aren't carrying enough variety. edit: what a great idea to take a picnic lunch to the Brewfest, Daddy-A. I'd really like to go to that thing again... maybe next year...

I recently made homemade green goddess and wow - it's a FABULOUS dressing and a far cry from what came out of the Seven Seas bottle. Made me wonder about homemade ranch... anybody got any good recipes??

HEY! Me neither!! What the hell is that?!? Sometimes I can make it work, but usually it gives me fits. I'm a yeast-killer. Yes, I proof the yeast (if by proofing you mean dissolving it in warm water first). I've been super anal about getting yeast started and following the recipes. Na-da. It rises a 1/2 inch then its done. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Once I went ahead and baked the rolls anyway. They were leaden and tasteless.

But.. I wanna know if the shark was worse than the mexican iguana!

OK... so we went again this Sunday This time had the pancakes.. YUM! They are outstanding!! My only quibble is I don't think they are using real maple syrup. It could be they ran out and had to sub, or are cutting it with something else, but it didn't have that maple flavor that I know and adore. Given that the pancakes were still orgasmic despite the absence of real maple syrup, that's sayin' something about the high art of these cakes!

I know where you are coming from, intimately. I grew up on a farm about 100 miles straight west of Wichita. Seafood was one of the reasons I moved to the west coast! Come on out to Seattle, and I'll make sure you have all those things you can't get there. Come during the summer, so you can go to all the farmer's markets ....which small western KS town are you from??

(rant mode on) This drives me nuts. Lots of restaurants do this. Why skimp on basil?? I want to taste it with EVERY bite! (rant mode off) OK, I'm fine now.

The ones at Fisherman's Terminal are pretty good. Hmm that's a great summer time thing to do... The F&C at Go Fish in Vancouver (by Granville Island) totally ROCK. Tarragon in the tartar, I last ate there at the peak of halibut season. yumyum.

It's my favorite Dahlia bread as well. Grilled, it kicks ass. As toast in the morning, it kicks ass. As a base for bruschetta, it kicks ass. As a grilled cheese, it kicks ass.

yeast bread. from yesterday's failed baking experiment!