Ron Seale

Welcome back. You will likely find that Seattle continues to change for the better, and restaurants are part of it. Your old favorites, Lampreia and Matt's are still earning their stripes. Matt has enlarged his space in the same spot for the better. Other old favorites, Flying Fish and Campagne are as good as they ever were, as is Wild Ginger in its beautiful new location. One good addition to the Market scene is the Steelhead Diner (not a diner). Some of the better spots now appear in Ballard, of all places. A personal favorite is La Carta de Oaxaca for authentic Mexican. Also, Volterra for upscale Italian, and Bastille for good French bistro. These are all on Ballard Ave. That's enough for now. Hope you enjoy your stay.

Has anyone tried the Tomato recipe? I had a go at it last summer. It was an amusing way to spend a week, full time, and still not be able to complete the dish. I went through a lot of gelatin attempting to make the roll, and a lot of mozzarella trying to make the balloon. However, I served it anyway, with a cube instead of a roll, and mozzarella topped with tomato water foam. After all was said and done, I'm not that curious to try another marathon recipe.

PROTEIN. Does that include pork belly? How about tofu? This is a very lazy word used to denote the flesh of mammals, fowl and fish, and I'll be pleased when it passes. Why not call them water, the most abundant component of flesh? YUMMO. I'll add my ditto to this stinker, but then consider the source, the Sarah Palin of food.

Just for fun, I bought live crabs, cooked and cleaned them and weighed the meat. Turns out that crab meat from the same store (Uwajimaya, Seattle)was slightly less expensive. go figure.

Sorry about that. For liquors, we have a problem, since we have state liquor stores, not independent distributors. I can't recommend one over another, as they are fairly uniform and only provide common selections for the most part.

Endy, I can recommend two places: 1. Esquin. Probably the most comprehensive wine store in the area, and they have a computerized inventory to aid your quest. It's also the easiest to find from downtown, on South 4th Ave, south of the stadiums. You can google or mapquest for details. 2. Peet's Deli, located on Lake Union. A little harder to find, but a very cool place, and the staff really know their stuff. A bit more eclectic, but good quality wines. You might also enjoy walking around the floating home neighborhood and enjoying the view and laid back atmosphere for an out of the way tourist experience. Mapquest is a must for finding this place. 3. Not in Seattle, but if you have hard to find wines, try K&L Wine Merchants by e-mail and mail order. I was able to find an obscure Spanish wine there after returning from Spain.

I have to respond to Suzanne F's comment: sous vide cooking is not like cooking en papillote, which is steaming. The vacuum bag allows intimate contact with the cooking medium (convection) for efficient heat transfer and precise temperature control (also not true for en papillote, where steam temperatures may rise significantly above the desired done temp.). Last, a marinade or flavor medium stays in intimate contact with the item. You can achieve a fair level of success with a home vacuum sealer, but your ability to include a liquid is very limited. I don't know if Food Saver bags have been tested for leaching of undesirable chemicals under high temperature, and this question begs to be answered given the growing popularity of sous vide.