SparrowsFall

Thanks, yes, Matt's is what I meant. And I agree that we're awful darn lucky to have all the good food we have. Was just talking about this to a food friend today who spent decades in SF. Moved here ten or twelve years ago. The contrast she made was that in her opinion, pretty much *every* neighborhood in SF has a selection of good restaurants. Not so in Seattle. Now of course she lived in Ballard for a long time--one of my favorite places, but inexplicably to me, something of a restaurant black hole.

sfroth, could you explain this further? My experience with creme brulee is a chilled custard, with crisp sugar top. Was the entire dish warm? Were the raspberries embedded in the custard underneath the sugar? Bruce's Creme Brulee is dangerous, cause it kind of spoils you for the same ol' that you get everywhere else. Think of a shallow dish (like for shirred eggs) filled with rich, creamy stuff, kind of like unset custard in its consistency, but not quite. Kind of...I don't know...fluffy. Brandied raspberries scattered in, sugar on top, broiled in the oven, not with the normal gastronomic blowtorch. The sugar isn't hard--more like toasted marshmallows but not sticky. I'm such a fan of this (I only remember one time it wasn't on the menu) that many years ago for my birthday (at my house--a long crawl up the hill from le gourmand) a friend had Bruce make up several, brought them up and broiled them in my oven. Yum. Steve

I think we spent four hours over that dinner. (Yeah, I know--we were rushing it.) Paced much like restaurants in France, with more attentive service. (You don't, for instance, have to wait 45 minutes between coffee and the bill.) I think my favorite thing was the cucumber soup. Marvellous flavours, deftly blended but individually distinguishable. Agreed on never enough foie gras (but this was too little). Made it at my house once (purchased at University Seafood), and it was enough and wonderful. I recommend this for special occasions. Easy to cook, you just do it in hot oil (you end up with a *lot more* hot oil), and take it out at the right time. A few more menu items. Not all of these are on the menu right now--some come from memories of years past, others I pulled off web reviews to supplement my steadily declining memory. Asterisked items are, I'm pretty sure, still on the menu, though with some variations to the sauces based on what's fresh. (Like I said, at le Gourmand le plus ca change...) Double asterisks are old standys that have been on the menu forever--again, some variations. There are always vegetarian options, but I can't remember them. Fresh sole and shrimp mousseline with chive beurre blanc. ** Rabbit liver pâté (with a touch of cognac?) ** Blintzes filled with Sally Jackson sheep milk cheese, in chive butter sauce. (baked, not sauteed.) ** Beef tenderloin in shallot butter and Merlot pressings (I remember cabernet pressings, but two reviews said this). This is actually boiled in stock on a string, which is amazing to me. Served rare or as-you-like-it. In general I figure anyone who boils good beef is either english (apologies to the many fine english chefs), is capable of letterspacing lowercase type, or has unnatural relations with herbivores. But this is perfect and wonderful. * Rabbit in apricot sauce (different sauce now....) * Boned quail ** Venison in elderberry and pinot noir stock. ** Washington lamb in a sauce of lamb stock, Italian prunes (in season), fresh dill and cognac. * Salmon in a gooseberry, cream and dill sauce Sturgeon in Matsutake mushroom sauce. Raspberry tart with lemon crème, glazed with red currant sauce. There are always wonderful tarts on the menu--what's fresh and good. Don't look for contraption desserts here--generally more straightforward. Homemade green-fig ice-cream, other such stuff that I (and I'm sure you) make at home all the time. There is also a cheese plate. I wish more Seattle restaurants offered this--or even better, a cheese trolley from which you can choose your own. Probably not enough demand though, to keep them all fresh. A good review at: http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/sc/0002/r...restaurant.html

Below, a partial repeat from my post in the Comparing Wine Ratings thread. It would be interesting to hear what other people "value" in a wine, and whether the nouns and adjectives in reviewers' descriptions help you find those "values." Preface to this: you're reading the words of somebody whose dream wine smells like violets and tastes like shit. As with grades and SAT scores, reviewers' discursive descriptions tend to be more useful for me than their ratings. If I find more than one reviewer using my favorite words (including, for instance, tobacco, leather, smoke, earth, fragrant, berries, roasted, rich, floral, spice box, complex), or words that hold promise of same with ageing, I start considering a wine. Sometimes they'll use a bunch of those words, then give it a low score. Then I really take a look, because often the rating results in a low price. If I hear "vanilla" or "toasty oak" I run screaming. Obviously this puts me into northern rhones or (price permitting) older Bordeaux. Also CNP and Spain. In general I prefer berries to cherries (hence, in general, Rhones over Italians). If I hear something like "a spicy fruit bomb" describing a Cotes du Rhone, I figure, "okay, a good-quality, one- or two-dimensional, standard Rhone, like dozens that are available for a great price. (Or even cheaper from Languedoc.) How much is it?" And of course, I have different preferences for different situations. My favorite words, for instance, don't describe the Tavel rosé that I enjoy so much on a hot summer evening in Provence.... I actually have different lists (not written, but sort of in my head) for different wine types and regions, but I think I've said enough. What words describe the wines you like?

I find Parker's ratings almost useless because his tastes are so different from mine. Same for Wine Spectator, because they have so many different tasters and I don't know their tastes. Reading reviews of my favorite wines, ones I've had many times in many vintages, I very often (maybe 50% of the time) find myself asking, "were they drinking the same wine I was?" As with grades and SAT scores, discursive descriptions are more useful. If I find more than one reviewer using my favorite words (including, for instance, tobacco, leather, smoke, earth, fragrant, berries, rich, floral, spice box, complex), or words that hold promise of same with ageing, I start considering a wine. Sometimes they'll use a bunch of those words, then give it a low score. I still take a look. (If I hear "vanilla" or "toasty oak," I run screaming.) If I hear something like "a spicy fruit bomb" describing a Cotes du Rhone, I figure, "okay, a good-quality, one- or two-dimensional, standard Rhone, like dozens that are available for a great price. (Or even cheaper from Languedoc.) How much is it?" Maybe we should do a thread where people list off the words that describe their favorite types of wine. I, for instance, prefer berries to cherries (hence, in general, rhones over italians). We'll each be different, but it might help us all read deeper than the ratings, to find wines that fit our tastes. It might also help us get wines that, for us, outperform their ratings and their prices. And of course, we have different preferences for different situations. My favorite words, for instance, don't describe the Tavel rosé that I enjoy so much on a hot summer evening in Provence....

It seems that several others on this list are like me--there's pretty much nothing I'd rather put in my mouth than sushi. So I'm plugging a favorite that I think deserves to be more succesful. Mori restaurant is right next door to my office and a mile up the street from my house. I've eaten there dozens of times. I'm plugging it because they *never* get mentioned, and nobody knows about them. And it's a great place to eat. Sort of an undiscovered Toyoda. On 85th N at First, two blocks west of Greenwood, across from Bartell's and Fred Meyer. Unpreposessing location. Family run, daughter Emily will be at a table doing her homework. Dad's often at the sushi bar, Mom and other family members waiting tables. Lots of cook staff--nights, they've got a full time tempura chef. Slow nights and lunches, it's not unusual for customers to be outnumbered. This is a good thing, not bad, because their lack of customers is unjustified. Nishino's it ain't--specials will be things like a deep-fried (fresh) asparagus roll, not arugala-wrapped hamachi--but the food is consistently well prepared and delicious. A full-boat Japanese menu--sushi, tempura, teriyaki, and noodle dishes, all good. I take my girls there all the time. (Why, oh why did I ever turn them on to sushi? "Papa, can I have another tako and a hamachi nigiri?" Ka ching.) My sister, quite a japan-o-phile, bansai fiend, and frequent visitor to Japan, thinks this place is wonderful. My officemate, also a japan-o-phile (though he wrote Judaism for Dummies....) thinks it's good but not great. Myself, I enjoy eating there far more than I enjoy I Love Sushi. If you're looking for a good (sometimes excellent), friendly, reliable japanese meal, give it a tickle.

As promised, some impressions from Saturday night. le Gourmand has stayed very much the same (predicability can be a good thing in restaurants, as in spouses), but has gotten even better. Same funky, drive-right-by-it location across from Domino's Pizza, with the interior beatifully upgraded eight or ten years ago (lovely garden fresco covering one wall). Same great service (Sarah's been there like nine years now...) Many/most of the same menu items I've been enjoying for decades, with some additions and deletions, and constant variations based on what's fresh and in season. I've always loved the food (threw my daughters' two christening parties there, back when he'd give you the whole place for a loooong sunday afternoon at a very good price--he's too succesful now). But I didn't regularly look to heaven and say, "omigod that's good." I did that several times saturday night. I didn't memorize everything--was concentrating on eating, drinking, and conversing--so this is a spotty review. Somewhat more complete one in The Weekly. Bruce has always been ready to orchestrate menu items into a multi-course feast, but he's now added a tasting menu--seven or eight courses, you buy desert separately, and you can swap in a different entree than is on the standard menu. Cucumber soup (hot, cream). I aways wonder how he manages to extract and concentrate the flavors in his soup so well--especially something as subtle as cucumber. Eyes raised to heaven on this one. I remember eating his asparagus cream soup two weeks after I tried making one. I was in despair. I haven't tried to match his nettle soup.... They're so good partly because of his stock. This one based on duck stock, I think--he boils ducks, then takes that stock and boils ducks in it. Yikes. One disappointment was the foie gras--quantity problem, not quality. A piece about the size of a half dollar, one good bite or two small tastes, in a salad-plate sized surround of sauce. Even the waitress (not Sarah, another) seems to have felt the need to say "the sauce is really delicious if you sop it up with your bread." This was absolutely true--the sauces are unfailingly delicious--but.... The normal plate of steamed greens and new potates (from the kitchen garden) for the table that accompanies the entrees was especially good this time. Not just the butter imbued through it, there was a sweet deliciousness that came from I know not where. Mussels in some kind of remarkably delicious liquid (white wine involved), among the best I've ever had. Duck in black currant sauce. At one of his cooking classes (last? sunday of each month, watch Bruce cook in the kitchen and eat the results) he showed how: place skin-side down in frying pan, place pan on the bottom of a very hot gas oven, leave fifteen minutes until fat is rendered and skin is way crispy. Eat. Various very unusual mushroom usages--roast chicken stuffed with duxelles, chanterelle cream sauce (take your lipitor in advance), etc. Green salad with fresh flowers from the garden, lightly dressed. Profiteroles with ginger-cinnamon ice cream. A very liquid, rich, warm creme brulee, with homemade brandied raspberries floating in it. Wine list. As smart as they get, and well-priced. New world and old. Often only a 25-50% markup. 94 Segla (second of Rausan Segla) at $36--the same price as four years ago! Trimbach Creme d'Alsace (sparkler) for $40. Recent Mordoree Lirac for ?$30? '89 Lynch Bages for ?$130? Of course you can also get the 82 Mouton for $1,500.... Much more, but that's all I can manage for now. If you haven't gone, or haven't gone lately, I'd certainly recommend it.

What tighe said! (Far better than I could have.)

Thanks to nightscotsman and Blue Heron for making a newbie feel welcome. Off to dress up for Le Gourmand.... Steve

Le Gourmand: again, agreed. Bruce's food is uniquely his own, and the location--off in a corner of Ballard across from Domino's Pizza--sort of epitomizes Seattle's strength in neighborhood finds. Bruce was one of those rising star big-name chefs twenty years ago, but he dropped out, started his own place with his kitchen garden and his house next door, and did his own thing. Sort of followed Candide's final advice: "We must cultivate our garden." *Very* smart wine list. He tells me he's booked solid for weekends these days (hooray for him--wasn't always so), so book in advance. I'm going tonight for a wine-drinking friend's 50th. Haven't been there for nine or twelve months. I'll report, though I don't expect to report that it's changed much. A happy thing, that. Thanks, Steve

Canlis: Agreed on all counts. Great setting, backed up by decades of mediocrity. I went about a year ago, and my impression was unchanged. Their wine list is criminal not only in its markups, but in its failure to be "smart" and offer unusual finds that deliver price/performance value. Don't bother. Steve

Hi All: I'm replying to mamster's first post (sorry to be late--I just signed up thanks to running into nightscotsman at a party last night), but I've read the whole thread. I think the Seattle restaurant scene compared to NY, Paris, London is like American wine compared to French (this will catch some heat...): American wines can go head-to-head with French in the quality of 9 and below on a scale of ten. But when you get to those really ethereal, still-taste-it-the-next-morning, remember-it-on-your-deathbed kind of wine-drinking experiences (I'm thinking of the '59, '64 [yes, '64!], and '66 Latour right now, but I'd also include far less expensive items like the '81 Gruaud, '86 Meyney, or '91 Clape Cornas), the U.S. just hasn't gotten there yet. (Same for US cheese--I'll get to that in another section.) The same is largely true of Seattle restaurants, IMO--though not completely. If Charlie Trotter's and some French Michelin one-stars I've been to get a high 9 or 10, I'd give Rovers a 9.3 or 9.5. It's the only place in town that I'd put in that world class (though there are several that I haven't been to). Brasa is darned close, but it doesn't have that over-the-top feeling of the great places, with multiple courses orchestrated, etc.; it's just great food and a great wine list (though--I'm not really complaining--Tamara seems to have spilled Cabrales all over the menu ). That said, when I'm in France I often find myself thinking, even in a very nice restaurant, "geez, these guys don't really compare to Cafe Campagne." I'm talking a Seattle bistro that beats out white-tablecloth Parisian and Provencal outfits. If we're not talking top-notch, world-class, but just very good food, well-prepared and nicely served, there's Nell's, Le Gourmand, Harvest Vine, Dahlia, Palace Kitchen, le Pichet, Nishino's, Cafe Campagne, Max in the Market, Bungalow, hell, far more than I have time for. Gotta love that.... I agree that Grand Central makes great bread (*love* their Rustic Baugette). Right up there with French boulangeries. Steve p.s. I've been in WA since '77 and Seattle since '87 (following a four-year stint in Manhattan). Yes, things are better now. p.p.s If you're going to Rover's (a rare experience for me, at least), why miss the fun of dressing up?

I'm curious that you mention la Rosine for ageing. I adore the wine, but have wondered whether it will improve much with age. Do you have experience with older bottles? Thanks, Steve

I just had a bottle of the Notarpanarno 95 last night. As always, it amazes me that they consistently sell seven- or eight-year-old wine for the price of a recent release ($13 in Seattle). The bottle age really shows well in this stuff--well-integrated, and even some secondary flavors/aromas at play, though they are dominated by the rich fruit, which is not faded at all after seven years. Also check out Taurino's Salice Salentino at about $8. Steve