Blue Heron

When we had our egullet dinner at Le Pichet, I remember thinking the charcuterie platter was the least impressive of the appetizers for me, and had the least *wow* factor. I remember really liking the house pate, but the 2 types of salami slices didn't do much for me, and whatever else that was sliced and cold (tongue I think). I would just get the pate if possible and skip the salamis. I liked the hot appetizers much better.

torakris, it's great to have you here and to read the perspective of someone in Japan! I have a question about the size of sushi in Japan? Would you say it is normally bite size (as in 1 bite), or is it ever in a larger portion like Mashiko serves, which to me is 2 bites (or one verrrry large bite)? I haven't had sushi often enough to know the normal, but Mashiko's seems to me on the larger side (which I agree is scrumpdelicious, but maybe larger than normal, and am curious how it compares to the size in Japan?)

Klink, this was another amazing and pleasurable to read review! The only thing that didn't whet my appetite was your description of the creamy (big) baby octopus brains. Ack! But everything else sounds to die for. Infact, I think I could eat an order of sawagani all by myself. I can't quite understand the presentation of the albacore toro roll. Is it one roll cut into 4 pieces for all of you? (I've never ordered a roll before). I'm impressed with the family that took their small children there to introduce them to sushi. I remember sfroth mentioning he also takes his children out for sushi. Also, the price for your excellent dinner for 4 sounds very reasonable!

I'm not a huge fan of bland risotto. Let's go somewhere else...

In that case, I'd volunteer!

Won't be difficult to leave hubby at home, since he's not keen on sushi anyway! I wonder how the other sushi places get around the glove rule? I don't recall seeing gloves used at many restaurants at all come to think of it.

Klink, fabulous review.... and welcome back batgrrrl! Did you find out the story on why they are no longer open for lunch? I've never sat at the bar for dinner, only lunch, so I don't know who Hajime is. During lunch at the bar it was always a female (the one who is always there). I wonder where they get their fresh water mini crabs? Have you seen them at Uwajimaya? I've seen lots of sea water mini ones at the shore but have never thought of eating them. I wonder what is the difference?

Ewe! I'm with you. I would rather go hungry than eat another plate of cottage cheese w/ canned peaches! Also just remembered gramma's tomato aspic.

I had a trauma with mayonnaise. My mother had set up a table which included hor d'ouevres and chip and dip. I ate what was a generous portion of chip and dip and then my mom told me that what I had eaten was not dip, but just a bowl of Best Foods mayo she had put out for something else. I was so grossed out my the idea I had eaten gobs of plain mayo that I didn't touch the stuff for several years. I have since recovered from that trauma and eat mayo again (but not plain, and not with potato chips). Also, for some reason (I don't know why), I cannot eat cold cereal w/milk. It must be from having eaten it almost every morning while I was growing up, or maybe from cereal getting soggy (which I hated). I also couldn't eat sandwiches for years after leaving home, I think from trauma of wonder bread. I can now eat them again as long as it's not wonder bread.

I can appreciate a negative review from a restaurant reviewer as it makes a big impact and it's always good to know the places to avoid. But in this case (since I already have a mental list of places that I find the burgers less than stellar lately) I would have been more helped by a review of a place that she could recommend! I'm going to the Redhook brewery in Woodinville for lunch today or tomorrow with some friends and am tempted to order their burger if there is one on the menu. All this talk of burgers has been making me hungry for one! Have any of you tried theirs who can give a report?

No, I wouldn't say that, I once spent a weekend in the suicide capital of Washington, Aberdeen, and I'd rather be in your neck of the woods than there. Luckily there was plenty, and I mean plenty, of booze at the reception and the ceremony was very short. Kink...hahaha... I don't know how I missed that one until now. I'll have you know I lived/survived in the lovely city of Aberdeen for 5 years! including I graduated high school there! (and of course you all know Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen, right??) They actually had some really great places for burgers when I lived there. My favorite place was a hangout in Hoquiam with made to order grilled cheeseburgers at a mom & pop greasy spoon place (which is sadly no longer there). On another note... Friday's Seattle Times had a scathing report on Primo's Burgers on 65th & Roosevelt by the new Kathryn Robinson. Instead of reviewing a place she doesn't like, I wish she would have reviewed a place she *DOES* like.

Absolutely... and the emotional connection can go either way, to either enhancing a meal (which is most often) or leaving one feeling disappointed, depending on one's mood, and/or the connection. I didn't mean to imply by that example that food/taste memory only can cause disappointment, but that it can sometimes be related/mingled with emotional factors that one might not even be aware of at that moment, which to my recollection hadn't been mentioned in the thread yet. So getting back to the other aspects of taste memory... how much is a good memory just luck (or natural) and how much is it that we have to work on it? With finely nuanced tastes I have to work on it. I have to think it comes naturally to some people, as do other types of memory recall. My brother is one of those lucky people who has a talent of remembering lots of experiences even when he was age 3.. I will have to ask him about how his food/wine memory is to see if his memory extends to that capacity as well. I have an ability to remember other types of things, but wish it would be more food & wine taste related. I have to work on that (especially wine). Steve and others... do you have to work hard (taking notes and such) for wine (especially) memory, or does it come more natural?

Our memories of taste can also be mingled with the emotional experiences that we had at the time we experienced those tastes. And that can also be a factor in how we enjoy these tastes at a later time. Reading about your memory of fish soup in France made me think of Tony Bourdain's chapter about going back to France to taste the fish soup & other items that he enjoyed & remembered so well as a child on summer vacations in France. The anticipation of how delicious it would again be, and how 30 years later when he and his brother were back tasting that same fish soup again, although it was still delicious and just as he had remembered, he was left feeling disappointed. And in the end he eventually realized it wasn't the memory of the deliciousness of the soup he was trying to recapture, but of the time when his father was alive and they were together as a family, and that he was missing his father. I can identify with that, although in my case it would be my mother.

tighe, thanks for the review. This sounds just like the kind of place I would enjoy. I am going to go there and try those panko coated fried oysters! Did they go well with the cabbage salad, or was there a dipping sauce for them? I've also always wanted to go to the historic Roanoake Pub. Only place I think I've eaten on Mercer Island (other than friends homes) is Thai on Mercer for lunch one time. It was a good lunch as I recall, but I haven't been back. Off topic.. but if anyone ever needs a good place to board their cat, I can highly recommend Mercer Island Pet Grocery. That's where we always take our cat when we go on vacation. Floor to ceiling space for each cat with many levels in between. It's also a great place (next door) to adopt a cat.

Ben and everyone... thanks for the reviews on Brasa bar menu. The food sounds incredibly good. Are you sure about those drink prices? Maybe the prices have gone up. The online wine list shows a chimay red beer for $5. The draft beers are $4. The online menu doesn't list prices for mixed drinks, though. Drinks menu edit: Ben, I like your new kitty avatar. Is that your kitty?

Steve, nightscotsman asked you "Was the ice cream sweet in anyway, or just the pure mustard (dijon, I assume) flavor?" You've mentioned it had a hint of mustard flavor along w/ tanginess of vinegar and creaminess of fat... so does that mean there was no sweetness to it at all? (I was also curious about that).

Fruit from Eastern Washington is sooo good right now. I picked up a box yesterday of a variety of apples, pears and white nectarines from one of the many roadside farm stands off the highway at Cashmere (next to Wenatchee). I've munched my way through 4 or 5 of the white nectarines which have the best (perfectly ripe & sweet) flavor of any I've tasted yet this season...and are also better than the Pence peaches I had 6 or so weeks ago. However 1 of them was just ordinary in flavor. I wonder why that is? They are all from the same farm. I've also tried 1 Anjou pear so far which was crispy yet very sweet. I liked it. I wish I would have written down the various types of apples, so I could judge them as to which I like best. The wild blackberries are still going strong, too! What is selling at the farmer's markets now? Anybody seeing many chantrelles yet? As soon as we get some rain... watch for chantrelles to show up & prices to go down. Hubby is going on a mushroom forage tomorrow in Eastern WA.

Thanks for the detailed description of your meal at Arpege, and your insight on it. I enjoyed it. Did you like your small cheese plate, and do you remember what type of cheese they served?

hmmm. Have just spotted a couple of articles that confirms cultivated morels are grown by Terry Farm in Alabama. "A Cook's Book of Mushrooms", mushroom authority Jack Czarnecki as well as dozens of chefs have said that these morels don't have the "woodsy intensity" of wild morels and found them no more flavorful than ordinary button mushrooms and not as satisfying as wild mushrooms. One can also try growing them in a kit.

hehe... I know Charlie and run into him in the grocery store, and I like him, too!

Unfortunately, no cultivated morels in the Pacific Northwest (99 % sure on this). May/June are the months for Morels in the Pacific NW.

ooooh... such animosity for Sidran. I guess that means you like my (W. Seattle) neighbor Mayor Greg? Not to mention the guy that replaced Sidran for City Atty lives a few doors down (really nice guy). 3 cheers for W. Seattle! I like Sidran though. Heck, I like everybody (almost).

I'm glad that you didn't notice, because if you don't like it, you probably would have. I *really* don't like 5-spice. I think calling them may be an exercise in futility, however. Your right, I think a call would be futile. Even when I ask him in person what is in the sauce, I can't get an answer that I can understand. I also seem to recall that the pork is roasted without 5 spice. The barbequed duck has the mystery marinade that I am guessing has 5 spice. I've also noticed that 5 spice in general can vary in taste. Some I like, and some I don't. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it's the amount of each spice that is used or varied in amount?

Not much in the way of positive news to add on the burger scene in my neck of the woods (W. Seattle). Elliott Bay Brewery has a good looking looking menu, but the food was very disappointing. Skip both their cheeseburger and their blackened tuna on a roll which was dry and overcooked. Their seasoned fries were excellent though... nice and crispy, and plenty of them. Circa Alehouse has much better pub food. I think hubby had a burger there and I really liked my blackened halibut on a roll there (very juicy & nicely spiced). Fries were good, but not as memorable as Elliott Bay's. I was disappointed in my last couple of cheeseburgers at Pepperdock on Alki. They overcooked the meat which tasted burned rather than charred, and the fries were not as good as before. I'd like to try the Cuban burger at Lina's Cocina on Alki next time instead of the cubana sandwich which I ususally get. Lina's has the worst fries though...they are processed fries. For fast food, I like Burger King's flame broiled cheeseburgers best. I'm not keen on Dick's burgers, but I seriously love their greasy fries. I'm also not a fan of Kidd Valley's burgers. I'd like to try Red Mill's and Daly's sometime. I think for the ultimate dream burger, the Metropolitan Grill would have to have a good burger. I think it's only a couple of dollars more than mediocre pub burgers... and I could get it (safely) just the way I like it, which is medium rare... yum!

When I go to Kau Kau, I buy both the duck and barbeque pork by the pound, and order the chicken lunch special to go. The lunch special is something like a quarter chicken w/ white rice & steamed broccoli & carrots and includes a small container of 5 spice (?) marinade/sauce, which I really like, and tastes great mixed in the rice. I've never noticed any creepy crawlers in the place, but I have noticed the owner with the wispy chin beard thing. I just went to check the King County online health dept. site for any of their infractions, but it seems to not be working tonight. There is another place in Chinatown that's also supposed to be quite good for duck & pork, but the name escapes me. Anybody know it? (I seem to think it is something like King?)