Really Nice!

Le Pichet is great. I really enjoy their charcuterie. Sometimes the service is a bit off, but their tables are always reserved and full everynight so it hasn't affected them yet. I found my current favorite wine, Domaine Forca Real Cotes du Roussillon, there about four visits ago. We have this bottle every time. It's imported by someone in California and the folks at Le Pichet say they only supply restaurants. Time to open Chez Really Nice!

Actually, by law the tag has to be held by the purveyor for a minimum time period (60 days?), and Budrichard is right in bringing up this excellent point. That's what I get for reading the original post too quickly and focusing on the steps and not the "is there anything to look for when buying clams." A tag (or bill of lading) is a record of harvesting information attached to a container of shellfish by the harvester or processor. Basically the tag means that harvester is in compliance with license requirements (or at least is proven to be at the time the license is given). The information includes date of harvest, where it was harvested, name of harvestor, etc. It's basically a road map to the suppliers should an outbreak occur and the authorities need to track down the suppliers to see who needs a lawyer. See Appendix 8 of the HACCP documentation at FDA's Web site. Specifically "Sec. 123.28 Source controls."

How do you know if a wine is going through its dumb period or if a wine is dead? I opened a red tonight and it seems to be missing the components I've gotten from it in the past. I'm expecting it stay vibrant longer than this year. I'm deliberately holding back on vintage, varietal, and vintner because I don't want responses about this specific wine. I want to know how to tell if a wine is closing down for a while or dead. I still have 7 bottles in the case.

Two things to do to help diminish the salty effect: 1. Add an acid such as lemon juice to the clams. 2. Eat the clams with a crisp, acidic white wine such as a Sancerre, Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

and this combo comes with a coupon for one free angioplasty, no?? ← Nope! But to that I shall respond with what has become my favorite food quote, and one I find myself living by: I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. --John Mortimera

duck fat, crème fraîche, and slice of seared foie gras. Yum!

I just found my next 'must have.' The Rewards of Patience is a unique book that traces the lineage of over 50 years of wines through a historic four-day tasting of Penfolds’ own museum stocks. This is a must have for any Penfold's Grange lover.

Assemblyman John McEneny, an Albany Democrat, plans to reintroduce an anti-foie-gras bill in January.

According to Rolling Stonethey conversation is about that 'special occasion' wine. "I think the day you open a '61 Cheval Blanc, that's the special occasion." We can quibble all we want about interpretting and evaluating the qualities of "most cherished prize" vs "the most valuable"; but I still see a disconnect in the continuity. Just an observation.

Maltby Cafe has a good reputation. Just ask Mr. Breakfast. Wow, this is a cool site. Breakfast reviews for all. Adjusting link so you can see any state.

I finally saw this movie last week and found it to be worthy of a movie rental, nothing more. I'm surprised at all these nominations. A couple of things that didn't work for me were: Miles taking the money out of his mother's dresser. It neither set a precedence for his character development nor did the film makers allow him to redeem himself at the end of the film. To me this served no purpose. Miles also disses cabernet franc early in the film, yet his most cherished prize in his wine collection is the '61 Cheval Blanc, a wine that's about 65% cabernet franc.

I stopped by Uwajimaya on Saturday. Very cool indeed! That stuff is good!

Yup, Palace Kitchen. The only down side is all the cigarette smoke.

Unfortunately, In and Out is not a franchise operation. Too bad because I think that's the only way we can get one up here. The Napa In and Out on Imola Ave. is always on our itinerary whenever we go to down there; that and The French Laundry. After my last visit over three years ago, I'll never go to Kid Valley again. Don't ask. Dick's in Wallingford is the only one I've taken notice to. Their parking lot always seems full whenever I drive past it.

You can find merchants and distributors of this wine here.

Hi Sean, and welcome! Well for starters you'll have to drive. You'll find that the styles between downtown Seattle and the burbs are vastly different from each other. I agree with LMF, Cafe Juanita is very good Northern Italian cuisine. Golden Goat; 14471 Woodinville-Redmond Rd; over by Hollywood Schoolhouse is good as well (Italian cuisine). Texas Smokehouse Bar-B-Q is pretty good, it's also in the same stip mall as Golden Goat. Also by the Hollywood Schoolhouse is Lowell-Hunt Wine Cafe. It's open for dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays 5:30pm – 10pm. It's a wine tasting bar and I'm told the food is quite good although I haven't been there. Il Bacio in Redmond (yet more Italian cuisine) recently changed ownership so I can't comment on that as I haven't been in there since. For Mexican cuisine I like Frida's in Bothell. See my post for this recommendation. Armadillo BBQ in Woodinville hasn't met my expectations. The proteins are over cooked and dry and carbs need more salt and fat. However, they did make Jay Leno's Headlines one Monday night a few years back as someone sent him their Yellow Pages ad; "Real Prison Food!"

Just to clarify the schedule, it's Bellevue on Friday, Seattle on Saturday, Beaverton Oregon on Sunday.

The Bay Area schedule is: Thursday, December 16: 99 Ranch, Bay Area Friday, December 17: 99 Ranch, Bay Area Saturday, December 18: 99 Ranch, Bay Area Sunday, December 19: 99 Ranch, Bay Area You might find more information on their Web site. Jason Truesdell of Yuzu Trading Co. LLC is the man responsible for putting this together. You can reach him at Jason@yuzutrade.com.

Perhaps we should send him a small bottle of truffle oil with training wheels attached.

Here's the Website with a video. It actually looks pretty cool.

E-mail from a friend... Legendary Dragon Beard Candy maker to demonstrate traditional handmade Chinese confection in West Coast cities When do the lines blur between candy and art? If the candy takes two years of practice to learn to make and consists of thousands of hand-stretched strands of sugar as thin as hair, the leap between the two worlds is not as far as one might think. Select locations in Seattle, Beaverton, and the Bay Area will soon feature live, in-person demonstrations of a 2000-year old traditional Chinese sweet made by a master confectioner from Hong Kong. Yuzu Trading Co. of Seattle, WA has invited Mr. Hon Keung Wong, who has been making the candy for 35 years, and his wife Mrs. Sau Wah Cheng, to tour several cities in the west coast. Only about 400 people in the world still know how to make this delicacy, most of whom work as street vendors. Mr. Wong and Mrs. Cheng will demonstrate the elaborate process of hand-making dragon beard candy using a technique that generally takes several years to master. The “beard” consists of over 8000 fine strands of sugar crafted by hand-stretching and twisting a small continuous mass of malt sugar. As thin as strands of hair, dragon beard candy requires the maker to exercise both strength and restraint. Any unevenness would be exaggerated as the strands are made thinner and thinner. When the sugar confection is completed, the candy maker trims off smaller pieces and fills them with finely chopped peanuts, sesame and coconut. Mr. Wong and Mrs. Cheng are founders and directors of Bamboo Garden, a high-end Hong Kong brand which has established a reputation for quality and elegance in Hong Kong and in Singapore, selling mostly in department stores and upscale gift shops. Every piece of Bamboo Garden Icy Crispy Dragon Beard Candy is handmade, and is packaged without the use of preservatives, flavorings or food colorings. The individual pieces consist of as many as 3000 strands of sugar. The finished candy tends to stick together within an hour of being made, but Bamboo Garden invented a packaging technique that keeps the candy fresh for four to six months, maintaining a distinctive “icy-crispy” texture that shatters on the tongue and melts in the mouth. In the United States, the candy is sold in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Uwajimaya locations in the Pacific Northwest, and will debut at 99 Ranch locations in northern California and Washington State shortly. The tour will give customers a chance to see this traditional technique first-hand. Fascinating to watch, the candy is suited as an accompaniment to good quality tea or coffee. Schedule: Friday, December 10: Uwajimaya Bellevue 12-6 pm Saturday, December 11: Uwajimaya Seattle 12-6 pm Sunday, December 12: Uwajimaya Beaverton 12-6 pm

Mark? Ohmygosh! Is that you?

What temperature is your refrigerator?

It most likely will be a take off of her signature "It's a good thing." That wasn't a good thing?

I need to rethink my purchasing decisions and cookbooks are at the top of my list. Does anyone know about the selection and variety of cookbooks at the Seattle library downtown? I went yesterday morning but they don't open until 1 P.M. on Sundays and couldn't go at that time.