Mr. Toast

We took my mother to the dinner last night. She was thrilled. We had a very good meal and plenty of attention from Jacques. Service was a bit rough; we had a few long waits for courses and some people who got there around the same time as us finished an hour sooner. Does anyone know who the photographer was, or who she was working for? She took some shots of our group that I'd like to get copies of.

There seem to really be two characteristic temperatures in a wood fired oven: that of the floor, and that of the dome - or maybe the air temperature in the oven; I'm not sure how directly dome and air temp are related. Anyway, can you offer any advice on ideal "settings" for each? The same question applies to regular bread baking in a wood fired oven: how hot should the floor be, and how hot should the dome be? It's easy to be in a state where the two differ by 200 degrees (or more) so this isn't an academic question.

I was one of those fools who finished the dessert but I swear it was just because of all beer I'd had before; I agree that it wasn't very good. On the other hand, I have only good things to say about the game broth - no grease in mine, and it was quite tasty. We didn't have the waitress problem, either.

Oddly, our prosciutto didn't have this salt crust and maybe because of that we didn't give it a bath before rubbing it with olive oil.

That's been my usual experience. Last time was much worse, though: about two weeks door-to-door. Let's hope Bob was just on vacation during much of that time. From now on I'll probably call in advance to confirm good turnaround.

We ate at Mistral Friday night. The other three in the party had the Chef's menu; I was a glutton and went for the Mistral Experience. The main or only difference between the two is that ME has an additional fish course. I neglected to take notes on the courses and I don't think anything except the dessert was the same as what Shielke reported. When we arrived at 6:30 the restaurant was entirely empty. I'd say it got up to about 2/3 full later in the evening. We spent just under 4 hours there and had a very pleasant evening. Cost came out to around $175/person; this included wine pairings and a pretty good tip.

One specific place you can go (listed on the site) is South 47 Farm, midway between Redmond and Woodinville. They're doing raspberries and marionberries right now, and perhaps other u-pick stuff. South47 website

I'm *so* embarrassed. I guess I should call off the home remodel, then?

Don't give up. Armandino can be a little, um, disorganized, and he may have just misplaced your info. If I understand correctly, he'll be doing additional prosciutto classes in the coming months.

I take it these are opening specials? How long will these prices last? I guess I'm really asking: do I have time to add a "freezer wing" to my house, or do I need to settle on adding a smaller unit in my garage to store all that foie gras?

Not remembering the largely negative tone of this thread, I took Ms Toast to Seastar for one of her many birthday dinners yesterday (following in the footsteps of Malarkey, Ms Toast is celebrating from her actual birthdate through the remainder of the month). In short, we had a very good meal: excellent food for the most part, attentive service. I'm quite willing to gripe about the overall cost, which seemed a tetch high to me. But I gripe about price most everywhere I eat; where isn't it high? Well, maybe Salumi - but I guess that's another thread. Non-standouts: calamari poppers: good, tender, but not outstanding; lemon foam dessert: this just didn't impress me.

Here are some photos: The menu board The Toast Mistress practices Gnocci Interactive Gnocci with Porcini Stuffed veal breast Really Nice! wine Main course (veal, quail, asparagus, cippolini onions) Known cheese Unscotti

"Gnocci Interactive " means that Armandino kind of taught us how to make them. He had the dough pre-made; I believe Fish scribbled down the recipe on the back of a receipt. We each got a turn rolling out, cutting, and forming a few gnocci. So this wasn't a course at all, just a little cooking lesson. The gnocci we prepared were used in a later course, with porcinis (mmm).

No real secrets here to share; sorry. A friend of a friend is a relative of Armandino. We followed the link, and after a false start or two got in unexpectedly. I suspect someone else had Friday scheduled but canceled recently. We enjoyed ourselves so much we jokingly tried to schedule our next dinner while we were still there. No dice: Armandino said they're not taking dinner reservations right now, and they're going to decide in January about continuing them.

A group of us had dinner at Salumi last Friday night. There were three other eGulleteers, all more active posters than me, and I expect they'll pipe in with details. Also, I took photos of most of the courses and some of the action and at some point I'll add a few to this thread if there's interest. For now, I'll just list some of my random thoughts from the evening. Armandino mentioned that as of last Thursday, Salumi is USDA-certified to ship his cured meats around the country. I told him that's too bad; it's already tough enough to find them in Seattle. Armandino's daughter (Gina?) worked with him on the meal. He proudly announced that she's now half-owner in Salumi. My personal favorite course of the many we had was a very simple grilled sea bass, served cold. This was perhaps the best fish dish I've ever eaten. Perfectly fresh, perfectly cooked; just excellent. Other standouts: the cured meats (of course), the unscotti (recipe to be published in Sept. Bon Appetite), the rabbit. I'll download a photo of the menu later, from home.

This seems to be the list: 25 for $25

I made the tomato sauce for a party last week. Very easy, got strong reviews from the guests. This will probably become my standard pizza sauce. Thanks! I also tried the dough. I don't really have anything intelligent to report here; I'm going to try it again and pay more attention next time. A way back in this topic Bill Klapp promised an installment on oven-dried tomatoes. I'm still waiting!

This week's share from our CSA in Woodinville, WA: 2 heads cabbage 2 heads lettuce 4 cucumbers a few pounds of broad beans 6 yellow summer squash There may have been more but that's all I can think of. Last week's share was much better: it included 7 ears of corn and two bags of cherry tomatoes. Mmm...

Tom Douglas's show today on KIRO radio was all about weddings. They touched on location (some people delay their wedding by as much as two years, they claim, to get reservations at the perfect spot) and caterers, among other things. Having a personal phobia for weddings I did my best to keep all the details from sticking in my memory. Possibly Tom's show is archived on the net somewhere?

What do you recommend drinking while barbequeueing the pig?

Hmm, a bit vague. Care to define "not outrageously expensive"? My first suggestion is a few miles away, Cafe Juanita. Expensive, but maybe not outrageously so.

I live in Seattle (OK, not exactly in the Northeast) and my sister's first crop of figs was ripe a couple of weeks ago. That was about the same time I started seeing fresh figs in the grocery store, too. I'm sure they must be available in Boston by now.

Woo-hoo. OK, premature at this point, but still... I talked to the meat man at Red Apple. He was quite friendly and did his best to be helpful but the bottom line is that he doesn't know anywhere to get fresh hog jowls. So just now I tried out the Col.'s suggestion, The Butcher Shoppe in Ballard. They didn't even bat an eye at the request. None in stock now but they promised to order some for next week.

Sur La Table opened in Seattle across from Pike Place Market back in the early '70, I think. For a long time this was their only store. Some time during the '90s they opened stores in Kirkland, WA and San Francisco and around the same time the original owners sold out. In Seattle I think SLT is considered to be on the pricey side. I go there when I'm looking for something a little out of the ordinary, that I don't expect to find in my corner kitchen store. I also love to shop the clearance table. Last week I got a great manual meat grinder for $25.

Excellent! I'll order some from them this week. Niman Ranch does sell hog jowls ($9 for about 2 pounds, plus probably an arm and a leg for shipping). I'd much rather purchase locally. That's good news, too. I've ordered the Niman Ranch guanciale a couple of times direct from their website and I love it.