Ye-Ye Girl

It's interesting, I usually get a fairly split response about La Spiga from friends and acquaintances. Personally, I love it, and I am kicking myself for not going last night, because I was seriously considering it, obviously not knowing about the Mario thang. I had a private party there three years ago when I finished my graduate degree. Pietro, Sabrina & Sachia are three of the most warm and welcoming people you could ever meet. They were awesome about planning with me and the co-party-thrower. They made great suggestions for primi, secondi, dolce and vino, but were also very accommodating for special items we wanted to have included. I've eaten there many, many times, and have always loved it. When you go, get Pietro started on his selection of Italian wines (he has some nice ones you won't see often around here), and he won't steer you wrong.

Ah, here's a snippet about joining The Ruins. Seems they were accepting new members again, at least last October. I wonder if their cookbook collection is as good as heyjude's? It'd be worth seeing, I bet.

girl chow is right about Joanne Herron - she used to be the catering manager at The Ruins. I organized a holiday party at The Ruins for a company I used to work for, and when I started the process, she (Joanne) was still there. Seems like she left soon after - it must've been late '99 or early 2000. The setting is luxuriously eccentric, yet manages to be comfortable. The food was good quality, especially considering it was mass produced for a large-ish gathering. As I remember, there was an up-front initiation fee, an annual fee, plus the cost of eating there. There was a limit on memberships, and you had to be nominated for membership by an existing member. Not much different from a country club membership, when you think about it. I do remember our party had to be "sponsored" by a current member.

Happily, it hasn't! The Mother's Day card I sent my mom said (on the front) "Good moms let their kids lick the beaters." The inside said "Great moms turn off the mixer first. Thanks for being a great mom." Though it's been many years since I was around for my mom to let me lick the beaters, it's always a great memory to have.

Best to cross Original Bakery off the list for croissants. I was just there this morning, and they said they only make croissants sporadically and randomly. They do still make brioche, though - on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Just got back from Original Bakery, and they only make brioche on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. They're also closed on Mondays. Today being Tuesday, of course, meant no brioche for me. The good news for me is that I'll be on Orcas Island for a few days starting tomorrow, so I can try the brioche at Rosie's.

Other comings and goings... Recently closed: Fleming's Steakhouse Harbor Place (which used to be 96 Union, and before that, Leo Melina's) Recently opened: The Fish Club (at the new waterfront Marriott) Rippe's Steaks (on Pier 70) Coming soon: Union (at Union & 1st - where Marcha used to be) Baleen (replacing Six Seven at The Edgewater) Bandol - the previously mentioned venture by the owner of Cassis at the base of the Smith Tower

The Saffron Cow in West Seattle has closed its doors. I never ate there and saw mixed reviews of the place, so I can't comment one way or the other. Set to open in its place is Endolyne Joe's. No clue as to what kind of restaurant EJ's will be - the application for liquor license on the door said it would be a restaurant/lounge. Edited to address my own cluelessness: come to find out, Endolyne Joe's is the latest venture of Chow Foods, the folks who've brought us The 5 Spot, Coastal Kitchen, Jitterbug, and Atlas Foods. If EJ's follows suit, it will likely feature a rotating menu of regional specials.

Original Bakery, 4 or 5 blocks southeast of the Fauntleroy ferry dock in West Seattle. I gotta qualify that to say they used to have exceptional brioche; it's been a long time since I've noshed there, though, so things could have changed. I'm hoping to go tomorrow morning to taste again and will report back.

There's a little neighborhood place called the Original Bakery in a distant corner of West Seattle that used to make a pretty good croissant and some of the best brioche I've ever had. I haven't been there for quite a while, though, so I don't know if they're still good. If you're ever down near the Fauntleroy ferry terminal, Original Bakery is a few blocks southeast of the dock, up the hill, and is worth a taste. I might have to go there tomorrow just to see...

Thomas Kemper is my favorite root beer ever, especially if it's pulled from the tap. Henry Weinhard root beer isn't too bad either.

1.5 - 2 hours to Ferndale, depending on traffic and how fast you like to drive. Seems like it would be a good field trip along the way for the next eGullet trip to Vancouver. Edited For Proper Capitalization

There's still a full-fledged A&W Drive-In down in Kent on Central, a few blocks from Taqueria El Rinconsito. A meal of bacon cheeseburger, onion rings and root beer float there is one of my favorite summer pasttimes.

Re: the two versions of Rose's Lime Juice - I wonder if it has anything to do with bizarro liquor laws. For instance, back when I lived in Oklahoma (home to some of the strangest liquor laws in the U.S.), any malt-based beverage with an alcohol content of over 3.2%, and all non-malt beverages with any level of alcohol could only be sold at a liquor store (i.e. not in the supermarket, convenience store, etc.). And any product distributed or sold in a liquor store had to have some alcohol content. So if a producer wanted to engage in smart merchandising (e.g. have a mixer share shelf space with hard liquor), they had to put some (usually small) level of alcohol in the mixer. That was nearly 12 years ago, though, so the OK liquor laws may have changed. At least they're not BYOB anymore.

Chewy-O's - a layered bar cookie using yellow or white cake mix and melted butter as the base, followed by chocolate chips, marshmallows, Cheerios, and sweetened condensed milk, then baked. Easy for kids to make and probably one of the first things I helped my mom with in the kitchen. Campbelled Eggs - essentially scrambled eggs slow cooked with cream of chicken soup. Comfort food extraordinaire, for me anyway. Both are traditions in my family - my mom made both, and my sibs and I still make them. Dunno if the recipes actually came off the box (or can), but from the names, I assume they were created and published by the specific brands referred to.

I baked a sweet potato just last week. Scooped out the baked insides, mixed with grated ginger, salt and pepper, then spooned onto a plate to go underneath my sauteed sea scallops.

I finally got to try out the new(ish) taco truck (Taqueria Mi Pueblo) in Kent on Meeker, mentioned in an earlier post by girl chow. The Dude and I stopped by last week for a taste. The setup is similar to the taco truck on East Hill at 104th & 256th: you can order at the outside window, or have a seat inside the converted bus. On the outside and inside of the bus are color photos of their "combos" and a couple of platillos, with a short listing of available meats, and not much else. Don't be fooled by this. Go inside and take a look at one of their menus, which don't mention the combos, but do show a full listing of meats, as well as other items. For such a small venue, the menu is quite extensive, including shrimp prepared several ways, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, sopitos, mulitas, tortas, tostadas, enchiladas rancheras, and fajitas. Best I could tell the "combos" were simply more than one of a given item at a commensurately higher price - e.g. four tacos for $3.99, while a single taco is $1. I had tacos carnitas and The Dude had tacos asada. The meats both were okay - a little dry, and short on flavor. We may have caught them on a bad day, so I intend to give them another try. If what we had is the norm, though, I'll stick with Rinconsito or the taco truck on East Hill for tacos. Another place I visited recently is Taqueria La Fondita, which is located in Rinconsito's old Kent location, just a couple of blocks away from the new Rinconsito. I was gonna sample the tacos, but decided instead to try their specialty, the wet chipotle burrito - not to be confused with their regular non-wet burritos. The wet chipotle burrito is a monster concoction involving rice, beans, avocado sauce (with nice chunks of avocado), tomato, and your choice of meat wrapped in a flour tortilla, topped with chipotle pepper sauce and cheese. No offense to the burritos at Taco del Mar, but the wet chipotle burrito is what they want to be when they grow up. I ordered my wet burrito with chicken, and it was awesome. The flavors melded together really well, and the chipotle sauce provided a nice kick. At $4.50, it's reasonably priced - it ended up being dinner one night and the leftovers were lunch the next day. Taqueria La Fondita may well have really good tacos and everything else on the menu, but after having the wet chipotle burrito, I'd be hard pressed to have anything else there.

The Dude and I are headed up to the San Juans next week for a little getaway - 2 or 3 days. We'll probably stay on Orcas, where we'll be doing some hiking, but are also planning a visit to San Juan Island for some cycling. And of course - we'll need good food to fuel all that activity. Any recommendations for lunch or dinner on either island would be appreciated!

My recipe includes avocados, minced onions, cilantro, serrano, a small portion of chopped tomatoes, lemon juice, black pepper and garlic salt. I'll use lime if I don't have lemon - for some reason the lemon seems to make it a bit brighter for me. The cilantro is essential for my taste buds (and The Dude's) to be happy. He swore he didn't like guac, until he tasted the real thing in Mexico last year. I think all he'd had until then was the nasty stuff in the chip section. Now we have it fresh at least once every weekend. Just finished some an hour ago.

Oh man, now I need to bake some cakes! As kids, my sibs & I could have whatever we wanted from my mom's repertoire for our birthday dinner, including dessert. Red Velvet was always one sister's request, while my other sister and brother had Mississippi Mud Cake every year. Oddly, I don't think I had a favorite cake. If it had lots of frosting, I was into it. Except my mom's angel food cake, which happily hasn't gone out of style. It was so good, it didn't need icing. My mom also made 7-Up Cake, which I remember being pretty good. I'll have to dig up the recipe and see if it's similar to Coca-Cola Cake. She also made Wacky Cake, and one called a $100 Cake - it was a chocolate cake with a ton of chocolate-nut icing, flavored with lemon extract. I helped her make that one back in February for my grandpa's 90th birthday. Another favorite was a chocolate cake called Dump Cake, so named because you mixed everything all together at once, in one bowl, then dumped it into a 9" square cake pan for baking. We'd eat it warm out of the oven, with butter melted on top. That was comfort food at its best.

Count me in, too. I've been wanting to try Jones for a few months now, and just haven't been able to get there.

43 at my house.

I wouldn't bother with the BBQ out in center field, Klink. I tried it twice, and it was mediocre at best. Love those garlic fries. You can smell an order of them at least ten feet away. And they do smell heavenly. If you sneak in a flask, careful where you are when you drink from it. Regardless of where my seats are, I always go stand out in the center field "beer garden" (that really isn't a beer garden, but that's what I call it anyway), because it's a fun view of the game and the people watching is fantastic. There are always members of the "Safeco Field Alcohol Enforcement" team hanging out there, and I've never seen a game without at least one bust. Good times. The best alcohol bang for the buck I've found at the Safe is the sake available at the sushi stand by the bullpens in right center field. Dunno 'bout this year, but last year it was $6 for about 6 oz. (maybe 8?) of warm sake. Not the best sake in the world, but there's about as much alcohol there as in two or three of their wonderfully overpriced beers. Get an Ichi-roll to go with it, and you've got a combination unique to MLB. I was just wrapping up a 3-hour job interview two blocks from the Safe an hour before game time today. Seriously thought about trying to score a ticket, but remembered another appointment later in the day that I couldn't really blow off. Sure wouldn't mind getting that job, though. Seven minute commute, two blocks from the Safe, five blocks from Pecos Pit, across the street from Krispy Kreme. And those are just the perks! Edited because I'm temporarily brain dead.

Not that you haven't been told this a kajillion times already Klink, but the brisket is fab. One of these days, when I get some more outdoor space, I'm gonna get a smoker for myself. 'Til then, Klink, I rely on your goodness. I'm thinkin' pork is next on my list to try. Thanks again!

Scrambled Egg with White Sturgeon Caviar and Lime Creme Fraiche from Rover's Mixed salumi platter from Salumi Passatelli from La Spiga (I wish they would add this soup back on their menu!) Butternut squash ravioli in sage brown butter from the now-defunct Brie & Bordeaux Gnocchi con Zafferano from La Rustica Chipped Beef Gravy on homemade biscuits from Mom Sauteed sea scallops from Flying Fish Chateaubriand from The Met, shared with The Dude Selection of Quillisascut cheeses from Rice, WA, and Sally Jackson cheeses from Oroville, WA Tasting menu of Desserts: Ciambella with Albana from La Spiga; El Diablo from Tango; Little Bag of Donuts with extra caramel on the side from Dahlia Lounge; Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake with a pitcher of cream from Sazerac, Mom's Angel Food Cake. Wasson Brothers Raspberry Wine from Sandy, OR. 1901 Malvasia Madeira from my house. Meal comes with a really good sommelier - maybe Shayn Bjornholm from Canlis? - to select appropriately divine wine selections, which would presumably include Oregon Pinot Noir and Washington Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. 'k, I prolly cheated with the desserts, but hey - it's my last meal!