laurel

Mashiko will be open Christmas Eve. There will definitely be seafood there...

I actually really like the fried catfish at Dixies. Moist, tender fish with a just-greasy-enough cornmeal coating... It probably helped that I had to wait 5 minutes for it and got it right out of the fryer.

If they don't happen to have them there (I've always seen them, so I'm sure they will), you can take the free bus down to Uwajimaya.

Yes, I have. It turns out pretty reasonably. However, make sure you peel it a lot; the outer part is very fibrous.

Too bad you didn't post about them about 2 weeks ago.. I saw them (or something that looked like them) for 10 EUR each in Paris...

That might work. When we ordered pizzas for work at my last company, we'd give them a couple home phone numbers so we could get people's favorite combinations of toppings..

You can take the bus (9 or 60) to the 12th & Jackson area for Vietnamese sandwiches, other Vietnamese food, Malay Satay Hut, 7 Stars Pepper, Lo Sichuan...

There's a restaurant supply store in the ID near 12th & Jackson: http://www.ipcsupplies.com/

You can get local Bronze turkeys here: http://www.thunderinghooves.net/cgi-bin/prod-price_turkey.pl They might be cheaper than ordering from Heritage Foods, especially since they don't have to be shipped.

I'm not exactly an expert on Indian food, but I actually prefer the Indian food at Annapurna (http://annapurnacafe.com/) to a lot of the Indian restaurants in Seattle.

Where do you get veal bones? I don't think I've ever seen a pile of veal bones sitting at any meat counter I've been to. Do you have to make a special request?

This looks interesting: http://www.tastingmenu.com/allaboutapples/default.htm It's a 100 page book centered around a single 8 course tasting menu at Lampreia.

I went to Mashiko tonight, and one of the courses in the omakase was a big plate of matsutake tempura. I might have to go back soon just to have that again...

I went on Friday, and picked up a Pecorino Romano, English Cheddar, Istara (Basque sheep cheese), and a tiny jar of asparagus cream stuff. They have a well-displayed selection of European cheeses, with several that I've never heard of, and a lot of expensive stuff in jars (oil, vinegar, jam, pickled/cured vegetables). I like the window into the cheese storage room.

I called today, and they said they would be open today until about 7 or 7:30.

The Cheese Cellar's web site says that the "cheese monger" there is from James Cook: http://www.thecheesecellar.com/MainPages/T...eeseMonger.html and that he's been touring cheese farms in Scotland and Europe in the past 2 years, so maybe not so sad :)

On the theme of good cheese shops in unlikely places: http://www.bayleaf.us/cheese.html in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. Lots of harder to find local cheeses along with a good selection of European stuff. [edit: typo]

I ordered some Tibetan Yak Cheese from igourmet through Amazon. It came in a styrofoam cooler with a couple of those plastic bags of frozen gel. Most places will automatically do overnight shipping.

I certainly hope they are. Do cultivated chantrelles, boletes, or morels even exist?

There's an article about it here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/psst.html

I heard that Gypsy is doing a mushroom dinner...

Cool, I saw their opening-soon-or-at-some-point-in-the-future sign there several months ago. I always thought beer and books made more sense than coffee and books..

An amazon search says it's on the menu at Fado: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000063G54

This post reminded me that I wanted to try the prix fixe family style dinner I read about in the PI: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/189773_dining08.html. Anyone want to make this an egullet expedition?

Are you talking about Il Vero? They're moving there from a few blocks away on Spokane St. I've driven by many times but have never stopped there: http://www.ilverodeli.com/