laurel

I tried the wine in a box from Tefft last week, and I thought it was very good. I'm by no means a wine expert though. Their website is here: http://www.tefftcellars.com/index.html It's $20 for 4 liters, so a little more expensive than most box wine. You can probably call and see if they sell it anywhere in Seattle, and it looks like they also have online ordering.

I don't really like the globby fat part either. Maybe the key is to have it in small pieces with the other stuff, like bacon...

I went down there twice, and emailed them twice about it.. I guess I didn't get in. Oh well.

Looks like there's a slight preference for the I-D, so let's do that. How about Sichuanese Cuisine (the one on the northwest corner of 12th and Jackson, next to Thanh Vi, not the one on the southeast corner on the 2nd floor)? I can call them in a few days and warn them to expect 8-10 for hot pot.

Has the location been determined yet? Do we want to go back to one of our favorites, or try the U-District Tibetan hot pot mentioned on the hot pot thread? (sorry, I can't seem to find the thread).

With garlic, ginger, scallion, soy sace, and tilapia you can make some nice steamed fish. I usually use a bamboo steamer, but I have heard (though never tried it) that steamed fish can be done well in a microwave: http://articles.findarticles.com/p/article...198/ai_20036729 I would slice thinly one or two garlic cloves and a 1/2 inch of ginger, chop up both of your scallions (white and green parts), and put it on a plate with the fish, some soy sauce, and some sherry. On the side, make some rice and cook some of your frozen vegetables, and pour some of the sauce from the fish on top.

Hm, maybe we need to do a teriyaki tasting: one evening each participant is assigned to fetch teriyaki from their favorite place; we all taste each one and come up with wine-snob descriptions for them...

El Puerco Lloron in Pike Place Market (in the "downstairs" section, across Western, near the Spanish Table) also makes their own tortillas.

I stir fry them quickly with a bit of soy sauce. Tastes kind of like dry-fried long beans.

Non mushroom eaters???

Well, I live in Capitol Hill, which might not be the best eating neighborhood, but it's central to everything in the city. 12th and Jackson (Malay Satay, Vietnamese, 7 Stars Peppers, Lo Sichuan) is a 10 minute drive, 20 minute bus ride, or 30 minute walk. (depending on where exactly in Capitol Hill, of course). The main International District (dim sum, retro american-chinese, noodle joints, japanese) is a little farther than that. Pike Place Market (Campagne, Matt's, etc..) is a 30 minute walk, 15 minute bus ride, and is annoying to drive to, but only takes 15 minutes if you are not cheap about parking. All of the fancy places Downtown and Belltown are also in long walk/short bus ride range. And of course Top Pot and Vivace are in Capitol Hill, as are a few of my favorites, including Lark (actually more FIrst Hill, but still pretty close), Crave, Than Brothers Pho, Annapurna, Galerias, There is no Capitol Hill farmer's market. There was one planned, but they couldn't find a location this year, maybe next year. Pike Place Market gets annoyingly full of tourists and empty of farmers (today, only Frank's and Sosio's had local strawberries..) in the summer, but Wednesday and Sunday are more farmers-market-y because they close off the street and have farmers there. Capitol Hill real estate is mostly "old world charm", and might be on the expensive side because you're paying for the location. If you want newer and more expensive, there's Belltown. If you want newer and less expensive, try Ballard. It's not as easy to get to places, but Ballard itself is getting to be a pretty good eating neighborhood. If you really like the I-D, try the apartments above Uwajimaya. I know a few people who live there and like it a lot.

Part of the lawn at work is covered in landscaping strawberries... there are tons of squirrels rooting around in them.

Got my first snow peas yesterday. Stir fried them with some chard, broccoli, radish flowers, mustard flowers (all also from the garden) and ling cod (not from the garden), with lots of ginger and garlic. Also, for those who are not yet aware of it, 4 square feet of spinach is enough to eat spinach for every meal of every day. Does anyone have any suggestions or references for fall and winter gardening?

Anyone know what kaas is? I searched on google and only got a bunch of people named kaas and some dutch sites.

For cheap and ethnic, Ethiopian could be a good choice. I don't know how the Ethiopian food in Seattle compares to where you're from, but there are lots of small places around 12th and Cherry (just a few blocks north of 12th and Jackson).

Salumi is pretty close to the Seattle ferry terminal, so you could walk on if your ferry ends up in Seattle..

I was there on Friday, and the employees were sampling the ice cream, but it wasn't out yet. Looks like you were one of the first to see it.

A restaurant, not a store, but Karam's Lebanese Cuisine on 15th in Capitol Hill had a special of charbroiled Copper River sockeye for $20...

I looked at the menu (we were wandering around 15th looking for somewhere to eat after doing some cleaning at our new place), and it didn't look particularly Irish. It looked limke typical Seattle upscale bar food (fish and chips, "Asian" chicken salad, etc...).

Have you tried eating the arugula flowers? I had a bunch of them on top of a salad yesterday, and they were pretty reasonable. Tasted like arugula with sugar.

Nut butters seem to be pretty similar in terms of texture and cooking properties, so you could experiment with different types of nuts in your peanut sauce recipe (and other recipes..) for different flavors. I particularly like "thai walnut sauce" on spinach and tofu...

If they have too much smoked salmon, there's always smoked oysters, smoked mussels, smoked scallops, smoked halibut, smoked tuna...

Madison Market and Uwajimaya (same price): King $23.99/lb Sockeye $15.99/lb I might be a dollar or so off because I didn't write it down. Didn't get any because Joe requested "meat with chocolate" for dinner tonight.

At Flying Fish I've had shrimp deveined with the shell on... it looks like they cut the vein out through the shell (so the shell gets sliced in half most of the way down). Most of the spot prawns I get around here don't have much of a vein, so I usually don't devein them.

Salty's on Alki has good food and a great view. I've never been to their weekend brunch, but it sounds pretty impressive: http://www.saltys.com/alki/brunch.htm