eG Foodblog: Ling & HhLodesign - The cool kids at Belltown Lofts

[Smithy]

We were falling behind on the drinking...at multiple times during the meal, there were like 8 glasses on the table for the 2 of us!

Are you sure? How many fingers did you see when you held up your hands?

Lamb t-bones with walnut tapenade and roasted vegetables.

We drank two more glasses of red EACH with this dish. 

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That lamb looks wonderful. If you were to make a walnut tapenade, how would you go about it?

[Ling]

That lamb looks wonderful.  If you were to make a walnut tapenade, how would you go about it?

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I would make a tapenade and add some fine chopped, toasted walnuts and some walnut oil.

[dandelion]

Ling, did you ever make it over to Caffe Senso Unico? I still really recommend their Americanos (I just finished one myself), and the Italian owner, Mario, is a real treat. If you go in, be sure to mention to him that you're from Vancouver -- he LOVES Vancouver.

[Ling]

No, I feel bad--I haven't had it yet, and I remember your recommendation from awhile back! I am always rushing around, trying to eat and drink at as many places as possible when I'm down here. I promise I'll go there before the blog ends, and take pictures of Caffe Senso Unico (and my Americano--with crema! BTW, no crema today at Vivace, as usual.)

[hhlodesign]

We stopped by heyjude's house today to return and borrow more cookbooks. She has a HUGE collection of cookbooks and has become our own personal cookbook librarian. We met Judy and Richard recently through eGullet, and have since enjoyed some wonderful meals together. Judy works with Kim Ricketts events and knows many chefs and cookbook authors. She recently invited us to sit with Emily Lucchetti at an "Ice Cream Social" at Eva. It was a wonderful event.

Judy and Richard live in a classic Seattle building.

The Loveless Building in Capitol Hill

I'm more of a fan of modern architecture. But I can appreciate a well designed, timeless work.

The street frontage contains shops and restaurants. including the recently demised Fork, and soon to be Sue McCown's new dessert shop Coco Latida.

But a small opening on the street leads to a beautifully manicured courtyard.

With residences off the courtyard.

An overview of the main bookshelf

Overflow bookshelves

And when those fill up...

Lorna was entranced with the Chocolate shelves....

The Classics

Interestingly enough, Judy mentioned that anytime chefs come over, they love looking through the Time / Life series.

She says she currently has over 3500 cookbooks! Wow!

[hhlodesign]

You mentioned that it was hot and crowded in Henry’s kitchen, but it seems that otherwise you work well together. How do you coordinate your cooking when you're not doing an Iron Chef competition?  Can we have a kitchen shot, or did I miss it?

Wow, that was some first date!  Has he been up to Vancouver yet?

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Here is a detailed look at my kitchen from me previous blog.

The Kitchen Photos

I go up to Vancouver often. I love Chinese food, and good Chinese food is pretty hard to come by down here. We usually trade off weeks of driving up or driving down.

[Ling]

Wow, that was some first date!  Has he been up to Vancouver yet?

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Our first date didn't end after the Mistral dessert tasting. Henry then drove me back up to Vancouver, dropped me off at home, and then got a hotel room for the night. The next day, he waited until I was finished work, and took me out to dinner again in Vancouver before he drove home.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Ling (log)

[BryanZ]

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A totally random question, but what do you think of that chocolate in the orange wrapper? I don't know much about chocolate and can only tell the difference between "good" and "bad" chocolate but not much in between. I ask because I can get that orange stuff at school on food points (ie "fake" money). Is it okay to bake with, complex enough to serve on its own?

Edited August 30, 2006 by BryanZ (log)

[Ling]

I bought the Santander chocolate because Gourmet magazine had a chocolate taste-test a few months ago, and Santander rated #2. I personally use Valrhona as my "benchmark" because I've eaten so much of it over the years, and I know the taste very well. If a chocolate is not as good as Valrhona, I generally don't think it's worth eating. (I apologize if I sound like a know-it-all-snot, but I'm just being honest. I can get Valrhona at TJ's for $2.69 a bar, so why waste money on Santander, which is $6 Cdn a bar?)

The Santander bars are chalky, don't have a long finish and have an unappealing, fake nougaty-vanilla smell when you open the package. I have not baked with it yet so it could be good (or at least, not bad) in a baked product. I would not buy this particular brand again, though.

ETA: Some chocoholics might notice that I have Phinney3000 (local Seattle stuff) and E. Guittard. I use the E. Guittard in my baking sometimes because it is moderately priced, and pretty good. It's not something I would eat alone, though. I do not like the Phinney3000 chocolate...that particular bar is the "Bread" bar, which contains salty crispy pieces of "bread" (kind of like very small pretzel pieces.)

I don't like the Scharffen Berger bittersweet and semisweet baking bars too much, but I do like their 99% unsweetened baking bar more than the 99% Valrhona bars.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Smithy]

What do you think of Ghirardelli chocolate?

[Ling]

I think it's OK for baking, but again, not something I eat on its own.

[Pan]

Lorna, it's amazing that you were able to take good photos while drunk!!!!

[Renka]

Wow, I'm in awe... heyjude has a crazy amount of cookbooks! That's probably more than any known library out there. Can I be correct in that assumption?

More importantly does Judy mainly collect and lend out the cookbooks, or have any of them been used/flipped through?

Henry, you went to an ice cream social with Emily Lucchetti?? Did she preview stuff from her new ice cream book?? Jealousy!!

[Ling]

^Yes, guess who got to sit next to Emily--ME!!!!!! The desserts that night were from her A Passion for Ice-Cream book.

Judy's collection is her pride and joy. She has a very generous spirit and likes lending them to people who she thinks will appreciate them, so we are very lucky!

BTW--the books I borrowed today are great. One is the new Tartine book, and another is one from City Bakery (in NY). Also, a great European dessert book that looks super fancy.

Pan--you don't know HOW many pictures we had to delete because they were too blurry. Luckily, I took 4 or 5 shots of each dish, so we got some decent ones here.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Ling (log)

[hhlodesign]

Here's a link to some photos we took at the Emily Lucchetti Ice Cream social event.

Ice Cream Social

[Renka]

^Yes, guess who got to sit next to Emily--ME!!!!!!  The desserts that night were from her A Passion for Ice-Cream book.

Ahh!!! Can you make anyone more jealous?? Ha ha. This, the little AB exposure, all the dining, shoulder rubbing with the chefs and being in the midst of it all, I don't know how I'll keep up with you!

I should just seclude myself and live vicariously through you (and your stomach).

[mizducky]

I haven't written about coffee in a few days, because I've been drinking some weakass coffees. What is up with that? I thought the quality of coffee in Seattle should be pretty good whereever you go, since it's known as the coffee capital, is it not?

Yeah, but it's also $tarbuck's home base, so ... there you go. Actually, when I lived up there I would even choose a Starbucks over an SBC shop--some of the most wretched excuses for coffee drinks it had ever been my dubious "pleasure" to consume.

Anyway, today I had great coffee from a coffee place I first visited awhile ago, thanks to the Seattle Egulleters. 

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Now you're talking! The Vivace Roasteria was my personal favorite when I lived up there--in fact, for a couple of years I lived only a five minute walk away. Or perhaps more accurately, a five minutes walk there, and more like a two-minute jet-flight back! Their roast will definitely put hair on your chest--dayum!

Judy and Richard live in a classic Seattle building.

The Loveless Building in Capitol Hill

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Oh ghod, the loveable Loveless. Now I'm *really* having major Seattle nostalgia.

[maggiethecat]

Lorna and Henry: You've given us a terrific blog -- great food, great wine, even a lovebird's Iron Chef. But for me, the originator and Calculatrix of the

How many cookbooks? thread, the peek at heyjude's cookbook library was the icing on the cupcake! It's the Vatican Library of eG cookbook collectors.

(Of course chefs turn to the Time-Life series! As discussed elsewhere, they're an endless source of information, great photography, and recipes that work. )

[Ling]

Ahh!!! Can you make anyone more jealous??  Ha ha.  This, the little AB exposure, all the dining, shoulder rubbing with the chefs and being in the midst of it all, I don't know how I'll keep up with you!   

I should just seclude myself and live vicariously through you (and your stomach). 

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Oh please... Only 2 more months 'til we get to show you around!

[Ling]

Lorna and Henry: You've given us a terrific blog -- great food, great wine, even a lovebird's Iron Chef.  But for me, the originator and Calculatrix of the

How many cookbooks? thread, the peek at heyjude's cookbook library was the icing on the cupcake!  It's the Vatican Library of eG cookbook collectors.

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It really is! Not only is it massive, but it is a quality collection. It's well-chosen and diverse, and it is marvellous to see how the joy on Judy's face when she shares it with people!

[Ling]

Now you're talking! The Vivace Roasteria was my personal favorite when I lived up there--in fact, for a couple of years I lived only a five minute walk away. Or perhaps more accurately, a five minutes walk there, and more like a two-minute jet-flight back! Their roast will definitely put hair on your chest--dayum!

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Did you like the coffee at Zoka when you lived here? That's another coffee shop I really enjoy.

Here's what we have lined up for tomorrow:

First, we are meeting up with EGer dandelion for coffee at Caffe Senso Unico.

Charles and Melissa, whom you've met earlier, will be taking us to Porcella Urban Market. It's a gourmet food shop that also does its own charcuterie. I have heard nothing but praise about this place!

And finally, William Belickis is taking us to a wine bar in the evening.

On Friday, we will likely be grocery shopping for our Chinese banquet meal, and then cooking all day. I'll try to remember to get more shots of the prep.

Now, I have to get ready for dinner at Union. I think the chef, Ethan Stowell, has a special tasting menu for us!

Edited August 31, 2006 by Ling (log)

[racheld]

So last night began with a stop at a party...the list goes on. I drank a glass of wine and Henry had a martini.

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"Have a palate cleanser," he said.

We drank it. It was a sherry.

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"Would you like to start off with cocktails?"

We said sure.

Phred gave us each wine without any explanation.  I got the first wine correct! It was a Riesling. 

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The next course was a chicken thigh dish with tamarind glaze and couscous. Phred poured us two wines each for this dish "for comparison purposes". 

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We got a white wine with the next course (greens and hazelnuts).

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We were falling behind on the drinking...at multiple times during the meal, there were like 8 glasses on the table for the 2 of us!

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Lamb t-bones with walnut tapenade and roasted vegetables.

We drank two more glasses of red EACH with this dish. 

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Excellent cheese board. We each got a glass of white and a glass of red with the cheese. (Is anyone keeping count with how much wine we've had at this point?!!!!)

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Phred insisted we have a dessert drink as well.  Just in case we didn't have enough alcohol with our meal, you know....

On wondre ouy coldnet tpye. How did you ever make it home?

[Renka]

Ahh!!! Can you make anyone more jealous??  Ha ha.  This, the little AB exposure, all the dining, shoulder rubbing with the chefs and being in the midst of it all, I don't know how I'll keep up with you!   

I should just seclude myself and live vicariously through you (and your stomach). 

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Oh please... Only 2 more months 'til we get to show you around!

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Don't get me going on how excite my tastebuds are.

Have a fantastic evening tonight!

Edited August 31, 2006 by Renka (log)

[mizducky]

Now you're talking! The Vivace Roasteria was my personal favorite when I lived up there--in fact, for a couple of years I lived only a five minute walk away. Or perhaps more accurately, a five minutes walk there, and more like a two-minute jet-flight back! Their roast will definitely put hair on your chest--dayum!

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Did you like the coffee at Zoka when you lived here? That's another coffee shop I really enjoy.

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Y'know, I never wound up getting familiar with Zoka, for the admittedly dumb-sounding reason that I became so stuck on Vivace, I kinda lacked the motivation to explore further.

[CanadianBakin']

I'm really enjoying this blog! I've gotta say your drunken posts just about had me in tears. I'm so glad you didn't edit them.