i havent posted in a while, but this does not mean that i have not been eating. au contraire. 

brief tour through some of the eatin's i have partaken in....

i ate phad thai at kwan jai thai the other day. it was disappointing. these guys got nothing on sea-thai in wallingford. this is seattle, you should never be subjected to mediocre thai food. though ive enjoyed other meals there in the past, i suspect this was merely a case of ketchup based phad thai sauce, which is acceptable in the home, but not in a restaurant. 

phad thai was followed by beers at brouwer's (when we found a seat. it took a while.) washington beers were on rotation, so i tried a pretty decent red ale from maritime brewing company, but it was only warmup for....belgian ales! i enjoyed the blond ale from lachouffe. it was mild but flavorful, and its ever so nice to drink from the corresponding glasses. brouwers has an incredible selection of beer, but its hard to make use of server's knowledge on a busy friday night (clearly). 

it is fall. there are pumpkin products everywhere. its a marketing ploy, and i am totally susceptible to it. i have tried varying pumpkin products with varying results, but one experience stands out. the mighty-o pumpkin donut. everything i wanted out of a fried piece of batter, and so seasonally satisfying. 

prosciutto fest 2009

with a bottle of belleruche cotes-du-rhone m. chapoutier rose (2007) chilling in the fridge, a friend and i embarked on a shopping trip to whole foods for some "snacks". we returned with a quarter pound of prosciutto di parma, mimolette (a bright orange, french aged cheese), trailhead tomme (from mount townsend creamery), and a bar of the madagascar chocolate bar from theo.

i chopped a red pear and a plum into slices, and from thence, we tried just about every combination of the listed items. i challenge the reader to find something that cannot be improved by being wrapped in prosciutto. 

the mimolette was particularly excellent with the chocolate. 

i might have to try a couple other cheeses, but thus far, i am convinced that the mount townsend creamery can do no wrong. 

*the wine bottle mentioned is currently wicked on sale at whole foods.

i purchased domaine de maubet, blanc sec, 2008 for the express purpose of drinking with my green tofu curry. unfortunately, i drank it before i began eating the actual curry. i'm sure that together, they would have worked well, but i can vouch for their individual qualities for certain. 

i sauteed green curry paste, added lime zest, green serrano pepper, then tofu. 

one the tofu was browned, i added coconut milk, lime juice, water, brown sugar, and fish sauce. boiled, then brought it to a simmer, added bamboo shoots and green pepper. 

with rice, more lime juice, and cilantro, i can not think of a better way to start fall then a nice hot curry!

i like cote du rhone continued....

domaine charvain 2007

spicy, a little dry, but not excessively so. yum. purchased at pike and western, where a great many of my wines are selected. 

i ate this with penne, sauteed zucchini, tomatoes, caramelized onion...pretty simple, but pretty delicious. 

i drank the 2008 grenache from Masia De Bielsa last night, with my burrito from the taco truck.
much has already been said about the rancho bravo taco truck on 45th.
the wine was fruity, medium bodied, delicious, and decidedly affordable.
then we roasted some eggplant slices with cumin and cayenne pepper. after half an hour in the oven, garnished with garlic, pomegranate molasses, and cilantro.
the recipe as from epicurious, and i would gladly try it again, maybe with some turmeric as well?

blog has been on hiatus for far too long.
just returned from sojourn in syria, lebanon, and france. many many delicious things were consumed, but i just want to talk about the hummous. mainly the texture....that creamy, smooth texture, complimented by little pools of olive oil. it's hard to reconcile the hummous of the middle east with the coarse piles crudely lumped on a plate that passes for restaurant hummous here. sigh.
might have to start trying to make that...
also, the fresh juice stands on the street. cheap, fresh, tasty. i'm glad that some people recognize the fact that juice stores on every corner improve one's quality of life.

the spring reign from ninkasi was everything the dude at bottleworks said it would be. delicious. a pleasantly hoppy spring ale from the brewery that can do no wrong. 

i've eaten some quite intersting things lately. 

an e-mail annoumcing the new monthly cupacke at cupcake royale prompted a visit there to sample their maple irish whiskey cupacke. it was pretty tasty, but general consensus is that the chocolate salted caramel cupcake is better. 

ate thai food at djanjay the other day. it was pretty tasty, but i prefer the meats...

also took a freind visiting to mighty-o donuts. she was pretty impressed by the fact that they were vegan, and the the chocolate peanut butter.....yum!

also, ate at palace kitchen the other day. i statrted off with a cocktail, a "winter tonic", which wa all right, nothing too special. we ate olive poppers and beet salad for starters. for the main dish, i had the mussels, which were prepared in a coconut milk sauce with orange. it was pretty interesting, but honestly, i prefer the mussels at cafe presse. my glass of sangiovese was pretty tasty. 

soba is the new thai fried rice

and by that i mean, the best way to clear out your fridge. 

i had a hankerin, that kind that can only be cured by japanese buckwheat noodles. so a friend and i got some soba a cookin', and then we heated olive oil with a little sesame oil, and browned some tofu. after that we threw in  zuchini, mushrooms, and garlic. after tossing the noodles in with the veggies, we garnished with cilantro, green onions, soy sauce and sesame oil, and pepper!

so satisfying, and so easy. 

my friend and i stopped in for a bite and a drink at smith bar on capitol hill. when you step in, you'll feel like you are in the old boy's club. in a good way. there were animal heads and other game on the wall. it is very dimly lit. 

my ipa was tasty, though i can't remember what it was. my bacon gruyere sandwich would probably have been unremarkable, were it not for the onion jam. whoa. 

dinner at le pichet. 

what more can i say? a lot, turns out....

i pretty much always order the domaine de couronne cote du rhone, it's tasty and reasonable. 

for starters, we had pate (with honey and walnuts!), warm endive salad with chicken gizzards, and oysters. 

for main courses we did the chicken for 2 and the trout. i've experienced the chicken in its various seasonal manifestations, and the winter version did not disappoint. it came on a potatoe pancake with sauce, and was as succulent and delicious as ever. the trout was definitely good, but i feel that the side could have been a little more interesting. 

for dessert, i decided on the house ice cream (lemon yoghurt) and the house sorbet (tangerine). i've always been impressed with their ice creams in the past, and the lemon yoghurt was no exception (i don't even like lemon desserts that much!) the sorbet was a bit lacking, particularly in the texture. 

all in all, another delightful dining experience at one of my favorite restaurants in seattle. 

it's been a while since i posted. 

this past sunday, i went to "breakast" at molly moon's, a local gourmet ice cream shop. breakfast entails ice cream with oatmeal. i selected the the maple bacon ice cream. 

there was an array of topics including nuts, spices, and rasberry on the counter, which one could adorn one's breakfast. 

the maple bacon ice cream is a wonder, that classic blend of the sweet and salty as always tasty. but, did the oatmeal add to my ice cream experience? and vice versa? i'm inclined to say no. 

all in all though, a thoroughly enjoyable sunday afternoon study break activity. 

salted caramel cupcakes at cupcake royale are my new crack. except it's better than crack, because it comes on a moist chocolate cake. also, crack is not something i actually partake in, so i should probably find something else to compare it to. or you could just go try one yourself. 

vietnamese sandwiches made their way into my life today, and i get the feeling that they are here to stay. i went to a little shop on the ave, and i left with a crispy baguette filled with barbequed pork, cilantro, carrot, cucumber, and a little jalapeno. yummers. colonialism never tasted so good. now i know what to do when i crave a little baguette box, and i am too far away...

Saint Cosme Cotes du Rhone is by far the most enjoyable rhone that i've had in a long time, perhaps ever. rasberry flavors, will probably go well with any meal, a little less dry than most rhones that i've had. Pike and Western wine shop, available at an enticing 14.99. run that shit. 

on a side note, i expanded my culinary horizons with...green vegetable. 

i sauteed a shallot and a couple cloves in olive oil, then threw some red pepper in. i then added swiss chard, which i simmered for ten minutes, whilst dusting some turmeric on top, and a little salt. mmmh. i'm trying to eat more of those healthy foods that keep making an appearance in ny times articles. 

things i'm excited about:

hemp milk. it's so nice.i'm dying to make a latte out of it. mmhh. so much better than soy milk. 

quinn's. aaron and i had a sweet date at quinn's. we had the gnocchi with rabbit. so fluffy. so light. and yet so rich. and the duck. the duck was really well prepared, on a bed of bacon and cabbage. friends, let's get one thing straight here. the combination of duck and bacon is nothing to scoff at. 

i also had an old-fashioned and a glass of red wine. pretty decadent. the homemade whoopee pie, wrapped in tin foil, did not disappoint. 

uhm...new years. i kind of forgot to post about it, due to the days of mayhem and hungoverness which followed. 

calder roasted a duck. he rubbed some oil and herbs(rosemary, thyme, sage) into the duck, which was then roasted. 

raz made salad and roasted veggies. 

we drank a california pinot called "angeline", which was quite nice, though the details are a little hazy at this point. a bottle of cms quickly followed. 

dessert was deemed unnecessary, so we opted for turkish coffee. mmh, turkish coffee. 

after much other alchohol being consumed, we popped open a bottle of bubbly rose. 

on a side note, some motherfucker totally swiped the beer i had bottled out of the pantry. the beer that i was waiting for to ferment. as if there wasn't enough alchohol in the fridge. f'realz. i'm just glad i didn't have any nice bottles of wine in the pantry, 'cause lord only knows. 

the countdown....

oh man. i don't even know where to start.
two days ago i more or less ate my way through fremont.
my family planned an outing to theo chocolate factory, where we took the tour. among many interesting facts, i learned that there are only 8 chocolate factories in these here united states, and man, i think we're pretty lucky to have one here in seattle, because apparently the climate...not conducive to chocolate factories!
we started off the tour seated in a windowless room, wearing blue hairnets, and getting the facts on bean growing, harvesting, fermentation, etc. i kind of want to be the person who travels around, looks at farms, and then nods approvingly to signify that they meet usda standards for organicism! i don't think organicism is a word!
the factory itself, very warm, and the smell of cacao.....just inhabited the air. the machines are mostly second-hand, sometimes old, and really cool looking. i was disappointed to not see them in action. the visit ended with a stop in the confection room,by which point i was done with sampling chocolate!
at ay rate, the take home message of the visit was cacao+cane sugar+fair trade=awesome!

lunch was at the baguette box. mmmh. they serve various sandwiches made with le panier baguettes, and i ordered a sandwich with tofu, avocado, other veggies, some kind of delicious garlicy sauce, and a little sprig of cilantro. yum!

dinner...my friend nathan smith and i went to via tribunali. pretty traditional italian pizza, thin crust, delicate mozzarella, etc. it was a pretty pleasant eating experience, but no real surprises to be had. needless to say, after a day of eating chocolate, dessert had little appeal!