back to cafe presse

i love those chill sunday evenings at restaurants....anyways, my habeeb and i split a chicken liver appetizer, which we spread on baguette with cherry compote and mustard. 

i ordered a salad with pear, endive(?), blue cheese, and......beets (my winter favorite)! it was pretty refreshing, and tasty. among the many beet salads i've had this winter, pretty far up there. 

we shared a piche of les hexagonales touraine, which was all right, but not the best thing ever. 

i've been eating a lot of exciting stuff lately....

a friend and i cooked goulash from my william sonoma soup book, it was pretty awesome. i only put 2 potatoes in, as the recipe suggested, but i probably could have used more....i am anxious to try this recipe with tomatoe paste, and noodles. 

i also enjoyed some homemade fries and an exceptionally tasty cote du rhone with this meal. 

it's no great secret that i love le pichet. i talk about it quite frequently and openly. but my love might have increased since my last visit. 

yesterday's dinner at le pichet started with a gin/vermouth/framboise cocktail (just the right amount of sweet). me and my habeeb shared a duck liver, pear, beet, endive, radichio salad. it was delicious, a wonderful assortment of textures and flavors. 

i moved onto wine, not sure what it was, but the waitress selected a full-bodied red wine to accompany my steak. I enjoyed the wine, and the steak.....perfectly cooked, on a cream sauce, with brussel sprouts and frites. it might be the best steak that i've ever had in a restaraunt. 

its always worth saving room for dessert at le pichet, especially for their house made ice creams. the prune-armignac ice cream was a tasty novelty, and my pear brandy finished the meal off well. 

of course, there are always the chocolate madeleines which come with the bill....

in all my time of going to palace kitchen, i was unaware of their happy hour. now, however, i am aware. and let it be known, $3 glasses of sangria are to be had. always a refreshing and fruity treat, it did not disappoint. for food, my dad and i had chicken wings, a pork sandwich, and a beet salad. the sauce on the chicken wings demands bread to soak it up. the pork sandwich, also tasty. the beet salad.... was lacking in the usual greens that accompany it in other seasons, but still good. 

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!