I was in Seattle for a funeral—a crappy one—one for an 18-year-old nephew. Went to the potluck and did not eat, headed out to the hotel, and stopped into a new place called the Steelhead Diner just off of 1st Avenue near Pike Place Market. It ruled. Real dungeness crab cake with the big pieces of crab and no visible filler, served with sauce Louis from the '50s, but perfect. A plate of my dad's bresaola, perfectly sliced, dressed with great olive oil and fresh peaches. Wow ... fuck figs.... More

Photograph from UCLAcyc on Flickr Philly's got cheesesteaks, New York's got pizza, Chicago's got hot dogs, and Seattle has ... teriyaki? According to a story in the Seattle Weekly, the grilled meat dish is fast becoming the ubiquitous dish in the Emerald City. Nothing seems to stop the exponential growth of teriyaki shops in Seattle and its surrounding environs, including market saturation. To wit, the Washington Restaurant Association recently generated a list of all the restaurants in its master database with "teriyaki" in the name, listed by date of entry. As of 1984, the database contained 19 (that is, restaurants still in business). That number doubled by 1987. In the mid-1990s, 20 to 40 teriyaki joints appear to have... More

I had an old issue of Food & Wine on my desk, and, leafing through it, I came upon a story about wine shops serving cheese and tapas. As a confirmed nondrinker and serious cheese lover, I applaud this trend. Here are the shops they wrote about: Smith & Vine Address: 268 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 Phone: 718-243-2864 Stinky Brooklyn Address: 261 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 Phone: 718-522-7425 Silverlake Wine Address: 2395 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90039 Phone: 323-662-9024 Cesar Address: 4039 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611 Phone: 510-985-1200 Portalis Address: 5205 Ballard Avenue, Seattle WA 98107 Phone: 206-783-2007 We've got both coasts covered. Any Serious Eaters know of any others? Photograph from iStockphoto.com... More

Paging through Invention & Technology last night, I came across a story on the history of revolving restaurants. The first one was built in Hawaii, but the one that really captured the country's imagination and spurred development was the one built into Seattle's Space Needle: On opening day everything worked well except that the continuous rotation confused waiters and guests. Harry Mullikin, who was in charge of setting up the restaurant, commented, “When the waitress went into the kitchen she would come back out with no idea where her table had gone. Guests had the same problem. They would get up to go to the restroom but when they came back they couldn’t find their tables.” The dining area... More

In honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year (Sunday, February 18 ushers in the Year of the Pig), we talked to our food-loving friends around the country to find out where they'd send Serious Eaters for some great Chinese food. Inside, picks from Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, and more, along with the symbolism of some of the food eaten on the eve of the new lunar year. Year of the Pig—Serious Eaters, don't you love that?!? More

Seattle's got its latte artists at Caffe Vita, while the Londoners that jam Monmouth Coffee like their coffees understated. The coffees in Perth belong to another category altogether, thanks to "cappuccino Michelangelo" Simon Law. For other latte art, check out the pics at Google Images.... More

Serious Eats takes a look at the week's restaurant reviews from the various newspapers and magazines around the country. Garden at the Cellar in Boston, Porchetta in New York, Pane Caldo in Chicago, and Zoya in San Francisco, among others. More