Posted by Jamie Forrest, May 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Photograph by the Seattle Cheese Festival
For all you Seattleites and those from neighboring areas in the Pacific Northwest, the 2008 Seattle Cheese Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday afternoon. Held outdoors every year at the wonderful Pike Place Market, the fourth annual Seattle Cheese Festival is open to the public, has a suggested admission of $1, and represents one of the largest gatherings of cheese aficionados in the country.
On display (and available for sampling) are hundreds of cheeses from around the world, and for the more serious turophiles, there are seminars and panels, cooking demonstrations, a wine garden and a children’s scavenger hunt. (Seminars, panels, and the wine garden have additional admission fees.)
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, April 7, 2008 at 11:30 AM
When I heard the Georgian Room, Seattle's fanciest hotel restaurant, would be holding an etiquette class for 8- to 13-year-olds, I had one question for instructor (and Georgian Room maitre d') Tony D'Agostino: are any kids going to come to the class on their own accord?
Not likely, he admitted. "How many kids go, 'Mom, I want to go learn etiquette?'" D'Agostino said. "It's right up with the adult classes, though. You go around the table and ask, 'Why are you here?' The husbands go, 'My wife is bringing me.'"
So how do you keep a captive and potentially unruly audience entertained? In a word, snacks. And not those cucumber sandwiches, either. The tiered tea trays will hold scones and clotted cream, peanut butter sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches (crustless, of course), and chocolate chip cookies. To drink, kids will get a choice of hot chocolate with whipped cream and mini-marshmallows, or herb tea. This doesn't sound like much of a choice to me.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, March 31, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Even though I don't live in Seattle, I'm hooked on MSG150, a blog that aims to review every restaurant in Seattle's International District (Chinatown) with freakishly precise data (such as quality of chopsticks, length of waiting time for food, and fortunes received from post-meal fortune cookies), excessive photos, and humorous commentary. If all this information is too much for you, you can skim reviews just by looking at the number of chopsticks awarded to each restaurant from a scale of 1 ("dog food") to 5 ("great!"). The world needs more obsessively comprehensive food blogs like this one.
Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, March 24, 2008 at 11:00 AM
What is it about taco trucks? Does anybody not love them, aside from competing Mexican restaurant owners? Do four-year-olds love taco trucks?
I decided to find out. I took my four-year-old daughter, Iris, to Tacos El Asadero this week, and I think it's fair to say Tacos El Asadero is now her favorite place in the entire world.
El Asadero is Seattle's best-known taco truck—a bus, actually, where you can sit inside and enjoy your taco, mulita, or torta while staring through filmy old bus windows. We stepped inside and ordered several tacos at $1 each. Iris's favorite was the lengua, tender braised beef tongue. She entertained other customers by singing, "Lengua, lengua, lengua," to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Then she stole one of my tortillas and created her own taco with a mix of lengua, carnitas, and carne asada. "I'm eating a real taco!" she declared, dropping meat on the floor of the bus.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 16, 2007 at 6:00 PM
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 been opening every year, and the database now contains 519 listings statewide (there are more than 100 teriyaki shops within Seattle's city limits alone)—which doesn't include restaurants that favor "Bento," "Wok," or "Deli" over "Teriyaki" in their titles.
The story traces teriyaki's history in Seattle, which begins, possibly, as early as 1908 in the city's Nihonbashi district but which really takes off with the opening of Toshi's Teriyaki in 1976—a time of great Asian influx into the Seattle area and one that saw diners searching for healthier fare and Asian flavors—creating the perfect nexus for the teriyaki explosion.
Posted by Alaina Browne, May 24, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Seattle's Pike Place Market is turning 100 this year, and the Seattle P.I. is running a series of articles on the market to celebrate. [via Girlhacker]
Photograph from WordRidden on Flickr
Posted by Ed Levine, April 10, 2007 at 2:15 PM
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
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 9, 2007 at 8:30 AM
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 was eventually divided into four zones, with a color code for each. That still didn’t help guests who discovered that the purses and bags they had left on the stationary windowsills by their tables were no longer there. A change to slanted sills was recommended for future rotating restaurants....
The article dispelled my long-held belief that the entire structure rotated. It doesn't—instead, a doughnut-shaped platform rides on circular rails, carrying diners along with it at an almost imperceptible speed.
There are more than 100 such structures around the world, from Iraq and Iran to Finland and Japan. The most unlikely and ambitious location, however, would have been Pyongyang, North Korea, where an array of seven stacked restaurants were to be built in the now uncompleted Ryugyong Hotel. (See Wikipedia's comprehensive list of revolving restaurants.)
Photograph: Vancouver's Harbour Centre tower, which houses one of three revolving restaurants in the city. From iStockphoto.com
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 30, 2007 at 12:00 PM
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Hsiao-Ching Chou talks to Greg Conner, the founder of Eat Local, an area company dedicated to providing frozen microwavable meals made with organic, sustainably-raised seasonal produce and meats that all come from within a few hundred mile radius of the city, cooked in small batches every day for maximum freshness. "The cost runs from about $7 for a single portion to $55 for an eight-person entree. "We're not the cheapest," Conner acknowledges. "But we know the provenance of the food. You pay for the safety in your food and you're having less impact on the environment." [via The Food Section]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 7, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Seattleites and fans of cured meat everywhere: Armandino Batali has retired from his acclaimed retirement project Salumi, leaving day-to-day operations in the hands of his daughter Gina Batali and her husband Brian D'Amato, who've technically been running and making the meats since 2005. Since then, "she's trained more staff and tried to improve the efficiency and minimize the wait time in a line that often snakes around the corner of the building on Third Avenue South, between South Main and South Jackson streets. "Of course, we don't want to be too efficient," she said, "because then we wouldn't be able to talk to people."
Hsiao-Ching Chou of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says Armandino and his wife are sailing around the Caribbean on a vegetarian cruise!; when they get back from visiting son Mario (yes, that Batali—the love of meat runs strong in the family) he'll still be going into Salumi on Thursdays to deal with the USDA inspector and talk to customers.
Posted by Alaina Browne, February 16, 2007 at 6:00 AM
Photograph by Adam Kuban, Serious Eats
Chinese New Year and the year of the pig according to the Chinese zodiac, begins this Sunday, February 18. Because Chinese New Year is tied to the lunar calendar, it falls on a different date every year, usually between January 19 and February 23. It begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice and ends 15 days later with the Lantern Festival. According to tradition, the celebration gets under way on New Year's Eve with a family dinner hosted at the eldest family member's home; it is considered the most important annual family tradition. Family members travel from near and far to attend. A family's given menu will vary by region, but here are some of the more popular dishes and their symbolism:
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Posted by Nathalie Jordi, January 25, 2007 at 8:49 AM
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.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 17, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Critical Condition takes a look at the week's restaurant reviews from the various newspapers and magazines around the United States. Think of it as a snapshot of what's hot—and, sometimes, what's not.
BOSTON
GARDEN AT THE CELLAR | Boston Globe
Style: American
Rating: 2.5 stars (of 4)
Boston's new hot spot, where Will Gilson cooks back-to-basics fare (hangar steak, flatbreads, cod cakes, roasted chicken and tater tots) among pots of herbs. In-the-know Bostonians have made this comfortable restaurant a destination.
NEW YORK CITY
PORCHETTA | New York Times
Style: Italian
Rating: 1 star (of 4)
Bruni weighs in on Porchetta (241 Smith Street, 718-237-9100), run by 71 Clinton refugee and exposed self-promoter Jason Neroni (he wrote an e-mail imploring his friends to get him nominated for the Beard Rising Star Chef award).
Yum: Roasted and braised short ribs over puréed mustard greens, red pepper, and touches of cream and gorgonzola.
Yuck: The candied lemon zest in the Gnocchi preparation: "The way it interacted with other ingredients made the dish taste as if someone in the kitchen had inadvertently sprayed it with a bit of Pledge furniture polish."
Conclusion: I’d go, but I’d certainly follow Frank’s lead in ordering.
KYOTOFU | New York Times
Style: Tofu dessert
Rating: N/A
When the "Under $25" columnist for the New York Times stopped by Serious Eats HQ the other day, he told us he loved Kyotofu, the new Japanese tofu dessert restaurant (705 Ninth Avenue, at 48th Street; 212-974-6012). His review today proves it.
Yum: “...The insanely rich scoop of maple-spiked mascarpone atop the toasted-walnut vanilla parfait.
Great lines: "The place couldn’t be a tougher sell. Dessert restaurants are hard enough, but rallying your friends with the late-night cry of 'Who wants to go to Hell’s Kitchen for some tofu?' really pushes it."
Conclusion: Meehan makes us want to go eat tofu for dessert at Kyotofu.
PERA | New York Post
Style: Turkish
Rating: N/A
New Yorkers expect Turkish food to be cheap, which limits the quality of the raw materials and results in lackluster fare. Not at Pera, says Steve Cuozzo, where "spices permeate mezes from heaven; sensational breads, like puffy lavash served with tangy, feta-like tulum cheese; and marinated, hand-ground lamb adana butchered on site."
BLT BURGER | The New Yorker
Style: Burger joint
Rating: N/A
Finally, a critic who sort of likes BLT Burger (470 Sixth Avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets; 212-243-8226). Personally, I was thrilled when the aforementioned Mr. Meehan laid into BLT Burger, Laurent Tourondel’s misguided attempt to cash in on the cheffy burger craze. But the New Yorker’s Nick Paumgarten shows he’s not afraid to swim against the critical tide by calling BLT's burgers well-proportioned and served on blessedly soft, plain, and white buns. Actually a careful reread of his review indicates that he doesn’t really like the place. Maybe Mr. Paumgarten could have been a little clearer in his overall assessment.
Conclusion: You can have a better burger at a Greek coffee shop.
THE LONDON BAR and GORDON RAMSAY AT THE LONDON | New York
Style: French
Rating: 3 (of 10)
Adam Platt wanders into Hell’s Kitchen and doesn’t get fired (up). Platt shows he is unafraid of the blustery television star (and Michelin 3-starred) chef Gordon Ramsay with a paltry 3 stars (of 10) for Ramsey’s two restaurants in the Hotel London (151 West 54th Street, 212-468-8888). I dined with him on his initial foray into the London Bar, and I thought much of the food was quite good. Platt’s meals there must have taken a precipitous turn for the worse on succeeding visits.
Yum: Pork belly baked with honey and apples.
Best Line: "Ramsey even offers his diners a nice version of that aged haute cuisine warhorse, apple tarte Tatin. Is this the best tarte Tartin in New York City? Probably not. But I doubt you’ll find a better one in Shanghai or Dubai."
Conclusion: "You’ve seen this all before."
BABOUCHE | New York Sun
Style: Moroccan
Rating: N/A
The food is satisfying and authentic at this Prince Street Moroccan, but the seating's a drag—too-low tables with uneven surfaces. Adams finds Babouche's pastilla "remarkably accomplished, a tender, spiced mince of chicken in a custardy sauce, all enshrouded in phyllo and dusted liberally with cinnamon and powdered sugar."
SMOKE JOINT | Village Voice
Style: Barbecue
Rating: N/A
In general, New York barbecue blows, but Smoke Joint gets it right, Robert Sietsema says. The classically trained chefs here smoke a mean brisket but don't do it often (it takes 14 hours). But when they do, it's "amazing brisket—fatty, smoky, and just plain delicious."
Best line: "Maple is Brooklyn's mesquite."
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Posted by From Roadfood.com, January 15, 2007 at 7:00 AM
We asked our friends Jane and Michael Stern over at Roadfood.com to give us their top five chili picks. Here are their choices, with tasting notes.
DOT'S | 3 West Main Street, Wilmington VT 05363 [map]
Year after year Dot's takes the People's Choice First Prize in the New England chili cook-off; and while Southwest chiliheads wouldn't even recognize it as their beloved bowl of red, this true Yankee chili is terrific. It is listed on the menu as "Jailhouse Chili," but it's most respectable. Beefy, thick with beans, spicy but not ferocious, it comes as a cup or bowl under a mantle of melted cheese. Originally reviewed by Michael Stern on Roadfood.com
REAL CHILI | 419 East Wells Street, Milwaukee WI 53202 [map]. 414-271-4042
Real Chili serves bowls of chili mild, medium, or hot, with spaghetti or beans, or spaghetti and beans. The full and complete arrangement is known as the Marquette Special. (The original Real Chili parlor has long been a favorite of Marquette University students.) The degree of heat is determined by the amount of meat; i.e. more meat equals more heat. The meat is ground fine, brilliantly spiced, and deliciously oily. It goes atop layers of noodles and beans; and on top of the meat is piled a large fistful of shredded cheese (melting from the heat). You can also get sour cream and raw onions as a garnish. Every bowl comes with a side dish of oyster crackers to crumble on top or to eat as a sort of palate-cleanser between bites of chili.
This true downtown chili parlor (of which the original branch is at 1625 West Wells Street, 414-342-6955) is the sort of beanery once fairly common in big cities throughout the region. With the exception of Cincinnati, where chili has remained a bona fide mania, most of the Midwest has forgotten its chili passions; and old-time chili parlors are a rarity. That is one reason we are so enamored of Real Chili.
Granted, heartland chili gets little respect from gastronomes who prefer the southwestern kinds, but even for the Texas-style chili purist, Real Chili is an inspiring and enjoyable adventure in declasse dining. Sit at a counter or at one of two communal tables with backless stools and accompany your chili with beer or cherry Coke. A super-fast, friendly staff dole out second helpings at half price of the first, and if you need a bumper sticker for your car, there is always a stack of them at the cash register. A while ago, we got one that said, "REAL CHILI: IT'S NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE." Recently, the bumper stickers have proclaimed Real Chili "A MILWAUKEE LEGEND." Originally reviewed by Michael Stern on Roadfood.com
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Posted by Adam Roberts, January 9, 2007 at 8:18 AM
Eggs Benedict and Martin Short have very little in common. Eggs Benedict is made with Canadian bacon; Martin Short is hammy and Canadian. One is served on an English muffin with hollandaise sauce, the other co-starred in ¡Three Amigos! And the comparisons end there, except for the fact that Martin Short and eggs Benedict were two looming obstacles in my relationship with Craig, my boyfriend of nine months.
I can't remember precisely when or where it first happened, but my hunch is that we were at Balthazar enjoying one of New York City's best breakfast bargains (eating in a lustrous environment at diner prices). Craig ordered eggs Benedict, and when it came out, he tasted and said, "It's good but not as good as Glo's."
Glo's, he informed me, was a small homey diner in Seattle that served the best eggs Benedict anyone could ever fathom.
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