Korean BBQ

People ask me all the time where to get good Korean food in Seattle...and I always say...you have to go south to Federal Way or north to Lynnwood.  

Last week was our friend Mike's birthday.  We went to Shin Shun Restaurant in Federal Way for his celebration meal. This is where you cook your own meat at the table.  Love my peeps!

The Meats

The Kim Chee Stews

The Banchans

There is always a "potato" banchan and if there isn't, it's a shame.  This place had this teriyaki flavored steamed potato. It was sooo good!

Fat Hen

Mom usually comes to visit at least once a month to get Dorry and Sofie's nails trimmed.  We usually go out for brunch and on this day, we went to a new place in my neighborhood called Fat Hen.

It's the cutest little place and food is good and yummy.  But...it's almost too perfect and lacks a little personality in the food.  Everything tastes great but can't put a finger on it...it's just too perfect and doesn't excite.  It's like that hot guy who is also great on paper but something is missing.

I had the soup and side of potatoes.  Mom had baked eggs. They also gave us a free slice of coffeecake because of the wait. Again, great but I don't need to revisit. I will try for a lunch meal next time.

Tomato Soup

Olive Oil Roasted Small Potatoes

Miang Kam

Miang Kam is a Thai dish that can mean "eating many things in one bite".  You take this slightly bitter leaf and fill it with various toppings like toasted coconut, peanuts, and fresh ginger, onions, lime, chili, then you top it with some plum sauce, wrap it up and put the whole thing in your mouth.  It's a burst of sweet, spicy, fresh, and salty flavor.  You also get the nice crunch texture of peanuts and coconuts.  I love to eat this as an appetizer!

Poppy

What a crazy few weeks?  It's been great, but pack back to back with events and visitors that I've been eating out mostly.  The crazy weeks ended with nice meal with friends at Poppy's before my friend Rohit left to go back to Texas.  

He is co worker from our Las Colinas office and is vegetarian.  I've been to Texas and didn't find too many veggie options so wanted to ensure he got to try some amazing local food.

If you've never been to Poppy's, it's a must!  This is Jerry Traunfeld's place post Herbfarm.  They serve 7 or 10 item small dishes in a "thali" style.  Thalis originated in Indian, small dishes in a large platter.  I've been fortunate enough to try this in Bangalore at a vegetarian place and it was amazing.  The trays there were all silver and waiter walk around with dishes and refill as much as you can eat.  Kinda like dim sum.  Poppy uses this vehicle by serving and highlighting Northwest ingredients with herbs and spices.  There are some Indian influenced dishes but also other cuisines that you can't pinpoint the exact fusion.  What I love is the simplicity of dishes that has amazing flavors.  They also have a garden in the back of the building where they grown some of the produce and herbs.  Lovely!

http://poppyseattle.com/

The ordering at Poppy is pretty simple, choose the meat or veggie option, 7 or 10. I say always get the 10 and you can try everything.  Both the meat and veggie trays are similar except for the 2 main entrees.  The menu also changes week to week so going there often, you get to try different things.  

The 10 Item, Vegetarian Thali

The 10 Item, Meat Thali

They also have very nice drinks and desserts. I always order the homemade Honeyed Ginger Ale.  We had to head to the airport so didn't have time for dessert.  :(  Sad for me.   

Bennett & Pancakes

For my birthday last week, I got the cutest, heart warming birthday picture from my good friend Carolyn's little boy Bennett.  He asked his mom if I would know what the heart meant.(sniff, sniff)  She said this was all his idea and she didn't help him at all.  This was especially special because the "Sophie" he drew is my little dog that bit him last xmas eve.  Oh yes she did.  :-( Sofie is not the most friendly dog to other dogs or children and yes she did bite him, which I felt terribly about.  Worst because I didn't want him to learn to fear dogs. So you can see, this was sooo sweet of him to show how he loved me and my dog.  (Sniff, sniff again.)

Carolyn said that he when couldn't come to my party (it was adults only), he was sooo sad and thus I wanted to thank him for my wonderful card and love. I invited both of them over for breakfast...a pancake breakfast.

I realized, I've not made pancakes from scratch in like forever.  When I worked at the bakery, we served mainly French Toast and so I really couldn't think of the last time I made pancakes other than as a kid with a box of Bisquick.

Where to start, I wasn't sure. The first recipe I thought of was the Clinton St. Baking Co. pancakes.  They are famous for it in NYC, suppose to be one of the best. They also went up against Bobby Flay for it in the throwdown but didn't quite win.  

This was the recipe I wanted to try.  My first real pancakes from scratch.  The unique part of this recipe is separating the egg yolks and the whites.  You whip up the whites until stiff then fold them in the batter.  I also used one of the best vanilla I have that I picked up from a store in Napa. It's from Zeron Fine foods, it's their Double Intensity, pure Veracruz Vanilla extract.  It was $20.00 for a 100ml bottle, worth every cent...so much flavor.  I also used buttermilk vs. the whole milk in their recipe. I love a little tang and the richness that buttermilk gives.

I also set up various topping that they could choose from and help themselves to.  

The pancakes turned out pretty good.  Carolyn said one of the best she's had.  She liked the cake like texture and the vanilla favor.  Bennett ate more bacon than the pancakes.  I'd like it to be alittle more fluffy and soft.  I'll try this again and prob serve it at my next brunch. I love this concept.  I just think homemade pancakes is so special, that you should only do for people you really care about and love.  It just is...

Here is my tweaked recipe from the Clinton St. Baking Co.  I used half the recipe and still managed to make about 12 6" pancakes.  You can use the full recipe below for a large crowd.

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

6 large eggs, separated

3 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons unsalted butter, unmelted for the griddle and lots more for serving

-Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a large bowl.

-In another bowl, whisk together the yolks, milk, melted butter, and vanilla until combined. Slowly whisk the wet mixture into the dry mixture just until combined. The resulting should be slightly lumpy yet still combined.

-Whip the egg whites by hand with a whisk or in the bowl of an electric mixer until they reach medium peaks. You can whip them by hand with a whisk or place them in the bowl of an electric mixer. (Peaks are “soft” when you put your finger in the whites and they fall over. Peaks are “medium” when you put your finger in and they drip over a bit and stand up. “Stiff” peaks develop when you whip the whites longer and they stay up.) You don’t want to over whip the egg whites.

-Gently fold half of the whipped whites into the batter with a large rubber spatula. Then gently fold the remaining whites into the batter. The batter should be slightly lumpy and have large parts of egg whites not fully incorporated and should look like whitecaps in the ocean with foam on top. 

-Heat a griddle — either an electric griddle, a stove top griddle, or a big flat skillet — over medium to medium-low heat. Grease the hot surface with a teaspoon or so of the remaining butter. Drop 1/4 cup of pancake batter on the griddle. When you see bubbles start to form on top, lift the pancake halfway up to see if it’s golden brown and crisp at the edges. If it is, flip the pancake and cook until golden brown on both sides. Remove to a plate with a spatula.

-Repeat with the remaining batter and filling, adding more butter to the griddle as needed and cooking several pancakes at a time. Serve immediately with butter, maple syrup, fresh fruit, and nuts.

Bennett had some fun creating faces on his pancakes. Little kids just love that. He is such a cute loving kid, gave me lots of hugs and kisses this morning. He made my day....

West Seattle Farmer's Market

After the brunch in West Seattle, we walked to Bakery Nouveau for some sweets, and in the process walked through the Sunday farmer's market. I LOVE Farmer's markets.  If you just shop at regular grocery stores, you forget what real produce is suppose to look like. Just check out these amazing vegetables!

Beets

They had several variety of colors

Cabbage

Just check out the details in the veins of the leaves.  Beautiful!

Radishes

Ma'ono Fried Chicken & Whisky

Ma'ono is formerly known as Spring Hill.  The past few years buzzed place in West Seattle.  Spring Hill has been on my list of places to try forever.  Especially after a book signing by Thomas Keller, where he announced he was going their for dinner after the signing.  I finally made plans to check out the place and find out it was changed to a Hawaiian inspired Fried Chicken & Whisky place.  As a veggie eater, didn't know if I would find anything to eat.  

The good news is that the place is still fabulous!  It has the same owner and chef Mark Fuller.  He was trained from CIA and worked under Tom Douglas.  He is from Hawaii and is reaching toward his roots with this place. I've heard the quality and level of food is the same.

There are a lot of Pork on the menu.  Where they can fit in a pork item they do.  Lot of comforting items but kicked it up a notch.

Bloody Mary with Housemade Pickles and Hamhock

Eggs Benedict

Hangtown Fry

Crispy fried pacific oysters, bacon & roasted pepper scramble, grilled bread

Pascale said this was good but needed more flavor.

The Half Pound Burger

House bacon, hand-crafted american cheese, special sauce, dill pickle, fries.

I had several a la carte items...

Popover with Nutella.

I have to be honest, I think they over heated or scorched the chocolate a bit too much, it wasn't smooth.  I'd rather had cold smooth Nutella than heated with texture.  The Popover was good but it was no Tyler Florence's Popover that you get for free from dining there.

Hashed Browned Potatoes

This was interesting.  It was prepared ahead of time and deep fried I believe.  It wasn't that spectacular, it was okay.  Their homemade ketchup was great though.

Butter Lettuce Salad

Tender herbs, radish, parmesan, citronette

This was good, fresh and punch of acid with the dressing.

I think for a meat eater...it will be paradise.  My guy friends and bro will love this place.  Will I go back? Definitely...but want to try dinner next time.

Jello Trifle

So...my family is Korean, very Korean, but we love "white trash food".  I say that with love.  Every holiday, we must have "Jello Salad".  Either myself, or my sis or bro will make this dish in different version but it always has the basics, jello, marshmallows, canned fruits, dried fruits, coconut, and cool whip. Yes cool whip, to use real whipped cream is no justice here.  I not gonna lie, it's best with the traditional canned, processed ingredients.  :)  I also made the jello with mango puree juice vs. just water and this added more flavor to the jello.

I also tried to "up" it with the presentation and thus this year...made it into a Trifle vs just the all mixed salad.  It looks quite pretty I think.  If you want the recipe, email me.  I doubt I will get many requests but it's good.  I'll try to show you how we up this dish each year.

Lemon Shaker Pie

Have you had this pie before?  It's the only pie that uses the whole lemon.  It's sweet, tart, lemony, has a bit of texture, and has to have a good flaky sweet tart.  It's yummy.

I had made this pie as something different for our Thanksgiving dinner last year.  We also had our friend Mike and Bia join us for that Thanksgiving and he loves everything lemon.  

It is said this pie was invented in the 1800s from a religious group called the Shakers.  They were being frugal and wanted to use the whole lemon and thus this pie was started.  

There are lot of different but very similar versions of this recipe. I've only tried the Saveur version listed below. I used meyer lemons but would like try with regular. I liked this one but I could have sliced the lemon even more paper thin and prob soak it longer to break down more. Otherwise...it's lovely!

Filling:

2 large lemons 

2 cups sugar 

1/4 tsp. salt 

4 eggs 

4 tbsp. butter, melted 

3 tbsp. all-purpose flour 

Crust:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tsp. salt 

10 tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces 

2 tbsp. vegetable shortening 

1. For the filling: Thoroughly wash lemons, then dry with paper towel. Finely grate lemon zest into a bowl. Using a 

mandoline or a sharp knife, slice lemons very thin; remove and discard seeds. Add slices to zest and toss with sugar and 

salt. Cover and set aside at room temperature for 24 hours. 

2. For the crust: Sift flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter or 2 table knives to work butter 

and shortening into flour until it resembles coarse meal.Sprinkle in up to 5 tbsp. ice water, stirring dough with a fork until 

it just begins to hold together. Press dough firmly into a rough ball, then transfer to a lightly floured surface. Give the 

dough several kneads with the heel of your hand to form it into a smooth ball. Divide dough into 2 balls, wrap in plastic, 

and refrigerate for 1 hour. 

3. Preheat oven to 425°. Whisk eggs in bowl until frothy. Add butter and flour, whisking until smooth. Stir into lemon 

mixture. 

4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into two 12" rounds. Fit one round into a 9" pie plate and pour in filling. 

Cover pie with remaining pastry round. Fold edges of dough under, then crimp edges. Cut steam vents in top crust. Bake 

until edges begin to brown, about 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake until crust is golden brown, 25–30 minutes 

more. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.