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

Brunch for Gurls

Today was a fun day to catch up with friends from a software localization class we took at UW a few years ago.  I've ran into or come across these friends at some point since our class ended and we've been meaning to get together for some time.  So I shared my favorite meal of brunch.  The funny and cool thing is...all of these friends are major foodies!  They love food as much as I do.  

Huckleberry & Lime Coffee Cake

Here is the recipe for Shino...


1 C Sugar
1.5 C Flour
2 tsp  Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
2 Eggs
1 C Sour Cream
1 C Huckleberries (fresh or frozen)
1 C Powder Sugar
Zest of 1 Lime
Juice of 1/2 Lime

-Preheat oven to 350

-Butter or spray a 9" cake pan

-Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda in large bowl.

-In a smaller bowl, whip eggs and sour cream.

-Fold in the egg mixture to the dry flour mixture until well combined

-Pour the mixture into a cake pan and bake for about 35-40 min. Test with a tooth pick in the center until it comes out clean.  Let cake cool completely.

-Combine and mix the lime zest, juice, and the powder sugar.  Set aside and let it dissolve the sugar until all the lumps gone.

-When cake is cooled, spoon and drizzle the lime mixture onto the center of the cake.

Paprika Roasted Small Potatoes

Buttermilk Biscuits..
I actually made these for the Bacon & Egg Sandwiches but forgot to take photo of the actual sandwiches

Spinach & Feta Quiche

Beet Orange Salad with Pistachios

Staples & Fancy Mercantile

Is Christmas already over?  It must be, because I spent the day shopping and everything festive was 50% or more off.  I have baked a ton the last few weeks but haven't had time to post those. I will do that in the next few days.

Today however, was a splendid day with my good, long time friend Sue.  We spent the day shopping for post holidays stuff, but fun stuff.  I am one of those that want to shop for the bargain holiday things but the thought of storing and using anything one times a year prohibits me to.  My friend Sue on the other hand went ballistic.  She got so many holiday things that she had to go home to unload before meeting me to shop.  She drives a mini van.  I on the other hand bought things like a good quality ice cream scooper for my cookies, new velvet pillows, and a tea pot.

After the shopping, I wanted to take Sue to Walrus & Carpenter for some drinks and apps.  I had gone there last week or so for some holiday cheers to catch up with friends.  Sue loves little plates so I knew that would be the perfect place.  Well...they are closed on Sundays, so we went to the next door Ethan Stowe's newest restaurant Staples and Fancy Mercantile.  

I've wanted to try this place for a long time.  I love Tavolata and was eager to try, and the place is in Ballard.  I was not disappointed. The food was amazing!  Simple but so flavorful.  Sue was also impressed.

Here is what we had...

Salad of Beets with Soft Boiled Egg, Watercress, Avocado

This was so good.  Perfectly roasted beets and balance of flavors.  The avocados was so good for some reason.

Sea Scallops with Farro, Squash, Radish, Mint

Not my first time eating scallops but I would say the first time really tasting the texture and flavors.  You can really taste the smokey caramelized flavors. Love Farro!

Rigatoni with Tomato Sauce

This was perfect.  Well cooked pasta, tomato sauce is perfectly balanced with tartness, sweetness, and the garlic slivers.  Yum!

Polenta with Anchovy and Chilies

This was by far the most impressive.  So toasty polenta with the "good", a bit grassy olive oil that tasted so fresh.  Check out the knife skills on the chilies.  The pic looks big but the actual size of the polenta rounds were about the size of silver dollar so the chilies were super small but perfectly square.  I love it when someone pays attention to the little details.

Sturgeon with Controne Beans, Golden raisins, Celery 

Sue said this was great.  I tasted the veggies and they were a great balance of flavors.

Almond Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream

This was okay.  Cake a bit over baked but the ice cream was not.  Sue didn't care for this and perhaps we should have gotten the chocolate cake.

Definitely a place to go back!  But first we need to go back to Walrus and Carpenter.  I didn't have a camera with me the first time I went, I will make sure I have it next time.

Momofuku Noodle Bar and Milk Bar

Last night, we had dinner at the Momofuku Noodle Bar and grabbed some desserts from the Milkbar.

I've been waiting since 2007 to try this place.  I've been dying to try the Crack Pie that Anderson Cooper has been raving about.


Well....


Expectations set too high?  I don't know...was good but not great and did not meet the expectations. 


Some things were good, but maybe it's because I am Korean and know the authentic Korean flavors and know my mom's food's flavors.  It wasn't so exotic for me and the flavors were not new.  I don't know but... David, you didn't meet the hype.  Definititly not in the baked goods department which is my love.  






Noodle Bar


They had more vegetarian dishes than I had anticipated. 


Steamed Buns
We had the veggie version with the shitake mushrooms.  The pork version is the one he made famous.  The mushrooms were too salty. There was some cool sweet pickled cucumbers but not sweet enough.


Beet Salad with Cream
This was a hit. It was roasted beets with blood orange, nori nibs, some buttermilk cream sauce.  This was good and beautifully food.  Or as Lucas said...fancy food.

Roasted Cauliflower
This was mediocure at the best for me. Soung seem to like.  Had brown butter, some raisins and pine nuts.


Jar of Kim Chee
This was surprisingly good but didn't have enough cabbage.  It was full of the chili pepper case. I like the jar it came in. 

Ginger Noodle
This is what Soung and I had.  It was more like a noodle salad.  Had some same shitake mushrooms in the steam buns, some greens, seaweed, ginger, and some oil.  Too salty and not that great.  The noodle texture was good though.

Momofuku Noodle
This is the classic pork ramen  with eggs and seaweed.  Lucus and Heather had this and seemed to like it.  I wish they had some veggie version of this.  I wanted a warm bowl of soup like this.  

The wait for the Noodle Bar was about an hour so we decided to hike over to the Milk Bar first and get some sweets.  Here we are after getting our goodies, sitting outside of Milk Bar and just eating desserts before our dinner.  My way of eating!  :)

Milk Bar
I'm not kidding when I said that Anderson Cooper loves this Crack Pie.  He was guest hosting Regis and Kelly and was talking non stop about this.  So, I was expecting something really salty, creamy, but really, it was some condensed milk thin cold pie.   We also got the Compost Cookie which was suppose to be like a cookie with everything but the kitchen sink but it wasn't.  Just some simple choc chip like cookie, very thin.  Not impressive.  We also got this Birthday Cake Truffles, which was good but flat on flavor.  Perhaps I'm being tough but I just expected a lot, prob too much.    The best thing was probaby the Apple Pie Cake that Lucus got but I didn't get to try. 


Crack Pie

Apple Pie Cake

Momfuku has some great concepts and I wanted to love the food but it wasn't.  The place has some good environment but food was flat for me.  Perhaps this is because I'm veggie and you need to have the meat dishes.   I am a dessert lover so did expect to love Milk Bar but it wasn't for me.    I got some great insprirations. 


I do love that he uses many organic ingredients and most are local.  He lists where he sources his vendors as well.


I'm going to make my own version of "crack" pie.  A pie that is so addictive but will be nothing like this gooie buttery stuff.  Mine will have salt, chocolate, and much more!