Spinassi

I finally made my way to Spinassi. Wow! I can see why one of the Seattle magazines named it best new restaurant for 2008. I've been there 2 times and it lived up to the hype. First time I had the Ravioli di tapinambur al al burro e salvia con pignoli ( I didn't remember this, I copied from their menu.). It's basically a simple ravioli. It was good but what I really wanted to eat was the Tajarin al burro e salvia which is simple fresh ribbon of pasta with butter, sage, and cheese. Really simple but amazing. Soung had ordered this and I took a bunch of bites. So the second time I went, I ordered this. I also had miner's lettuce for the first time. Boy it was so fresh and what eating organic is meant to be. They are really delicate with their dressing, sauces, and flavors. (I also tasted miner's lettuce salad at Lark and it was not the same.) For dessert (because you should know by now, I alwasy get dessert, sometime two. :)), we had this chocolate terrine. Again amazing though it would have tasted better with some fresh berries. They also have this 2 dollar hazelnut mereingue cookie which is really tasty. I also ordered the dessert wine with my meal. I'm really into sweet white wines. This one was a muscat and bubbly. It was so freshing! The first time I went, we didn't have reservations so sat at the bar next to this older gentleman who found out is a regular. He goes there once a week without his wife (when we were there) and order the same thing each time. He has the simple pasta with butter and sage, the hazelnut cookie, and the same dessert wine. He was a hoot! Made fun conversation with us. The owner came out and greeted him like an old friend. I wish that was us. I'm so in awe of people who are so great in their craft.

Baguette Box

Photo from Baguette Box website.

Yummy!!!!

I love this place. I had lunch there today and had the tofu sandwich which is very much like a Vietnamese sandwich. It's a warm and savory sandwich with braised tofu, fresh green slices of avocado, red onions, pickled diakon, cilantro, some yellow sauce like favored mayo.

I also had their fries. Oh my god! So crispy and salty. One order is good for 2 people. I could only eat half. I'm PMSing too so would think I could eat the whole thing.

Highly recommend this place! For meat eater, there is so much more. Carolyn had the drunken chicken sandwich.

They were featured a few years ago in Bon Appetite magazine as one of top 20 sandwich places in America or something like that.

It doesn't hurt the guy who works there has really pretty eyes with really long eye lashes.

They also want you to bring pic of your dog to post.

Lark

It was my friend Debbie's birthday and we went to Lark to celebrate.

I can't say it was all that it was hyped to be. I know the place has been around for 5 years and everyone always rave about it but it wasn't all that for me.

It was good and more fun because we had an occassion to celebrate but I was expecting more. We had the following:

Starters

• 3 Cheeses of Buenalba Drunken Goat, Bleu D’Auvergne, I forgot the third.
• Marcona almonds, marinated olives, and preserved quince

Sides

• Pommes de terre "Robuchon"
• Warm asparagus bagna caudawith poached egg and miner’s lettuce
• Sautéed half wild mushroomswith garlic, olive oil and sea salt
• Bluebird Grain Farms farrowith nettles and roasted oyster mushrooms

Main

• Black seabass with green almonds,ramps, honshimeiji mushroom and lemon
• Manila clams with chorizo,garlic, baby kale and Olsen’s potatoes

Dessert

• Apricot tarte tatinwith rum caramel and vanilla bean ice cream
• Chocolate madeleineswith Theo organic dark chocolate sauce

Nothing was bad but it just wasn't great. All the food are served family style or tapas style but there wasn't that much to share. I think you get more from Poppy's thali for one person. Their service and attention to detail was great. I love the simple syrup they served in petite jar for my iced tea. The olive oil that dreched the olives and almond had amazing flavor. Would I go back...not sure.

Will catch up this weekend!

It has been crazy busy! Has 2 months already passed! Wow... Well...did homeless cooking last month so have great pics of great food we made. Will go this month one this coming Sat. Went to Carmalita last night and oh my! Most beautiful food. I have pics I will post once Soung sends them to me. Went to Spinassi too a few weeks ago. Great simple food! I've Miner's lettuce or something like that. There's more and I'll just lump into one. I also made some homemade salty caramel sauce for someone's bday and it was so lovely. Got a great note about it from her. Dear friends, when it's your bday, this is what I'm giving you.... More to come later with pics!

Frango Cakes

Remember them?  The cakes had big broken pieces of mint chocolate on top.  It was so minty, chocolatey, and a bit salty.

Today I made a cake for an auction for a school that is trying to raise $.  I made homage to the Frango cake by making my own version.    It tasted okay but I was not completely satisfied with my execution.  This is why I don't have a pic but I'll try again and hopefully post a good pic.

I missed the tradition of Frederick and Nelson and the Frango cakes, shakes, and all the stuff the cafe used to serve.

Slow Money

I went to hear Woody Tasch speak tonight about this movement and his book. This movement is about bringing investments and entrepreneurship to the local, sustainable level. I went hoping to learn about how I can incorporate the local, sustainable, small, grassroots, environmental thought process into any future business I go into, however the actual speaking engagement was a bit chaotic and there was not a focused approach. I didn't buy the book tonight but will later on. It does bring up a great thought process to get away from this big world economy we live in and the mess we are going to through now. We do as a society need to weave in social aspects of how businesses are run and how success is identified. Tasch talked about many good things going on now with farming and the food industry. He is involved in an alliance for "slow money" that is trying to change how investments are made and how we need to donate and put capital in areas not for return on financial investment but business that are for profit that will change social aspects.

Theo's Chocolate Tour

Photo from Theo Chocolate website.
A couple of week's ago, I went on a chocolate tour in Fremont.  Yes!  There is a local chocolate "maker" in Seattle.  I was expecting Wally Wonka chocolate tour but it was better!

Theo, which is a kind of name for the tree that produces the chocolate pods. So clever!  

This is a local company that "makes" from scratch with roasting beans to final packaged product. I didn't realize that there is so few actual "makers".  Most are "melters" such as Sees and other big names bars.  This is only company that is fair trade and organic. I guess the chocolate bean harvesting industry uses a lot of child labor.  

They have amazing flavors.  One of my favorite was Bread and Chocolate which as the salty sweet flavors, along with a nice yeasty, butter touch.  Another one was their mint truffles. They actually infuse fresh mint with the cream and add it to the chocolate vs. adding just a flavoring.  Great idea!  There is Coconut curry, not one of my favorites, Fennel, Almond, and Fig, Coffee, Chai Tea, and so much more. They also have great caramels. I tried the chipotle salted one. MMMM....

The tour is a must!  I'll go again because you get to sample so much chocolate.  Tour is 5 bucks. I also bought home a ton!

Be warned...you do have to wear a hair net but a small price to pay to sample chocolate.  :)

Neighborhood Cooking-Feb 2009

I'm a bit behind on blogging due to busy work so these posts are late.  There was 3 homeless cooking events in Feb. I went to 2 of them.  The theme for Feb was "southern, soul food" since it's black history month and celebrate Obama in the the office.

First outings we cooked and delivered food to a tent city in Shoreline.  

Menu:  Chicken Stew with home made biscuits, Jambalaya, Red Velvet cupcakes, Greens.

Second event, we cooked and servered at Operation Sack lunch.  We had no theme for this one and cooked what ingrediants we got.  This was also on Valentines' day so we made sure to have chocolate!  Everyone needs a little something chocolate.

Menu:  Tuna pasta, Stuffed peppers, grilled asparagus, fruit salad, green salad, soup, chocolate cupcakes, crepes, plus more I can't remember.

Sitka and Spruce

Many of you know my love of Sitka and Spruce, as well as the chef god Matt Dillion.  I tried to get dinner last Friday to celebrate Joan's birthday but we got there like 7pm and couldn't get a table until 9:40pm so we decided to eat at Serafina's instead.  It was a great dinner and I actually ran into the chef/owner of Both Ways Cafe that I used to work at.  

I am going back on a week  night when it slows down.  Another blog to come!

Thrive

I went to my first raw food eatery yesterday. A place in Roosevelt called Thrive. It was good! I had Coconut Thai Soup which was very creamy and flavorful. It had shreds of carrots and cilantro. I also had some nut cheese spreads and flax crackers. The flax cracker are really good and I want to make these. Michele is the person who took me and introduced me to raw food. She also gave me some of her prepared raw food and there was this "bacon" made out dried young coconut. Wow! It was soo good! I think I can do more raw. More than anything, it makes me feel so light. However...I did eat some real chocolate chips too when I got home. :)

Anyway check out Thrive or any other raw foods.