Seattle – A big bowl of Pho’n

 

Sorry for the tardiness, I’ve been totally packed since my return.

After a long car and ferry ride, we came back to Seattle. Having been refreshed from the relaxing and beautiful weather of Victoria, we strode briskly down 4^th ave to the Space Needle. On our way, my eye caught a combination of words that stopped me in my tracks, then beckoned me forth, “bacon brittle.”

Yellow Leaf Cupcakes is a small bake shop with walls covered in silhouetted pictures of cities from across the globe. Upon entering, I immediately enquired about that bacon flavored fare. The bacon brittle came in a variety of flavors, including spicy, chocolate, and accompanied by nuts. However, the pancakes and bacon cupcake with maple frosting and candied bacon topping is what finally sold me. We paired this  delectable bite with drinking caramel, which turned out to be a match made in breakfast heaven. The cupcake was soft and moist, light and airy, like a thick pancake fresh from the griddle. Little bits of bacon were distributed throughout the flapjack colored cake. The maple frosting was equally light, not cloyingly sweet, and very soft. There was no crumbling or crustiness in the frosting. The candied bacon on top added additional smokiness and sweetness (doubly so because I asked for extra). The light cupcake contrasted well with the heavy drinking caramel. High-fat milk was inundated with rich caramel and a hint of salt and frothed to latte perfection. Not as thick as drinking chocolate, 6oz was still almost too much. Every sip cascaded over my palate, causing me to halt the assault on the confection and savor the steaming mug.

After a lap around the space needle and accompanying museums, we walked back on 1^st ave, through Pike’s Place market again, this time sampling balsamic vinegar and olive oil, beef jerky, and pepper jam. At the suggestion of a local, we found Von’s, a “gustobistro” that boasts 1000 different drinks. Go in and you will believe it. The wall of liquor looks like a stain glass window in the afternoon sun. A huge wheel sits in the bar area. Spun every 30 min, it dictates what drink will be discounted for that time. Washington state residents get 25% off their bill, which our waiter was kind enough to offer us as it was our first time in the city, and at Von’s. Still in the mood to sample, we ordered the sourdough pizza (pictured), topped with ewe blue cheese, dried cranberries, sliced green apple, and smoked lardons. Wow. The crust was thin, charred in some places, making it a fork and knife job. It was two rich and heavy vs three tart and light, duking it out in your mouth. The cranberries and apple added sweetness and sourdough gave just a hint of twang to the overall flavor combination. Funky yet subtle blue cheese and salty, rich chunks of apple smoke slab bacon brought body and heartiness to the pizza. I was tempted to try the Monster burger, which is two classic burgers with a grilled cheese in the middle. Finish it in 5 minutes and its free. Finish it at all and you get your name on the wall of fame. Maybe next time.

We ended our day walking around the international district. A huge Asian grocery store, Uwajimaya, was my highlight. They have all kinds of snacks, ingredients, an impressive sake selection, premade foods, and a home goods store.

We took a bus back to Bothell, where we were staying, and decided to go eat in suburbia. Pho Express (previously Good Pho You) is an unassuming Vietnamese noodle shop. Bright orange walls, fans instead of AC, TV on the wall, family in the back with aprons and hair nets, everything you want in a pho house. Once again, I decided to indulge my gluttonous side and go for the 6lb pho challenge. I had an hour to put down the mixing bowl size helping of vermicelli noodles, onions, broth, and meat (I went with chicken, it was leaner and would go down better.) The first 15 minutes of chewing, slurping, and blowing to cool the soup went by without seeming to make a dent in the trough. While delicious, any tongue would get tired of the same flavor over the course of 6 lbs. I broke into a sweat as hot soup, warm day, and sriracha (to break up the flavor) threatened to overtake me, but prevailed, gulping down the last dregs of broth and noodle. Pictures ensued, as the new owner had never seen the feat accomplished before. Pride, $20, and a massive free meal in my stomach, we retreated home where a long walk and even longer run awaited me.

Morning came early (3:30) as we got a ride to the airport for our flight. Thank you Seattle and our gracious hosts for a wonderful time.



Paintings and/of fruit

No, the title is not a typo. After a stop in Seattle, we spent the weekend in Victoria Island, British Columbia Canada. Saturday, in a residential neighborhood, about 30 blocks were barricaded  to allow painters, sculptors, bands, and my personal favorite, a farmer’s market, to take over the street for a food and art festival.

The entire festival was local. Watercolor renditions of Victoria storefronts, acrylic neighbor’s houses were many themes of paintings. While I am unsure that the wine with a pear slice were bottles and grown locally, the ocean vista scenes were certainly Northwestern. The farmer’s market features local vegetables, fruits, cheese, cider, and a variety of baked goods, spreads, and jams.

As we perused the produce, our first tasting stop was cheese. Considering that the milk came from a single farm, the variety of cheeses produced was impressive. The makers had studied in Switzerland, so a mild gouda, swiss, gruyere, and a raclette made appearances. Sharper jack cheeses spices with herbs and red pepper flake also brought some additional variety. Even a blue cheese that was mildly funky and still creamy was tasted.

Down a few stalls, hard ciders was available to sample. The Victoria Island brand had a number of variations, all served in a re-sealable glass bottle. The Flagship was a darker color, with a hint of brown touching the gold. The flavor was deep, but had a bitter finish. We went to the other end of the flavor spectrum, sipping down a cup of much lighter, both in body and in color cider. While refreshing, the overcast, midsummer day felt more like fall, so I wasn’t in the mood for something so light. I gravitated to the Rum Runner, a more fortified cider at 12.5% as opposed to the 6-7% of the others. It too was a darker color, while remaining translucent. It had a bracing kick, with only a hint of sweetness which faded to a minor bitter finish, only making me want to drink more.

Heirloom tomatoes, purple beans, cream top yogurt, green tea rolls, maple-flavored honeycomb baked goods all passed by as we continued to explore the festival. A booth, lined with mason jars, had bowl of all kinds of jams and spreads, which of course, I had to taste them all. The apricot jam was smoothly pureed, not chunky as I had expected. The “bumble berry” jam was comprised of tayberries, blackberries, and raspberries and was both sweet and tart. A caramelized onion dip had chunks of asparagus combined with a balsamic twist that went from sour to sweet from being reduced.

As we exited the farmer’s market to further investigate art, a chef was explaining how simple ingredients can be combined for complex flavors. He had marinated (not pickled) fresh cucumbers in vinegar, then topped it with a fresh cow’s milk cheese, reminiscent of the fromage blanc I mentioned in my last post. He topped off  the bite with pumpkin seeds he had roasted in a pan with olive oil, cumin, turmeric, coriander, salt and pepper. Lastly, he finished with a small drizzle of walnut oil. The roasted notes of the seeds pulled out the similar flavor in the oil, which contrasted with the twang of both the cheese and the cucumber. Crunchy seed and cucumber parried smooth cheese and oil for a textural contrast as well.

After the festival, we meandered the streets of downtown Victoria, a casual end of a nice weekend with our neighbors to the North.

A gastronomic stroll through Seattle

This week, I find myself in the Emerald City. After a six hour flight, three hour time change, and a good night sleep, I do what I always do when I find myself in a new city, I walk around. I’m a big fan of the Japanese concept of “tabearuki,” or, to walk around and eat, sampling many places.

Our stroll began by heading to Pike Place Market. As we walked in, we saw the crowd around one of the most famous sights of the market, thrown fish. As you approach the shaved ice laden shelves, the fish mongers chant as they toss whole fish from floor to cutting station. Everything from black cod to whole salmon were heaved across the market.

While there certainly are numerous arts, crafts, clothes, souvenirs, and other things available at the market, the produce, cheese, and food was what drew me. We sampled carrot chips, which looked like bacon, but had the salty crispness and texture of a freshly opened bag of Lays. We tried a yellow pluot, soft and sweet, it was like a combination of a plum and a nectarine, about the size of a racquetball, golden color throughout, with a small pit in the middle. Various hazelnuts were available to taste, smoked, salted, raw, and other flavors were poured into our eagerly awaiting hands. These nuts were more rectangular that ovular, and had the same crunch of a filbert.

We followed our nose to a sweet/savory pastry shop. Piroshky Piroshky bakery had a line out the door. An open window showed one of the bakers folding, cutting, and weaving dough into knots bound for the oven. Sweet breads were filled with fruits, nuts, and chocolate, and flaky pastries carried mushrooms, cheese, onions, and ham. The hardest part was choosing, as every one of them were as large as my fist. We decided on a cinnamon apple roll. Slices of apple, soft and skin still on, peaked through the weaves of cinnamon and sugar laden deliciousness. This paired quite nicely with the coffee from Starbucks (which seem to have completely perforated every street of Seattle). But not just any Starbucks, the original Starbucks, which started in Seattle, remains open to this day. The menu isn’t different from anywhere else, but the décor is still the antiquey dark wood that preceded the “third place” atmosphere.

Fromageries are not an uncommon sight in pike place either. We noshed upon samples of fresh fromage blanc, a spreadable cheese the consistency of whipped cream cheese, but with a richness and tang of chevre. We tried a variety of blue cheeses, from mild and subtle, to crumbling and fermented. We settled on a buttermilk blue that was soft, funky, and creamy, it paired well with fresh ranier cherries, which are apparently at the peak of season right now.

A shot of pickle juice, lattes made from a $3,500 home machine, chai and passionfruit greek yogurt, slice of French baguette, pieces of maple & bacon and huckleberry taffee, and a graciously given ferris wheel ride later, we came upon Salumi, an Italian style sandwich shop that closes at 3:30 in the afternoon with good reason, they run out of meat. We lamented the lack of porketta and grilled lamb, but we did nosh upon paprika sausage, fatty and spicy. Slivers of fresh cotto, spotted with coarsely ground peppercorns and cured, smoky soprasatta passed our lips as we made our own sampler platter (pictured). We decided on the meatballs and the seasonal oregano salami. The salami was firm, the meat and fat resembling stained glass. The meatballs were slightly sweet, rich, and thick, despite chunks of onion and garlic that poked out as you bit through them.

A very successful tabearuki, with weather that was as good as could be asked for. We have another day to tour the city, so suggestions are always welcome.

Houston'sUnderbelly

 

Once again I find myself in the lone star state for work. I stayed downtown near the Galleria, the biggest, department store-ridden mall in the area. However, despite the numerous restaurants near my hotel, it took venturing a little farther out to find Underbelly, a restaurant featured on Bizarre Foods America.

The restaurant hosts a bar area in addition to the main dining room. The open kitchen is shown prominently on one side of the dining room, with the charcuterie curing chamber off to the left. Part of that wall is also lined with in-house made pickles and jams of all varieties. The menus are reprinted daily and shown on repurposed text books, I received “Managerial Accounting.” The wine list is a leather bound tome, mentioning some features of Underbelly’s wine, where it came from, and how one can buy it by the bottle to take home (they are also a wine shop.)

My meal began with the roasted pork belly (considering the restaurant’s name, how could I resist?) The plate was a large disc, the center being filled with a rice porridge the consistency of grits that have been left the sit and started to congeal (though this rice was still served warm). The belly was a rounded cut, different from my usual experience of a square. The outside was audibly crispy and the meat was tender, though a little dry. Pickled carrot and green onion accompanied the pork and was finished with a house made hot sauce, a vinegary, bright red concoction that added a nice colorful note to the plate.

Next was the sourdough. A whole boule was brought to the table, still steaming hot. The crusty exterior crunched wonderfully, as the whole grain interior filled your mouth. It was served with a red pepper vinegar butter that added to the sour note of the bread. Diner beware, unlike most places, the bread is not complimentary, or at least it wasn’t for my party of one. This is not mentioned on the menu.

Having spotted the room of cured meats, I could not resist the charcuterie plate. Pickles, peach mustard, summer sausage, bresaola, coppa, boudin, and prosciutto were displayed on a wooden plank. The thick slices of summer sausage had bits of cheddar cheese throughout, making the sausage almost creamy in texture. The bresaola was a dark red and lean, retaining the meaty flavor. The coppa was quite fatty, but the spices and smoke were held in that fat. The mustard and pickled white string beans, radish, and asparagus helped to cut through that fat. The boudin was served warm and spicy. The rice had soaked in all of the porky flavor and just a little iron from the blood. My decision to order the bread was affirmed as a wonderful idea as I smeared mustard on the crusty sourdough and topped it with cured meat.

The entire meal was paired with a white vouvray, grown and produced in Texas. The hay-colored white had some bright citrus notes of lime moderated with a sharp pear and a floral nose. A little sweet, which was welcome considering the building heat from the boudin, pickles, and mustard.

My local dining experience came to a close around 8 o’clock on a Thursday night. Though I was leaving, the restaurant was filling up, apparently a hot spot for couples and business people alike.

 

Level with me

 

This year, my Fourth of July was spent in Annapolis with my Aunt and Uncle. Having spent time in Baltimore before, it was nice to try another part of Maryland’s food scene. We wanted to watch fireworks at the harbor in Annapolis, so it made sense to get there early for diner, so we got on the Level.

Level is an eclectic, small plates restaurant with flavors from all over the world. Our party consisted of six people, so that meant we got to sample a quite a few items from the menu. Our meal started with cocktails. Level makes all of their bitters and juices in-house. My Bourbonapolis was fruity, yet still woody with notes of smoke and leather to counteract the sweetness. The 360 gimlet was topped with a lime foam, made with egg whites, simple sugar, lime, and sprayed from a nitrous oxide dispenser. The cocktail was supremely easy to drink, with the foam adding a smooth sweet note that played well with the sour lime (to include grated rind). The “Staff favorite #2” was equally as curious. Also topped with foam, this time it was flavored with hibiscus syrup. A blend of raspberry, lemon, and lime came together with rum and sugarcane for a uniquely tropical summer beverage. Lastly, the “Angels and Demons” was a blend of St. Germaine, micro cilantro, tequila, lime, and habanero pepper. Served in a small glass, the lime kool-aid-colored drink hit first with a honeyed herbaceous note, but the heat lingered and tingled. Quenching the spice with another sweet sip only redoubled the heat, making putting the cocktail down difficult.

The plates were as varied as the cocktails. We order one plate per person and ate at our leisure. My first round was a bison slider. Completed with a roma tomato, bread and butter pickle, served on a potato bun, these meaty bites were tender and juicy. My preference would have been to have them closer to medium/rare, but they were no less succulent for being well done. Raviolis were another plate, stuffed with a sweet pea puree and served with feta cheese. Sweet, salty, creamy, and smooth combined for a luxurious mouthfeel unexpected of raviolis packed full of vegetables. Fried Brussel sprouts came during round two. Halved and fried, they were a dark green and in some places, black. They were crispy on the outside with a hint of honey drizzle and a bite of goat cheese. The frying didn’t quite get through to the center of the mini cabbage, leaving a little raw afterbite.

 My second plate was rockfish (pictured). The fish was seared crispy on the outside. Unmarinated, the flavor of the fish came through as it was topped with a pineapple salsa. A sweet/hot, watermelon jolly ranger-colored sauce was swizzeled next to it, and paired well with the fruit concoction. Basmati rice and black beans served as a base for the fish. While executed well, the rice and beans didn’t seem to match with the rest of the plate. Another seafood plate was seared scallops. Clean, fresh, mildly oceanic, they were topped with a potato leek bisque and finished with jalapeno scallion oil to add a hint of heat. Perhaps the favorite dish of the night (we ordered two) was the seared butcher steak. Cooked medium rare, served on a smear of sweet potato puree, the beef was cut on the bias and presented on an elongated plate. Orange contrasted with the dark sear contrasted with the bright green chimichurri and micro cilantro. Rich meaty flavor came through the rich potato and tangy sauce.

We decided to forgo dessert in favor of a better spot to see fireworks. The whole weekend was wonderful and I very much appreciate the hospitality of my aunt and uncle. Happy (belated and back to work) 4^th of July.

 

 

Hominy in a Heritage House on a Hill – Husk

 

Husk is a Southern American restaurant situated at the top of a hill in the Southern part of the Nashville. Overlooking the city, the used-to-be home has been converted to a darling eating establishment, complete with an open kitchen, basement bar, and garden. The elegance of Husk is completed with dark, thick, old wood, complimented with lighter colored walls, bright paintings, and water/cocktail glasses made from old wine bottles.

Our dinner began with two mocktails. A ginger beer enhanced with mint and lime was both bracing and refreshing, while a tea infused with grapefruit and lavender was sour yet calming. Our first course was a soft shell crab, lightly dusted with flour before being pan fried. The crab was topped with “embered corn,” which added smokiness and sweetness, marconi peppers, which are like green bell peppers, but not as thick and much milder, added a herbaceous note. The plate was finished with chive and coriander blossom, and plated with a salsa verde. The flavors came together beautifully, each bringing out the oceanic sweetness of the crab while standing on its own.

Our second course was a true Southern staple, shrimp and grits (pictured). Buttery ground hominy served as the base of the concoction, which was topped with perfectly cooked, halved and curled shrimp. Accompanying this were sautéed mushrooms, finely diced crisped ham, scallion, and a sunny side up egg. The entire bowl was showered in a black powder. The chef had taken the shoots and greens of onions, cooked them to a dark char, pulverized them into a dust, then liberally sprinkled the dish with it. The onion ash brought smoky umami to the dish that was both welcome and unique.

The entrees that continued our meal were chicken and pork. The chicken was served with a rhubarb-tomato conserve. Sweet, sour, red, and sunshine were the first four words that came to mind. It was served next to a cannel of “curds and whey.” Ricotta was made in house, then the whey was incorporated back into the cheese and blended to the consistency of sour cream. My pork was a shoulder, slitted on the edges and stuffed with bacon before being cooked. Served atop a hominy and butter bean succotash, and a hominy puree to keep everything in place. West African mustard onions in a light, slightly sour, creamy sauce topped the pork. Each bite fell apart in my mouth as I traded a bite of savory pork for sweet corn succotash.

The ambiance and the knowledgeable banter of our waiter helped complete the meal, as did the wonderful company. Despite the oppressive humidity of the day, the experience was very cool.