We had a lovely dinner at Boat Street last night. After a stroll around the nearby Sculpture Garden with an out- of-town friend, we headed over to the restaurant, only a few blocks away. When you finally spy the sign and turn off Western to head down to the restaurant, you feel like you’ve discovered a hidden gem (photo top left), a romantic and intimate space.
My husband, Frank, ordered a French 75: a delightful cocktail of brandy topped with Champagne and zipped up with a little lemon and simple syrup. I’m ordering this next time! For appetizers we started with a plate of padron peppers- little peppers simply roasted with fleur de sel. That’s it. Addictively delicious, you could eat them like popcorn (photo bottom. Sorry! in the dim light, we didn’t get great photos). We also enjoyed a fresh and vibrant pickle plate- picture perfect with small wedges of watermelon, beets, slender carrots, radishes, peppers, mushrooms- topped with a swirl of scarlet colored pickle juices and a little cluster of red currants (photo top right, and again, photo doesn’t do it justice) . Next, we shared a roasted white peach salad with a perfect half peach, very fresh, small arugula leaves, and flavorful roasted almonds.
For an entree, I ordered Renee’s famous flan. Last night’s version featured corn, spinach, and chevre. (Chef owner Renee Erickson demo’d this dish at Summer Camp a few months ago and I’ve been wanting to try it ever since.) Served in an impressively large and deep individual souffle dish, puffed golden brown over the top, the flan’s dramatic appearance caused a stir in the dining room. Three other diners separately came over to our table to ask what it was!
Frank ordered piquillo peppers stuffed with Merguez sausage and served over polenta. Our friend ordered the clam “chowder:” a large bowl of perfect, small clams served with a few diced potatoes in shallot, white wine, and cream, with a crusty baguette on the side. All delicious, especially with a nice bottle of Sancerre.
You can’t skip dessert at Boat Street. We shared the bread pudding which came in a shallow bowl in a pool of creme anglaise and a dark Theo chocolat pot de creme served in a glass pot and topped with whipped cream, a simple and perfect end to the meal.
September 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Michelle Obama shops for eggs, chocolate milk, and vegetables at the new Farmers Market near the White House as part of her “ongoing effort to encourage Americans to eat healthier, fresher, foods,” according to this article in the New York Times.
September 19th, 2009 | No Comments »
Re: Amy R’s post about “Captain Nate’s fish fry,” here’s some exciting news. We have obtained photos of Captain Nate himself frying up fish for Palace Kitchen Happy Hour while wearing his Captain’s hat!!!
September 17th, 2009 | No Comments »
According to Jonathan Kauffman who gave Serious Pie the number one slot. Here’s the article from Seattle Weekly. Kauffman says: “The bubbles in (Gwen’s) oval pies are so inflated you’re surprised the pizza’s not hovering an inch off the plate.” Well, we’re pretty proud of that! Kudos to head bread baker Gwen LeBlanc and the whole amazing Serious Pie crew!
September 17th, 2009 | No Comments »
Amanda Hesser has just launched her new food site, food 52. Hesser is a cookbook author, and she was a food columnist for the New York Times for several years. food 52 has a unique angle: because the developers of food 52 (Hesser and Stubbs) believe that the best recipes in the country come from home cooks, contests are held weekly for the best recipe on a specific topic (ie. best brunch eggs, best tomato recipe). A winner is chosen for each topic and, as a reader of food 52, you get the recipes, photos,and sometimes videos. After 52 weeks (hence the name of the site) a cookbook of these winning home cook recipes will be compiled, and the book will be published by Harper Studio.
To tell you the truth, I’m not big on contests. I find many of them hokey or silly. However I was surprised by how much I enjoyed browsing this new website. It’s quite slick (I mean this in a good way), beautifully produced, well organized, and easy to navigate. Most of the recipes look terrific, and Hesser and her co-author, Merrill Stubbs, have a pleasantly low-key and matter-of-fact style that appeals to me. It will be fun to keep track of food 52.
September 17th, 2009 | No Comments »
“Captain Nate’s ling cod fish fry with lemony tartar sauce.” 5 bucks. Palace Happy Hour= awesomeness.
September 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Joan Nathan’s article in today’s dining section of the New York Times tells the story of the Stawbery Banke Restoration, a living museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which includes the Shapiro House. The Shapiros were among the 152 Russian Jews who, by 1919, had settled in the small town of Puddle Dock, thereby following a path very different from that of the many Jewish immigrants who found their way to America’s urban centers. An actress named Barbara Ann Pastor portrays Shiva Shapiro in the living museum, as a “34 year old woman whose time is spent in her kosher kitchen with its coal stove and ice box.”
The museum has taken great pains to ensure the accuracy of the foods that were eaten in the Shapiro household, using research tools that include interviews and pollen and seed analysis. The Shapiros, of course, lived (without having much choice) the locavore lifestyle that many admire today. They slaughtered their own chickens using every precious bit, including the intestines which they stuffed to make kishke. They searched for seeds which would allow them to grow the foods of their Russian homeland, including poppies for the seed pods to make poppyseed cake and poppyseed filling for strudel.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins Friday night, September 18. Who wouldn’t love to sit down to this delicious menu?
Kasha Stuffed Roast Chicken
Crispy Kale
Poppyseed Cake
Fortunately, the recipes are included in the NYT article.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!
Notes: Apples dipped in honey are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah by many Jewish people to symbolize a sweet New Year, hence the image. Also, kasha (used in the chicken stuffing) means buckwheat groats.
September 16th, 2009 | No Comments »
More exciting news from the Obama administration: the USDA is finding ways to help school cafeterias purchase fresh local produce and will “issue new purchasing guidelines for schools that place attention on locally grown foods.” You might think this is a no brainer, but, in the Alice-in-Wonderland world that has been our federal school food policy up to now, the current situation is that “there are all sorts of regulations that make it impossible or expensive for schools to buy locally grown produce.”
The blog, School Lunch Talk, which summarizes this new USDA policy here, comments that “Italian schools, for example, are required to purchase ingredients that are either organic, traditional, or local. Italy’s school lunch legislation sounds a lot like ours in that its goal is to support domestic agriculture while nourishing school children. The difference is that Italy uses school lunch to support local and sustainable agriculture while the United States uses school lunch to support large agribusinesses. With all the new policies coming out of this USDA, things might be about to change.” Let’s hope so.
I found the School Lunch Talk blog via a tweet by Amy Pennington.
September 16th, 2009 | No Comments »
Is rolling up your sleeves and working alongside Tom Douglas in the kitchen your idea of fun? Perhaps digging your hands into succulent Cabernet Franc bunches to thin grapes ripening on Chinook Winery’s vines? Or tasting blends to select the 20th anniversary cuvee that will be served in Tom’s restaurants this November?
That’s how 40 lucky members of the Wine Press Club spent last Saturday. Meeting under the blue skies in Prosser, we caravanned to Den Hoed’s vineyards to meet their top viticulturist. No tasting room coddling here. We stopped in the middle of their 600 acre estate to learn about the insane efforts top vineyardists make to produce the very best wines. Canopies pruned to provide hot or cool, depending on the grape, site, exposure, and goals for the wine. Bunches thinned by hand to ensure the optimum number of clusters. Rows drip irrigated or top watered, again determined by grape and goals. Hand versus machine harvesting. Even a peek into the sometimes wacky world of biodynamic wines. Labor intensive cultivation like that explains why that $65 bottle tastes so good and costs so much, and deflates any curmudgeon’s notion about wine pricing and marketing hype.
Then to Prosser Farm, where Tom, Jackie and crew had been tirelessly working since the previous day. First a quick tour of the well-loved flower and vegetable gardens, which supply Tom’s restaurants with uber-farm-fresh produce. Then a group effort in the kitchen, where Tom (photo bottom) led us in teams for the final prep, cooking and serving of our four-course, wine-paired feast. Read the rest of this entry »
September 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
On the way back from a meeting, Robyn and I were sidetracked into taking a mini culinary tour on this perfectly lovely Seattle afternoon. First stop, the newest Fran’s Chocolates located next to the new Four Seasons Hotel. The first thing you see when you walk through the door is this photographic print of a mosaic of Fran’s granddaughter made entirely from Fran’s candies (photo top). Amazing. Next we browsed the store (photo center left) oohing and aahing over the chocolates. The selection included colorful cloth covered and beribboned boxes of candies perfect for gifts, bars of Fran’s baking chocolate (didn’t know she made baking chocolate- must keep this in mind!) and even a few bottles of port and Prosecco.
Next we moved into the lobby of the Four Seasons and took a peek at Art Restaurant with its glorious view overlooking Elliot Bay. Big posh square armchairs and a sleek bar made the prospect of a cocktail here very inviting, but we felt obligated to keep making our way back to the office.
A few blocks later we were sauntering by Bottega Italiana (photos center right and bottom)and Robyn claimed they made some of the best gelato in Seattle. Clearly we needed to check this out. A cone of stracciatella (chocolate chip) and a dish of coffee gelato made Robyn’s case quite well, and we could keep walking while we indulged. Keeping our eyes straight ahead, we managed to return to work without further detours. Seattle is a fun and delicious city, isn’t it?
September 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
RSS Subscribe