Recent Stories in Food

After Ivar's sent some samples of tartar sauce and cocktail sauce, my partner and I decided to speed over to the seafood section to prepare food for sauce tasting.

First up was fish, sans chips. Fresh, wild-caught cod deep-fried with a panko coating would be the perfect way to test the tartar sauce. My partner dove in as I readied a lemon squeeze, and she quickly screamed out a warning: "No lemon, no lemon."

Turns out this was a new Zesty Lemon Tartar Sauce, already packed with enough citrus punch. More disconcerting, though, is that it was missing enough of the cucumbers, capers, or other relish-like elements that I crave in adding texture to tartar sauce. Plus, it lacked bite that horseradish would provide. This tasted more like a lemony mayonnaise.

King crab would be a simple way to sample the cocktail sauce, which I soon realized was the new Spicy Ginger Lime Cocktail Sauce. The ginger was prominent and interesting, though not necessary for me. Lime makes sense, and luckily was less prominent than the lemon was in the tartar sauce. As for spicy, that simply wasn't happening.... (more)

The Travel Channel's Man v. Food just recently re-aired the episode in which they dropped into town to drool over Red Mill's burgers and onion rings and try the 12-egg omelet at Beth's Cafe. Host Adam Richman learned that the Red Mill makes 45 pounds of bacon per day, and tucked into the Crab Pot's Alaskan Seafeast (three kinds of crab!).

In previous culinary Escapes from Seattle, you've seen what happens when a food-loving indoor extremist goes to Whistler, and just last week, for the start of a new trip report, you learned how the Portland food scene differs from Seattle's. That trip next took me from food-rich Portland to the wine-rich Yakima Valley. Would I go hungry, and be forced to live on wine (and cherries) alone?

Perhaps the most prominent restaurants in Yakima are Tony’s Steakhouse and Gasperetti's Italian restaurant. I checked them both out, and found them to be ordinary places that could be in Anytown, USA. Tony's featured big plates with big portions and big protein boosts for lunch, such as an American Kobe (does that really mean anything?) prime rib salad.

Meanwhile, Gasperetti's was a tomato-sauce type of Italian restaurant where I sampled "John’s Combination Plate," with spaghettini, ravioli, Italian sausage and meatball, chicken cacciatora and chicken giblets. Points to Gasperetti's for offering some seasonal asparagus dishes, though points deducted for a "G-Spot" lounge that wasn't all that stimulating.

If it's asparagus you want, and you're hitting it in the right season (May until perhaps the last week of June, when I got there), check out Los Hernandez in Union Gap. They sell tamales, handmade fresh daily; the friendly shopkeeper told me that people trek from Bellingham to Boise to buy them by the dozen, usually frozen. I got there late afternoon my first full day in Yakima only to be told that the asparagus tamales were sold out, so I made it a point to go again early the next day to be sure to sample them. (They also have chicken and the more traditional pork varieties.)

The wait was well worth it. The tamales come out steaming hot and packed full of asparagus flavor, making Los Hernandez a unique food find. Los Hernandez also offers own fresh-made salsa, homemade masa (they cook and grind their own corn to make a more preferred coarser texture) and hojas (corn husks) in bags of 120.... (more)

It's been a hectic week, so let's talk about tea this afternoon. "Tea," I have been informed, "is restful in a lot of ways that coffee is not."

Earlier this week I was invited down to the Perennial Tea Room in Post Alley, for a little presentation about what to expect at the 2010 Northwest Tea Festival, on October 2 and 3 at Seattle Center (free, but a $5 suggested donation nets you a commemorative ceramic tasting cup that's yours to treasure).

Personally, I would expect hobbits. Dyed-in-the-wool tea drinkers always impress me in that way. But as a subculture (here in the Northwest, coffee is the dominant culture), their gathering for a festival apparently attracts other tea-friendly subcultures.

One year, laughed Perennial Tea Room's Julie Rosanoff, it was a Lolita-themed group. This year, they're expecting some cosplayers of the Otaku variety. And some herbal teas, some of which technically are more an "infusion." But time marches on. Last year brought 1,500 tea pilgrims; for 2010 they hope to see 2,000.

Previous festivals have been strictly tea-centric, but with the Essential Baking Co. as a festival sponsor, look for a variety of tea cakes: blueberry-orange, lemon-raspberry, and carrot-pineapple, all made with organic ingredients. I tried two slices of each, and in conclusion feel that the best option is two slices of each. You'll also find sandwiches, soups, and tarts.... (more)

The utilitarian Haas avocado is frequently on sale in these parts, and while I often simply cut slices into a salad or mash one to make guacamole, Mark Bittman's recipe for "Fast Avocado Soup" recently caught my eye.

This is simple soup. Take a few avocados, combine with an almost an equal number of cups of milk, then blend with some salt and cayenne. Chill (yourself, and the soup) for a few hours, then add some citrus to taste. (I didn't care for orange juice, but lemon or lime is fine.) Per the recipe's suggestion, I can see adding chopped cherry tomatoes and/or thinly sliced green onions, but I went the full upgrade by tossing in some cooked crabmeat with a lemon squeeze.

Good payback for your quick investment. I love the color and the creamy texture. But the soup reminded me of two cold concoctions that I like even better: avocado ice cream (from David Lebowitz's The Perfect Scoop) and avocado bubble tea with chocolate. Still, soup is more of a meal, isn't it?

A cider is born in East Wenatchee. (Photo courtesy of Snowdrift Cider Co.)

I've never liked beer. 

And if I hadn't spent time in London during college, that fact might've left me a lifelong teetotaler. But during that trip I discovered hard cider. Every pub had it on tap, and damn, was it good. 

Back in the U.S., of course, cider was thin on the ground, especially twenty years ago. That kind of made sense in Milwaukee, where I grew up, which is devoted to beer. But Washington is known for apples. When I moved here, I wondered: Where's the thriving cider scene?

In progress, it turns out. In the last few years especially a number of small cideries have sprung up throughout the northwest. (There's even a Northwest Cider Association.) And a few months ago I stumbled across what I believe is the best cider produced in Washington: Snowdrift, based in East Wenatchee. It's outstanding. I've been drinking it ever since, and it's a tough call to decide between their Cliffbreaks Blend and Wandering Aengus's Bloom as my favorite variety overall.

So I emailed Snowdrift's Lars Ringsrud to ask for an interview and find out more. 

You've grown apples for a long time, but you started making hard cider recently. How did you decide to enter that market?

Well our history in cidermaking goes back a couple decades, about as long as we've been growing apples. Peter would occasionally make homemade wines and ciders from the fruit here on the orchard. The wines would generally turn out pretty good, but the cider was never anything you'd actually want to drink--or even cook with for that matter.

Somewhere around 1998-2000 the apple market took a nose dive. We saw orchardists tearing out their orchards left and right because they couldn't get operating loans, and others would replant with Galas, Fujis, Pink Ladies, whatever the newest hot variety was, to try to stay in business, just to have to wait 3-7 years before they even got a crop. We were in the same boat where something had to change, but we went in a different direction.... (more)

Today may be the last day of summer, but fall is a fine season for taking culinary-related trips outside of Seattle. Having previously reported on an "Escape from Seattle" to Whistler, it's now time to head south to Portland and then loop up through parts of central Washington to discover good eats (and drinks), as I did this past summer.

Let's start with Portland. You're probably thinking: Oh, not another article about how Portland's food is better than Seattle's. Maybe not better, but different. And when traveling, aren’t we usually looking for something different? I'll offer a few examples, but by no means an exhaustive list.

Portland's got a different food vibe than Seattle. As local food writer Lorna Yee recently remarked about Portland in a SunBreak interview, "the food is a little gutsier, and the scene a little grittier."

The dining spaces are certainly different. It seems Portland chefs and restaurateurs are more creative with their kitchens and dining rooms, as you can eat at carts, strip clubs, and converted industrial spaces. There's the usual glitz and glamor of downtown eateries, but in general, I find the better eats to be on the east side of the Willamette River. (Even if you take the train to Portland—a fun way to travel—you can easily head east by bus and foot. I've done it, and you get to discover more of the city this way.)... (more)

Okay, time to close out this inadvertent "noodle trilogy" with a confession of sorts: I did not prepare the yakisoba or the hiyashi udon discussed the past two weeks. And I certainly wouldn't want to claim preparation of the "girl noodles" in this week's "Something I Ate." The better half is from Japan. She's the mistress of Japanese noodles in my house, and she asked that I set the record straight.

Not that there's anything wrong with "girl noodles."

That's not the real name of the dish--it's something sorta sexist I made up because noodle dishes like this are especially popular with women in Japan. Or so I'm told.

The "girl noodle" dish actually comes close to something called "salada udon," which is basically salad over cold noodles. Udon is great to use, but in the summer, we she likes to use somen noodles.... (more)

If pre-Labor Day is serious summer and the season for cold noodles, then post-Labor Day is faux fall—and a perfect time for hot noodles.

Few noodle dishes are better than yakisoba, which literally means "fried noodles." It's a Japanese dish derived from China and made not from buckwheat ("soba"), but from ramen-like noodles made with wheat flour.

There are some variations of the recipe, but in my home, we fry the noodles with bite-sized pieces of pork, along with some thinly sliced carrots, cabbage, and onion. You can add dashi (fish stock) not just for flavoring, but to help keep the noodles from sticking together.

As with many of the "yaki" dishes (like okonomiyaki and takoyaki), top the fried noodles with aonori (dried seaweed flake) and katsuoboshi (dried tuna flakes), which dance when they hit a hot surface.  You can also add beni shoga (red pickled ginger) and some Japanese mayonnaise if you like.... (more)

Just as ma po dou fu is a favorite emergency dinner option in my home (even if there’s no ground pork in the fridge, there tends to be tofu in there, and there’s always frozen pork in the freezer), udon is ubiquitous for lunch when we’re otherwise uninspired. We do a number of noodle dishes that go beyond udon, including dan dan noodles, somen (only in summer), Phad Thai, and yakisoba, but “something udon” is generally quick and easy.

I usually prefer frozen Sanuki udon for its texture (a thicker, stiffer variety from Kanagawa prefecture), so we stock up whenever there’s a sale at Uwajimaya—with noodle packages taking over the freezer.

I like the versatility of having udon either cold or warm—in soup or not. Most often, we have kitsune udon, with the noodles served in hot dashi along aburaage (a deep-fried tofu pouch) and kamaboko fish cake. When I make a batch of kimchi (which we’ll keep forever in the fridge, letting it get more and more pungent), then it’s definitely kimchi udon time for fermented fun.... (more)

While we were down in Columbia City the other day visiting the Columbia City Theater, we stopped in for lunch at Geraldine's Counter and had a bowl of three-meat chili ($6.95) that it took some digging to reach the bottom of. After a quick conference, The SunBreak Breakfast Team moved Geraldine's up to the top of our breakfast hit list.

Geraldine's Counter (4872 Rainier Avenue South) is right around the corner from a lot on South Ferdinand Street full of 2-hour parking spots that cost exactly $1. (It's also, I will estimate, a 7-minute walk from the Columbia City light rail station.) That's almost thrill enough, but the ambiance of the place--booths to your right as you walk in, light pouring over tables set next to windows on your left, and just in front, the eponymous counter seating--exceeds expectations.

The place is rated highly by the Surly Gourmand, which makes sense because our lunchtime waiter, if not surly, must have made some crotchety vow of silence. There was never any warning or explanation for the fact that two bowls of chili, a cup of tomato soup, and three-cheese sandwich ($6.50: cheddar, Havarti, gruyère) ) took over half an hour to arrive. (In some circles, half an hour is lunch.)

Everything is better with breakfast, though, and that included our service. I asked the waitress for help deciding between the biscuits and gravy ($9.50) and corned beef hash ($8.75), and she gave it real thought--it's a dilemma!--and said hash. I will have to return for biscuits and gravy to be sure, but they serve up a mighty plate of corned beef hash.... (more)

Suddenly, it’s September, and though summer seems to be slipping away, here’s perhaps one last chance to salvage some sunny vibes.

Sunday, September 12, will be the fourth annual Seattle Chefs Collaborative Urban Picnic, from 1-4 p.m. at the Rainier Square Rooftop Courtyard in Downtown Seattle (between University and Union on Fourth Avenue).

Chefs Collaborative, founded in 1993, is a national network of more than 1,000 members of the food community who promote sustainable cuisine by celebrating the joys of cooking local, seasonal, and artisan foods. 

This mission is reflected in the food of the day, as you can expect stellar bites from:

• Maria Hines, Tilth
• Jason Franey, Canlis
• John Sundstrom, Lark
• Ethan Stowell, Anchovies & Olives
• Seth Caswell, emmer&rye
• Kären Jurgensen, Quillisascut Farm
• Rachel Yang, Joule
• Riley Starks, Willow’s Inn
• Dan Braun, Oliver’s Twist
• Autumn Martin, Hot Cakes
• Tara Ayers, Ocho
• ...

Pork chops ready for sous vide bath

We've come a long way since the boil-in-a-bag lunches of chicken à la king I enjoyed as a kid back in the Seventies.

But for this collector of kitchen gadgets, I feel like I've come full circle with a Sous Vide Supreme (and vacuum sealer for the bags) sitting on my kitchen counter.

Note the location. While my four waffle irons, three woks, and much more are stored away safely in the pantry, this monster of a machine must sit out, taking up valuable real estate in my favorite room in the house.

That said, I've been delighted to have an opportunity to demo a unit, and to learn more about the style of cooking (based on precise cooking temperatures) that's the rage in restaurants--and now in some homes--of late.

Pork chop on the plate

I started with the simplest of recipes, a basic chicken breast preparation, and was pleased with the moistness of the meat, though I definitely appreciated the quick searing at the end of the cooking process. A few other meat preparations yielded similar results, including the pictured pork chops, though I can see how some people might initially question the texture of the finished product.

There are many pros to sous vide cooking, such as a fail-proof formula when following recipes (cooking times are forgiving, so it's hard to dry out meats), fairly quick clean-up, the need to do advanced planning as called for by cooking times.... (more)

Lorna Yee, local food lover

As I start posting reports about the local food scene as well as culinary escapes from Seattle, I thought it would be interesting to share a perspective on the sometimes hard-to-define Pacific Northwest cuisine.

I enlisted the help of Lorna Yee, a local food writer who just co-authored The Newlywed Kitchen: Delicious Meals for Couples Cooking Together. Yee has an adventurous appetite and is one of the people in Seattle I most trust for restaurant recommendations.

As someone who's lived in both Vancouver and Seattle and has spent time exploring the food scene in Portland, how would you define Pacific Northwest cuisine?

Pacific Northwest cuisine seems to center around salmon, shellfish, and foraged ingredients like fiddlehead ferns and morels. There's a bit of Asian influence, of course, though Vancouver chefs like Rob Feenie (ex-Lumiere), Seattle chefs like Tom Douglas, and Portland chefs like John Gorham seem to draw inspiration from around the world and apply it to the ingredients most readily found in their hometowns. There doesn't seem to be a "right" or "wrong" way to do things here—we don't have an almost religious (and admirable!) adherence to certain recipes and culinary traditions, like they do in the South. Chefs here are constantly innovating: there's no lack of creativity here in the Pacific Northwest.

Having recently moved to Seattle, how would you refine your definition of Pacific Northwest cuisine to make it more Seattle-specific?

Seattle is an incredibly green city that's focused on sustainability. Shopping at the farmers' market is routine for many of us here, and the "local, seasonal" mantra is not just one we see in restaurant kitchens. Many home cooks have adopted this way of cooking and eating in their kitchens, too.

What are Seattle restaurateurs and chefs doing well?

They are doing a great job of working with the reality that many of us are looking for a more laidback, more affordable dining experience nowadays. Casual sister restaurants, like Luc, or less formal options (like the bar/main dining room of Mistral Kitchen) ensure that restaurateurs are attracting larger clientele.

On the flip side, what's missing or done poorly here?

Asian food—with a few Eastside exceptions—is sorely lacking. Hopefully, with Bellevue's Din Tai Fung opening, we'll see more demand for higher quality Chinese food. I'm not an expert on Indian food, but Indian friends also tell me that they haven't found much excellent Indian food in Seattle proper.
... (more)

Peaches. 'Tis the season.

Earlier this week, I was thrilled to see that Metropolitan Market had brix (basically, a way to sneak inside the fruit to measure its sugar content and predict its sweetness) ratings for its Frog Hollow Farms and Pence Orchards peaches.

The Frog Hollow peaches, brought in from California, are beloved and generally fantastic, but the Pence peaches, from the Yakima Valley, were a little less expensive, and had higher brix ratings. (Staff at Metropolitan Market told me that the Frog Hollows had come in too early.) I went local!

My mission was sorbet-making, so I used a recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, which has been reliable for me in the past. The finished product was good, but lacked the punch I expected from the ripe peaches. Speaking later with sweets superstar Autumn Martin, we lamented that sometimes peaches and other stone fruits are best eaten out of hand, as the flavor impact gets lost in many, if not most, cooking preparations.

I went back to Metropolitan Market yesterday and was surprised to see the brix signs gone. I then walked across the street to the Queen Anne Farmers Market, found some perfectly good "seconds" under a vendor's table, and took them home to eat over my sink. They dripped with sweet goodness, just the way fresh, juicy peaches are meant to be.

Tani Creek Farm

If the meal in front of a mountain tempted you earlier this week, here's exciting news: Outstanding in the Field is coming right here to the Seattle area.

Outstanding in the Field ups the ante on the farm-to-table concept by putting the table right out on the farm. For this local event, the location is the Tani Creek Farm on Bainbridge Island, with a landscape described as a cross between Pacific Northwest and Mediterranean (picture fruit and nut orchards, olive trees, hops climbing trellises and the like), and sloping hills that offer stunning views of Puget Sound.

Expect a farm tour to start the event before proceeding to the long, white-clothed table that is the signature of the Outstanding in the Field communal dinners.... (more)

On the heels of our burger shack survey, the SunBreak Burger Team decided to visit The Counter in Ballard (4609 14th Ave NW), which is, as you know, "the 21st century’s bold answer to the classic burger joint." It turned out to be an oddly taxing experience, not least because two burgers, two fries, a malt and a soda came to over $34.

But first we were confronted by the "Build Your Own Burger" menu, which would make Barry Schwartz scream, "Have you learned nothing from my work?" Essentially, you walk in and are presented with a pop quiz for your stomach. Not only are there 17 million combinations to choose from, but some are "free," and some are priced like extra toppings on your pizza ($0.50 to $1.00 per).

The smallest burger size is one-third of a pound of Angus beef, antibiotic- and hormone-free. ("Weights AFTER cooking," the menu tells you proudly.) That sets you back $8.25 before you've added anything at all. 1/3-lb. ground beef! Does anyone else remember when the quarter-pounder was a large? The result is a burger you have to slice in half just to get your hands around a manageable piece. (Later I felt like a python that swallowed a deep-fried goat that had just sucked down a shake.)... (more)

If you couldn't tell from the increased traffic and the sonic booms, the President made his somewhat-close to annual trip to Seattle on Tuesday.

While no one with less than a six-figure income could get within 300 feet of the President, for only $15 you too can have the pleasure of eating what Obama ate at Grand Central Bakery.

Twitterers such as @hsiaoching and @obamafoodorama, as well as the Grand Central themselves (@grandcentralSEA) kept us well informed of the Commander-in-Chief's dining habits. Here, a replica of the President's meal (courtesy of @hsiaoching's twitter feed):

Turkey and chutney sandwich, Skagit Valley salad & a jammer.... (more)

Note: Part 1 of this Escape from Seattle is here.

Waking up in Whistler, this calorie-lover knew there was a big day of eating ahead.

Just a short walk from my base at the Westin Resort & Spa is Lift Coffee Company, with outdoor seating and a morning menu that tempted me with a coddled egg and smoked black cod. I enjoyed this little glass ramekin of comfort food, accompanied by assorted baby lettuces, grilled rye, and puttanesca vinaigrette.

What most made me want to order this dish? "Shaved Montana," which sounds like a great name for a band, but turned out to be a cheese topping for the salad.

Lift's comfortable outdoor sofas looked tempting for a post-breakfast nap, but those seats have view of the entry point for my next stop: the Whistler Village Gondola, which would take me up nearly 6,000 feet to connect to my PEAK 2 PEAK Alpine Experience.

Choose your Peak 2 Peak gondola correctly, and not only do you have a 360-degree, panoramic view from as high as 1,430 feet from the valley floor, but you might also have floor windows that allow you to look straight to the ground.

For someone who no longer skis, this 2-and-3/4 mile journey was a great way to get a feel for the majesty of the Olympic venue, and a sense of awe in the marvel of construction of the peak-to-peak cable connection. Completion of Peak 2 Peak broke records for longest unsupported span, highest lift of its kind, and longest continuous lift system on the planet.... (more)

We visited Cafe Flora (29th & Madison) earlier this year to try out their breakfast menu; this time they invited us down to see the backyard patio and sample options from their cocktail menu (pdf). Click through the gallery for glimpses of vegetarian and vegan takes on cocktail hour.

Cafe Flora opened in 1991, the year I moved to Seattle, though the two events are largely unrelated. I do remember my first meal there, and the thrill that came with eating vegetarian fare that wasn't trying to taste like a meat dish. Everything celebrated precisely what was on your plate.

Now there's a new(ish) owner, Nat Stratton-Clarke, who started five years ago as a buyer, became general manager, and then took over the reins completely when founding owner David Foecke wanted to move on. So while Café Flora lives on, new approaches to menus and décor are being tried out.

To go with the cocktails, there's a Happy Hour: Monday through Friday, from 3-6 p.m., they offer select beers at $2.50, wines at $5, and a daily cocktail at $5. For the ultimate escape from a hectic day, make tracks for the back patio, and try the intensive garden immersion therapy it provides.

A food writer/restaurant reviewer can't, and shouldn't, eat out all the time. A simple salad or bowl of broth is a great break from far too much fat that's inevitable with many meals out.

My go-to meal when the refrigerator and pantry are bare, and I'm otherwise uninspired: ma po dou fu.

I love it, and make it almost every week. After testing many versions, I make mine based largely on Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe. (Main adaptations: I prefer pork over beef, substitute scallions for leeks, and drop out the white sugar and soy sauce.) As Dunlop describes it, this classic Sichuan tofu dish is named after the smallpox-scarred wife of a Qing Dynasty restaurateur, who prepared the dish for cooking oil-bearing laborers on their way to market.

Ma po dou fu is intended to be a fiery dish, so I laugh when I see the brown versions at area restaurants. Instead, I'm looking for a red color, which makes me salivate from thoughts of spiciness.

In addition to the Sichuanese chili bean paste in Dunlop's recipe, I typically double the amount of ground, roasted Sichuan peppercorns (this gives the ma, or numbing sensation), add two tablespoons of chili garlic sauce, and then add her suggested ground Sichuan chiles. (The last two items increase the la, or spice/heat factor.) 

Ma po dou fu is a dish I want to taste the next day--and not just as leftovers for lunch.

The American Cheese Society is having its annual convention at the end of August, right here in Seattle; Michael Pollan will be keynoting. They're mixing things up a little by inviting the public to their awards ceremony and Festival of Cheese, held at Benaroya Hall on Saturday, August 28, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

To publicize the cheesemonger Main Event, Beecher's owner Kurt Dammeier invited an assortment of foodies, bloggers, and media to the Pike Place store for a preview, and regaled us with stories and cheeses: "I'm Kurt Dammeier, and I'm the founder and owner of Beecher's Handmade Cheese. Middle name, Beecher, hence the name of the store."

Dammeier has been involved with the Cheese Society for five years, and is the board treasurer. "We now have over a thousand members," he said proudly. "Nearly every American cheesemaker of note will be attending this event." About 320 difference cheesemakers have entered their products into the competition.

As co-chair, Dammeier shares most of the responsibility for how this Benaroya Hall festival goes. Normally the awards ceremony is an industry event, on a separate night. But Dammeier thinks it'll be a bit of a thrill to see which cheeses win, and then have the chance to go meet the cheesemakers and taste the award-winners:... (more)

In an ill-timed move, Seattle Mariners' management fired Don Wakamatsu, Major League Baseball's first Asian-American manager, just prior to yesterday's Japanese Heritage Night at Safeco Field.

Yuji (pictured), visiting from Tokyo, circled the stadium in search of something special to eat. (With 62 food stands and 26 kiosks on site, this process took time.) In a "No Ichiroll for you" moment, he settled upon Grounders World Famous Garlic Fries (which came to Safeco in 2001, the same year as Ichiro); in a "Freedom Fries" moment, we used the Japanese word to rename them "Ninniku Fries" as a form of protest for Wakamatsu's firing.

Not really. Yuji says he just got tired of smelling the fries all around the stadium without getting a chance to eat them. The fries are seasoned with parsley, Kosher salt, and lots of garlic, with the resulting odor creating chaos as fans abandon seats in the area. The section in the photo was full moments before the shot.

Again, not really. But the two apple slices included with the fries are just a joke as an attempt to get rid of garlic breath. Still, two thumbs up from our Japanese friend, who said "oishikatta."

If there's a vanguard for the back-to-the-future, "Victory Garden" era in horticulture and landscaping, Colin McCrate is leading it. As the recession stretches out, garden-happy Seattleites are switching flowerbeds and shrubs into edible greens, fruits, and vegetables. At McCrate’s Seattle Urban Farm Company, the requests for residential farm landscaping (and chicken coops) keep increasing.

"It’s definitely true," said McCrate, atop Ballard's Bastille restaurant (5307 Ballard Ave. N.W.), where he's installed a prototype rooftop garden. "More and more people are taking advantage of yard space to supplement their food needs. The sale of vegetable seeds has gone through the roof."

Seattle’s climate, even in a cloud-shrouded summer like the one we are currently experiencing, is perfect for cultivation of greens, herbs, vegetables and fruit, particularly native apples, cherries and plums. Rain and peek-a-boo sun makes for perfect growing conditions.

Some local gardeners have always made a sport of growing food products, and Seattle’s P-Patch network has been flourishing since the hippie-intensive 1970s. But now, people are farming for keeps, both residentially and commercially.

"Our customers are constantly surprised at the yield from even a small plot," McCrate commented.

A few years ago, Bastille's James Weimann and Demming Maclise purchased a building on the resurgent Ballard Avenue. (If you haven’t been over there recently, make plans. It’s as nice a mix of retail and restaurants in the city). Their goal was to create a restaurant that adhered to the strict demands of French cuisine, namely the use of fresh ingredients. They succeeded in spades, but not before an intensive remodel and some bold thinking.... (more)

Tillamook’s Loaf Love tour is making a stop in Seattle, and the welcome party is at Capitol Hill's Po Dog (1009 East Union Street), purveyors of fine hot doggery and dog-related accoutrement. Here is everything you need to know wrapped up in a tidy cheese package:

For one hour only–5 p.m. to 6 p.m.-on August 5th, 2010, Po Dog restaurant, Capitol Hill location, will offer free Tillamook-themed hot dogs, "The Mac & Tillamook Cheese Dog," in celebration of Tillamook’s Loaf Love Tour, the first ever cheese tour comprised of three refurbished VW buses designed to look like baby loafs of cheese, arriving in Seattle and rolling around until August 16th. In addition to free hot dogs, the Loaf Love Tour will be handing out free cheese samples, coupons, buttons & more to help spread the love of tasty cheese to the people.

We couldn't make this stuff up. Further details: The VW buses are 1966 vintage, and cheese is delicious. You can probably still eat it even if you are lactose intolerant. Tillamook is a cooperative. They're 101 years old. They also make ice cream and butter. But their cheddar is what gets you. You probably don't realize how good you have it, cheddar-wise. You can eat too much cheese, I'm told. Moderation in all things, even the extra sharp.