the wannabe foodie's dreamland.

recently, i attended (by way of working at)seattle weekly's voracious tasting. this spectacular sold-out event was probably one of the coolest things this foodie has ever seen.

seattle weekly rents out the historic paramount theater and turns it into a tasting extravaganza that is bustling, elegant, and [most imporantly] DELICIOUS. the entire floor level of the theater is filled with tables offering tasty samplings from some of seattle's hottest restaurants and bars. tables this year included: bastille, luc, joule, emmer&rye, and toulouse petit, along with many other fine dining establishments. the floor was crowded with excited guests aiming to sample just about everything within their reach, most with a full wine glass conveniently clipped into their bamboo tasting plate as well as a few shot-sized cocktails from such buzzed-about bars as tavern law, liberty, and knee high stocking co.

the vibe in the room as absolutely amazing, and the guests were all getting one of the best food deals i have ever seen in my life. groupon, eat your heart out...these lucky diners were chowing down on treats from over 20 restaurants, drinks from more than 10 bars, and were drinking from a 100% open bar for only $35 general admission and $75 VIP (one hour earlier entry and a gift bag that held swag worth WELL over the cost of the ticket.) my mind was blown.

on top of all of this commotion, a treasure awaited the guests in the upper level of the theater lobby. this entire floor was set aside for DESSERTS. from a beautiful woman wearing a dress with dozens and dozens of cupcakes on each tier (from seattle cupcake staple trophy cupcakes), to made-to-order organic molten chocolate cakes with a choice of gourmet sauce toppings (from hot cakes confections), to miniature waffles topped with strawberry rhubarb compote and candied pistacios (from sweet iron waffles) there were sweets coming at me from every angle. and, let me tell you, i sampled every. single. one. my personal favorite dessert, a turtle (chocolate with caramel and pecan) flavored frozen custard from peaks frozen custard, led to an immediate visit within the week of the voracious tasting to share the wonder of frozen custard with others. you can bet there will be a blog to follow after i sample a few more of their constantly rotating signature flavors.

ok, i can tell i'm just upsetting those of you who either didn't know about the voracious tasting or were too silly to buy tickets this year. i don't want to upset you anymore, so i will just encourage you to keep your ears open for news of next year's tasting. this year's tasting was only the second annual, so i can assure you that it is just going to get better, and better, and better.

dine around seattle is BACK!

making upscale dining affordable to the downtrodden with well-trained palates, dine around seattle comes but once a year and offers three course meals for an amazing 30 dollars. i love this for three reasons:

1. i'm pushed to try restaurants that i've been leaving alone because they're "too expensive."
2. if you bring the right two friends with you, you can sample and enjoy three different appetizers, three different entrees, and three different desserts. now that, my friends, is bang for your buck.
3. you are pretty much forced into getting dessert! who can say no to a dessert INCLUDED in the price. that would just be wasteful, silly. and that friend of yours who always passes on dessert and sneakily insists on "trying" a huge bit of yours...with this deal she is losing money by not getting her own. it's beautiful.

i'm planning on at visiting at least two of the restaurants included in this year's lineup (you can peep the choices here). the first tour included a trip with my roomie (a) and her coworker (l) to lecosho.

nestled on downtown's harbor steps, lecosho is well-known for its meats and delivers on the promise printed across the banner of their website: "food we like." and i did, i really liked the food at lecosho. i didn't LOVE it. hey, they can't all be a homerun, and we should still celebrate a triple.

during dine around seattle, you are given a menu with three appetizer, three entree, and three dessert options. my dining companions and i all selected a different appetizer. i proclaimed that i could choose the cheesiest one (duh) and went with the manchego stuffed dates, a had the house green salad, and l had the lamb sausage-stuffed grape leaves. the lamb sausage was a standout, and the dates were pretty scrumptious as well. the salad was pretty standard. the soft boiled egg on top WAS perfectly cooked, though, and i do love me a perfectly cooked egg with a nice soft yolk.

the main course offered pasta, pork or quail. no one really wanted to waste this opportunity on pasta. two of us chose the pork and one the quail. the pork chop was HUGE and served over a delicious potato and parsnip puree and some delicious beets. being the recovering vegetarian that i am, big ol' pieces of meat sometimes prove too much for me. if it were my dish, i would have doubled the amount of garnish and halved the chop. i like to assemble juicy little bites including a little of everything on the plate, and i was out of sides about halfway through my pork...and i was being very conservative! a's quail was so little comparatively, it felt rude to have that much meat in front of her. her sides, of corona beans and arugula salad were in desired portioning and completely delicious. if you've never had a corona bean before, it's bigger than a butter bean, and more firm. they were cooked to perfection for a's plate and i borrowed more than a few over to mine.

for dessert, none of us could pass off on the completely unique semolina custard cake. that was all the menu said, but it was also served with a hefty scoop of fresh whipped cream and some sort of a compote (my guess was huckleberry with a port wine, probably should have asked the waitress). the cake was moist and not-too-sweet, and had the texture of the most sumptuous cornbread you could imagine. the ratio of whipped cream to cake was way off and myself and l both left at least half of ours on our plates.

i don't think i need to return to lecosho for dinner, but i do want to try some of their more casual stabs at cuisine at lunch time, where they offer very reasonably priced gourmet salads and sandwiches. the restaurant also boasts a late night happy hour (10 to 1 on weekdays and 11 to 1 on friday and saturday) with some tasty little morsels to offer and a $4 wine, $3 beer, and $5 cocktail special.

the homiest of happy hours.

ladies, i suggest you make sure that sundays between 5-7 remain open on your calendars. that way, you can be sure to visit bottlehouse (a newly opened madrona wine bar) for their amazing 5 at 5 deal. resident viticulture specialist and bar owner, henri, will choose a wine for you based on your preferences--and pour you a sizable glass for just 5 dollars! and these aren't the shitty house wine pours of happy hours everywhere, these are beautiful, local, hand-selected wines.
bottlehouse is the neighbor of a personal breakfast favorite, the hi-spot, in a beautifully renovated madrona house. the interior is fun, simple, and completely comfortable--decorated and designed by henri's partner and co-owner, soni. i was ready to settle down and stay for the whole happy hour period (and then some).
now, for those of you who can't just sip wine and be content (ahem.....me!) there are also delicious snacks on the menu. they are served to share, and favorably priced. my group decided on some delicious green cerignola olives, beecher's cheese curds, and a baguette with olive oil.
as for accommodation of those who are not inclined to enjoy the vino--bottlehouse offers several select beers, hot lips soda varieties, and rootbeer floats! i suggest you all go out visit bottlehouse...and soon. before long, this place is going to really catch on and be predictably packed. make yourself a regular as soon as possible, you won't regret it.

restaurant week.

my roommates and i decided to take advantage of the 3 course for $25 menu for seattle restaurant week at avila restaurant in wallingford. avila is a perfect example of how front of the house and service really have an effect on how the eater perceives their food. unfortunately, avila's service left a bad taste in all of our mouths, even after 3 delicious courses.
we arrived with 1 minute to spare before our 7:30 reservation, and were told that our table wasn't ready. we were flexible, and the friendly bartender kept us happy with free champagne (and refills!) at the bar. normally, free champagne would cajole me, and it did for the first part of the meal. the waitress took our order and the wine, bread, and appetizers came out without a hitch. the appetizers were by far the strongest course of the meal. roomie a had the mussels (yuck!) and i was even brave enough to try one. as a fishlover, however, she said they were awesome and dipped some of the left over bread into the housemade vermouth and green garlic at the bottom of the dish. roomie m had the pan fried asparagus, which were tender but still crisp and super flavorful. my appetizer was a really yummy goat cheese souffle with greens. i was really pleased with my choice.
after that, however, the service really went downhill. our entrees took almost 40 minutes to come out. as we watched people who had ordered after us get their entrees, we wondered if we had been forgotten. i'm an avid top chef fan, i know that sometimes a course gets messed up in the kitchen, and i'm totally ok with it. however, the lateness of our entrees was never acknowledged or appologized for by our server. in fact, she never even came over the refill our water! luckily i was in good company with good wine, or this situation could have been really miserable.
i had an artichoke and endive crostada that had an amazingly flaky and sweet crust. it was a well-rounded and hearty vegetarian dish, that i was completely satisfied with. the girls both had the halibut, which i'm told was well-cooked but poorly dressed. the menu explanations were brief, and with no guidance from our waitress the girls found their plates with two mystery balls (which turned out to be breaded and fried manilla clam meatballs) and a foreign green liquid (still not entirely sure of contents). now, i'm all about trying new foods. however, i would definitely like to know that those foods are before trying them. the girls were great sports, but i could tell they were both disappointed in the cohesiveness of their halibut dish.
we finished with a dessert that definitely made up for the silly halibut. we had one of each offering and rotated a warm malted chocolate souffle, spiced bread pudding, and chilled rhubarb soup. in my opinion, the soup was the star. tart rhubarb is a personal favorite of my pallatte, and this one was paired with a angel-food-like puffy cake in the middle and topped with white chocolate creme. the souffle would be best described as "one-note." it was tasty, but nothing i've never tasted before and portioned substantially larger than it needed to be. the bread pudding was really flavorful and came with a tart yogurt gelato (yet another meal component we had to ask about) from fainting goat gelato right down the street. this definitely spiked an interest in me to blog some local gelato in the very near future!
all in all, avila is a place of good food and innovative ingredients. however, something as simple as lack of water and spotty service really overshadowed the food. i think i'll venture out and try a lot more restaurants before i return to avila.
photo cred to www.avilaseattle.com.

hot date?

might i suggest serafina??? eastlake's own modern italian osteria and enoteca [literally translated...a place where someone can host you and serve you wine...my living room, anyone?] is cozy, intimate, and super-inviting. my partner in crime for the evening, manfriend b, and i really enjoyed the decor, ambiance, and [most importantly!] food at serafina.
now, i believe on a weekend it might be a pretty good idea to make a reservation, because on a sunday night at about 8:30 we were lucky enough to happen upon the last available table. a LARGE group of individuals were celebrating a birthday, and they were definitely out of place. serafina seems like more of a one on one or two on two type of location...which is why i would suggest it for a hot date, hot double date, or a great catching up time with one or a couple friends.
now, i always and will always judge an italian restaurant immediately by their bread. honestly, major points are lost with lack of bread. thankfully, serafina hooked us up with some delicious rustic crusty bread and herb/garlic infused olive oil. along with blog-approved bread, serafina also boasts a freaking intimidating wine list. the waitstaff is unbelievably knowledgeable [or convincingly appear so] but i still opted for a cocktail. usually a beer girl, i couldn't turn down the elisir della fiore, which combined gin, elderflower liquor,and fresh lemon juice with a splash of proseco. it was just as "seductive" as the menu had promised.
ok, onto entrees! i had the pollo arrosoto, which paired a near-perfectly roasted chicken breast with roasted butternut squash, pancetta, and brussels sprouts with a pistacio jus. now, this chicken which once boasted the breast i received must have been quite buxom, because my portion could only be described as hearty. hello, doggy bag! i was disappointed to find that the promised brussels sprouts, a personal favorite, were just a few scattered leaves within the squash and pancetta mixture. however, all brussels sprouts aside, i enjoyed my dish. b had the restaurant's signature dish, which featured eggplant crusted with parmesan and wrapped around ricotta in a manicotti-like fashion. the dish was also served with capellini pasta and went by the name melanzane alla serafina. it was really good as well, but did appear very wimpy next to my buxom chicken breast.
the dessert menu was quite impressive, but we forewent in favor of cocktails (!). however, i eagerly await another occasion where i can sample what serafina has to offer my sweet tooth.