Barking Frog

Last week K and I went to Molbak's in Woodinville and I mentioned that I had been wanting to try out Barking Frog so on Friday K suggested we go there. The Barking Frog is located in Woodinville across from Redhook Brewery and next door to Herb Farm. Their website lists them as being a casual bistro, however, I think anyplace where the wait staff refolds your napkin for you after you've stepped away from the table can't call themselves casual with any degree of seriousness. I guess it's all relative though, they are situated next door to Herb Farm after all.
I have to say this was the best meal I've had in the Seattle area. The service was impeccable, the food beautifully presented and cooked perfectly. I had the the rack of lamb served with lamb hash, creamy polenta and a demi glace that I had every last drop of. The polenta was the perfect vehicle for soaking up the lamb juices and demi. K had the chicken with sage gnocchi, carrots and brown butter sauce. K liked it enough to say that he would go back and order the same thing again.

Lake 22

K and I went on our first hike of the season today at Lake 22 in the Snoqualmie-Baker National Forest area fairly close to Mt. Pilchuk. I've always wondered why it's called Lake 22. Are there 21 other lakes that I've missed out on? Is there a Lake 23? Lake 22 was a good moderate hike to start with for the season; 5 miles round trip with a fairly gradual elevation gain to the top. Most of the elevation gain seems to occur over the first half or so, with the trail leveling off towards the top. This was a good thing since the last 5o0 yards or so is still covered in snow, although it seems like the trail is still getting its' fair share of pedestrian traffic since footprints heavily marred the snow.

Waterfalls along the trail.

Views from the trail once we got out of the forest.

Lake 22 with Mt. Pilchuk in the backgound. The lake looked picture perfect with the reflection of the snow speckled mountain and a partial layer of ice still covering it. It was the perfect place to stop for our late afternoon picnic.

The trail as we were heading back seemed particularly pretty with the sun highlighting the stunning green leaves.

Mango pancakes

Some of my family came into town this past weekend so I decided to make brunch on Saturday morning, mango pancakes with candied pecans, pan fried potatoes and ginger, strawberry lemonade. The mango pancakes were made by using a basic buttermilk pancake recipe and adding diced mangoes to the pancakes after pouring batter onto the griddle (or in my case, the pan). Being from Vancouver, BC, my sister asked whether the maple syrup I was serving with the pancakes was Canadian maple syrup. I'm happy to say that my reply was 'Of course!

My uncle's girlfriend, C, has a keen interest in tea so we were able to visit a few tea places on their last visit and this most recent visit. We visited Sassy Teahouse in Redmond on her last visit since I had driven by many times, but never quite got around to going in. They serve tea in the traditional English manner. The chocolate, hazelnut tea that we had was fragrant with a nice nutty flavor that was enhanced by adding a little hawaiian rock sugar that was presented with the tea. Unfortunately, it seems that the Sassy Teahouse has closed their doors.

We also visited Teavana inside Bellevue Square where they offered more Asian style teas and retail traditional Japanese style teapots. C picked up a beautiful deep green teapot with a dragon engraved on the front. I sampled their Strawberry, Kiwi Rooibos that had a sweet fruity flavor. Teavana has locations all over the US; however, the Bellevue Square location seems to be the only one in Washington.

Poop culture

Coffee beans - Picture from http://www.animalcoffee.com/

One of my sisters just left for Japan last week and she asked if my youngest sister, V, and I wanted her to bring back anything. V, who is much better at keeping up with all things trendy and Asian than I, has apparently requested ‘Golden Turd.’ V describes it as being a small golden good luck charm shaped like a spiraled poop pile. From what I’ve read, there’s something about a play on words with poop and good luck so Japanese school girls have been carrying around mini piles of s*** attached to their cell phones. I’ll post a picture if / when my sister returns with one.
In keeping with my blog theme, there is a culinary twist and it has to do with civets (a tree dwelling cat like creature) and coffee beans. It seems that there is a market in Japan for Kopi Luwak, naturally processed coffee beans with a process that I would consider completely organic. The story goes that civets ingest whole coffee berries and after digestion, release intact coffee beans that are then collected by harvesters to be sold for over $100/kg. Now that’s coffee with a kick!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1486529.cms

San Francisco Day 2

San Francisco Day 2

Ferry Building Farmer's Market
This was my third trip to SF, fourth if you count the time my parents decided to go on a family road trip from Vancouver to Anaheim, but that was a different kind of food trip involving meals of pepperoni and cheese sticks from gas stations. This time I didn’t want to miss the Saturday CUESA Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building that Louise Hasson from Bon Vivant raves about. It rained on Friday and Sunday, but Saturday the sun was out as we walked around the stalls of fresh vegetables, dried fruit and artisan products to the beat of a marching band playing nearby. Just like yesterday, I was a kid in a candy shop again.

Virtually all the food stalls offered samples so we walked around tasting trail mixes, granola and dried fruit. We ended up buying a mixture of dried pluots and ranier cherries from Bella Viva Orchards and cranberry orange granola and raspberry granola from Galaxy Granola. Pluots are a hybrid between plums and apricots and Bella Viva had some plum colored pluots and some apricot colored pluots. I like prunes but don’t really like apricots (due to another another long road trip with my parents involving apricot picking) so I liked the plum colored pluots for their plum flavor more than the apricot ones since they tasted more like apricots to me. Is this a psychological association or was the taste difference real?

Hungry for lunch we walked into the Ferry building where the permanent shops are located. There are specialty shops in here selling caviar, cheeses, mushrooms, and Japanese deli items to name a few. While sampling olive oil a young women scurried by carrying one of those paper plates divided into sections with each section carrying something that instantly grabbed my attention, one looked like a braised meat and another looked like a baked mushroom with a bright green herbed sauce? I knew what I wanted to eat so I it was just a matter of my feet leading me to it. The food ended up being from Mistral Rotisserie Provencal and they’re a highly recommended stop for their value if you get to the Ferry building. They’re just a small takeout counter with glistening organic rotisserie chickens in the background and an impressive selection of pre-cooked items. KC and I both ordered the specialty lunch, one main item with 2 sides. Mine was 2 duck legs in a delicious fennel orange sauce, snails with gnocchi and cauliflower au gratin. Not your standard deli fare. KC ordered the beef stew with roasted potatoes and wild rice pilaf. Not bad for $30 including drinks and tax. So, why is it that I can be happy about a meal that isn’t quite perfect, the duck was a little overdone, but the sauce superb, the gnocchi and snails lackluster, but the cauliflower delicious, if the meal was inexpensive; yet be disappointed with the same at an upscale restaurant? It’s interesting to note how the same food can produce completely different reactions depending on the mindset we have going into the meal and how ambiance contributes to that.

O'Reilly's Oyster and Beer Festival
After lunch we met up with friends at O’Reilly’s Oyster and Beer Festival at Fort Mason. It was a great excuse to be outside to enjoy some sunshine and enjoy live Celtic bands, but what kind of oyster and beer festival offers one kind of oyster and one kind of beer?

Charanga
After reading Gastronomie’s description of Peruvian food in SF, I had to go and try for myself. KC’s friends said they knew of a good place and kindly whisked us off to Charanga. Charanga is actually Caribbean-Cuban, but the food was so good I can't say I minded. 2 of us shared a half pitcher of very gulpable sangria. Appetizers we shared were champignones al jerez (mushrooms sautéed with shallots, garlic and sherry) and asparagus in a balsamic dressing. I loved the simplicity of the flavors and how everything was done just right, the asparagus cooked, but still firm to the bite. I ordered the picadillo Cubano estilo Elena (ground beef cooked with a sofrito, olives and raisins) accompanied by black beans and two pieces of delicious candied fried ripe plantains. Just writing about it makes me want to go back again.

San Francisco Food 1

Metro Crepes:
Whew, two and a half days in San Francisco and a whole lot of eating! After a lazy start to the day we finally arrived at Metro Crepes at 11:45am or so, just beating the office crowd that quickly formed a line behind us. I enjoyed the Paris crepe (ham and Jarlsberg cheese, although I’m still questioning Jarlsberg cheese in a 'Paris' crepe) while KC ordered the Rome (chicken, romaine, parmesan, and Caesar dressing). The crepes were decent and service fast, but nothing remarkable either. Seating was in the general indoor courtyard for the building with marbled floors and dramatic high marbled walls with ivy growing from floor to ceiling.

Fog City News:

After a quick lunch we walked down to the bus stop and stumbled across a newsstand / store called Fog City News that carried chocolates from around the world. I kind of felt like Charlie stumbling into a Wonka store, but instead of Wonka bars, it was exquisite chocolates from Scharffen Berger and Valrhona. I picked out a Vosges Red Fire bar (ancho and chipotle chili peppers, ceylon cinnamon and dark chocolate), plus a Valrhona chocolate bar which our sales person pointed out was a limited addition chocolate and therefore carried a higher price tag. KC chose a Hachez strawberry and pepper. We’re still waiting like Charlie to get home before we open our treats.

Boudin:

The next stop was Boudin bakery at Fisherman’s wharf, origin of San Francisco sourdough. Bakers stand at the window shaping and kneading pillowy dough balls enticing tourists with their displays of turtle and lobster shaped breads. KC and I paid for the $3 Boudin museum tour, which starts off with a brief history of San Francisco and bread making, continuing onto a platform where you can look down on the bread making process and the mother vault containing the sour starter, that has been maintained daily since the start of Boudin’s 150 year history, that goes into their bread and finally a tasting room. The tasting included their asiago cheese, sourdough, and raisin bread. There was also Californian olive oil, blackberry balsamic vinegar and strawberry jam for tasting as well. KC liked the blackberry balsamic vinegar, but I think it was a little too sweet and not quite vinegary enough for my taste.

Ghirardelli:
Fisherman’s wharf is really the tourist area of SF. Souvenir shops line the street and there are Ghirardelli chocolates to be found in every single one of them. KC and I walked along Fisherman’s wharf and up to Ghirardelli square where he recalls having to wait an hour and a half to get into Ghirardelli for a sundae on a previous visit. There wasn’t a wait this time (it was a wet Friday afternoon) and we were able to order a specialty sundae right away; vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and caramel syrup, sweet and sinfully good.

Ozumo:



After a hard day of eating we met up with a few friends for dinner at Ozumo, adjacent to the Harbor Court Hotel where NG and L were staying. Ozumo has a large bar and lounge area in front with the restaurant extending back into a quieter formal dining area. I read somewhere that they designed the restaurant to resemble a Japanese tea garden. I love the understated simplicity of Japanese design, natural wood, simple elegant floral arrangements, harmonious greens and whites. Ozumo has the most extensive sake menu I have seen anywhere, comparable to many restaurant’s wine lists. We had to wait for about 30 minutes after our reservation time, but management was kind enough to send us drinks on the house. Once seated, our server arrived with a little too much attitude for our liking. I understand trying to be helpful, and the possibility that there are people out there with a fear of Japanese cuisine, but she basically told us what we should order and how we should order and the recommendation was that once we had ordered she would order more for us to fill in the gaps. She emphasized that everything was ‘family style’ meant for sharing. Well, the food was great but 3 small chicken skewers for $17 isn’t exactly divisible amongst a family. I think what she meant was that the food was izakaya style with family style portion prices. (Note: For good izakaya at reasonable prices I like Guu in Vancouver or Kenka in NYC). I ordered one of my favorite items black cod in a miso sauce. The cod was perfectly cooked, buttery soft interior with slightly crunchy caramelized exterior, but once again pricey for the portion size. We didn’t really eat a full meal since we had been munching all day, but I would expect a regular dinner would run about $100 per person.

Pike Place Market CSA Basket

I'm still trying to finish up my San Francisco food details, but thought I'd post quickly about the Pike Place Market CSA Basket since they're offering a discount on orders placed before April 15th ($535 for 20 weeks before tax day or $600 after) The CSA basket is an organic produce basket that is delivered weekly, June through October, to Pike Place Market or a number of other drop off spots around the city. Luckily my company is on the list of places they deliver to. I subscribed last year and since deliveries stopped last October, I've been missing the straight from the farm vegetables that arrived still smelling of the soil they came from. The great thing about CSA is that they only work with Washington farmers so food doesn't have to travel far. The salad mix was good enough to eat without any dressing and the potatoes arrived smelling earthy and sweet. There were often sweet surprises in the basket too, like jars of honey or baskets of blueberries harvested that morning.

SF day one

I finally got into San Francisco after a two hour delay at the airport due to rain and high winds, but I can't wait to explore the city tomorrow.

Northwest Harvest

Yesterday, I volunteered with Northwest Harvest through CAAP packaging up sliced potatoes and beans for needy families.

"Northwest Harvest is the only statewide hunger relief agency in Washington. It operates the Cherry Street Food Bank in Downtown Seattle and secures over 18 million pounds of food for distribution through warehouses in Grays Harbor, King, Stevens and Yakima counties. In an average month, these programs provide approximately one-half million services to people in need." - From the NW Harvest Website. The really impressive part is that they do all this without federal funding.

Altogether over the course of an hour and a half, myself and about 20 others managed to bag over 3000 lbs of potatoes and beans. The potatoes we packaged were already peeled and sliced into 1/2" discs and frozen. It was amazing seeing the huge blocks of potatoes being dropped down into the bagging area as we worked frenetically making 1 lb bags of potatoes. To maximize efficiency the tasks were divided in assembly line fashion. Some people chipped at the frozen potato block, some shovelled potatoes into bags, others sealed the bags while yet others boxed it all up. It was weird suddenly taking on the role of a factory worker and it made me wonder what it would be like doing the same task every day eight hours a day. Although, I'm betting that McCains (KC tells me that this is a Canadian brand, but I don't believe him) has an all automated process. I also pondered possible recipes using sliced potatoes, pommes anna, potatoes au gratin, garlic mashed potatoes? In any case, volunteering was a good reminder that we're lucky to have the luxuries that we have.

Volterra

About a month or so ago I assisted for a phenomenal cooking class taught by Chef Don Curtiss owner of Volterra (http://www.volterrarestaurant.com/) featuring imports selected by Ritrovo (http://www.ritrovo.com/index.php), a great company that takes care in selecting fine Italian products to bring to the Seattle market. Highlights of the class included ribolitta, a hearty Italian bread soup with lots of veggies and cannellini beans, and the largest lamb shanks I've ever seen (organic from Oregon) braised in chianti and a beautiful dark, rich demi glace. Don's comment was that he couldn't sleep at night unless he knew there was a gallon of demi glace ready at the restaurant. All of it was sumptuous both that day and two days later as I served up the leftovers.
So after much hinting, KC finally suggested we go there. After much anticipation, dinner was a let down. We started off with their pate appetizer which included a mushroom, chicken, 2 kinds of rabbit and a veal pate. My favorite one was the mushroom while KC's was the chicken. I ordered the crispy herb chicken which had the warning of a 25 min wait time - I was willing to wait for a freshly done moist chicken. KC had the meat ravioli stuffed with braised beef. Even with the warning of a wait time, our entrees arrived just as we were finishing with the appetizer. My chicken arrived a tad overdone and covered in sauce which pretty much eliminated the crispy factor by the time it arrived at table. KC seemed unenthused with his ravioli's. I tried one expecting the soft delicateness of a freshly made pasta, but the edges were decidedly firm. As for service, our server was courteous enough, but after dropping off our food he only came back once to drop off a dessert menu after the busboy had cleared our plates and didn't once ask how our meal was. He had meticulously listed the specials of the day with all their myriad of ingredients, but seemed to care little about our experience of the final product. I may give Volterra another try since I did take Don Curtiss' class and know they care about their ingredients, but if it had been another restaurant I probably wouldn't be back.

Sake

Last friday I went to a sake session hosted by my professional networking group CAAP(www.caapseattle.org) held at Nijo Sushi Bar and Grill on Post Alley. The tasting consisted of 4 different sakes paired with food. My friend KS and I had gone to Nijo a few weeks prior to try out their sake and food sampler as a prelude to hosting the event and I was impressed by the sake and the food served. My experiences have been that their lunch boxes are mediocre, but the chef's choice menu was creative and fresh. Last Friday, I was even more impressed by Nijo's sake expert who gave us a thorough lesson on the history of sake, types of sake and their flavors and an overview of the food we were having and why it was being paired with the sake chosen. One interesting piece of sake history (and probably the only piece of information that most of us will take away from the sake lesson) is that originally the rice grains were chewed by virgins prior to the fermentation process. JB commented that they can't do this is the US due to unavailability of virgins.

The sakes we tried were:

1. Mu - a junmai daiginjyo - this is sake that is brewed with rice that is at highly polished (at least %50 percent) and is generally supposed to be light. This was served with salmon and ebi nigiri and was the least favorite of the sakes I tried.

2. Sato no Homare - Pride of the Village (http://www.vineconnections.com/Fact%20Sheets/sake.pdf/sato_no_homare_pride_of_the_village.pdf) - a junmai ginjyo - this is sake that is also brewed with at least 50% polished rice. This sake has hints of floral and anise flavors. Definitely my favorite one of the night.

3. Kurosawa - Black River - a junmai kimoto - I didn't think there was anything too special about this sake. JB noted that he had seen this sake at other places.

4. Rihaku nigori - Dreamy Clouds - Nigori is roughly filtered sake. I never really liked sake until I had nigori and similar to not liking wine until I had a late harvest Moscato, nigori was an easy sake for me to start with - lots of residual sugars.

I noticed that a couple of the sakes that we tried were imported by vine connections (http://www.vineconnections.com/sake/index.html).

Kampai!

Family Weekend in Seattle

My uncle, (which is a slightly misleading title for him since he's about 4 years older than me and we pretty much grew up together like brother and sister) and his girlfriend came and stayed with me this past weekend and I have to say that I wished I could spend time with family more often. We had a great weekend exploring, watching movies and of course most importantly...eating. I should say that my uncle's girlfriend and I had an enjoyable time; I think my uncle could have been just as happy playing video games for the entire weekend.

We started off Friday night visiting my new favorite cheap eats place, the taco truck in the Totem Lake Area of Kirkland just off the 124th St. exit. I've been there about 4 times now since KC's brother brought some tacos over one night for dinner and I'm happy he did. They offer the usual pork, chicken, beef tacos and burritos, but the one thing that had me excited was tamales and each time I've requested them, they haven't had them. So this past Friday, I asked the usual question regarding tamales expecting a no, but surprisingly enough they had them and at 9:30pm on a Friday night! We had 2 burritos, one chicken and one beef, C tasted both and said she liked the chicken better because the meat was moist while the beef was slightly chewy. I also ordered 2 pork tamales which were good, but my favorite tamales are still the ones that were offered from a vendor at the Bothell Farmer's Market. I have no idea how to find them during regular times though.

Cheese display at Fairway Market on the Upper West

NYC - Day 4

Nyc – day 4

Woke up yesterday and after making a not very good attempt at going to the gym, decided to head over to Katz’s deli for lunch. They’re listed in every NY guidebook as being the delicatessen to go to for their hand carved smoked pastrami. I had my first Reuben sometime this year during a layover at SFO when I had some time to spare due to a flight delay and the question I asked myself after thoroughly enjoying the reuben was, ‘Why have I not had this before?’ Well, if I had been to Katz’s before, my answer would have been, ‘Because there’s no comparison to Katz’s.’ I ordered the pastrami sandwich and it was exceptionally moist, but definitely enough for 2, which is unfortunate since I would have tried other items on the menu if I wasn’t alone. Eddie made my sandwich and was kind enough to pose for a picture which I’ll be posting later.

Century 21 known for bargain designer shopping was crowded and unmanageable so I got out of there quickly and headed for DSW (discount shoe warehouse). The discounts were steep, a lot in the 60-80% range and I was one of three customers in the place. I guess the secret isn’t out yet.

A new friend I met from IW met up with me and gave me a tour of Brooklyn. We went to eat at Sea, a thai restaurant of Sex in the City fame, only on the show, it was the restaurant Raw, where Samantha meets Smith. No Smith sightings unfortunately or any other tall, handsome men. TT then gave me a tour of Brooklyn (it was great meeting a NY friend with a car) and saw a spectacular view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn promenade. I fumbled with my camera trying to get a decent shot, but all of them turned out pretty much pitch black with a few spots of light here and there until I finally called TU who was able to quickly describe all the fabulous settings on my camera. I'm so glad I knew who to call. Also, thank you TT! I was very lucky to have met someone who was such a gracious host.

Expectations

I think a lot of times misunderstandings in relationships occur because of differences in our expecatations of what another person is supposed to do in a given situation. For example, we expect our boyfriends to remember things like our birthdays and valentine's day (what I believe to be reasonable expectations) and certain boyfriends may expect us to do all the cooking, cleaning, and bringing home our own bacon while they sit back (what I believe to be unreasonable expectations). When our expections aren't met, we get angry and disappointed. But my point is that we can only have expectations of people that we care about.

Day 1-2 - Montreal - homesick

It's been an exhausting couple of days in Montreal. We stepped off our flight from La Guardia around noon on Thanksgiving day as snow was falling all around. There's something so romantic and peaceful about that dusting of white over everything.

Everyone here is gorgeous, the women on the streets with their beautiful long coats and the men all sharply dressed in armani designer splendour. It's hard to be in this city and not be consumed by desire for expensive things and I can't deny that feeling of absolute confidence that walking down the street in impeccably tailored clothes can give you, but I can't wait to be back in Seattle and be in a room where I know with certainty that I'm better dressed then the men. Why is it that these things can affect me when I know they shouldn't? I had a conversation with IW and she said that she feels happy just having window shopped, just having tried on nice things. I wish I had the same positive feelings about the experience, but it's usually just a sad reminder of things that I can't have or as IW puts it, things that I 'choose' not to buy.

I think I'm homesick.