Wright Eats

The buzz around Poppy started months ago, when Jerry Traunfeld announced that he’d be leaving the Herbfarm after 17 years.  Leading up to its opening this week, it became nearly a frenzy, with hopes raised when it was widely announced that reservations would open on September 6, and then dashed when opening was delayed another week.  I was beginning to wonder, could any place possibly live up to all this anticipation?  I fear that people are expecting a mini-Herbfarm experience or something.  But Jerry is aiming for a casual neighborhood place where he can experiment more with spices, along with the herbs that he knows so well.

I was curious to see how the thali concept would work at Poppy.  It is certainly not a new idea, since the concept originates in India and there are a number of Indian restaurants in Seattle that serve thali plates.  But instead of Indian food, Jerry is serving his own Northwest-style preparations in thali-style dishes – each person receives a platter with about 10 small bowls with different tastes.  It’s the best kind of small plate dining: you don’t have to share, yet you still get a little of everything.  But at Poppy, you don’t have a lot of choice.  There is only one thali each evening (with a vegetarian variation), although they do plan to change the thali offering every couple weeks.

We went on Thursday, a couple nights after they opened.  The room is casual and modern, with a bit of a Scandinavian design philosophy.  With the large space, high ceiling, and hard surfaces, it felt a bit cavernous and impersonal, however.  While we waited for friends to arrive, we ordered cocktails and fried mussels.  There are about a half dozen appetizers ranging between $3 and $6.  Our mussels were presented on the half-shell, piping hot with a dollop of lovage aioli.  I thought they were quite good, and Eric loved them.  He wasn’t disappointed when our friends arrived and wanted to order most of the appetizer list to share, including the mussels again.  We tried the eggplant fries, which were sweet-salty from the honey and salt, but a little soft and not crisp like fries.  The cauliflower mash was served with a small piece of naan flatbread – it was tasty but we didn’t finish after we ran out of flatbread.  My favorite two appetizers were the leek, dill, apple, and taleggio tart, along with the curry leaf vadas with a yogurt dipping sauce.  It’s too bad there were only three of those tiny savory doughnuts, because wow, they were good.

The restaurant had filled up by now and it was clear they were getting slammed.  We waited a long time for our thali to arrive, but forgot about the wait when a server and Jerry himself came out to deliver them to our table.  As he has been every time we’ve met him, Jerry is quiet and unassuming.  He was there for only a moment before scurrying back to the busy kitchen – after placing the food on the table, the server turned around to introduce him, but he was already gone.  Instead, he described each of the tiny dishes in front of us.

I think sometimes I’m a closet vegetarian, since I usually lean more toward foods without meat.  That night, the vegetarian options just sounded great, so when ordering I opted to switch out my albacore and pork belly with chanterelle croquettes and ricotta dumplings.  I tried a nibble of Eric’s meat and fish, which were yummy, but the dumplings and croquettes were my favorites of the whole meal (usually it’s the opposite, where I wish I’d ordered what Eric has).  I have a habit of leaving my favorites on my plate for last, which wasn’t the best idea in this case, because despite what it looked like, it was a lot of food and I was pretty full at the end.  I nibbled all around the platter trying combinations of foods together, but mostly, the first things I ate were the roast potatoes and the romano beans with hazelnuts – although they were each well-prepared and perfectly cooked, they were only a little more interesting than something we might make at home.  The carrots were sweet and served as thin ribbons scented with clove.  Watermelon came pickled, and the tiny bits were nicely tart and sweet, and tasty mix-n’-matched with the other dishes.  I really liked the chickpea salad in a creamy dressing, but one of the best things on the platter was the melon, tomato, and mint gazpacho.  It had just the right combination of acidic, sweet, and savory flavors.  A chewy, crusty piece of naan showered with nigella seeds, along with a bowl of rice anchored the meal.

If you’re not hungry enough for all that, there is a “smali” option (don’t roll your eyes at the name), with a smaller selection of the same dishes, for $22 instead of the full $32.  It’s a nice option for dropping in casually from the neighborhood.  Although, with only one meal choice, the question that’s nagging me is whether they can really keep the menu changing and interesting enough to keep people coming back frequently.  On the other hand, I really want to go back for those croquettes, so I hope they don’t leave the menu any time soon.

Desserts go back to à la carte, at $5 for your choice.  On this night, there was a plum lavender tart, peach anise hyssop shortcake, and a lemon verbena panna cotta, along with a handful of different house-made ice creams.  I usually skip ice creams on a menu, but in this case they were too interesting to pass up.  Our table ordered three of them: the malted-milk chocolate, the banana mace with caramel sauce, and the rocky rose sundae, made with rose geranium and homemade marshmallows.  All were delicious, although the delicate banana is best not eaten with the rocky rose, which is almost overpoweringly rose flavored.  The malted-milk was the unanimous favorite of our table.

The food is definitely closer to The Herbal Kitchen than The Herbfarm Cookbook.  While bright with spices and herbs, flavors here aren’t as complex as Jerry’s Herbfarm cooking.  A few dishes, such as the mussels and the carrots, were even reminiscent of recipes in The Herbal Kitchen.  But the spices add an interesting dimension to his cooking – I’m looking forward to seeing what else he has in store for future thali menus.

Poppy
622 Broadway East, Seattle
(206) 324-1108

Cooks & Books has a great lineup of visiting chefs and authors coming to Seattle this fall.  Kim Ricketts has been organizing these dinners for several years now, where she hosts a chef or food writer at a Seattle restaurant, promoting a new book release.  In past, we’ve attended dinners with Michael Ruhlman and Michael Pollan, two of our favorite food writers.  The events this fall look really exciting, and there are still seats left.

There’s been one new addition to the lineup that I’m particularly excited about – I finally get to meet Marcella Hazan!  She is my all-time favorite cookbook author.  Hers were the first cookbooks that Eric and I really learned to cook from, and we still consider our Hazan cookbooks the ultimate references for delicious Italian cooking.  I say “Hazan cookbooks” because her son, Giuliano, also has several outstanding books, all sitting on our cookbook shelf.

Marcella and her husband Victor, who translates her words and thoughts into the English text in her books, are coming to celebrate the release of her memoir.  I’m looking forward to reading it – each person who attends a Cooks & Books dinner gets a copy of the book, which you can get personally signed by the author.

Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg                                   
THE FLAVOR BIBLE
September 28
The Corson Building

Marcella and Victor Hazan
AMARCORD: Marcella Remembers
October 13
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery

David Tanis
A PLATTER OF FIGS AND OTHER RECIPES
October 27
Lark

Andrew Carmellini
URBAN ITALIAN
November 19
Tavolàta

Eric Ripert
ON THE LINE: Inside the World of Le Bernardin
December 14
Union

Now, if only Kim could get Grant Achatz to visit with his new book…

It was a hot August afternoon when we arrived in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley.  We had been traveling by car and ferry for over six hours, and although we knew we were close, we thought we might have made a wrong turn when the country dirt road passed a sad stretch of logged tree stumps.  But the directions told us to follow the road to the very end, so we continued on and finally saw the red and white farmhouse peeking through the trees.

A group of people were walking out of the house with towels, headed to the nearby watering hole to cool off.  They had just finished an all-day cooking class with Mara Jernigan in the huge gourmet kitchen in the farmhouse.  Mara is the chef and proprietor of Fairburn Farm Culinary Retreat and Guesthouse.  She was once a culinary school instructor, and now champions the Slow Food movement, promoting local foods.  She has a strong connection to the land, and uses primarily organic and seasonal foods in her farm meals.  Mara is also one of the most down-to-earth and welcoming people we’ve met – she always seemed genuinely curious to know if we were enjoying ourselves and was happy to tell us about the farm, food, and living on the island.

An artichoke blossom in Mara’s garden.

Fairburn Farm is over a century old and models itself like an Italian agriturismo – a working farm that offers meals and overnight accommodations.  We had read about it in a number of publications after Mara first came to the farm in 2005, including The Seattle Times, Gourmet, and Saveur magazines, which convinced us it would be a great stop during our week long vacation on the island.

Dinners are offered to overnight guests several nights a week.  That evening, we sat on the large farmhouse porch, overlooking the rolling countryside and the huge garden.  Mara’s son Julian, in chef’s whites, gathered last minute herbs from the garden as we sat down.  A butter plate for each of us arrived accompanied by a single purple pea pod.  Daniel, our server, said that they “promote” a different vegetable from the garden at each meal.

We opted for the four course meal that evening which included a delicious squash blossom from the garden stuffed with goat cheese and fried, then a sweet tomato soup, followed by roast duck, and then dessert.  The meal was quite impressive, and our only regret was missing out on the cheese course which came with the seven course meal.

Goat cheese stuffed squash blossom; Mara’s rare breed San Clemente goat; heirloom chickens.

In the morning, we wandered downstairs to breakfast, where there was a small buffet with granola, yogurt, local blueberries, and juices.  We started on this while they prepared our cheese frittata and cappuccini.  Each morning, they offer farm gathered eggs in some form, along with vegetables from the garden (tomatoes, in this case), and toast served with homemade preserves (strawberry, today).

We spent our morning relaxing, reading, and exploring the farm.  The farm’s owners, Darrel and Anthea, own the only herd of water buffalo in Canada, and Darrel was milking them in the barn.  On another morning we watched the Natural Pastures Cheese Company truck pull up to transport the milk two hours north, to Courtenay, B.C., where they hand make limited quantities of buffalo mozzarella once a week.

Darrel is still growing the herd so that they can produce more milk.  There is a small barn on the property with about a dozen baby buffalo inside.  All were tagged with their name on their ear, except one who was tagless – that one was only four days old!

When they’re done milking, the buffalo are herded with a motorbike to one of the fields for grazing.  It was fun to watch them on the move.  When animals with such large horns moved so fast it was a little scary, but in fact they are quite docile creatures.  Darrel said that they’re mostly wary of people until they get to know you and adopt you into their family.  He decided to import the purebred animals in 2000 when he found that they were gentle yet hardy and adaptable to the British Columbia climate.

A baby water buffalo.

Mara has some animals of her own on the farm.  She has a flock of beautiful heirloom chickens, along with a herd of sheep, and a small goat, who all graze in the apple orchard.  There is a lovely walk through the woods and around the property that deposits you right into the orchard outside the farmhouse, where the chickens meander toward you looking for handouts.

The heat of the day was setting in, but it was time for the meal we’d particularly been looking forward to: Sunday lunch on the farm.  Only ten of these six-course meals are offered each year.  You don’t need to be an overnight guest to dine, however.  We shared a table with the winemaker from Averill Creek and his wife, another woman from the area who herself was starting to grow wine grapes, her friend, and a couple from LA who were traveling around British Columbia on their motorcycle to celebrate his retirement.

The first course featured mozzarella from the farm’s buffalo milk served with sweet tomatoes and local balsamic vinegar.  Amazing!  I was quite sad that there was only one beautiful slice of the cheese to savor.  Another highlight was the crab lasagne, a delicate dish of handmade pasta gently folded around Dungeness crab.

We also enjoyed halibut and local lamb before finishing the meal with a cheese course and then dessert.  We were pleased to try the cheeses that we had missed the night before, including ones made up the road in Cowichan Bay (“Cow Bay” according to the locals at our table) at Hilary’s Cheese Company, along with several tasty cheeses from just across the water on Salt Spring Island.  Dessert was an ideal summer ending: blueberry pudding cake with softly whipped cream.

 
Lasagna with Dungeness crab, lemon verbena veloute and fresh fava beans; Sunday lunch at Fairburn; one of Mara’s chickens.

The farm is great for foodies for all sorts of reasons.  If you’re staying nearby and want to get a taste, come for a Sunday lunch.  Or you can stay overnight and have a few meals.  Some plan their vacation around the Saturday cooking classes or the week-long cooking boot camps, which book up months in advance.  And a lucky few even go to Italy with Mara in the fall to experience Italy’s Slow Food.

And the farmhouse accommodates a range of travelers.  Of course, they host a number of couples traveling alone, but the farmhouse has some rooms that work well for families, and even a 2½ bedroom cottage with kitchen for families with young kids or couples traveling together.  While we were there, a couple was staying there with their young daughter.  They’ve been coming for years to the farm, since she loves gathering eggs and watching the buffalo getting milked.  We watched the little girl’s eyes light up one afternoon as Mara handed her a pie at the kitchen door and told her it would be great for breakfast the next day.  The cottage is rented for one-week stretches during the summer, and weekends only during the off-season (since there is a family who lives there on weekdays during the school year).

Cowichan Bay is the tiny town just down the road, which, as you’d expect, is right on the bay.  It’s a great stop for lunch at Hilary’s Cheese Company, or True Grain Bread, which makes the best bread on the island (they’re connected by a door, and Hilary’s also uses True Grain for their sandwiches).  Then get dessert a couple doors down at The Udder Guy’s, where they make all-natural ice cream.  Take your cone out back where you can sit and watch the fishing boats.

There are plenty of foodie day trips, too, since this is Vancouver Island’s wine country.  One of the wineries, Venturi Schultze, also makes balsamic vinegar in the traditional way, and it’s worth it to book an appointment for a tour of the small facilities.  There’s even a cidery called Merridale, where you can sample their eight different hard apple ciders.  Their bistro is a good place for either lunch or a casual weekend dinner.

Mostly, though, we just hung around the farm itself, since the porch chairs are really inviting for kicking back for a few hours, reading and drinking in the beautiful countryside.  We were sad to leave.  As we were checking out, we asked Mara where we could find that incredible buffalo mozzarella.  She said that a few of the Thrifty’s on the island carry it, along with the Community Farm Store in Duncan.  She mentioned that she was putting together some photos of the cheese for a magazine which was writing up a list of the top 100 things to eat before you die.  I think I’d agree.

We spent the rest of the week on a quest for this mozzarella.  The supply is so limited that a few of the stores we went to said they can keep it on hand for a couple days at most, and sometimes no more than a few hours.  Sadly, it turns out that Natural Pastures didn’t make any cheese that week!  So we were forced to head home empty handed, but with resolve to return again.

To view more photos from our trip, go to our Vancouver Island album.

Fairburn Farm
3310 Jackson Road
Duncan, B.C., V9L 6N7
(250) 746-4637

Da Pino reopened in its new Ravenna location last week, so we wandered down for a late lunch on Saturday.  The very casual cafe has four small tables, with Calabria maps and memorabilia hanging on the walls.  We grabbed a couple of menus, found a seat, and looked over the specials board.  Two other tables were occupied, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear people at both tables occasionally talking in Italian – to each other, and to the owner.

The menu includes a number of sandwiches that feature cured meats made by the owner, Pino Rogano.  On this visit, the pasta specials appealed to us, so I ordered rigatoni with meatballs (tasty!), and Dawn had the fettuccine with wild boar meat sauce, blueberries (yes, blueberries) and tomatoes.  Each pasta had Italian cheese crumbled on top; I think Parmigiano would have worked better since this cheese didn’t quite melt into the sauce.  The dishes reminded me of growing up in NY and having dinner at my friend’s Italian grandmother’s house: al dente boxed pasta served with a hearty sauce.  Good, basic Italian cooking.

We rounded out the meal with scoops of strawberry and stracciatella gelato, and ordered a few cured meats to-go from the deli case.  Next time, I’ll have to try a sandwich, tiramisu, and an espresso.  I think I could get used to having Da Pino in the neighborhood.

Da Pino
2205 NE 65th St
206-356-8502