Wright Eats

Crack buns.  Need I say more?  Nicknamed by Harvest Vine customers who are as enamored as I am with “Carolin’s Sweet Buns,” these buttery pastries truly are addictive.  They go fast, too.  The first time we visited the Harvest Vine for their new brunch, our server had to check with the kitchen to make sure there were any left for us.  Fortunately for us, we got the last two.  Fortunately for the people who walked in the door behind us, more were on their way into the oven.

 
Caracolillos: Carolin’s sweet buns with vanilla bean sugar

Made with hand-rolled croissant dough and crusted with vanilla bean sugar, they were a happy accident that came about while owner and pastry chef Carolin Messier was recipe testing this spring.  She was about to bake a batch of sweet buns and ran out of space on the baking sheet.  The only thing handy was a stack of ramekins, so she nestled the extra spirals of dough inside the ramekins and popped them into the oven.  It turns out these were the best croissant dough pastries she’d made yet.  The ramekin walls leave them slightly chewy around the edges, yet shatteringly flaky.

During her spring testing, Carolin also perfected her recipe for Mallorcan bread served with spaghetti squash preserves, and features it alongside other savory and sweet items on the new brunch menu.  Although the Harvest Vine has been open for more than a decade, this is the first brunch offering they’ve had.

With a baby now in tow, brunch was welcome news to us since it gives us a chance to go more often to a restaurant we love.  Carolin said we’re not the first parents to mention this – patrons she hasn’t seen in months, or even years, are bringing their young families in on Saturdays and Sundays.

Txistorra: Navarran style pork sausage

Piquillos Rellanos de Morcilla: Blood sausage inside Piquillo peppers

Huevos Flamencos: Baked eggs with asparagus, peas, chorizo, jamon, and fried tomato sauce.

Much of the menu is familiar from the dinner hour, including a favorite of ours, the txistorra sausage, bright red from the paprika inside and served with grilled bread alongside.  And while we usually enjoy the morcilla blood sausage at dinner, it was under seasoned on both of our brunch visits.  A plate full of dry-cured Serrano ham made up for that shortcoming, though.  The same jamon is featured inside one of their three bocadillos, which are Spanish-style sandwiches.

The highlight from the savory half of the menu is head chef Joey Serquinia’s creation, Huevos Flamencos.  These eggs are baked with peas and asparagus in the Harvest Vine’s famous (well, I think it should be famous) fried tomato sauce.  As you dig in you uncover the bits of jamon and tangy chorizo below.

Pork belly and peppers topped the other baked egg dish we liked.  While pork may be a more likely mainstay on the menu than the asparagus and peas, the entire menu changes with the seasonality of ingredients and the whim of the chef.  Still, with their popularity, I expect that the crack buns will stick around for a while.

The Harvest Vine
2701 East Madison, Seattle
(206) 320-9771

When we made our reservation for Delancey’s first “family dinner” last November, I was bummed that pizza was missing from the menu plan.  I mean, how can you go to a pizza place and not have the pizza?

As it turns out, I didn’t miss it at all.  Don’t get me wrong – I love Delancey’s pizza.  In fact, it’s my favorite in Seattle.  But that dinner was pretty darn amazing.  I don’t know which I liked more: the wood-fired mussels with crusty bread or the braised rabbit.  Mussels aren’t my favorite thing around, but wood-fired mussels from Delancey’s oven are a whole different story.  And that rabbit was the best I’ve ever eaten.  I wasn’t the only person that night who said so.

So I jumped at the opportunity to attend Delancey’s Seattle Beer Week event last week: a Chuckanut Brewery dinner.  And this time, there was even pizza!  It wasn’t hard to convince our friends Michael and Robin, ardent beer-lovers, to join in, despite their already-full week of planned beer events.  I will admit to being more of a wine than a beer person, so you’re better off jumping over to their recount of the dinner for info on the beers from the evening.

Chuckanut Brewery co-owner Mari Kemper (yes, the name behind Thomas Kemper sodas) and brewer Kevin Davey greeted us at the door handing out glasses of Kölsch, which we drank while slurping Kumomotos at the counter.  We sat down to family-style platters of burrata and prosciutto, along with braised fennel paired with a Pilsner, which was the favorite beer of the evening.  An entire platter of burrata?  Really?  It took all my willpower to take only one and pass the platter along.  I absolutely love the stuff.

A pile of glistening duck fat roasted potatoes arrived next, and I have to say, this was my favorite dish of the night.  And that’s saying something, coming from an avowed potato-phobe like me.  Finished with beer-vinegar, the potatoes were rich and a teeny bit tangy.

Asparagus soup followed.  This dish epitomizes the food served alongside the pizza each day at Delancey.  Local, seasonal, simple, and delicious.

We had the pleasure of sitting next to Ashley of Not Without Salt and her husband Gabe, along with Allecia and Seth, newly relocated to Seattle from Chicago (with a pause in San Francisco for a year).  Ashley told me what she was planning for her upcoming cooking classes, and left me wondering why I haven’t signed up for one yet.  Soon.

Allecia’s is a blog to watch.  As a former food writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, she already has the pulse on the Seattle food scene.  I’m definitely bookmarking her blog for my next Chicago and San Francisco trips.

After a long pause, the pizza (yes, pizza!) was up next.  The oven at Delancey can only handle a few pizzas at a time, so they trickle out slowly for dinners like these.  First, the cremini with house-made sausage, then the Brooklyn, a simple yet perfect three-cheese pizza, and finally the Pissaladiere, covered with beer-braised shallots plus salty anchovies and olives.  I devoured every slice and loved the Brooklyn the most.

I haven’t been to Delancey since Brandi Henderson, formerly of Tartine Bakery, started working as Delancey’s pastry chef.  This is regrettable because the chocolate stout cake for dessert this evening was memorable.  A year ago, you would not have found me espousing the merits of chocolate.  I’ve always been a fruit dessert kind of person, always passing over the token chocolate dessert on every menu.  I don’t understand why – after-baby hormones? too many samples of the quality stuff from Chocolopolis? – but something has converted me into a chocolate-lover.  And then there’s the whole thing about salt in desserts.  Lately, I’ve been buying chocolate bars with salt (LOVE the Fran’s Gray Salt Thins) and doubling the salt in my cookie recipes.  So Brandi’s cake, warm and gooey in the center, with a surprise sprinkling of salt hidden inside, all underneath a layer of stout anglaise, was just about perfect paired with a malty Alt beer.

Delancey
1415 NW 70th Street, Seattle
(206) 838-1960

One of our favorite Seattle restaurants closed at the end of last year, leaving an open space sandwiched between a Subway shop and a teriyaki place in a strip mall on Eastlake.  Sitka & Spruce will be reopening elsewhere, and its old space has been filled with Nettletown, a restaurant opened this month by Christina Choi and her partner Matt Dillon.

Years ago, Christina co-founded Foraged and Found Edibles, which is a frequent stop of ours at the U-District market for wild mushrooms, miner’s lettuce, nettles, fiddleheads, and especially huckleberries.  She is using these ingredients in her restaurant, making comfort food influenced by our local area and her Chinese and Swiss culinary heritage.  Nettletown is open for lunch and brunch only, although Christina plans to extend service to dinner in the future.

The interior hasn’t changed dramatically, but there have been a few updates.  Sitka’s yellow walls have been painted blue now, with a lovely mural depicting the forest floor, morel mushrooms and all.  And there is now seating at a new low-slung surface added to the formerly standing-room-only counter.

Old habits die hard.  When we walked in, it still had that familiar aura of Sitka & Spruce, so we waited politely to find out where they wanted us to sit, only to be reminded that they offer counter service at the front, and we could sit wherever we like.  I love this kind of casual way of serving “yummy food” (as the sub-title on their web site says).  It makes it feel easy to stop in for a bite.  I only wish service were a little speedier; the food took longer to reach the table than many full-service restaurants, in spite of the place being only half-full.

For weekend brunch, they have a few additional offerings beyond their “always available” menu.  We wanted to try the elk meatballs (also available in a sandwich), so ordered them as an add-on to eggs, potato onion cakes, and miner’s lettuce salad.  The greens were nicely dressed and a good complement to the potato cakes and perfectly poached eggs.  Lemongrass brightened the flavorful meatballs, and it was a generous portion for $4 additional.

Noodles catch my eye on any menu.  The Nettletown noodles looked exactly like the comfort food I was craving.  The egg noodles are served with pork ribs, wild mushrooms, scallions, and a tea egg, and reminded me of my favorite ramen dish at Samurai Noodle, sans broth.  But drawing the parallel led me to disappointment, since the noodles were bland, and the tea egg was nothing like the flavored egg served at Samurai.  Fortunately, the five spice ribs were marbled and delicious.  With a few tweaks, I think this would be an excellent dish.

The huckleberry cardamom bread pudding with yogurt whipped cream was a sweet finale to our brunch.  Warm and full of berries, it was my favorite item.

Dishes I want to try on my next visit include the Nettletown knoepfli (Swiss egg noodle dumplings), and the fried rice, which is only offered for weekend brunch and changes daily.

We noticed a number of people popping in to pick up take-out orders.  We are certainly going to take advantage of that in future, especially once they’re open for weeknight dinners.

Nettletown
2238 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle
(206) 588-3607

Walk through the farmer’s market at this time of year, and you’ll find fewer produce farmers and slimmer pickings.  Don’t get me wrong, we live in a great part of the country for growing food, and in the winter we still have beautiful greens, apples galore, winter squashes, and carrots to brighten up your bag.  But after eating Yet Another Apple, I start to long for summer days with more variety.

So I give props to chefs who are committed to using local foods year round and, in the middle of winter, still come up with diverse, interesting menus – especially a menu like Seth Caswell’s at the newly opened emmer&rye on Queen Anne hill.  During my visit there this past weekend, I was ready to order one of everything.  Lucky for me, the menu is designed so you can choose half or full sizes of nearly every plate (including dessert!), so with several friends, you really could order everything.

It’s a given that you will order the farro fries, which is destined to become the restaurant’s signature dish.  Farro is another name for emmer, and the namesake starter is crisp outside and creamy, cheesy goodness inside.  I’m now inspired to try making the farro fries recipe I came across in the most recent Edible Seattle, to see if I can come close to the same thing at home.

Highlights from the “small dishes” section of the menu were the roasted sunchokes and potatoes with truffle aioli, along with the cauliflower, mushroom, and greens salad.  These dishes were all about the ingredients, cooked simply to emphasize the best flavors of each vegetable.  On the other hand, the sausage on our crostini was dry, and the pork belly, while flavorful, fell a bit flat.  Our former-chef friend at the table commented that the dish needed some acid, and no, he had not read Seattle Magazine’s assessment of the same dish.

Our table’s universal favorite from the “large dishes” section was the orrechiette bolognese, which had the perfect ratio of pasta to flavorful beef sauce.  And every aspect of the goat crepinette dish was outstanding, from the herby goat, to the butternut gratin, to the trumpet mushrooms we were fighting over at the end.  My least favorite dish was the rabbit pappardelle, which just needs a few tweaks to make it great.  In our case, the rabbit was tasty, but the noodles were thick and undercooked, and the dish was swimming in too much liquid.

The best desserts we tried are the only two that aren’t available in a half size. But order both anyway.  The chocolate bourbon bread pudding is dense and perfect.  One person at our table who doesn’t even like bread pudding declared it delicious.  My favorite, though, was Gramma’s cheesecake with huckleberry sauce.  Light and tangy, it was lovely with the huckleberries, and all four spoons at our table made it disappear in a matter of minutes.  If you can only get one dessert, Get. The. Cheesecake.

Chef Seth Caswell opened emmer&rye quickly once he secured a lease on the former Julia’s restaurant.  I doubt anyone believed him when he said at the beginning of January that he’d be open by February 1 – you know how those things tend to go.  But he was better than his word, and the place is already packed each evening.  Reservations are recommended.

And it looks like there is more good stuff in store.  The Victorian building housing the restaurant has a lovely patio in front, which promises to be the perfect place for a summer meal on the hill.

And the emmer&rye web site hints at a forthcoming brunch.  I’m excited to see what Caswell has planned for the menu.  Anyone know when brunch service will begin?

emmer&rye
1825 Queen Anne Avenue North, Seattle
(206) 282-0680

As you walk through the glass-paneled wood doors, you pass below an ornate sign resembling the one hung over sister restaurant Peso’s Kitchen & Lounge next door. This sign, however, is laced with the curves of New Orleans style wrought iron, and reads “Toulouse.”

Inspired by the French Quarter, Toulouse Petit opened in lower Queen Anne in November and has been packing in crowds ever since.

On a recent spring-like January morning, sunlight streamed in through the wall of paneled windows, reflecting a warm glow off the mottled walls inside. The mosaic tile floor, blown-glass amber lamps hung from above, and wrought iron fixtures made it seem like we’d just walked into a Bourbon Street bar. Although the upholstered, tall-back chairs and velvet booths were all occupied, the open space on this bright Seattle day made it seem lightly busy and gave it a casual laid-back feel.

Another mom and I were there with babies in tow for Toulouse Petit’s Breakfast Happy Hour. On weekday mornings through the end of January, almost everything on the menu is $5 (with only a couple exceptions, like the Rib Eye Steak and Eggs, which is $10). In February, the price goes up to $6 an item.

They offer an ambitious menu, whether you’re there for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Even the happy hour menu (4:30-6 p.m. and 10 p.m.-1 a.m.) lists dozens of items, many for around $5. The breakfast menu includes beignets, crawfish etouffee with corn grits, red beans and andouille with eggs, bananas foster pancakes, and more than a handful of different eggs benedicts.

Portion sizes are not huge. I was hungry that morning, and with the lure of $5 price tags, I ordered two plates and ate nearly all of both.

Biscuits and spicy Creole sausage gravy came with two eggs any style. Biscuits and gravy is often a heavy, dense dish, but these biscuits were small and the gravy, while tasty, was applied with a light touch. The breakfast potatoes served alongside were crispy and nicely seasoned.

The crème caramel pain perdu is served with pecan butter, maple syrup, and strawberries.  The bread was thick and custardy with a crisp coating, and as insanely sweet as it sounds.

With such extensive offerings, you’d have to live down the block to make any kind of appreciable dent in the menu. But for the happy hour price, breakfast is more than worthwhile, so I expect I’ll be back soon to explore the menu further.

Toulouse Petit
601 Queen Anne Avenue N, Seattle
(206) 432-9069

I told myself I’d write about our evening at Lark’s Wild Beast dinner before November was over. I think I’ve gotten it in just under the wire. Ok, maybe not for those of you on the other coast. Somehow time seems to have taken on a whole new quality now with baby, and I have no idea where November even went. Is Christmas really just around the corner?

Trotter fritters with truffle salt

Anyway, yes, we managed to go out for our first long multi-course dinner with Ian earlier this month. We’ve found it helps to go out with baby-loving friends who are more than happy to hold him while we eat. Portable babies are a good thing. It also helps that Kelly, Michelle, Johnathan, and everyone else at Lark are more than understanding of having kids around. In fact, John’s young son Owen provided comic relief during John’s introduction of the meal, reminding his dad in a loud entire-restaurant-audible whisper of everything John forgot to mention to the dining crowd. So if you ever thought that Lark is not a kid-friendly place, consider again, any of you folks out there with babes in arms or youngsters who are willing to sit through a meal.

Lark has been hosting their Whole Beast dinner for four years now, and it has become an annual tradition that we look forward to ever since we attended their second dinner. Each year, they have a number of whole animals that they cook in as many different ways as they can, using all the different parts of the animals. The meal is composed of “waves” of courses served family style, with about four dishes in each of the four waves.

Boudin noir with barley and fried eggs

This year, they had a new twist on the event and decided to go with a “wild beast” theme. We loved this new take on the meal, where they served pheasant, squab, elk, bison, wild boar, venison, and more. The pheasant was one of my favorite dishes of the night. Before the meal started, John walked around to the tables, showing off the beautiful pheasant pie with bacon and foie gras. Served with cranberries, it was a great start to the meal.

Glazed duck feet with dried scallops, ginger and scallion

I loved the pork snout Milanese, a throwback to the first Whole Beast dinner we attended, where Morgan Brownlow contributed a similar recipe. Other highlights included wild boar prepared Polish-style with cabbage, tender charred bison heart with salsa verde, and boudin noir made with barley. Glazed duck feet were fun to eat (John encouraged everyone to eat as much as they dared, but particularly the webbing) and served with in-house dried scallops.

I think this was my favorite beast dinner yet. It was well paced (unlike previous years where diners were groaning for mercy about halfway through the meal, with waves of food still coming), and the wild game was something that I hope they continue doing in future years. Sign up for Lark’s newsletter if you’d like to get updates about next year’s dinner.

Venison civet with glazed baby vegetables

Hm, has it really been three months since we’ve done anything with this blog? We have a small excuse (and he’s really small).  If you read our trip journal in our last posting, you may have noticed that we were expecting our first child.  He arrived a month early, and we’ve been busy getting into the swing of our new life with baby in tow.

We’ve started dining out easy by venturing to restaurants in our neighborhood for quick meals.  Fortunately, one of our favorite neighborhood places, Shun, just reopened last Thursday after a summer hiatus, so that’s where we headed last night.  During their closure, they were busy moving the whole restaurant across the street, to one of the newly built mixed-use buildings.

We missed Shun because they serve the best Japanese food in our neighborhood.  Their sushi is decent, although not the primary reason we go there (Kisaku has better sushi and is only slightly further from our house).  What they excel at is the hot dishes.  The menu is the same as their old location, so we can still order our familiar favorites.

Their tempura undo noodle soup hits the spot on a blustery fall evening like tonight.  The broth has a slight sweetness, and with the optional red pepper mixed in, it’s perfectly balanced against the heat.  We also enjoy the black cod kasuzuke, a slightly caramelized fish prepared in a sake marinade.

One of my favorite sakes to order at Shun is the unfiltered Momokawa Pearl.  Poured to overflowing in a masu, a lacquered box, it has a creamy body and sweet flavor.

Last night’s specials menu listed two matsutake dishes, and we ordered both.  If you’re not familiar with this pine-scented mushroom, now is the season to try it, and Shun has some simple preparations that really bring out the flavor of this wild-foraged mushroom.  One dish featured the matsutake simply tempuraed.  Piping hot, they were delicious dipped in the traditional tempura sauce.  Our favorite preparation, however, was the scented Matsutake Dobinmushi.  After pouring the soup from a small teapot, we inhaled the scent of the forest from our tiny soup cups.  Inside the teapot were slices of the mushroom which we picked out with chopsticks, savoring the pine flavor.

We were surprised to see that Shun was already busy, with nearly every table full.  Word has apparently gotten out about the reopening, and it’s clear that we’re not the only ones who missed them!

Shun
5101 25th Ave NE, #11, Seattle
(206) 522-2200

Ok, so it’s been three months since we promised you this blog entry. We’ve been busy enjoying one of the sunniest summers we’ve seen in Seattle in a long time, and somehow time has slipped away faster than we expected.  But we’ve finally got all of the photos from our trip to France together with the travelogue of our adventures.

Salted butter caramel macarons and orbs of Early Grey tea at Le Bistrol, Paris.

Click here to read it all.  Food highlights include:

• The best crêpes in Brittany
• Amazing salted butter caramels from a Michelin 3-star chef in Brittany
• In Lower Normandy, foie gras and the best duck confit we’ve tasted
• Ostrich eggs sold at the farmer’s market in the tiny town of Bellême
• A dinner party at Jim Haynes’ in Paris
• Falafel that beats any in Seattle
• The best croissant in, dare we say, the world?
• 3-star eating at Restaurant Le Bristol
• The oldest wine store in Paris
• The most revered candy shop in Paris
• Amazing Italian gelato in, yes, Paris
• The best two butters we’ve eaten
• Our favorite traditional bistro of the trip
• An underground dinner party at Hidden Kitchen
• Our favorite “neo bistro” of the trip

Comments aren’t yet enabled on the photo and travelogue section of our web site, so if you have feedback about anything, drop us a note below.  Enjoy!

Six of us met up in Portland for three days this past weekend for the sole purpose of eating our way around the city.  Our friends Kye and Eric initially proposed the idea so that we could all try their favorite Portland restaurant, Tanuki, and we were immediately on board along with friends Michael and Robin.  All six of us like to fully research our food stops before we travel, so soon we collectively had a list that would take us at least two weeks to tackle.  We somehow managed to whittle it down to these:

Making vacuum pot coffee at Barista; macaroni and cheese at Laurelhurst Market; drinks at Beaker & Flask.

Laurelhurst Market – This is a new restaurant and butcher shop owned by the same folks as Simpatica Dining Hall, where we had an awesome brunch a few years back.  We checked into the hotel and headed straight here for dinner.  Some of the highlights were the pork chop sandwich with tomato sauce and arugula, the cod fritters, their super-tasty fries with herbs and the perfect amount of salt (though not crispy enough), and sweetbreads with gnocchi.  We heard the boudin blanc sandwiches were great, but the menu changes weekly and these were weeks-gone by our visit.  But you can buy the boudin blanc and other amazing-looking charcuterie from their cold case in the front of the store.

Beaker & Flask – We stopped at this month-old bar for cocktails after dinner.  They offer a tasty-sounding dinner and happy hour menu, but we were pretty stuffed already from dinner and so we stuck with drinks.  The vibe here is great, while we found the cocktails hit and miss.  Eric liked his Philo Bione, while the Coltrane! Coltrane! Coltrane! was too medicinal for everyone’s taste.

Barista – First stop on Friday morning was this vacuum pot coffee brewer in the Pearl District.  Not only is the brewing fun to watch as the heat pushes the water into the upper vessel, but the bitterness of the coffee is completely removed, making it smooth to drink.  Even one of the non-coffee drinkers in our group was impressed with the coffee and loved how smooth it was.

Broder – For a taste of Sweden in Portland, we headed to Broder to try their aebleskiver pancakes and Swedish meatballs.  The aebleskiver are round eggy pancakes served with lemon curd (my favorite), lingonberry jam, and maple syrup.  The meatballs come in a lovely sherry cream sauce.

Slathering lemon curd on aebleskiver at Broder Cafe; Nong, of Nong’s Khao Man Gai street food cart; sour cherry tartlette with vanilla bean whipped cream and aged balsamic caramel at Beast.

Next, we moved straight on to lunch, a tour around Portland’s street carts.  Seattle has been all abuzz with the new street carts opening recently in our fair city, but we’ve got nothing on Portland.  Really, I had no idea there could be such a variety of carts scattered all over a single city.  On their own, or more commonly, in clusters together taking up an entire parking lot (Skillet is working on starting Seattle’s first such street food market later this year), there is every possible variety of food to be found on the streets of Portland.  There are so many carts that there’s an entire site devoted to reviewing them:  Food Carts Portland.  Get yourself down to Portland.  Now.  There is nothing to match the experience of a sunny summer day sitting on a curb eating street cart food.

Koi Fusion – Only a few months old, this is Portland’s Korean taco truck.  Kogi is the famous Korean taco truck in L.A., and Seattle has our own Hawaiian-Korean truck, Marination Mobile.  At Koi, Eric and I tried a kimchee quesadilla and beef bulgogi taco.  The kimchee here definitely beats Marination’s.  Bo is the owner and face of the truck, while his mom is the cook behind the cart, making the marinated meat, kimchee, and tortillas by hand.  Many of the carts in Portland have fixed locations, but Koi is a cart on the move.  You can keep up with their location by following them on twitter @koifusionpdx.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai – Following suit with the style of the traditional street carts in Thailand, this cart only offers one dish, unlike most of the other Portland carts.  At first, the steamed chicken (gai) and rice (khao) dish looks simple and perhaps bland, but the secret to its addictive goodness is in Nong’s garlicky sauce, with flavors of ginger, chili, and galangal in perfect balance.  Served with a clear broth to slurp between bites, you have yourself some seriously good Thai street food.  You can add an option of chicken liver, but she ran out by the time we got here at 1:30.  In fact, as soon as we placed our order, a sign went up telling people they were completely out of food for the day.

Spella Caffe – On our walk to our next stop, we grabbed chai teas from the Spella Caffe cart at SW 9th and Alder.  Normally served hot, we got ours over ice, since there’s no other way to drink it with the 90 degree heat.  Milky with a nice blend of spices, this was a good thirst-quencher.

BrunchBox Food Cart – Our street food guide joining us for lunch today, Patrick Coleman (writer for the Portland Mercury), steered us to BrunchBox to satisfy our grilled cheese sandwich burger cravings.  Initially, we were planning to head to The Grilled Cheese Grill to try this monstrosity of a burger, but he said the version at BrunchBox was less greasy, plus it was a convenient short walk away from Nong’s.  The Youcanhascheeseburger! is a burger served between two Texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich buns.  The burger was initially a joke written on the menu, but it has become a regular menu item since people actually ordered it!  The latest joke at BrunchBox is the Redonkadonk: a burger with egg, ham, spam, bacon, and American cheese between two Texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich buns for $9.  People are ordering that, too, so they’re now offering a double Redonkadonk.

Discussing the merits of the Pine State Biscuit breakfast plates; talking with Bo at Koi Fusion PDX; soppressata pizza at Ken’s Artisan Pizza.

Rogue Distillery – The heat was getting to us by this point, so we looked for a place to hang out indoors and rest our feet.  Rogue was a great place to try a sampling of beers, along with the Rogue root beer.  As we were sitting there, we saw a stout ice cream float delivered to the neighboring table – that would’ve been ideal for a day like this!

Beast – Dinner this evening was six courses at Beast with wine pairings.  We’d all tried Beast for brunch previously, but this was our first dinner there.  The chilled cauliflower velouté was a tasty start to the meal.  The was followed by a charcuterie plate, where the highlight was the foie gras bon-bon: a melt-in-your-mouth dome of foie on a tiny shortbread cookie, and topped with Sauternes geleé.  The duck leg for the main course was very nicely balanced with a green tomato confiture, and this was followed by a lovely shaved fennel salad with Parmesan crisps, then a cheese plate, and a tiny cherry tartlette.

Ken’s Artisan Pizza – We were stuffed after Beast, but with so little time in Portland, we couldn’t pause on food.  Several of us have previously been to Apizza Scholls and consider it the best pizza Portland has to offer.  But none of us had been to Ken’s, another highly acclaimed Portland pizza.  The two aren’t exactly comparable apples for apples – Apizza is aiming more for NY-style, while Ken’s is inspired by Italy.  We ordered one Margherita pizza for the six of us, figuring we’d each get a taste.  The waitress gave us a funny look and started to tell us that one pizza may not be enough, until we explained how this was dessert after our six-course meal, and we had to try it before we went back to Seattle.  After realizing we were serious, she steered us toward the soppressata instead, since we were only going to have one.  This was a great recommendation: crunchy around the edges of the thin-sliced soppresata, and the right ratio of toppings.  However, everyone agreed the crust at Apizza is better.  The best part was when the waitress comped our meal after we provided her a list of our favorite restaurants in Seattle for her upcoming trip north.

Whiffies Fried Pie Cart – We had one last stop to make before heading to bed.  Opened two months ago, Whiffies’ street cart specialty is fried pies.  I had trouble picturing what a fried pie would be like until they described it to us as shaped like an empanada.  It’s really a gourmet version of the Hostess fruit pies from your childhood.  We hear the savory pies are great, such as the BBQ brisket, but just thinking about one of those or a Beans & Franks fried pie after our food rampage made us all groan in pain.  Instead we split two sweet pies among the six of us: a guava and a strawberry pie.  Everyone besides me preferred the guava, but I loved the strawberry.  The pies have a super-flaky crust that I could tell would be perfect with a savory flavor.  On the corner of SE 12th and Hawthorne, the cart is open evenings until 3am.  The lot draws a crowd of people until the wee hours of the night.

Radishes at Portland Farmers Market; a fried Whiffie pie; eating a Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwich.

Portland Farmer’s Market – The next morning, we took the street car down to the Saturday market.  First stop was waiting in the long line for Pine State Biscuits.  We tried the Reggie deluxe (fried chicken, bacon, cheese, and a fried egg topped with sausage or mushroom gravy – we ordered two to taste both gravies), the McIsley (fried chicken with pickles, mustard, and honey), and a biscuit with Marionberry jam.  All were great.  Many were fans of the McIsley, while I preferred the Reggie with sausage gravy.  Then we wandered around the stalls, purchasing Marionberries to eat out of (purple) hand, pimientos de padrón which we broiled with oil and salt Sunday night, and fresh squeezed mint lemonade.  We also split a baker’s dozen of Two Tarts’ tiny little bakery treats.

Navarre – This was our stop for lunch, a small restaurant serving food inspired by Spain, France, and Italy.  You order by filling out a sheet with your choices of small or large items from the ever-changing menu.  Our favorites here were the boudin blanc, the kohl rabi with sheep’s cheese and blueberries, and the pile of artisan bread, toasted and served with fresh butter and cherry preserves.

Portland International Beerfest – After a stop at Powell’s, the guys walked over to the Beerfest, where they tried a number of draft and bottled beers of all styles.  Eric enjoyed the wheat beers he sampled but was disappointed that the cask-aged beers he was looking forward to were already gone.

Our lunch order at Navarre; upside-down peach cake at Navarre; a couple enjoying dinner at Tanuki.

Tanuki – Finally, the meal that we had planned the entire trip around: an omakase dinner at Eric and Kye’s favorite place, Tanuki.  The two of them travel down to Portland about once a month for Chef Janis’ izakaya food, and have been spreading the word ever since their first visit at the New Year.  Matthew Amster-Burton tried it on their recommendation and was impressed enough to do a write-up for Gourmet.  He made a special trip down to Portland to meet us for the dinner, since Janis promised to source some special items not offered on the menu.  Janis kept the food coming for hours, and even after we were stuffed enough to roll home, we wanted to keep tasting all of the amazing plates she set before us: 20 courses in all!  Her food is very traditional in the flavors of Japan and Korea, and her repertoire is vast.  Highlights included oysters with kimchee granita, albacore hand rolls assembled by us at the table, skate in cinnamon-tea sauce, and spicy tantan udon.  We couldn’t believe that she only charged us $50 a person, including all the incredible sakes!  This hole-in-the-wall is a must for your next visit to Portland.  But get there this summer, because Janis is planning some changes very soon.

Dishes at Tanuki: oysters with shaved kimchi granita; albacore tuna, cucumber, and nori; cabbage and vegetables with wasabi.

Clyde Common – Since it was only a couple blocks from our hotel, we stopped off here on the way back.  Everyone enjoyed their cocktails, and felt that the drinks here are well-balanced, making this one of the top places in the city for cocktails.

Bakery Bar – Matthew persuaded us to meet here in the morning, to try Bakery Bar’s house-made English muffin breakfast sandwiches.  We wanted to see how they compared to Dahlia Bakery’s egg sandwiches.  They definitely have some creative flavors here – I enjoyed my fried egg sandwich with cheddar and bacon-apple-caramelized onion jam, although I think Dahlia still has the edge on the muffins.  Our group was pretty divided on this, though.  The scones were the perfect combination of crusty edges and fluffy insides, and I gobbled up mine made with blue cheese, caramelized onions, and apples.  We all split a banana chocolate mousse cake to take home.  The cakes are beautifully decorated, reasonably priced, and tasty, too.

Kenny & Zuke’s SandwichWorks – Last stop before hitting the road was to the new branch of Kenny & Zuke’s, SandwichWorks.  We grabbed sandwiches to-go and said our good-byes before heading back to Seattle.

For more photos from our Portland trip, check out our flickr stream.  And here are some of our other Portland recommendations from last year.

I’ve been waiting for The Corson Building to start brunch for what seems like for-e-ver.  At around the time that The Corson Building opened last year, my favorite brunch in Seattle, the one at sister-restaurant Sitka and Spruce, closed.  It was a sad day when we walked up on a Sunday morning, only to find that brunch was gone.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we were at the Corson Building today on their first day of Sunday brunch service.  This time around, they take reservations along with walk-ins, unlike Sitka which was walk-in only.  We were happy to find brunch just as we remembered (although here with grapefruit juice! – my morning drink of choice).  There’s the buffet full of cold salads made with local produce, homemade yogurt with local honey and nuts, pâté with kumquats, and fresh baked almond macaroons.  And then you have your choice of one of the two hot dishes made-to-order – today I ordered the poached egg with locally-foraged boletes and a touch of creme.  A simple, delicious dish, which I finished by dredging my bread through the runny yolk and creme mixture.

One thing that’s sadly missing from brunch at The Corson Building is U.S. barista champion Bronwen Serna’s espresso drinks.  That was one of the things we looked forward to most at Sitka, but The Corson Building has no espresso machine and therefore no Bronwen.  Anyone know where she might be serving espresso nowadays?

Although tasty, I don’t know if we’ll be going back as much as we frequented Sitka for brunch.  Eastlake is a quick jog down the road, but Georgetown just isn’t as convenient for us.  But we chatted briefly with Chef Emily Crawford afterwards, and she remembered how Eric wanted to try the fried chicken and waffles, which they once had on the menu last year.  She thought they might try that later this month.  I hope we don’t miss it again!

The Corson Building
5609 Corson Ave, Seattle
(206) 762-3330

Who would have thought that Seattle would have not one, but two retrofitted Airstream trailers serving delicious street food?  Not I.  So when fellow food-blogger Keren Brown announced that this month’s blogger get-together would be at the newly-opened “pig truck,” aka Maximus / Minimus, we couldn’t wait to go!

Maximus / Minimus is the brainchild of Kurt Beecher Dammeier – yes, the same person behind Beecher’s Cheese and other Seattle food endeavors.  Kurt explained to our group yesterday that his son, Max, has been getting more rambunctious lately as he approaches his teens, so Kurt has taken to calling him Maximus.  Kurt liked the name, and as he’s been working out a plan for bringing his pulled pork sandwiches to the masses, he thought about using it.  But, that word alone wasn’t quite right, until one day he thought about adding Minimus after it, and suddenly the yin-yang theme crystallized: offer every item on the menu as either Maximus (hot and spicy) or Minimus (sweet and sour).  Couple that with the pork theme, and you’ve got yourself a pig truck.

The “SOMEPIG” mobile; a Minimus cup of Hibiscus Nectar; the menu.

Vegetarians and vegans need not fear a visit to the pig truck, because there’s a veg sandwich with fennel, onions, and bulgur on the menu, which we hear is quite tasty.  Sides include chips (thinly sliced potatoes, beets, and sweet potatoes fried in rice oil, with fried green beans and jalapeños on top) and slaw (spicy or sweet, of course).  In the eco-friendly cup, pull yourself some Hibiscus Nectar or Ginger Lemonade from the spigot built into the side of the truck.

Sculpted metal pig’s ear; reflection of the sandwich line; one of everything.

So, how was it?  Keep in mind that this was just the second day the truck was open.  Dawn and I got chips (no min/max choice here), plus min and max versions of the pork sandwiches, slaw, and drinks.  The difference between the Minimus and Maximus pork sandwiches was subtle.  The Min was a little sweeter, and the Max not spicy enough for our taste.  Kurt told us that we can order “extra hurt” on the Maximus to make it spicier; I’ll do that (or maybe even a “double hurt”) next time, but I hope they make the Maximus spicier by default.  The veggie chips were crisp and nicely seasoned.  The Minimus slaw (sweetened with tamarind) had the edge for me, and we both preferred the hibiscus nectar Minimus drink.  All-in-all, it was pretty good.  We ordered too much food, so I’d recommend splitting slaw or chips with someone.  Will we go back?  If we’re in the area, say before a downtown show, then sure.  And it would certainly make a good stop for downtown lunch.  But I don’t think we’d make a special trip there just for the truck – for us, Skillet still has the edge on Seattle street food.

Maximus / Minimus
2nd & Pike, Seattle
(206) 601-5510

Is Fremont becoming the Seattle sandwich mecca?  First Paseo, then Baguette Box, now Homegrown Sandwiches.

Light pours in through the tall windows in front, with equally tall chalkboard menus lining one wall, detailing the numerous options.  We’ve visited Homegrown twice since they opened last month, and word of their opening has clearly gotten out – every seat was filled on both visits, with more people standing around, waiting for to-go orders.  Homegrown’s environmental mission is summed up nicely on one chalkboard that lists each sandwich ingredient with three possible checkboxes: local, organic, and sustainable.

Dawn and I both enjoyed the grilled cheese with melted Beecher’s Flagship and caramelized onions – it’s like eating a French onion soup sandwich.  Everything else we tried (the Reuben, a turkey and avocado, and a sweet potato and black-eyed pea cake) was basic but tasty.  The staff is very friendly and helpful, though it seems like they’re still figuring out their system, given mistakes with orders on both of our visits.

I like the sustainable approach that Homegrown is taking, and I’ll be back next time I’m in Fremont to try more sandwiches.

Homegrown Sandwiches
3416 Fremont Ave N, Seattle
(206) 453-5232