Rainy Day Breakfasts and a NaBloPoMo Warning {Barracuda Taqueria}

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood from where I'm sitting.

Sadly this photo doesn't show the sideways rain. It would be much more impactful that way. Days like today are great for sleeping in, which is exactly what I did. Thankfully, it's a Saturday with nothing on the agenda. The trouble with Seattle is that we have SO many days like today when we still have to drag ourselves out of bed and be somewhere at a reasonable hour. I am happy today is not one of those days.

Do You Need to Know Why it Makes You Happy? {Lecosho and Kells}

"Write drunk; edit sober." I adore Ernest Hemingway's style (in spite of his somewhat chauvinistic tendencies)... He is sometimes terse, always precise and never verbose. Women are not supposed to adore Hemingway, but I do. He said only what must be said and nothing more. I write this post one glass of wine and 3 pints of Guinness into the night, so while I hardly meet Hemingway's criteria, I am writing relaxed and more pensive than usual.

Seattle Restaurant Week: Our Grand Finale {Quinn's}

We had the best of intentions. Really, we did. The plan was simple. Choose a Seattle Restaurant Week location, go there, enjoy the 3/$25 special, have a couple of drinks, come home. As usual, though, Quinn's SRW options did look good, but there were even more tempting choices. In our defense, we had more success this year than in years past... meaning we actually succeeded in taking advantage of one SRW prix fixe menu (How to Cook a Wolf).

Taco Monday and Words that Begin with the Letter B {Barracuda Taqueria}

In case you haven't noticed, B and I are big on traditions. Really, unless you're someone who already knows us well, you probably haven't noticed (aside from the whole Thursday Night Bites thing). We've been together about four and a half years now, living together in Seattle for four years next month. Don't do the math. Please. Our families are far away; his in Kentucky and DC and mine in New Mexico. He only lived in Seattle five months before I got here, so we've really found our way together in this rainy, always polite, but sometimes unfriendly city. He was my family from the very first Thanksgiving we spent together three weeks after I moved here and becomes even more so with each passing day. Families are based on a lot of things, but traditions are a big one. We create our own traditions, big and small.

Imported New Mexico Sunshine on a Rainy Seattle Day {Bang Bang Cafe}

B has eaten the same bacon, egg and cheese bagel for breakfast from Cherry Street Coffee almost every weekend for over a year now. Repetitious meals are not a problem for him. I too get into food moods (just like most people). I was (and maybe still am) on a Caprese salad kick since early summer, but I still need variety... and lots of it. So, we've come to an agreement. He gets Saturday morning breakfasts (which means he gets his bagel and I'll come up with something at home) and I get to choose Sunday morning breakfast... at least through the winter months. We really don't need to eat two breakfasts out a week all year.

Randomness in Review {Boulangerie Nantaise, Ventana and Hard Rock Cafe}

We had a few random food experiences this week thanks to illness, Restaurant Week and just plain Friday night. I feel like they're worth mentioning, but there isn't really enough to say about any single one on its own to merit a full post. Thus you have my random food week in review featuring the Boulangerie Nantaise, Ventana and Hard Rock Seattle.

B and I were both home sick Monday and Tuesday of this week. I mentioned our food truck foray earlier in the week, but on Tuesday, after a visit to the pharmacy, we stopped next door at Le Boulangerie Nantaise Organic French Bakery for a quick lunch. 

I've been here a couple times before and always enjoyed their salads. I think I've mentioned before that I'm gluten intolerant. Over the last few months, I've chosen to ignore that for the most part when eating out (I always eat strictly gluten free at home and work) and feel the painful effects every time. Oh how I love bread, though! All the same, I normally just choose to ignore the obvious gluten and RARELY eat a sandwich. During this, my sick week, though, I had two. The first was the incredible and memorable Oyster Po' Boy from Where Ya At Matt? and the second was Le Breton from Le Boulangerie Nantaise on Tuesday.

Getting Back to Ground Zero: Redemption Song of a Cooked Wolf

I feel compelled to point out that while this post might at first seem scathing and a bit bitter, bear with me. Just like our evening, it's a bit of an uphill battle... but it gets better.

I'd looked forward to Ethan Stowell's How to Cook A Wolf for weeks (B says months). We rescheduled it a couple of times, but this week, I was unwilling to budge. It is also Seattle Restaurant Week and How to Cook a Wolf is participating. The problem B and I have with SRW is that we always go intending to take advantage of the 3 courses for $25 special, but end up seeing something that looks better than the 3/$25 offerings. I do understand that this is the whole idea, by the way.

 

Oyster Po' Boys are Totally the New Chicken Soup {Where Ya At Matt}

Until recently, I had a strict policy against eating food from anything that could drive away. This might be because I grew up in New Mexico, seeing the sketchy, dilapidated vehicles parked at construction sites. The Roach Coaches were not something to be taken seriously, much less have a meal from. I had one experience with a taco truck during college in LA that didn't kill me, but certainly didn't inspire me to go back.

Spoiled in Seattle: When Good Food Isn't Good Enough {Betty}

B and I both have great jobs. They are not easy jobs, though. There are times of year when we each run at full speed from before sunrise until well after sunset for a week or longer. Fortunately, these times rarely coincide, leaving one person to attend to our home life. B prefers when we’re in this situation at the same time (no envy from one or frustration from the other). I disagree. Someone has to unload the dishwasher. This week was a good test of who is right. While I started every day by 5:00AM (and didn’t end until well after 6:00PM at the earliest), the second half of B’s week was filled by evening events. The condo is a disaster and we’ve hardly seen each other, but the week has flown by.

A Love Song for Marjorie

Let me be very clear about something. I'm not a food critic, don't pretend to be one and really, REALLY don't want to be one. I also have a VERY strong dislike for the term "foodie." To me, that term implies a person who judges food, thinks of themselves as an authority on food and who only eats in fancy restaurants. Of course, I fully understand that there are thousands of people out there (most of them with food blogs) who embrace the term and don't fit any of my ill conceived stereotypes. Many of them appreciate a meal from a food truck and a Michelin rated restaurant with equal enthusiasm. As for me, I just love great food and I love great company. When you get the combination of the two just right, the resulting experience is memorable and filling in multiple ways.  

Words and Flavors {Book Bindery}

Long before I caved to B's suggestion of a food blog, I had a photo album on my Facebook page called "Words and Flavors" with various food and menu photos I've taken along the way.  Never did a title fit anything as well as it fit tonight's Thursday Night Bite at the Book Bindery.

We looked forward to their opening for months.  Since the closing of the Local Vine in Belltown, we'd known that TLV's Chef de Cuisine, Jon, would be joining the Book Bindery as sous chef.  I can't say that there are two things I love more than books and great food, so I was thrilled with the concept.  Add the fact that they were opening in a warehouse occupied by the Almquist VInters, on the water at the edge of Queen Anne, and I'd decided I loved this place before they moved a stick of furniture in the door.  All of that aside, I was secretly a bit worried.  What happens if a place you're so looking forward to that employs someone whose food you already know you love doesn't live up to your expectations?  I still have no idea.  I can't answer that question because the Book Bindery far surpassed everything I was hoping for.

(chi-KET-tee) on the Eve of Thursday Night

I've been eating there for months now and pronouncing it wrong.  It's Cicchetti, pronounced Chi-ket-tee, not Ki-Chet-tee.  It's helpful that they provide a phonetic spelling on the top of the menu, but only if you pay attention to it.

After last week's failed attempt at visiting Cicchetti, I'd sort of moved past the craving.  B, on the other hand, apparently had not.  As we crossed the bridge about 4:45 this afternoon, he commented on the fact that had we not left work so early, we could have made a stop there on the way home.  Not 5 minutes later, I noticed he was taking the wrong exit onto I-5... or the right exit if you're heading to Eastlake.

Cicchetti is one of those places where it's usually sunnier on the inside than on the outside... even on cloudless days.  The interior is friendly and it's definitely somewhere that's easy to just sit and stay for a long while.  Please forgive the photo qualilty.  I inadvertently flipped a switch on my camera that's been making all my photos grainy for a couple days.

Sunday Kitchen Adventures

So, here's the thing about me.  I love food and I love restaurants, but I don't particularly like cooking.  I'm not so much bad at it as reluctant to do it.  I cook because it would be ridiculous to eat out every night and because I generally like to know what goes into my food.  If I lived alone (and when I lived alone), I would eat mostly raw vegetables and fruit for dinner... less clean up.  Every once in awhile, though, I get an idea stuck in my head and I focus on it until I've seen it through.