Nosh Pit

Taste of the Town: Angela Stowell

The business partner of husband Ethan talks dining out and working out.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Aug 26, 2010 at 10:31AM 4 Comments

Angela and Ethan Stowell: partners in business and marriage. Photo courtesy Geoffrey Smith.

The most stressful part about opening a restaurant with a celebrated Seattle chef? "Waiting to hear if people enjoyed [it]… there are always kinks to be worked out. I just hope the kinks happen without being obvious to anyone but us.”

Hot off unveiling Ballard’s Staple and Fancy Mercantile, Angela Stowell, business partner and wife of Ethan, took a moment to talk up Seatown.

Vita, Stumptown, or Starbucks? Vita

Where do you take out-of-town guests to eat? Besides our restaurants, Green Leaf, Boat Street Café, and Delancy.

Do you use recipes or wing it? I leave the cooking to the professional in the house.

Favorite way to burn calories: A few years ago, I started doing triathlons, and last year I did my first full marathon. I’m racing in my first half Ironman in September. It’s nice to be training for something, to have a goal. And being able to eat whatever you want on big training days isn’t bad either.

Are you or have you ever been a vegan? No

What’s your desert-island condiment? Peanut butter

Dessert or appetizer? Appetizer

Three restaurants that sum up Seattle: Canlis (we go bar-casual), Shiro’s (Japanese cuisine is a big part of Seattle history, and Shiro is a great chef), and Dick’s Drive-In (Bill Gates and Sir-Mix-A-Lot can’t both be wrong).

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Food Finds, Taste of the Town

Taste of the Town: Donna Moodie

The Marjorie owner on the three restaurants that sum up Seattle.

Posted by: Caitlin King on May 31, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

You’ve been reading lots about Donna Moodie—nearly two years ago her beloved Belltown bistro Marjorie closed, in early 2010 she announced she was reopening it, and two weeks ago it did on Capitol Hill —but can you guess how Moodie dealt with the stress of it all? Ashtanga yoga. And fries.

Burgermaster, Dick’s, or Red Mill?
Builtburger … I don’t mind cooking the best burger in the world at home. If they could only send fries, too! If that’s cheating, Skillet.

Do you use recipes or wing it?
When I am baking I follow recipes to a T, and take notes. When I am cooking savory, I wing it.

Where do you take out-of-town guests to eat?
How to Cook a Wolf, Spring Hill, and Cafe Besalu, for the best pastries in town. And of course if it is sunny, we have to grab a sandwich at Paseo and sit in the park.

Favorite way to burn calories:
Yoga. I wish it burned more calories, but Ashtanga yoga with Troy Lucero comes pretty close to burning off all the menu tasting I have been doing and keeping me balanced.

What’s your guilty food pleasure?
French fries.

Name three restaurants that sum up Seattle.
Po Dog, Joule, and Marination Mobile.

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Tags: Food Finds, Taste of the Town

Taste of the Town: Greg Lundgren

The Hideout owner on the dessert you need to eat before you die.

Posted by: Caitlin King on May 11, 2010 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Five years ago Greg Lundgren bestowed upon First Hill the undeniably rad bar The Hideout. Soon the artist and his business partner Jeff Scott will bring the nabe another surefire hang when they reopen the shuttered Vito’s on Madison. Their plan for the storied old-school lounge? To restore it to its mid-century glory by way of live performances, an East coast–style menu, and intense refurbishments.

Vita, Stumptown, or Starbucks?
Wow, I am going to flunk this test. I don’t drink coffee. Caffeine gives me the jitters and I don’t own a laptop. When it comes to hot drinks, just pour a splash of Canadian Club into my hot chocolate from Texaco.

Where do you take out-of-town guests to eat?
Last year I was entertaining a group of Japanese businessmen and was trying to figure out what they wanted for dinner. A steak house? Sushi? I wasn’t sure. When I asked them, their reply was, “Take us where you would go if we weren’t here,” so I took them all to Paseo and we waited in line for 20 minutes, pushed together a few plastic tables, and ate fish and corn.

Dessert or appetizer?
Dessert. More specifically, chocolate. Even more specifically, El Diablo from Tango. It is one of those desserts you need to eat before you die.

Burgermaster, Dick’s, or Red Mill?
I haven’t had a real hamburger since I was 18, so maybe I am the wrong person to ask, but I had a pretty serious affair with the gardenburgers at Burgermaster, served on grilled sourdough. I’ve since moved on to the Verde Veg Burger at Red Mill and I don’t see myself straying.

What’s your desert-island condiment?
Salsa. Really hot salsa. I think my favorite salsa is from El Gallito on Madison. Stuck on an island with a bathtub full of that salsa, I would use palm leaves and old shoes to spoon it out.

Name three restaurants that sum up Seattle.
Maneki, Ivars, and Sitka and Spruce.

Poutine: gift from Canada or scourge from the North?
I need to get out more… I have never had poutine before, but I did ask around and am pretty sure that it is something that would be really tasty at about three o’clock in the morning.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Food Finds, Taste of the Town

Taste of the Town: Amy Pennington

The Urban Pantry author on Twitter, vegans, and cookbooks.

Posted by: Caitlin King on May 04, 2010 at 09:50AM 0 Comments

When she’s not tending the produce at West Seattle’s Spring Hill or kickin’ it at her “neighborhood hang” Caffe Ladro in Fremont, Amy Pennington of Go Go Green Garden helps city-dwelling Seattleites grow their own goods.

Catch Pennington as she makes the rounds touting her just-released Urban Pantry: Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen.

Do you use recipes or wing it?
I wing it, completely. I read cookbooks like people read novels, for inspiration or ideas, but nine times out ten I make shit up… I pull ideas from everywhere and just go for it.

Name three local tweeters we should follow now.
@langdoncook: Lang is the master of secrecy, but every once in awhile he drops a tasty morsel about where/when to find delicious foraged treats like shrooms or shellfish; @cityfruit: awesome and timely advice on adding fruit and fruit trees to your landscaping; @mamster: Matthew is seriously funny. I actually don’t think he tries to be, but his sense of humor and irony are thoroughly entertaining.

Are you or have you ever been a vegan?
God, no. I fully endorse and support small scale farming and husbandry. I grew up killing chickens and milking goats on Long Island, so it’s always been a part of my life.

What’s your desert-island condiment?
I’m not much of a condiment girl, unless you consider olive oil a condiment. I can’t live without that stuff! Otherwise, I love, love, love ajvar, a Croatian version of harissa, or anything that’s been pickled.

Dessert or appetizer?
Appetizer. I love sweets, but I’d rather eat a nibble of foie gras any day.

Three restaurants that sum up Seattle:
Chinook’s at Fisherman’s Terminal—a great place to take it easy on a Sunday morning or take out of town guests for lunch; Tilth —all those local ingredients just scream Seattle; Pho bac. Tom Douglas introduced me to pho years ago, and I’m an official convert. Pho Bac is the best. Every once in awhile I doubt myself and cheat on them eating elsewhere, but I always regret it. I go at least once a week.

Information first posted May 4 has been updated.

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Tags: Food Finds, Taste of the Town, Food Events and Festivals

Taste of the Town: Sadaf Hussain

Her vegan-only shoe and chocolate shop opens in Greenwood.

Posted by: Caitlin King on Apr 20, 2010 at 09:20AM 0 Comments

The Chocolate ShoeBox is the type of place the weak of willpower will find tough to resist—the specialties here are chocolate and shoes. But consider this: all the products at Sadaf Hussain’s just-opened shop are vegan, so you shoe lovers and chocoholics can splurge with a little less guilt.

What is your favorite ingredient of the moment?
I use garlic chili pepper sauce on almost every meal; I always say that nothing is worth eating unless it makes your nose run (except sweets like chocolate). It tastes great on top of stuff or mixed in with stir-fry.

Where is your go-to cheap eats place?
Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese place, has amazing food and is quite reasonably priced. My favorites there are the mushroom and potato hot pot and the General Tso’s chicken, and their corn soup is to die for.

What is your favorite book??
I am addicted to the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

Where do you take out-of-town guests to eat?
We love to take people to Araya’s Place for vegan Thai food; I met my husband there, and Araya’s catered our wedding. My favorite dish there is the pad thai—it just hits the spot. I also love their eggplant stir-fry and the basil-fried rice. And then there is their aloe vera juice—it’s so refreshing. Even to this day non-vegans who came to our wedding continue to gush about how amazing the food at the wedding was.

What is your guilty food pleasure?
Simple: chocolate.

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Tags: Food Finds, Taste of the Town

Pupusas at Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria

The newest addition to Broadway’s ethnic eats scene stands out thanks to these $2.35 tortillas.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 15, 2010 at 12:49PM 0 Comments

219 Broadway (aka “The Alley”) is becoming somewhat of an ethnic eats temple. It houses Hana. There’s Kimchi Bistro. And now comes Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria, which opened Monday.

This is the second branch for the Salvadoran restaurant whose first location at 4106 Brooklyn Ave NE in the U District debuted years ago. On the menu are plenty of cheap goodies to discover—fried yucca, stuffed poblano peppers, sweet plantain pockets—but what brings the buzz are the pupusas.

Mitt-sized tortillas made with corn or rice flour, pupusas maintain both the floppiness of a pancake and the tough chew of pita bread. They are perfectly round, and at Guanaco’s come stuffed with a pasty chicharrón (pork) or chicken and a variety of veggies: spinach, ayote (zucchini), jalapenos, refried beans. Mix and match ingredients, have them all, sample just one—it’s your choice—just be sure to order yours with cheese and loroco, a tropical herb.

Here the pupusas cost $2.35 each and arrive with a side of sweet slaw, and you can dress them up with a red or green salsa (go for the red, it has more kick). Two will satisfy a determined nosher, order three and you’re asking for food coma—these guys are heavy.

For your edification:

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Tags: Bargain Bites, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Food Finds

Taste of the Town: Dave Meinert

The nightlife impresario has a soft spot for Girl Scout cookies. Who knew?

Posted by: Caitlin King on Apr 15, 2010 at 10:12AM 0 Comments

Dave Meinert is sort of this idol for Seattle partygoers. He has a stake in the annual Capitol Hill Block Party; in 2009 he took over Belltown dive Five Point Café; he helped resurrect The Crocodile. Now he’s pushing the Liquor Board to get rid of the 2am bar call and instead stagger the closing times of Seattle bars.

If you are one such partygoer and you’d like to say thanks, Dave, buy him Bushmills on the rocks, his favorite drink. Just be sure to get it with two little straws—that’s how he likes it.

What is your guilty food pleasure?
I don’t really have guilt issues, but right at the moment I’m eating Samoas Girl Scout cookies, and it’s probably not helping my diet. But then I’m supporting the Girls Scouts, so that’s good karma, right? So no guilt.

When you have out-of-town guests, what restaurant do you take them to?
I tend to avoid all the nuevo trendy foodie places as they aren’t so much the interesting side of Seattle I want to show visitors. And I definitely take guests to places I’m involved with like The 5 Point, and Via Tribunali in Belltown (great booths). Other than that, depending on the person and who’s paying, Canlis, Brad’s Swingside Cafe, and Chen’s Chinese Village on Elliott are some of my favorites.

What is your favorite coffee and coffee venue?
Caffe Vita is definitely my favorite coffee. I drink a lot of their Americanos, and they are the only local coffee whose drip can hold up over a whole breakfast at a diner (try this out at the Chelan if you want to test this theory). And I visit the Caffe Vita on Pike St on Capitol Hill a lot. A close second is my neighborhood coffee shop Muse. Totally unique design, great employees, and the owner Brent is always awesome to talk with about politics, babies, or just about anything, really.

Is there an ingredient you are really into right now?
Over the last decade my partner Mandy and I have stayed away from eating a lot of chicken, but as of late we’re on a chicken kick. So new and different chicken recipes seems to be our current thing.

Favorite book?
Foucault’s Pendulum, but Geek Love runs a close second.

Cookbook?
I don’t typically use cookbooks, but if Brad at the Swingside Cafe wrote one I’d definitely try it out. Other than that, the Anarchist Cookbook seems interesting.

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Tags: Food Finds, Taste of the Town, Booze Laws

Cheap Date: Kaname Izakaya

Order the sukiyaki at this authentic I.D. joint.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 13, 2010 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

You know those foods you don’t dare touch because, while traveling somewhere in the wider world, you came across a version that was just perfect? So much so it’s practically fact you’ll never again find a more satisfying incarnation? To spoil that memory with some debased, lackluster imitation would be a downright shame.

For me, that food is sukiyaki. I grew fond of the Japanese stew while trekking throughout Asia. Until last week, I had never eaten it stateside; three years passed since my last delicious encounter. Often during those years friends and coworkers would pass along recommendations. I would nod politely but remained weary; ultimately, I’d chicken out, instead nursing my fond recollections.

But enough eventually becomes enough, and at the insistence of a trustworthy colleague I ordered the beef sukiyaki at Kaname Izakaya, an authentic, family-run joint in the I.D. I’m glad I took the plunge—my memories of sukiyaki were shrouded in such nostalgia, the many details that make this meal so enjoyable had become buried: the calming warmth of the broth, the fun of having tofu and beef and vegetables all in one bite, the sweet tang of the meat, the seemingly bottomless pot.

At Kaname that pot is heavy—and, careful, hot—and brims with three or four cubes of tofu, a considerable helping of shaved beef, glassy noodles, and, my favorite touch, a little-cute mushroom atop a bed of vegetables. The broth teems with complexity and is reminiscent of a sugary soy sauce—perfect for soaking up the heaping bowl of rice. It all makes for an authentic, if not transporting, and filling experience.

The spread is sizable and takes up half of a two-top table—sharing is encouraged, and one order will satisfy two light eaters. At lunch the beef sukiyaki costs $8.95 (a vegetarian version is a dollar less), and at dinner the price jumps to $13.50 or $11.50, veggie-style.

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Tags: Bargain Bites, Food Finds, Cheap Date

New Obsession: Roti at Thai Curry Simple

The execution is spot on, even if the spelling is off.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 07, 2010 at 03:10PM 0 Comments

Of the many wonderful things that came with living in Thailand post-college, the food was right at the top. Especially the roti.

Roti (or ro tee, as it’s spelled at the new I.D. joint Thai Curry Simple )is the Asian equivalent of a crepe—thin, floppy, flatbready. Shaped like a Fruit Roll-Up, a roti’s center teems with any number of toppings and spreads, both savory and sweet.

In Thailand roti is commonly served as a breakfast nosh, though I always found my personal favorite, ones awash with condensed milk and sugar, made for more of a dessert, for obvious reasons. But hey, hand me one of these at sunrise and I’m not gonna complain.

Thai Curry Simple’s milk-sugar variety costs $2. There are four other kinds from which to choose: cheese ($2.50), chocolate (ditto), chocolate and banana ($3), and scrambled egg ($3.50). All are drizzled with copious amounts of condensed milk (oh, how sweet it is!), so be sure to reserve the last few bites for dipping—you won’t want to waste that puddle gathered in your paper wrap.

The panfried roll-ups at Thai Curry Simple simply are the best I’ve ever tasted. It would crush him to hear it, but they’re even better than the ones my go-to roti man whipped up on that dusty, deserted drag in the Thai town of Bankhwao.

For those with more of a lunch bent, Simple serves curry and other Thai specialties for $5 weekdays 11am-3pm. The place fills up fast and it’s small, so plan accordingly.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Bargain Bites, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Food Finds

Bent on Bento

New bento box specials at Barking Frog and Fresh Bistro

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 07, 2010 at 01:23PM 0 Comments

Bento boxes: another thing the Japanese got right. Their origins can be traced back to the 12th century, and you can see why people kept them around. A little bit of this, a little bit of that—everything organized neatly in little compartments. So pretty. Eating from bento boxes is a lot like digging into those thalis at Poppy —fun, frequently delicious, and totally noncommittal.

So this is good news: two Seattle-area restaurants are getting in on the bento game. Barking Frog in Woodinville, cheffed by his wonderfulness Bobby Moore, is doing a lunchtime bento. It’s Grand Marnier prawns, two sliders, pickled cucumbers (strictly speaking, your bento should contain something pickled), and mochi ice cream, all for $15. Lunch is from 11:30am to 1pm daily.

Meanwhile Fresh Bistro in West Seattle has a $16 special at happy hour: a bento box featuring tapenade and artichoke hummus with chips and cukes for dipping, shiso veggie tempura, and—my God—plantain poutine: smashed fried plantains covered with mozzarella and black bean gravy.

Happy hour at Fresh Bistro is 4 to 6pm and 9 to 10pm on weekdays, only on Friday it goes until 11. On Saturday the menu is available from 9 to 10pm only, and there is no HH on Sunday.

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Tags: West Seattle, Trends, Food Finds, Woodinville

Taste of the Town: Molly Moon Neitzel

Not suprisingly, the ice cream purveyor has quite the sweet tooth.

Posted by: Caitlin King on Apr 06, 2010 at 08:50AM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Chase Jarvis

Consider Molly Moon Neitzel the queen of Seattle ice cream. She opened her first storefront in Wallingford in the spring of 2008, then a Capitol Hill location in spring of 2009, and now she’s expanding her empire with an ice cream truck, which will hit the streets by late May of this year.

What is your favorite ingredient of the moment?
Meyer lemons! Lemon ice cream is my favorite; we get our Meyer lemons from this orchard called the “lemon ladies” in Napa. They are amazingly sweet and perfectly tart.

What is your favorite cheap eat?
The quesadillas at the Ballard Farmers Market stuffed with local veggies. Those things are ridiculous, with their homemade green hot sauce. My favorite cheap treat: the chocolate macaroons at Le Panier in the market—they’re great swiped through a scoop of ice cream.

When you have out-of-town guests, what restaurants do you take them to?
Spinasse or The Harvest Vine. Or, for something a little lighter on the pocket book, The Tin Table.

What is your guilty food pleasure?
I have too many! It’s a tie between the third cappuccino of the day, a steamed artichoke with homemade mayo, or a “spoon sundae.” One of my employees, Zoe, made up the tradition of scooping ice cream onto a spoon and then topping it with just a little bit of all the toppings to make a sundae. Then you spoon the whole thing into your mouth in one bite.

What is your favorite coffee drink and coffee venue?
In Seattle? I love a good Vivace cappuccino if the barista is talented. There are a few Stumptown –trained baristas at Oddfellows who make exceptional drinks as well.

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Tags: Desserts, Food Finds, Taste of the Town, Molly Moon Neitzel

Food Find: Sicilian Slices at Delaurenti

At $2.47 a slice, it might be downtown’s most delicious lunch deal.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 24, 2010 at 01:04PM 0 Comments

Most weekdays between noon and about 1:15pm, there is a line stretching to the entrance and a dearth of available barstools inside the cafe at Delaurenti Specialty Food and Wine. I blame the pizza.

The pizza is so good: a focaccia crust that’s spongy and springy but crisp at the edges, a sweet surface wall of mellow mozzarella. The pizza is so good it takes my “I’m just going to have a salad for lunch” intentions and it laughs a deep, dark, delicious pizza laugh, and before I know it I’m squished up against the door at Delaurenti, trying to let impatient exiters pass while maintaining my position in the pizza queue.

I’d heard about how the Delaurenti dudes make their own mozzarella, and I assumed that they used it on the pizza. And I thought wow, that’s really something—a piece of pizza for $2.47 that comes covered in housemade mozz. Turns out they just use Precious mozzarella, the kind in that white packaging that’s sold at every grocery store. What are they doing to that Precious mozz to get it to taste so sweet and fresh?

Delaurenti doesn’t call its pizza “Sicilian,” but I would call it that because it is rectangular and it has that thick focaccia crust. I’ve always called such pizza Sicilian, although I’ve eaten it many times in Rome and Philadelphia and even once in New Zealand.

[ Photo Source]

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Tags: Pizza, Pike Place Market, Food Finds, Deals