Nosh Pit

Hawaiian Food: It’s What to Eat Right Now

The uptick in island-inspired fare continues with Pau Hana.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 30, 2010 at 09:03AM 1 Comments

Island soda from Marination Mobile, one of Seattle’s Hawaiian purveyors.

In recent months we’ve seen a handful of Hawaiian-inspired ventures island-lifing Seattle food. There’s Fusion on the Run, the sandwich-and-taco truck of surf girl Cassandra Seaman. More recent to roll out is Pai’s, slinger of that Polynesian mainstay the plate lunch.

Now comes Pau Hana, which takes over the former Huiyona space on Tenth Avenue. Three pals from Oahu are running the place, two of them homegrown Hawaiians and the third a Seattle native.

Peter Duane is that Seatowner; he owned an island-side restaurant for three-and-a-half years before relocating back here. Ask him to navigate Pau’s mostly $10-and-under menu and he’ll point you to the barbecued chicken, kalbi short ribs, and kalua suckling pig swaddled in banana leaves.

The trio first opened Pau’s doors November 16, but they’re hosting an official kickoff bash this weekend, December 3 and 4 starting at 4pm. Duane says $5 pupus (that means appetizers) are being served—kalua pig sliders, sweet-chili chicken wings, pork nachos, coconut shrimp. You can take $1 off draft beers, too.

If you can’t make the party, here are some other Hawaiian escapes where you can hang (ten).

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Capitol Hill, Trends

Required Reading: Seattle Met’s Best Restaurants

A comprehensive take on where to eat right now.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 25, 2010 at 10:45AM 0 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

A thali from Poppy, one of our picks for this year’s best restaurants.

Exciting news, Nosh nerds: Our annual survey of the city’s best restaurants is here for you to devour!

In this year’s roundup, Kathryn Robinson takes a look at 12 trends that are changing the dining landscape—“whole new ways of dining—startlingly different ways of dining than existed 10, even five, years ago”—then pays tribute to the restaurants that are best carrying them out.

What kind of trends? Think molecular gastronomy and offal to unfussy French and unstuffy gourmet.

To see which other movements we mention, click your way to the Best Restaurants article.

Hope you’re hungry.

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Tags: Restaurants, Restaurant News, Trends, Rankings, Restaurant Review

The Year’s Biggest Restaurant Trend—Seattle’s On It

Chefs’ gardens top one 2010 trends list. And Seattle’s got plenty of them.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 05, 2010 at 03:06PM 0 Comments

Photo: Amos Morgan

Homegrown goodness at Trellis.

When we compiled this year’s Food Lovers’ Guide, we consulted our crystal ball to parse out the trends taking this city in new directions. One of the biggies: the edible garden. Chefs all over town—Bastille ’s Shannon Galusha, Brian Scheehser of Trellis, Jerry Traunfeld at Poppy —are growing their own produce in on-site veg beds.

Considering Seattle’s on-top-of-it stock of toques, it’s no surprise, then, to see the kitchen garden crowning the first (of what’s sure to be many) list of 2010’s big trends. When the National Restaurant Association asked a couple thousand chefs what they thought would be this year’s standouts, one-third of them responded with the grow-your-own garden, making it the top response in the “hottest restaurant concept”.

You can read more about the survey on the NPR site. Or you could make your way to Seattle’s (many) garden spots. We’ve put together a list of them for you.

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Tags: Trends, Rankings

Something to Ponder: Is the Food Boom About to Burst?

Things could get messy, posits Serious Eats.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Sep 22, 2010 at 02:43PM 0 Comments

Is the food bubble about to burst? Possibly, says Serious Eats.

Despite my mind-bogglingly high Math score on the GRE, I very much consider myself numbers averse. Algorithms. Stocks… Right over the head.

Even so, I can appreciate where this Serious Eats post is going. In the write-up, the author, a Wall Streeter, contends that like real estate and the Dot Com era before it, the mega-industry that has become food is bound to belly up:

It’s my job to identify bubbles before they burst to protect my clients… Food has all the characteristics of a bubble. Anytime I see a trend with this much hype, noise, and emotional opinions, I say……‘It looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble, and tastes like a bubble’…Something tells me it’s peaking and it may blow up in our faces…"

I can’t tell you much about this Guy (that’s his pen name), but he’s right when he says the food world has totally ballooned in the past decade. Whether or not you agree the industry’s doomed, dude brings up an interesting point, and the comments that follow make for a good read. Check it out.

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Tags: Trends

The Newest Item to Hit the Shelves of DeLaurenti: Skillet Bacon Jam

And it’s coming soon to Whole Foods, too.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Aug 17, 2010 at 09:17AM 0 Comments

Skillet bacon jam, now at DeLaurenti. Photo courtesy Skillet.

In our Food Lovers’ Guide we proffer props to Skillet ’s Joshua Henderson for his bacon jam, going so far as to call it “the novelty condiment of 2010.” To the uninitiated, the spread is quite heavenly, a simmered-down mix of rendered bacon, onions, and spices.

Jam junkies will be happy to know more and more retailers, smart gunners that they be, are starting to stock bottled portions around town. They’re now lining the shelves of Pike Place’s DeLaurenti, where an 11 ounce container checks out at $13.99, and according to Skillet’s Facebook page, you should be seeing them this week at Whole Foods.

Bring on the bacon jam–slathered grilled cheese…

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Tags: Trends, Street Food, Grocery Shopping, Skillet, Seattle-Made Condiments

Forthcoming Food Truck Where Ya At Furthers Beignet Bombardment

And other must-trys when the New Orleans kitchen-on-wheels debuts.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 25, 2010 at 08:12AM 0 Comments

Beignets.

Beignets, they’re everywhere.

When Matthew Lewis takes to the streets with his new food truck Where Ya At, he’s bringing the friedsugardoughy dollops with him. He’ll join the slew of Seattle restaurants hot for the traditional French dessert.

Lewis says his beignets pair quite nicely with coffee and are one of the standouts on his New Orleans–inspired menu. His other favorites? An oyster po’boy called the “Peace Maker". In it: fried oysters with bacon, cheddar cheese, Mama Lil’s bread and butter pickles, and lemon aioli.

And the muffuletta, which according to Lewis’s website rivals that of the Central Grocery in New Orleans. The mile-high pie of a sandwich is stacked with ham, mortadella, soppressata, coppa, provolone, swiss, and a house made olive salad. Anyone familiar with Nola knows Central Grocery is the spot to sate a muffuletta craving. Big claims, Lewis, but given your shiny culinary background (Restaurant Zoe, Canlis, Toulouse Petit), we’ll go with it.

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Tags: Desserts, Trends, Street Food

Is It Just Me, or Is Peanut Butter Everywhere?

A question to ponder.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jun 02, 2010 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

RUN! It’s everywhere!

About a month ago, I encountered a peanut butter bacon burger on the menu at that newish Ballard joint, Hamburger Harry’s. Didn’t order it.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Homegrown, that sandwich place in Fremont, had something called the Bluffernutter on its menu. Zoe’s bacon, housemade marshmallow fluff, and crunchy peanut butter—all grilled up. Really didn’t order it.

Then last week, the piece de resistance, at the new lunch-brunch sensation Nettletown. A peanut butter and turmeric salmon sandwich.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?? I cried out to the universe. And I ordered it.

It was stunning, the peanut butter going all Thai-peanut-sauce on the fish, helped along in its Asian endeavors by copious amounts of cilantro and garlic and crispy pickled vegetables.

Don’t know what’s up with the peanut butter fetishism in full display around town. But in at least one place it’s making me very happy indeed.

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Tags: Trends, Peanut butter

Menu Cleverness

Sometimes it works, sometimes it…doesn’t

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on May 26, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Menu photos! Why didn’t I think of that?

Just back from lunch at Delicatus where I hoovered a sandwich called, inexplicably, the Mudd Honey.

Creatively-spelled reference to the seminal Seattle grunge band, Mudhoney? Evocation of the muddy-looking goo—horseradish aioli meets barbecue sauce, a not-exactly-inevitable flavor curiosity that was nevertheless oddly alright—oozing from between the flaps of roast beef, turkey, slab bacon, and white cheddar?

Not at all sure…but Delicatus—the only good thing to happen to Pioneer Square in years—is fond of the cutesy nicknamed menu item, as evidenced by sandwiches named the B.L.F-ingT., Fists of Fury, and The Activist. (The last, which includes roasted eggplant, squash, and herbed goat cheese, includes the explanatory caveat: “May feel the urge to tie yourself to a tree.”)

Indeed, most of Delicatus’ sammies feature names that, upon consideration, make a certain kind of goofball sense.

But lately, I’ve been to a bunch of restaurants with menus that don’t. The list at Blueacre, for instance, is divided into categories with headers like The Craggy Moor and The Hunger. Wha…? (The titles appear to signify meat dishes and cooked seafood apps, respectively…but with a breathtaking lack of intuitive sense.) Reminded me of that Wallingford jewel, Joule, whose menu is divided into inexplicable sections like Crisped and Sparked.

All of the above feature thorough dish descriptions, however—which is always critical. Joints that don’t—Wallingford’s Avila, to name one whopping example—will suffer.

Why? Diners want to know what they’re getting. Simple as that.

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Tags: Trends, Trends, Menus

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

Love Communal Tables?

Neither does Hollywood, apparently

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 03, 2010 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

Why, hello Mr. Lautner

I was dragged to the movie Valentine’s Day by a posse of smitten tweeners (oooooh Taylor Lautner!!!!!!), and while they were lamenting the fact that the buff werewolf did not in fact take off his shirt…the restaurant critic was noticing something else.

(Alright, alright…the restaurant critic was a little bit bummed about the shirt thing too. Anyway.)

The movie took place in LA, land of restaurants, and a few recognizably West Coast trends were satisfyingly skewered, from waiters who recite every detail of every special to dinner guests who don’t bother to RSVP their hosts.

But the best was the Valentine’s Day dinner Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway endured in a crowded LA restaurant. If it wasn’t a communal table it was a string of two-tops shoved so close as to seem like one—and obliterate any semblance of intimacy. On the most intimate restaurant day of the year.

“Dude, stop drinking my water!” said the diner next to Grace, and I had to chuckle with recognition. Hear that Tavolata? Cascina Spinasse? Herbfarm?

Seeing the forced-community trend lampooned on the big screen didn’t quite make up for Lautner’s pesky modesty. But it almost did.

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Tags: Restaurants, Trends, communal tables