Shrek and Szechuan

Went out to see Shrek Forever After and decided to check out Jason Sheehan's "Essential Dishes" in his write up today. His recommendation for Mandarin Chef's Jiao-zi was worth the adventure. We got their just before 9 and parked across the street in the University Height Center's parking lot. A sign on the fence next to the entrance said that the lot would close at 10 and thinking we had plenty of time proceeded to head across to the restaurant. More on that later.

As you can imagine the place was non-descript, in a long line of ethnic food shops catering to the University District neighborhood.  As we stepped in and this is a Friday, not a soul in the whole place. We were greeted by someone coming out of the kitchen and had our choice of seats. Wondering if we might be in wrong choice, we pushed on with Jason's recommendation. Ordering the small plate of Jiao-zi (boiled dumplings), half vegetable and the other pork, we kept our fingers crossed. Adding the homemade noodle Chow Mein with Shrimp and the Mongolian Beef along with a bowl of steamed rice. As the dishes started coming out we were pleasantly surprised at how wonderful the tastes were, the vegetable Jiao-zi filling was bright and chewy with a subtle herbaceous finish. The pork was equally appealing with an earthy richness to its filling.  The other dishes were good but not as memorable as the dumplings. As for the homemade noodles, they came in a very close second, having a nice chewy texture and savory sauce that made you beg for more.

I can't wait to go back and try some more of the Chef's specials and as for the parking, keep out of the lot, they locked it up early and let's say we had to make for an alternative exit plan.

NY style pizza in Greenwood, Fatty's Corner Pizzeria

I just read in Voracous about a new Pizza joint opening 3 days ago in Greenwood, to be exact at the corner where Holman, N. 105th Street and Greenwood Ave. North meet. With a great back story on how they come to start their business and name Phinneywood.com , these boys want to do good! These two New Yorkers, Tommy Miltenberger and George Coromilas are going to deliver a New York Style Pizza at an affordable price. Having grown up in New York and wanting a Pizzeria type place like they grew up with, it just made sense that the two school chums would find themselves creating their own Pizzeria.

They want it to be a drop in kind of place, not a restaurant, but some place where you come in and shoot the breeze and catch up with the neighborhood news. Come on by and give them a try, all the pies come in one size 18 inches and the toppings are sourced locally as much as they can. Tommy even makes the meatballs. Drop on by and try a slice and hang around and chat up the guys. Fatty's Corner Pizzeria

That's Tommy on the Right Flashing his colors.

Lake Forest Park Commons Farmers Market

Opened last Sunday, Lake Forest Park's farmers market had wonderful weather for today's market. Located in the parking lot of the Third Place Commons and Book Store. The turn out was great with families enjoying the many treats and fresh temptations. I was able to set dinner up with a fine selection of greens, young spinach and purple potatoes. I also got some great garlic and snagged one of the last packages of Black Squid Ink pasta from La Pasta.

Also on hand were some wild watercress as well as a host of foraged delicacies, morels, fiddlehead ferns to mention just a few.  

http://www.thirdplacecommons.org/farmersmarket/  

Just a great weekend in Seattle for food

Seattle Cheese Festival was this weekend, hope you got a chance to experience a great time with wonderful local and international cheeses. The tastings were many and the demos were fun and informative. One of the highlights were selections of cheese from around the northwest with  knowledgeable crews to answer all your questions. The crowds seemed to get around to all the booths and there were plenty of people waiting to get into the Wine Garden.

 
One of the best things about the Chef demos, you got to taste the results. Chef Daisley Gordon of Campagne and Cafe Campagne demonstrated a Pommes Aligot. By the time he had finished and we all had a taste, we new about him as much as we know about the dish.

Another demo on making Mozzarella, put on by DeLaurenti Food Specialty Food & Wine; was fun and informative. And the taste of the fresh mozzeralla, tomato, basil and olive oil topped off the demo.

Farmer's Markets starting up

With the E. coli outbreak spreading the Farmer's Markets around the Seattle are starting up just in time. Get to your closes one or more and enjoy the seasons bounty.  See you there.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/13/lettuce.recall/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Mario and Tom

For those of us not able to be there May 4th, here are some short videos of the book signing event that Tom Douglas hosted for Mario Batali's new cookbook. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/11635225

An Evening with Rosanne Cash

What does this have to do with food, not so much. We had tickets for NPR on Location at the Moore Theatre. It was an evening with Rosanne Cash and was taped for a mother's day special to air next week. We did our last minute run downtown, try to park and eat before the show. Well because the weather was ok, no rain, everyone and their neighbor was looking to park and eat.

 With little time and no where to go we settled for a drink across Virginia Street at the Whiskey Bar, we were very impressed with the selections of pours as well as a lot on tap and in the bottle.

 Well it was off to the evening of interview with Michelle Norris and music with Rosanne and her husband John Leventhal. It included a nice introduction of her daughter's new album with the trio doing a song she had written.

 As for the food, after the show we headed to Serious Pie, even at 10:30 we were not going to walk in, after a easy 20 minute wait, we were elsewhere. We sat down to some great food, fresh local ingredients and happy as they say. We had the Miner's lettuce http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/environs/wildflowers/miner.html, fava beans and spring onion salad. What a dressing, cream light and complimented the tender greens perfectly.

 Then on to the pizzas, one was the yellowfoot mushrooms http://www.specialtyproduce.com/index.php?item=2633, truffle cheese and a green of some kind the other was the Penn Cove clams http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/beachreg/b240150.shtml, house pancetta and lemon thyme. Needless to say they did not disappoint. Sorry for the poor pics, the light was poor but the food outstanding.