Food

The strip of University Way between 50th and Ravenna has a surprising number of interesting-looking little restaurants along it. E and I tried one of the more amusing ones last night, Jack's Tapas Cafe. The sign helpfully adds "mainly Chinese", and in fact it's entirely Chinese. The tapas in question are basically appetizers. The menu, plus the extensive specials board, contains a lot of interesting-sounding things (with scant descriptions). We ended up with a dish of chives, fried tofu, and shredded pork, which was unusual and pretty good. We also had ginger and onion beef, which was good, though not a standout. Fair pot stickers. The place gets good reviews, and I'm willing to believe there are some gems on the menu, but we weren't too overwhelmed.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 09:21 PM | Permalink

E took me to Marazul for my birthday last night. It's a sort of asian-latino fusion, which can be a great combination. The menu is big on small plates and combos of trying different things. we opted for several small plates and one entree. The small plates were all good, with interesting sauces and flavor combinations. The entree, beef short ribs, was a bit heavy and not that interestingly flavored; we should have gone for the skirt steak, pork, or something else. The truffle cake was, for a dense block of bittersweet chocolate, uninspiring. Still, I'd go back, though it doesn't make the top of the list. You could at least sit by the windows, drinking rum and eating tapas.

We had:
- rum cocktails (dark & stormy for E, something sweet and girly for me)
- ahi tuna ceviche (with "watermelon, yuzu miso sauce")
- thai ginger beef satay (with "three chilli lassi sauce")
- chicharron de calamari (with "sriracha aioli")
- jerk pork pot stickers (with "guava plum dipping sauce")
- beef short ribs (with "spiced orange sauce, cassava, boniato mash")
- chocolate truffle cake

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 05:21 PM | Permalink

Recovering from a dinner party extravaganza and a day of pajamas and football, E and I decided to get pizza at west seattle's much-praised Pegasus Pizza. If I hadn't known it was well-regarded, I would have been worried when we walked in, since the place exuded every cliche of the cheezy/crappy pizza place, down to the walls, like, painted to resemble the crumbling walls of ancient roman ruins. maybe it's ironic, I thought. the style there is "deep dish" whatever that really means; in this case, it means that sort of thick but fluffy (i.e. not dense) crust, which I'm not really crazy about. Maybe if you like that, you'd like their crust. But crust aside, I thought the sauce was anemic and the whole thing was drowned in cheese. You could barely find the sauce in all that cheese. The sausage we had was pretty good, but the mushrooms were sort of.. well I don't want to use the word "slimy" but they were unusually moist. And to cap it all off, the menu doesn't let you just choose your own toppings, but you have to choose from 20-30 standard combos (sausage and mushroom! sausage and pepperoni and mushroom! but eg no sausage and onion). does that, like, really save them any time or money? whatever. oh and ps, pizza this thick in cheese really does not fare well the next day; and I consider next-day pizza one of the hidden perks of getting a good pizza.

Imagine my surprise to find that this place has five stars on citysearch. it seemed so improbable I figured they'd written their own reviews, but no, they look real. No wonder seattle doesn't have better pizza -- people don't know it when they see it.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Another of E's necessary SF stops was Bi-Rite Creamery, "featuring small-batch artisanal ice creams". On our first trip (we would have gone every day if we could have fit it in), E had the salted caramel, which is pretty much the king of gourmet ice cream flavors. It's a perfect blend of flavors, especially if you like the salty as much as the sweet. This one was really good, a smoky caramel flavor with hints of salt. I had a peanut butter with fudge swirls. I love me some chocolate and peanut butter and this one was good, not too sweet or overwhelming, but a good subtle peanutty base.

Continue reading "Bi-Rite Creamery" »

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Another of E's planned stops was at Delfina, a packed, friendly Italian place in the mission district. The place was loud and jolly, though just short of being too loud. Everything here was good. The menu is grouped into antipasti, salads, sides, pastas, and main courses; we didn't feel up to tackling more than a couple of appetizers and some pasta (and planned on going to Bi-Rite for dessert). We had:

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Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Monday was a walking tour of chinatown, north beach, waterfront, russian hill, union square, etc. We read some good reviews of an "asian fusion" places called The House and decided to stop by. The decor was beautiful, lots of light wood and that pale yellowish lime green color I now pavlovishly associate with good asian (particularly vietnamese) food. The menu was interesting and the food good, though the best thing we had was the simple sashimi salad, with the other two dishes being interesting but not perfect. We had:

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Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 02:51 PM | Permalink

E and I met up with my friends V and J and all went to Limon, a peruvian restaurant (my idea, for once). I'd never had peruvian before, but I'd heard about it enough to be eager to try (Seattle had one peruvian place, which I tried to go to several times, but which has now disappeared). Anyway, we had:

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Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:12 PM | Permalink

E was very excited to go to Zuni Cafe in SF, since she has their cookbook and had never been there before. We had a lunch reservation on friday (yes, you need a lunch reservation). It's a nice space, a triangular building on a market st corner, with lots of big windows and a kitchen right in the middle with a huge brick oven. E had a salad; it was good, but I forget what was in it. I had the burger with gruyere on rosemary focaccia, and she had the chicken and tomato sandwich. I thought everything there was solid and good, with no special standouts. I liked the way her sandwich was constructed, on very very thin grilled bread with thin slices of chicken and tomato. The only problem I had with it was that the chicken was sort of bland and colorless, entirely dominated by the tomato. for dessert, we had a peach ice cream that was really really good and reminded me of home (yes, I'm a peach state native).

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 03:03 PM | Permalink

I took K to Crow tonight for her birthday. The atmosphere there is good, and we had a good time, but the food overall was fine but not especially memorable. It gets a lot of rave reviews on citysearch, but I agree more with the occasional blah one. We had:

- a pinot grigio for me and a sauvignon blanc for her (forgot the names)
- the summer fruit salad, with toasted nuts and arugula. very good peaches and berries, a good merge of flavors.
- the cured meat selection. good, but disappointingly little variation among the different meats offered.
- pan-seared halibut with lobster mushrooms, fennel, cherry tomatoes, and some other stuff. the fish was very well cooked, but I thought the vegetables were a bit blah. they didn't look that exciting when they came out and they didn't taste that exciting either.
- pork chop with uh stuff. the chop itself was pretty good, though a bit tough in places. it was served on I'm not sure what kind of grain (quinoa-like but not as nutty tasting) with bacon, with vegetables. the chop itself tasted good and was well cooked, but the grain and vegetables mostly had a heavy, salty, meaty flavor that echoed rather than complemented the pork. it was a bit much overall.
- ginger pana cotta with berries. very good, delicate consistency and good ginger flavor.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 09:48 PM | Permalink

(I'm adding restaurants to the food journal, more just to record meals than to review them carefully)

Barking Frog in Woodinville, at Willows Lodge next to the Herbfarm. E and I went and had:

Russell Creek Sangiovese
Sashimi Ahi Poke. Local radish & cucumber, Hawaiian sea salt, jalapeno-watermelon sorbet. Ahi on a bed of diced cucumbers and radish, presented in what looked almost like a layered cake, though it fell apart once you dug in.
Dungeness Crab Beignet. Mango, baby frisee, toasted coconut & almonds.
Seared Sea Bass & Lobster Ravioli. Mascarpone & tarragon lobster ravioli, baby spinach, oyster mushrooms, lobster butter broth.
Grilled Kurobota Pork Chop. Sage & yukon potato pillows, asparagus, prosciutto di parma, peccorino gran cru, balsamic reduction.
Chocolate Cherry Bombe. Chocolate mousse, cherry-pinot confiture, amaretto truffle. The confiture was a gelled cherry square, almost like a very upscale gumdrop (that kind of chewy fruity consistency).

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 11:13 PM | Permalink