mary eats

In the New York Times: Crock pots have always been thought of as the prep-it-then-fuggatabout-it cooking tool, Julia Moleskin takes a look at the rice cooker for one pot meals. I also covered this trick as one of my very first blog posts, though Julia’s recipes look way tastier. The next generation of eaters, more adventurous thanks to mom. In house butchery allows both cooks and customers to get closer to the source.  He had my heart at Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.  Knowing exactly where your food comes from, grocery stores to begin labeling meat and fish.  The face of urban farming.

In the Washington Post: Mushrooms are in season, and what to do with them.  Jen Lin-Liu, Chinese cooking authority, is 31 and a Fulbright scholar. I might love and hate her at the same time.  A look at the food responsible for making me the foodie I am today, tofu.

In the Wall Street Journal: Get ready for more food magazines.  How chef/restaurateurs expand in tough financial times.  A tour of the Northwest’s own Clear Creek Distillery.  The WJS’s take on beef origin labeling. Pick your poison, er- energy drink.

In the SF Gate: I’ll have a Pinot Noir and Soda, wine cocktails from cocktail authority Gary Regan. Taking advantage of sunny fall days with a hearty picnic spread. 

In the LA Times: Keeping your Monday Morning Quarterback sated all season long, and expand your fungi lexicon to include King Trumpets, Maitake, and Shimeji.

There are many reasons to dine at Poppy, the newest restaurant to open on Captial Hill’s bloodline, Broadway.
A. It is the latest venture from former Herbfarm and Celebrated Northwest Chef Jerry Traunfeld.
B.  Northwest meets thali, it’s a new style of cuisine for Seattle.
and C. It’s the most talked about restaurant of the year, with feature length articles in all the dailies and local magazines.

But this is really why you should go. Poppy engages the senses and the taste buds, introducing diners to new ingredients, preparations, flavor combinations, all without being pretentious. It doesn’t hurt either that you can gobble up Jerry’s creative genius for $32, a mere 228 clams less that what it costs to eat at the Herbfarm.

Thali is an Indian style meal stemming from the Hindi word “plate”. Each thail contains some starch, usually rice or naan, and three to four curries, or vegetable dishes and one pickle in separate vessels delivered to the diner on one plate. The idea being that you get a complete meal, balanced nutritionally and in flavor for one price, instead of a la carte. Pardon me for the crude association, but imagine a TV dinner if you will. Every course of the meal compartmentalized, every need hit, spanning the range of taste and textures.

Only one thali du jour is offered, featuring Northwest ingredients and seasonings that highlight Jerry’s love for combining herbs and spices in creative and captivating ways. Once the thali was set before us, it was hard to contain our excitement. Kevin preferred to race around the plate taking just one bite of each before exclaiming his affirmation, me, I  went slowly from plate to plate, consuming one before moving on to the next, blocking out all distractions in an attempt to burn the experience into my memory.

Highlights from my meal included a lavender rubbed duck leg with huckleberries resting on a cloud of whipped parsnips. A plate of seared scallops with soy braised burdock root in a zingy carrot sauce was flawless. And I could have gulped down a pint glass of an addictive watermelon rind and lime pickle. Each plate provided just two to three bites, enough to entice and leave you wanting more, and unlike most small plate joints around the city, I didn’t have to share.

It’s a traditional Flemish red ale with an almost impossible name to pronounce: vich-ten-AAR? VICH-ten aar? vich-TEN-aar? (From a brewery with a more impossible name to pronounce- Brouwerij Verhaeghe). Chilled, this refreshing sipper smacks you in the face with notes of sour fruit, vanilla, and port. No artificial flavors added (this ain’t DeKuyper’s sour apple puckers schnapps), Vichtenaar is matured in oak casks for a minimum of 8 months. Perfect for shaking up your beer routine and duping all your wine friends who, “don’t drink beer.”

Vichtenaar is sold by the bottle, $2.99 at Whole Foods locations around Seattle

One LA Korean Restaurant is honoring Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee by serving up his favorite meals. Is ddokboggie on the menu? In the LA Times.

Mark Bittman examines the virtues of the Chickpea in his weekly column the Minimalist

The skinny on opening and the openings of NY restaurants from Florence Fabricant of the NY Times

Tips for making the most out of corn season from NY Times Columnist Melissa Clark

A cheeky recount of the San Francisco Slow Foods Conference this month in the NY Times by Christine Muhlke

Keep up with the latest in the cocktail revolution, big ice in the NY Times

Kim Severson of the NY Times offers a peek into the mind and the new restaurant of NYC’s chef’s chef April Bloomfield.

California’s food politics, calorie counts on the menu.

Tips for a trend that doesn’t appear to be going away soon, the cup cake.

Melon Madness, recipes too in today’s Washington Post

Bonnie S. Benwick reviews David Tanis’, of Chez Panisse, new book, A Platter of Figs in the Washington Post.

The modern lunchbox in the Boston Globe

Slow cocktails at Slow Foods National Conference

T. Susan Chang reviews Christina Arokiasamy’s new cookbook The Spice Merchant’s Daughter in this week’s Boston Globe

Sous Vide for the home Chef? In today’s Wall Street Journal
Whale sashmi in Iceland

The double edge sword of charcuterie.

Eric Feltin recalls the history of the Sherry Cobbler in the Wall Street Journal

The Slow Food Impact. Is it working?

Kkan Ma Neul, or Vinegared Garlic, is soy sauce pickled whole cloves of garlic ready to eat from the package. Salty and sour, these flavor bombs are mellower version of their raw brother, but bring the acid ammo when sliced and added to sauteed greens or garnishing a steak. If you are feeling particularly sassy, forgo the olives and spear three on a pick, for your bloody Mary.

The package label is in Korean, with limited, and sometimes confusing English fine print. Here’s a hint: they’re usually found in the cooler of the produce section.

Kka Ma Neul runs between $2.50 and $3.00 and is available at Pal-Do World, three locations around the Sound, Including 17424 Highway 99 Lynnwood, WA 98037

Oh snap. Look who’s giving Shin Ramyeon a run for it’s money.

Having been a corner stone of the Seattle Fine Dining Scene for over 15 years, I had some preconceived notions about Palisade. Put them aside. Chef de Cuisine Robin Uyeda and Exec. Chef Mark Randolph are adding a playful touch to the Hawaiian-Polynesian-Northwest menu; a tangible sense of fun present with every dish served.

My caprese salad starter delivered sliced juicy heirloom tomatoes resting under a cascade of corn, basil, and fennel. Pillow-y slices of buffalo mozzarella topped with nitrous oxide frozen pearls of basil sauce and balsamic vinegar balanced off the plate. The combination of textures and flavors was at once delightful and delicious.

The remainder of our meal featured more flawlessly flavored dishes (though some, not so expertly executed. The Halibut cheek was overcooked, but the bed of soba noodles it rested upon smartly dressed) , duos of fish and duos of meat and a to-die-for dessert, green tea tiramisu, and a fabulous pineapple shaped baked alaska that drew ohhhs and ahhhs from everyone. Here, dining up doesn’t translate to buttoned up, from the food to the staff to the décor Palisade is absolutely approachable.

Two delicious articles close to my heart appear today in the San Francisco Chronicle, Cold Noodles and Pickles- complete with recipes (naeng myun and oisobagi kimchi).

Read, cook, eat, discuss.

Red Bean Therapy. My mind runs wild at the thought of what this drink could be. At first, a thick pink sticky liquid- like the bottom of a dish of pat bing su, or maybe a pink-y milk like beverage, something like strawberry quick.

What it is however, is this; a barley tea like beverage, thickened with starch (seriously, this drink is chewy almost), and boasting the health benefits of red bean.

As a diet drink, no doubt it is thickened to make you feel more full, but it’s translucent appearance doesn’t jive with it’s texture. I feel like I’m drinking jell-o before it has had time to set up. Ew. Perhaps if the drink were more opaque I’d be down.

Saturday morning I trekked all the way to Lynnwood to stock up on Korean goodies at Paldo World, affectionately known as “North Korea”. The Korean communities of Seattle lie just to the north (lynwood) and the south (lakewood) hence the nick names.

I ran across this

Raspberry flavored noodles for Bi Bim Naeng Myeon. I don’t know. What do you think? Would you eat it?

In other Korean eating news Matt Gross, the New York Times writer who contacted me about where to eat in Korea published his article in the travel section of the Times this week. His portrait of Seoul is charming and absolutely sent me nostalgic for evenings under the orange tents sipping on soju and eating ddokboggie. Sigh.