Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'Seattle'
Food and Gays and Bears... Oh My!
[Hey, this is Adam The Amateur Gourmet. I'm on vacation in Barcelona, Spain and while I'm gone I've asked some awesome people to fill in for me. Today is theater legend day and our first post comes from one of my absolute heros, Mr. Hunter Bell, Tony-nominated book writer for the hit Broadway show, [title of show]. Last year, Hunter told us what Broadway stars eat backstage, and this year Hunter takes us on a cruise with Rosie O'Donnell. Except Rosie wasn't on the boat with him, but we'll let that go. Take it away, Hunter!] Hello food nerds or f’nerds. Hunter Bell here and I am honored to be a guest blogger. A year ago I guest blogged about pre-Broadway show eatin’ [See here!] Well now, my [title of show] peeps and I have taken the show on the road, or on the water rather. We had the good fortune to write and perform a new show we debuted on the most excellent r family cruise....
The Kindness of Food Bloggers
What's worse than traveling during the holidays? The answer: traveling from one snow storm to ANOTHER snow storm during the holidays. That's what I attempted to do yesterday in what may have been the worst travel day of my life (though I'm sure you've experienced worse.) Let's not talk about the 12 hours on the plane, the refueling in Salt Lake City, and the waiting for a gate to open once we arrived in Seattle. Instead, let's focus on my helpless situation once I got off the plane. You see Craig, whose family lives in Bellingham (two hours north of Seattle), was stuck in Las Vegas because his connecting flight was canceled (he'd left the day before). The Bel-Air Airporter bus which goes from the Seattle Airport to Bellingham was all sold out; the idea of taking a car there was ludicrous (the snow was pummeling down from the sky.) My only option was to spend the night in Seattle and, utterly exhausted, I flipped open my phone and though Craig has many friends who would've let me stay with them, my eyes fixed immediately upon a food blogger friend who you all know and love: Molly, aka Orangette....
Where To Eat In Seattle
Seattle is a city I never expected to know well. Geographically, it's pretty much as far away as you can get in the continental U.S. from where I grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. My impressions of Seattle were entirely limited to that which I saw in movies ("Sleepless in Seattle," "Singles") and TV shows ("Frasier" being the obvious choice; though, interestingly, Craig says the view from Frasier's apartment window is an impossible view.) If it weren't for Craig, in fact, I'm not sure I'd have made my way to Seattle as early or as often as I have. Since knowing him, however, I've been to Seattle three times: once as a newbie (one year ago exactly), once as a drifter (Craig was shooting his movie this summer and I drifted my way around town while he did his work) and finally as a tag-along (this most recent trip was Craig's annual Christmas visit). In the process, I've made some pretty wonderful food discoveries and though I've covered much ground in previous Seattle posts (see this search) here's a guide to what I'd recommend to anyone visiting the city for the first time....
A New Year's Feast
If Molly Orangette invites you over for New Year's dinner, you don't say no. You say "yes" as fast as you can and hope she doesn't change her mind. I had to explain this to Craig who wanted to go but had "plans" with "friends" he's known "forever" and he "promised" them he'd spend "New Year's" with them, but I quickly disabused him of his faulty logic: friends are friends, sure, but friends are nothing next to a dinner prepared by Molly. Plus Molly was our friend. And she was cooking us dinner. She and her husband, Brandon. Cooking us dinner. Us. Dinner. What didn't he get? Craig saw the light and told his friends he'd see them later that night--a plan that actually never came to fruition. Not because Craig flaked out or because Molly held us hostage; that night Craig came down with a terrible flu that he's still battling. Did his friends put a curse on him? Perhaps. But this is the story of the last meal he ate in good health. And what a meal it was....
Happy Trails
Yee-haw: that's me, Molly and Kristin (Craig's sister) on horseback at the top of Tiger Mountain. We went horseback riding yesterday (both Molly and Kristin have experience with horses; I don't--which made trotting very painful) and it's the best $60 I've spent in a long time. I'm heading back to New York tomorrow so until I blog again, this is your favorite internet cowboy wishing all of you a rip-roaring July 4th weekend. (Oh, and happy birthday to my brother!)...
Into The Pages of Gourmet Magazine, A Summer Dinner Party Spectacular
I recall a movie from my childhood--"The Peanut Butter Solution"--at the end of which a young boy whose hair has fallen out (I don't exactly remember why) enters a room filled with magical, sparkly, landscape paintings. The paintings, you soon learn, are enterable: whichever one he picks, he can walk into. And I felt like that kid just a few days ago when, by way of Kristin (Craig's sister), I was invited to a dinner party given by a group of Craig's and Kristin's friends. I felt like I'd walked into the pages of Gourmet Magazine....
Two Seattle Sandwiches (Consumed at Crave & The Baguette Box)
Here are two sandwiches to enjoy in Seattle. In both cases, I was stranded at a coffee shop in Capitol Hill (Victrola on the first day, Vivace on the second day) because Craig, who has meetings throughout the day, drops me off at these places so I can do my own work while he does his. I am doing that now. This is work--do you think I LIKE blogging for you people? The sandwich you see above was ordered at Crave (recommended by Rena) which has its own website. The sandwich is a Crab Melt with "chilean crab, fontina cheese, chermoulah remoulade, mango red pepper salsa, on La Brea sourdough." Now I was wary of mixing crab with cheese--seems irreverent to the crab, ya know?--but this came together quite magically. The crab stood up to the Fontina and the other components added necessary tang and zest to achieve maximum sandwich harmony. Add to that homemade chips and homemade pickles (the former very good, the latter shockingly bland--were they pickled in vinegar or WATER?) and Crave is a perfect spot for lunch. The second sandwich was from The Baguette Box (recommended by Molly) which also has it own website. Can you guess which sandwich I had? It sort of looks like a red onion and lettuce sandwich, doesn't it? But no: buried beneath that mix of purple and green was a beautiful house-cured salmon gravlox. The Pacific Northwest is the place to be for salmon and this gravlox did its location justice. Plus the bread was fresh and crunchy and the toppings--while a bit overpowering (red onion breath alert)--were lovingly placed and dressed with just the right touch of salt and pepper. (You can even see the pepper in the picture). So if you're stranded on Capitol Hill--or even if you're not--those are two very good sandwiches that you can enjoy in Seattle....
An Impromptu Food Blogger Meet-Up
Fate must be a fan of food blogs. It just so happens that my arrival in Seattle coincided with the arrival of David Lebovitz who you may recognize from the lyrics to a pretty brilliant song. The Seattle food blog militia got together and planned a dinner in my honor (David doesn't have any honor) at Impromptu, a restaurant whose chef is Chef, betrothed to Shauna the Gluten Free Girl. Add to the mix Molly Orangette, Tara of Tea and Cookies and Lara of Cook and Eat and you have a fun table of people. Here's the guest of dis-honor with Shauna: The room is a beautiful space with lots of light pouring in (we met at 7) and it's near the water so the location is terrifically scenic. We ordered a Washington State white wine for the table--a Sauvignon Blanc, I believe--and, according to the waitress, it tasted like melon. After much gabbing and nose-picking (check out David's version) we ordered some tasty food....
La Carta de Oaxaca
You know you're in love with a restaurant when you have a specific craving for it. Usually when I visit a different city, I like to eat all my meals at different places to make the most of my trip. But yesterday after horseback riding (more on that later!) I turned to Kristin, Craig's sister, and said: "I want to go back to La Carta de Oaxaca." We were there last week and Kristin said the food she ate was some of the best food she'd had in a long time. "I want to go back there too," she said and so we did go back. And now it's in my top five favorite places to eat in Seattle....
From The Dept. of Unfortunate Food Business Names (As Seen In Seattle)
Not sure which is worse: this or the relatively new Vegan restaurant that opened up near me in Park Slope: "The V Spot."...
Off To Seattle
I'm headed out to Seattle--my flight leaves at 6:50 am!--and I'll be there for the next two weeks to join Craig as he embarks on his directorial debut. His film--an independent feature--is called True Adolescents and you can read all about it on The True Adolescents page or on MySpace. We may be location scouting the next few days--Craig said something about hiking and camping on the beach (will that involve physical exertion on my part?)--but expect a post sometime in the middle of the week. Off to the airport I go!...
