Seattle Bon Vivant

May Day: Clap your Hands, Say Yeah!

  Sign spotted last Thursday on window at Tutta Bella in Wallingford

They are our prep cooks, line cooks, sous chefs, small business and restaurant owners, servers, busboys, dishwashers and bartenders. They tend the vines and harvest the grapes that go into our award winning, world class Washington wines.

They pick (and pack) the apples and cherries, raspberries, Walla Walla onions and asparagus our state is famous for. And they grow a lot of the organic produce that comes to our farmers markets (nationwide) every week.

They are our housekeepers, nannies and day laborers. My clients. Fellow Seattleites and Washingtonians.

And tomorrow afternoon they'll march in silence from 20th Avenue South to the Federal Building for May Day. For more information on this event click here and here.

Seattle, Dining Out For Life Is Tonight!

A reminder that Dining Out For Life is today, April 27th.

"On Thursday, April 27, dine at one of more than 150 participating restaurants in the Seattle area and a portion of your bill will go directly to the programs and services of Lifelong AIDS Alliance

So say no to cooking and washing dishes, call your friends and get together tonight. Call your favorite restaurant or reserve a table at that dining spot you've been wanting to try. The choice is yours to make, from Rover's to Red Mill Burgers the options come in all dress codes and budgets. So go eat out Seattle, let's make a difference!

To join in the efforts of the Lifelong AIDS Alliance click here.

Seattle Weekly's Dining Guide 2006

I'm a big fan of Seattle Weekly.

My block's dispenser is right in front of our corner restaurant, Red Fin. This is where I pick up my copy every Wednesday morning.

I really enjoy reading the paper version but when I want my Weekly on the go, I just visit the website to catch up on the latest scoop or to refer to it via Sidekick as I drive around town looking for a place to take a bite.

Just in case you do not live or work downtown, make your espresso at home (most every coffee house in Seattle, Eastside and surrounding suburbs carries the Weekly), have not picked up a copy of the paper in a while or missed last week's edition, there is good news, especially if you, like me, love your food.

Last week's issue (19-25 April) was particularly great as it was dedicated to one of my favorite things: ethnic restaurants in Seattle.

From South America, Asia, North America, Africa, Europe to Australia, some of the best examples (and laundry list of my personal faves) of world food in our city--in all price points-- are listed for your dining pleasure.

So do yourselves a favor, this story is printer friendly. Print it, save it, use it, share it. And as my food friend Amy Sherman would say: "Read it and eat!"

Seattle Weekly's Dining Guide 2006: Around the world in one Seattle day: 116 of our favorite ethnic restaurants

Seattle Times on Sweet & Savory

I was in Los Angeles when the write up was published. Looks like someone at the Times has been reading this blog! ;-)

Just in case you missed it, here it is:
At Sweet and Savory, the early bird gets the pain au chocolat
(by Providence Cicero Seattle Times, Monday, April 17, 2006)

Columbia City Farmers Market returns next Wednesday!

My favorite neighborhood market, Columbia City Farmers Market is (at last!) returning next Wednesday, May 3rd (3-7pm). I've have my basket ready and--in very good company-- plan to attend the first day festivities.

"Founded in 1998, the Columbia City farmers market brings over 40 Washington State farmers and small food vendors to this historic neighborhood in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Market days are full of the colors and sounds of shoppers from around the world who live and work in this community.

Shopping at Taylor Shellfish Farms at the Columbia City MarketA visual and aromatic feast, farm tables at this market are overflowing with the region's freshest fruits and vegetables, organic produce, free-range eggs, hazelnuts, honey, ciders, cheeses, seafood, free-range chickens, pasture-raised organic beef, baked goods, jams, sauces, cut flowers, nursery stock, fresh bread and other baked goods.

Columbia City Market hosts weekly events such as cooking demos, produce tasting, live music, activities for the kids, and gardening and composting information."

There will be clowns and face paiting for the kiddies, live music (by local musicians Miles & Corina) for everyone and what promises to be a great afternoon to share with family, neighbors and friends. Not to mention the beginning of an exciting and delectable neighborhood farmers market season in Seattle.

I'm already looking forward to taking home Monteillet Fromagerie cheese, early veggies and greens from Alvarez Farms, rhubarb for jam  and all sorts of organic and Puget Sound fresh goodies.

I hope you too are saving the date to welcome back this hard working and friendly bunch of farmers and vendors to this colorful, dynamic and vibrant multi-cultural market. See you there!

Columbia City Farmers Market
4801 Rainier Ave South
(at South Edmunds)
Seattle, Washington

Hsiao-Ching Chou blogs (yes, blogs!) from China

Seattle P-I's food editor, Hsiao-Ching Chou one of my favorite food writers and numero uno food podcaster in the city, has traveled to China on a working vacation where she has been exploring the food scene (with her mum and husband Eric) all the while posting between meals at her blog A Food Lover's Journey.

So far she has blogged about plane food (Thomas Soukakos from Vios made her a box lunch), scallops in Hong Kong, xiao long bao (steamed soup dumplings) in Shanghai, hong shao ti pang at Jesse and dinner at Jean-Georges.

I am salivating already, anticipating her next post.

And by the by, if you missed PBS's *The Meaning of Food episode where "Hsiao-Ching takes us back home to the family restaurant in Missouri and shares bittersweet memories of seven-day work weeks — as well as her family’s prized recipe for dumplings", you'll be glad to know it is available for purchase from pbs.org and also on Netflix.

*In the same series, on the episode Keeping Kosher Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler, executive director of Seattle Va’ad, visits Essential Baking Company in Fremont to supervise the bakery's kosher products.

On Tom Douglas's I Love Crab Cakes & Super VIP Party

Via Tom Douglas's Seattle Kitchen Newsletter:

"Be the first to go home with your very own personalized and signed copy of Tom's new book, I Love Crab Cakes! 50 Recipes for an American Classic .

We will be hosting a special party for our customers the week before the book hits the shelves at the Palace Ballroom. Come on down to taste five different crab cakes, say hello to Tom and co-author Shelley Lance who will both be on hand to sign books, and kick up your heels for an all-around good time!

The cost is $25 and includes your hot-off-the-press copy of the book, at least five different crab cake 'tastes', and a glass of wine or beer. Extra books will be available for $19.95. Please RSVP to amyp@tomdouglas.com or call 206.448.2001 to make your reservation."

I Love Crab Cakes Super VIP Party
Tuesday May 2nd, 2006
5-7pm
Palace Ballroom
2100 5th Avenue
(corner of 5th & Lenora,
next door to Palace Kitchen)
Seattle, WA 98101

To receive your own electronic copy of this most delectable of newsletters, click here.

Food & Wine May 2006's Spotlights Seattle

As part of their featured article "The 376 Hottest Restaurants Around the World", Food & Wine Magazine has chosen Seattle as one of the 50 cities covered in their May 2006 Special 10th Annual Travel Issue.

Among the restaurants listings for Seattle, a few delicious city spots:

• Crush
• Lark
• Union
• Dahlia Lounge
• Lampreia

And as if a Seattle mention was not enough, there's coverage on top tables and hotels at a few more of my favorite cities such as New York, San Juan, Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, Paris, London and Madrid (for the magazines complete Go List click here).

This is definitely a collector's issue so get yours soon, before it sells out at local newsstands leaving you at the mercy of eBay sellers preying on procrastinators (it almost happened to me with Gourmet Magazine's March 06 Montreal Issue) with $15 and $25 copies.

Los Angeles Farmers Market: Perusing the stands

Gorgeous "Cara Cara" oranges to take home with me, purchased from the nice people at The Fruit Company. From here it is off to Monsieur Marcel for some of their Kadota Fig jam.

Greetings from Studio City, California!

I'm in Los Angeles to spend the Passover holidays with dear friends, enjoy the good weather, play with the dog and relax a bit. On the way to Sherman Oaks from Burbank airport, the first stop (same ritual as every single time I go back to Paris (on the 7am flight): the obligatory breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. On the table: vanilla latte, fresh squeezed orange juice, soft boiled egg, grilled ham and Swiss croissant with side of greens and an assortment of breads and confitures. The perfect breakfast for the traveler, who, like me, had almost no sleep the night before nor any nourishment since. As this will be the last time dairy and meat will find themselves sharing the table until I'm back home in Seattle, I plan to be here a long while. By the by, today's LA Times has a recipe for Asparagus Flan that reads and looks amazing!