Seattle Bon Vivant

Seattle's Zeeks Pizza delivers!

On lazy days when I don't feel like cooking but crave a meal that includes all food groups I call Zeeks Pizza. Zeeks is our neighborhood pizza place and the one we prefer over Pagliacci's or Second Avenue Pizza.

We order from their Belltown location, as it is the closest to our apartment but they have shops all over Seattle, from Greenlake to Ravenna, from Ballard to Queen Anne. One can eat-in, call for delivery or pick up take-out. Delivery, our favorite option, takes around 35 minutes on average but it is worth the wait.

They carry a selection of salads, breadsticks, inventive and scrumptious pizza combinations that will appeal to everyone; from the vegetarian (Frog Belly Green, Organic Drift, Jimmi The Greek, Veggie Thai, Hurricane, Howser) to the carnivore (Puget Pounder, Wood Butcher, The Dragon, Thai One On (1-5 stars), Texas Leaguer and Kitchen Sink) and everyone else in between. They also carry Thomas Kemper Rootbeer, soft drinks and Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dessert (it arrives hard as a rock)

Our favorite pie is their amazing Tree Hugger (we have them add sausage to it for $1.95 extra) which is loaded with vegetables. (Tomato sauce, Mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, shrooms, artichoke hearts, broccoli, Roma tomatoes, garlic & olives) The cheese is top notch, the pie loaded with the freshest vegetables. So much so you can barely see the dough. An explosion of flavors in your mouth.

Their Canadian Bacon-Pinneapple made with the most flavorful Mozzarella, sprinkled with beautiful oregano is not only simple, sweet and savory at the same time but also utterly delicious.



Zeeks Pizza
419 Denny Way
Seattle, WA 98109
285-TOGO

Pike Place Market again and a trip to Mercer Slough Farm Stand

Today has been such a beautiful day. Dry, sunny, cool. Perfect to go shopping for produce. First at Pike Place Market for Rainier and Bing Cherries, the first of the season.

A few fat apples. Aromatic white peaches. A beautiful 2 pound Tilapia, whole, from our favorite fishmonger Harry, who cleaned it and got it ready for us to grill for tonight's dinner.

Later, a lovely drive across Lake Washington on I-90 to Bellevue's Mercer Slough Farm Stand. Baby red potatoes, just picked strawberries, still warm and earthy smelling, sandy and unwashed. Tomatoes and lemons.

The blueberries are not ready yet but Mr. Pace has wonderful Walla Walla onions, which are in season, aromatic and plump. Being spoiled living so close to Pike Place Market, I tend to forget about Mercer Slough and Mr. Bill Pace, who is a joy to chat with and always gives me a deal.

On a beautiful day like today the only reason worthwhile to take the car out of the garage is a drive to Bellevue's Farm Stand. And as soon as those blueberries are ready for the picking, I'll drive back there again.

Bellevue Park Fresh Produce Stand
Mercer Slough Blueberry Farm
2380 Bellevue Way SE
Bellevue, Washington
425-467-0501

A day at the Market & Emsa Perfect Beaker

My friend F and I went browsing, shopping and eating our way around Pike Place Market yesterday. F loaded up at The Souk, our friendly Indian/Middle Eastern grocery store, small in size but with lots of personality and a selction like no other.

It has an excellent selection of Indian, Paskitani, Middle Eastern and African foods, spices, baked goods, music, books, incense as well as scarves, jewelry and decorations. F had lunch while I, having just feasted on my Friday Maharaja leftovers, drank a bottle of water and admired their mounds and mounds of fresh "Loukhoum" or Turkish Delight.

They come in all flavors: Banana, Raspberry, Pistachio, Rose, Lemon. My favorite is their Pistachio but they are all beautiful. A bar of Loukhoum sells for $2.50. They also sell big bags of walnuts, Turkish Tahini and various types of bell peppers and cornichons.

Later on, we walked into Seattle Cutlery. I was looking for a measuring cup in Metric or Imperial to ease conversions. Frankly, the use of multiple measuring spoons and cups when baking and cooking from my favorite European books and culinary websites has become a bit tiresome.

They had a limited selection of gadgets as this is mostly a cutlery shop so I picked up the Emsa Perfect Beaker. The package reads:

Accurate measuring thanks to scientifically calibrated scales.
6 different measurement scales for all your cooking and baking needs.
Tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, pints, cups, and even ml/ccm for international recipes.
Easy to read markings.
All-around spout for easy pouring.
Extremely durable, shatter proof, Top rack dishwasher safe.
It includes a clear lid for freshness seal (storage of food, salad dressings, etc)
Made in Germany

I just wished it was glass but I'll keep looking. It looks very promising and the price was right ($8.95). I plan to use it ASAP!

A little Kheer...

Between Adam's Carbohydrate posts and Pim's Around The World In A Bowl Of Rice the craving for carbs and rice dishes continued. So, earlier this afternoon I stopped at World Spice in Seattle and purchased, among other things (also picked up True Cinnamon and Cassia sticks and more Turmeric (I used up all my leftover Turmeric on the Happiness Soup), the most fragrant green cardamon and cardamon seeds to make Kheer for dessert.

Kheer is my absolute favorite Indian dessert. I prefer it every single time to Gulab Jamun. Its my preferred way to end an Indian meal, whether lunch or dinner.

Today. while Googling the Internet for yet another recipe I came upon's Waitrose Illustrated's Kheer recipe. I used it as a base while adjusting the proportions to make enough for a 2-3 servings. This is what I came out with.

Kheer

2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup Basmati
1/4 teaspoon cardamon seeds
3 tbsp sugar
2 grinds of nutmeg
2 smidgens of Rose Water

I did not have any pistachio or slivered almonds so I skipped this bit but for a quick dessert for one it was just fine. It came out pretty tasty too. So much so I've eaten most of it already. In fact, by the time it ocurred to me to take a picture of it, this was all there was left (see above) ;-)

Next time I'll try Peter Berger's (sans the cinnamon and butter, with not as much sugar but cracking the rice) or Madhur Jaffrey's Kheer with raisins and slivered almonds added for texture.

Downtown Sephora's Glam Opening

Finally! The new 5,200 square feet Downtown Seattle Sephora opened today! This location carries some hard to find lines in the city, only available, exclusively to the downtown Sephora such as Bare Escentuals, Paul & Joe Beauté and Smashbox. I was told by one of the sales associates that there was a line of people waiting since early in the am for the doors to open.

The place was packed, fabulous music, colorful set-up, friendly help and it had a really nice energy. I was happy to see an old face from Bellevue and U-Village Sephoras back in town for the opening, hopefully for good who spent time giving me the tour of the store and the breakdown of brand names carried at their downtown location. What fun!

Customers were busy applying makeup, spritzing perfumes, asking questions, loading their cute black baskets with all kinds of goodies; makeup, skin and hair care, fragrance, body products, beauty tools and hair accesories.

I was lucky (thanks again D! I felt so special!) to receive a goodie bag full to the brim of wonderful samples, perfume minis, soap, lipgloss and even a Sephora gift card. I picked up beautiful French hair accesories, Benefit mascara, Pout lip schtuff and plan to go back for more next month. I think I need that Fresh Illipe Butter Conditioner. ;-)

Sephora Downtown Seattle
Monday-Saturday
9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday-11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
415 Pine St.
Seattle
98101

Today's movie line-up at SIFF

Did you know?

Seattle has the nation's largest film attending population per capita?

The Seattle International Film Festival, held annually mid-May to mid-June, is the largest film festival in the nation, if not the whole Northern Hemisphere?

Seattle has the largest percentage of library card holders in the nation (80%) yet spend double the national average on books every year.

Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet has the highest per capita dance attendance in the US.

Seattle Opera has consistently had the highest per-capita opera attendance in the nation since the 1960s.

Seattle has the country's highest percentage rate of residents with a college degree, and one of the highest rates of home internet access.

Now you do. ;-)

Seattle International Film Festival

Gosh, its Van Gogh!

"Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum" opens tomorrow at Seattle Art Museum.

Tickets and hours "Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum," Tomorrow through Sept. 12. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Open Memorial Day 10 a.m.-5 p.m.. Members and their guests only 2 p.m.-9 p.m. Mondays, beginning June 7. Seattle Art Museum, 100 University St., Seattle (206-654-3100 or www.seattleartmuseum.org). $15 for adults, $12 for students, seniors and children ages 7-17. Free to SAM members and children under 6. Advance tickets through Ticketmaster, (206- 292-ARTS or www.ticketmaster.com) Opening party tomorrow:

SAM is putting on an opening-day party 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow, featuring clog dancers, roaming artists and entertainers and live musical performances: Le Rouge at 3 p.m. and The Dead Science at 7 p.m.

Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" starts next week

'Midsummer' captivates with timeless appeal

New York's long, cold winter of discontent

The film The Day After Tomorrow opens all over the country today. I've been dreading the release of this film now ever since watching a little preview of it at a local theater six months ago.

Ever since I was a child and even as a teenager I loved the disaster film genre. Flops or not, campy or not I saw them all. The Hindenburg, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport (and all of its sequels), Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, The Cassandra Crossing, Two Minute Warning, King Kong, China Syndrome, Rollercoaster and Hurricane are all classics. Let's not forget The Swarm, A Night To Remember. Later, as an adult, Outbreak, Independence Day, Armageddon, Twister, Alive, Titanic, Volcano, Dante's Peak, Deep Impact, The Core. Even 10.5 on tv.

Disaster movies can be great escapist entertainment but when it comes to New York City, especially after 9/11, the effect on me is absolutely visceral and frankly, it upsets me a lot more than say Kansas City blowing away in a huge tornado. I just can't stand seeing my city in any type of danger or distress.

Even though Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) was a hit, in general, his other films have failed to wow me (remember Stargate and Godzilla?) The cast of The Day After Tomorrow, however, is great (Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm) and i'm willing to give it a go even though that whole sub-theme of the father traveling to NYC, battling the elements and endangering his life and others in the process is not only overdone but a bit lame.

The critics are also all over the map on this one. Everything from "fatuous, great special effects, campy, impressive, funny, loud, jaw-dropping, falling short of Independence Day, poignant, insulting to the audience's intelligence, political, left-wing". Scientists are backing the film and even Al Gore has gotten on the bandwagon to support its theme of global warming.

I'm still unsure as to whether this film's realism will engender activism but in the end, even after debating for six months whether or not to go see this baby and even with most critics bashing the movie the cinephile in me won. I'll be there later today to be horrified and entertained. I can't wait!

Sephora Downtown Seattle opens tomorrow

Finally! A Sephora on my very own neighborhood and zip code. What a dream come true! No need to drive to University Village or schlep all the way to the Eastside to visit Sephora at Bellevue Square.

Sephora opens in downtown Seattle tomorrow May 28. The downtown Sephora is right on Pine between 4th and 5th streets, across from the Westlake Mall. The new Sephora store will be the only store in Seattle to carry the brands Bare Escentuals, Delux Beauty, Lola, Pout, Eyeko, Pop Beauty, Sue Devitt Studio, and Luscious.

Sephora Downtown Seattle
415 Pine Street
Seattle, Wa
98101