Restaurant Week

In Seattle, twice a year there is restaurant "week," which consists of two weeks of 150 upscale restaurants creating three course meals for $28 (dinner) or $15 (lunch). It is honestly one of the best things ever invented and I only learned about it last year. It allows those (like me) who cannot afford meals at nice restaurants the ability to actually try them out at the cost of the restaurants usual price for just an entrée. Last year I finally got to eat at a Tom Douglas restaurant during restaurant week, the Dahlia Lounge, and was pleasantly satisfied. (Tom Douglas is the celebrity chef if Seattle has ever had one, with ten restaurants and multiple James Beard Awards up his sleeve.) This year I went to Andaluca, along with How To Cook A Wolf, but not on a "restaurant week" night, as the weekends are not included.

At How To Cook A Wolf, I shared with my parents and sister: 
-Baby greens with apples, ricotta salata, in a red wine vinaigrette
-Mussels steamed in leek, orange, lemon crema, and fennel pollen
-Buratta cheese over a basil-pesto topped with a shallot agrodolce
-Shaved Mortadella with pears, arugula and mustard seeds
-Pork Chop with arugula, shaved pears and a pear butter
-Tagliarini pasta with walnut-basil pesto, apple tomato, and panratatto
-Lemon Cake with goat yogurt sorbet and blueberries
-Maple Panna Cotta with cranberry sauce, hazelnuts and oats 

All in all, the meal was good, but left me wanting more. I felt like I only got to taste everything, and not fully enjoy it. My favorite dish was the pork chop, with the divine pear butter that my mother scooped up before I could grab seconds. The buratta cheese exceeded my expectations, and I wished I had eaten more of it, but at the time was concerned with what dish was coming next. The kitchen was open and the restaurant was cozy, with a wonderful staff which I appreciated. The music choices were less than optimal, with a playlist of '80's hits, but nothing too horrendous. 

At Andaluca I had: 

Mini Crab Tower with avocado, palm hearts and a gazpacho salsa. 

Fig & Chorizo Stuffed Pork Chop with sweet polenta cake, kale, toasted almonds, saffron and ginger.

Liquid Chocolate Cake with hazelnut gelato and espresso syrup.

The food was good, but nothing too remarkable, along with the atmosphere of the restaurant. The decor suited for its purpose, as a fine dining establishment in a hotel in downtown Seattle, but nothing cute or unique. The filling in the chicken was rather tasty and clearly inspired by the Mediterranean. It even took me back to a meal I had in Marrakech, in which I had a pastry with a similar filling. Safron as a whole is one of my favorite spices, as it's smell hold many memories for me. I enjoyed my meal and service but I'm not sure I would recommend it, especially with its prices. 

Spinach Artichoke Dip

As a child, my parents would host many family parties for holidays and birthdays, and they tended to have some standard appetizers. The ones that stick out in my mind the most are the ones with artichokes, and I assume this fostered my love for them. I'm was never a big fan of vegetables, and to this day I am learning that vegetable can taste good. But this dish does the perfect trick for children, by masking the green stuff in cheese. This may not be healthy, but it is perfect for parties, and that was exactly my purpose on Friday night when I made it. I was originally going to use my parents recipe, but I ended up heading over to Punchfork (which you should all create an account on) and using Closet Cooking's recipe.

Ingredients:
(Serving Size: 6-8)
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed, drained and coarsely chopped (I defrosted in the microwave for roughly 5 minutes)
14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup grated grated parmesan
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

This is the easy part: mix everything in a bowl and bake for 30 minutes at 350°. Slice up a baguette, or to be even cuter, make fresh artichokes and dip them in this.

Things I Learned in Europe, Part I

1. Tartines
So why the name Tartines and Things? Well on my second full day in Montpellier, France, where I spent the summer studying abroad, I went out to a restaurant and ordered tartine without knowing what it was, except that chèvre was involved, and that was good enough for me. Half an hour later came out these pieces of toast covered in warm honey and fresh slices of goat cheese on top. Needless to say, it was heavenly. I soon learned that tartine was a common French dish, with a variety of toppings, but the goat cheese and honey is the only I have tried to this day. It's something that is comforting, filling, and tasty, along with being easy to make yourself.

Courtesy of Robert Otani

2. Gazpacho
Gazpacho is something pretty common that somehow slipped through the cracks for me. I was not used to 85-90° weather, and gazpacho was the heat relieving food, real food and not gelato, that did the trick. For me, it seemed important to balance the tomato and cucumber flavor as to not to be overwhelming one more than the ever. However, when the chef got it right, it was a refreshing treat on a hot summer day when the winds were warm and the shade was just a slight break from the heat.

3. Speculoos
Once a week, maybe more, we would all have head over to Amorino after dinner for some gelato in the square. Amorino is a European gelato chain, but this isn't any old chain. The quality is superb, and then best part is that no matter what size you get, you're allowed as many flavors as you desire. The result (if you get a cone) is a flower full of petals of flavors. It's quite extraordinary. But no matter how many flavors we got, Speculoos was still our favorite. It wasn't something we could translate, as there is no name in English for this amazing flavor. I first described it as a cinnamon graham cracker, but it's so much more than that. The flavor originates from a Christmas cookie from the Benelux region of Europe. The main spices in Speculoos are cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger. What makes Speculoos even better is that it is also a spread, like peanut butter or Nutella. When I found it at Cost Plus/World Market, I was beyond thrilled. In the U.S. it is marketed at Biscoff spread, so go out and get yourself some!

4. Peach Juice
Now this doesn't seem that out of the ordinary, but have you know, peach juice is not that common in the U.S. When I was in Spain, we bought it at the corner grocer without a thought, but I was constantly drinking it, either because it tasted so good or I was dehydrated. However, upon my return to the states I soon realized that Minute Maid did not produce peach juice here. I finally found pure peach juice at Whole Foods, not mixed with mango or any other fillers like that. The funniest part is that the company is Belgian. I don't know what American brands have against melocotón, but it's something worth trying at least once, especially as peaches are a rare summer fruit. 

Shrimp Scampi

Shrimp scampi is by far one of my favorite meals. Whenever I go out to eat at a nice seafood restaurant and am in the mood for pasta, I order it. I've definitely tried many different kinds, but none have ever come close to my dad's recipe. He makes it every Christmas Eve, and I look forward to it the entire year. One year he tried to make something else and we convinced him to make his new dish alongside the shrimp scampi. So last night I decided to finally make it myself, and it actually turned out pretty good. Cooking success!

Ingredients:
(Serving Size: 1)
Shrimp (I bought precooked frozen shrimp from Trader Joes, but obviously fresh is always better)
3 tbsp butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 a lemon
1+ tbsp minced parsley
1/3 cup half-and-half
1/4 parmesan cheese

If your shrimp are frozen (like mine were), pour them into a bowl of cold water and let thaw for fifteen minutes or so. Melt your butter in a frying pan, then add the garlic, on medium high heat. Cook/heat up your shrimp until they begin to curl. As they cook, add the parsley and lemon juice. Take the shrimp out of the pan. At this point your sauce will hopefully be simmering. Add half-and-half and cheese. Continue to let simmer for three to five minutes. Pour over shrimp and enjoy!
*Though when I made this I did not add pasta, I highly recommend adding fettuccine.

Findings on the Hill

Today I started my job working as a waitress in a kosher kitchen. I am not Jewish, and know very little about the faith, so it was an adjustment to have to abide by many rules and customs of the religion. But as I learned I became more and more interested in it. Have you ever noticed strange small letters on your packaged foods? Well it's probably a mark from the Orthodox Union saying that your food is kosher or parve. The kitchen I work in is divided into three sections: meat, dairy and parve (a neutral ground). "Thou shall not boil a young goat in its mothers milk." has application to this. Dairy and meat is never to be mixed. I also need to work on my yiddish pronunciation, as much of the menu is influenced by traditional Jewish recipes. All in all, it's pretty fascinating stuff.

After my long shift of work, I met up with a friend and finally ate at Oddfellows, as it was on my list of restaurants to try in the city. It has an industrial, yet homey vibe to it, with a vintage American flag hung on the wall next to an old portrait of a man, yet many of the chairs are light metal and the place is open, with bench style seating at long wooden tables. It's loud with the murmur of chatter, yet dark and intimate at the same time. The large windows in the front allow it to be great place to also just spend the day with a cup of coffee and pastry. This restaurant has the complete and utter ability to transform itself between a café and a full service restaurant. I was looking for a light late dinner, so I only had a starter of mussels with Serano ham, smoked paprika and caramelized onions, but it hit the spot. Next time I visit I hope to try their leek and goat cheese tart, along with their chilled prawns with avocado purée, grapefruit and hearts of palm.

Courtesy of Oddfellows Café+Bar

Courtesy of Aaron Brethorst

Learning & Apologizing

This past summer I spent two months studying abroad in the South of France, and attempted to keep a blog. I enjoy writing, and was looking forward to it as a creative outlet that I could share with friends and family, along with keeping it as a sort of travel journal for myself. Well the guilt of knowing people were reading wasn't motivation enough to get me writing and I blogged only once at the beginning of my trip. After that point in time I became quite busy, and once things slowed down I felt overwhelmed on how much I had to catch up on. Overall, I have regret about the entire thing. The point of all this? To tell you as the reader what I'm going through as I begin this new blog. I am not trying to discourage you from reading this, because, please, I'd love to have readers. I'm just unsure of my commitment at the moment. But I promise to try.

So why a food blog? Because that's the thing to do if your life is unfulfilling? Maybe. Not that my life is, but there's something about it that fascinates me. My objective of this blog is to do many things. First, this is going to be coming from a beginners perspective. I may say things that good cooks have known so long they thought it was common sense. But that is not to say I will only be making bland, boring, easy (the word that is practically copyrighted with certain recipes these days) recipes. I am ambitious and also tend to have a taste in food that can sometimes require a lot of work. Secondly, being a college student, I am on a budget. That is not to say that there are not some foods that I cannot resist, so there will be a mix of ingredients of different price ranges. Third, I will often be using other's recipes that I cannot call my own, so I will give credit at all times. But the point of this is to collect all those recipes and share them with you wonderful folk. Fourth, I may or may not talk about food that I go out and eat. Part of why I love food is going out and trying things that are beyond my capacity to make. If I find something marvelous, I hope to share it as well.

I find inspiration from many people in my life, both at a personal level and those that are now famous. Amanda Hesser, author of Cooking for Mr. Latte, along with being a long time food writer for the New York Times, was the first cook that actually got me in the kitchen (I made her coconut cake). By wonderfully intertwining her stories with food, they became tangible and irresistible. Julia Child seems to be the woman who taught everyone how to cook. She entertained audiences and her personality was so charming that I yearn for a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Ina Garten was (and still is) the other chef that got me in the kitchen, cooking food that took a little more money and time but was also very rewarding. She lives a life I desire at times, where she gets to cook for friends at her home in The Hamptons and they have a lovely time. My mother, father, grandmama, uncle, and recently my roommate and additional friend have also been inspirations and help in the kitchen. I always love to talk about food with them, and could for hours, analyzing every detail. I aspire to be like each of them, and maybe one day I will.