Brunch Spots — Serious Biscuits and Local 360

Had a quick brunch at Local 360 in Belltown.

Loved the décor in the restaurant with a little Western feel.

Local 360 was a sustainable restaurant and sourced locally for their ingredients.

The menu was fairly extensive and the rabbit pot pie caught my eye and along with it, could not pass on the fried chicken and waffle.

Service was fast and friendly.

The rabbit pot pie looked stunning upon arrival.

It was very creamy and rich, a little on the heavy side for me; but I loved the lean gaminess from the rabbit.

I wish there was more rabbit meat — only a few pieces were swimming around in the sauce.

The pie crust floating on top of the sauce was very buttery, flaky, and delicious.

The fried chicken had good flavor and tender; there was a hint of spiciness in the coating and was made deliciously.

I loved that the waffle which was made with corn meal, it gave great corn flavor and gritty texture that was interesting and rustic; the down side was that the waffle was a little dense and soggy.

The flavors were there for the dishes but were not perfect.

There were quite a few items on the dinner menu that sparked my interest: PB&J bon bons, crispy pigs ears and smoked pork shank.

Even though their brunch had not wowed me, I would be interested to give dinner a try.

I had been wanting to stop at Serious Biscuit for quite a long while.

We were in a hurry, and got 3 biscuits to go: fried chicken, catfish and vegetarian frittata.

First, the biscuit.  I was disappointed.

The biscuits were hard and certainly not as fluffy as Morsel’s, it felt like the biscuits were in the oven just a little too long.

Overall flavors of all the biscuit dishes were good.

My favorite was the catfish with green olive tartar.

The catfish was in a form of a catfish cake — very tender with herbs, and the light crunchy coleslaw contrasted the texture of the fish brilliantly, and no doubt, the catfish was the star.

My second favorite was the truffled frittata with tomato caper relish and arugula.

The frittata was on the denser side with mild truffle flavor and smooth texture.

It paired really well with the tangy tomato caper relish and the spiciness of the arugula.

The fried chicken one was smothered with black pepper tabasco gravy.

The chicken itself was delicious with soft meat; edges of the chicken pieces was a little over-fried and dry but it was well marinated with garlic.

The black pepper tabasco gravy had fantastic flavor but a little chalky to the mouth.

I would head back to Morsel when I crave biscuits.

Good Eats in Remond — Flying Saucer Pizza and Now Make Me A Sandwich

These 2 good-eats places were nestled in business parks in Redmond and were only a block away from each other!

First off, Flying Saucer Pizza.

This funky spaceship-alien themed pizza joint served up delightful pizzas.

I was most surprising to find deep dish pizza — something that was very uncommon here and reminded me of my days in the Midwest.

Flying saucer pizzas offer quite a few different flavors including great selection of vegetarian pizzas along with salads and pastas.

The pizza names were geeky and hilarious, they included Andromeda, the chickenator and crop circle.

On my first visit I had the deep dish Thai fighter without cheese to go.

The crust was made of soft, yeasty bread that carried a light sweetness and baked to a slight crisp.

My pizza passenger along the way home was just taunting me with this sweet savory peanut aroma.

The sauce was sweet, mildly spicy and delicious; the slightly charred thinly julienned carrots and cabbage with sprouts and cilantro gave pleasant and aromatic flavors.

The pizza without cheese was still tasty.

The next trip I had a regular cosmic clucker and a deep dish luau.

The regular crust was bready inside and appropriately dry crisp bottom and top.

I loved their twist of adding artichoke in this bbq chicken pizza; while the luau was Hawaiian pizza with extra bacon on top of Canadian bacon.

I did not skip cheese the second time, and I did find that both the pizzas were too heavy-handed with cheese that was distracting the main flavors and increased their greasiness.

I would go back again for sure and perhaps cheeseless would be my main stay.

Went around the block, one would find Now Make Me A Sandwich every Thursday stationed at West Willows Technology Center.

The guys made very delicious sandwiches.

I loved their unique vegetarian sandwich with roasted yam, spinach, mushroom, peppers and the great addition of manchego cheese and garlic tahini sauce; the best part, it was called Buddha Call.

It was tasty with lots of flavors, fresh and the yam gave texture.

Another one I had and enjoyed tremendously was the Vahalla pork — tasty tender pulled pork, dressed with a coleslaw with a surprising twist – apple jalapeno;  sweet and quite spicy, delicious with a crunch.

I also had their Viking stew, which had generous amount of vegetables but the day I got it was a little cold which made the creamy stew heavy.

There were many more sandwiches to try with fillings such as roast beef, ham, chicken and turkey, I shall be back!

 

 

Pike Place Market Good Eats Part II

Passed by lovely fresh fruits and vegetables,

and after Uli’s sausage, next stop was Pure Food Fish.

This was a must-stop for me to purchase smoked semi-dried salmon jerky.

These long thin strips of smoked salmon, smoky with lovely sweetness were my family’s favorite.

It looked like we were buying waist belts and most definitely a delight!

My father would buy them and brought them home to Hong Kong for further enjoyment.

Sadly the day I went there, they did not have it!

As an alternative, I bought some smoked salmon belly which was deliciously fatty and soft.

They were not cheap but surely very tasty.

Cut across the street up the hill to Rachel’s Ginger Beer.

Had been hearing about this place for far too long and definitely worth the trip!

I tried almost all the flavors possible (must be more than 10!) and just loved the pungent real spicy fresh ginger in the soda!

Overall, it was still a little too sweet for me, and we found ourselves diluting it with sparkling water when we got home.

Nonetheless they were still pleasure!

My favorite was the original, guava, blood orange and white peach.

There was a special red pepper that day but I could not get used to the strong pepper flavor in a sweet soda form.

Each growler (32 oz.) was pretty pricey — average about $16 with the original cheaper than flavored ones.

Fortunately the reuse program allowed refills to be discounted (I believe $8 for original and $11 for flavors).

We would be returning soon to refill!

Last stop, Le Panier.

Just could not resist the fantastic pastries in this place!

I had shown retrain and only bought chocolate croissant, peach tart and chocolate mousse cake to share with DH.

The chocolate croissant was top-notch of flaky goodness with delicious chocolate pieces.

I loved the peach tart — lovely aromatic cooked peach on top of creamy smooth custardy pastry cream containing in a very buttery and crumbly crust, studded uniquely with chopped pistachio.

The chocolate mousse was supreme — not sweet at all and extremely chocolatey.

Every bite was decadent chocolate that managed to still be light and non-cloying.

Every piece of pastry, every loaf of bread and each sandwich looked so appetizing, everyone bound to be able to find something they would like here.

Pike Place Market Good Eats Part I

A whirlwind shopping and eating trip at Pike Place Market for about an hour and fifteen minutes before the crowd swarmed in on a quiet Friday morning.

It was always plenty of fun to go but parking could really be a hassle; Friday morning proved to be not so bad.

We started off with breakfast at The Crumpet Shop.

The store was filled with people and they were certainly speedy as the line moved quickly.

I usually went for simple crumpet with butter and honey with a cup of fabulous and aromatic tea.

Crumpet reminded me of English muffin, perhaps because both were yeasty and with visible holes (one outside and one inside); basic ingredients were similar.

Texture of the 2, however, was completely difference experience.

The crumpet was crust hard outside, chewy, soft and spongy inside.

I loved their honey because it was very floral with lovely sweetness.

I got the Crumpet Store Blend tea heavy with Darjeeling, it was very strong in bergamot, smooth and floral.

My girlfriend got one with egg and salmon.

I ordered a scone to-go for DH.

Their scone was chewier and breadier than traditional scone such as Murchie’s, and amazingly buttery, dry on the edges and crusty.

The zesty lemon curd was delightful — tart, sweet and creamy.

It was a treat to visit the store and had something unique and different.

Next stop, picked up some Uli’s sausages for dinner.

I got a couple exotic sausages and one of them was the spicy Merguez.

This was a very spicy lamb sausage with garlic as the primary flavor.

The sausage was popular in North Africa, France and Belgium.

I loved the flavors but found the meat a little mealy.

Then we had the South African Boerewor.

The flavor was very floral and perfumy likely due to the large amount of coriander.

The bacon sausage was my favorite.

It was a new experience of eating bacon without the grease, coupled with a crunchy bouncy sausage texture which was wonderful.

The German Thueringer had the best bouncy texture of all the sausages with lovely sweet flavors.

Must go back for more!

 

New Hing Loon and Spicy Miso Black Cod

During my party years, I went to Hing Loon a lot.

It was one of those places that opened until really late at night.

I had fond memory of Hing Loon from way back in the early 90’s, when they were one of the few edible Chinese food restaurants in Seattle Chinatown when I freshly came from Hong Kong.

My favorite had been the salt and pepper fried chicken wings — fried to crisp, well-flavored with garlic and fresh chilies, meat was tender, always a treat.

I liked their wings the best — some places made it soggy, some places did not have enough flavors (plain fried wings), and they seemed to find the perfect balance.

It used to be my destination wing stop!

When I passed by couple months ago I noticed the English name of the restaurant had changed to New Hing Loon, although the Chinese name stayed the same, the place had likely changed hands.

We went with friends anyway for late dinner and really hoping that my favorite would stayed the same!

Verdict was – it was good, but not as good as before.

The flavors were there, but I believe they coated it with some flour now, so there was pockets of coating instead of plain crisp skins.

It was still a light coating, just not the same.  Alas!

The fried rice was a little bland and not dry enough.

We also had “west lake” beef soup.

It had tender beef and soft tofu with floral cilantro.

It was delicious and exactly how I knew it.

We got Mongolian beef which was very tender but overly salted.

Pea vine was fresh but the fried tofu dish with enoki mushroom was super salty.

The tofu was fried crisp with steaming hot egg tofu inside, but I couldn’t taste the enoki mushroom sauce much aside from salt.

I did not recall that they had a problem with salt levels before, hopefully that would be fixed and they could deliver consistently salted food.

—

Spicy Black Cod

This dish is so simple to make it is practically a cop-out on cooking!

Yet, it is delicious and has the added benefit to introduce healthy fermented foods in the body.

Both Japanese miso and the Korean pepper paste were fermented and, the primary flavors of this dish.

INGREDIENTS

1 black cod fillet (half the fish)

1.5 tbsp. miso

1/3 tbsp. Korean fermented pepper paste

1 tbsp. sake

1 tbsp. hot water

white peppers

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 380F.

Pat dry fish fillet and sprinkled white pepper generously.

Mix miso, pepper paste, sake and hot water together until melted and smooth.

Spread the paste on top of the fish fillet evenly.

Bake for 8 mins.

Change the setting to Broil for 1-2 minutes.

 

I have used this recipe on salmon and it worked beautifully as well.

Enjoy!

International District Finds – World Pizza and Mike’s Noodle

Every time I passed by World Pizza I was already full from dim sum lunch at Jade Garden.

Not this time!

Armed with my empty stomach, I was quickly drawn to the store with its fantastic pizza aroma.

Store was small, with a counter selling pizza by the slice.

There was also a seating area with tables for consuming pizzas in-house.

Upon checking out what laid under the glass counter top, I was strangely attracted to this pizza that had brilliant bright green chunks on it!

Turned out, it was wasabi marinated pineapple chunks!

The pizza also had pickled sweet peppers on it and it was definitely one of the very interesting pizza eating experience.

I got “spiciness” attack from all directions:  the fairly spicy attack on the tongue by the sweet pickled peppers and the nose attack from the wasabi.

Every bite was sweet, pungent and vinegary at the same time.

The wasabi also gave a very grassy flavor to the pizza.

The second slice I got was the potato roasted garlic pizza.

I loved this vegetarian pizza with very tender potatoes and sweet roasted garlic.

Flavored with lots of black pepper and lovely dried herbs of mainly thyme, it was very delicious.

The pizza crust was very dense, not bready nor fluffy — felt like it was made with whole wheat — very hearty and rustic.

Good amount of cheese that was slightly browned which I loved and accompanied with sweet tomato sauce, the pizzas were a very enjoyable lunch!

I visited Mike’s noodle when I had craving for Cantonese style wontons and could not conveniently be in Vancouver BC.

This tiny store did very brisk business.

They had the best wontons and also Cantonese style dumplings in the Greater Seattle area.

I usually ordered the wontons with rice noodle as unfortuantely their egg noodle was no Michigan’s.

They were still very good but just not as bouncy.

The rice noodle were always cooked to perfection.

The wontons were pretty big with thin wrapping and small crunchy shrimps plus nicely marinated, peppery, tender pork with a little fat.

The soup, however, seemed to have changed from what I recalled.

It used to have more of the authentic fish flavor in the soup;  now it only had a hint of fish and was too salty.

The day when I was there for lunch, I ventured out to try their squid balls but was disappointed — flavor was decent but very soft texture without the bouncy chew or crunchiness of really good fish or squid balls.

Mike’s noodle’s congee, or rice porridge, was also one of the better ones in the Seattle area.

Not too runny nor too thick, it was creamy with very simple flavors.

I liked the fish congee with tender fish fillet and ginger; and the version with creamy thousand-year old eggs and well salted pork.

Mike’s noodle was my go-to spot for wontons and congee here at home.

Eating on the Eastside – Sofra Turkish and Boba Express

We had been living on the eastside of Greater Seattle for over 15 years now, and it was amazing to watch the changes in Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland — the primary cities that made up of the growing eastside.

There were many more Asian shops and restaurants around (particularly some major ones opened up such as Din Tai Fung and Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot opened on the eastside before their branches on the west side).

Recent addition had been Turkish, Mediterranean and Persian grocery store (where I was able to purchase and try Persian dessert such as pashmak and Faloudeh) and restaurants.

In Bellevue alone, the 2010 census had shown that almost 41% of the population were minority or ethnic, compare to that figure was about 25% in 2000.

I believed that explained the proliferation of minority and ethnic small businesses, which of course was fantastic for foodies!

I loved Turkish Kofte and the fairly new Turkish restaurant, Sofra, opened in my neighborhood.

The version of kofte I had in Turkey was formed like little sausages –super tender meat with fantastic flavors of garlic and strong in cumin.

The menu at Sofra was on the small side, but as long as the food were good, it would be great as so many fantastic restaurants in Asia were “specialty store” that only served a handful of items.

The day of my visit, I thought Sofra did not have Kofte.

It was translated as Turkish burger, and I did not read Turkish carefully and completely missed it!

I had to go back and try my favorite Turkish dish!

Doner was next on my list.

Doner was the same as Greek gyro or Arabic shawarma.

The lamb doner at Sofra was very delicious — beautifully marinated and charred lightly on the surface to give the crisp meat layer.

It was very gamey which I loved and expected from mutton.

The rice was fluffy and was buttery goodness; accompanied by a small salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley and warm pita bread.

I remembered seeing tripe soup as special one day when I passed by the store, but was jot available on the day of my visit.

Sofra also had a small section dedicated to Turkish grocery at the back of the restaurant.

If you fancy doner, Sofra was definitely a place to visit and lovely place for a quick lunch!

Another favorite place of mine was the long time establishment of Boba Express.

I believed they had the best boba tea in the Greater Seattle area.

I usually went to the Crossroad Mall spot and knew that they had another one at Factoria Mall.

Before Boba Express, I used to only get bubble tea in Vancouver BC.

Boba Express had most definitely eliminated my need to travel for a drink.

Their bubble was cooked perfectly — soft and chewy.

Many places had them overcooked and was too soft, or that I had encountered undercook bubble that had hard and powdery center.

They also cooked or soaked their cooked bubbles in sugar so that they carried enjoyable slight sweetness versus other stores I had tasted bland bubbles that I did not care for.

My favorite was the Thai Iced Tea bubble or honey green tea bubbles.

Unfortunately the shop did use flavored syrup for many other flavors which I tried to avoid for health reasons.

They also served the most amazing popcorn chicken.

I also believe that was the best popcorn chicken in Great Seattle — better than Facing East, Yeas Wok or many other restaurants or bubble tea places.

The tender chicken pieces were consistently marinated well with strong garlic and soy flavor, and deep-fried fresh which yielded fantastically crispy and piping hot chicken pieces.

They custom-made the spiciness level with each order by tossing chili powder to the chicken pieces; and medium spicy were generally quite spicy already — what a rush!

The secret to the great tasting chicken had to do with the addition of basil.

I believe basil was tossed with the hot chicken and it imparted a nice light floral, grassy sweet basil flavor to the chicken.

I did not get the chicken often as it was deep-fried and I tried to avoid chicken and beef when eating out — it was by far the greatest guilty pleasure!

 

What are your Top 5 at Din Tai Fung?

 

 

Din Tai Fung — I could always count on getting a great meal there.

We did not go often because it was quite expensive to get full.

I went to Din Tai Fung for 5 specific items on their menu that I craved:

1) organic chicken soup

2) spicy vegetables and pork wonton

3) noodle with sesame sauce

4) pork soup dumplings

5) sweet and sour spare ribs

The cold cucumbers and taro dumplings were also exceptional.

The organic chicken soup was the most pure concentrated chicken soup one could ever had.

It was simply stewed with chicken pieces, ginger and green onion.

Delicate, intense and rich chicken flavor, one could taste its fat and last ounce of juice; and at the same time, simple, clear and unassuming — I just loved it.

The very first time I had the chicken soup in Taiwan Din Tai Fung, I drank 3 or 4 bowls of it.

I only stopped because I realized the bill was stacking up with one single item quickly; certainly not because I did not want more!

The vegetables and pork wonton with spicy sauce was my next favorite.

The wonton wrapping was decent with nice, soft yet crunchy fillings from the tender pork and fresh vegetables.

The star was the spicy sauce — it was garlicky and addictive.

The hot sauce was so good that they actually sold the hot sauce by the bottle as well.

The sesame noodle’s sauce was smooth, delicious and with hint of roasted peanuts; the noodle was tender and cooked just right.

I loved mixing the spicy sauce from the wonton to zest up the sesame noodle.

Of course, the meal was not complete without having their famous soup dumplings.

Granted, the Din Tai Fung in Bellevue was not Taiwan Din Tai Fung, it did serve the best soup dumpling in our area.

Thin and elastic wrapping, the small dumpling packed a great amount of soup which more often than not, burnt my palate and my tongue because I just could not resist the piping fresh, off the steamer dumplings.

The pork filling was always juicy and well-flavored with ginger.

I love the black vinegar ginger dipping sauce for the dumplings as the tartness of the vinegar accentuated the delicate soup of the dumplings.

I usually skipped the soy sauce as I felt that the dumplings were perfectly salted and the soy sauce would mask their excellent flavors.

I was obsessed with the cold sweet and sour spare ribs.

The bite-size spare ribs were coated with the fantastic sauce that was exactly tangy enough and sweet enough to be coveted at maximum.

I would be very happy to  eat a whole bowl of rice just with the rib sauce!

Finally for dessert — taro dumpling.

We usually get one steamer with 2 flavors: taro and red bean, since DH liked red bean.

Personally I found the quiet and subtle taro flavor soothing and delicious; the occasional small chunks of taro gave a bite and a surprise to the filling which was thoroughly enjoyable.

We had taken to go to Din Tai Fung at odd times to avoid waiting in line; sitting at the bar was also a great option for us.

Pestle Rock Thai

I was so glad to be introduced to Pestle Rock Isan Thai in Ballard (thanks IC)!

This was not the every day Thai restaurant we encountered.

I asked the cook what “Isan” meant, and she told me that it was the Northern part of Thailand.

The foods were delicious and uniquely represented the northern region of Thailand.

I had not “studied” a Thai restaurant menu as intensely ever as the one at Pestle Rock.

When I read the menu, every dish looked a little familiar and a little different — whether it was in the ingredients, or in the spices they used.

My girlfriend and I pigged out.

There was just too many new dishes to try — it boiled down to that we had to go back with more friends!

My favorite was the special coconut fried rice, Yum Kao Rod.  It was one of those amazing sensorial experience.

The coconut rice was crispy, as if each rice granule was fried, baked or crisped but not too much that we knew it was still rice.

Every bite was burst with flavors of ginger, galangal and other aromatics.

It was also tossed with coconut flakes for another crisper harder dimension.

I had never seen this dish serve in any other Thai restaurant and it was just a wonderful treat!

Next we tried the Thai sausage.

It was SO hot!!!

Tender, soft meat with fresh spices and herbs.

My friend had to get Thai ice tea and I was toughing it out with water!

We also had soup which was similar to Tom Yum but with pork ribs and potatoes.

It was flavorful and the meat fell off the bones.

Not only that we decided to go for dessert — even though our stomachs were stretched to their limit — we went for 2 desserts!

We could not decide which one of the desserts we wanted more since both were rare!

First one was grilled coconut sticky rice with black bean and either banana or taro.

We opted for taro.

The taro flavor was very mild and the coconut sticky rice was unsweetened, chewy and carried the sweet beany flavor of black beans.

The addition of coconut flakes added crispiness and dryness to the otherwise moist and gooey rice.

This dessert had an excellent play with texture.

Then we had the egg custard with sticky rice.

This dessert took some getting used to.

The egg custard was very soft, very sweet steamed egg that laid on top of the mildly coconut flavored sticky rice.

On top of that was fried shallots, pungent and oniony.

I had such a strong association of shallots with savory food that it was difficult for me to make the switch for this dessert.

I will most certainly return for the coconut fried rice and the many more dishes they had to offer!!

Pizza Versus – Humble Pie and Mercato Stellina

Two newish pizza joints in our Greater Seattle area, and I had the chance to visit them just couple days apart.

Passed by Humble Pie all the time in International District – couldn’t miss it as it was where the big wood-fire stood stoically by Rainier Ave.

It had a very casual, lay back, neighborhood friendly atmosphere with picnic table seating.

They grew their own chickens on site and all the ingredients for the pizzas were as organic and as local as they could get.

That day, DH had the pull pork pizza and I the mushroom and egg.

It was delicious and it was the bready and doughy kind.

The bottom was very crisp thanks to the high heat wood-fire oven, and the mids of the crust remained moist and chewy; it was not as fluffy as Tutta Bella’s yet still good.

The flavors were amazing.

This was my first experience of having a BBQ pizza without BBQ sauce!

The pull pork was a little drier but it oozed out barbeque smokiness and sweet aroma that no sauce was necessary.

The pickled onions were tasty crunchy and vinegary, and the tomato sauce was just tangy enough to be a great supporting actress.

Honestly, I believe my mushroom and egg was the winner of the 2; it felt like a harmonized choir in my mouth.

At the bass and tenor, there was the strong earthy mushrooms lightly sautéed, coupled with delicious truffle oil – the flavors were deep and grounding.

At the soprano, the fresh crisp arugula was delivering its sharp and distinctive flavor.

Finally alto, the egg:  it was subtle but gave the most creamy buttery texture in the mouth with the runny egg yolk.

Both pizzas came with light and great texture cheese which was perfect for my personal preference – it lightened up the pizzas in grease level and allowed the other ingredients to shine.

My only wish to Humble Pies pizzas was to have more toppings; it felt like there was too much dough.

I wanted to go to Mercato Stellina for lunch then realized a while back that they only opened for dinner.

Tucked quietly at the edge of old Bellevue downtown, Mercato Stellina had lovely outdoor seating and was opened by the folks who had Cantinetta.

It was a treat as we went with friends and got to try 4 of their pizzas: funghi, spicy salami, speck and prosciutto.

First, crust.

Mercato’s was the thin kind, a bit dry and hard.

I was really looking forward to the funghi with truffle oil and sage but was disappointed.

The sautéed mushrooms looked and tasted not so healthy and flavor a little strange.

The truffle oil was great but the sage addition did not work well for me.

The sharp tallegio cheese was dry and sharp which was a nice compliment to the truffle flavor.

The spicy salami was quite spicy and delicious; paired really well with the slight tart and sweet tomato sauce — but the pizza had too much cheese for my taste and was a little greasy.

The prosciutto meat was also lovely, fatty and tasty, and work classically great with fresh arugula and the nutty parmesan cheese.

My speck was probably the most exciting of the 4 pizzas.

speck with pear, gorgonzola and mint

The meat itself was dry with a lovely smoky, deep and surprisingly gamey flavor; paired with thinly sliced sweet pear, tart yet sweet balsamic vinegar and the bitter strong character of gorgonzola, it was a winning flavor combination.

We also had the baby kale salad with Italian tuna and a lovely tangy dressing; and tried our friends’ super tender meat balls which had a nice tomato sauce but the flavors inside the meatball was a little bland.

Between the 2 pizza places, personally I preferred Humble Pie — the winner of this round of pizza vs.