Lark - An early birthday celebration

Filed Under American, Capitol Hill | 1 Comment

I had a wonderful time last night at Lark- a Capitol Hill hotspot, a true foodie haven. Siv had arranged a surprise early birthday party for me, since we will be away at Puerto Vallarta next week for my birthday… I did figure it out on Friday, so it wasn’t really a surprise, but nonetheless I had a great time, and got some amazing gifts from my great friends. Thanks y’all.

Lark is truly a gastronomical treat for foodies, the menu is very creative with dishes like Crispy pork belly and Roasted Veal bone marrow, the food is truly unique for the seattle culinary scene. The wine list looked amazing, but we did the mistake of ordering cocktails, each one was a bigger disaster than the one before! Next time, we will stick with wine.

I have to comment about the customer service. Our reservation was for 10 people, and we were there from 6:00 pm to 11:30 pm. For the first 30 minutes, just two of us, then the next 1 hour, 4 of us, then for next 2 hours 6 of us, then for the rest of the time 2 left and 4 more joined to make it 8 of us! Our table was never full, and there were customers waiting outside, even though they kept checking with us as to whether we were sure the rest of the party is still coming, they never really gave us grief about the fact that we were taking up the space! They even settled the bill in the middle, and started a new tab to make things easier for us, since we had dinner in two batches!Now, back to food. Even though the waitress kept emphasizing that the plates are meant for sharing, the portion sizes vary tremendously between dishes! Some were easily a single person dish, but some others definitely meant for 3 or more. And they do have some great vegetarian options, so that Maya -the only vegetarian in our group - didn’t have to stick with just salads and bread like she had to at many places. The prizes for each plate vary from $11-$20, and doesn’t really correlate with the size.The dishes that stand out in my mind are the brick wrapped Sonoma foie gras with apple, endive and Port, Crispy Pork Belly with kale, polenta and cipollinis and the Lamb with potato celery root gratin. The Pork belly was our favorite on the table, that feeling when you bite into the soft but thick layer of fat from the pork’s belly, yum….. I really liked the Roasted veal marrow bones , but everyone else hated it! The disappointments were the cured tuna and the Squab breast. Also I couldn’t stand the poached duck egg on a steamed spinach cup, the smell was just too strong for me, but Mareen seemed to enjoy it. We also got a cheese plate with three cheeses, Haystack Sunlight - a concentrated, washed rind Goat cheese , Tomme Valle Antigorio - a hay, toasty, long finish Cow cheese and La Marotte - dense, rich, nutty, cave aged Sheep cheese. I don’t know much about cheeses, these were all the waitress’s recommendation, when I asked for some lighter options, and all the three were great choices!

Brick wrapped Sonoma foie gras with apple, endive and Port Roasted veal marrow bones with cipollinis and hedgehog mushrooms

Rotisserie Anderson Ranch lamb with potato celery root gratin

Sunchoke soup with organic Argan oil Crispy Liberty Farm duck leg with grapefruit and braised endive

I didn’t taste all the desserts, I got the Rice pudding with crème fraiche and black truffle, and it was a-mazing!

All in all, it is one of the best restaurants in Seattle! If you truly love food, do check this one out. They do change their menu often, so we are definitely going back soon! I just hope they don’t take the pork belly out!

Lastly, one small note, the chairs at Lark are pretty uncomfortable, you will get used to it though, and shouldn’t be a deciding factor for choosing a restaurants, but just something I noticed, and bothered me quite a bit in the beginning!

Siv & I at Lark

The girls

More pictures from the evening at http://sigsiv.smugmug.com/gallery/2406980

Also, check out Mareen’s blog entry about Lark http://eminseattle.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B2CED37F0C201F77!1384.entry …

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

Fins Bistro

Filed Under Issaquah, Seafood | Leave a Comment

When we lived in Sammamish, we used to be too lazy to drive across the bridge to the wonderful restaurants Seattle had to offer… especially for breakfast/brunch, 40 minutes drive was just too long… That is when we discovered Fins Bistro, a cozy seafood restauarnt tucked away in old Issaquah… It became our favorite brunch place pretty soon… The blackened halibut, Grilled trout with lemon butter and caper sauce, Crab cakes everything we ever tried were just delicious! Added bonus, Fins is one of those restaurants where you get the one for one deal with the Microsoft prime card…I am a sucker for deals!

Anyway, after we moved to Belltown, we never gave Fins a second thought, because of obvious reasons. But yesterday, we had to go to Sammamish to pick up a package that got delivered to our old address (after more than a year, go figure!). So we decided to give old Fins a visit, and I have to say I was kind of disappointed.

Siv ordered blackened Snapper with chipotle tomatillo salsa, and asked them to replace it with trout if possible. Our server was not very sure if they would do it, but said he would check. I ordered the Grilled trout with lemon butter sauce, and asked if they could make mine blackened instead of grilled. He never came back to confirm the order, but later brought two identical plates with blackened trout with Chipotle salsa! I was too hungry (now that this place is a 40 minutes drive from home) to send it back, so decided to have it. The sides were plain white rice and steamed beans… the beans had absolutely no flavor whatsoever, and I totally skipped the rice. The trout was well seasoned, and I love anything blackened, but it was kind of cold…Blackened Trout with Chipotle-Tomatillo Salsa
(Camera Phone picture)

I am striking this restaurant out of my books, this might have been just a onetime thing, but it is too far anyway. If you live in Issaquah/Sammamish, give them a visit. Weekend they do serve brunch, but only till noon! We didn’t get any dessert this time, since we were supposed to be at Lark for my birthday party at 6:00 pm and wanted to keep it light… (More about Lark later. ). But I remember they had some good deserts. BTW, the restaurant is right next door to the Issaquah Village theater, so normally just before a show, the place is crowded! Check the show timings before you go.Also, this seems to be a favorite place for a lot of seniors, seemed like a regular girl’s day out place for 60 somethings…
http://www.finsbistro.com/finsbistro.html

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

Fish Curry - Tamil style

Filed Under India - Tamil Nadu, Mains, Recipes, Seafood | 5 Comments

Growing up in Kerala, fish was the staple of our diet. I don’t think we had gone two days in a row without some kind of fish. Sometimes we would even have fish for breakfast! Fish curry with Dosa, Idly, Chapatti, Appam, you name a dish, we can have it with fish! Being a working mother, my mom didn’t have time to cook three different dishes for three different meals, I guess that was one of the main reasons for us to have fish for breakfast!

My mom used to make this red fish curry when we were young, the gravy was so spicy, it was almost like acid! I used to love that curry so much, but these days even though she has reduced the spice level considerably, it is still a little too hot for me, my eyes get watery, my nose keeps running, but still I will sit and polish off my plate…

Anyway, that used to be my favorite fish curry, till Siv came into my life. He makes the most amazing fish curry, which he says is his mother’s recipe! (It is really not, since when my mother in law visited us, she made the same dish, and it was nowhere close!). Siv’s fish curry has become my new favorite; in my house, I don’t ever make a fish curry, since I can’t compete with his curry in taste, (and since it is a lot of work, cleaning the fish and all . That is his signature dish…

Here is the recipe for this masterpiece. He makes it with any kind of fish we get here, sometimes even salmon or prawns! The gravy is so good, I think you can put potatoes in it, instead of fish, and it will still come out good. My favorite however is fresh rainbow trout.

Fish Curry Recipe

Ingredients

• Trout (You can use fish filets as well) 1 lb
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
• Green chilies 5
• Cumin 1tsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1tsp
• Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
• Tomatoes 2 medium sized
• Tamarind paste 1tsp
• Curry Leaves 1 bunch

To Grind

• Shallots 1 cup
• Black pepper seeds 1tbsp
• Fennel seeds 1tbsp
• Red chili powder 3 tbsp
• Coriander powder 1/2 tsp

Directions

Clean and cut the fish into 1/4 ” steak pieces. Marinate with a 1/4 tsp red chili powder and salt. Heat oil in a pan and flash fry the fish pieces and keep aside.
Grind all the ingredients in the second set to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Heat oil and fry fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and cumin. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add split green chilies and fry. Add tomatoes cut into small
pieces and fry , mash the tomatoes while frying. Add the ground masala paste, curry leaves and turmeric powder to the pan and fry till the masala is cooked .
Add enough water and tamarind paste to the pan and bring to a boil. Add fish pieces and cook for 10 minutes till the desired thickness.

Spicy Kerala Chicken Fry

Filed Under Chicken, Good with Drinks, India - Kerala, Recipes | 5 Comments

I have been reading a whole lot of food blogs this evening… Wow, there are some great pictures and great recipes out there, and there is the big network of food bloggers I had no idea existed… Just reading these bogs are great motivation to cook… I haven’t cooked since Sunday night, but I did remember to take pictures of the chicken dish I made for the Potluck on Sunday.

I never really follow a recipe to the word, I don’t usually use measuring cups or spoons unless I am baking. I just “eye ball” the ingredients in Rachael Ray’s words… So the same recipe comes out different on different occasions.. I have collected a lot of cookbooks over the years, and I have adapted some of the recipes and have made it my own. This particular recipe is from the book “Recipes for All Occasions” Part 3 by Mrs.B.F.Varghese a renowned cookbook author from Kerala.

Here is a picture of my cookbook collection.

The original recipe is for a gravy, but after a lot of experimentation, I ditched the coconut milk she suggested, and added extra ground coconut and dried out the gravy and finally settled on a recipe I liked.

Spicy Chicken Fry Recipe

Ingredients

• Chicken drumsticks - 16
• Dry Red Chillies - 15
• Coriander Seeds - 1/4 cup
• Shredded coconut - 2 cups
• Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
• Sliced Onions - 2
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1″
• Cardamom - 2
• Cloves - 5
• Curry Leaves - 1 bunch
• Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil - to fry

Directions

Cook chicken in little water and salt and keep aside. Don’t overcook, since the chicken pieces will be cooked in the masala later.

Heat a pan and dry roast the red chillies , then the coriander seeds and finally the grated coconut. Transfer to a spice grinder. Add a little oil and fry half the onion slices till brown. Grind all these together along with the cashew nuts and the spices to make a smooth paste.

Heat oil and fry the remaining onions. Add the ground mixture and fry for a while. Then add the cooked chicken pieces and curry leaves and stir for a while. Add tamarind paste and the water in which the chicken pieces for cooked, and cook till all the gravy is absorbed and the oil starts seperating. Garnish with some fried potatoe pieces or coriander leaves or both.

The diet that lasted two days till Ruth’s Chris happened…

Filed Under American, Bellevue, Steakhouse | 2 Comments

I have been dieting for the past two days, to get ready for our Puerto Vallarta trip next week, and while it is easy to dress for the Seattle winter, dressing for Mexico is going to be pretty tough with all the extra pounds I have been accumulating over the past few months (years!) I know a week of dieting is not gonna cut it, but I had to try, and I did pretty good last two days… till tonight. Siv has a guy’s night out planned, and I am the designated driver tonight. Since I am supposed to hang out on the east side anyway, I called up Mareen to check if she is upto doing anything, and as usual we decided to go out for drinks… (So much for being the designated driver, but I was pretty sure I could drown two drinks and wait two hours before he is done, so it should be just fine.) Since Mareen lives in Kirkland now, she wanted to be anywhere but, so the only other choice was Bellevue. Somehow we decided on Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, it used to be one of our main stops for hanging out with girlfriends after a few hours of shopping at the Bellevue Square mall, before Lincoln square opened up with all the new restaurants.

We got two seats at the bar as soon as we got there, it used to be so hard to get a seat there before, but two many choices for the Bellevue square crowd these days I guess. I decided to skip all the sugary drinks, and settled on a nice glass of Pinot Noir, red wine is good for you! Well, that really didn’t fix anything, since we ended up getting a bucket of fries with Mayonnaise to go with that. I don’t know when we started eating fries with Mayonnaise, I am pretty sure I got it from Mareen, but that is the most delicious combination ever… We were both craving meat so much, so we ordered the mini steak burgers, which were just beef inside mini buns, served with Wasabi sauce, but instead have it with some mayonnaise, just delicious! We also had the bacon wrapped tenderloin, which was just a little too much meat for me… The seared ahi-tuna was delicious as usual, but I have to say that the fries with mayonnaise was the best part of the meal. We finished with the Apple crumb Tart, which on first look was very unappetizing, because it was huuuge, and I had already filled myself up with all the fries and the grease… But I had a bite and it was surprisingly delicious with the crispy crust and deliciously warm apple inside, and the combination with the vanilla ice-cream was just perfect.Ruth’s Chris is a regular steak chain, and is not the type of place I would like to go normally. To me, places like that (like El Gaucho and the Metropolitan Bar etc) feel like they are built for the rich middle aged cigar smoking Caucasian males … But the Bellevue Ruth’s is different, a major part of the crowd is the young shopping crowd from the mall. It is quite expensive though, with 2 drinks each and the appetizers and one dessert our tab came to about $120 with tax and tips, not what I want to spend for an impromptu week day outing. But do go there during happy hour (4-6 PM and 9pm to close) and you can order stuff out of the bar menu (from where we got all our dishes) for unbelievably cheap prizes, the portions are much smaller, but who cares! I think you can get a quarter pound burger for just $2 during happy hour! The draft beers and wine and some well drinks are less than $3, whereas the dirty martini costed us $13 today!

Well, whatever few calories I cut down the past two days, I consumed those and then some today… I knew the fries were a bad idea… And it’s been more than an hour since I got back here, and Siv is still not back… , Now I will make a good designated driver for the ride back home for sure!

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

1200 Bistro

Filed Under American, Capitol Hill, Northwest | Leave a Comment

To continue from my last post, the second part of Hema’s birthday outing was the 1200 Bistro in Capitol Hill. I don’t remember much about the place, since that was our second stop that night :-). We were 15 minutes late for our reservation, but they still didn’t have a table ready for us, but they did pull two tables together in the lounge to accommodate us while we waited for our table in the main dining area. But we did have Zubin (the adorable 2 year old) with us, and unlike the W bar, they did have a strict no minor in the lounge policy, so Suneeta and Sudhakar had to wait outside the lounge. Luckily our table was setup relatively quickly.

The bar at 1200 didn’t have any fancy signature cocktails, but they do have a well stocked bar, where you can order anything you like. I went for a classic Margarita on the rocks, and man that was strong!! That is the reason I can’t remember what everyone else had!

The entrees were all great, and were well presented, but I remember tasting the soup and the salad from someone, both were just mediocre at best. I can’t remember what everyone had, I had the salmon, and here are the pictures of some of the dishes…

The place was packed, but didn’t feel too stuffy. Our waiter was very friendly and made small talks and offered to take our picture. The nice touch was the thin long candle for the birthday girl on both the desserts we ordered..

Here is all of us just before leaving. From the left, Deepak, Siv, Sudhakar, Zubin, Suneeta, yours truly and Hema.

And another one.

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

Earth & Ocean

Filed Under American, Downtown, Northwest, Seafood | Leave a Comment

Saturday night we went out into the town to celebrate Hema’s birthday. First stop, the W bar at the Earth & Ocean; a fantastic restaurant in the W Hotel downtown. We sat at the lounge with the trendy and sleek but comfy furniture that adds to the hip atmosphere one would expect from a W hotel lobby. The bar was packed with beautiful people in beautiful clothes, both tourists and locals. The lounge was less crowded, but was more suited for us since we had a 2 year old with us as well.

W bar serves great cocktails, our favorite from the last visit is the Pomojito, a mojito made with Pomegranate juice, but they ran out of Pomegranate juice this time (!!), instead they were serving a black berry mojito, which we named blackbohito. I went for the Sucker Punch which a cocktail of Orange Vodka, Mango Rum, Pineapple and Passion Fruit juices and champagne. My second drink was the Blackbohito which was amazingly as good as the Pomojito. Some of the other drinks which were passed around the table included dirty martini and cosmopolitan, none of us had a bad drink there. Food at the Earth & Ocean restaurant is to die for. They serve regional Northwest cuisine, and it is not the typical chain restaurant that serves regular steak and seafood fare that comes to mind when you think of a hotel restaurant. The dishes are a modern take on classic American cuisine, and are prepared from the freshest local ingredients. And more importantly, for fellow Microsoftees, the entrees are buy 1 get 1 free, an amazing deal for food like this.We didn’t order any food from the restaurant this time, stuck with the bar fare, since we had dinner reservations at the 1200 Bistro. The lamb skewers with crème fraîche dip was my favorite, the lamb was succulent and was cooked to the right degree, not too rare, not too well. I didn’t really care for the mini Kobe beef burgers, it was missing some flavors, and a little too dry for my taste, but our table did like it, since we ended up ordering more of it. The mini muffaletta, which is a sandwich made out of a special Sicilian bread, with three types of cured meat , I thought was better than the Kobe burgers, but then again, once you’ve had the Cascadia mini burgers, it is kind of tough to like others. I am sure we ordered more items, but most things are a little blur.

Another thing to note about the W lounge is they are very kid friendly… They have a kid’s menu and have crayons and papers for kids to draw on. Where else can you expect a hip place like this that let kids in! I guess that is the advantage of being a hotel bar, they have to cater to families.

We had a great time at the W, and I highly recommend it for a night out with friends, if you are just grabbing some drinks before a movie, or if you want to make it a full meal at the restaurant, you can’t go wrong at Earth & Ocean. We didn’t want to leave and go to a different restaurant, but Deepak really wanted to take Hema to a place where she has never been before ( to collect his brownie points) and it turned out to be a good thing, because we got to try another new restaurant - 1200 Bistro. More about that later.
Here is a picture of the girls, Hema, Suneeta and myself at the W bar.

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

Restaurants from this weekend

Filed Under Restaurant Reviews | Leave a Comment

Between Friday & Saturday, I went to 6 different restaurants this weekend.  Typhoon for Friday lunch, Rock Bottom Brewery for after work drinks, King & I for Friday dinner, Sun-Ya for Saturday lunch, Earth & Ocean and 1200 Bistro for Saturday night drinks and dinner! No wonder I am always broke!

Anyway, since my blog has turned into mainly about food and restaurants, here is my review on all those great places.

Typhoon

One of the favorite lunch place for the Microsoft crowd, Typhoon is not your typical Thai restaurant with the red, yellow, green curries and Pad Thai and Pad-Kae-Mao’s. Their dishes are innovative, but at the same time very authentic. 4 stars at Typhoon means 4 stars! My favorite dish? Drunken Noodles with Chicken, there is no comparison at all! My team goes there the first Friday of every month for lunch, and 90% of us order the Drunken Noodles. It has become our team dish somehow!

Rock Bottom Brewery

Friday evening, some of us from work headed out to Rock Bottom Brewery in Downtown Bellevue for a much needed drink session… It was great to unwind and blow out some steam… I think all the great team building exercises should include alcohol… Rock Bottom is always vibrant and lively with the after work crowd, you can’t really hear yourself think, but isn’t it nice to know that no one can overhear the gossips you share anyway? The beer is awesome too! Not much to say about food, Nachos are nachos anywhere right? Here is Maya and I posing for a Camera phone…

King and I

Unlike Typhoon, King and I is a typical Thai place, but that is not a bad thing. They do have all the traditional Thai curries, and the noodles, and all those are just great. My favorite is the Chili Paste fried rice and any of the curries with chicken.  The fact that they take Microsoft Prime card - buy one, get one entree free - that is just icing on the cake! This would be one of our favorite lunch places, but it is in Bellevue, not that close to work…

Sun-Ya

Siv and I are big dim-sum fans,  and where else can you expect great dim-sum but in Chinatown? So Saturday we headed out to Sun-Ya, I wanted to have this great dessert we had there the last time we had been, I just don’t remember the name, but it was made with cucumber and coconut jelly and was very cooling and not too sweet! Anyway, we reached there at 1 , there was a long wait, no parking, but the good thing is you can just leave the car out there in front of the restaurant, and get a number and whenever there is a parking spot free, the old guy redirecting traffic outside will come and get you, you can go out and park the car! We got a table after about 20 minutes. We ordered the typical dim-sum dishes that we get, but somehow I thought Nobel Court (in Bellevue, our regular dim-sum joint) just did a better job… I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was amiss, some of the dishes were cold, some were too oily, black bean sauce on the eggplant-prawn dish was too watery… Siv thought things were just fine, may be I am just used to Noble court food… The sad thing is they didn’t have my cucumber desert! I think I will just stick to dim sum for lunch on weekends on the east side, may be china town is too authentic for my taste.

Gotta go now , I will write about Earth & Ocean and 1200 Bistro another time. Still waiting for the pictures from Hema. We went to these two places to celebrate her Birthday, it was a fun outing…

Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants

Windows Live Writer

Filed Under Random Musings | 1 Comment

Just downloaded Windows Live Writer Beta. I am so happy that we created something that works with all kinds of blog providers, not just Windows live Spaces.
http://dev.live.com/blogs/devlive/archive/2006/08/14/44.aspx

It is crashing on my Vista box, even though help says it is supposed to work on Vista!

I just took it for a test drive, and overall a great tool for blogging.

What I like:

• I like the image editing options, where you can apply a watermark, or apply a custom transformation to any image easily.
  The image on the right has the custom water mark and has the Sepia tone applied. This does not support image publishing to blog, but you can specify an FTP server and the folder name where the images should be published.
  Now if only smugmug worked with this, I can specify the gallery where the image should be uploaded! Well, that is wishful thinking , I know!
• The Web Preview option is very cool, where it shows you the blog entry right in your blog without publishing the entry.
• Spellcheck - A must for any editor… I am so used to getting my words auto corrected, I don’t even know how to spell a l0t of common words anymore!
• Tags - You can insert tags from a bunch of providers, and even add new providers.
• And, you can insert a Windows Live map, road, ariel or bird’s eye view of any address! Here is a bird’s eye view of One Microsoft Way, Redmond..
  

What I would like to have:

• More options in the WYSIWYG editor like options to create a TABLE.
• Publishing options that blogger supports, like specifying a different date for the entry, labels etc.

I have only played with it for about 15 minutes, so there might be more that I love or hate…

Quick Sunday Brunch: Lamb and Sweet Potato Hash and Fried Eggs

Filed Under American, Breakfast and Brunch, Eggs, Lamb or Goat, Recipes, Sweet Potato or Yam | Leave a Comment

Sunday morning at 9:30 am, and Siv is deep in sleep… We had a fun night Saturday celebrating Hema’s birthday , first drinks at Earth & Ocean and then dinner at 1200 Bistro in Capitol Hill. I woke up a little early to talk to my sister in India, before it is too late over there. After all the talk about food and blog and stuff, I was getting kind of hungry and decided to whip up something special for brunch instead of the regular toast and omelets we usually have.

This is a recipe loosely based on one of Rachael Ray’s 30 minute meals on Food Network.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31461,00.html

I didn’t have any sausage or ground meat handy, but I did have these thin sliced lamb from Uwajimaya that we picked up yesterday. Here is my take on the recipe, with the limited ingredients I used.

Lamb and Sweet Potato Hash:
Heat olive oil and some butter in a frying pan ,add the diced lamb meat into the pan, season with some salt and pepper, and let it brown for a minute or two. Skin and julienne the sweet potatoes, not too thin. Thinly slice the shallots. Add the potatoes and the shallots to the meet on the pan. Add some coriander powder, chili powder ,garam masala and salt and stir well. Reduce the heat and let it cook till the sweet potatoes are cooked. Stir often and once the potatoes are cooked, you can even break it down into smaller pieces.

Tomato Mint salsa : Cut a tomato and remove the seeds and the juices inside. Dice into small pieces. Dice some green jalapeno peppers and some onions. Mix these together with some mint jelly and season with salt and pepper.

Make eggs the way you like, I made fried eggs. To serve, arrange the hash in a plate, put eggs on top and sprinkle the salsa on the eggs. Serve with toast.

Final Product

This turned out very tasty and is quite filling with toast for brunch.

Siv catching up on ESPN.com during brunch.

I think this will last me till dinner. Have to make a chicken dish for tonight’s potluck at Mareen’s place. It is a farewell dinner for Mini and Vishal, they are moving back to India.