It’s been a while since a restaurant has really knocked my socks off, but this cozy little French/Spanish restaurant in Capitol Hill has managed to do just that! Olivar is owned by chef Philippe Thomelin who has worked at some notable local restaurants like Cascadia and Harvest Vine before. The interior is quite charming, though the Russian Murals on the wall really confused us. Apparently it is a historic building which was decorated by renowned Russian artist in 1931 so they kept the original decor on.
Though it is a tapas place, most of the plates are pretty big shareable sizes. They also have a nice, not-so-expensive selection of wines as well. Apart from the regular menu, they have a good number of daily specials written on the chalk board. I give high marks to Olivar for service as well, our waitress was super friendly and extremely patient with us, a bunch of noisy girls on a girls night out. One person in our group only drink cocktails, but Olivar only serves wine. When we suggested Sangria as am alternative, our waitress brought a generous portion for her to taste before deciding. Service was a bit slow, but it goes with the casual laid back atmosphere there. People go to a place like Olivar to spend a nice night out with great company and great conversation, not to dine and dash. Chef Philippe came out towards the end of the night and made his rounds around the restaurant and introduced himself.
Anyway, it is all about the food for me normally, and Olivar has some of the best in town. I loved everything we ordered. We had the steamed mussels in a spicy chile sauce, patatas a lo pobre - potatoes with pepper, quail egg and chorizo, seared scallops with creamed butternut squash served with the thinnest cut fries, rabbit wrapped in pappardelle which tasted very much like a minced meat patty we have back home, tuna tartare served with a raw quail egg and crispy grilled pork belly with capers, cornichons, egg and parsley.
I am absolutely in love with Olivar, I can’t wait to go back and taste all the new specials. Yeah, there are way too many Tapas places in Seattle now, but this is one of my favorites. On a related note, Cascadia closed down and guess what’s going to replace it? Another Tapas place, right opposite our home! I can’t wait for that one to open, but Olivar will still be worth a drive to Capitol Hill if they keep up with the taste and creativity!
A gastropub is a pub that also serves gourmet fare, a few notches above your regular pub grub. Recently two new gastropubs opened in the Seattle area, I hope it is the start of a new fad. Great drinks and gourmet food served in a cool hip space is just my kind of fun!
Spur is in Belltown at the same location where Mistral used to be. They have completely revamped the space. The decor is very urban, it’s got that cool New York city bar vibe. Cocktails at Spur are very well made, West Coast Pimm’s is my favorite. Food for the most part is great, some dishes are incredible, with a few items that failed to impress. But overall, it is a great place to hang out with friends and drink and eat and be merry. I’ve been there thrice in the past three months, which was more for the drinks and ambience than the food.
Don’t get me wrong, food is not bad at all, some dishes are even lip-smacking delicious. Especially these Pork Belly Sliders ($12) with smoked orange marmalade are out of this world! Fatty pork belly pieces were fried crispy and served with bitter greens and a light mustard sauce and sweet orange marmalade, we ordered seconds.
This Free Range Chicken Confit ($12) with blue cheese, creme fraiche and burbon glaze is Spur’s version of the ever favorite pub grub- buffalo wings. Chicken is cooked till it is fall off the bones tender, and is served with a shaved celery salad. The texture and the form of the chicken was unexpected from a dish that looked exactly like buffalo wings, but we quickly warmed up to it.
These Seared Sea Scallops with a corn and sweet pepper salsa ($16) was also pretty good, scallops were seared perfect and the accompaniments were nicely done.
One big disappointment was the Slow Cooked Butterfish ($24) with chanterelle mushrooms, kale and heirloom beans. The fish was seriously lacking in flavor and the sides didn’t make up for it. At $24 for a tiny piece of fish we expected more. The foam and the whole molecular gastronomy is interesting, but it sure can’t compensate for taste. 
This Baby Chiogga Beet Salad ($9) with arugula and pistacchio served over chevre was a refreshing salad.
These Smoked Salmon Crostinis ($9) with mascarpone, caper and pickled shallots were interesting but not too impressive bites.
Steamed Mussels ($12) with torn chile in wine is also not a dish I’d recommend.
Another dish I loved on a later visit without the camera was a no meat version of pasta Carbonara where bacon was substituted with oyster mushrooms. This dish was served with a semi cooked duck egg on top that we tossed with the pasta to create the tastiest Carbonara sauce I’ve ever tasted!
Service was pretty good for the most part, except for the fact that they refused to serve us fries! Fries are not listed in the menu but the bison burger is served with a side of fries. We saw the most amazing looking shoestring fries at the table next to us and we had to have some. By then we had ordered and devoured way too many items from the menu, so there was no way we could order the bison burger. But the waitress refused the bring us some fries as a side, saying that the chef only kept enough fries to serve with the burger, which has to be the lamest excuse ever! Given the number of drinks and the amount of food we consumed by then, most restaurants would’ve given us a complementary side of fries, but not this one. We offered to pay for it, but she insisted that we order a burger if we wanted the fries, which we thought was pretty rude. But since we don’t let a tiny incident to stand in the way of us having a good time, we let it go, and went back a couple of times after. I still haven’t had the fries or the bison burger though!
Joule is a French Korean fusion restaurant owned by Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi of Coupage, a terrific restaurant that went to the restaurant heaven along with several other Seattle eateries this year. I was pretty impressed with Coupage, as weird as it may sound the French Korean fusion really was a winning combo, so when I heard that the same owners started another restaurant with the same theme in Wallingford, we just had to try it.
It is a really small bistro kind of restaurant which had a good crowd, but was not full on a Friday night. Tables were pretty close together, so we could see what everyone was having. First thing I noticed was the whole mackerel which was on pretty much every single table, the most beautifully done mackerel I’ve ever seen this country, so my decision was made then and there. This beautiful whole mackerel was served with smoked tomato puttanesca and daikon salad ($19) and it was the best dish ever! The Mackerel was so fresh and succulent, and the tart puttanesca sauce with the capers and pine nuts spiced this fish up so perfectly, a must try dish if you are a mackerel fan.
For the appetizer, we wanted to get the Crispy Pork Belly, which unfortunately they were out for the night. The Hot Sides section in the menu is mainly vegetarian dishes except for the pork belly and a zucchini pancake with shrimp. So we decided to try the Shitake Lasagna with Caramelized Bleu d’Auvergne (a French blue cheese) ($9). I am not a lasagna fan normally, but this one was a real knock-out lasagna, quite filling though with all those creamy cheesy goodness.
Siv’s entrée was the Short Rib Pot au feu with gremolata in a sweet soy broth ($20). The ribs were braised fork tender and the vegetables and the broth were well spiced, Siv got a side of rice with chili soy sauce to go with this.
We loved all the three dishes we got and there are many more to try. I just hope this one stays open for a while!
I have so many restaurants reviews in draft, I am using the Thanksgiving holidays to get as many of these reviews out before I completely forget about the experience, so this is going to be a restaurant review week here. We are going away on a short trip for a couple of days, so I won’t be able to reply to your comments, but I will be back with a recipe next week.
The reason why you haven’t seen many Indian restaurant reviews in this space is very simple - we haven’t been to many that are worthy. I am not bragging by any means when I say I can cook much better Indian food than most of the Indian restaurants around here. There is nothing to brag about there, the bar is set so low! But there sure are exceptions; Vij’s being a clear one.
Some of you might already be familiar with Vij’s through the cookbook Vij’s: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine by owners Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala. Vij’s is advertised as an Indian fusion restaurant, the fusion is mainly between the different regional cuisines of India. Common Indian spices are used very creatively to make up some innovative dishes like Jackfruit in Black cardamom and cumin masala, Dungeness crab in coconut and cilantro with candied beets served in individual spoons.
One fact to know before going is that Vij’s doesn’t take reservations and it is quite popular so the wait can be very long. But they have the best lounge ever to wait for your table, where not only can you order drinks, but they serve a variety of complementary appetizers! Vij himself walks around with a tray of some very innovative Indian finger food (I’ve had tapioca fries, aloo paratha bites, channa masala filled in ice cream cones etc) This is not gourmet fare, but the hot-off-the-stove bites sure make the 2 hour wait very enjoyable! Yep, you read that right, be prepared to wait for anywhere from 1 to 2 hrs before getting a table. The lounge is very lively, you won’t get bored and the waiting is part of the dining experience here! If you want to get seated right away, either get there at 5:30 when they open or around 9pm when most everyone is already seated.
Another notable aspect about Vij’s is the service. This last trip we actually waited the whole two hours at the lounge before finally sitting down. In these two hours we really stuffed ourselves on the complementary appetizers, so we decided to just order a couple of items from the menu. We got a pork dish and a lamb dish, but when the order came around we were served a prawn dish! Normally when a restaurant gets your order wrong, some of them apologize and take the wrong dish away, some make a face, check their notes, sigh a bit and THEN take it away, there are many ways they handle it depending on the individual server. But here, it was different. As soon as we said we didn’t order it, the first thing she asked was, do you eat prawns? When we said, yes, she asked us to have that dish on the house while she go and place the order for the right dish! She said this without missing a beat and with the friendliest smile ever, we were so impressed!
We’ve been there so many times, I think we’ve had everything in the menu. I can’t say everything is great, but most of the fare is pretty good. This time we went for Mutton Kebobs with Bengali style curry ($12.75), which is good but not a great example of the innovative fusion I just talked about.
Our main dish was Grilled Pork Tenderloin and back ribs in fennel seed, ginger and coconut curry with roasted cashews ($27). Now, this was a great dish portraying the theme of the restaurant. Meat was grilled to perfection and the gravy was to die for! This was served with the softest rotis!
Finally, the mistake that was on the house - BC spot prawns with semolina noodle and lentil pilaf ($13). This was a pretty good dish as well, quite filling for an appetizer though.
Our favorite dish in the house is the Wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes. The Jackfruit curry I mentioned before is also really really good. Menu is seasonal, but it doesn’t change all that much. We didn’t order dessert this time, but I remember some really nice Gulab Jamuns and Garam masala flavored chocolate from a previous trip. They have a nice selection of wines and a few beers on tap, but the non-alcoholic ginger-lemon drink is one of the best!
Bin 941 Tapas Parlour - Vancouver BC
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Filed Under Vancouver BC | 14 Comments
Even though there is no shortage of fine food or shops in Seattle, we often drive to Canada to enjoy the range of food and shopping that Vancouver BC has to offer. There are a few favorite restaurants that we frequent, but we also try a new place every now and then. Bin 941 is not exactly a new restaurant, we’ve been there years ago, but somehow forgot about it over time. This time I was browsing through the complementary Vancouver magazine in our hotel room and saw that Bin 941 was voted as the best in the Small Plates category yet again. Now you all know how much we enjoy small plates, so we had to try it, and boy, were we glad we did!
Bin 941 is a super tiny hole-in-the-wall with really loud music, which is half the fun, along with the extensive wine selection and amazing tapas this has moved into our favorite Vancouver eateries list, I can’t wait to go back. They don’t accept reservations, but there is a small waiting area towards the back of the restaurant where you can sit and order some drinks. When I say a waiting area, it really is a narrow walkway to the restrooms, but who cares! We barely finished our first drinks when the waitress asked if we wanted to sit at the Chef’s counter. Of course we did! We love watching chefs in action, and did we catch some action here!
We had THE BEST SEATS at the restaurant. There were two chefs in the kitchen, one doing the cooking and the other one doing the plating. Each plate is assembled with so much care and artistry we had the greatest time watching them at work. The menu has a Tapatiser section where each plate costs $16, and the portions are meant to be shared. I saw one vegetarian option in there, a Portobello Mushroom cutlet with salad and a bunch of other accompaniments. Then there is another section in the menu called Tongue Twisters which is also the name of the cookbook by owner chef Gord Martin featuring the menu from Bin 941 and sister restaurant Bin 942. There were Mussels steamed four different ways and also some sides like different types of salads, mashed potato, veggies, hand cut fries and grilled rosemary fry bread which seemed to be quite popular with the patrons.
We ordered four dishes from the tapas section which was way too much for two people, but that was the problem with sitting at the chef’s counter. As we could see the plates getting assembled, we wanted to try it all! But by the time we got to the fourth plate we were way too full, we still gobbled up quite a bit, it was that good!
Our first dish was Sashimi grade Ahi Tuna seared rare, spicy tuna tartare as salsa, shitake mushroom sui choy egg noodle chow mein with sweet soy pinot gris lime sauce. As you can see I got the step by step pictures of the assembly.
Finally, here is the finished product. The chow mein was so good on its own and so was the tuna tartare and seared ahi and they all worked well together as well.
Then came the Grilled Lamb Sirloin with cerignolo olive tapanade, potato latke, fried caper yogurt, arugula shoot heirloom tomato salad. Another beautiful dish and the lamb was perfectly grilled, brown outside, pink and juicy inside. We loved the way how the chef assembled this plate as well.
Our third tapa was the Yucatan spice rubbed Bison flat iron steak with tequila lime sauce, pumpkin spiced pearl onions, jicama and fried yuca salad and cilantro poblano chile syrup. Bison again was perfectly done, but the jicama and fried yuca salad was the best part of this dish. The crunch from the fried yuca gave this surprising texture contrast.
We ordered our last dish just because it looked so good! I can never resist fries and when I saw the chef piling up fries on the flank steak, I had to get it. Cinnamom chile rubbed Texas Flank Steak with maple syrup chipotle glaze served with hand cut black pepper pommes frites! Those fries were so good, but we were too darn full that we barely put a dent. Flank steak was perfectly spiced and succulent. This dish is perfect to share for a party of four, it is a bit too big for just two.
This was the best restaurant experience in Vancouver so far! Service is kind of slow here, but with a show like that, we have no complaints. Also, the drinks were pretty quick to come by, there was no waiting there, maybe because we sat so close to the bar. Anyway, we had the greatest time, and we are going back for sure!
Sweet Potato Flan
Monday, November 24th, 2008Filed Under Desserts, Diary, Eggs, Sweet Potato or Yam | 29 Comments
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, but that is definitely not for the food. I just don’t get the fuss about turkey, it’s gotta be the most tasteless meat around in my opinion. I am sure there are others who will agree with me, if that’s not the case why don’t they serve turkey at any of the fine restaurants? We normally get out of town during thanksgiving, so I haven’t made many traditional thanksgiving dinners, but the few times I have, I always substituted turkey with chicken or Cornish game hen. I might even go for a whole roasted duck in the future, but I don’t see myself cooking turkey anytime soon.
Aside from the turkey, I do like some of the traditional thanksgiving sides and desserts, especially the ones with sweet potato. Sweet potatoes or even potatoes were not part of the original thanksgiving feast, but neither were pumpkin pies. These have become integral to the new world thanksgiving meal though. If you want a change from the traditional pumpkin pies for this year’s feast, here is a nice and easy dessert still well within the thanksgiving theme. Sweet potatoes gives a bit more texture to the traditional flan while still keeping it silky and soft. This is a crowd pleaser for sure, and is much lighter than a pie.
All credit for this goes to Emeril. I followed his Sweet Potato Flan with Chocolate Spider’s Web recipe from Food network, omitting the spider’s web which we didn’t miss at all. I made this for a dinner party, where I didn’t get time to click any pictures. This photo was taken after a day, so the flan absorbed most of the caramel sauce. Flan looked much better the first day, when there was a clear separation between the orange flan and the dark brown caramel layers.
Ingredients
(Serves 12-16)
- 1 large orange fleshed sweet potato/yam (about 1lb)
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 6 tbsp fine sugar
- 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 2/3 cup water
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 5 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
For the Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
Method
Make Caramel sauce - Add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer till the water evaporates. Sugar crystallizes first and then starts melting. Keep stirring till it becomes an amber brown liquid. Remove from stove and add some table spoons of boiling hot water, so that it doesn’t thicken too much and turn into sugar candy sheets. This whole process will take about 15-20 minutes. Pour the caramel sauce into one large 10 cup souffle dish or in individual ramekins. I used two smaller spring foam pans since I didn’t have a large enough dish. Tilt the dishes to coat the bottom and a little bit of the sides with the caramel sauce.
Prepare sweet potato puree - Preheat oven to 450F. Scrub the yam and place it on an oven rack and bake for 35-45 minutes until tender. Remove from the oven and let it cool down completely. Remove the skin and cut into chunks and place in a food processor. Add 1 cup of half-and-half while the machine is running and process to form a smooth paste.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, 1-cup of half-and-half, condensed milk, water, vanilla extract and maple syrup and mix well. In another bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks until frothy. Strain the eggs into the ingredients in the first bowl.
Add the sweet potato puree and whisk well and pour into the prepared pan with the caramel sauce.
Preheat the oven to 300F.
Place the dish in a large baking pan and add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake for 1hr 45 minutes at 300F or until the flan is set but still soft. Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight. Before serving, run a knife through the edges and invert into a serving dish. Cut into wedges and serve with the caramel sauce spooned over.
Note: You can replace the sweet potato puree with pumpkin puree to make a pumpkin flan.
Also, check out my pistachio flan recipe.
Sending this over to Aparna who is celebrating the first anniversary of her delightful blog My Diverse Kitchen. Happy Anniversary Aparna!
Comments, Gravatars and Chicken Chili Fry
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Filed Under Chicken, Good with Drinks, India - Kerala | 65 Comments
Before getting into the food part of the past, I want to update you all on some geeky blog stuff. I recently upgraded the blogging platform to WordPress 2.7 and one of the cool new features is Threaded comments. Now you can reply to any comment on the site, your reply will show up directly below the original comment. A great feature for the comment space hijackers, you know who you are!
Also, some of you might have noticed the small images next to your names in the comments section here and in other blogs. Those are called Gravatars aka Globally Recognized Avatar. It is an image associated with your e-mail id that will appear next to your comment on Gravatar enabled sites. You can get your own Gravatar by uploading a custom image at http://gravatar.com . If you don’t upload a custom avatar, you will be represented by a random but consistent monster face or a geometric shape or wavatar. Isn’t technology fun?
Well, technology’s got nothing to do with today’s recipe. In fact, this is one of those old fashioned recipes using the simplest ingredients and the age-old technique of simple pan frying. Back home in Kerala, this type of dry chicken preparation was known as Chicken Chili Fry and the one with a bit of sauce was known as Chili Chicken in some of the restaurants, where as in some other restaurants, this dish was simply known as Chili Chicken. Since I already have two different versions of Chili Chicken recipes, I am going to call this one Chicken Chili Fry.
Ingredients
- 1 lb skinless bone-in chicken thighs cut into bite size pieces
- 3/4 tsp red chili powder
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
- 12 medium sized green chilies sliced lengthwise into four (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 cup curry leaves
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Method
Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and chili powder and keep aside for 15 minutes.
In a large frying pan, heat 1/2 tbsp oil and add the onions, green chilies and garlic. Season with salt. Saute till onions start to brown. Remove and keep aside.
Add the remaining oil to the pan and let it heat through. Add the marinated chicken pieces to the oil and cook stirring frequently on high heat till the chicken pieces are cooked through.
Add the grated ginger, curry leaves and the fried onion-garlic-chilies to the pan and mix well. Cook on medium high heat stirring frequently till the chicken pieces start to brown.
Add the lemon juice and mix well, remove from the heat and serve hot with a cold brew.
BTW don’t skimp on the curry leaves, the aroma from the curry leaves is what makes this dish so wonderful.
A Moral Dilemma and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Rice, Corn and Sausages
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Filed Under Corn, Rice, Sausage, Soups and Salads, Squash | 38 Comments
I know it’s been a while since I posted anything. I’ve been so lazy lately to sit down and type a post. But today I really needed a distraction. A box of candy is putting my morals and willpower to test. It is not a long story, but I do tend to ramble when I am in such predicaments, so bear with me here!
It all started this Halloween, when a real estate agent living in our building distributed candies to everyone. He left a small box of candies along with his business card and some flyers at everyone’s front door- a nice neighborly gesture while spreading the word about his business, win-win for everyone. I normally just take such stuff to work and place them in the common room for others, after scouting for the good stuff of course. I am not a huge chocolate/candy person. I love some bites of good chocolates occasionally, but I can easily pass on the regular Costco variety, except for my one and only weakness -Kit Kats! Needless to say, there were two mini Kit Kat bars among all the other unremarkable candies in the box. I was having Kit Kat after years, and I was hooked!
I don’t know why Kit Kat has that kind of power on me; I think it has more to do with nostalgia than the taste. I used to live on these Kit Kat bars in India - at least a bar a day. This was just one of the many things I could finally afford to splurge on once I started working. Well, what do you expect when a girl suddenly goes from a fixed measly college allowance to a generous Software industry paycheck over the weekend? Yeah, it was literally over the weekend, I wrote my last semester exam on Friday, took the train to Bangalore on Saturday and started my job on Monday. Never took a break since then. That reminds me, I so need a vacation! Okay, I seriously digress!
Coming back to the story of morality, our next door neighbors are out of town, so their candy box is still sitting outside their door, which is dangerously close to our door. Every night I come home tired and hungry, I see this box in front of their door, and I KNOW there are those mini Kit Kat bars in it. It’s been two weeks since Halloween, and the box is still there! If I took that box, they wouldn’t even know. There are no kids in that house, heck there are no kids in our whole building. Nobody will know, Nobody will care if that box of chocolates goes missing. But I just can’t get myself to take that. I could just go to the store and get a big box of Kit Kats, but I only remember this when I come home and see that box. Today is especially bad, I am working from home and there are no snacks in this house! Those Kit Kats would be heaven now. I am seriously hungry and seriously tempted, but the Thou shall not Steal line from the high school Moral Science class is still ringing in my ears.
Now you see why I need to distract myself from committing this act of crime that I’d regret a second after the loot is devoured. What would you do in such situations? Would you commit a crime if you knew you won’t get caught and it wouldn’t really hurt anyone else?
I warned you I was going to ramble. But anyway, here is a bowl of warm and comforting soup to make up for all that rambling. This makes a hearty, filling dinner on its own and it is a perfect fall recipe. All credit goes to Emeril Lagasse and Food Network.
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Red Rice, Sweet Corn and Sausages
I followed Emeril’s Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup recipe with a few changes like substituting wild rice with Himalayan Red Rice and using Chorizo instead of kielbasa, and of course I spiced it up quite a bit. I also omitted half and half completely, since the soup tasted pretty good without it. Please refer to the original recipe for Emeril’s version, here is mine.
Ingredients
(Serves 2)
- 1lb butternut squash peeled, seeded and cubed (I bought the pre-cubed once, it saves time)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup red rice (I used Himalayan red rice, you can use wild rice or any other nutty variety of rice)
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 Spanish chorizo sausages, casings removed and sliced into thick rounds.
- 1/4 cup fresh sweet corn kennels
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Method
Preheat the oven to 400F. Season the butternut squash with 1/2tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. In a blender or food processor, puree the squash with 1/2 cup of the chicken stock till smooth. Keep aside.
Rinse the rice and place the rice along with 1 cup of the chicken stock in a pot. Bring this to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for about 20-15 minutes or till the rice is tender. Follow the package instructions to cook the rice, since the different types of rice require different cooking time and rice-to-liquid ratio.
Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large saucepan. When the oil is hot, add the sausages and cook till well browned. Add the chopped onions, corn and bay leaves and saute till onions are soft. Add the paprika and mix well to combine, cook stirring frequently for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the remaining chicken stock and squash puree and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice and cook for another 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped parsley if using and serve warm.
I am sending this off to Srivalli’s Rice Mela, an event celebrating rice in different forms.
Last Saturday we spent the whole day drinking wine from all over the world and tasting a wide variety of lip smacking food prepared by some of the top chefs in Seattle. All thanks to Foodbuzz - a community devoted to food and dining. Being a featured publisher on Foodbuzz gets you a lot of perks in addition to the ad revenue, one of the best perks is the free admission to cool food events as a Foodie Correspondent of Foodbuzz.
I really didn’t know what to expect when I volunteered to become a Foodie Correspondent to the Seattle Food and Wine Experience. All I thought was - Yay! free, free, free! My entry pass was at the Will Call window at the Quest Field where the event took place. I opened the package to see a badge that had PRESS written in big bold letters! Now, I’ve never been press in my whole life, so I had no idea how powerful that small badge was. No bag checks at the security line, big smiles and access to take pictures of behind the scene cooking at the booths and lots and lots of free stuff. Okay, the free stuff was available to everyone and I am pretty sure if someone asked they would get access to take pictures of the cooking, but the skipping of the bag check was really exclusive.
To give you an introduction, Seattle Food and Wine Experience was an inaugural event featuring wineries from different countries complimented by fine food from some of Seattle’s top restaurants. Proceeds from this event went to Heroes for the Homeless. You get to eat and drink and help the needy, what better way to spend a Saturday, right?
The brochure said there will be more than 1000 varieties of wine, which was not an exaggeration! As soon as we entered, there was a table full of empty wine glasses, you get to take one and use it for tasting as many wines as you can. The glass comes with a card that says “It’s Hip to Spit” and indeed there were spit buckets on all wine tables. That is just gross for me, so I just gulped down all the wine I tasted. You also get to rinse your glass out at the tables, so that you can use a clean glass for each wine. A great idea no wasting plastic cups here. Siv took down some notes of the wines that he liked initially but after tasting about 10 different wines, it was hard to keep track!
Apart from wine, there were a couple of beer booths, flavored champagne drinks, bloody mary mixes etc. The coffee booth was of the most interest to me, as I am kind of addicted to the stuff. Tony’s Coffees and Teas had a booth where they demonstrated the siphon brewing; the most interesting coffee brewing technique I’ve ever seen. Ground coffee is placed in the top vessel, and the water is placed in the bottom vessel, which is heated by a gas flame. As the water gets heated it defines gravity and rises to the top vessel brewing the coffee. When it boils over, the heat source is removed and the the coffee gets filtered down into the bottom vessel! The complete science of Siphon brewing is explained in detail at the Coffee Geek web site.
Then there was food! Lots and lots of food! Each person gets 5 V.I.P. tasting tickets to be exchanged for a mini entrée plate from one of the 17 booths. Between Siv and I there were 10 tickets, we shared some plates, some were so good we got our own. So the 10 tickets were over soon, but the “Wow, that looks so good, but I don’t have a ticket on me” got us many more plates for free, I didn’t even have to use my press pass.
My absolute favorite was the Grand Marnier Prawns from Barking Frog restaurant at the Willows Lodge. These were so soft and creamy and succulent, I wanted more!
Since you only get one taste, all I could do was to grab a recipe card. It looks so simple, I have to try this sometime!
Rover’s served Braised Rabbit with White Beans and Tomato and Elk Bourguignon style. Both were really really good! I don’t think I’ve had Elk before. In addition to serving the amazing food, Chef Thierry even gave me a pose for a picture!
Another dish we really enjoyed were these butter poached scallops by The Resort at Port Ludlow, a golf resort at the Ludlow bay. If the food is so good, Port Ludlow would make a great tourist destination! It is just a small ferry ride away from Seattle.
There was so much more food! I wish I had taken more notes. I am sure the real “press” people bring notebooks and voice recorders and all those great tools! I was just a phony wearing a press pass. 
There were also some cooking classes. We attended the one by Chef Andrew Lanier of Crush restaurant. He demonstrated how to make Butter Poached Maine Lobster & Chevril inlaid Fettuccine with Lobster Corail Sauce and Shaved Black Truffle. The picture on top on the right is the end product, look at all those shaved truffles on top!
As part of the event, there was a charity auction where these beautiful wine barrels were auctioned off. If we had a bigger house, this would have made a great decorative item! We also got to see an actual wine barrel full of wine, and we saw how the wine gets transferred into bottles.
My favorite wine barrel was the one below. It looks so plain outside, but when you look through the tiny hole in the center, you get to see the beautiful picture inside of the Queen of the Mist. 63-year-old Annie Taylor was the first person to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901. An ordinary schoolteacher who attempted the daredevil stunt for no greater ambition than the desire for fame and fortune! You can read more about the story here.
This was a day to remember! Perfect way to spend a cold Saturday. Thank you Foodbuzz for the opportunity! I hope this is going to be an annual event. I promise to put my Press pass to better use next time!
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