Seattle Times reviews Terra Plata

Read a really nice review of our pal Tamara's new space! She is described as sometimes acting "... as midwife in the earth-to-plate journey" - Many congratulations, Tamara!

Kissers, I hear they plan to open for brunch in the near future... UPDATE 2/12: William tells me that Terra Plata has been open for brunch for a while, and a reliable fancy-food-friend of mine gives it a big thumbs-up!

http://terraplata.com/

Then, two months later...

Hey, folks - sorry for the delay in posting! I owe updates on December's cookie bake and on January's ingredient trio challenge. I am nearly above water with my other real (read: money-earning) projects, and promise to post incredible and thoughtful summaries of those events very soon.

A little behind!!

Meanwhile, to tide you over, I have a few goodies to share:

• A science-based guide to the "best" way to season your cast-iron cookware. Two words: fat polymerization. Read about what that means to you at this neat article on Sheryl's Blog.

• This spring, Delancey is opening The Pantry, a new space adjacent to their current space, designed for hosting small events or family-style dinners for up to 20 people. They will reportedly use the space in the summertime for kids' cooking camp (!). Even more interesting, once open, The Pantry will serve as the official drop-off point for knife sharpening services provided by (guess who?) our friend Daniel over at Epicurian Edge in Kirkland. Read the scoop here at Seattle Magazine.

• I'm sure you've probably already heard of IFC's Portlandia, SNL regular Fred Armisen's take on the quirks of the Pacific Northwest. This ordering-chicken-in-a-restaurant scene cracked me up, and I think you'll see why! 

That's it for now - but I promise to post more KTC fun soon! oxox

Brasa closes: A letter from Tamara Murphy

You can read about the details here.

A 100-layer lasagna?

Believe it, folks - if you are fortunate enough to visit Del Posto restaurant in NYC, you too can eat this Italian extravaganza. The scoop:

"Three separate departments work on it," he told Slashfood. "One department makes the ragu, one makes the pasta sheets and another assembles it in giant square pans. We butter the inside of the pans and start building in them, alternating the layers of pasta and sauce, which are Bolognese, tomato marinara and a besciamella."

The only tricky part of the whole procedure is the setting process, which Ladner says can be "fickle." Skewers are used to stabilize it while it's hot and a special spatula is used to serve it.

The succulent structure is $30 a serving and also available on special tasting menus (one pricey one includes the pasta being carved and served at the dinner table by Ladner himself)."

via Slashfood

Seattle Walking Tour: Mmmm, Chocolatey!

I recently heard about a visitor who took Savor Seattle's Chocolate Indulgence Tour, and it sounds really fun! Offered weekend mornings at 11am, the tour includes at least 6 stops and costs around $50. Maybe we can plan for an outing as a group - Chocolate for breakfast for everyone!
The website states that the two-hour tour includes:

• Decadent chocolate truffles and caramels
• Mini cupcakes and chocolate enrobed brownies
  
• Tom Douglas's famous Triple Coconut Cream Pie
• Gourmet popcorn with chocolate, nuts, and cocoa nibs
• White chocolate raspberry cheesecake
  
• Colombian drinking chocolate
  
• A hand-crafted chocolate cocktail
  
• Smooth and creamy gelato and sorbet
  
• Chocolate truffle cookies
• And more... if you can handle it!

Venues include: Oliver’s Lounge, Dahlia Bakery, The Chocolate Box, The Confectional, Kukuruza Gourmet Popcorn, and Fran’s Chocolates

Chef Gabriel Claycamp presents Vagabond Dinners at Swirl Wine Bar

I just found this - there's still time to plan for next weekend! Any takers?

From The Swinery's website:
Chef Gabriel will be cooking for two Vagabond-style dinners coming up later this month at Swirl Wine Bar in Magnolia! If you've never been, Vagabond is a communal, family-style dinner of "sexy peasant food." Three mouthwatering courses for $35; wines are available by the glass or bottle.

Reservations are available at www.localwineevents.com; links below are for each dinner.

The menu is as follows:

Sunday, March 28

Swirl Plateau de Fromage

Roasted Heirloom Potato Salad
salt cod, bacon, parsley, rosemary oil

Smoked Lamb Shoulder
Lamb tongue agnolloti, roasted beets, pickled prunes, tarragon gremolata

Black Berry Brownies
goats milk caramel, vanilla ice cream, candied walnuts

via: The Swinery

Seattle Food & Wine Experience-Coming soon!

The Seattle Food & Wine Experience is Feb. 28 at Seattle Center.

For the wine part of the experience, the posted list of participants includes DeLille Cellars, Erath, McCrea, and 100+ more. There will be breweries, too. Around 20 eateries are signed up, from Maximus/Minimus and Frost Doughnuts to Artisanal and Campagne, and more!

Tickets are $49 apiece (benefitting the non-profit Beecher’s Flagship Foundation), which gets you unlimited samples of food and non-alcoholic beverages, and 50 tasting tickets for alcoholic drinks (at 1-3 tickets per taste).

Anyone up for making a group outing of it?

via Eat All About It

Seattle's teriyaki scene in the New York Times

Fascinating! Especially since I don't believe I've eaten teriyaki since we've lived in Seattle...They had me at "This isn't Dallas." Could it be time to expand my teriyaki-related horizons?

Article found here.



Great quotes from the piece:

“Seattle has a thousand teriyakis,” Mrs. Ko said one afternoon...This is Seattle food,” she said, extending her argument. “For Seattle people. This is what we eat here. Seattle people eat teriyaki. This isn’t Dallas.”

“Seattle likes to talk about local foods, about ridiculous things like fiddlehead coulis,” Mr. Berger said. “Seattle yuppies love the idea of going to some obscure Chinese place for dim sum but won’t dare tell you that they eat chicken teriyaki. Those places are so much a part of the streetscape that we can’t even see them.”

“The Washington State Restaurant Association has identified 83 Seattle restaurants with teriyaki in their name, including I Love Teriyaki and I Luv Teriyaki. (A concurrent search yielded about 40 restaurants named Burger King, McDonald’s or Wendy’s.)”

via The Food Section