Red and white and in between
First there was king salmon, orange-red and oily-luscious; then came "white" king, pale and delicate and somehow virginal. But how to market a king that can't make up its genetic mind, exhibiting reddish meat (mostly near the backbone) and "white" (on back and belly)? The Washington and Makah trollers associations have an answer: Please give it up for "Washington Marbled Chinook," coming to a fishmonger or supermarket near you when the troll season opens in early May. Persuading buyers that said fish are as good (or better) than their monochromatic peers is important, since a good half the catch during the four-month season exhibits some degree of mottling. Fear not, consumers, king salmon—red, white, or marbled—remains the finest eating there is, and if you can tell the difference between one fish and another by taste alone, you can also distinguish between the white, brown, and yellow parts of candy corn—blindfolded.
Comings and goings
We learned that Cafe Juanita's terrific baker, Sara Novesky, is off to a new life in Syracuse. Novesky's one of those rare bakers who can turn out sturdy breads and sumptuous desserts, and she will be sorely missed by fans in Kirkland and all round the Sound. As if that weren't bad enough, Tango's Bennie Sata is leaving to take up private culinary practice, but the management promises that her signature Diablo—a cayenne-chocolate truffle served on burnt meringue with tequila-caramel sauce—will still be available, in all sizes from single- to 150-portion servings. (Sata's replacement, Vanessa Quellec, is offering as her introductory special a pineapple ice-cream-topped pine nut tart.) We've also just learned that Cascadia's masterly wine steward, Jake Kosseff, is leaving his Belltown post for a spell of freelance wine consulting. But if all goes well, there's a good chance we'll be seeing him again fairly soon—at the helm of his own restaurant. Meantime, David Coyle has returned to wine stewardship at the Metropolitan Grill, after a yearlong experiment in the real world of wine sales and distribution (he didn't much like it).
Three dots . . .
Seattle Times restaurant critic Nancy Leson will be running with some pretty fast company May 10 when she represents the Seattle food scene at a New York event sponsored by the James Beard Foundation. Her fellow panelists on "An Appetite for Excellence" are Dotty Griffith of The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post's Tom Sietsma, and the doyenne of New York food writers, Gael Greene of New York magazine.
Our Vintage blooper
With 109 entries offering abundant opportunities to screw up, we couldn't hope our Dining Guide issue last week would be perfect, but the mistake we did make was a doozy: Be it herewith noted that Andaluca is NOT located in the Hotel Vintage Park at Fifth and Madison (Tulio Ristorante has that honor) but in the Mayflower Park Hotel at Fourth and Olive. (All those "Parks" with no parks to be seen in the vicinity must have blurred our brains.) We apologize, to Andaluca, to its patrons, and especially to its paella.
food@seattleweekly.com
