Subject: Foods

• The Vegan Banh Mi: It Can Be Good

  I was talking about banh mi last night with a friend whose Vietnamese American coworkers are obsessive lunch-hunters. When I told him my favorite ID sandwich shop was Seattle Deli, he replied, "Yeah, Seattle Deli's all right, but I preferred the pork banh mi a block away." He couldn't remember the name of the shop, though, so he gave directions, I took notes, and today I bussed over to Little Saigon. His rec turned out to be Saigon Deli on Jackson between 12th and 14th (which you shouldn't con

  June 2, 2009

• The Asparagus (Self-) Debate

  I was at Fred Meyer in Ballard on Saturday, and noticed a huge mound of asparagus on sale for $1.99 a pound. I thought: Hmm...I want asparagus...March 15 is spring in the warmer states...perhaps it's not shipped from Peru or New Zealand... So I looked at the tag on the asparagus, and it read "Altar Produce: Calexico, CA." Domestic asparagus for $2! I bought a bunch, drove home, and flipped on the oven. I tossed the asparagus with shallots, olive oil, and salt, then roasted them at 40 until the t

  March 19, 2009

• Stay Cheesy

  There are certain things we should not have to give up during even the hardest of times, and we believe cheese is one of those things. If you've been bypassing the dairy section in order to save money, Cook's World's Home Cheesemaking Workshop may be a budget-friendly solution.

  March 20, 2009

• Full Tilt: Bringing Together Ice Cream and Passover

  After picking up my gefilte fish from On Safari, I zipped down to White Center (as long as I was close) for a roast chicken from Rosticeria Y Cucina Paisano (9615 15th Ave. S.W.), the virtues of which can be read HERE in Jonathan Kauffman's recent review. While I was in White Center, I figured I might as well stop in Full Tilt for a cone. Willpower is useless when everything you put in your pie hole is tax deductible. I got the Mexican chocolate, which would be perfect if they had Big Al's smoke

  April 8, 2009

• Tilikum Place Café Is All Goods, No Buzz

  Perfecting even the homeliest of kitchen staples.

  April 8, 2009

• How to Make Roast Chicken Palatable

  Mexican, Peruvian, and Cantonese takes on dinner’s most boring animal.

  March 25, 2009

• Favorite Restaurants: A Serious Splurge

  How it tastes to spend more than $50 a plate.

  March 11, 2009

• Favorite Restaurants: Fine Dining for the Flush

  How to eat for between $30 and $50.

  March 11, 2009

• Favorite Restaurants: A Step Up for Special Dates

  March 11, 2009

• Favorite Restaurants: Budget-Friendly and Satisfying

  March 11, 2009

• Favorite Restaurants: Cheap, Fast, and Under Control

  Eating well for less than $10.

  March 11, 2009

• Barrio’s Missed Opportunity

  A “Pacific Northwesterner’s approach” to Mexican food doesn’t work out so well on Capitol Hill.

  March 4, 2009

• How Art of the Table Makes Monday Bearable

  With eight plates priced below $10, Happy Monday is an irresistible bargain.

  April 22, 2009

• Respect a Lima Bean Day

  We have some very strange national food holidays, for sure. The lima bean has its day today, as the weather hovers a little bit past stick-to-your-rib, bean-filled comfort food but nowhere near fresh bean season. As these things are usually determined by marketing and industry lobbies, I wonder about the lima bean consortium's agenda... Why now? Don't confuse lima beans with butter beans, though the Brits do all the time. Limas are green and small and toothy, like favas, but far less fun. Lima

  April 20, 2009

• Anchovies & Olives: Unmistakably Ethan Stowell

  Simple preparations, ingredients straight from your CSA box, and flawless service—some formulas are worth repeating.

  April 29, 2009

• West Seattle Farmers Market Today

  New spring produce has arrived! Make your way to the West Seattle Farmers Market this weekend to fill your kitchen with fresh produce like chives, baby leeks, cabbage raab, and dandelion greens. You may even find something you've never tried before, like kohlrabi, a Sputnik-shaped veggie popular in places like Central Europe and Asia. Kohlrabi (German for "cabbage-turnip") is like a sweeter version of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, and can be eaten raw or cooked.

  April 26, 2009

• Can't Get Your Kids to Eat Peanut Butter? Add Syrup

  By bringing peanut butter to the breakfast nook, you can get all the current health scares -- bird flu, swine flu, salmonella -- in one sitting.Long a believer in a layer of peanut butter between the butter and syrup on my pancakes, I took things to another level on Sunday by creating peanut butter syrup. I brought a cup of syrup (not the expensive stuff) to an almost simmer (or whatever it's called when a few bubbles start to appear), and poured a generous amount into a bowl with a glob of pea

  May 4, 2009

• More Ice Cream on Capitol Hill, Farmers' Markets, and Three Girls in Ballard

  If you've been anywhere near the Oddfellows Building recently you might have noticed the line outside of the recently opened Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream. A second ice cream shop, Old School Frozen Custard, is opening a few blocks away sometime in May. But according to CHS, there has been talk of a third shop opening. No word on where it will be exactly, but the owners are hoping to open in a few weeks.

  May 7, 2009

• An Interview With Tami Parr, Northwest Cheese Guru

  In honor of the upcoming Seattle Cheese Festival this weekend at Pike Place Market, I interviewed Tami Parr. Since its launch five years ago, Parr's Pacific Northwest Cheese Project blog has become the preeminent source for local cheese news, producer profiles, and cheese reviews. Now she's just come out with Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest, a guide to cheese producers. Parr is in Seattle from Thursday through Sunday, reading at local cheese shops and talking at the Cheese Festival. I

  May 12, 2009

• Long Provincial Vietnamese Elevates the Tamarind Tree’s Legacy

  May 20, 2009

• Fresh Bistro Opens May 22

  I walked in for last night's preview of Fresh Bistro, the new restaurant from the same team as Herban Feast catering company, and I had to reorient myself. The space, in a new condo complex across from Safeway in the West Seattle junction, lies 180 degrees from their newish, yet beautifully shabby chic, catering warehouse in SODO. All exposed, light woods with a gleaming open kitchen and accents of green everywhere, I don't know if I've walked into a restaurant or a spa. A salad of cool beets, s

  May 20, 2009

• Brunch at MezzaLuna Bakery and Bistro

  Where: Mezzaluna Bakery and Bistro, 2608 S. Judkins St.,324-2572, mezzalunabistro.net When: Sunday afternoon. Level of Hangover: Under normal circumstances I would have needed a couple more mimosas to even get out of bed before noon on Sunday, but on this occasion there was something foreign floating in the sky. The Soak: The sun made a cameo in the B-movie grotesqueness that is Seattle weather, and there was little I could do to keep from rejoicing. We cozied up next to a window at Central

  May 22, 2009

• Homegrown Sandwiches: Fantasies Fulfilled

  May 27, 2009

• The New Age of Deviled Eggs

  June 10, 2009

• Search & Distill: Vedge Out

  July 1, 2009

• Market News

  Sour pie cherries are now arriving at farmers markets, but if you have your heart set on baking one of those all-American beauties for your Fourth of July barbecue, we suggest you don't dilly-dally: They're only available in limited quantities. Speaking of cherries, the Lake City Farmers Market is celebrating all varieties of Washington's cherry bounty today, with Carlos Caula from Greenwood's Carmelita restaurant on hand with tips on cherry-centric dishes. Be sure, too, to modify your menus thi

  July 2, 2009

• Slaw: The Backbone of Every Cookout

  According to Ben Friedman of Homegrown Sandwiches in Fremont the secret to good slaw starts with the best ingredients. He says, "Slaws break down so much over their one to three day curing that if you don't start with the freshest cabbage, carrots, fennel, etc., you'll end up with something soggy. The magic balance is to get the deep flavor that comes with curing over time and maintaining the crunch." For their South Carolina slaw, named such because it relies on vinegar and mustard just like

  July 2, 2009

• Revisiting Matt’s and The Hunt Club

  July 15, 2009

• New-School Ice Cream Truck Appears

  A few weeks ago, Chantal Anderson reported on the fierce competition among ice-cream truck drivers in Seattle and Tacoma, but that hasn't deterred one more truck from hitting the streets. Parfait Ice Cream takes its cue more from Skillet Street Food than Tastee Freez. Parfait is beginning its second weekend in Seattle, with a gorgeous brown-and-gold truck dispensing organic, handmade, locally sourced ice creams. Adria Shimada, who trained as a pastry chef in the Bay Area before moving to Sea

  July 17, 2009

• Eatin’ Good on the Sidewalk

  July 22, 2009

• Voracious Declares This Week Ice Week

  ​A week of 90 -degree days: Apocalypse or miracle? Ah, poor us, suffering in our air-conditioning-free houses, unfamiliar with the strage salty liquid that our bodies seem to be excreting, unwilling to cook our market-fresh vegetables. Thank god this is the year of artisanal ice cream. This week, Voracious is all cold, all the time. And we start Ice Week with a story from New York magazine on the strange and mystical chemical things people are doing with ice cream: meltless ice cream, bag

  July 27, 2009

• Ice Week: Halo Haloooooooo

  ​Halo-halo, which means "mix-mix" in Tagalog, is not an icy dessert. It is a disco in a glass. Here are just a few of the things in this picture: Shaved ice, sweetened condensed milk, ripe jackfruit, cubes of honey konjac jelly, beans, crisped rice, ube puree (the purple sweet-potato mass you see near the top), strips of clear jelly, sweet corn. You can get halo-halo at Filipino restaurants like Inay's and Kusina Filipina in Beacon Hill, but I drove down to the Vietnamese mini-mall on Oth

  July 28, 2009

• Versus: Stumptown Takes on Vivace -- In Ice Cream

  Molly Moon's Vivace Ice Cream​Bluebird's Stumptown Ice Cream​ Suddenly this summer, it has become possible to gain 3.2 pounds walking from Pine and 10th to Pike and 14th (3.4 pounds if you walk the same route downhill) if you hitting the neighborhood's three new ice cream places on the way. Not only are Capitol HIll's ice cream shops fighting one another for the hearts of Seattlites, they're drafting local coffee roasters to serve as their seconds. This week I put a scoop of Vivac

  July 30, 2009

• This Week's Recipe: Where the Wild Things Are

  Ed note: Today, we're launching not only a new feature -- a weekly recipe from a local chef -- but also a new Voracious contributor: Angela Garbes. Find more Garbes on her blog, Eat & Tell, and on Twitter at @agarbes. For frequent visitors to Seattle Farmer's Markets, Christina Choi is a familiar face. As co-founder, along with Jeremy Faber, of Foraged & Found Edibles, Choi's knowledge of local wild ingredients -- berries, nettles, mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns -- runs deep. As a chef about town

  August 3, 2009

• Market Report

  ​Loving arts and crafts at any age or gender is nothing to be ashamed of. If the thought of turning a zucchini into a muscle car excites you, hold your head high at the Magnolia Farmers Market this Saturday for the Zucchini 500, where all the pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and wooden wheels you'll need to make a squash look like a race car will be provided. When you've finished your masterpiece, check out the new produce arriving, like early peppers (hot and sweet varieties) and pole beans. P

  August 7, 2009

• Feed Me Like I’m Your Grandfather

  August 12, 2009

• Versus: Battle of the Barbecue Brisket

  Pecos Pit: a hot, beautiful mess​When it comes to barbecue, everyone's got an opinion. (Often, it seems, a deeply personal and impassioned one.) Over the years, a slew of recommendations, combined with my unfortunate inability to stop the names of all of Seattle's barbecue places from running together in my mind (Roy's, RoRo, Jones, Slo Joe's, Smokin Pete's, Pecos Pit, Pig Iron, Steel Pig), has resulted in a muddled and incomplete picture of the city's offerings. This week, Versus focuses

  August 12, 2009

• Beware "And Our Specials Are..."

  How many times do you have to relearn the phrase caveat emptor? Restaurants run specials all the time, counting on servers to convey the information to guests verbally, including the price. If a waiter is telling you about the cracked crab special, you have a pretty good idea that it'll be expensive. When ordering dessert, you wouldn't expect sticker shock. Last week, four of us were charged $5 per person for two desserts at Cafe Presse. This was outrageous for three reasons. 1.) It doesn't fit

  August 14, 2009

• Bella Cosa Finally Dies, Avila to Take Its Place

  Wallingford's Bella Cosa had struggled for the last few years (and owners), their deli selection shrinking, the quality of the sandwiches becoming more erratic, and now someone finally put it out of its misery. Owners Jared and Bronwen Carpenter took over the space this month and will reopen in the fall as Avila, with chef Alex Pitts helping on the menu and overall idea. Taking a page or two from the former business that worked, Avila will serve a sandwich heavy lunch menu by day as well as prov

  August 17, 2009

• This Week's Recipe: Melons and Lardons from Becky Selengut

  ​In the case of Becky Selengut, you can tell a lot about the chef by. . .the website she created. In 2006, Selengut launched Seasonal Cornucopia, a searchable database that enables chefs and home cooks to easily identify when local ingredients go in and out of season. Along with information on fruit, foraged edibles, and vegetables, you'll find a wealth of information on sustainable Pacific Northwest seafood. Selengut is also the co-author of The Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook. S

  August 17, 2009

• Cantinetta: Comfortable as an Old Boot

  August 19, 2009

• Pie Time for Love

  August 26, 2009

• Seattle's Top Five Cupcakes

  Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes. They're not going away, folks. Three new cupcake bakeries opened this year, and there are two more on the way (the next one on deck is Wink). You're going to be eating them at showers, birthday parties, and office functions for at least another five years. You know what? We at Voracious still like them -- well, all except for vanilla on vanilla. (Totally hate vanilla.) So after exhaustive research, here's our top 5 cupcakes, with a few runner ups, in Seattle:

  August 28, 2009

• Product Whore: Zergut Pepper Spread

  ​OK, this product is neither fresh nor local, and it's probably sacrilege to recommend it right now during the heart of super-happy abundant produce season (What would GoGo Green Garden say???). But nothing else tastes quite like it. A blend of Hungarian peppers and eggplant, this avjar has the sharpness of mild sweet-hot peppers without too much of a vinegar element and much more flavor than your average roasted red peppers in a jar. Serve it with bread and hummus; add the local quotient

  August 31, 2009

• Know Your Meat Because Sometimes the Butcher Doesn't

  ​This is a T-bone steak. It comes from the back part of the cow's midsection, and is so named because it has a T-shaped bone holding two different cuts of meat on either side: the New York strip on one side (top, above) and a tenderloin on the other. The steak you see above is a decent-enough-looking T-bone. We purchased the aforementioned T-bone at the QFC on Roosevelt, along with another T-bone that, on second look, seemed to be tenderloin-less. Rather, it had a tiny flap of meat, smal

  September 2, 2009

• This Week's Recipe: Dana Cree's Chocolate Chip Licorice Ice Cream

  ​Before becoming pastry chef at Poppy, Dana Cree worked for three years at Lampreia (on the savory side), then staged at The Fat Duck in England and WD-50 in New York City, both internationally famous for their culinary experimentation. After returning to Seattle, Cree was pastry chef at Eva and the now defunct Veil. At Poppy, Cree crafts memorable, mostly seasonal, desserts like peach-shiso sorbet and black- and blueberry shortcake with cinnamon-basil ice cream. Cree's desserts are much

  September 14, 2009

• A Pre-Taste of Calf & Kid Cheeses, at Poco Wine Room

  On Thursday, from 7 to 10 p.m., Sheri LaVigne, owner of the soon-to-open Capitol Hill cheese shop Calf & Kid, teams up with Poco Wine Room's Peter Moore for a wine and cheese tasting. At the event, LaVigne will be previewing some of the local artisanal cheeses her store will stock, including Estrella Family Creamery's super stinky Wynoochee River Blue as well as Blue Rose Dairy's Black Jewels, an aged goat's milk cheese similar to a Parmesan (only milder). Meanwhile, the Washington wines tasted

  September 16, 2009

• Sweat and Pain in Bellevue

  September 16, 2009

• Versus: The Banh Mis on Broadway Square Off

  Pho Cyclo's pork banh mi​It's widely known that Seattle has its own little banh mi heaven. When French baguettes and pickled daikon radishes cross paths anywhere near the corner of 12th and Jackson, delicious things happen. Who knew colonialism could produce something so tasy and budget friendly? Outside of Little Saigon, though, there's a relative dearth of these Vietnamese sandwiches. But as the popularity of banh mi grows, it appears the sandwiches are making their way into more and mor

  October 6, 2009

• Kobe, Cognac, and Crumbers

  November 4, 2009