After finishing the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) bike ride last weekend, our merry band wanted to celebrate. We started out at the Heathman Hotel bar (where we were staying). Clint and I got an early start, befriending Grant, our talented bar tender. I had intended to have just one drink, but the Heathman specializes in classic cocktails and Grant was doing a great job; I put myself in Grant's capable hands and enjoyed several delicious and unique cocktails. The consensus favorite was the classic Old Fashioned whisky cocktail. I then perused their good whisky collection and spotted a rare whisky from a favorite distillery - the Ardbeg Provence. This lovely bottling is a 1974 vintage and goes for $589 for a bottle online. I had to splurge and have a glass for $75 - an affordable extravagance (more on those later). OMFG. It was complex and peaty without being overwhelming; really really stunning. It was especially lovely with the plate of oysters I ordered.

I shared the glass and oysters with Clint and my new friend Karl Zenk, the Chef de Cuisine at the Heathman Restaurant, who was sitting at the bar for a beer before he left for the day. We chatted about food, restaurants, and other stuff for a while. NIce guy.

After everyone joined us for a drink, we headed off to Fenouil in the Pearl. This is a swish French place in the Pearl, a cool gentrified neighborhood in downtown Portland. Michelle had discovered this place recently and highly recommended it. The restaurant was beautiful with big garage doors that opened up the restaurant to the lovely evening air. We sat just inside the doors and really enjoyed breeze. We started out with one of my favorite Champagnes, the Billecart Salmon Brut Rose. One of our party winced when they heard me order a rose, but everyone loved it.

Then, the endless progression of food started. First a round of starters - duck confit (the hands-down favorite), a Kobe steak tartare (also fab), a crab and avocado thing (lovely - but the drinks started setting in here, so I start to get a little hazy on the details) and maybe one other yummy. For our main courses, we had a good selection including more Kobe beef, some lovely lamb, and some nicely grill duck. While these were quite good (not uniformly spectacular though), the real highlights were the sides of frites doused in truffle oil (simply to die for - we ordered more) and a plate of beans (fava or lima?) tossed in some rich butter sauce (these were my favorite dish of the evening). All of this was washed down with a few bottles of decent Chateauneuf du Pape (a good all around food wine, imho).

Honestly, I can't recall what the desserts were at this point (some flan and something chocolately?) but they were good too. (I should blog about this stuff sooner. I'm clearly in no danger of becoming a real food writer like my friend Hillel.) The service was very good to boot; our very French waiter was attentive and helpful without being overbearing.

We did have one funny point in the evening where I asked him what fenouil means. He replied "fennel" in a heavy French accent, which, as it turns out, sounds a lot like a French person saying "fenouil". So I asked him again, "No, what does fenouil mean?" More firmly, he replied, "fennel" in that same heavy accent. This went on a for maddening few rounds before the light clicked on for me, and I finally got what he was saying. Just then, I saw the huge fennel bulb drawing on the menu cover. Doh.

Anyway, back to the Heathman Bar for a drink with Grant and a very nice round of tawny port on the house (stunning pale color, but not sure what it was) and a raid on Bruce and Theresa's minibar in their suite capped off the evening.

The next morning, Clint, Kellie, Chase, and I had a great breakfast at the Heathman Restaurant. We ran into Karl (the Chef de Cuisine there) and said hello. He generously sent out a nice fruit plate for us. I was also introduced to the joys of sriracha (the infamous Rooster Sauce, although the waiter confessed they called it something else amongst themselves. Think of a word that begins with "c" that can mean rooster). I've had Sriracha before, of course, but never on eggs. Spicy and sweet, this was an epiphany, perfect in every way. I may never eat eggs without sriracha again.

After all that, I think I gained about five pounds on the trip despite having ridden 200 miles. A man has to have his priorities.

I love Hawaii and Hawaiian food. Give me a big ol' plate lunch with two scoop and mac salad anytime. Based on a comment on Neon Epiphany (a blogger who commented on my Chinese restaurant recommendations), I took the family and met our friend Fukiko to Hawaiian Breeze in Wallingford (a neighborhood north of downtown Seattle.)

The place is pretty simple with a broad Hawaiian menu - plate lunches, saimin, katsu of different varieties, and so on. I was glad they didn't have kalua pork on the menu; while I love kalua pork, it's doubtful they could produce a really good rendition in a kitchen in Wallingford, so I'm glad they didn't try.

I got off to a nice start with some lilikoi (passionfruit) juice; I love the stuff and have a hard time finding it in Seattle (except mixed with other juices).

Fukiko and I both love Spam musubi (which is really what motivated the trip) so we each had one. Spam musubi is a slice of cooked Spam (yes, the canned meat product) on a dollop of rice and wrapped in nori; in short, it's Spam sushi. Yum. (I have to say, though, that I like the Spam musubi at the Newcastle Golf Club snack bar more. It has a little more oomph.)

For my dinner, I had a big plate of loco moco - a hamburger patty topped with brown gravy and a fried egg all on top of a mound of rice. The loco moco was really only OK. The patty was generous but kind of tough, the gravy was a bit thin and wimpy tasting, and the egg was fried hard. I had hoped for something a little more sublime.

I also stole Michelle's macaroni salad (aka "mac" salad) and doused it with soy sauce. Mmm. I did taste Michael's chicken teriyaki saimin, which was also very good. Michelle and Fukiko seemed to like their katsu.

The highlight was probably the desserts though. We shared a homemade strawberry ice cream pie on a vanilla wafer crust as well as a massive coconut cake sitting in a pool of homemade chocolate sauce. Both were really great.

The staff was reallly friendly. Even though some of the dishes were only OK, I'd love to go back and try more of the menu, if only to get more mac salad and lilikoi juice.

Note, the restaurant can be a bit hard to find. It's kitty corner across 45th from the Wallingford QFC.

I'm no bbq master, but I have picked up a few handy tips that make my life a little easier. I'm not sure where most of these are from (the amazing Alton Brown or the wonderful Cook's Illustrated The Best Recipe: Grilling and Barbecue, maybe?).

• Use crumpled aluminum foil to clean your grate. Works like a charm, costs virtually nothing, and you can throw it away. I use it on the cold grill first (both sides) and then on the hot grill (using tongs to hold the foil ball) to get the last bits off.
• Squirt a little oil on your newspaper before you light it to keep it burning longer. One of the classic charcoal starting failures is the newspaper burning out before the charcoal gets going. A little vegetable oil on the paper before you crumple it up seems to make the paper last longer so the charcoal has time to catch.
• Let meat sit under foil for 10-15 minutes after you take it off the grill. The juices that move to the surface during cooking will redistribute throughout the meat for a juicier, more tender result. For ribs, you can wrap them in foil and then put them in a paper bag for an hour afterwards for even better results.

Now, if I only had some patience to let the coals get to the right state before I start cooking, I might figure this grilling thing out after all.

(BTW, both Alton Brown and Cook's Illustrated are my favorite cook book/cooking show producers. They both share a food science approach to cooking, explaining why things work the way they do. Fab.)

Thi s weekend we had the kind of glorious weather that makes Seattle heavan in the summer (and the memory of which keeps us going through the dark and rainy winter months.) Summer also means two things to me: our the Farm and pastis.

We picked up our first bag from the Root Connection, the coop farm we belong to and that I've mentioned several times before. (Actually, they started two weeks ago, but we missed the pickups for reasons lost to time. Sweet and tender carrots, lettuce that tastes like more than water, and other real veggies. Delish.

Now, it's Sunday evening and still pretty warm in the house -- really too warm for whisky unless I ice it down. I'm not really morally opposed to that, but it's unnecessary since I can enjoy my pastis again. Pastis is an anise flavored liqueur popular in the south of France that I developed a taste for two years ago. I love how it magically turns from clear to cloudy with the addition of water and the cold, refreshing taste. If only the air smelled like the ocean and lavender, I'd be back in France.

Life is good.

I went with my friends Malcolm and Reed to Scotch and Cigar Night at the Seattle Yacht Club last Saturday. It was a beautiful evening for the event; we enjoyed four different whiskies (Macallan 18, Lagavulin 16, Talisker 10, and Cragganmore 12 year) and a nice selection of cigars (the details of which were lost in the smoke and the haze). The company was good, the steak dinner was delightful, and the wines were nice. A fine evening indeed.

There was just too much of it. Turns out that drinking too much scotch and smoking too many cigars makes for a rough Sunday morning. While I certainly enjoyed the whisky, I think the cigars put me over into the bad zone. They always seem to multiply the effect of whatever I've been drinking. One cigar is normally my limit, so of course, I had two. As usual, I felt like an ashtray in the morning. Too bad. I really do like cigars, but the effects are so horrendous that I only have a few a year.

As far as tasting notes go, I loved all four whiskies. I've already blogged about my new found love for Lagavulin as well as my long standing affection for Macallan. (The Macallan 18 is a real winner -- rich, sherried, and delicious.) I've had the Talisker a few times recently and really like the peaty, salty island flavor; it's not as pronounced as Lagavulin (and certainly not as much as Laphroiag) but it's definitely beefier than Macallan. The Cragganmore was relatively new to me. It was lovely also -- malty, clean, and medium bodied. It wasn't a great whisky with the cigars (it got outmuscled), but I think it would be lovely on it's own.

So, as with all things, cigars and scotch are to be enjoyed in moderation.

After having spent time in New Zealand and Disneyland in the last ten days, I am once again reminded that Americans are fat. Not just a little pudgy. Fat. Fat. Fat.

Every population has a distribution, but my God, there are a lot of incredibly huge Americans; what's more criminal is that there are literally tons of fat American kids. To heck with bird flu, AIDS, and lung cancer. Obesity is an American problem of seemingly epidemic proportions, one which we'll all wind up paying for through higher insurance rates and taxes (and airline fuel bills, etc.).

I have some theories about how this is all the government's fault, with all of the subsidies on corn and other agricultural commodities driving the price of calories to nothing, but at the end of the day, people control what they put their pie holes and how much they exercise.

'Nuff said.

This evening, I broke the old rule of only eating oysters in months with "r" in the name. I had half-a-dozen Penn Cove Pacificas at Seastar. They were fresh, clean, and nicely presented as you'd expect at Seastar. I even had my now-standard glass of Lagavulin 16 (and then a yummy glass of Talisker) to wash them down.

Alas, they were they were only good. I forgot about the love life of the average oyster. Starting in September, they start storing fat -- creamy, delicious fat. They also firm up during this time. Come May, they start dedicating all that stored energy (and flavor) into reproducing, and like many humans (although not my lovely wife) they get flabby after having babies.

Since I believe in eating stuff when it's in season, I'll pass on oysters until this autumn again. Then again, it's autumn in New Zealand. Yummy oysters there. Hm...

The Arbeg I picked up in the Auckland duty free is tasty. It's a drinkable Islay whisky. The nose is iodiney -- it smells like a band-aid. The taste is sweetly smokey. I love it. It's a nice change from all the lighter, sweet whiskies I seem to have fallen into (and the bad whisky I had in New Zealand bars). It may be that as my taste for whisky matures, I'm more interested in the the more "challenging" whiskies like Arbeg and Lagavulin (see my post on Lagavulin and oysters for more info).

What a great dram! This may be my new favorite whisky. I may need to go have another drink right now to make sure.

Today is my last day in Auckland. Grandhi and I have a few meetings with customers, partners, and the MS New Zealand guys before we head down to Wellington this afternoon. It'll be a bit of a hectic day I think.

Yesterday was pretty calm by comparison. We didn't have much in the way of meetings, so we checked out the New Zealand National Maritime Museum. I love maritime museums (surprise, surprise) and Grandhi was nice enough to indulge me. The museum was quite good and much larger that outward appearances might suggest.

Afterwards, we had a nice lunch at the Loaded Hog by the Viaduct Basin (where the Americas Cup boats sortied out from). I didn't love the beers they brewed onsite, but the food was good. the local mussels are well-known and tasty, although I still think Penn Cove mussels in Seattle are better. Too bad it was raining all day; otherwise sitting out on the sidewalk would have been great.

We worked all afternoon trying to get ready for our upcoming talks and keep up with work at home. We then headed out to Parnell, a cute neighborhood in Auckland full of art galleries and shops, all of which close early to spite us. Fortunately, we found a nice restaurant called Igaucu for dinner. Pretty cool place. I finally got some lamb here in New Zealand. Everything you've heard about lamb in NZ is true -- fantastic. The one thing I've noticed is that every restaurant we've eaten in so far has under salted the food relative to my tastes. Grandhi and I both have been adding copious amounts of salt to everything. Given that Grandhi lives in India, I don't think this is just an American taste thing. Anyway, just an observation.

OK, time to pack up and head out. Talk to you from Wellington...

While the Seattle area doesn't seem to have any great formal, fancy, banquet-worthy Chinese places, there are quite a few damn good places for more every day Chinese food. As an ABC (American Born Chinese) my fondness for homestyle Chinese food outstrips my ability to cook it, so these places are important to me.

Around the Bellevue area (near my home and Microsoft), there are a few good haunts.

• Szechuan Chef is all the rage now among the Microsoft Chinese community. Great hand shaved noodles, yummy crispy onion pancakes with hot sauce, and good dry fried string beans (always my favorite). The hot pots look good too, but we haven't tried those yet.
  15015 Main Street Suite 107 (near the old KMart)
• Pizza and Sandwich House is my favorite hole in the wall. I've been coming here for a dozen years or so (see if you can find the photos of me, Michelle, and the kids on the walls. It's an odd name for a Chinese restaurant unti you realize it's not a Chinese restaurant (or not just a Chinese restaurant). Lee and Joe used to run a Chinese restaurant in Seattle 20+ years ago when they decided it was too much damn work. They bought a little pizza and sandwich shop (hence the name) which was apparently an easier life. However, their old customers followed them to Bellevue and begged them for their old favorites. Now, the first two pages of the menu are pretty decent pizzas and grinders. The back page is all Chinese.

  Hands down, my favorite item on the menu is the spicy beef noodles with extra veggies. Damn, this is good eats. The crispy onion cakes are super here too (see a trend?) We also like the veggie potstickers (which come out in real Chinese fashion, the whole dozen or so potstickers upside down with a sheet of crispy floury stuff attaching them all -- hard to explain, but it's yummy.) Lee and Joe are simply great too. They are our extended family. A few warnings -- it's cash only and the facilities are not at all charming. The food and the owners are what make this place great.

  2245 140th Ave. N.E. (near Skate King, next to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car)
• Chengdu Chinese Buffet is another unlikely Chinese hot spot. Tucked away in the same strip mall as the most horrible place on earth, Chengdu has scary Americanized, glowing orange Chinese food in some parts of the endless buffet tables, but in a few spots, they have some of the most authentic, delicious stuff. Just follow the Chinese folks around the tables and you'll find the good bits. I especially like the thinly sliced, peppery dried beef.
  
  14625 NE 24th St. (behind The Warehouse near Fred Meyer)
• Cafe Ori is another staple of the local community. It's so popular, they bought out the space next door a few years ago and expanded into it. The place is still always full of local Chinese and in-the-known baigui (if you don't know what this means, you probably don't need to.) My all time favorite thing (and the boys') is the Pork Chop Rice -- two deep fried pork chops on a bed of rice that also has browned ground pork, tart pickles, and some veggies. How can deep fried pork chops be bad?! The Singapore Rice Noodles and the Beef Chow Fun are good too as is the Satay Beef or Chicken. Hell, it's all good.
  
  14339 NE 20th St Ste I (near the Ross and Video Only)
• Wonton City, not surprisingly, has good wontons -- full of shrimp and pork with a little white pepper bite. They have the hard, thin noodles I like too. The congees (rice porridge) are also hen hao (very good). I only wish they were open late at night. Noodles and congee are good post-drinking food. The place is tiny and cash only.
  
  503 - 156th Ave S.E. (Lake Hills Shopping Center, near Stamos Cafe)

There are a few other decent places -- Jeem for dim sum (the owner was the former chef at Wild Ginger), Noble Court for roast duck and seafood and dim sum, and Regent Bakery for roast duck noodles and their killer mango pudding (only in season!).

Hm, I'm hungry now just thinking about it. Lunch anyone?

(This post was inspired by L who wrote about Seven Stars in Cookbook 411. The old owners of Seven Stars now own Szechuan Chef.)