First couple of days in Seattle
I arrived safely in Seattle.
I accidentally ate my amuse before I remembered to take pictures. It was a heirloom beet tartare with Oregonzola on a crisp toast. It was garnished with a herb oil and very tasty!
My cocktail is the wicked Olympic witch and it was delicious!
There are two kinds of bread; one is multigrain and the other is a cheese bread. They come with a triangle of butter covered in herb garlic oil. Tasty!
I think they substituted the sea bean granita with a regular mignonette granita for my Kumamoto oysters, but it was still tasty, even though I only got them for the sea beans.
My razor clam chowder was excellent, all creamy and delicious. The truffle oil at the beginning was a strong opener, but it finished cleanly with nice chunks of clams throughout.
My Wagyu tri-tip in red wine reduction with wilted greens and smothered potatoes was pretty good, but I think I should have gone for the halibut. Oh well.
I sat at the chef's counter, where you can get a view of the kitchen. One of the sous did chat a little with me. :)
I went home very stuffed. I stopped off at QFC to pick up some sparkling water and an iced tea, however. As well as some packs of retro gum that were on sale. Heh, I never took off my QFC keychain thing, so I scanned that too. :P
I love hotels. The bed is made, the washroom is clean and all I have to do is keep track of my stuff.
There's even a guest laundry room where you can do your laundry for free! Amazing! I overpacked! Heh, I could have had even more room for shopping...
I picked up a bathing suit at Macy's because there's a hotel pool. It took me a long time and many suits, I tell you. They were 50% off, though, because of a one-day sale. Excellent. Two-piece tankini! My first two-piece ever!
I also got a pair of dress pants at Nordstrom Rack. Oh Seattle shopping, how I missed you!
Sunday!
Woke up on time, not quite early enough to make it to Seattle Coffee Works, but early for the camp opening. Breakfast and coffee weren't quite ready yet, but they all remembered me.
Started with a coffee, since I was zoned out, then got a nice pomegranate mimosa, which was sparkling wine with grapefruit juice and some pomegranate liqueur. The breakfast selection was: eggs, latkes, matzo brei, bagels, chopped liver, cream cheese, lox (wild king salmon, of course - probably house-made, too!), capers, chopped red onion and tomatoes.
I had a little of everything - eggs over easy, half a bagel with half chopped liver and half cream cheese with lox and fixings, matzo brei, latkes, latkes with applesauce and extra lox. Mm...
Then off to the daily challenge, which was retro candies. Unfortunately, these were American candies, which threw me off a bit. I probably got half right. I forgot to taste the Tootsie Rolls and of course, a few I had never seen before. Abba-Zaba? Jujyfruits? Man...
I did know Lemonheads, but that's a special case going back to a band trip many years ago.
First chef was Takashi Yagihashi from Chicago. He demonstrated gyoza, braised pork belly and a salmon and somen dish. We got tastes of the first and the last one and got to attack the demo plate after he was done. There were two beers paired with our tastes, one lime IPA and the other was a mango infusion of some sort. They were both good, not freaky.
Light-coloured soy sauce is different from light soy sauce.
Taichi Kitamura of Chiso in Seattle was our second chef. He did kabocha squash tempura, a tofu and egg dish and braised short ribs, which to me were a Japanese bastardization of kalbi. :P We also had a sake pairing with this dish.
Eric Tanaka (ET) who works with Tom was our third chef. He made fresh soymilk with the "Cadillac" of soy machines, showed us how to make fresh tofu, made a shrimp and tofu dish and a tofu and mushroom dish.
During all this food, there were many other foods. Two large cheese and fruit plates with local cherries and blueberries and marcona almonds. Open bar. Pastries.
I had a bloody Mary and sparkling wine in addition to all this. :D Accompanied by all this tasty food, of course. Plenty of water as well.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Dahlia Bakery/Serious Pie where we made baguettes and éclairs. I'm good with the dough. We had magic TV time, of course, but we got to do all the steps.
After all that was a reception in the Hotel Andra, which is associated with another of Tom's restaurants, Lola and which he is involved in. A Lola feast of many dishes ensued, along with cocktails and the open bar. I only had half a lemon St. Germain and half a Greek beer since I was winding down at this point.
Dolmades, fried zucchini flowers, lamb meatballs, tomato water with crab, kalamata olive fritters with garlic yogurt, grilled pitas with three spreads, shrimp skewers...
Yes, I am back in the hotel now, resting, relaxing and going to bed. I would upload the photos, but I have too many right now and I need to wake up early in the morning.
I accidentally ate my amuse before I remembered to take pictures. It was a heirloom beet tartare with Oregonzola on a crisp toast. It was garnished with a herb oil and very tasty!
My cocktail is the wicked Olympic witch and it was delicious!
There are two kinds of bread; one is multigrain and the other is a cheese bread. They come with a triangle of butter covered in herb garlic oil. Tasty!
I think they substituted the sea bean granita with a regular mignonette granita for my Kumamoto oysters, but it was still tasty, even though I only got them for the sea beans.
My razor clam chowder was excellent, all creamy and delicious. The truffle oil at the beginning was a strong opener, but it finished cleanly with nice chunks of clams throughout.
My Wagyu tri-tip in red wine reduction with wilted greens and smothered potatoes was pretty good, but I think I should have gone for the halibut. Oh well.
I sat at the chef's counter, where you can get a view of the kitchen. One of the sous did chat a little with me. :)
I went home very stuffed. I stopped off at QFC to pick up some sparkling water and an iced tea, however. As well as some packs of retro gum that were on sale. Heh, I never took off my QFC keychain thing, so I scanned that too. :P
I love hotels. The bed is made, the washroom is clean and all I have to do is keep track of my stuff.
There's even a guest laundry room where you can do your laundry for free! Amazing! I overpacked! Heh, I could have had even more room for shopping...
I picked up a bathing suit at Macy's because there's a hotel pool. It took me a long time and many suits, I tell you. They were 50% off, though, because of a one-day sale. Excellent. Two-piece tankini! My first two-piece ever!
I also got a pair of dress pants at Nordstrom Rack. Oh Seattle shopping, how I missed you!
Sunday!
Woke up on time, not quite early enough to make it to Seattle Coffee Works, but early for the camp opening. Breakfast and coffee weren't quite ready yet, but they all remembered me.
Started with a coffee, since I was zoned out, then got a nice pomegranate mimosa, which was sparkling wine with grapefruit juice and some pomegranate liqueur. The breakfast selection was: eggs, latkes, matzo brei, bagels, chopped liver, cream cheese, lox (wild king salmon, of course - probably house-made, too!), capers, chopped red onion and tomatoes.
I had a little of everything - eggs over easy, half a bagel with half chopped liver and half cream cheese with lox and fixings, matzo brei, latkes, latkes with applesauce and extra lox. Mm...
Then off to the daily challenge, which was retro candies. Unfortunately, these were American candies, which threw me off a bit. I probably got half right. I forgot to taste the Tootsie Rolls and of course, a few I had never seen before. Abba-Zaba? Jujyfruits? Man...
I did know Lemonheads, but that's a special case going back to a band trip many years ago.
First chef was Takashi Yagihashi from Chicago. He demonstrated gyoza, braised pork belly and a salmon and somen dish. We got tastes of the first and the last one and got to attack the demo plate after he was done. There were two beers paired with our tastes, one lime IPA and the other was a mango infusion of some sort. They were both good, not freaky.
Light-coloured soy sauce is different from light soy sauce.
Taichi Kitamura of Chiso in Seattle was our second chef. He did kabocha squash tempura, a tofu and egg dish and braised short ribs, which to me were a Japanese bastardization of kalbi. :P We also had a sake pairing with this dish.
Eric Tanaka (ET) who works with Tom was our third chef. He made fresh soymilk with the "Cadillac" of soy machines, showed us how to make fresh tofu, made a shrimp and tofu dish and a tofu and mushroom dish.
During all this food, there were many other foods. Two large cheese and fruit plates with local cherries and blueberries and marcona almonds. Open bar. Pastries.
I had a bloody Mary and sparkling wine in addition to all this. :D Accompanied by all this tasty food, of course. Plenty of water as well.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Dahlia Bakery/Serious Pie where we made baguettes and éclairs. I'm good with the dough. We had magic TV time, of course, but we got to do all the steps.
After all that was a reception in the Hotel Andra, which is associated with another of Tom's restaurants, Lola and which he is involved in. A Lola feast of many dishes ensued, along with cocktails and the open bar. I only had half a lemon St. Germain and half a Greek beer since I was winding down at this point.
Dolmades, fried zucchini flowers, lamb meatballs, tomato water with crab, kalamata olive fritters with garlic yogurt, grilled pitas with three spreads, shrimp skewers...
Yes, I am back in the hotel now, resting, relaxing and going to bed. I would upload the photos, but I have too many right now and I need to wake up early in the morning.