Travel Dining Itineraries: Pacific Northwest Edition

I spend hours researching restaurants before I go on a vacation, heck, even a business trip. Then I tend to be shall we say negligent about writing about my travel dining experiences after the fact. Lest my hard work go completely unappreciated, I thought I'd start an occasional series in which I share with you the fruits of my labors.

To get things started, if you're heading to Washington or Oregon any time soon, here are the places that made the cut on our summer 2011 trip:

Seattle

• Quinn's - Hipster gastropub
• Anchovies and Olives - Italian influenced Pacific NW seafood
• Revel - Korean comfort food
• Emmer & Rye - Local, seasonal, yada yada yada

Portland

• Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge - The Thai place everyone is still talking about years later
• Food carts - we particularly liked Big Ass Sandwich
• Gruner - Germanic goodness
• Clyde Common - the epicenter of the hipster universe - think charcuterie and lots of skinny jeans at the Ace Hotel

Willamette Valley

• Thistle - tiny New American
• Nick's Italian - nothing fancy, but it's slim pickings in McMinnville. 

More to come from New Mexico, NYC, Bogota/Cartagena...

Seattle Trip Report: Part 2 - Pike Market

It occurred to me today that I never actually got around to writing about the rest of my summer and early fall travels. So I'm going to try to share a bit more about my time in Seattle, Oregon, and New Mexico over the next couple of weeks.

Pike Market is so jam packed with tourists, you might want to turn away before going in, but if you did, you'd be missing out on a a pretty darn cool market. Just the flowers alone made me wish I lived in Seattle. As I informed the Mr., if he had access to stunning bouquets chock full of the lushest peonies you'd ever seen for a mere $10, I'd be expecting flowers way more often than just Valentine's and our anniversary! See those giant bouquets below? Yep, 10 measly bucks. So jealous of the lucky ladies of Seattle!

No trip to Pike Market would be complete without seeing someone throw a fish. Alas there were a lot of fanny pack wearing tourists elbowing me out of the way for the same view, so I had to settle for just scoping out some of the wares. I did see one fish thrown, but honestly it wasn't quite as exciting as you'd hope it would be. Given Atlanta's, shall we say, rather lacking seafood access, I was seriously wishing I had a kitchen in which to enjoy some of these gorgeous ingredients.

 

The famous Pike Fish Market

I'm not really sure how any local deals with the insane crowds, but it would be hard to resist the incredible selection and prices at Pike. Perhaps they have less famed and more local markets I don't know about. Mostly it was the flowers and raw ingredients that wowed us, so for our actual lunch, we headed across the street to an also very packed French bakery - Le Panier. It was just as cute and cozy, albeit far more bustling, as you'd ever hope to find. Everything looked delish, so we opted to share a sweet framboise croissant and a savory ham and cheese pastry. A perfect ending to a trip to Pike! And if you're feeling really intrepid you can battle the lines at the nearby original Starbucks.

Heavenly pastries at Le Panier

Pike Market
1st and Pike
Downtown Seattle

Le Panier
1902 Pike Place, Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 441-3669 ‎
lepanier.com

The Dish (Seattle Edition): Kalbi Burger at Revel

When I researched dining options in Seattle, Revel's name came up time and time again. But alas it was too far from my hotel to be feasible without a car or a hefty taxi fare, so we didn't plan to go there.

On our last morning in Seattle we picked up a car to drive to Portland. Since it was still early, we figured we'd head over to Fremont for its Sunday market and grab some breakfast there. Well lucky us, Revel is open for brunch, so we got to check it out after all, and man I'm glad we did.

Revel is known for its Korean influenced food, so I wasn't quite sure how that would translate into brunch. Turns out it Korean tinged brunch is quite a bit more exciting than pancakes and omelets will ever be.

The Kalbi burger served with an egg on top, bacon, and a pickled pepper was quite simply divine. Kalbi is a Korean-style marinated short rib. I'm not exactly sure how that translated into a burger (were short ribs ground with regular beef?) Whatever it was, it was flippin' awesome.

The sweet Asian glaze balanced the savory and fatty burger, bacon and egg, and runny yoke makes everything better. Even better, there was no wait for brunch and the open kitchen had seating reminiscent of eating at the counter in someone's home kitchen, which was pretty darn cool. Revel is exactly as hip as you'd hope something in the funky Fremont 'hood would be.

I would like to have a burger like this all the time - is anyone in Atlanta making burgers like this? Considering the burger overload here, you'd think, but I can't think of one off the top of my head.      Upon some research, there is an entire chain of burger restos in LA called Kalbi Burger.  Color me jealous. I can't find a recipe online but here's a marinade for Kalbi that you could use on a burger if you can't get to the west coast!                                                                                                       

Revel

403 N 36th St., Seattle, WA 98103
(North 36th St. & Phinney Ave.)

Seattle Trip Report - Part 1

Things have been so hectic that it's been a month since our trip to the Pacific Northwest, and I haven't written much about it yet. So here goes part one of my trip report. It was a vacation even in the blogging since, so we didn't take many pictures of food, so I'll just throw in some vacation shots for a little color!

Let me start by saying that Seattle was awesome. It was perfect 70 and sunny weather which can make anywhere seem pretty great, but we were struck by what a beautiful and hip city it is.

Quinn's


A hipster and meat lovers paradise, Quinn's is Seattle's Holeman & Finch. We couldn't resist trying a dish called pig face fritters, which are surprise surprise actually made of a pig's face. Alas, they just tasted fried, but how can you pass up a dish with a name like that? Wild boar sloppy joes were just as messy but infinitely tastier than the cafeteria classic. As we'd find throughout the city, there was a great beer selection and a cool vibe.



Pig Face Fritters

Anchovies & Olives



We liked Anchovies & Olives even better than Quinn's. Their menu featured a number of Mediterranean influenced seafood heavy small plates. Since we don't get much of that in Atlanta, it was a very nice change of pace. Hamachi with apple, rhubarb and mustard seed was a startling combination after years of only Asian influenced hamachi dishes. Strozzapreti combined tuna with spicy tomato, currants and olive. Turns out I don't love fish in my tomato based pasta but Jeff loved it. Oysters in several totally different preparations were more my speed.

Tavern Law
We don't go out for drinks all that often (drinking at home is so much fun!) so when we do, we like to do it in style. Tavern Law is the perfect place for old school cocktails, complete with the requisite hipster mustachioed bartenders and faux speakeasy vibe. I'm always tempted to try egg white based cocktails but I always chicken out. This time the bartender recommended one, and I loved it. I wish I could recall which one it was, but I'm a naughty blogger and have forgotten. That said, I loved the subtle sweetness and light foamy texture. Plus any bar that gives those delicious brandied cherries is AOK in my book. Alas we couldn't go to the not-so-secret upstairs lounge because they were all booked up.

So that's it for part one...lots more to come!