Seafood City (Tukwila, WA)

This is the only way you will find me shopping at a mall.

Seafood City in Tukwila has been open for a few months now and I can’t get enough of it.  It’s a super clean grocery store inside of Southcenter Mall with a great selection of ingredients focusing on Philippine Cuisine.

You’ll find tons of seafood (of course), meat, and other great things like a chicaron wall!

I found a sauce called banana sauce that I’ve never tried before and it was 2/$1.00 so why not!

I think that will throw a nice curveball into another sauce of mine so it was definitely a nice discovery.   There are so many other things to check out there.  My favorite thing is to pick up some prepared food and eat it in their food court.  Lumpia!  Lechon Kawali!  So much good stuff and really inexpensive!

If you ever find your way down to Southcenter then be sure to make your first stop at Seafood City.

Seafood City (click)

Eric

Farm Boat (Puget Sound, WA)

About a month ago I checked out Farm Boat (forgot I was writing this post then I had to run out the door….one month later, here we are!). Farm Boat is a farmer’s market on a boat that travels up and down the Puget Sound (rhyming) and drops off lovely produce and culinary delights to the new South Lake Union Park. At the time of checking it out I was on my way to work and didn’t have time to buy anything but the produce looked great and I intend to make it back before they close up on the 23rd of December.  They have CSA’s and will have an expanded route in the future but for now check them out at their South Lake Union park location on Thursday’s from 11:00AM-3:00PM

Boats and food…..nothing better than that!

Farm Boat (click)

Eric

 

 

Big John’s PFI

I was talking with chef Gabriel Claycamp about veal bones and he brought up Big John’s PFI. It’s a store in Seattle that sells a ton of bulk items and focuses on Mediterranean cuisine.   When he told me about it I had to go…..when I went there I was surprised to find the an amazing assortment of exciting and fair priced food products.

Their bulk items are less expensive than most/all bulk item sellers in Seattle.  I was so excited about this then the ultimate excitement came when I found they were selling squid in ink.  This isn’t a normal product to be found at the grocery store but it makes one hell of a dish with a little bit of white rice.

Chorizo….yes…..everything else…..amazing.

Check it out if you live in Seattle.  Thanks chef Claycamp!

Big John’s PFI (Click)

Eric

West Seattle Produce

Hmmmm, I work on Sundays. I love going to the farmers market but by the time I get there it’s closed.  Mindy goes sometimes for me but it’s just not the same. I love being able to walk around and pick my own items that I am going to cook.  Solution?  WEST SEATTLE PRODUCE!!!

The people at Corner Produce at Pike Place Market have opened a new produce stand in West Seattle.  When did it open? Today! My sister gave me the heads up and told me that I needed to go so on we went for a visit to the new West Seattle Produce!

I am very excited to have this place as an option to buy produce.  I’m not a huge fan of grocery stores so anything that lets me be outside and gives me great quality produce is pretty awesome for me.

I can’t wait to see what this place will turn into when most of the great fruits and vegetables are in season.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t great things available now.

Check them out for yourself.

West Seattle Produce (click)

Eric

Savour (Seattle, WA)

I was invited to a wine tasting (more on that later) by the great, awesome, wonderful, and amazing Keren Brown from Foodportunity (Yes, I am wiping the brown off my nose now :)   She read my little post about wine and decided to put me in front of Seattle’s elite wine crew in order to change my opinion on wine. I’ll get to the wine information here in a bit, but first, let me distract you a little bit with food. Food first, wine can wait!

Back in December, Ballard welcomed a new specialty food shop named Savour. It’s a true destination spot for high quality food.  I love places like this because I can walk in them and always find something different to send my culinary A.D.D. into overdrive.

Are those cerignola olives (Yes, I’m an olive snob)?  “Actually, they’re Castelbianco olives and we think they’re much better.  Huh, well I’d like to buy some…..no, not the small container, the bigger one…….and can you cut up some Iberico for me to? I’m feeling snobby after this wine event…….Awesome!  I ate half of the olives on the way home and yes, they are better than cerignola’s.

I’ll be back for those olives and I’ll be back to stalk the Iberico Ham. It’s the only ham I fully endorse (could I get an endorsement deal for a type of ham? I would probably die if that happened) because my name is actually in it…..IbERICo. Coincidence? No. Like that one movie said, “it is written!!”

If you’re in the Ballard neighborhood then check it out. If you live in Seattle then just check it out anyway, stop talking about how long it takes to get from Capitol Hill to Ballard or from Beacon Hill to West Seattle. I lived in Federal Way for years and would gladly drive to any of these places I have visited in Seattle. They have sandwiches and other items coming soon too………SANDWICHES MAN…..SANDWICHES!!!

Savour, get there now. See their store now….IN HD!!!!!!!!

Nice camera work Eric. Thanks! :)

Check their site out (click)

Chocolopolis: Seattle, WA

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Chocolopolis, in Queen Anne, has been open for a little over year. It’s a chocolate boutique style store that Mindy and I stopped at after dinner at the 5 Spot’s Puerto Rican pig roast (more on that in a minute). What kind of chocolate do they have? Pretty much everything and anything you can think of. There are lots of great flavor combinations and each little variation of chocolate has its own design…..it’s amazing! Check out this video of their store!

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Knives

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Last night in class we were given a presentation from Bob Tate from Seattleknifesharpening.com. I was told he was coming in to our class a week before so last week I went out and snapped a few pictures of knives so that way when he came in I would have a post ready. Luckily, my school is right in the heart of downtown Seattle so I have quick access to just about anything within walking distance!

Bob Tate learned his knife sharpening skills from Bob Kramer who is a master knife maker. Bob Kramer has been featured in various magazines and you have probably seen his knives without realizing it. Well Bob Tate learned just about everything from Bob Kramer so we were getting the best information possible. What does this mean for you? Well, I’m going to tell you what you need to know about knives………We’re talking great stuff here!

Where do you start? Well, Bob Tate told us it’s all about comfort first. Yes, you can buy the $100-$1,000 knife but if it isn’t comfortable after you have been slicing 50 pounds of onions then what’s the point? I was in Seattle Cutlery and they have a massive selection of knives. I was able to try out a few and I found some knives that are super comfortable and if I had the money I would have purchased the entire set. They’re called Sha Ra Ku Mono knives and apparently they are exclusive to Seattle Cutlery. The thing I liked most about them is they have no bolster which makes it easier to sharpen and they are perfectly balanced in your hand which allows the knife to do the work, not you. Each knife runs about $100 so I’ll be saving my pennies, or just flat out begging with my sign………Will Cook Your Food (don’t steal that from me, it’s genius marketing).

What’s better, German or Japanese? Well that’s a great question but it really is up to personal preference. Sham Wow has taught us that Germans make good stuff and I agree. The knife I use at home is a 7 inch Santoku knife, it’s German grade metal with a Japanese name, talk about identity crisis. It’s a pretty sturdy knife and it has stood up to a lot of abuse from me over the years, I didn’t know half the stuff I do now about knives so it has seen a dishwasher here and there……yikes.  BACK ON TRACK!  So the Germans tend to make thicker knives which are great because if you’re going to spend a lot of money and have your knife sharpened every three months then you’re going to want to have a little extra meat behind your knife because everytime you sharpen your knife you’re going to lose a little metal here and there. The Japanese knives are very fine and tend to have a higher point on them so it’s important when buying a Japanese knife that you know a great person to sharpen them otherwise you will get about half the life from that expensive knife (I rhymed). So, German or Japanese? Personal preference!

How often do you need to sharpen? For a Chef with normal work they should be expected to sharpen their knives every 2-3 months. Obviously a little time with a ceramic steel is in order everyday just to adjust and mildly sharpen the knife but 2-3 months seems to be the sweet spot for sharpening the knives. The at-home consumer can probably get away with twice a year for their all-purpose knives.

Ceramic Steel what? Ok, you’ve probably seen a few fancy Chefs doing that trick with a steel (knife sharpener and adjuster) where they sit there for 5 minutes and run their blade this way and that way on the steel…..well those guys are idiots and they’re ruining their knives.  It doesn’t take more than 4-5 passes with light pressure at a 10-15 degree angle in order to reset and slightly sharpen your blade. Why a ceramic steel instead of a steel steel? Ceramic will lightly sharpen your blade while you run it against the steel. A steel steel will not.  Ceramic sounds expensive! $35…..stop whining!

How do you care for your knives once you have them sharpened? First and foremost what type of cutting board are you cutting on? If you answered bamboo then do yourself a favor and kick yourself in the shin. Bamboo cutting boards are too hard for knives and they will lead to your knife being dull a lot quicker. Essentially what you are doing is flattening your edge. Solution? If you can slice a piece off the edge of your cutting board then you have a great cutting board. Plastic, soft woods, or you can buy an Epicurean Cutting Board…it’s what I use and it is the best thing ever! I have the 18×13 black board. It’s dishwasher safe, NSF approved, and heat resistant. I can use this at home and at work so it’s the best of both worlds. They’re a little more than regular run of the mill cutting boards ($39) but it’s worth your time and money. Nurture and love your knife by buying a ceramic steel for every now and then sharpening, wash with warm soapy water, and keep your knife clean at all times. Ta-da!

I just got my knife sharpened and it’s sticking to the board when I cut!  Stop pushing so hard and let the knife do the work for you. That’s the whole point of getting your knife sharpened in the first place. I sharpened my own knife in class the other day and I had this same problem. Good thing Bob set me straight!

Where do I buy a knife? Well, like I said, it’s a comfort thing so you’ll want to try the knife out before you buy it. Places like Seattle’s own, Sur La Table, and Seattle Cutlery are great places to buy from because they know their stuff….they’re in the business of knives. If you want the best then visit Bob Kramer’s site and prepare to have your mind blown (CLICK HERE).

If you live in the Seattle area then you can give Bob a call at 206-465-6801 or visit his website at Seattleknifesharpening.com He has a 1-2 day turn around in the city. You can send your knives to him as well so if you live out of the Seattle area then he can work with you! Check out his site for rates, I would post them here but I want you to do something for yourself.

Thanks,

Eric

Watch your fingers!!

Taylor Shellfish in Shelton, WA

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Thinking about doing a dungeness crab boil? Where do you start first? Well the first place you should start is by finding a great supplier of dungeness crab. Yes, you can go to Pike Place Market, QFC, or any other grocery store or even Farmers Market (Taylor Shellfish is at a few of them) or you could go straight to the source!  Why do I make things hard on myself? I don’t know!

I talked to my friend Jimmie and he called up Taylor Shellfish and placed the order for me to pick them up. I got in my car and made the 3 hour round trip to pick up 30 pounds of these delicious little crustaceans  for the crab boil. Their quality is unparalleled, enough said. If you ever want some damn fine crab, oysters, or just want a tour of their facility then visit them for yourself.

(CLICK HERE)

THEY DID NOT PAY ME FOR THIS.

Eric

Anthony’s Fish Bar

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I’ll always have a special place in my stomach for walk up style food places. Seattle has a nice mix of these types of places but I always have to stop when it involves seafood. A few months ago I was walking around Federal Way and I happened to stop by the early opening of Salty’s Fish Bar (click here). Yesterday class let out a little early and I had a few hours to kill before my next class so I decided to walk one block down by the water and I ran into Anthony’s Fish Bar. Anthony’s is one of the best fish restaurants in Seattle and their walk up fish bar serves up that same quality for under $10! You even get a great view of Seattle for free! Cod and fries, do it!

Anthony’s (click here)

Coming soon:  Ivar’s, Duke’s, and Ray’s

THEY ARE NOT PAYING ME FOR THIS. I just love their stuff!

Eric

Arrivedeceri, olio d’oliva. Ciao, olio d’uva!!!

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If you search through this blog then you’ll notice that I use olive oil in about every recipe on here. Well, it’s time for a change! Hello, grape seed oil!

I’ve been working at Sound Bites for a couple weeks now and it has lead me in the right direction for my pursuit of using the best ingredients to take my culinary skills to higher levels. One thing that I have overlooked along the way is trying to find something better than olive oil because I believed I was using the best product as far as oils were concerned. In comes grape seed oil and makes me feel like the novice I am.

Après Vin, 100% Varietal Grape Seed Oils

Why grape seed oil? I’ll let the Eric Leber and Lori Ramonas from Après Vin explain:

Grape-seed oils are delicious, healthful, and excellent for dipping, salad dressings, sautéing (very high 485˚ F smoke point), and sauces. They have considerable breadth of character that ranges from light, herbaceous, citrus notes to full-bodied, rich, and robust. Additionally, they have a particularly high level of heart-healthy polyunsaturated fats, half the saturated fat of olive oil, and other beneficial components.

Where does grape seed oil come from?

To produce these gourmet oils and flours, wine pomace is carefully collected from select wineries in Eastern Washington and then the seeds are separated, dried, and cold pressed with European expeller presses to yield handcrafted, grape-seed oils with unique and distinct flavors and colors subtly distinguished by vintage and appellation. It takes 3,000 lbs of grapes (enough for 300 gallons of wine) to yield the 75 lbs of dried seeds needed to make a single gallon of grape-seed oil.

Are there any other uses for the grape seeds?

Grape-seed flours are milled from the press cake after the oil is expelled to yield a wonderful ingredient that brings outstanding color, flavor, and texture (and a several-thousand fold boost in antioxidants) to breads, pizzas, croutons, muffins, brownies, cakes, cookies, pastas, sauces, breading, and much more.

At Sound Bites we are currently testing some crackers made from grape seed flour. It has completely changed the way I think about grapes. Instead of throwing away these seeds Après Vin has figured out a way to transform these seeds into oils, flours, and a few other products they don’t have on their website yet.

They’re infused oils are amazing. I had a chance to test the Chipotle Merlot, Lime Riesling, Curry Chardonnay, and Five-Spice Chardonnay. This is a brilliant idea because you can drizzle a little of these infused oils over a simple salad and turn it into a gourmet experience.  Every one is always asking me for a quick and easy recipe and I think Après Vin has found the solution.  Saute some vegetables with their oils and serve just like that or add to a more complex meal for a hint of Curry, Chipotle, Lime, or any other of the infused oils they offer.

The beauty of all this is that you can buy this product on-line. Made in the U.S.A., Made in the State of Washington, supports local farmers, and goes great with anything you put it on.

Visit Après Vin for more information about purchasing their product.

Après Vin (Click)

Get ready to see a lot of recipes using this grape seed oil after April 25, 2009

(Après Vin means “after wine” in French.  My title is a little poke at Italians for their obsession with olive oil. Thanks for the translation Jayne)

Thanks again to Eric and Lori for sending me a case. I’ll put it to good use!