Category Archives: Eat The Street

Eat The Street: Eastsound- Orcas Island, WA

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Eastsound is a small town located on Orcas Island so I decided to lump together some of the spots I ate at on my last visit there.  I will be heading up there again in September to finish this post so come on back real soon!

Hello Eastsound!

Allium Restaurant

On my recent trip to Orcas Island I worked at the new Allium restaurant for a few days (you can see the complete post here).  It’s new to the area but the quality and execution of the food is flawless.  Do yourself a favor and sit on the patio and enjoy the view.

Don’t worry, if it’s raining then there is a great view from inside as well.

Inside or out like I said, the food trumps all.

Barley Miso Marinated Alaskan Halibut- Ginger Risotto Cakes, Sugar Snap Peas

Allium (click)

Mai-Lan’s Cafe

Right around the corner from Allium is a Mai-Lan’s Cafe where Mai Lan will cook up some great Vietnamese food for you.  She treats everyone like she has known them for ages and has daily specials that will dazzle your taste buds.  On a nice hot day what’s better than spicy Vietnamese food………….

and a great view from her patio???? Oh that’s right, nothing!

View of Main Street

Mia’s Cafe

Moving over to Main street there are a few more restaurants that I will be visiting on my next trip but one I did stop at was Mia’s Cafe.  They’re one of the few restaurants that are open for breakfast and it turned out to be a great choice.

Corned Beef Hash with Poached Egg and Red Pepper Jelly

I could start off every morning with that dish….actually I did twice while I was there.

Lower Tavern

The Lower Tavern has a great selection of beers from neighboring islands that are worth a try.  Monday’s are their open mic night which I recommend attending because those Orcas Island people can jam!

Orcas Homegrown Market

If you’re in the mood to cook for yourself then Orcas Homegrown Market can help you with their nice variety of fresh produce, meats, seafood, and dry goods. Lots of good quality food there so don’t be shy, walk right in, they open at 7AM every day except for Sunday.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll be back in a few months to finish this post up.  Until then, go eat something!!!

Eric

Eat The Street: Pike Street. Seattle, WA

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This is the second installment of my Eat The Street feature on this blog.  I will be taking you on an eating tour through the streets of Seattle and hopefully other cities in the future.    Last week I took you to my most traveled street in Seattle, Western Avenue.  This week I will take you on Seattle’s most visited street, Pike Street!

It’s the home of Pike Place Market and various other shops that I support and love from a five foot wide deli to fish flying in every direction Pike Street is probably the place you’ll visit on your first trip to Seattle so here’s my recommendations  on places to visit.

Pike Place Market is a year-round farmers market in Seattle. It’s the oldest continually run farmers market in the United States! My school is a few blocks away so over the last few months I have been spending my in between classes time running over to the market area to see what it has to offer.

I look at the market in a different way than I used to. This is the first place you take people when they visit Seattle for the first time. It’s a tourist trap and there are millions of people that visit the market yearly that do not have an intention to cook something using the amazing ingredients available at the market. Instead, they want to pick up a Space Needle souvenir, make jokes about the rain, or ask about a Starbucks. Pike Place Market is much more than those stereotypes.

Restaurants, arts, crafts, produce, fish, seafood, history, producers, purveyors, and even a brewery are among the many things you will find all year round.

If you’re hungry then I recommend eating at the following places or at any other restaurant or small food vendor that peaks your interest. Fixing dinner tonight? That’s the best part! There are so many vendors there to help you find the right ingredients to make your dinner, lunch, or even quick snack more appealing/exciting. One of the things I like to do is have the marketvendors brainstorm for me. “Ok, here’s what I’m going for and here’s who is coming……..What do you recommend?” Two minutes later a complete meal is born!

Here is my list of must visit places when you are on Pike Street.  Some of these places are technically off the street but are contained in the same market area.

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese

One of my favorite places to stop by and visit is Beecher’s Cheese. They use local ingredients and have an open processing facility so you can see the cheese being made right before your eyes.

If there is a worthwhile/fantastic/tasty/favorite cheese of yours then they probably have it. If they don’t then you should just try theirs and it will be your new favorite.

Beyond the ability to just buy cheese they will also serve up some food for you which I strongly recommend. Their food is so good that it takes amazing pictures by itself. The sandwich hit the self-timer and produced this amazing photo of itself………..true story.

I Love New York Deli


It’s not the size of your deli that counts, it’s the quality of your pastrami. I am on a quest to find every deli in Seattle. The only prerequesite is that they slice their meat to order, none of that pre-sliced sitting in a plastic container garbage. For me, eating freshly sliced meat is like opening Christmas presents or like finding a parking spot in Seattle…….it’s exciting.

Located right around the corner, inside of the market, from the airbone fish is the little deli stand that can……make a damn fine sandwich!

The first thing you should do when you go somewhere is check out the menu. I Love New York’s menu is pretty robust for being such a tiny place but don’t be fooled by it’s size………..there are freshly sliced meats here!!

I opted for the Hot Pastrami with a little coleslaw:

This place definitely gets my seal approval. Fantastic meat that is sliced to order.  I go there twice a month!

De Laurenti’s Food Market

De Laurenti’s is an Italian food market in Pike Place Market that has just about every specialty Italian food item available (If they don’t have it then they can special order it for you).  I stopped by to pick up some prosciutto ends so I could experiment with a few flavors before I buy the nice stuff from them. This is the great thing about De Laurenti’s, they have just about every cut of Italian meat available and with different varieties and grades you are able to shop your price point.

They also have a great selection of oils!!!!

AND CHEESE!!!

So if you want to create a real deal Italian meal then get yourself down to De Laurenti’s!

Steelhead Diner

Back in December I bought the book “Coco: 10 World Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs” (click). When I posted it I had not read through the entire book yet but I did and I’m still amazed by it and it’s still my gold standard.

When I read the book I noticed that there was one Chef from Seattle. Mario Batali, a former Federal Way resident (me too!!), gave Chef  Kevin Davis an amazing write up. I told myself, I have to go, no matter what!

I did a little more research and realized that Chef Davis worked at the Oceanaire for a few years.  One of my favorite dishes in Seattle was the angry crab dish they served there.   I loved the name, because I’m angry, and because it was f’ing amazing. To this day it’s one of the dishes Mindy and I talk about when we think crab.   I’m not sure if Chef Davis was responsible for that dish but he was the Executive Chef there at the time so he had control over it going out of the kitchen every night.

In the book there are two recipes he shares. Caviar pie with traditional garniture and Kasu-marinated black cod. Both dishes look amazing and I have been drooling over them for months now in anticipation of my visit.  Last night I cooked my own work in progress with black cod and before doing it again I wanted to visit the Steelhead Diner to see perfection with black cod.

The picture in the  book doesn’t do the dish justice and neither does my picture. The texture of the fish is something that I would love to have someone paint, it’s absolutely stunning.  The dish is perfect, in my opinion. All of the flavors explode, each bite has a development of flavor that is unparalleled.  The showpiece, the black cod, was cooked with such amazing execution…….nice crispy texture on the outside but then a melt in your mouth soft amazingly fresh black cod taste.  If the menu said, “caught 2 minutes ago”, I would have believed it. It wasn’t even close to the quality that I bought from a high end retailer…..not.even.close!

This dish as a whole has rocked my little culinary world. I have been looking at it for months and now to experience it myself and for it to be better than I could have even thought is absolutely mind blowing.
I have little dreams and thoughts in my head where I say, “how cool would it be to go visit all the restaurants and chefs in the Coco book.”  I know that will never happen but I’ll keep studying hard and at least I have access to some of their recipes so I can try them for myself.  If any of them are like Chef Davis’ Steelhead Diner then I know that really is my gold standard.
Don and Joe’s Meats

One of my sources for specialty meats.  If you can think of it they can get it for you.  Also, they are my source for duck fat.  I go here often to check out the various cuts and types of meat in order to plan meals for myself.  They are located right next to the flying fish guys so you can’t miss them.

Le Panier

In between classes last quarter I would run over to Le Panier to check out their French pastries and bakery goods.  It helped me out a lot because I was able to see how the items were put together so then I could go to class and act like I knew what I was doing.  Le Panier has a great atmosphere where you can grab a little coffee with a nice merengue and just relax. It’s right in the middle of the madness that is Pike Place Market so it’s nice to have a place to rest your feet while you walk around some more and find another place to eat.

La Buona Tavola

Truffles and truffle oils. This is my source when I have to have truffles.  It’s not a common occurrence because they are expensive but you can’t beat the flavor.   They also have wines and a cafe so stop by and do a little wine tasting and say hi to Chris for me.

Mee Sum Pastry.

BBQ Pork Hombow.  That’s all I need to say.

The first time you visit Pike Place Market go ahead and drool a little bit and write down the places you have to come visit the next time. Check out the flying fish, take a picture with the pig, and check out the original Sur La Table.

I think this is a pretty easy list of places to visit in one day.  There are so many more places to visit that I didn’t even mention so take it upon yourself to visit those places and eat the street for yourself.  I will be updating this list.

Eric

Eat The Street:

Western Avenue. Seattle, WA  (click)

Eat The Street: Western Ave. Seattle, WA

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Say hello to a new category on my blog.  I’ll be updating these as I get a chance to visit more streets in/around Seattle or wherever I go (uh oh, where is he going?!?!?! You’ll see).

This is more of a public service project.  People are always asking me about places they should go or check out when they are in Seattle.  Now that I live here it’s a little easier for me to find those places.  I’m starting with places close to the tourist areas (close to Pike Place) then I will make my way further and further away so you can see what Seattle is all about.  I have been working on this project for almost a year so now it’s time to organize it! I could have done it in much less time but this is one of those independent blogs with little to no funding…..I need to sell out soon! :)

I will be updating the streets when I visit somewhere new so keep checking back and let me know if you have a street I should visit!

There are a few stores that I visit on a regular basis and they happen to be on Western Avenue.  In order as if you were starting from the Western/Seneca cross street then walking north you will find.

PARIS GROCERY

This is a newer store in the area and the second for the people that brought Seattle the Spanish Table (just a few shops north).  It’s a great place to find those odds and ends pieces for French recipes.  My favorite is their selection of pâtés and other charcuterie items. They also have a nice selection of cheeses and canned good that I haven’t been able to find in any other store through Seattle (especially helpful when trying those Escoffier recipes).

Paris Grocery (click)

THE SPANISH TABLE

(I really wish that ugly van would have moved but I didn’t have time to wait for it to leave….I’ll be updating this one for sure.)

This is one of my favorite places to visit; all Spanish food all the time! When you walk in you will see an enormous collection of paella pans from very small to a very large one that is about 4 feet in diameter…pretty cool, I want one!  As you make your way through the store you will see a large variety of olives, oils, salts, spices, and then you get to the even better stuff….the meat and cheese section!  I have purchased their Serrano Ham Hocks a few times to make soup stocks and broths.  Cheese, Manchego please!

They have a great cookbook and wine section as well so even if you don’t want to cook something yet you can curl up with a good cookbook and plot your next move.

The Spanish Table (click)

MARKET CELLAR WINERY

This store is for someone who likes to do things themselves.  Make your own wine, beer, soda, vinegars, mead (my sister’s husband is going to be stoked when I tell him that), and a few other things that I’ll save so you can visit it for yourself.  They have bottles, corks, and all the supplies you’ll need to make whatever you want, one stop awesome shop.

I am going to start making my own vinegars and sodas in the next few months so I will be back to the Market Cellar Winery very soon. When I get more room in the house I’ll tackle the beer world too!

Market Cellar Winery (click)

Making your way north and you’ll notice that you are now behind Pike Place Market.  Once you get to the top of the hill the market is there to greet you, be patient, I have a few more stores for you to check out.

WORLD SPICE

I can’t say enough great things about this store….I’ve tried (click).  This place put my cooking in the right direction, it forced me to get rid of pre-made spice rubs and depending on things like regular kosher salt and black pepper to season things.  Italian seasoning??? Not in this house! Lemon pepper seasoning? No way.  Johnny’s?  Uh uh.  Yes, World Spice has its own rub mixes but you should experiment!

This place has everything you could ever want and it doesn’t just stop with spices they also have some of the best tea available in Seattle. Their quality with herbs, spices, and teas put this as my main focus on Western Ave.  If you don’t have time to visit the other stores then visit World Spice for sure!

Oh, and if you need a recipe for that sichuan pepper you picked up then you might find a familiar name (click).

World Spice (click)

At the top of the hill you can make a right and walk around Pike Place but that’s a different street that I’ll take you down on the next “Eat the Street”.

Tom Douglas is the man.  He was recently nominated for best restaurateur by he James Beard Foundation for his collection of restaurants throughout Seattle.  Etta’s is one of his restaurants on Western that has fed me a few times.  I usually go in between classes and stop in during happy hour which Tom Douglas knows how to do better than anyone in Seattle.   I walked in one day and had fried calimari, a burger, and some crab cakes….I was hungry!  Walked out for a lot less than I thought I was going to spend and slowly made my way back to class….that was a great day.  I have a few more visits with Tom Douglas restaurants coming soon but they are on different streets!

Etta’s (click)

If you make your way down a few miles then you will see the future of food and dining in Seattle at the Art Institute.   There is a restaurant (Portfolio Restaurant)  at the top that might offer the best dining deal in Seattle.  3 courses for $20!

You can go there anytime but in less than a year I will have my classroom time in the kitchen there so you’ll have to come pay a visit.

Western Avenue, the street I spend the most time on in Seattle.  There are a few more shops I haven’t been to yet so I will update as needed.  I hope this is helpful to you if you are visiting Seattle or if you live in Seattle and just never knew these places were there.  Either way, get out there and eat the street….or something like that!

Eric