I enjoy fine dining. Not to the exclusion of street food. It’s just another category where I can find deliciousness. When I first moved to Seattle over a decade ago, Canlis was the name that came up most often when you mentioned fine dining. I have found that most people see expensive decor, a gorgeous [...]

Another round of sparkling Parent Teacher conferences regarding my three angels dragged my ass from Seattle to Bellevue. It’s not a trip I like to make… ever. But near the school a small steamy joint with a sign that said “Dumpling House” got my attention. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs when it comes to [...]

Located in an industrial section of south Seattle, Elo’s Philly Grill is basically a hole-in-the-wall. A faux-woodgrained, worn-linoleum, hole-in-a-wall that is covered in positively awful art. I was taught to not judge a book by its cover. I also don’t judge by an angry owner who doesn’t want me to take pictures and won’t tell [...]

There are lots of places to explore that are driving distance from Seattle. Spokane has always enticed me with its turn of the century architecture and access to local agriculture. I’m head over heels in love with the Davenport hotel which is a wonderful example of the former; we decided to try Santé for dinner [...]

Thanks to a commenter on my first ever Minneapolis post for a recommendation for my second dinner while visiting. I’m at Dakota, Jazz Club and Restaurant. Unfortunately the live music is happening later tonight but the food is still a reason to come. They’re clearly proud of the food as equally important to the music [...]

I’ll admit my expectations were low. I’m in the dead downtown area at night. I went to the front desk of my hotel and told them I was hungry. The lady asked me what I wanted to eat. I told her, “something not depressing.” She asked me if I wanted to stay in the hotel [...]

I am declaring the long drought over. It’s been 160 years since the Denny Party arrived and founded Seattle in 1851. And the Duwamish were here long before that. And just as 2011 dawned, Stephen Brown and Daniel Levin decided it was (finally) time to bring world class bagels to the Emerald City. They’ve positioned [...]

Let me make this short and sweet. I’m not an expert on the street food regulations in Seattle. They may be on the verge of changing. They may not. But here’s where things are at this very moment. Portland, Oregon is filled with multiple clusters of street food vendors organized in little parks of vans, [...]

And you thought we were only about restaurants and food photography… TastingMenu just launched it’s first app! Kitchen Toolkit is several tools in one for the home cook. The app includes a kitchen timer (to remind you when your dish needs to come out of the oven), a unit converter (handy for various recipes with [...]

Imagine a dark crappy storefront. Covered up. Like it’s been abandoned but not quite. Probably used as storage for who knows what sort of illegal enterprise. Now imagine a street gang walking by and debating the merits of either a) dragging someone in there, beating the crap out of them, and taking their money, or [...]