Pike Place Chowder - Seattle

Chowder Samplers

On a recent trip to Seattle, the future husband and I hunted down Pike Place Chowder after being inspired by the Gastronomer's post. By the time we found their actual Pike Place location, they were closed. Luckily, the mall location was still open so we walked a few streets up for some chowder therapy. 

Overall, the chowders were tasty, but what I was most impressed about was the level and dedication of customer service. We ordered crab cakes for an appetizer and the chef brought them out to us himself apologizing for the lackluster cake batter made earlier that day resulting in a less than average final product. He offered us whatever other appetizers we wanted on the house, so we choose shrimp cocktail and oyster shooters.

New England Chowder Bread Bowl: the future husband is more or less obsessed with clam chowder. He thought Pike Place's version was okay, but is still dreaming about a smokey-bacony version we had at a soup and salad bar offering in Cottage Grove. 

Shrimp Cocktail and Oyster Shooters: Huge, throbbing oysters floating on top of overly sweet cocktail sauce. I would have preferred these without the red sauce, but we got them for free since our crab cakes were not up to par, so I can't complain. 

Southwest Chicken and Corn Chowder: I wanted to try something Southwest in the Northwest. 

Manhattan Style Chowder: My second favorite, reminiscent of cioppino.

Crab and Corn Chowder: Somehow, the crab was not the star of this chowder. The soup base was overly salty and confused - not cream based, but still seemed heavy.  

Smoked Salmon Chowder: my favorite of the bunch. Creamy, slightly smokey with generous chunks of salmon floating around. Just indulgent. 


If I am in Seattle again and hankering for some chowder, I would surely get a bowl of the smoked salmon once again. 

Pike Place Chowder
600 Pine St. 4th Fl
Seattle, WA 98101

Greek sea fennel and much, much more

GreekFoodShop.com offers some of Greece's most outstanding and unknown/unusual products. 


Sea fennel? Check


Bergamont spoon sweet? Yes. 


Handmade milk organic chocolate with spirulina and olive oil. It does exist!

There is way more. We're talking Santorini capers (with leaves), unctuous olive oils, wine, and Dimistana pasta!


I could go on, but you'll have to see for yourself. GreekFoodShop.com is not compensating me - just doing my part in supporting awesome Greek products!


Press release below:
GreekFoodShop.com - The Quality Greek Food Products Now Also Available Abroad 

GreekFoodShop.com is a new venture put together by Greek entrepreneurs, who despite the current wave of events wish to invest on the export of Greek food products.

Greek Food Shop aims to render quality Greek products, like Greek wines and olive oil, accessible to consumers of other countries, all those who appreciate Greek cuisine and seek premium quality in every product.

The Greek Food Shop connoisseurs apply rigorous quality control methods in order to select the best products, which are send off right at the consumer’s doorstep, by just one click.

For more information about the Greek Food Shop products please visit www.greekfoodshop.com.

Stout Braised Buffalo Pastitsio with Black Truffles

I always look forward to occasions where I can feed lots of people - excuses to make huge casserole dishes like pastitsio and moussaka. I threw a Greek Spring themed dinner party a few weeks ago and twisted this Greek classic around using buffalo meat instead of the traditional lamb/beef. In my celebration of massive, shaggy, grass grazing bovids, I  braised the buffalo meat in Bison Brewing's Organic Chocolate Stout, instead of the usual wine. I didn't stray too much from the rest of the traditional pastitsio ways, although I used Argentinian parmesan instead of kefalotyri because I was easily sold by the Whole Foods cheese monger. Since it was a celebration demanding decadence, I shaved an Oregon black truffle on top of the fresh out of the oven casserole. There are so many recipes for pastitsio out there, but I based this one off of Peter's recipe, writer of an amazing Greek food blog, Kalofagas. I noticed my layering is different than other written versions, but I am following my Aunt Mary's version. 

Buffalo Pastitsio

Adapted from Kalofagas

Meat sauce
3 lbs ground buffalo
1/4 cup olive oil
2 red onions
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bottle stout beer (I used Bison Brewing Chocolate Stout)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 bay leaves


Noodles
1 package bucatini noodles (can use penne)
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs
1/2 cup kefalotyri (or salty, semi-hard cheese)


Bechamel Sauce
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
6 cups whole milk
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup grated kefalotyri cheese, or some sort of semi-hard salty cheese (I used Argentinian parmesan in this case)
1/2 tsp nutmeg


Meat Sauce

• Saute onions in olive oil until soft and translucent, add garlic, bay leaves and ground meat and brown on high heat. 
• Add tomato paste, beer, tomatoes and oregano and bring to a boil, then reduce until sauce thickens. Add cinnamon. 

Boil noodles in a large pot of salted water for about 10 minutes.


Bechamel Sauce

• In a large sauce pan, melt butter on medium heat. When melted add flour and stir with a wooden stick for about 5 minutes until golden brown. 
• Slowly pour milk into roux, stirring constantly with a whisk to squash any forming lumps.
• Go back to stirring with a wooden spoon and bring bechamel sauce to a boil on medium heat.
• Continue stirring until sauce thickens, or sauce coats back of wooden spoon.
• Take bechamel off heat and slowly stir in eggs. 
• Stir in 3/4 cup cheese and nutmeg (save rest of cheese for topping). 
• Cover and reserve for assembly.

Assembly

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Add noodles to large casserole dish/roasting pan. Crack two eggs and sprinkle 1/2 cup grated cheese on top of noodles and mix with clean hands.
• Pour meat sauce on top on noodles.
• Pour bechamel sauce on top and sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese.
• Bake for about 1 hour, or until golden brown on top. 
• Let set about 30 minutes before cutting in. 

Japanese Pub Life: Yakuza Lounge - Portland

Fennel + Orange Salad

Kale, Shallot and Edamame Salad

Dungeness Crab Roll

Really Spicy Roll


This sums of my Wordless Wednesday post. Would I go back to Yakuza on my own free will? Never in this town as it left my wallet and stomach a little too empty. Still, it was fun to try something new.


Yakuza Lounge
5411 NE 30th Ave
Portland, OR 97211

Almond Croissant Smack Down Continues - Fleur De Lis

While visiting Cottage Grove, a quaint little town south of Eugene and hometown to my future husband, we got a hot tip about this awesome bakery in town. The next morning Justin reported that they had almond croissants, quoted as "our favorite" per website. So we had to hit that. 


The almond croissant ($2.75) came obviously sliced apart and put back together again, further flattened by a heavy hand of powdered sugar. Still, it was screaming fresh and fuming with baked butter. 

I ripped it open to find a sweet, almond fragrant custard-like filling inside. The croissant continued its collapsing progression after each bite. I inquired at the counter what the heck this filling was all about. Simple: butter, ground almonds and sugar. Whoa! Overall, this almond croissant was rich and extremely fresh. I would definitely hit that again next time we're in town. 

And here it is. 


Fleur De Lis
616 Main Street
Cottage Grove, OR 97424