You might notice the pretty picture in the corner. That picture was taken by me. I may be on my way to becoming a photographer. Here's Jonathon: Every week on our food blog, Voracious, I write up a local noodle dish of note in a post called The Thin Wheat Line. Here are a few of the recent installments: Tagliatelle With WTF Noodle: Tagliatelle with sous-vide duck egg, hedgehog mushrooms, and Parmesan foam. Source: Spur, 113 Blanchard St., 728-6706, spurseattle.com. Price: $14. You know how when you've trained your parrot/dog/infant to do the most adorable thing and bragged to your friends about it? Then when they show up for dinner, you trot it/he/she out and make the secret hand gesture—and it/he/she just wanders away to lick bread crumbs off the floor? That's how I feel about this pasta. I've eaten the tagliatelle at Spur a couple times now, forgetting to snap a photo for Thin Wheat Line until it's half-eaten and as photogenic as a bowl of overripe bananas. Despit...

The back gate to Poppy One of their famous cocktails. I believe it was a cosmo. A dessert Thali with Mango Yogurt Icecream, Warm Rhubarb Orange Shortcake, Candied Pecans, Nutter Butter, a jelly like dessert (the purple one) and hot date cake to the left. Close up of the crunchy savory, sinful, nutter butter Molly Moon's Icecream Salted caramel, vivace coffee, and balsamic strawberry! Oh my! My salted caramel milkshake artist. Yummm! To finish up the Seattle Foodie outing, the Dark Knight Critic took Noah and I to Poppy- a place famous for their desserts and their Indian influenced Thali's. I learned that a Thali is a Indian way of eating that has a variety of small dishes set on a round platter. Poppy has taken this concept and applied it to dessert. Yum... The steam of the Orange Rhubarb Shortcake seemed to lift up float up this dessert to your mouth. I thought the orange would make this dish ordinary, but it did the opposite. The mango ice cream was. The Hot Date Cake was di...

Quinn's restaurant Wild boar and Sage Sloppy Joe Venison Sausage with huckleberry mustard Beef Tongue Philly with Gruyere and piquillo peppers. Orr bountiful table Interior Our second spot on our food tour of Seattle took us to Quinn's. Quinn's is the local watering hole for those with a discerning palate. The Wild Boar Sloppy Joe with Crispy Sage leaves is the sandwich of dreams and I would fly all the way back for another go at her. (Yes, I have named the sandwich and her name is Charlene.) "Oh, Charlene, how I love you and I promise I'll always be faithful to you. No other wild boar sloppy joe can compare to your sloppy goodness and Sage: herbacious/licoricishiness. I love the buns you sit upon and the roasted spice of your jalapeno. Oh, Charlene, I will write odes to you. Charlene. Sweet Charlene, I'll visit you soon." Ummm...that was embarrassing. I didn't mean to think that out loud. Well, I was joined at Quinn's by the Dark Knight Food Crit...

Samgyeopsal (삼겹살):grilled pork belly. So while I was in Seattle, I was asked by Jonathon Kauffman about samgyeopsal. Now I didn't know that I would be quoted. Thanks Jon! Here's the article and hit the link for the rest. Dan Beyond Bulgogi: Korean Pig Is What’s Worth Eating Leave the beef to barbecue neophytes. By Jonathan Kauffman K oreans believe that if you dream of a pig, you'll get rich in the morning," Dan Gray of the blog Seoul Eats recently told me. Unfortunately, this isn't specific enough to help me interpret my dream journal. Must it be a live pig, or is roast pork sufficiently auspicious? Will grilled pork belly do, or can it be braised pig knuckle? If so, my lottery winnings must be in the mail. Most of the best-known Korean dishes in America contain beef: bulgogi, kalbi (short ribs), japchae, bibimbap, even many kinds of kimbap (Korean sushi) and soondubu (soft-tofu stews). But anyone who thinks kalbi is the ne plus ultra of Korean cuisine should...

I was lucky enough to meet up with one of my foodie friends in Seattle and he (who's name cannot be disclosed) is the Dark Knight of the culinary world in Seattle. He keeps the chefs and restaurants honest. He is also a bit of a ninja and nobody knows who he is. He eats like a ninja, signs the bill like Zorro, and then is gone. Pretty cool. Well the Dark Knight Foodie of Seattle rounded up a couple of his Foodie friends and we went out to some of the finer establishments in Seattle. The first place: Spur, Gastropub. This place is a hip place to enjoy a drink and get a bite. We ordered the Tagliatelle: a pasta dish with parmesan foam, duck egg, and oyster mushrooms. Meh. It was a bit too tart for me and the foam simply added air. Yakima Asparagus: asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Yum, but oh, you know how I love Seattle Asparagus. Pork Belly Sliders: if the pork was cooked a second longer it would have melted like the witch in the wizard of Oz. It is the iPod of all pork belly sli...

Oh Seattle, how I love thee. Beth and I decided to check out a place that is a favorite among Seattlelites (or should I call them Satellites?). Cafe Presse serves French Bistro cuisine at reasonable prices- here you can be haute on a budget. The menu is all in French, so I had Beth order so I wouldn't butcher the menu. We ordered Cafe Vita coffee to start. We asked our waitress the popular dishes in the area and then we ordered a Croque Monsieur, Salade aux asperges, and Demi-poulet froid Mayonnaise. Let me translate in American. We ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, Asparagus with goat cheese and pinenuts, and a half chicken served with a salad of arugula and sweet pea salad. The food was superb- especially the Salade aux asperges. The crunchy stalks were juicy and tasted like crystalized sunshine. The crusted cheese on the sandwich was smoky and crisp; and the cold half chicken was the perfect dish for late brunch on a Sunday afternoon. This is a dish that I imagine what the p...

I know. I talk about Rachel Yang and Joule all the time and it's because they are both awesome. On my food tour of the United States, I had to make sure that I stopped by her restaurant in the Wallingford district of Seattle. So on my first Friday in Seattle, I went there with my kind hosts Noah and Beth and Paula and her husband, Wayne. The restaurant stands out but in a whimsical way in the historical district. Wallingford is home to ironical Gas Works Park. The restaurant is quaint, inviting, and energetic. It's a place you can take a boring date to and not get bored. What was that? I mean the open kitchen with Rachel zipping around cooking and her large, friendly husband: Seif, striking up conversations with guests, you simply can’t get bored. Joule has a family feel to it; if you had a hip aunt and uncle in your family. Now for what you've been waiting for: the food. We started out with a Kimchi Pancake and the Smoked tofu with honshimeji confit, and soy-truffle vinai...

1) Here's Noah, Beth and I at Chateau St. Michele. 2) Beef Brisket over Dog from Dixie BBQ at the Mariner's Game 3) The food case at the Metropolitan Market 4) Jazz Apples at the Metropolitan Market 5) Noah playing guitar at the Skylark