Weeklong Vacation Review: Island Eats

I spent the past nine days in the North Puget Sound trying to rediscover my chi. While on Whidbey Island, in between walks on the beach and in the forest, I availed myself of the free Wi-Fi at Pickles, a strip mall deli near both Clinton and Langley which serves top-notch sandwiches, my favorite being a meaty concoction called the "Salami Mommy." Further on down the road, on the Coupeville waterfront, I visited historic Toby's Tavern. There, I had a pastrami sandwich, but the place is renowned for its mussels, which are regularly named "Best of Whidbey" by the local media there. Toby's is the sort of laid-back bar I never want to leave; next time I visit, I'll be spending at least six hours there, beginning in mid-afternoon.

From Whidbey, I crossed the Deception Pass Bridge to Anacrotes to watch Carolyn Mark's show at an Old Town restaurant called Adrift. The restaurant is something of a local sensation, proof that culinary creativity can abound virtually anywhere 'round these parts, even in what I consider to be Western Washington's most archetypal blue-collar coastal town (for me, this makes Anacortes all the more enjoyable, by the by). At Adrift, which places a firm emphasis on serving foods culled from as close to Anacortes as possible, I had way too much Boundary Bay ale (produced in Bellingham) and just enough edamame. All edamame is created equal, right? Wrong — whatever sauce was on those peas was something special.

Sunday rolled around, which led us to the Brown Lantern (pictured above) for breakfast and football. Here, a table of guys, many on staff at the Lantern, had their laptops whipped out to chart the minute-to-minute success of their fantasy football squads. The breakfast item was one item — breakfast burritos — long, but man was that breakfast burrito good. The key: lining the bottom of the wrap with tater tots, which not only added flavor but left us stuffed like a dead turkey on Thanksgiving.

And did you know there are no cops stationed on Guemes Island, not even a friggin' Skagit County substation? That's either totally awesome or totally scary, depending on how one looks at it.

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On Nectarines and Work Clothes

Dear Martin Family Orchards:

Please make your nectarines 25 percent less sweet and juicy. I am fed up with wiping sticky splotches off my hands and clothes when I am in public.

Your cooperation is appreciated.

Jonathan Kauffman

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Vocab Lesson: Plin

Even though I spend more of my time in tofu shops and taquerias than in bistros, being in and on the fringes of the restaurant business for a couple decades means that I've absorbed a lot of jargon. It's standard practice to spend the first five minutes of every meal out with friends helping them translate unfamiliar terminology: gnudi, sous-vide, gastrique, saba, scapes.

I was a little caught by surprise last week when I was doing some menu perusing online and came across two occurrences of a term I hadn't encountered yet — plin — though I'm sure it's old hat to you. Tilth's May menu and the Palace Kitchen's current menu both include this dish, which the Kitchen defined as "a Piedmontese ravioli." I decided to go see what a plin was.

This is a very bad photo of a large plate of Palace Kitchen's plin. (Note to prospective cell phone owners: If you ever want to take surreptitious photos that you can actually show to other people, don't buy a Blackberry.) "Plin" is an American bastardization of "agnolotti dal plin," agnolotti being a recognizable variety of stuffed pasta and plin meaning "pinch." Here's a thorough, photo-filled set of instructions on how to make them. Our Molto Mario also has a recipe.

Re Tom Douglas's plin: Porky and threaded through with a chiffonade of greens, the ravioli-with-a-fancy-name were tossed with butter, chard leaves, and parmesan, and almost reminded me of Chinese boiled dumplings. Very tasty. Actually, I was tempted to write the more professional-sounding "yumm-o," but then my fingertips broke out in hives and I had to stop typing.

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Pac-Man, Anyone?

Does anyone know if you can buy Pac-Man ice cream in this area? Do they still make the stuff? You know, the Pac-Man "on-a-stick" that was lemon flavored? It came in the same box as the "Blinky" character, which was cherry flavored.

A lot of people have suggested checking out local ice-cream trucks, but honestly, I don't want to chase around the jangley strains of a mobile freezer trying to find something I'm pretty doubtful still exists.

You can check out a photo of the ice-cream box here.

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La Spiga Dinner: Italy Does Belgium

So, I went to an Italian beer dinner at La Spiga. (Right now, you're either "pff"ing or intrigued.) This is the country that gives us some of the world's best wine and cheese; the boot knows a little something about fermentation, people.

Because of the limited availability of the beers (reinforcements on their way), I don't want to gush about specifics here. I dare say the Italian take on Belgian beer rivals some of our own beloved "extreme" brewmasters, like the 12 malt Bran Riserva aged in barbera barrels (one word: @#$%.) Check out La Spiga's list, whether you're a beer lover on the hunt for something new or a wine drinker in a rut.

Bonus about beer in restaurants: It's a bargain because everybody feels weird marking it up as much as wine (i.e. 300% or more). $25 can get you some of the best, most complex beer in the world. $25 on the wine list usually gets you a remedial bottle of $7 supermarket wine.

I did start the night with a very refreshing cocktail called an Amarcord, scotch and amaretto with OJ. I don't think I've ever ordered amaretto in my entire life. When you tough it up with some scotch, you get a delicious drink in the vein of a sidecar but less potent and a little more sweet—a great aperitif for a hot night (and for people who don't dig bitters).

That dessert is the torta di ricotta. It tastes somewhere between a very light cheesecake and a panna cotta, sits on top of a walnut orange cookie, and is surrounded by stewed cherries and prunes. It deserves mentioning, and I'm mentioning it to everyone.

La Spiga, 1429 12th Avenue E., 323-8881 CAPITOL HILL

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Chickpea Makes Nature's Perfect Bar Snacks

The chickpea not only has given us such hits as falafel, popadums and hummus, but also two lesser known, simple and brilliant finger foods, panelle and socca.

Panelle are chickpea fritters that Sicilians eat as a snack before meals or fresh from the fry shop. Panelle are different from falafel nuggets in that they are often less crunchy and usually bigger, flatter disks that can even be made the size of a plate. Panella should have the thickness of a pancake or pita bread, with a grainy, dense inside. These fritters looks more like a thin polenta cake inside than something with any discernible crumb. All you need is a drizzle of good olive oil and Roberto's your uncle, but La Medusa in Columbia City serves them with harissa aioli. Mmmm spicy mayo. (A basic recipe for panelle)

Socca come from the south of France; they are chickpea flour crepes that look and taste somewhere between a buckwheat crepe and a nutty, pan-fried tortilla. You can drizzle them with olive oil and roll them up, treat them like you would a crepe, or dip in hummus for some chickpea on chickpea action. (The Fabulous Mark Bittman's Socca recipe)

Chickpea flour is a fantastic substitute for wheat in any savory application. Chickpeas are a staple in many parts of the Mediterranean, like Sicily, and also in the Middle East and India. Chickpeas grow year round in these areas and can produce a crop in short work. The chickpea is protein rich and a fine source for certain essential minerals. In some areas of southern Italy, they even make sauce for pasta from creamed chickpeas instead of dairy (these regions are historically poor). You can find chickpea flour in the Bob's Red Mill section that every grocery seems to carry, or try The Souk in the market.

Anyone know any other spots that serve either of these specialties, please, for the love of all snacks, share.

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Locavore's Nightmare Is My Un-resistable Weakness

Yes, I know that to be purchasing heavily-packaged foodstuffs that have been flown halfway around the world—thereby causing significantly increased risk of sunburn to equatorial pygmies in the process (to use the delightful phrase of P-I columnist Robert Jamieson; see related post here) — ESPECIALLY when variants of said foodstuffs are available in locally-made form on the very same grocery shelves — is the very height of social and culinary irresponsibility.

And yet. I can't help myself. This stuff is so fucking good!

Apparently I'm not alone either.

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Vanilla Ice Cream and Shadowy Conspiracy: My Two Favorite Things, Now Together!

Haagen-Dazs is selling an altered (!?!?) version of their classic (some would say perfect) vanilla ice cream, now with honey. The goal is to increase awareness of colony collapse disorder, and proceeds from the pint benefit UC Davis and Penn State research programs into this mysterious, spine-chilling, straight-out-of M. Night Shyamalan problem facing bees. Causing problems with pollination. Threatening our very existence. (more info here)

On the up side, this supped up version of vanilla with a touch of rich honey pairs smartly with warmed Northwest berries. Enjoy! (while you can)

(This comes at you from Dan Schumacher at Cottage Living, via their Front Burner blog.) Don’t know how I could’ve missed it on my last few freezer grabs at the grocery, but I’m sharing it because Seattle is one of the top ice cream markets in the country.

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A Moment for an Empanada

There are some places you almost hate to share with others. I think of the lines around the block at Salumi, and how I rarely have the will to wait that long for a porchetta sandwich. The other side of me wants to shout it from the rooftops when I find something so delicious because in Seattle if you bake it, they will flock. Good food can't be kept a secret for long.

But Seattle being a city of neighborhoods, it's easy to miss some things. Like these empanadas from Villa Victoria in Columbia City. Oh why has it taken me so long to find you, you wonderful little pockets of sweet meaty goodness? Perhaps I was too fixated on tahini cookies and pretzel buns from Columbia City Bakery. These beef empanadas are studded with plump raisins and lightly spiced, with a touch of cinnamon. I think dozen of these and some cold beer just became an official weekly staple for me. I still haven't tried the burritos and tamales, mostly because the empanadas and fried plantains are that good.

Villa Victoria
3829 S. Edmunds Street, Columbia City
Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30a to 7:00p

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One Hallava hiding place

Ever since Daily Candy wrote about the Hallava falafel truck last week, I've been craving the stuff. Trouble is, I can't seem to find it. Per Hallava's MySpace page, they supposedly operate at lunchtime Tuesday through Friday at 3667 1st Avenue South, but two trips last week and one today left me wanting. I called Jonathan, thinking he'd know, and he told me that he'd tried in vain to visit the Capitol Hill stop he'd heard about.

Where in the world is Hallava falafel?

And is it worth going?

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Zippy's Fulfills My Dream for West Seattle

They had me the minute I saw the used Dog-n-Suds wrapper framed on the wall. After seeing their "Sorry we ran out of food" sign on Sunday, I was doubly eager to try Zippy's Burger, the new burger joint on West Seattle's east side. "Burger joint" has been on the top of my list of community needs since I moved to this not-quite-an-island.

A standard Zip burger is char-grilled quarter pounder, cheese, a tangy 1000 island-like secret sauce, plenty of onion and tomato for $4.75. Come again? Yes I will. I am a connoisseur of burger stands, and ZIppy's is conveniently on the way to my studio. The service is super sweet, and the woman working the counter is a neighbor. I get the feeling after two visits—you're a regular as far as she's concerned.

I waited, guzzling a Gray's root beer (all the way from Janesville, Wisconsin, tasted just like childhood). The burger joint (can it be a stand, if it's in a building?) has eight root beers, and 25 sodas total, all made with cane sugar. The owners hope to amass an even larger root beer collection in the coming months. Boatloads of root beer trumps a milkshake, agreed?

I'm only going to say this one last time: There is money to be made for a smart, simple business (cough good espresso cough) in West Seattle SOUTH of the Junction and EAST of 35th. We may have far less strollers and Labradors per household, but we're hard working, dual income people who are starving and thirsty.

Bless you Zippy. Bless you and your special sauce.

Zippy's Burgers
1513 SW Holden St.
Mon-Thu 10:30am to 9:00pm
Fri 10:30am to 10:00pm
Sat 11:00am to 10:00pm
Sun noon to 7:00pm

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Early Returns: The Remodeled Virginia Inn

The new Virginia Inn looks about the same as the old Virginia Inn, except it's now twice as big and has a full kitchen. The Muffaletta sandwich, which ranks among my very favorite sandwiches of any ilk in town, seemed to have twice as much meat in it, and the potato chips were fresh-baked instead of Tim's Cascades. Muy bien.

But much to my chagrin, I still waited fucking forever for my sandwich. Granted the place was hopping and they just restarted lunch service, but still — isn't this what the expanded kitchen was supposed to help solve? Anyhoo, my chagrin turned to contentment when, acknowledging my unusually long wait, the bartender comped my sandwich without my asking for such consideration. This is about the only way to turn such a frown upside down, and the bartender handled it perfectly (and was tipped handsomely for his concession). Because of him, I'll be back for more Muff. Repeatedly.

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Thai 65: Roach Free Food Downtown?

Apparently you just can't come back after inspectors find cockroaches ambling across the cooked vegetables bound for customers' curries and swimming rama. At least that's the lesson of Cilantro. In December, the PI reported that the cheap Thai joint at 1st and Marion downtown had the third highest number of food inspection violations in the city. At the time of the story, it was still open (and I had stopped ordering pick-up lunches). But walking past the location on Saturday evening coming off the Bainbridge Island ferry, saw that the place has been redone and is now called Thai 65. Here's hoping they keep the bugs away.

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"Organic To Go": No Go

I'd wandered into one of the Organic To Go delis once before, and was so underwhelmed at the collection of drab, expensive pre-made stuff that I just walked away. Yesterday I needed something for the road and succumbed. Mind you, this Seattle-based chain is apparently doing well for itself. It recently got an infusion of $12 million in private investment to fuel its growth. It's got locations in LA and San Diego. But geez, what a crappy sandwich. My Roast Turkey w/Dill Havarti (don't tell the rabbis) was soggy and tasteless. The tomato slice was like a rubber coaster. There was way too much "vegenaise." (And I'm not one of those for whom ANY amount of "vegenaise" is too much.) Maybe that's just what you get without nitrates, preservatives and the like. I did like the cute little triangular house it came in. Maybe the catering's better...?

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All U Can Eat: Basghetti-n-Meatballs!

My column this Wednesday is about Sicily's hot, juicy red wine, Nero d'Avola. If you don't have any dinner plans tonight, the best Nero d'Avola pairing in town happens on Monday nights at Calamity Jane's in Georgetown...

All You Can Eat Spaghetti, for $7.54. Add meatballs for $1.14 each (pork AND beef, so tender!), and a bottle of Villa Tonino Nero d'Avola for an extra $15. Now that's Italian, but Calamity Jane's doesn't just offer tongue-in-cheek kitsch food. This place specializes in regional, roadside standbys, including that homey, endangered concept: the nightly dinner special. Those of us from the Midwest are suckers for theme nights at the family tavern. Pop in here on a Monday, Wednesday (meatloaf) or Friday (NY steak), and you will be too.

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