MBK

So, when your coffee shop gives you a Christmas present when you stop in for your morning tea, does that mean A- you spend WAY too much money on tea and coffee every day; B- you looked like you really needed an insulated mug; or C- it's nice to frequent Sips of Seattle, rather than a mega-chain? As CrescentFresh said, "perfectly fine folks" indeed Definitely brightened my day.

Not as much as it will when those two seats become Kappo Koji ...

"I'm heading over to Sushi-Ko around 6, want to join me?" When I heard those words yesterday, I knew things were looking up. I'd been having a bad week, and few things improve my mood like Japanese food, the source of so many of my comfort dishes. Perched on seats at the sushi bar in front of Executive Chef Koji Terano, we put ourselves in his hands. "Some sashimi, some sushi, some small dishes, some cooked food ... whatever you want to serve us," we said. Koji smiled. We started off with a glass of plum wine to whet our appetites, and opened our bottle of champagne when Koji placed our first dish in front of us. According to him, champagne pairs well with sashimi. And it turns out, he's right. Our first course was a sashimi presentation of hirame (flounder) topped with engawa (flounder fin) and lightly sauteed ankimo (monkfish liver), topped with American caviar, micro-scallions and a sauce of ponzu and grated daikon. The combination of flavors and textures was incredible, and I probably could have gone home happy after finishing that plate. But no, silly girl. Thankfully, the time for going home remained hours away. Koji next presented us with a sashimi plate, a selection of hata (grouper), hotate (live scallop), sawara (Spanish mackerel), and big-eye tuna, accompanied with seaweed, daikon, radish, and carrot. What was most remarkable about each of these fish was its texture ... the grouper, with a little bit of chewiness; the smooth scallop; the silkiness of the mackerel; and the melt-in-your-mouth nature of the tuna. I was also surprised at the mildness of the mackerel ... I always enjoy mackerel, but the slightly strong flavor I expected was not found in last night's dish. That explained why Koji suggested we eat the mackerel before the tuna (although he agreed it could go either way) ... neither fish would really overpower the other. Next, we were presented with a cooked dish, tuna three ways - tuna jaw, tuna cheek, and fatty tuna jaw, served with four accompaniments - a salt/chili flakes/black sesame seeds combo, fresh grated wasabi (from South Carolina, who knew?), a yuzu-jalapeno dipping sauce, and lemon. By this point our champagne was gone, and we paired this dish with a burgundy - a perfect match. The jaw presentation was fatty and gelatinous, and a dip in the salt mixture followed by a touch of lemon made each bite perfect. The cheek almost reminded us of a South American pork dish, especially when enjoyed with the yuzu-jalapeno sauce. And the fatty jaw ... it was grilled, with a crisp outside and melting inside, and to my taste needed no accoutrements whatsoever. It was at this point in the meal that my dining companion made his true feelings known. "I love you," he said to Koji. "Me too," replied Koji. The tuna dish was delicious, but to me most important for its educational value ... that such different flavors and textures can be coaxed out of different areas of the head of the same fish was phenomenally interesting to me, and gave me a whole new appreciation of the skill that goes into butchering and dish-planning. So. Not. Done. I have to admit, at this point I was close to throwing in the towel. But I persevered, and I'm glad I did, because in terms of flavor, the next course closely rivaled the first for "favorite dish of the evening" in my book. Koji brought us what he called his "fish and chips soup" - a broth thickened with kuzu (a Japanese root starch) and filled with pieces of seafood (I seem to remember crab, but I'll admit that my memory begins to get a little hazy around this point of the meal) and seaweed. Floating on top was the fish and chips -- lightly fried pieces of flounder, and sweet potato chips. My words can't do this justice - it was just perfect, and perfect at that point in the meal. My excitement about the soup was obvious, and it spurred a conversation with Koji about one of my favorite food memories from my travels in Japan -- the yakimo trucks driving through the neighborhood, selling roasted Japanese sweet potatoes as delicious snacks. The sweet potatoes in Koji's soup were American, but they still invoked a memory from seven years ago, making the dish taste that much better to me. "We've still got to get rolls," my friend leaned over and said to me. I smiled weakly back. "Right." So we did - a white tuna and jalapeno pepper roll, and a roll filled with fatty tuna, shiso leaf, and radish. They were delicious, the jalapeno pepper adding a great zest to the first, and the shiso leaf a nice clean flavor in the second. I only wish I had still been hungry. ETA: Somewhere in there, there was also a lightly cooked lobster tail, topped with bottarga (salted dried mullet roe). Not the most interesting dish, since I forgot about it in my original post! But not bad either...

I could be wrong, I got my info from jparrott. Maybe he was just making a comment about my life, not the pate accoutrement ...

Gin-soaked dates. Just like many of mine

I'm most likely in.

Some days, the crankiness can't be beat by an extra cup of morning coffee. It takes a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a coke from Five Guys. Food for what ails ya. (And a chuckle at the fact that you can buy a cup of fat from the burrito shop next door - hey, at least my day's not that bad.) And for the days when even that doesn't work, there's always internet shopping. Is it Friday yet?

$0.95 per donut, $5.20 per half dozen, and $8.95 per dozen.

I too was unimpressed. I ate my donut there, piping hot, and found it sickeningly sweet. And I have quite a sweet tooth. Maybe a different topping combination would be less sweet (I went with their "signature" O.C. Sand - honey and cinnamon sugar - so I probably should've known it would be sweet), but I can't say I'll be hurrying back.

My second meal there, for my dad's birthday in September, was indeed pedestrian. Didn't come close to my experience there in March. I don't know if there's been a change in the kitchen, or if my pleasant experience in the spring was an anomaly.But I'm not sure I'd go quite so far as to say Cheesecake Factory would have been better...

Manny's is legit. It's where I first impressed my then-boyfriend ... he doubted that a teeny-tiny person like me could put away one of their corned beef sandwiches, and a massive latke. I proved him wrong. I wonder if my friend the meat-slicer is still there. I went so often during my three years in Chicago that he recognized me, and got started on my regular order the second he saw me in line.

Saint Ex's sweet potato tart will satisfy any fall dessert cravings you may have.* But hurry, my server warned me that it would probably be leaving the menu at the end of the week. *And yes, this does mean I had pumpkin pie and sweet potato tart yesterday. A good November day, if you ask me...

Tis the season, I'm having daily cravings for pumpkin (or sweet potato) pie. I don't think I can hold out til the weekend, when I'll have time to actually make one ... any recommendations of where I can buy a good one?

bump

Between the gray and dreary day outside, and me feeling a little bit under the weather this morning (um, right, stayed up way past my bedtime watching election returns...), I was in need of some comfort food at lunch today. What I was really craving was a bowl of chicken noodle soup, but I didn't think I'd be able to fly my grandmother up to make some in time for lunch. So I decided to wander over to Corduroy ... and had what very well may be the perfect comfort meal! I had already decided I was getting whatever came with the mini ravioli, so when I found that it was roast chicken, I was sold. And when it came out, swimming in a delicious broth filled with herbs, I realized that I had just ordered Chef Power's version of chicken noodle soup. What could make this meal more soothing? A steaming, delicious cup of Leaves of Provence tea, as recommended by the ever-friendly Christopher at the bar. If only I could've stayed there sipping tea all afternoon...

We served a turducken (that we ordered from a butcher in Lafayette, LA) a couple of Thanksgivings ago. Being a native Louisianian, I wanted to love it, and I had enjoyed the homemade one my boss in Lafayette served for Thanksgiving the year before. (He even hunted the duck himself, but that's another story...)My take on the commercial version, though, was that it is entirely style over substance, and pretty much not worth the expense and hassle. It's hard to get a good idea of cooking time, so, as you said, you wind up drying out the turkey to ensure the chicken cooks through. Having said that, most of the people at our Thanksgiving table raved about it for weeks ... so if you're serving people who will go nuts for the "wow" factor, it'll do the trick.

I had lunch at the one downtown the other week and found nothing to distinguish it from Chipotle or Baja Fresh. Except that they serve Dr. Pepper.

Busboys is a good idea, as is Open City. My book club used to pick a restaurant with food that connected in some way to the book, and make the evening into a dining AND book-discussing experience. And now we meet at our homes, most of which have comfy chairs or couches, the ability to be as loud or as quiet as we like, and tasty food and beverages.

Pumpkin pie ice cream is back. Joy. Rapture. Glee. (Almost makes up for having to work late tonight. Almost.)

Fitting last words from Johnny Apple

It's not about being Pareve (neither milk nor meat). It's about being Kosher for Passover. According to some (Jews of Eastern European descent, to be specific), corn (and corn byproducts) are kitniyot and therefore not KP. See http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?showt...664&hl=passover. (Can't seem to make the hyperlink work, sorry...)

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Just a note, August 29 is the anniversary of Katrina, and some area restaurants will be participating in Share our Strength's Restaurants for Relief. Not necessarily a plus or a minus for your group, but it might affect your ability to get a reservation at some participating restaurants.

Frostburg I spent a weekend at Savage River Lodge a couple of winters ago... it was really relaxing and the hikes were great. (The guides on the hikes are super, and if you have any interest in botany or biology, you'll enjoy learning from them.) One of these days I'm going to go back and take cross-country skiing lessons, there wasn't enough snow the weekend we were there. As for food... I couldn't find anything of interest when I researched Frostburg, so we wound up at the restaurant at the Lodge (I'm pretty sure it was the same chef as it is now, but I could be wrong). Which, according to their website, is award-winning. But we found it just average. Certainly not bad, and we enjoyed its proximity to the cabin, and the Lodge's roaring fireplace and downstairs ping pong table ... but it wasn't spectacular. They rave, by the way, about their bacon-wrapped meatloaf ... which I thought was fine, but not rave-worthy.

I'm not vouching for your mental acuity or lack thereof , but you're right to say that this place wasn't that bad ten years ago -- I believe it started in Chicago and it was one of my go-to sandwich places when I lived there. But the past five years or so have not been kind to this chain...