South Bank Projects

Hamburgers, processed sameness or monster meat feasts, are a staple at fast food joints and backyard barbeques across the world. So pervasive that they rarely rate a mention when I consider good food or new dining experiences but Cascadia Restaurant caught my attention.

The five o’clock queue surprised us but we found a nice corner of the bar to enjoy our burgers and Cascadia’s signature drink, the Alpine Martini. A small Douglas fir snowball bobbing in Absolut Citron vodka, slowly releasing it’s sweet goodness into the liquid for an evolving cocktail that tastes like Christmas trees.

Giada raved about Cascadia’s miniburgers and they have a cult following in Seattle but do they live up to the hype?

We sampled four toppings; barbeque lobster, black truffle butter, blue cheese and green pepper salsa, and each gave the lean beef patties a unique flavour experience. You can also choose wild King salmon or veggie patties if beef is not on your forte. We loved them, the barbeque lobster is a decadent delight and the green chillis a burning sensation but I’d pass on the black truffle butter in favour of Oregon blue cheese.

Good food and interesting cocktails bring in customers but the staff and ambiance turn them into regulars. Cascadia Restaurant has a loyal clientèle and the staff provide a great old world style service. Michael, our barman, reintroduced me to tokaj, a Hungarian dessert wine and gave us excellent recommendations to best enjoy the miniburgers. The best Happy Hour in Seattle.

Dine Around Seattle is a fantastic promotion for local restaurants and Market Street Grill provides one of the best experiences for local foodies. Rather than limit your dinner choices, choose from their entire range of entrees and desserts for a true Market Street Grill experience. Start with a soup or salad for great $25 value.

The roasted tomato soup, creamy rich goodness in a bowl drizzled with olive oil and crutons served in a portion that satisfied without ruining your appetite. Neither of us tried the salads but they looked appetising and enjoyed by diners at the tables around us.

Our taste buds in harmony, we both chose the venison sausage as the main course. The sausage filled with finely minced venison matched in balance with herbs and spices created a milder flavour sensation than I expected, a pleasant surprise. Served on a bed of roasted butternut squash and salt encrusted potatoes with a huckleberry demi-glace and chanterelle mushrooms that were perfect accompaniments to the venison.

I finished with an apple-cranberry pistachio crisp with madagascar-vanilla ice cream, all my favourite dessert ingredients in a small white cup. My partner chose the profiteroles filled with toasted coconut ice cream and wrapped in hot chocolate poured at the table to ensure the pastry kept its crispness.

Our wait staff were attentive but not intrusive, and created a fantastic dining environment for us.

Fish Club restaurant located in the Seattle Waterfront Marriott is a wonderful open venue and offered an intriguing menu as part of the Dine Around Seattle promotion.

Colleen started with an asparagus soup with dungeness crab, an interesting blend of flavours that she enjoyed while I surprised her by trying the fried olives in a tomato ragu. Fresh olives languish in my bowl at most meals but the delicious hot olives with fresh baked bread won me over but their salty goodness can overwhelm your palate.

We selected Fish Club for the Seafood Gumbo, and though the kitchen produced a spice explosion it lacked the profusion of seafood that we expected in this dish. A small piece of unremarkable fish did not replace the mussels and shrimp we anticipated in this Cajun favourite.

Rich vanilla-ginger panna cotta in an apricot anglaise saved the dinner but only just for these diners. Fish Club’s regular menu may offer better choices but we’ll try elsewhere for our next seafood meal.

We took a hiatus from our 26 dinners project over February, business travel and a birthday dinner at our favourite restaurant did not leave time to seek out new culinary experiences. We also saved some money for this month’s Dine Around Seattle promotion, $25 for a three course meal at 25 of Seattle’s best restaurants. First on our list, Nell’s Restaurant in the Green Lake area.

A comfortable corner table in Nell’s cosy split level dining room afforded us a view of their glass enclosed kitchen where we could watch the food preparation. The three course $25 menu covered a fine selection of their menu options and an interesting selection of wines to accompany your choice.

I started with succulent pork belly, the sweet flesh melted in my mouth and aroused my senses for the remainder of the meal. Colleen chose the grilled octopus with arugula, reminiscent of Italy’s Cinque Terre region we love, she enjoyed every mouthful.

Alaskan Cod served on a bed of cabbage and potatoes with a butter sauce, a simple presentation matched well with a Spanish white wine did not overwhelm my senses but I enjoyed it. The duck confit with creamed parsnips is a better choice if you want a taste sensation.

Dessert won best in show at this dinner, Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding with thick whipped cream, I would skip the appetiser to make room for this classic. Paired with a Graham’s Six Grape Ruby Port, a meal does not end any better than this one did.

The staff are a tentative but not intrusive, and happy to discuss the finer points of your meal if asked. Give Nell’s a try, and do not forget to express your impression to the chef behind the glass as you leave.

Everyone has a dream but for me a dream is an unrealised goal and those dreams become a testament to your inaction of the years. You can live in your dreams, millions do that every day, but if you act to achieve your goals then dream becomes reality. Trust me, reality is a much nicer place to live.

Robert Burch dreamed of being famous, if you don’t recognise the name I’m sure you’ve heard of his alter ego the Naked Cowboy, currently Time Square’s most famous cowboy. While the path to his goal is unconventional, the methods he applied are simple and each of you can use them to attain your dream.

Can you be like the Naked Cowboy?

Fine dining around the Puget Sound usually mens a trip west to Seattle but Sip is sure to draw people east to Issaquah for a fine dining experience. Executive Chef Cody Reaves and his staff have created a dining experience not often found in the heart of suburbia, and our experience compared well to our gold standard, Seastar Restaurant in Bellevue.

Eric, our table host, explained the restaurant’s philosophy and menu providing an insider’s understanding of the experience they hope you have at the restaurant. We both settled on the Jumbo Tigers (prawns), and Eric recommended a Mills Reef Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) to accompany the meal. An excellent choice, the crisp fruity wine worked perfectly with the prawns, mango crab stuffing wrapped in prosciutto.

My wife let out a little gasp of pleasure at the first mouthful of wasabi mash potatoes, an unusual response that reflects the strong feelings Cody’s food can invoke. The tiger prawns is fast becoming Sip’s signature dish but Chef Cody varies the menu to take advantage of the best and freshest ingredients. The desserts matched our entree for intensity, the Creme Brulee Trio features a daily change of flavors but the espresso deserves a permanent place in the trio. The Chocolate Flight is enough treats for the worst chocoholics. The hot chocolate shot, a warm velvet drink worth savoring to the last drop, the slim shot glass alone stopped Colleen licking up the last drops.

SIp deserves to succeed, great innovative food, a fine well priced selection of wines, friendly knowledgeable staff and a commitment to excellence  that we look forward to sampling again.

Advertisers strive to make slogans a part of our lives, why not twist their aim for your own purposes. Here are five of my favorites:

1. Just do it. (Nike) Stop procrastinating, get out there and try something new.

2. Think different. (Apple) Your thoughts got you this far, did you enjoy the journey? No, time to think differently and change the road you are on.

3. Even your best friends won’t tell you. (Listerine Mouthwash) It’s true, you have to make the change and decide the course your life should take from here.

4. Be all that you can be. (United States Army) You do not have to join the Army to be all you can be, just answer the door for opportunity and then keep inviting him over each week.

5. Can’t Beat the Feeling. (Coca Cola) Self-improvement is greatest feeling you can experience, don’t you deserve the best?

What slogan would you adopt to inspire your life?

Books; we read them, cherish them, collect them and many of us want to write one but the process overwhelms us like waves crashing into a beach, it knocks us off our feet. The relentless parade of editors, publishers and agents poking and prodding your work into a marketable product can be frustrating, almost intimidating for some people. Until recently, the only alternative was an expensive vanity publication that fills your garage but graces few bookshelves but print on demand technology is opening new doors.

Using print on demand, a writer can produce a work for an intimate audience without the waste of a large print run. It can also provide an avenue into the market for writers who could not find the right agent or publisher to help their dream into print. While most of these titles lie unknown except to the author’s inner circle, occasionally one leaps into the mainstream like A Weird And Wonderful Guide To Barcelona by Le Cool, as reported by Lee Atkinson (Sydney Morning Herald).

Now all you have to do is write it.

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Momento

One of my South Bank Projects is to take photographs every day this year, and along the way improve my technique. Helping to improve my technique is Chris Marquardt’s podcast, Tips from the Top Floor. Chris covers a lot of ground in his weekly show, speaking to both professional and amateur photographers with clarity and humor. Listen to this week’s Photocast Network Roundtable, its a great introduction to Chris and a number of other photography focussed podcasters.