Fonte Coffee Roaster & Wine Bar

So, return of the blog! Yay! Background info: I was away for a while and not going out to eat much, hence the lack of recent posts. I'd had some pretty horrible nausea due to 1st trimester pregnancy issues. However, I've been feeling a lot better lately and hope to get the blog going again before it goes on another hiatus after the babies come. I've been taking pictures of a few places we've been to over the last few months, but have just been too lazy to post. So, I'm behind! I'll catch up over the next 4-5 posts or so, with only brief descriptions (as the details are sketchy at this point). Hope to be back to normally scheduled, excessive descriptions of food soon.

So here goes, Fonte is a small little coffee shop right across from the Seattle Art Museum (and previous neighbor of the Lusty Lady). We went here for Mother's Day back in May for brunch and were pleasantly surprised. Their menu is relatively small, and has classics such as pastries and egg dishes. They also boast a few surprises such as a Vegan Tofu Hash, Polenta Waffles, Crabcake Benedict, Duck Confit Hash, etc.

My choice of the day: Pork Belly Benedict with hollandaise, breakfast potatoes, and argula salad. I am a sucker for pork belly, and was so happy to see this as an option for my morning meal. The hollaindaise was not too heavy, but flavorful. Nice portions of moist pork belly. Totally coming back for this dish some time.

So David got a breakfast sandwich. I can't recall if it's the same one on the current menu, (fried egg, soppresetta salami, avocado, argula, tomato), but it was good. :)

Evan had the pancakes with blueberry compote. Now, pancakes are generally pancakes.. but these were probably some of the best pancakes I'd ever had. Amazing... and Evan approved.

Favorites and Places to Visit

So I haven't updated the blog in a long time for various reasons, but thought in exchange for not having gone out to eat in a while, I would compose a list of places that I really like/dislike/want to visit. I suppose I could convert this to a star system if I really wanted.. but I think I'm too lazy for that.

Thumb's Up
Sitka & Spruce
Izumi
Walrus & the Carpenter
Staple & Fancy
Tavolata
Anchovies & Olives
Spinasse
Le Pichet
Assagio (need to order the right items, sentimental)
Tutta Bella Pizzeria
Lark
Harvest Vine
Tilth
RN74
Book Bindery
Cafe Campagne (brunch)
Cafe Juanita
Salumi
Noble Court (dim sum)
Din Tai Fung
Revel
Facing East
Ginza
Pomegranate Bistro

All right places
Palace Kitchen
Volterra
Shiro's (really mostly due to convenience)

Just OK places
Barking Frog

Places I think I liked, but can't remember for sure
Portage Bay Cafe
Seastar restaurant
Luc
Nishino
Kisaku

Places I go to, but probably more for sentimental value/convenience than the food
Anthony's Homeport
Peking Wok
Tai Tung Restaurant
Nasai Teriyaki
Purple Cafe

Places I want to Try
Matt's in the Market
Art of the Table
La Carta de Oaxaca
Poppy
Toulouse Petit
Il Corvo
La Spiga

Le petit cochon
Altura
Corson Building
Paseo
Green Leaf
The Herbfarm
The Whale Wins
Noodle Boat
Big Fish Grill? (Woodinville)
Canlis
Boat Street Cafe
Marche?
Blind Pig Bistro

Eh (Probably won't return)
Joule
Crush
Molly Moon's Ice Cream
How to Cook a Wolf
Trellis
Etta's
Serious Pie

In Memorium (gone, but not forgotten)
Elemental
Chez Shea
Asteroid Cafe
Rovers

Le Pichet

So, ever since the close of Chez Shea (*sniff*) last year, we have been without a favorite French food restaurant in our time of need. After an appropriate period of mourning (almost a year?), we finally went to Le Pichet a few weeks ago. (Weeks ago = poor food descriptions). This restaurant is also located in the Pike Place Market area, though lacking the beautiful view of Puget Sound. The ambiance is very much bistro like, with tiled floors and a walk up bar in the back. Very low pretension. The tables tops are made of slate, with chalk available for children as needed. The restaurant overall was very dark, however we were lucky enough to snag the window seat.

Our meal started with a complimentary amuse bouche of raw radish chunks, sprinkled with salt and pepper with a side of butter. I am not a huge radish fan, by itself. However, it was actually quite refreshing and not bitter at all. I failed to take a picture before we gobbled them up.

Here is an obligatory shot of one of my favorites, Bread and Butter. Evan has taken a liking to putting his hand in the shot lately. Call it artistic.

Appetizers
Pate albigeois. (Country style pork pate with honey and walnuts). This pate was all right. Tasty, but a bit dry and chunky. The accompaniments were classic, except for the honey and walnuts (new to me, at least). It was totally outshone by our other pate we ordered that night.

Sausage special with ramps and potatoes. We ordered this in the hopes that Evan would eat it has his dinner meal. (He is a sausage connoisseur!). Alas, it was not to be and we ate it for him. A little dry, however I believe the sausage was smoked before hand, so probably expected.

Terrine de ris de veau, creme fraiche, et salade au cresson. (Veal and veal sweetbread terrine served with watercress cream and a salad of watercress and pickled radishes). Now this was terrific. Good moisture, flavor, and consistency. The cream sauce with it was a nice bonus. The radishes were fantastic, adding that acidic bite that often accompanies pate! (I probably enjoyed them more than the veal itself).

Asperges grillees, lard Iberico, oeuf mollet et pommes gaufrettes. (Washington asparagus broiled with garlic-lemon oil, thinly sliced Iberico fat back, soft cooked egg and crispy waffle cut potatoes). After all that fat and meet, we had to order some veggies. Asparagus is in season and was the perfect size between not too-thin, not too-fat. See those sheets of film on top of the asparagus? Nope. Not cheese. They were super thin sliced pieces of fat back. Sounds really good, but they were sliced so thin, I'm not sure I got much flavor from them. The soft boiled eggs were the perfect consistency. (Though we sometimes make this dish at home with poached eggs, letting the yolk run everywhere). The waffle crisps were pretty, but a little overcooked to my tastes.

Entrees
Poisson du jour <<Bercy>> et son saute aux epinards et aux salsifis. (Fish of the day poached in white wine fumet, with parsley-lemon butter, heirloom spinach, salsify and crispy Serrano ham). My meal for the night was presented with beautiful rolled fish fillets (some sort of delicate white fish). While pretty, I think I prefer the texture with one fillet bite at time, versus several layers. The sauce was very light, with a small tang of wine and lemon. No heavy butter flavor at all. The Serrano ham added a bit of crunch to go with an overall well balanced dish.

Bavette grillee, beurre aux poireaux savages et sa duxelle rustique. (Grilled Northwest Grass Fed beef skirt steak, wild ramp butter, rustic mushroom duxelles and pommes frites). Probably the best entree of the night. The steak was perfectly cooked and tender. I can't remember what the sauce was on top, but was definitely not an overpowering bernaise. I wish the frites had come with a little aioli dipping sauce.

A pork tenderloin special with leeks. I'm not sure I can describe this one either, as I only had one bite. However, it was probably one of the best cooked pork tenderloins I've ever had. No dryness, whatsoever. Good flavor throughout. The accompanying cream sauce was hard to identify, mushroom maybe? (Yet I still liked it).

Saucisse de canard grille et ses gnocchis aux orties et au fromage blanc. (Pan roasted duck-pork suasage on fromage blanc-nettle dumplings, poultry jus, spring greens, and red wine poached rhubarb). This dried sausage was good, but probably our least favorite entree of the night. The gnocchis were a little disappointing, more mouth filling with little flavor instead of "pillow fluffs." The broth was good, however, was very reminiscent of a Southern collard-green broth.

Dessert
Oh... the desserts... so good!!!

Chocolat Chaud.  This was some of the richest hot chocolate I've ever had. It was like taking a spoonful of the inside of a molten chocolate cake and putting it in your mouth. It just completely covered all taste buds in a thickened, rich, chocolatey goodness. The whip cream on the side was essential to break up the flavor a little bit. So rich, we couldn't finish it.

Passion fruit cake with chocolate shavings and cream. A nice break from the chocolate on the table. The passion fruit was light and renewed the taste buds. Very light cake, almost like a flan.

Mousse au chocolat.  Once again, some very rich chocolate with a side of whip cream. Good density and flavor. We couldn't finish this one either.

Complimentary Caramels. I love caramels. However, we were so stuffed from the other deserts, we couldn't possibly eat these too. They are still sitting on my kitchen counter. I'm sure they are delicious. 

A wonderful meal overall. It was nice to have French food again, and these were very classic, rustic dishes. Definitely will come back again. Still on the hunt for a more "fancy" place.

The Station Pizzeria

So, we live pretty close to the wine country region of Western Washington (Wodinville), and love driving through the area. It is very peaceful and calming to get away from all the traffic (did I mention the bad Seattle traffic again?), and go wine tasting here and there. Unfortunately, Woodinville really needs to work on its restaurants. If the Napa Valley can have world-class dining, why can't we? Instead, we settle for places that are mostly just ok. There are a few chain restaurants that I don't mind eating at for an occasional meal, but really nothing I would drive specifically to the wine area for. (This excludes The Herb Farm, which we haven't made it to yet).

So, in light of that promising paragraph, we took a trip to the Station Pizzeria just off highway 202 for a light lunch. We always see tons of people there and the restaurant is located in the heart of the tourist/tasting area. The outdoor seating has a very casual feel to it. We were very lucky to have a gorgeous day when we visited. The primary focus of the restaurant (as you can probably tell from its name) is wood-fired pizzas. They have several signature pies, with interesting descriptions on the menu, ranging from pulled pork shoulder pizzas to pork belly with eggs, chicken breast with blue cheese, and poached pear with prosciutto pizzas.

We opted for the Cipolla, a "creamy, spicy, sweet, meaty" pizza with Italian sausage, melted sweet onions, ricotta, chili flakes, and toasted pine nuts. We also got a house Caesar Salad.

I really wanted to like the pizza, as I loved the location and the ambiance. The crust had a good density (mostly thin crust, except the edges), but it lacked flavor. It was reminiscent of a soggy, stale cracker of the low-salt variety. The mounds of whipped ricotta were a little disappointing as well. In theory, it's a nice way to present ricotta, I guess (in a catering buffet kind of way). I just think it's already a pretty light density and flavor cheese; whipping it takes away even more flavor to almost nothing. It also left the rest of the pizza rather dry. The caramelized onions and pine nuts were a nice touch, but the sausage was crumbled a little too small. Good amount of overall spice.

The Caesar salad had a nice classic flavor, but some of the greens were browning on the edges and limp.  I always love to see anchovies on a Caesar, adding saltiness when you want. The parmesan tuile was pretty bitter tasting, however. It was flour-y and just had an over-cooked taste to it.

I think overall, it was a disappointing experience. I'm not sure if I would go back, unless we wanted to be daring and try one of the other more interesting pizzas. There are quite a few positive reviews online and the location/ambiance is great! Maybe we'll give it another go when we're sick of Pagliacci's.

Pomegranate Bistro

Went to a little lunch spot in a corporate business park a few days ago that I've been meaning to try out for years. As I understand it, this started out as a catering location for chef Lisa Dupar, but she expanded to create an attached restaurant as well. It is once again, located on the Eastside (bonus!) in Redmond. Style of food: Northwest casual lunch type sandwiches & flatbreads.

Though located in a business park and very sterile on the outside, the inside was vibrant with several different colored top tables with Glass Baby candle holders. There is a huge window in the back, displaying the catering team at work.

We split a Crater Lake Root Beer which was new for both of us. It was fantastic! Low fizz and not too sweet. We actually found a Root Beer store boasting 100+ flavors, not too far from there and stocked up on several different bottles (including the Sprecher that we loved from Milwaukee!)

Roasted Asaparagus Firebread with creamed basil, egg, crisp pancetta and reggiano.
This dish was much larger than I expected and beautiful. It was so tasty, I forgot to take a picture before digging in. The fresh spring asparagus was highlighted occasionally and paired well with the pancetta and soft cooked egg. I didn't get a ton of basil flavor; so it probably was about the perfect amount. The pancetta itself had a pepper crust, giving the whole dish a little spicy kick to it.

Reuben Sandwich with root vegetable chips.
The meat was flavorful, but perhaps a little dry? Most reubens I've had usually have a Russian dressing, which I think was absent here. I did like the pickled red onion instead of the more traditional sauerkraut. The root chips were cooked perfectly.

Overall, this place definitely warrants another visit. There were other items on the menu that sounded really inventive as well. The price was perhaps a little high for lunch, but maybe next time we could get one of the apps and entrée all to split.

Facing East

In our search for food in the Seattle area, we are always looking for more options on the Eastside (of Lake Washington). As we live on the Eastside ourselves, it is often painful and time-consuming to drive over to Seattle for dinner. The traffic sucks. It takes at least 30 minutes to get within the city limits, and another 15-30 minutes to get to whatever restaurant we're headed for. The parking sucks. (Hello? Parallel parking in the rain?.. in traffic!?) We also object to the tolling of the 520 bridge on religious grounds.

All this and more makes it difficult to get out to the new and interesting restaurants more often. Everyone is opening their new restaurants in Seattle! Rarely is there ever a gem to be found on the Eastside, where huge, impersonal restaurant chains abound galore. (Is abound a verb? Something is not right about that sentence).

In any case, we were very pleased to find this Taiwanese restaurant in the heart of downtown Bellevue, just north of the mall. My Dad and I had a debate as to whether or not this was really Chinese food. I claimed Taiwanese food isn't exactly Chinese. He claims Taiwan was part of China, so it's Chinese food. Whatever.

The whole menu has a Chinese food base to it, but with different spices and takes that just aren't classic Chinese. Call it Chinese with a twist.

David and I had been here a couple times  prior, and had been really impressed with it. We tried to get different dishes that we hadn't had prior, so a few of our favorites will be missing from this review. Notably, the beef noodle soup and braised pork stew over rice (pork belly really), were fantastic and extremely flavorful! Alas, no pictures of those this time around.

The ambiance has a very clean and simple, classic Chinese restaurant feel, with updated furnishings. (I must say, the parking lot here is annoyingly tight, however). Ack! No pictures again!

Forgive my descriptions of the food. I have no idea what most of the spices were. (Read: Yay! Something new!)

Appetizers
Five spiced beef wrap
This was a repeat dish for us. I'm not normally a five-spice kind of girl. However, it was subtle enough in these wraps, that I believe it added to the flavor more than dominating the flavor. The outside pancake wrapper is a little thick, with a slight chew. I normally wouldn't like this, but it offset the crisp, light cucumbers and thinly sliced beef well. It kind of reminded me of a Chinese gyro, without the tzatziki sauce. I am not a huge cilantro fan, but it wasn't overpowering in this dish. A nice fresh start to the evening.

Sweet potato flour dumpling with pork stuffing
These did not come out as expected. I think I was thinking more shu-mai style or small, bite-sized dumplings with a clear-broth sauce. Instead, it looked like one large, gelatinous dumpling that had been cut into four pieces with a thick brown sauce. The whole dish was rather thick, actually. I didn't get much sweet potato flavor, as the sauce was a little overwhelming. The pork stuffing was moist, however and tasty (don't remember the flavors!) I'm not sure I would order this again. It wasn't bad, but just kinda gloppy and boring.

Small Plates
Spiced pork stew over rice
Supposedly based off a popular Taiwanese street-food dish, this was comfort-food like in its simplicity. Meat over steamed rice: every Asian's happy place (or at least mine). It was perhaps a little strong on the five-spice, however. I must say, that I prefer the pork-belly version they have better, though.

Noodles mixed in green onion infused oil and soy sauce
I apologize for the blurry picture! (Note to self: always take at least two pictures!) This was also a repeat dish for us. The first time we had it, we were so impressed with the simple, yet flavorful nature of this dish. The green onion infused oil gave a hint of spring flavor and interest to the noodles, without covering the dish in greasiness. The noodles were delicate, (perhaps a little overcooked this second night). The small amounts of cabbage added a touch of crunch to break up the texture here and there. (New blog tradition: Evan winner of the night!)

Braised Chinese cabbage with bacon
Another simple deal. Basic roots in classic Chinese cooking with braised cabbage. The addition of bacon gave it a little more modern flavor, without being too bacon-y and helped to ease the slight bitterness of the cabbage.

Entrees
Sizzling rice with shrimp, squid, pork, quail egg and veggies
So, I've had sizzling rice soup before, which this seemed to be a spin-off of. Not the most refined dish, as it too, was swimming in the mysterious "brown sauce." The chicken was very tender, however. The mushrooms looked like they were probably tasty! (Not a big mushroom lover here). My favorite part was the crispy rice chunks that sizzled as the dish was prepared, table-side. I did manage to find one quail egg that was a lovely one-bite surprise.

Painted hills beef short ribs with black pepper sauce
(Attack of another blurry picture!) This is supposed to be one of their signature dishes. The meat was cooked very well. It was tender and fatty (in a good way), but a little too peppery. A little too spicy overall, but had good potential for a re-order and re-assessment.

Rainbow trout with brown sauce
"Brown sauce" dish #3! At this point, I was a little brown-sauced out. I think the presentation was a little over-much. It was unnecessarily smothered in tons of veggies and mushrooms, whose flavor was lost in the sauce. The trout itself was cooked all right, perhaps a little over done. The outside skin was probably the best part, slightly crispy. (Evan got a kick out of Uncle Chris eating one of the eyeballs).

Overall the meal was all right. The ubiquitous brown sauce made the flavors a little boring. I know this place is capable of more, as we'd tasted more interesting dishes in prior visits. I was happy to have Chinese food made a little differently, with spices I wasn't used to tasting regularly. This may just be the type of restaurant where you have to order the right dishes.. or at least the right combination of dishes with more variety. We will go back again.

Joule

This past Friday, we had the pleasure of eating at Joule, a Korean fusion steak restaurant in the Fremont area of Seattle. I had been been eyeing their menu for years, but just hadn't gotten around to eating there yet. My interests were piqued after going to its little-sister restaurant, Revel, a few months ago (and loved it!).

Joule recently re-opened their restaurant in an old warehouse in Fremont, sharing a space with The Whale Wins (hopefully coming to the blog soon!). The space is very open, with a hint of Asian feel with turquoise colored, flowered wallpaper and an open kitchen/bar area. Very minimalist feeling; not much artwork to be seen. The noise volume of this place was rather deafening once the crowd filled in.

As I went here with my extended family, we ordered quite a few items, and everything blended together at the end. I'll do my best to recall the details, but please enjoy the pictures otherwise. :)

Starters/Appetizers
Salmon caviar dip, yuzu creme fraiche
Opinions at the table were mostly favorable (some, calling it their favorite app of the night). For me, it was a little salty and too runny. The creme fraiche did a nice job of cutting the salt, but maybe not enough? I also didn't get the hint of yuzu at all. Very pretty dish, however.

Beef tartare, Asian pear, spicy cod roe aioli
I preferred this appetizer. Nice bite-sized pieces of meat. The hint of sesame was pleasant, while not being overpowering. The Asian pear was in the smallest cubed pieces I've ever seen, almost undetectable in flavor. I really appreciated the pine nuts for texture. This was not served with crostini, however, and was missed. Very nice texture overall.

Pork belly ham, salted shrimp, chili oil
So this was another appetizer we meant to order at the beginning of the meal, but forget. We subsequently had it during the entree portions. Due to its cold nature, the flavors were a little lost compared with the entrees. In any case, this reminded me of some Chinese flavors I've had before. Again, I definitely tasted sesame. The pork belly being sliced/cooked in "ham" took away from the pork belly. I really prefer it served warm, and in chunks. The flavor was still nice, but perhaps a waste of pork belly? (Just serve ham instead?) The bottom was swimming in chili oil, and I was too afraid to mix it completely (especially given there were serrano chilis hanging out in the bowl as well). I'm not sure I got much salted shrimp flavor either. The sprinkled sesame was attractive. I'm on the fence over whether it detracted from the simple texture of the pork, versus adding interest.

Smoked tofu, honshimeji confit, soy truffle vinaigrette
We ordered this after reading some positive reviews online. The flavor was definitely interesting and had a lot of umami. Not a ton of truffle flavor. I am not usually a mushroom person, but the mushrooms added nicely to the dish, giving some more flavor and texture to the dish. The texture of the tofu itself was a little strange, almost grainy? I prefer a more silken tofu, but this was probably a byproduct of the smoking.

Noodles
Manila clam, fennel pappardelle, salted black bean
This was probably my favorite of the night (and Evan's!) The clams were tasty, and had a hint of that Chinese black bean flavor. (Do Korean's cook with black bean too? I only know Chinese from home-cooking growing up). The wide noodles were perfectly cooked and silky smooth and delicate. I didn't get much fennel flavor from them, however. Perhaps the menu meant the sliced fennel on the side? It was a little vinegary-sweet, but yummy combined with everything else.

Veg
Creamed swiss chard, wild sesame salt
This was fantastic! Think of creamed spinach, but with none of the bitter-irony flavor that annoys the teeth! I think there was a little celery in there as well, but it was so well melded, I couldn't distinguish the flavor.

Entrees
"That" short rib steak, kalbi, grilled kimchi
Another dish I had read about in a review somewhere. The steak was perfectly tender, just the right amount of char on the outside. I didn't get a lot of kalbi flavor. The grilled kimchi on the side added a nice amount of acid, without being spicy. There was a small amount of orange sauce on the side, the flavor of which was, smoky? I'm not sure what was in it, as my taste buds were becoming over stimulated at this point. A little spice on the dish overall. I was a little disappointed, as when I hear the word "short rib," I expect meat to be falling off the fork. The steak was good for "steak," but unexpected for "short ribs." Probably my own bias, really.

Octopus, bok choy, hot bacon vinaigrette
This dish was also wonderful. The octopus was cooked perfectly! No rubberiness here at all!  There was also a nice large amount of octopus to cut off pieces as you willed. The bacon vinaigrette came with small pieces of fried pork belly. Overall the dish melded very well, without having too much of a bacon flavor. Second favorite dish of the night. A touch spicy!

Pork chop, date molasses, charred apple slaw
This dish was cooked well, no dryness at all. I think the pork chop must have been brined prior to cooking. There was a nice thick layer of fat on the top to add juiciness as well. I think I would've liked a little more intrinsic flavor, without needing to dip in the spare dish pan juices on the plate. The apple slaw with brussel sprout leaves was a great addition on the side, adding a little creamy sweetness that complemented the pork well.

Dessert
Sticky toffee pudding cake, date, pine nut streusel
I had high hopes for this dessert. Sticky toffee implies sweet and crunchy. Unfortunately, the cake was too grainy and dense, and lacking in flavor. The streusel on top was nice and crunchy, with a touch of saltiness. I couldn't get over the texture of the pudding cake, however.

Clove macarons
These were complimentary. Too clove-y for my tastes, but made well. Evan loved them!

Overall, we were pleased with Joule, but I'm not sure we would go back again. There were some stellar dishes, but others just didn't follow through well enough with their concept. I found myself wondering where the bowl of steamed rice was to help soak up the flavor. This would be a great place to go for carb conscious people! I would've liked a little more sauce with some of the meat items. Disappointing dessert. Go to Revel instead!