Tidbits from Jamaica: Part 1

For your entertainment, Coastal Kitchen General Manager Madison has offered to share with you the hilarious stories of her and Chef Nate’s research trip to Jamaica (Yes, they agree, its a rough life).

At each resort, Madison explains, there was a “Security” man, who assured the guests that he would take good care of all of their gear while they enjoyed the surroundings, soaked up the sun and took a dip in the water. This security, they were told, was available and free to resort guests, but with one small cavaet. If you are going to purchase drugs, said Moses, the security guy, you must only get them from me. Madison, having agreed to this cavaet smiled and thanked Moses.

“Do you want any weed?” He asked her. She smiled and shook her head no, but then, just in case it was pottery and not pot she was interested in “How about some bamboo pottery?”

Best of the City: Public Service

If you have recieved your July ‘Best of the City’ issue of Seattle Metropolitan, you may have noticed that on page 62 CHOW Foods and Dine for Darfur are voted best public service!

Face painting and pizza: A match made in Mt. Baker

If you walked by Mt. Baker Park last Thursday around 5 o’clock, you might have witnessed a little bit of chaos: pizza trajectiles flying over red flags, children learning to spin dough like an expert, balloons tied to wrists and a long line for the face painting booth. The weather did us a favor and kept the sun shining for the length of the Mioposto Solstice Dough Throw, allowing kids of all ages to participate in this fun and functional fundraiser for local children’s theater group Pied Piper.

The event was a rousing success, with many happy children leaving the park painted, ballooned and full! Families took the opportunity to spend the evening in the park, taking their pizzas to go, which added a picnic element to the already festive atmosphere.

 If you didn’t make it this time, keep your eyes peeled on this blog for news about other upcoming events at Mioposto and other CHOW restaurants.

Bored at work? Enjoy the Sunshine at the Solstice Dough ‘n’ Throw!

Next Coastal Kitchen Travel Destination

Even though we are just getting around to trying each and every dish on the Jamaica menu here at Coastal Kitchen, I have just learned that the kitchen staff are hard at work preparing for the fall menu, featuring the food, wine and decor of Casablanca. Having only seen the movies, I’ll have to wait for the tasting to let you know about Chef Nate’s delicacies and GM Madison’s tales of culture and her decorations.

Atlas Update: Billy Bob Returns

Wednedsay the 20th is being heralded as the return of Billy Bob! Billy Bob, once a fan favorite at Atlas, has since moved on, but this pork dish comes back in a new form: Tenatively called ‘Son of Billy Bob,’ it comes accompanied by hush puppies and some flavorful kale and tomato. This dish was one of the 3 new dinner entrees tasted this week–I’d love to tell you the staff favorite but there was no consensus, as all three were amazing.

The tasting of the breakfast dishes was equally successful, with the staff favorites being the French style breakfast–thick bread toped with black forest ham, gruyere and an egg, and the blintzes with blueberry compote. Along with these favorites, there was also Latkes and a brand new scramble.

The most fun part of the tasting? Definetly checking out all the new summer cocktails, just made for a sunny afternoon on the Atlas patio!

Tasting for Brazil Menu at Joe’s

This here is the grilled pork skewers, a staff favorite from yesterday’s tasting of the Brazil menu which will be coming up on the menu on June 20th. Like much Brazilian food, these included a bit of tropical fruit, with grilled pinapple on the skewers and a chutney-like mango sauce with a hint of spice. Aside from tropical fruit the menu had a lot of traditional Brazilian elements such as heart of palm, yucca (also known as cassava or manioc) and of course some gaucho style steak.

Brazilian food takes inspiration from the native people, the Africans brought there as slaves and the Portuguese settlers, which all combine to delicious and varied cuisine. Additionally the wine list for this menu draws from all of these regions. We tasted an amazing Torrentes wine from Argentina, La Yunta, a unique South African wine, and a few from various areas of Portugal.

 Be sure to check out the new menu June 20th!

Dine for Darfur featured in the PI

 In Wednesday’s PI, columnist Robert Jamieson wrote about the crisis in Darfur and the difficulty of helping from your cozy couch in America. He interviewed CHOW co-owner Jeremy Hardy for the piece and discusses Dine for Darfur in it. It’s nice to see Dine for Darfur still being brought up 2 months later and it inspires us here at CHOW to keep working towards another event, perhaps bigger and better, for next year!