Setting the Prairie Table at Endolyne Joe’s

Yesterday at Joe’s, our General Manager looked like she had tears in her eyes from the excitement of putting on the Prairie Table menu this fall. Raised by Oklahoma transplants, she told us her memories of tornados and one pot meals, bringing out the inner praire child from all the transplant staff (I’m from Minnesota! Wisconson here! Iowa! Me  too, no way!). Sure enough the foods we ate were the ones that any midwestern child will smile at the memories of and that Coast residents might scoof at, but only because they haven’t tried the Joe’s version.

We started with an appetizer of a pickle plate, because canning and pickling your own crops is a prairie tradition. Similarly, we pickled this all ourselves!

The entrees were equally reminiscent of dinner with the family, back in the day. A one-pot pot roast dinner was a big hit, as was the swedish buckwheat pancakes. My personal favorite (being as I am, a coast dweller) was the Duck on Wild Rice.

This menu will befin on September 12th, so get those taste buds ready!

Sunset Supper Recap

For those of you who didn’t justify the $75 enterance fee to Sunset Supper, you might understand why it was easy for others by the end of this post. Given that all the food and beverages are donated, all of your ticket price is going directly to benefit the Market Foundation, which funds the Senior Center, Childcare, Clinic and Foodbank–and you thought it was just some people selling food.

After the Pike Place Market closed on Friday, Coastal Kitchen, the Hi-Life and Atlas Foods as well as 65 other establishments set up tables of food and drink for event goers. With decorations by artist Molly Norris Curtis, the three Chow booths were getting admiration even before the food began for being the most festive booths.

The Ahi tuna looked beautiful at Coastal Kitchen’s booth, seared on the outside, a beautiful pink on the inside, it sat on top of a crunchy slice of green cucumber, with the bright red charmoula on top. They were served on convenient little one bite spoons that made everything easy to grab.

The Sangriatinis at the Hi-Life were another crowd favorite, especially after sous-chef Janae’s description, “if Sangria and a martini had a baby…” Over at Atlas they were serving up huge platefuls of albacore tuna poke. Tuna seemed to be a common theme at the event, but as Atlas chef John pointed out, ours was the biggest! It was also delicious, with a crunchy slaw underneath to add texture to the fish.

As the night ran on and the food was grabbed away by the excited customers, CHOW did some wandering to find out what else was being served. Duck and tuna seemed to be the stars of the night, with one stall even serving duck bacon. The dishes ranged from the simple, like Beecher’s world famous Mac & Cheese, to the upscale, like the Hunt Club’s smoked salmon terrine with paddlefish caviar (yes, it was amazing). The night was great, CHOW got to see lots of people enjoying the foods of Coastal Kitchen, the Hi-Life and Atlas Foods. We hope that next year you can justify putting your dining dollars towards this amazing fundraiser.

Viva Argentina at the Hi-Life

As our Napa menu at the Hi-Life draws to a close, the preperations are being made for the upcoming menu featuring the food and wine of Argentina. As seen above, Argentina has great natural beauty, and what goes better with natural beauty than good wine? Perhaps good food, but not much else. A huge country, Argentina varies from the southern tip of the world right up to the tropics, so defining the cuisine is not easy. Finding the best of it, however, is our job, and we can’t wait to serve you delicious gaucho steaks from the Pampas, or flatlands, empanadas like the women on the street corner, Malbecs full of flavor from the country side, and lamb from the mountains. Is your mouth watering yet? This menu will begin on September 5th, but I’ll be sure to post more when we taste it.

Cook Like a CHOW Chef

For those of you who haven’t spent time exploring our lovely website, you may be missing out on learning to cook food like our chefs here at CHOW. In the ‘Ask Emily’ section, we have an archive of recipes that people have asked our executive chef, Emily for. In addition, there is a place for you to write in with queries about your own favorite dishes.

Emily loves being able to share her love of good food and the yummy recipes that she and her staff creates, so feel free to write in about any of the dishes, and she will send you back a recipe, and post it for everyone to see online!

Thanks Emily!

America’s Harvest Festival Tasting at the 5 Spot

This past week has started to seem a little more like fall, so we felt appropriate tasting the America’s Harvest Festival. The idea for this festival came from all the great food festivals that are celebrated in the fall all over the country, so there will be one dish on the menu from each of the featured festivals. The appetizers included fried oysters from the local OysterFest in Shelton, Washington, but my personal favorite was the mozzarella cheese curds from Green County Cheese Days in Monroe, Wisconson.

One dish that made us excited for more cool fall weather was the Navy Bean and Ham soup from the Tracy Dried Bean Festival in Tracy, California. Brimming with heartiness, the chunks of ham float around in a tasty broth that makes you feel like cuddling up with a good book in front of the fire.

As we moved on to entrees, we had a dish from the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon in Lafayette, Indiana, and a vegetable entree from the local Wild Mushroom Celebration in Long Beach Washington. The fan favorites by the staff were the Andouille Shrimp, from the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama (that’s right, sausage encrusted shrimp…mmmm), which were served with beer and jalapeno hush puppies and the 40 Clove Chicken from the World Chicken Festival in London, Kentucky. While there might not have been 40 actual cloves, this was one garlicky, delicious chicken! The far and away prettiest dish, however, was the gorgeous Pork Osso Bucco from the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, New York. The deep brown of the meat and sauce was sitting upon the bright yellow polenta and an accent of green broccolini, I had to include the picture up here.

The festival fun continued in to the desserts, as we tested out not just the Whoopie Pies from the Whoopie Pie festival in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but also our own ‘Whoopie-ing’ Skills, with a Whoopie yelling contest. For those who have never had a Whoopie Pie, prepare to be impressed by this sandwich of vanilla frosting between two rich chocolate cookies.

Servin’ up Seafood at Seafood Fest

This past weekend, if you missed it, was the fabulous party known as Ballard Seafood Fest. Chef Anthony was out there helping to serve up delicious crabcake sandwiches and took this picture of our beautiful menu for those of you who want to see. Crabcakes were fun, the weather held up and the music was great! If you want to sample more great food, be sure to check out Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market on August 10th.