Opa! To the Hi-Life

The Hi-Life’s Greek tasting last week had a bit of a buzz around it. It doesn’t start until February 20th, but Greek food is commonplace here in America and much loved by many of the staff members. The challange that Chef Robin faced was to transform those classic Greek comfort foods found all over the world into dishes that reflect the individual style of the Hi-Life. She did a wonderful job, each dish was presented to oohs and ahhs of the staff. Flavors that we knew we certainly present, but each dish was a journey from island to island.

The spring salad was garnished with cucumber wrapped quail eggs and fried potatoes, which gave it a richness that was cut through by the pickled red onions. For those of you who have had Kaseri flash-fried before, Robin took this to a new level, serving it with roasted red grapes and brandy flambeed figs, served up in a fried grape leaf (which makes for a tasty munch).

Of the small plates, my favorite was the Skordalia stuffed artichoke.

Half an artichoke is steamed, then stuffed with skordalia, a thick, garlicky mixture, then served with lemon parsley oil. For seafood lovers, in honor of Greece being an island nation, there is a small plate of squid two ways, which I enjoyed, one of them being grilled, the other being fried, all served with an olive and fried lemon salad.

 The large plates were equally impressive, featuring mountains of seafood, classic cuts of lamb and pork, and the crispiest, most delicious chicken in town.

Stuffed with mizithra cheese, golden raisins, greek sausage and pinenuts, this was amazing. An entire chicken comes on this, along with saffron rice, watercress and a red pepper coulis. As I mentioned to another staffer, the Hi-Life has an amazing way with chicken.

Paris Tasting at the Hi-Life

When you say Paris it conjures up the image of street side cafes, of bistros and brasseries, food as a focal point in social life. It certainly lived up to that reputation at yesterday’s Paris menu tasting at the Hi-Life. Because of Thanksgiving scheduling, you only have to wait a week to taste this one, it will be going up next Wednesday, December 5th.

One of my favorite aspects of this menu was the downright winter-i-ness of it. Each item made you feel cozy and warm, which, as we in Seattle know, makes for a good end to a grey day. Obviously I can’t tell you about all the dishes but I’d love to point out some favorites. We have what is being called a “petite frites” which is basically a mini-steak frites. This was perfectly cooked hanging tender accompanied by the tiniest fries you’ve ever seen. A fantastic winter warmer appetizer was the Roquefort stuffed apple. Warm and creamy Roquefort (a high quality blue cheese) and walnuts areinside a perfectly baked apple–just soft, not mushy. As you can see below, this is served with a classic Paris item, a baguette. 

Moving onto our platters, there is a whole chicken that was, as the chicken always is, well recieved, but my personal favorite was the whole duck. The thighs are confit, and they flambe the whole thing and serve it in cognac cream sauce with potatoes and spinich. But I wanted to include a picture of the holiday color perfect buckwheat crepes. Ooozing with gruyere and sorrel, these crepes make for an excellent bite, but the dark of the buckwheat combined with the bright red of the beet chips was so beautiful. Combined with the white beans and the green of the kale, and this made for a holiday photo. The best tasting one I’ve seen in a while. 

Outsourced Screening Party

Last night at the Hi-Life our wonderful chefs had an opportunity to flex their culinary muscles a little when they cooked up a great after party following the nearby screening of the movie “Outsourced“. The movie, which looks hilarious, is the story of a man who must go to India to train the people replacing the outsourced jobs from his company in the U.S. In keeping with the theme of the movie, our chefs provided a brilliant party menu to feed the crowds following the screening. I thought the dishes sounded so interesting that I would share them with all of you.

Outsourced Menu:

Beef and Goat cheese flatbread

Leek and Gruyere tart

Vegetable and Beef Samosas with mint and cilantro chutney

Coconut Lamb with apricot chutney

Crab cakes with spicy aioli

Garbanzo Dosas: Delicate crepes stuffed with garbonzo spread, pickled cucumbers and radish sprouts

Lamb burgers

Sesame prawns

Pancetta Flatbread with dried fruit marmelade

Polenta rounds with quince paste and paneer cheese

Bhajis: salt cod fritters with zucchini

Serrano Manchego Tart

Squash Bites with hazelnut pesto

Tandoori chicken skewers with tomato chile sauce

Argentina Menu up at the Hi-Life

So I’m a bit behind with the post, but on Wednesday this week, the menu featuring food and wine of Argentina began at the Hi-Life. When setting up the menu to feature the delicacies of this South American behemoth, we changed things up a bit. We moved a few of the small plates, which were Argentine themed over to the Argentina side of the menu so that when you are making a meal, you have the opportunity to keep the Argentine flavor running throughout. I was, unfortunately, on vacation when they tasted the menu, so I have only had tried a few of the dishes. The Chimichurri Chicken, however, was one of them, and it was amazing.

I did, however, have the opportunity to taste the breakfast and lunch options, which was really fun, since I have spent a good deal of time in Argentina. One of the neat things about tasting a menu is that because these are not authentic dishes, but rather our chef’s interpretation of traditional themes, is that I got to reminisce about the flavors of Argentina while trying new and exciting dishes.

The Francesa Yerba, or yerba mate french toast, was a big hit, topped with that ever present staple of Argentina, dulce de leche. The most authentic of all the dishes was certainly the empanada, a flaky crust wrapped around all the usual suspects: meat, potatoes, hard boiled eggs. But to me, the most beautiful was definetly the pizza.

Pizza, due to the influence of Italians in Argentina is quite common. In fact, it is probably more common there than even here in the U.S. But this pizza was not the traditional Argentine ham and cheese smothered mess, but an eloquent expression of Argentine flavors–chorizo, manchego, fresno peppers, topping the Hi-Life’s usual thin crust and cooked in the wood fired oven.

This menu is up until December 2nd, so enjoy these fall flavors while they last.

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.

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.

Napa Valley Vinos and Nibbles at the Hi-Life

Yesterday was the Hi-Life’s tasting for their new menu featuring the food and wine of Napa Valley. The first thing I have to say about this tasting was that it was beautiful, all the presentations looked amazing! Prepared waiter Jonah was there with his camera and took some pictures, so hopefully we’ll get those up soon. Secondly, everything was geared toward the summer. It all matched the amazing sunny whether we had, I just envisioned myself sitting out on the patio with golden gazpacho soup and proscuitto and peach salad! And of course, a culinary tour of Napa would not be complete without the amazing wines that made this region famous. General Manager Elizabeth and resident wine maven Kitty did a great job of educating the waiters so be sure to ask your server for their recommendations from our extensive list on Napa bottles and glasses when the menu comes up on June 6th.