You know what you missed if you didn’t keep a close eye on the Voracious blog (seattleweekly.com/voracious) this week? Everything! We went broad and deep last week in our hunt for all the best (and worst) news from the world of food, and we came back with everything from burgers and sweet peppers and jalapeno poppers and whiskey to the reasons why Noma’s Rene Repzepi doesn’t like Scandinavian black metal and pictures of Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi naked.
To start, we had a nice discussion about the best places for the new Dick’s Drive-In location, set to open in or around Everett. When we were done with our location scouting (Kenmore or bust!), all the rest of you weighed in with your opinions on the matter until I’m pretty sure every single non-residential address in all of Snohomish County had been mentioned.
Speaking of new locations, Than Brothers is opening its 12th pho shop on Mercer Street in Queen Anne. Steve Han, owner of Umi Sake House, has picked up a new space at 1522 12th Ave. (though he’s not saying yet what he’s planning on doing with it). The new Bellevue location of Cupcake Royale threw a grand opening party to celebrate the opening of the shop, inside a former IHOP at 21 Bellevue Way Northeast. And by the time you read this, Matt Janke’s new restaurant, Lecosho, will have already added a lunch service after just a couple weeks in business. The menu, which includes a jumped-up BLT with bacon, lettuce, roasted tomatoes and bacon aioli and poached tuna salad with olives, capers and potatoes, looks amazing.
Food Pairing for the Modern Sophisticate took on the thorny issue of formal cutlery—giving sound advice on the use of such esoteric eating tools as the oyster fork, the coke spoon and the ice hammer. Things like: “As its name suggests, the ice hammer is used for crushing ice for cocktails, but may also be employed to make ‘artistic adjustments’ to any ice sculptures or statuary in the host’s home, to knock the wangs off of garden cherubs or Michelangelo’s David in the name of common decency (said wangs should then be used like ice cubes in the nearest available cocktail), or to crush the skulls of one’s romantic rivals.” We also talked about the new National Restaurant Association survey of hot menu trends for 2010 (and ranted a bit about the fact that French cuisine, in terms of hotness, ranked 204th on a list of 214 culinary terms and trends), and began putting together a collection of pet peeves and petty annoyances that drive us all crazy when eating out at a fine restaurant. Folks have been chiming in on that topic for days now—maybe not so frequently or passionately as they have with suggestions for a new Dick’s location, but still …
In other news, we examined the meaty offerings of Bob’s Quality Meats, ate pupusa at Guanaco’s, drank manhattans at Endolyne Joe’s and talked about Joule chef Rachel Yang and her husband Seif Chirchi’s plan to open a new restaurant in Fremont. Called Revel, it’s scheduled to open in December.
