skilled with a T

blah blah blah. everybody has suggestions on where to eat. i am relentless with my suggestions and furthermore, i am not sure why i bother to listen to anybody as i seem to dig out places without barely looking. case in point, skillet. have you heard about these folks? sure you have...first - you get an airstream trailer, you go to different locations, you get busted by the health dept., make great food - yup, pretty damn good food too. after a rather important meeting this morning, i went to skillet as they parked in ballard for i had to get me an egg sammy for breakfast. decadent and gooey, this was tasty my friends! crazy texan sweet bread toasted encased with two fried eggs (over easy), some pork and a chili sauce that was not smokey nor too hot but tasty all the way. good. wait, great and maybe a bit much for later i am there four hours later with kak and she orders not only a pulled lemongrass pork sandwich with fries - she orders the damn poutine! i am not even hungry from my late breakfast and yet, i dive into the poutine...thank god we are near a hospital!what is poutine? only the most trendiest of dishes currently here in seattle. quinn's serves it - so do a couple other places and hey, fine with me because it is decadent, delicious and rather weird. i like the name too! so, back to the trailer park food - good times and not a secret by any stretch - there were about fifteen or so people there for lunch! find them, go and rejoice because finally, seattle has street food!!! and it is good. really good.

a little bird told me...

can it be i can be tempted to come back and write some more? sure sure but for now...my pal and tourguide deluxe angela decided to have lunch. er, we went back to txori (read below) and i loved it all over again. so, get ye there...next, i post about something so random, it might be the first of many or the final snacktruck entry.

birdy num num

night before last, jenO and i went to check out txori here in our fair city. this is the new basque tapas/pintxos joint opened by the nice folks at harvest vine (another snacktruck fave!!). very close to the aforementioned tavolata on second ave. in belltown, txori can almost be missed if one is not looking carefully - case in point, jen and i drove by it 2x (she is an awful naviagtor). anywho, i want to say right from the get go i did not take any photos...because i left my camera at home and damn it, in a place this bright the pix would have been nice but i am going to try and let my words explain. attento!

txori is lovely - a fantastic addition solely on the appearance. the entire feeling here is welcoming and warm, i felt as though i was in a place where one could be there for hours and not feel any pressure to do anything other than to enjoy yourself. jen and i both looked at the menu, then the specials on the board which i explained to her as my spanish is always working when it comes to food and it was on. we see calamares en su tinta - stuffed squid cooked in its own ink - uh huh, bring it! , then jen ordered some white anchovy stuffed with tuna...i see two different bocadillo's, chorizo and the other is ham - bring both. we ordered some duck confit served on asian soup spoon...so you ask, how was all of this - PHENOMENAL. made with ease and complete flavor overload - - everything we ordered was fantastic. i decided to order something for myself since jen will only eat eggs from fish and not from birds and i ordered jamon y huevo - simply translated to ham and egg. the chef told me they get some (how much, i dare say just a bit)iberico ham and make rilletes out it...then, they bake an egg in one of those funny looking extra small frying pans and voila, place the rilletes on bread, place the the egg on top - runny yoke and all - - you got yourself something so tasty i thought i was on a farm. ridiculous and sublime simultaneously, so damn good. instead of ordering another one of those, we ordered more squid - another tasty tomato dish which was simply tomato sauce, fried garlic and spanish cheese (tetilla). simple, yet very flavorful. both of us love octopus yet we did not order it nor did we venture and try the albondigas (meatballs) but uh, there is always next time and that next time will be sooner than later. great stuff here!!

you can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! what?

good pal jenny over at yardsale bloodbath along with her wonderful husband tim joined me, my gal pal heather "the feather" and some other folks at cache for christmas dinner. i would have wrote about it but i asked jenny to do so. i like guest starring at her blog so damn it, she can at mine - thanks JENNY!...oh, and no photos of the food because heather was too busy getting drunk. touche! but the photo i posted!? that is from a different cache dinner - so there!

So, I promised your trusty snacktruck host that I'd write about our not-so recent visit to Cache. My husband and I had been listening to him hype it up for a while, getting more and more intrigued ... then when we took a look at their "Christmas at Cache" menu we knew that now was the time to make it happen. We arrived at Cache a few minutes after 7:00, worried about being late,but it turned out we were the first ones there. Our hosts greeted us warmly and led us to their lounge area, where we snacked on pork rillettes (with duck fat!) on toasted baguette and bits of spicy chorizo ... which were promptly accompanied by two martini glasses full of the frothiest yummiest eggnog ever. Two more diners trickled in, then two more, and we all sat around making feeble attempts at small talk until we had a full house of 14 diners. At that point we all filed along to the dinner table where we were served glasses of champagne along with a tasty and refreshing salad of arugula, persimmon, pomegranate seeds and pecans - a nice precursor to the onslaught of amazingly tasty dishes that didn't sit quite so lightly on the tummy. Bourbon-pecan mashed sweet potatoes were served alongside a mushroom-gruyere bread pudding that pretty much blew all of our minds. Next up was the main event, the "7-hour herbed roast leg of lamb," which was to die for ... so tender and incredibly flavorful without being overly "lamby" (know what I mean?). Next up were brussel sprouts cooked with plenty of tasty bacon. I actually like brussel sprouts in almost any preparation, but I think this would have pleased even the staunchest veggie-hater. The feast was all accompanied by various wines, both house-provided (such as a sparkling shiraz which was like a red champagne ... good lord, I never knew such wonders existed!) and those brought in by our fellow diners (including our contribution brought from a recent visit to the Clos Pegase winery in Napa Valley, which I was all excited about, but then turned out to be just OK).Dessert ... first some incredible homemade gingersnaps, then a dessert that I loved, loved, loved: individual English toffee cheesecakes with a tiny smattering of Maldon sea salt on top. This was somewhat tragic, because I was just TOO FULL to do it justice. If you know me, you know I love my sweets, and I really wanted to eat it all up, but I just could not do it. Surprise bonus warm chocolate cookies just added insult to injury, but from the few bites I had, I can assure you that the insult was quite delicious. All in all, it was a fun experience with a bountiful array of food that really would have been amazing and delightful under any circumstances whatsoever ... getting to eat it in a unique and clandestine setting with interesting people was bonus fun!

repetition is ok, isn't it ok?

i have a love hate affair with chicken. when i make it for myself, i love it and for that matter, when someone makes it for me, i love it all over again. when i am dining out, ordering is near impossible as it usually is not good, overpriced or just stupid (it's chicken damn it!). but when i am in l.a. this week, i plan on ordering chicken...oh yes and this is where, VERSAILLES!!! great god above - this is the famous garlic chicken and it is as good as it gets. man oh man, this place is great and no secret to angelinos. i want to try new places but why when food is that good and you are there for only five days? which means i am going ot in-n-out burger and if i am lucky, maybe a visit to el tepeyac and really crank up the cardiac arrest...i guess if that was the goal i'd go to roscoe's too but i digress. why eat healthy while in l.a.? but back to the bird for a moment as i am seriously going to consider the other outstanding chicken in soCal, (i wouldn't do you like that) zankou chicken. for real. i am off to oc/la tomorrow and will report back on my findings or revisits when i get back.

until then, here's a distraction for you - chick this out.

paseo the peas

talking about food is another element that makes eating a great experience. everybody's got opinions and god knows i am not in the least bit shy to share mine. it wasn't too long ago i was asking my pal bksmag what his fave sandwich in seattle is (i actually value his opinion knowing he can easily make the best sandwich in town) and he threw down an entry. mind you that was months ago and just recently another pal h.LO asked me about the best sandwich in town - - - i see a theme...and we all came to the same conclusion...! behold the paseo cuban pork sandwich



this is the hands down winner. both h.LO and i were going on and on about the greatness of this thing. so sorry about the size of this picture as this sandwich deserves so much more...this is not an enormous sandwich, it is big for sure but the tastes are pitch perfect. pork that is grilled and has the flavor of char and maintains the simple pork taste along with carmelized onions, aioli, pickled jalepenos, crunchy romaine lettuce on the right baguette which is both hard and soft - this is thee seattle sandwich. and paseo gives you a little cobette of corn too! oh - did i mention the price at a mere $7.50, this sandwich gets better and better with every visit. what must be mentioned about paseo is that nearly everything else they make is quite good. small, crowded, cash only and a bit nutty, get yourself over here and enjoy.

paseo 4225 fremont ave n. 206-545-7440

2 0 0 7 etc.

ah, the year has come to an end and i thought, why not do a year end type reflection on what snacktruck enountered this year...hmmm. at the beginning of the year (and i mean exactly on jan. 1) i had my finger on exactly what i wanted to eat this year yet i seemed to have lost touch with that. what happened here? i can only reflect on this and come to the conclusion that i got very excited with the 'concepts and potential' of what the year would bring only to know have the hindsight that what i thought i wanted was just merely a hope - not even close to reality. i wanted healthy, vibrant, alive and challenging nourishment and i got some, but not exactly what i wanted. this is not to say i did not have a fun year eating some other things which were tasty and a lot of fun...i did. behold my year of some new, some old and some rediscovered.

that picture above is of tavolata. my first visit brought me there on super bowl sunday and had an exceptional meal consisting of the insanely large t-bone steak with cippoline onions, a sublime gnocci and a standard yet fresh green salad. after going back here and there and having many a good pasta and perfectly grilled tuna, tavolata become one of my favorite places to eat in 07. another place that hit the target this year was the jolly roger at the maritime brewery. anybody who knows me understands my love of this place and i must say i think it is getting better and better. just last week i went there with two people who know the difference between good and great food and we all left feeling as though we experienced one of the finer lunches in seattle! details unnecessary as i will say this, anything ANYTHING you get there will work. whether it be bar food or one of the incredible dinner specials chef dave miller is making - this is one of seattle's unsung places to eat...if you know anybody who has been here - they know. another standout is green leaf in the ID. i love vietnamese food and this place shines like few others in seattle. a month back i was there with three other friends and we ordered bun rice vermicelli, pho, ban xeo
(crepe), fresh rolls and damn it if everything was simply out of this world.


yet, 2007 belonged to not a certain place in seattle and not really even seattle but pdx. i went to portland a lot this year to see what exactly is going on down there...and i came back with many great dining experiences and get this, i have a ton more to try. biggies were le pidgeon, simpatica catering and some taqueria in the alberta neighborhood. what is funny is that i will be back there in a couple weeks! enough of my ranting and raving - i am going to be lazy and ask you to check out this nytimes article on what the hell is happening in the rose city.

back to seattle and hats off to our fair city with lots of new places which were quite good like beato, decent like barolo, some a bit too precious for my taste like tilth and others just plain nutty, coupage - which i liked. next up, i am going to find myself at quinns, how to cook a wolf and txori. reporting later.

feliz ano nuevo amigos!