For those who missed out on last month’s Dine Around Seattle, you have another wonderful opportunity to try out some of Seattle’s finest restaurants at an affordable price. Next week kicks off the first-ever Seattle Restaurant Week, presented by the Seattle Restaurant Cooperative and SeattleTimes.com.
Over 100 amazing restaurants throughout King County will be offering 3-course dinners for just $25 (Note: valid Sun-Thurs only). Some restaurants will also be offering lunch for $15. Need I say more? If you haven’t already done so, make your rezzies now – the restaurants are booking up fast!
For more information and the list of participating restaurants, check out the Seattle Restaurant Week website. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook for a chance to enter giveaways/contests.
I went to my second Foodportunity networking event (read about my first experience here) last night at Tom Douglas’ Palace Ballroom, and had an absolute blast. I mean, how could I not — tons of amazing food from some of Seattle’s top restaurants, Q&A session with local chefs/restaurateurs, speed networking session (which looked more like speed DATING for foodies ), the list goes on.
With all the mingling, I barely had time to eat n’ tweet (tragic, I know!) or even take any photos — so you folks will have to just deal with a drab and wordy recap this time around. Of the nibbles I did get a chance to try, here are my favorites (in no particular order):
Garlic smoked oysters from Hama Hama (their pickled oysters were pretty bomb, too)
If you haven’t been to a Foodportunity event, ummm get on it. For an affordable price (tickets are usually under $30), you get to experience everything I highlighted above and then some. Here, I’ll make it easy for you — follow Keren (event organizer) on Twitter for details on upcoming events.
Now back to packing for my big trip to Korea — only T-minus 3 days left!
Last night, I had my rookie volunteer experience at FareStart’s Guest Chef Night, an incredible event with an even more incredible group of people.
FareStart is a Seattle-based nonprofit that brings hope and opportunity to the less fortunate through the wonderful world of food – from training homeless/disadvantaged adults for careers in the food industry, to providing nutritional meals to shelters and low-income childcare centers. Check out this video to hear some truly amazing and inspirational testimonials from the instructors and students:
Every Thursday is Guest Chef Night at FareStart’s restaurant. This highly-coveted event is beyond fabulous and is a win-win situation for everyone involved. For one, the students have the unique opportunity to train with some of Seattle’s top chefs. It’s also a great way for the general public to enjoy fine dining at an affordable cost (3 courses for just $24.95!), while giving back to a wonderful cause. This week’s Guest Chef was Jason Franey, executive chef of Canlis, and it was no surprise that the event was sold out, with over 100 people still on the waiting list.
Chef Franey was nice enough to take a quick pic with me
Needless to say, I picked one of the busiest nights to volunteer and had to learn fast and move even faster. Having ZERO experience serving food/waiting tables, and with my tendency to trip over my own two feet, I was a nervous wreck from the get-go. And it didn’t help my nerves to have one of FareStart’s top board members sitting at my first table. Luckily Mr. M has a heart of gold and was very patient and encouraging with me. I managed to make it through the night without hurting myself, my guests or causing any physical damage to the property. Whew!
Chef Franey and team created a delightful menu for the guests (volunteers/staff also got to enjoy the spread at the end of the night – the food was phenomenal!):
Amuse Bouche: Pea soup shooter w/ crème fraiche
Starter: Canlis salad (romaine, bacon, Romano cheese, fresh mint, oregano w/ a dressing of lemon, olive oil and coddled egg)
Entrée: Beef tenderloin w/ carrot puree, peas and cumin
Veggie entrée: Risotto w/ black truffle oil, parmesan and mascarpone
Dessert: Vanilla bean crème bruléew/ market fruit
The real highlight of the evening was the graduation ceremony – what a wonderful way to honor the students’ hard work and success in the midst of a large gathering of supporters.
This week's graduate awaits his Certificate of Completion. Congrats!
I had such a great time volunteering, that I look forward to doing it again soon. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for all kitchen staff and servers – you people work your tails off and are not recognized enough! My hats off to you!
My rockstar teammate Nita and I still smiling after a very busy night!
Let’s be honest, while going out to a fancy restaurant can be an exciting experience, it ain’t too nice on the ol’ pocketbook. That’s why I for one am super stoked about Dine Around Seattle, which kicked off today and will be going on every Sunday through Thursday for the entire month of March.
In a nutshell, Dine Around Seattle is a fine-dining experience at an affordable cost — 3-course dinners for just $30 at several of Seattle’s top restaurants. Looking for a bite during the day? Some of the participating restaurants are also offering $15 lunch menus.
So if you’re looking for a great dining experience for a special occasion or to entertain visitors this month, be sure to take advantage of this opportunity. I know I will!
PS: Don’t forget to check out some amazing recipes from the participating restaurants.
No joke, this past weekend was one of the most jam-packed and exciting weekends I’ve had in a very long time. And it couldn’t have come at a better time because I’d been in kind of a funk lately.
The piece de resistance: enjoying the Seattle Food & Wine Experience…for FREE! My normally unlucky self managed to win 2 tickets from a Twitter giveaway contest about a month ago. Naturally, I brought my best friend and fellow food blogger along for the ride.
When we arrived, we went straight to the Columbia Winery booth where Kathy Casey was signing and giving away her Northwest Table cookbook to the first 300 people that stopped by.
We spent the next 4 hours eating and drinking our way through all the booths inside the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. We even squeezed in a little shopping at the Oil & Vinegar booth (if you bought 4 items, you got a bottle of EVOO for free – heck yes!) and Seasalt Superstore booth. And apparently my lucky streak hadn’t quite disappeared — I won a $30 gift certificate to Ponti Seafood Grill when I spun the “wheel of fortune” at Dine Around Seattle‘s booth.
Anyway, I could go on and on about how amazing this event was, but I’ll just leave you with my top picks for food and wine. My partner in crime will also be doing a recap on Friday for Belles of the Sound – be sure to check it out!
Top Food Picks (check out my Flickr stream for photos):
Asian BBQ pork slider w/ cucumber kimchee from Tulalip Bay Fine Dining(my #1 fave food of the day)
Porcini chicken w/ wild mushrooms and black truffle vinaigrette from Pearl Bar & Dining
Smokey bacon maple bar from FROST Doughnuts(hey, don’t knock it till you try it!)
Whew I am EXHAUSTED after this weekend! But all the hard work was well worth it — I had a great time hanging out with friends and enjoying some delicious Fall-inspired food. Missy and I were most nervous about the 2 meat dishes since we had never tried the recipes before, but I’m happy to report they were a smashing success. Not surprisingly, Missy and I went all Top Chef competitive on each other — once the guests arrived we were trying to sway them to our own dish
Anyway, enough babbling, here are some photos of the dishes. Note: I am by no means a food photog so you’ll have to excuse the amateur quality of the photos. I did, however, do my best not to make these look like the dreaded “all-food-pictures-look-like-vomit” shot.
Fig and port sauce (for the roasted pork) reducing on the stovetop
Instead of a Fave Recipe Friday entry this week, I’m going to do a quick sneak peek of the dinner party I’m co-hosting with my friend this Saturday.
Fall is without a doubt my most favorite time of the year. For one thing, I was born in the fall, but I also love how the leaves change colors and the weather turns a bit cooler. Even more, I love all the great flavors and ingredients that define the season – pumpkin, butternut squash, apples, figs, just to name a few.
Since my friend also happens to love fall, we started a tradition a few years ago where we host a group of friends for a fall-themed dinner party. Being the wannabe chefs-slash-event planners that we are, we always go all out for these parties. Below is our menu for this year’s gathering – stay tuned for a recap and more photos next week:
Starters
Baked brie with sautéed apples (Missy’s AMAZING recipe…I will share in next week’s Fave Recipe Friday entry)
As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd Foodportunitynetworking event led by Seattle-area food blogger Keren Brown(aka the Frantic Foodie) and hosted at Tom Douglas’ Palace Ballroom.It goes without saying that an evening full of great food/wine among other foodies and local culinary experts is absolute bliss, and this event was no exception!
The evening kicked off with a panel discussion with Ethan Stowell, Kurt Dammeier, Tamara Murphy and moderator Mina Williams of NorthWest Stir. They provided some interesting tidbits about the food world and offered some good advice on getting your foot through the door.
As Missy and I were perusing the booths and trying all the delicious food, we ran into Robin Leventhal from Top Chef – small world, huh?!
Here are some pictures from the evening — I broke my camera midway through the night from all the excitement so most of the pictures didn’t turn out, including the one of me and Tom Douglas (dammit!).
I tried THE BEST cupcake of my life – the red velvet from Wink Cupcakes
Me – full and satisfied
We ended the night at Lola (another of Tom Douglas’ restaurants) to take advantage of the 10% off coupon we received at the event — it was only good for that night and we didn’t have the heart to let it go to waste!
Great food + great company = networking success! I look forward to the next Foodportunity event!
I’ve been crazy busy this week at work and also planning the Fall dinner party that my best friend and I host every year… so this post is really just a teaser for the more in-depth and thought-provoking posts that will be coming in the next few days. I definitely want to recap the exciting Foodportunitynetworking event I attended last night at the Palace Ballroom (thank you to Frantic Foodiefor coordinating!). I’ll also share the menu of Fall-inspired dishes we’ll be serving at our party this weekend.
The St. Demetrios Greek Festivalthis weekend was just as lovely as last year, but the added bonus this time around was…SUNSHINE and warm weather! This time last year, my friends and I were bundled in thick sweaters as we ventured from one food booth to another. Rather than rant on and on about how much fun we had, I’m going to let the following pictures speak for themselves:
The decadent desserts from
I tried THE BEST cupcake of my life – the red velvet from 
Me – full and satisfied 
