By Iron Chef Leftovers

Last Friday, Mobile Chowdown V was held at the Qwest Field parking lot. I have to admit, I was very underwhelmed by it – and most of the reasons why are mentioned in this article.

Annie S. and I got there right at the beginning and made our rounds, we tried to hit places that we hadn’t been before. Here is the recap of what we had:

Bistro Box – Wagyu Beef Slider and Coconut Chicken Slider. The beef slider was fantastic – think Big Mac with actual edible ingredients. It scored bonus points for being bite sized (and a steal at $3), although I could have easily gone for a couple more. The Coconut Chicken was also great – think coconut shrimp with a chicken patty, a nice coconut breading which had great crunch around moist chicken. (and this coming from someone who does not care for coconut).

Fusion on the Run – Beef Tacos and Khalua Pork Tacos – the beef was wonderful and flavorful, the pork was bland and disappointing.

Where Ya at Matt – Gumbo and beignets. For a place that specializes in Cajun and Creole cooking, Matt’s gumbo was probably the worst Gumbo I have ever eaten. The spice was good, but everything else in the gumbo itself was horribly cooked to the point of being mushy, except for the rice, which was so undercooked it was crunchy. The beignes however were wonderfully gooey, sweet and hot and served in a paper bag (as they should be). I have read so much positive press on Matt’s but this experience left me wondering why they get such great press and why there was a huge line for their food.

Here and There Grill – Steak Sandwich. This was the best freaking thing we ate all night! Wonderfully tender flank steak, caramelized onions, gorgonzola on an Essential Baking Roll. Extremely flavorful and messy delight. I would have just eaten this all night if I had it first.

Now for the things that pissed me off:

• The original ad had the tickets being $7 through ticket master and $10 at the door, so I ordered through Ticketmaster. We get there and find out that it was $5 at the door.
• While it was nice to have all of the trucks in one place, there were only 2 non-local trucks there. I really don’t like having to pay for admission to go to places like Skillet, Maranation, Maximus and Molly Moon when I can go to those places without having to pay. A little more non-local variety would have been nice.
• How about more smaller bites? Unless you go with a group of people and share food, you can only hit a handful of places and it gets expensive really quickly. The taco trucks were great for this but most places were serving their normal sized portions which are meant to be a meal.
• Speaking of which, I know that most of these trucks are using top flight ingredients, but really, $12 for a hamburger, from a food truck? I can get a Wagyu burger at plenty of restaurants for that and not have to stand up to eat it. The idea of a food truck is supposed to be good quality, inexpensive food. If I want a $12 burger, I can go here.
• It was nice they had beer – but at $8.50 a pop. The beer was run by the Qwest Field Consessions and they charged the same prices as buying them in the Stadium. Tragic that they did this, especially since it was across the street from Elysian Brewing.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really like the concept – a restaurant and a butcher shop and why not? There isn’t really any reason why a place that makes it’s own cured meats shouldn’t sell them retail. Laurelhurst Market, it the Laurelhurst section of Portland is such a place. There is a small butcher counter where you can buy any of their house made pates, bacon and sausages as well as select cuts of high quality meat (grass fed and organic) at very reasonable prices compared to your local mega mart. It made me want to get a cooler and ice and bring some home, but I was there for the restaurant, not the butcher shop.

The restaurant space is nice – a big open space with high ceilings and an open kitchen. You would expect a deafening noise level in there, but Laurelhurst Market has done something that I wish more restaurants with high ceilings would do – they covered their ceilings with noise reducing cloth, making it so you could actually hear the conversation with the person next to you. This place is busy too – on a Sunday at 6 PM there were no open tables and by the time I left at about 8, there was a waiting list that was still a few people deep (they don’t take reservations either). What is the draw? Very solid food, relatively inexpensive prices for the quality and quantity of the meal. This is a steak place with quality of a high-end place (think Jak’s in Seattle or Ruth’s Chris) and the prices of Outback Steakhouse. The appetizers range from 5 to 14 dollars and the entrees range from 13 to 32 dollars with the majority of the menu clocking in at under $20. Sides are ala carte, but range from 5 to 7 dollars and are large enough for sharing. Desserts range from 6 to 9 dollars.

We started out meal with a small charcuterie plate – for $6 we got to taste a sampling of the house made meats – Country Pate, Venison Pate, Liverwurst and Mortadella. All were excellent, with the Venison Pate really stealing the show. It had a wonderful flavor without being gamey. Next course involved the sweetbreads and house made mozzarella. The sweetbreads came crispy on a bed of braised bok choy and onions in a savory beef broth. The sweetbreads were perfectly cooked and the broth brought an amazing complexity to the dish. The mozzarella, house made to order, was a generous chunk of cheese, served still warm with strawberries and balsamic vinegar. While fantastic, it seemed to be more appropriate for dessert with the sweetness of the berries and balsamic balancing the creaminess of the cheese. For a main course, steak frites and tri-tip with grilled romaine were on deck. The tri-tip was perfectly grilled just short of medium rare with a side of caramelized onions and a béarnaise sauce. The onions worked extremely well complimenting the meatiness of the stake, and the béarnaise was a nice accompaniment to the dish. The grilled romaine was a smoky, crunchy, salty, sweet delight, very well done. My only real complaint – they sauced the steak rather than having the sauce on the side. The steak frites was a wonderfully smoky flat iron in a brown gravy with some of the best frites I have had in a while – wonderfully crispy on the outside, flaky within. My complaint – where was the aioli? Dessert was their take on a s’mores, deconstructed – a house made marshmallow cube, melted bittersweet chocolate and a rosemary graham cracker – chased by a shot of Maker’s Mark whiskey. A gooey, chocolaty mess, totally worth it and easily filling for 2 people.

Overall, Laurelhurst Market lives up to the rave reviews that people are giving it, just be prepared to wait for a table if you don’t get there early (they do have a bar that will make the wait easier). Now, if we could just get the same type of place in Seattle…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

For fans of the Stumbling Goat Bistro pre-ownership change in 2008, Seth Caswell, the former chef at the Goat, has surfaced with his new restaurant on the top of Queen Anne, emmer&rye. After at least one no-go on opening the restaurant and a stint as an occasional chef at Wallingford’s Art of the Table, Caswell finally opened his, local/organic/sustainable place this winter, taking over the converted Victorian that formerly housed Julia’s. Emmer has the atmosphere of having dinner in someone’s house – all of the walls are in tact, so the restaurant is comprised of several rooms, lending a very informal feel to the meal.

The meal was everything you would expect from Caswell. The emmer&rye salad was refreshing – wild arugula, some grains (I believe it was emmer and rye) for some texture and an amazing apple-balsamic vinaigrette. The greens were lightly dressed, allowing the pepper of the arugula to come through but not sacrificing flavor the dressing. The spring vegetable soup was a light puree of fresh vegetables, but the star was the nettle puree which added an earthy flavor to the soup. The Bolognese was a healthy portion of orrechiette pasta accompanied by a slightly creamy pork and beef Bolognese with just a hint of heat – a fantastic meal but not one you would want to undertake on a warm day. The salmon came perfectly seared medium-rare with a refreshing parsley and fiddlehead salad. Caswell also brought along his pastry chef from the Goat and, as wonderful as the meal was, the deserts were the star – butterscotch pot de crème and rocky road brownie. The pot de crème had nice balance and was not overpoweringly sweet as most butterscotch desserts tend to be and the rocky road brownie, was pure evil – basically deconstructed rocky road ice cream, except the individual pieces were just as good as the whole.

My only knock on emmer is the wine list – it is small and reasonably priced, which is good, but there is a serious lack of northwest wines maybe 5 or 6 out of the 25 or so bottles available. If you are going to promote locally sourced food, you really should be promoting local wine one also. There is no excuse for the lack of local choices – we have 600+ wineries in the state and emmer can really make an impact by having a nice selection of smaller affordable wines on the menu.

We were there for the Dine Around Seattle promotion, but price-wise, the menu is quite affordable – apps range from $8 to $12 and entrees range from $16 to $19. Both the apps and entrees come in a small and a large size, so a party of 4 could literally order the entire menu. I suspect that the current menu will change as ingredients become available seasonally.

by Iron Chef Leftovers

The new season of Top Chef-Masters has begun and it is an impressive collection of chefs with 3 of Seattle’s own – Jerry Traunfeld of Poppy, Maria Hines of Tilth and Thierry Rautureau of Rover’s, competing. My track record with picking the winner is usually not good for the regular Top Chef (although my choice usually ends up in the top 3 finishers), I did nail Season 1 of Masters with Rick Bayless winning.

Here are my predictions – Maria Hines is the only Seattle contestant to make it into the championship round. She probably has the most dynamic cooking style of the 3 (Traunfeld and Rautureau are both classically trained and never struck me as particularly innovative) and I think that creativity is going to carry her forward. Unfortunately, I don’t see her in the finals.

My picks for the finals – Rick Tramonto, Marcus Samuelsson, Jon Waxman and Mark Peel (I believe 4 go to the finals) with Samuelsson winning it all. Samuelsson is the best overall chef in this competition and should be able to handle everything they throw at him.

The two chef who I would love to see do well – Jody Adams and Wylie Dufresne probably won’t make it out of the elimination round. Adams is a fantastic chef, but like Traunfeld and Rautureau, does not strike me as particularly innovative and Dufresne’s molecular gastronomy style does not seem like it is going to hold up in this type of competition.

Let’s revisit this in a couple of weeks and see how I did.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I had been meaning to visit a newer restaurant in Wallingford, Avila, right on 45th in the old Bella Cosa space, for some time now. I really had no excuse despite Mrs. Iron Chef Leftovers not really being interested in the menu – they are open for lunch. Well, I finally had the opportunity this week – all I can say is “WHAT THE HECK TOOK ME SO LONG”. The lunch menu consists of a variety of sandwiches, a couple of salads, a soup and a couple of sides. On the recommendation of Eric, who was manning the counter, I went with the Knuckle Sandwich – a grilled panino with swiss, sauteed onions and peppers, mustard greens and braised pork knuckle. This was one of the best sandwiches I had in a long time – immensely tender pork, well cooked veggies, the slight tangyness of the mustard greens and crispy bread, pretty amazing and only $9.

In talking to Eric while I was there, I found out that Avila only uses local and humanely raised meats, organic veggies, makes their own bread in house and cures their own meats. The chef is a firm believer in using the entire animal, so there are occasionally different choices on the menu and the menu does change regularly.

All in all, I was really impressed and I am going to add Avila into my normal lunch rotation. Now if I could just convince Mrs. Iron Chef to go there for dinner…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The single best wine and food event in Washington, Taste Washington, takes place today at the Qwest Field Event Center starting at 2PM. How could you go wrong with 200 Washington Wineries and 75 restaurants under one roof. I will be there with Mrs. Iron Chef Leftovers and probably be nursing a terrible hangover tomorrow, but it will be worth the price of admission. Oh, I also forgot to mention – Stephanie Izard, winner of Top Chef Season 4 is doing a cooking demo.