Gastrolust

Sound challenges three chefs to turn heavenly visions into delicious dishes Sitting in a blue room, staring at the wall Trying to get into anything at all Cigarettes taste funny as I sink into my bed Dreams of milk and honey are running through my head “Dreams of Milk & Honey” from The Best of [...]

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Update: Le Pergolèsé is now a Michelin-starred restaurant. My other fine dining experience in Tokyo, in addition to the kaiseki lunch at Kakou, was a fantastic dinner at Le Pergolèsé in the Tokyo Hilton. Akiko and I were enjoying what’s become an annual stay at the hotel and were offered a table for New Year’s [...]

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My fantastic meal at Kisaku has me thinking back to a very special experience I enjoyed in Tokyo a few months ago. Much of my activity was centered around the Shinjuku Station area. It’s an especially hustle-bustle area of the city—not necessarily suited to my preferred pace. But it’s where many of the business travelers [...]

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As I watch newspapers and magazines scale back and even go belly up, I feel lucky to continue having the opportunity to write my “Dish-Off” monthly reviews for Sound magazine. It’s certainly not a gig I do for the money. If you consider the time it takes to conceptualize the theme (recall that each month [...]

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In last year’s listing of Seattle’s top five Asian restaurants, I included Kisaku as my top Japanese pick. A recent visit reconfirmed why this is my go-to place for sushi and more. The occasion was a birthday celebration for my special someone. The sushi serenade would precede my previously discussed deluge of desserts at Canlis, [...]

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I hope I’m wrong about Long. (The words don’t rhyme, by the way.) I understand the excitement. It’s nice to have a taste of the International District downtown. We’ve got the recently reviewed Thoa’s slightly south of Pike Place Market, and now we’ve got Long Provincial Vietnamese Restaurant and Jelly Bar, just to the north. [...]

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The stars did, indeed, come out in Seattle last night. The Rising Stars, that is. StarChefs.com hosted the Rising Stars Revue, which I’d already previewed, so yesterday at last came the opportunity to take part in the gala tasting of dishes by a baker’s dozen of the area’s finest chefs. Among them were three finalists [...]

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It was a special someone’s birthday recently, so to mark the occasion, what better place than Canlis? We didn’t do the whole meal there, though we’ve enjoyed that experience immensely in previous visits. As sushi was the birthday request, we first went to our favorite place (Kisaku—more on that soon), stuffing ourselves silly but leaving [...]

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Two weeks from today marks the start of Taste Washington, the “ultimate wine experience” sponsored by the Washington Wine Commission. This annual event provides an opportunity to meet more than 200 winemakers and 75 restaurants. Public events begin on Saturday, April 4, with a series of seminars at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center that [...]

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Quickie: Over at Examiner, I posted about the upcoming Tongue-in-Cheek dinner on April 1 at Monsoon East. The menu looks fabulous!

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