Gastrolust

Dish: Pho
Place: Pho So 1, Little Saigon
Price: $6.99, large ($6.15, small)
In the bowl: Pictured is #20: pho tai, nam, gau, gan, sach with rare beef, well-done flank, fatty flank, tendon and tripe along with banh pho rice noodles, onions, green onions, and beef broth
Supporting cast/What to do: Before your bowl comes out, [...]

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With one day in Raleigh earlier this week, I had an opportunity for a couple of quick meals.

For lunch, J. Betski’s would be the perfect place for something different. The eastern European menu attracted me, particularly the pierogies, as I’ve been preparing some at home recently. Unfortunately, the liverwurst pierogies with fennel marmalade and sage [...]

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Neapolitan, Chicago, and American. These are the three styles of pizza featured in the first three weeks of this month’s “Pizza Parlor Friday Holler.” For the final installment, this New Yorker headed back down the hill to Lower Queen Anne to visit New York Pizza & Bar (NYP).
NYP is located in the Lumen Building at [...]

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Seattle’s burger boom continues. With the opening of 8 Oz. Burger Bar in Capitol Hill, we now have a burger joint boasting about size as a differentiator. The namesake burger, “The 8 Oz.,” is pretty straightforward, featuring a half-pound blend of sirloin, tri-tip, short rib, and chuck, along with iceberg lettuce, pickles, [...]

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Dish: Tokyo Ramen
Place: Boom Noodle, Bellevue (also in Capitol Hill and University Village)
Price: $10.95
In the bowl: Chashu (braised pork butt), tamago (egg), menma (bamboo shoots), green onion, and a piece of nori (seaweed) in soy seasoned chicken-pork broth
Supporting cast/What to do: You can order fried garlic chips or fried shallots for an [...]

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It was back to Boca Raton, Florida last week for a family visit, and the usual challenge of finding good eats. Boca’s not the best place for food (it’s Cheesecake Factory territory), and I had a variety of personal preferences to consider.
Pushing the envelope a bit, I decided that happy hour at a new place [...]

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For the third edition of this month’s “Pizza Parlor Friday Holler” feature, I went down the hill to Lower Queen Anne to visit the new Seattle location of The Rock Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits.
The Rock opened its first pizza restaurant in Tacoma in 1995, and now boasts locations in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and even [...]

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It’s been quite a pizza run. Two weeks ago, Sexy Feast took me to Queen Margherita in Magnolia for thin-crust, Neapolitan-style pizza. Last week, in celebration of National Pizza Week, I went to Kylie’s Chicago Pizza in Fremont for a little deep dish action.
This week, I visited the new Queen Anne location of The Rock, [...]

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Like many world travelers, I love to stare at maps. I’m drawn to distant areas with limited numbers of roads, and am especially intrigued by towns at the ends of such roads, picturing romance in remoteness.
Since well before I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1999, I’ve wanted to visit Tofino on Vancouver Island. Looking [...]

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Dish: “Noodles Combo”
Place: King Noodle, International District
Price: $6.99
In the bowl: Your choice of soup base, noodles, and toppings (including vegetables)
Supporting cast/What to do: Your server will give you a form (in Chinese and English) and a pen. If you’re having a noodle bowl, you’ll need to build it yourself from the ingredient list, [...]

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