Gastrolust

4/12 update: Sadly, Chino’s menu has gone in the direction opposite of what I desired. “Blood and Guts” and “Menudo de Chino” never made an appearance, and now the pig ear salad is gone. New additions include burritos and rice bowls.
When pig ear salad (shown here with the pickles of the day) was the first [...]

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So just where will Zimmern find freaky food in Seattle? Early word is that he’ll be hitting eateries old and new. In the middle of the week on a day that begins with a “W,” look for Zimmern to be munching on SPAM musubi at Marination Mobile (and maybe checking out other food trucks), and then sucking down ika no shiokara (fermented squid guts) and more delicious delights at Maneki.

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Yesterday I posted pictures of pig-filled plates outside of Seattle, and promised you local options. Here they are. Most are Asian, with appreciation of the utilization of as much of the animal as possible. Pictured above is bopis, which is a spicy and vinegary saute of pork heart and lungs. I [...]

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Cochon 555 brought five pigs to Seattle in February, but that simply wasn’t enough pork for this roving food writer. In the past month or so, I had a chance to pig out at some notorious, pork-loving restaurants outside of our fine city. My favorite of the three that I’ll showcase [...]

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Dish: Combo Noodle Soup (#21)
Place: Mike’s Noodle House, International District, Seattle
Price: $7.30 (large)
In the bowl: Your choice of noodles, plus liver, kidney, stomach, and other pork pieces in a fish and pork broth with sliced green onions.
Supporting cast: A bowl with soy sauce, black vinegar, and diced jalapenos.
What to do: Per the server’s instructions, you’ll [...]

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Dish: Bun Bo Hue
Place: Hoang Lan, Rainier Valley, Seattle
Price: $7.00 (tax included)
In the bowl: From the menu: “Vermicelli with pork hock, pork blood cake, beef tendon in hot and spicy soup.” There are also slices of onion in the soup, along with some herbs. And a couple of pork meatballs.
Supporting cast: The [...]

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Dish: Boat Noodles
Place: Kamrai Thai Cuisine, Shoreline
Price: $9.50
In the Bowl: Per the menu: “Rice noodle with steam beef, green onions, cilantro and bean prouts.”
Supporting Cast: A caddy of condiments: salt, chili flakes, chili oil, and Sriracha, I believe.
What to do: Just eat. You can spice up the soup if you like, but if you order [...]

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Remember when we lauded Joule restaurant’s chicken liver mousse popsicle? It was part of the “Chick-a-licious” menu of the Urban BBQ Series that Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi put together every summer. (See their Facebook events page for a preview of this year’s BBQ tour, which will take diners from Oaxaca to Sicily to Phuket, [...]

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Chefs Create a Variety of Dishes from a Variety of Meats
They call that gizzards, gizzards
Part of the chicken
Not too finger-lickin’
And I’m not sure what part
They call them gizzards, gizzards
Part of the bird but
That’s what I heard but
I don’t know where to start
“Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe”
from The Hymns of Bucksnort
by The New Duncan Imperials (1991)
“Hope you [...]

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Here are the photos (taken by me) of the rest of the dishes from the “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” Dish-Off in April’s issue of Sound magazine.
You can find the full report, include menus, here.
Click to enlarge any of the photos.

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