Let’s first get this out of the way: My one work trip in January took me to Potsdam, where I randomly stopped in at a place called Thai Cuisine Restaurant. A lot of thought went into that name, don’t you think? About the same amount of thought as went into the food, which was pretty forgettable. Some noodles (Thai lad nar), which they made spicy by putting chili flakes in the middle:

January meant it was time for the annual trip to Florida (to visit my father), and the eternal quest to find good food in Cocoon-ville. (That would be Boca Raton.) But, first, a visit with a friend immediately after landing. He agreed to meet us at Alegria Tacos in Oakland Park. And the owner agreed to feed us minutes before the intended closing time. Not bad. In addition to tacos, we tasted a torta:

And some menudo:

The menudo was comforting, though far from the best I’ve ever tried. Upon saying goodbye and going to the door, the owner tried to twist our arms into writing a positive Yelp review. Um…that’s not the way to get positive feedback.

I’d actually get to try one more Mexican place a couple of days later: Taqueria Dona Raquel in Pompano Beach. This was a last-minute decision, as I was picking up family members from the airport who wanted a snack. So while I didn’t get a chance to sample much at this highly recommended eatery, I did enjoy a couple of tacos (photo taken with my niece’s camera):

Back in Boca, I was determined to do a bagel taste-testing. Given the large Jewish community (New York imports), I hoped the demand would mean high quality options. (I already knew that the bagels were better than what I can find locally in Seattle.) So I set out one morning to hit three of the most recommended bagel joints. First stop was The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. in Delray Beach. (There are a few locations in Florida, one in California, and many opening up soon around the country.) Larry King is involved in this enterprise, which believes bagels are all about the water:

Then it was on to Way Beyond Bagels, also in Delray. Take a look at the interior…

…because apparently the owners don’t want you to see it. I got “scolded” shortly after taking this photo:

The final stop was BagelWorks in Boca Raton:

Having collected my bounty of bagels, it was time for a relatively blind taste-testing:

Sesame bagels are my favorite, and would be neutral enough for comparison. By far (and by unanimous agreement), the losing bagel was bottom-right: BagelWorks’ bagel. Too large and too soft and airy inside, much like the “bagel bread” you find at grocery stores, and somewhat bland. The other two were fairly close, with our group having to give further bites of consideration. But we again reached unanimous agreement. Bottom-left belongs to Brooklyn Water Bagel, which was our runner-up bagel. At the top, Way Beyond Bagels’ entry scored the victory for being slightly denser than Brooklyn’s bagel, with a little more contrast between crust and crumb, if you will. Both had pleasant flavor, so the victory was more about the texture.

For kicks, we also sampled bialys:

A bialy is baked, and should have a depression in the center (instead of an actual hole) which contains diced onions and perhaps poppy seeds and garlic. Top left is BagelWorks’ bialy, which you can see was a total failure. Bottom is Brooklyn’s bialy, which was a bit bagel-like, with strong onion flavor. My favorite (much to my chagrin, since I didn’t like the customer “service” there–beyond the photography incident, I found the workers to be cold) again belonged to Way Beyond Bagels. The “filling” had good balance in terms of taste and texture, and the bialy was the right chewiness.

(I hope to do another taste-test when I return to Florida next month!)

With more time (and a bigger stomach), it would be fun to do comparative tastings of other food at the Jewish delis near my Dad’s home. During his years in the area, he’s basically done that, developing his favorites. For sandwiches, that means 3 G’s Gourmet Deli in Delray Beach. (Not to be confused with TooJay’s Gourmet Deli, a Florida chain that also has a following.) To beat the crowds, you’ll want to “earlybird” your dinner!

While you’re waiting for your table, you can browse the deli counter to your right upon entry. It’s a good chance to scout the salads, cold cuts, and other things you might want to consider for your meal. I’ve been here a few times, and tend to get the same thing. In addition to pickles (sour, please) and cole slaw, this means matzo ball soup:

…and a chopped liver and pastrami sandwich (not on the menu, so just request it):

A meal at 3 G’s gives me a good fix of Jewish soul food. It’s by no means the best of its class (when I’m ambitious enough to make matzo ball soup and chopped liver, it’s a whole new level!), but it’s satisfying.

My favorite meal this trip to Boca, and perhaps one of the best meals I’ve had in Florida outside the Miami area, happened at Bamboo Fire Cafe in Delray Beach. I found this hidden treasure via Chowhound and was determined to take my family there for dinner. The owners are warm and welcoming, and if you are comfortable enough to relinquish control, they’ll prepare you an amazing family-style meal featuring cuisine of the Caribbean and beyond.

Bamboo Fire is delicious and affordable. Here are just some of the dishes we ate, starting with conch-filled (I’m talking a good amount of conch) conch fritters, served with an addictive mango ginger habanero sauce:

Grilled eggplant dip:

Garbanzos fritos (cumin-seasoned):

Grilled conch:

Jerk meatballs:

At this point, following these starters, the sides and then mains came fast and furious. The table was absolutely full, and I scrambled to capture whatever photos I could. These sweet plantains were simply amazing:

Braised cabbage:

Macaroni & cheese:

Sweet potato fries:

Okra fried rice:

Grouper cheeks (I accidentally ate a whole scotch bonnet pepper, which sent me into some sort of “Comfortably Numb” world for a while):

Coconut shrimp:

Among the meats, how about goat curry, jerk pork, and oxtail pepperpot:

Obviously, we were well-fed. No room to try the guava cheesecake, which sounded enticing. Next time!

2. On the topic of romantic getaways, I enjoyed a chance to check out the much-heralded Willows Inn on Lummi Island. But this was no ordinary stay, as I was there to work with Chef Blaine Wetzel in bringing my Sexy Feast column to life by leading a Sexy Feast dinner for the entire dining room. While I was walking participants through the sexual messages of each course in the meal, I was also amazed by Wetzel’s food. The creativity of his cooking (and plating) is something special, making me understand why The New York Times named Willows Inn one of the world’s “ten restaurants worth a plane ride.”

3. Japan’s earthquake(s) and tsunami forced postponement of my trip to Tokyo. (The devastating disaster hit just over nine months ago, and while the story has basically slid off the news here in the States, Japan is still in turmoil.) But with every crisis comes opportunity, so my partner and I reversed plans, moving forward our trip to Europe and delaying Japan until 2012. This resulted in a wonderful week-long stay in Ghent (Belgium), a four-day culinary tour through the Walloon Region of the country, and then a four-day feeding frenzy in Paris. I love our food scene in Seattle. But Belgium is fantastic. (Think chocolate, cheese, charcuterie, and more—as well as beer, of course!) And Paris dished up amazing experiences, including what was probably the best single day of eating in my life.

4. Despite a postponed trip, there was no lack of Japanese food for me this year. I continued my ramen-quest, which culminated in the cover story in the current issue of Northwest Palate magazine. It features ramen restaurants in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. Concerns about cholesterol couldn’t keep me away from a good bowl of ramen! That wasn’t the end of the noodle-eating, though, as I ate more ramen and different Japanese noodles (plus some other Asian noodles) for the cover story of the next issue of IBUKI magazine. Look for that to hit newsstands in Japanese-centric places (like Uwajimaya) starting next week.

5. Speaking of Japanese food, I helped out in planning part of Andrew Zimmern’s itinerary when he visited Seattle this summer to do a Bizarre Foods episode. I met up with him at Maneki restaurant, where owner Jean Nakayama prepared a menu of slimy foods, including ika no shiokara (fermented fish guts). Delicious! The episode is scheduled to air in January.

6. There was plenty of other Asian food to be found in the past year’s eating itinerary. I’m a bit concerned that many of the new Asian restaurants focus on cocktails more than the quality of their cuisine, so I’m fussy about recommendations. One place that looks promising is Chino’s, in Capitol Hill. (I’m still waiting for their Chinese menudo to jump off the menu and into reality.) As the year comes to a close, I’m excited about the opening of U:Don in the U:District (if you will), as the fresh, in-house noodles are quite good. And this year I discovered Sushi Kappo Tamura, which now shares honors with Kisaku as my most recommended sushi restaurants in Seattle.

7. One of my favorite parts of being a food writer is that I get to attend great culinary events. Even better, I get to serve as a judge at many of them. I find that the ingredient-specific events offer the best quality food, with Lamb Jam and Cochon 555 my favorites. (Sadly, Cochon 555 is not returning to Seattle in 2012.) Guest Chef on the Waterfront is also fabulous, and what better beneficiary than Farestart?

8. With all the new restaurants I get to visit, I’m often frustrated that I’m not enough of a regular anywhere, and that sometimes it’s hard to return to old favorites. This year, though, I was able to get to most of them, including Joule, Crush, Trellis, Canlis, and Cafe Juanita.

9. That said, I’m often asked to pick my favorite new restaurant of the year. This year, that honor goes to Altura. The chef’s counter is a perfect place to sit, the pasta is divine, the flavor combinations are bold, and the service is appropriately attentive. Go, before it gets too crowded.

10. As for sweet endings, this was almost a cupcake-free year, though I did get to one place and wrote about what makes cupcakes sexy. Like many, my focus this year was more on pie, with A la Mode Pies serving up some of the best. While we’re on the topic of “mode,” I still like D’Ambrosio’s pistachio gelato as my favorite frozen treat in the city. And in Queen Anne, Café de Lion opened, closed, and then reopened (to the delight of its fans, including me). The Japanese-style desserts have quite a following (don’t wait until the end of the day to shop, as you’ll miss out), and the coffee is quite good. As we start winter, I’m already looking forward to a warm day next year when I’ll go back for some of the best iced coffee I’ve ever tried. That, and much more, surely await in 2012.

These guys originally put bacon in salt, then added it to things like croutons, lip balm, and even envelopes—but this is the best application of bacon so far. And like the other products, baconlube is purely kosher.

Baconlube started as a joke. For a couple of years, I’ve shown a fake image of baconlube (in an Astroglide bottle) to get laughs in my sex education lectures when I talk about using lubricant to make condoms feel more pleasurable. The fake bottle’s slogan: “Keep it sizzlin’.”

Well, now you can sizzle away, alone while flogging the hog or together when porking with a partner. (Oh, I can pig out on puns.) I wonder if Tom Douglas will bring slippery fun into play at his next Baconopolis event.

So now the stage is set for a little intra-city competition. Or maybe collaboration? Babeland’s BabeLicious lubricants are also luscious, especially the mojito peppermint. Hmm…might that pair well with the baconlube, or would a baconlube-pomegranate vanilla make a stirring cocktail for sex?

Well, in addition to being a food writer, I’m a sex educator.

And sex and food are both about pleasure, aren’t they?

So I’ve finally brought my two passions together, which is why you’re seeing regular posts about sex and food–such as my weekly “Sexy Feast” posts for Seattle Weekly’s Voracious blog.

Bigger news: The Sexy Feast column came to life in early 2011, as I collaborated with area restaurants in hosting a Sexy Feast dinner series.

I worked with each restaurant’s chef in designing a delicious, multi-course meal full of “lessons in love.” Then, much as a winemaker would talk about fabulous food and wine pairings, I paired each course with commentary about what the food teaches about sex and relationships.

A highlight: I did a Sexy Feast dinner on Lummi Island at Willows Inn, which The New York Times recently named one of the world’s “10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride.”

Here is the video about Sexy Feast as it ran on Evening Magazine as the lead story on February 10.

And here is a story about Sexy Feast on Seattleite.

This was the third annual Lamb Jam in Seattle, drawing big crowds as always. Participants were pleased with the amount and quality of the food and wine, the short lines, and the live entertainment and spirit of the event. Oh…and also the availability of lamb bacon.

Nineteen restaurants competed in four categories: loin, shank, leg, and shoulder. As part of the panel of judges, I sampled each dish, ranging from a tiny lamb leg cherry pistachio sausage by Mark Bodinet of Copperleaf (last year’s overall winner) to a full lamb shank by Wayne Johnson of Andaluca. I was thrilled that my top picks matched the picks of the overall panel. Here are this year’s winning dishes:

Loin category: Smoked lamb carpaccio with truffled white bean skordalia by Liam Spence of Lola (also voted the People’s Choice winner for the event)

Shank category: Braised lamb shank crepinette with truffled Yukon gold potato puree, confit chanterelle, and pickled cipollini by Bobby Moore of Barking Frog

Leg category: Lamb paillard with gnocchi torchon and spiced Nantes carrots by Jason Stoneburner of Bastille

Shoulder category: Sumac masala rubbed lamb shoulder with cauliflower puree, royal pine mushroom, and honey crisp apple by Oscar Guitron and Alex Paguaga of Portals at Suncadia Lodge (perfectly cooked meat complemented by wonderful flavors and textures)

The judging panel also voted Guitron and Paguaga’s dish as Best of Show, which means that they’ll be representing Seattle in the national Lamb Jam competition in New York. They expressed great excitement at winning the grand prize, and said, “We hope people come to Suncadia to try our food…we’re not that far from Seattle.” With this victory, they’ll soon be introducing a national audience to their cooking.

1st course

SEA URCHIN
miners lettuce. green apple sponge. rye dirt.

2nd course

HUDSON VALLEY FOIE GRAS
truffle. mission fig. rose ash and rose vinegar.

3rd course

4,320 MINUTE WAGYU SHORTRIBS
parsnip creamed nettles. crispy boulangere marble potatoes. red wine mostarda.

4th course

OAK AGED CHOCOLATE
sherry. rhubarb. sorrel.

Pictured is the dessert, photo courtesy of Kristin Zwiers for Spur.

I’m a bit perplexed about pork right now.

It’s still an incredible ingredient—bacon in the salmon chowder might be the reason that Matt’s in the Market bested Bobby Flay in this week’s Food Network Throwdown. And I wait with bated breath for Seattle’s third annual Cochon 555 event, where I’ll be again sitting as a judge while five amazing chefs try to wow us in preparing plates from five heritage pigs.

But that said, pork problems prevailed during two otherwise fine meals I had here in Seattle recently.

The first was at Book Bindery, choice for my birthday dinner. We ordered scallops and sweetbreads as appetizers and enjoyed them both, though I’d argue that the latter should be correctly called “sweetbread,” as there was just one on the plate. The fish entrée was my favorite, as the pan-seared striped bass and its accompaniments were both beautiful and delicious.

But the “duo of pork” yielded mixed results. The pork chop was great, but the pork belly was pure fat. Well, maybe the slightest layer of meat, if I’m to be generous. After the disbelief of my first bite, I had to go in again, and it was the same, so I pushed it aside. As it’s rather dark in the restaurant, I pulled out my low-light camera to capture a shot, which you can see just above. (The entire plate is in the top shot of this post.)

Next up was Lecosho, where I joined a group of food writers who wanted to explore much of the menu. The server was sweet about dividing up the Sardinian fish soup, and we also enjoyed the octopus salad. Then came four entrées. My gorgonzola burger? Check. A cheese-lover’s dream. (The accompanying parmesan soup was a bit bizarre in texture and taste, though.) Tuna melt? Well-executed.

As for the pork, it was another mixed bag. The house-made sausage with lentils was masterful—hearty and perfect for the winter day. But the porchetta sandwich? Unchewable. It got passed around the table for second through fourth opinions, and we all complained that couldn’t eat it.

Now, please know that I love pork as much as anyone else. I’m the one who complains when restaurants remove the layer of fat from pork belly for fear of offending the customers. The one who had the shortest stint of vegetarianism way back when, but still bought bacon to fry (not to eat) so that my scrambled eggs could cook in bacon grease. (Okay, I guess that didn’t make me a true vegetarian.) The one who made bacon ice cream well before Baconopolis became an annual event in Seattle. The one who loves the concept of anything close to bacon-wrapped bacon.

Should we have sent the problem pork dishes back to their respective kitchens? I don’t tend to do that, and agree with fellow food writer Jonathan Gold’s perspective on that practice. But the restaurants do deserve to get feedback on how their doing. And hopefully that will keep them from going too hog-wild with bad pork dishes.

Here are photos from the full meals:

Book Bindery (see here what makes this restaurant sexy)

Sweetbreads with Caramelized Cauliflower, Golden Raisins, Brown Butter Emulsion

Marinated Scallops with Celeriac Remoulade, Black Truffle, Garlic Bread Crisp

Pan-Seared Striped Bass with Piquillo Peppers, Satsumas, Castelvetrano Olives, Pinenuts

Duo of Pork: Roasted Chop, Crispy Belly, Lacinato Kale, White Bean Puree, Maple-Bourbon Jus

Beignets

Lecosho

Sardinian fish soup (divided portion)

Octopus salad

Burger

Tuna melt

House-made sausage (see here what makes this dish sexy)

Porchetta sandwich

I’m sad to leave Seattlest after four years of food writing there, but am happy to join The SunBreak as food editor, where I’ll be posting about some recent escapes from Seattle and, of course, reporting a bit about the Seattle food scene.

In addition, I continue to bring my professional worlds of sex and food together. This week I joined the fine folks at Seattle Weekly’s Voracious blog, debuting a weekly feature called “Sexy Feast.” Unlike my regular “Hot Plate” column in Edible Seattle that interviews a chef, restaurateur, food purveyor, etc., each Thursday’s “Sexy Feast” features one restaurant dish – and I describe what’s sexy about it, or even better, what the dish can teach us about sex and relationships. I’ll cross-post the first entry here shortly, but if you’re anxious, you can see it now at Voracious.

Still enjoying lots of eating adventures, though. So…until I can get some posts up (and I have a feeling they will be more about pictures than words), here’s perhaps the most majestic setting I’ve ever had for a meal. That’s Mount Currie, rising to over 8,500 feet in Pemberton, just north of Whistler, BC. More on the meal soon…

I interview Jason and Nicole Wilson of Crush for the premiere of “Hot Plate” – my new, regular feature in Edible Seattle. I’m so excited to bring the worlds of sex and food together, and am curious to see what my meetings with chefs, restaurateurs, purveyors, and others in the food world can teach us about love, sex, and relationships.

As to the original question, Jason’s take: “Maybe the ones who have the short ribs and a glass of the cabernet every time are the missionaries, and maybe the ones who do the tasting menu are the swingers.” Read more of the fun article in the debut of “Hot Plate.” It’s in the July/August issue, at newsstands now.