Marrakesh

We had some guests this past weekend (NH, PL, and AA) and thought it would be fun to try some moroccan food and celebrate NH’s birthday.

We got there and sat on the floor around the wooden table and decided to go with the Royale Feast. The restaurant’s festively decorated with tapestry and pillows, and they had this really cool drape over the ceiling that definitely set the vibe of the place.

First off, you eat with your hands and unlike Ethiopian food, there’s no breadlike substance to use as a utensil or barrier between you and the sticky food, it’s just you and the food. Our first dish was the lentil soup, and that was YUMMY! The flavors were great and it wasn’t too hot that it was scalding, but just perfect. I tried to steal Duwardo’s soup bowl to drink, but alas, it was so good that he drank it before I could take it away from him. Second course was the salad dish. In the center was some sort of yummy paste, then there was tomatoes and cucumbers and salad around that. We got pieces of bread to eat the salad with, and the paste was pretty good. The boys ate most of it, so I didn’t get as much of that.

Third dish, was probably the best. It was chicken and almond wrapped up in puff pastry that was sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. I could eat that dish all day…it was so good. Messy though, but so good. We also came to the realization that you make less of a mess if you sit on the floor than if you sit on the padded benches they have…so if you go, sit on the floor and get a true experience and create less of a mess!

Our dinner then came out and was 6 dishes. 1) chicken and lemon with olives, 2) cous cous marrakesh with chicken, 3) grilled beef skewers, 4) chicken honey and prunes, 5) lamb and eggplant, and my favorite, a chicken apricot dish. It took us a bit of time to figure out a system on how to eat the dishes, but we finally came up with a good plan of everyone getting a dish, eating it for a few minutes, then passing it along…withthe cous cous in the middle.

We got a dessert, but I’m not sure what it was. It was ok, but we kind of skimped on it because we were going to B&O for desserts afterwards. Nancy also got a yummy baklava as it was her birthday.

Overall, it was a great place for dinner and I want to go back again…just to eat the chicken and almond dish and the chicken apricot. It is a lot of a meat though, so for the guys it was great, but I’m not a huge meat eater…so after a while the food got a bit much. I ate more meat than I usually do though because it was so flavorful and yummy.

Also if you plan in advance and have a large group, apparently you can order a whole sheep cooked over a spitfire!

Marrakesh, 2334 Second Ave, Seattle, WA

Palace Kitchen

After seeing Wicked at the Paramount Theatre, Duwardo and I had a late night meal at Palace Kitchen.  Yay for being open late!!!

We started off with an appetizer of oysters. I tried my first oyster ever and it was…seafoody. Haha…I also put too much lemon juice on it in hopes of getting rid of any taste, but alas it also made it super sour. Duwardo seemed to enjoy his two oysters though, but then he loves oysters.
I ordered the Handmade buffalo milk ricotta and corn ravioli with smoked trout and heirloom tomatoes. It was nice and light and I didn’t get the heavy full feeling that you often get when eating a cheesy meal. I even ate the trout, and it wasn’t too bad. I really liked my ravioli though and ate most of it.

Duwardo had the Washington Chicken with nectarine and pickled peppers. It was SOOOOO good. The chicken was perfectly cooked and still soft and juicy. The nectarines were really good, and the green beans were tasty too. The roasted potatoes were a bit bland though.

Duwardo ordered a glass of the Novelty Hill Chardonnay. I thought it tasted better than he thought…but he’s a bit of a wine snob when it comes to Washington wines and he prefers California Chardonnays. Additionally, the wine tasted better with my food than his, so that certainly added to it. His chicken was just so flavorful that the flavors of the wine were lost, but it served as a better compliment to my lighter dish.
We ended the night with the slow roasted peach and a glass of the 2005 Sarraco Moscato d’Asti. The peach was just ok…nothing superb. I would not order it again, but I also would not stop someone from ordering it. Dahlia Lounge’s desserts are MUCH better…so he should only serve desserts from that place…or that yummy cherry chocolate cupcake. The moscato? A gazillion thumbs up! I am buying like 5 bottles of that when I get a chance…plus when I looked for the bottle online, it was super cheap. It was a sweet, flavorful sparkling wine. It reminded me of the bottle of spumante wine that I drank in Italy.

Novelty Hill Chardonnay: drinkable, but not superb…not recommended

2005 Sarraco Moscato d’Asti: hands off the bottle…it’s mine…defintely recommended

Palace Kitchen: YUMMY!  Recommended

To Try

Places I’ve heard good things about and want to try:

1. Crush, 2319 E. Madison St., Seattle, WA

2. Monsoon, http://www.monsoonseattle.com/ It’ll be interesting to judge this Viet place…plus it was rated in Food & Wine as having one of the 50 best wine lists to try in the US.

3. Palace Kitchen, http://tomdouglas.com/palace/index.html, the last of the Tom Douglas restaurants that I need to try. Love the rest of them.

4. Lark, http://www.larkseattle.com/, it’s right across the street from school…yet I haven’t even gone there yet!

5. Crow, 823 Fifth Ave N, I’ve heard good things and have been wanting to try it out for months now.

Cupcake Royale

Cupcake Royale, a cupcake bakery…in theory it’s heaven, right? Duwardo and I walked into the store and there was a few of the selections that they show on their website there. We ended up getting the Lavendar and the Orange You Glad. It was my treat for having bowled well in our league game.

Anyhow, the actual cupcake was not moist enough and it just crumbled every where and made a mess all over the floor. The “infused” buttercream frosting didn’t really taste like much.

I suppose it’s a fun place to go, and cupcakes are always fun…but I was certainly expecting more. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by that one yummy Tom Douglas cupcake, who knows. It just wasn’t the yummy cupcake I had pictured in my mind.

Overall, it’s a place I might stop by for a quick cupcake fix if I’m in the area…but I wouldn’t drive out of my way just for one of the cupcakes. Although, I might drive Kate out there just so she can pick up the Kate cupcake.

Oh and the stupidest part? They have a “happy hour” where you get 6 cupcakes for $6. So I asked the girl behind the counter when happy hour happened…and she said that they only did it when they felt like it. LAME

**UPDATE**

I said that if they made the red velvet a regular, I would change my recommedation. As they have made it a regular now, I am a woman of my word. I now recommend that everyone go here and get a red velvet cupcake. Although I still think that random happy hour thing is lame.

Cupcake Royale, 2052 Market Street, Seattle, WA

two-wine saturday

Abstract: A warm, lazy Saturday on the sofa watching/listening to college football lends well to wine. One bottle in the afternoon, another for the night-cap. All by myself… jk.
2005 Cellarmasters Riesling, Columbia Winery, Columbia Valley, WA, $7.99 (MetroMarket).

I was going for a fun, light, cheap wine to share while at Metro and decided on a Riesling. We had a VERY good Riesling with dessert down at the crepe place down on 65th a few weeks ago. Sadly, this offering from Columbia Winery did not live up to expectations. I suspected mediocrity when there were no dominant aromas. Indeed, this Riesling burst with waaaaaaaay too much sweetness on first taste, with no particularly interesting flavors, and then quickly thined out. If only I remembered the name of the one we got at the crepe place… help?

duwardo says: NOT RECOMMENDED

2004 Central Coast Chardonnay, Castle Rock Winery, Napa, CA (Source Unknown).

Looking for a wine to pair with Ton’s Signature Tuna Pasta Salad, we found this mysterious bottle of Chardonnay on our wine rack. B/c I’m snobtacular, I knew this Chardonnay with grapes grown on the Central Coast of CA would be lackluster… and it was! Nothing on the nose, nothing on the tongue. But CAL had won, Stanfurd was well on its way to losing, and we just needed some booze. For that, it did its job. For snobtacular reasons…

duwardo says, NOT RECOMMENDED.

Ouch, 0-2 today with the vinos. Better luck… tomorrow? =P

word on the street

says we should try…

1 of 2. for mexican – El Sabor de Oaxaca, http://www.elsabordeoaxaca.com/

2 of 2. for chinese – Snappy Dragon, http://www.snappydragon.com/

Shun

Duwardo and I went to Shun the other night for dinner. Sadly, we thought Osaka was better. I had the cold soba noodles, and it was bland and completely uninteresting. It only tasted better when I threw in a bunch of ginger to give it some flavor.

Duwardo’s sashimi wasn’t much better either…he said that the fish didn’t taste super fresh, and it just wasn’t cut well. The presentation just wasn’t there. The fish sides were all jagged and it didn’t look nice. This is sushi! You have sharp sashimi knives, there shouldn’t be jagged edges!!! Additionally, the portions were a bit small compared to other places we’ve been to in Seattle.

Overall, it was ok…it wasn’t so horrible, it wasn’t super great…just ok. I don’t know if we’d go back to this place though…I liked Blue C Sushi better.

Shun, 2510 NE Blakeley St Seattle, WA 98105