I Heart Seattle

So I am begrudgingly back from Seattle, the city that I feel still serves the best food in the land.

To commemorate the impetus behind the visit I purchased this artisan's plate of "the salmon." Ah yes, copper river salmon, you were mine. *sigh*

And it was cold, and cloudy, and one day rainy, and just to tease me on my departure day it was bright and sunny... but no matter; it was great to be back!

Instead of going back to old haunts per usual, this creature-of-habit tried some new stuff, and rediscovered some old. While all this news now appears on the City List at right, there are still a few more bits to share about why I Heart Seattle:

New - Marly's City Must Lists

Ok fellow food explorers, it's time to introduce the list I've been compiling for ages, my tried-and-true city favorites, each item sampled personally at least one time -- ok probably more like two, three or ten times! (*blush*)

If you've known me awhile you may have heard some of this before, though this is just the beginning. The list is going to be BIG, it's going to grow baby, and new things will be added as my beloved food adventures continue onward.

You'll notice, unlike other reviews or lists, that this one is short & sweet (& salty too! lol). Expositional verbiage has been left out so you can get right to the need-to-know: where to go and why. Do you have time to read through pages of text to get to the pearl? I didn't think so. Do I have time to provide links for every pearl you find? I knew you'd understand that I don't :).

Chocolate with a dash of vanilla irony

At left is the chocolate stash now in my house. The next time you see me I will be several chocolate pounds heavier and quite happy about it.

There are some people who choose the flavor of chocolate over vanilla every time. Ironically, most of the chocolate we eat in desserts or candy contains vanilla, as an additive used to bring out the flavor of chocolate. One exception is a French chocolate bar named Chocolat Bonnat, and it's a fantastic discovery once you taste a 75% dark chocolate bar without vanilla and realize the influence vanilla has had on your chocolate taste buds all these years. (Btw I can't seem to find this for sale online now, so if in San Fran visit Cocoa Bella in the Westfield San Fran Center on Market & 4th.)

Where I've been, where I'm going 5/10/07

Where I've been:
A few weeks ago Dan K from NYC came to town and we went to Soot Bull Jeep, the best Korean BBQ place I know of. Since I am known for ordering redundancies, we had the steak and the spicy pork (3rd time). Dan of course went back to New York singing a new song that went something like this... "When I need a spicy kick, Ktown Q to my ribs does stick. It's good to try new spicy things; sometimes even I tire of buffalo wings."

Then last Friday Sussy took me for my first visit to Cobras & Matadors, Hollywood Blvd. location. It so happens I haven't had the big food O in a long time, and this place did it. Can't live without items: almond & cabrales-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates in a port reduction, cheese plate, churros. Can live without: the socca, which I'd hoped would be like the famous chickpea pancakes of Nice (only seen photos) but these were thick and covered in a curry-spiced honey. Why, why?

It's time to visit Planet Marly

Too many years ago when I worked at my 1st New York City ad agency (in the creative dept. making ads for Transformers), it became clear that this Jersey girl wasn't ready yet for the big city. So after six months of scripts and storyboards at a frighteningly low salary, I headed back to the home state, but not without the idea to start a greeting card company called Planet Marly. The name of the "company" made sense to everyone, especially colleagues and old friends who'd often said in the past "What planet are you on, Marly?" :)

Well the company never happened. I'll admit I was distracted by other things in Princeton...ok by a guy named Chuck who made buffalo wings. I never met Chuck, but I sure consumed a lot of buffalo wings. Yes I can still see the orange stains on my fingers, which really did prevent me from making greeting cards (yes yes that's only one reason why the card company never happened, you got me!)

Since then life's taken me straight to the path of foodie--not to be confused with a food snob as some folks describe it. Specifically my interests relate to what to eat and where, and in sharing that knowledge, because you never want to say you visited a place for a day and missed out on an incredible food opportunity!

With that, I introduce my blog, in the hopes that this time when I am distracted by the proverbial buffalo wing, you can read about it here on my planet.

Cheers,
Marly

(ps: this is me en route to dinner in Paris)