My camera is broken. Again. How the heck can I take decent pictures of yummy food to share with you without my camera? As it happens, my camera repair shop is located in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. And every time I drive my camera over there (which is way too many times) I pass by Mike’s Chili Parlor and think to myself… “self, that looks like a place I need to try”. Maybe my camera keeps breaking to get me to go to Mike’s. So I did. With my trusty iPhone and its not-so-great camera functionality by my side.

I ordered two quarts of chili to go and took them with me to a barbecue my friends were having celebrating Al Franken’s belated win. The theme was food from Minnesota. I had no idea what food from Minnesota looks like, I found out — there was hot dish, cake cake, and other “food”. (I thought to myself, chili counts. It’s from the middle of the country. And as a product of the coasts, that’s close enough for me. Yeah, I know, that’s offensive coast-ish snobbery, but at least It’s honest.) Anyway, I showed up with two plastic containers filled with chili. It’s not like I brought sushi or foie gras.

There are times when you want something subtle, something refined, something that challenges you. This was not one of those times. Mike’s chili is like the bar/”chili parlor” where Mike sells his chili (is there a real Mike still there? I forgot to ask) — simple, straightforward, packed with texture and solid flavor, and kind of greasy. Beans, ground beef, and a strong but not spicy sauce bringing it all together. I imagine if I’d eaten my chili there that the oil would have been more integrated. It’s not their fault that it separated a touch by the time I got it to the BBQ. That said, after some quick mixing, everything more or less stayed together, and the chili disappeared in no time. I diced some onions to put on mine.

Mike’s chili is basic. Definitely not fancy. But it’s also reassuring and unassuming in its honesty. What you see is what you get. And what you get is some very decent flavorful and filling red chili.

As for my pictures of Mike’s chili, maybe my regular camera is too fancy to take pictures of this chili. Maybe it knew that it had to sacrifice itself to get me to head over to Mike’s and that my simple phone camera was the right way to take these pictures. Or maybe my camera just sucks and wants to make me unhappy and cost me money. (Or maybe I spend way too much time anthropomorphizing my camera and need to spend some time discussing this tendency with a professional?)

See all our Seattle writeups and photo galleries at our Seattle restaurant guide on Tastingmenu.

I know our task is to write about great restaurants. But in the broadest sense, our job is to alert you to ways to get great food nearby. And in that respect, Locavore, a cute iPhone application is squarely on topic.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you already know that there are tens of thousands of applications available to you. The countless recipe apps mostly bore me to tears. Urban Spoon’s random restaurant finder is cute, but more often than not points me somewhere meh. It’s not Urban Spoon’s fault. The people rating those restaurants are all over the map and the recommendations sometimes reflect that. And while Locavore doesn’t point you to restaurants, it does tell you what’s in season depending on where you are in the United States.

Finding out what’s in season is not only critical for cooking, but ultimately it’s key for eating. Imagine going into a restaurant and realizing that the dish you wanted is comprised of items that are not locally in season. That’s critical information that can help you pick the right dish, or (more likely) the right restaurant. In addition, there’s a guide to farmer’s markets near wherever you happen to be. Not only is this a great use of the iPhone’s GPS functionality, but it’s critical to helping you get fresh food. And for those of us who prefer finished goods to ingredients, nine out of ten farmers’ markets I’ve attended have somebody selling something you can eat right on the spot. And usually it’s something delicious.

Finally, Locavore lets you broadcast what fresh items you’re eating by connecting your Facebook account to the app. I’m not sure whether this feature is there to help tell me about local fresh finds, or to torture me when people talk about what great veggies they’re eating out of their garden. Perhaps in the future it could include their GPS location so I could go raid their pea patch.

There’s tons of things that could be even better about Locavore including — support for the whole world instead of just the U.S. and farmers’ market details formatted for the iPhone and not for a big computer screen. That said, it’s already pretty good, and I have no doubt the proprietor of Enjoymentland (Locavore’s creator) is hard at work on these improvements and others even as we speak. (Full disclosure: Buster, who runs Enjoymentland and writes Locavore is someone I have broken bread with and a general good guy. But I paid my $3.99 for Locavore like everyone else.)

Bottom line, for anyone who’s seeking out freshness, Locavore is indispensable. Back to writing about restaurants next week folks.

Small-ish cylinder of cake. Large-ish dollop of frosting. You’re talking cupcake my friend. And that’s my language.

I’ll admit to being turned off by the trendiness of cupcakes. In general when something becomes popular I become more averse to it. (Hence my bad luck at investing but that’s another story.) But trendiness aside, there is simply no denying the appeal of a cupcake. In general, as human beings, we are wired to like the small, the tiny, the miniaturized. And a tiny cake with frosting for one is adorable.

But adorable is not enough to win the day. Seattle may not be Manhattan but we have a decently competitive cupcake scene nonetheless — and Trophy wins the day. I have two main criteria by which to judge a cupcake. They are cake, and frosting. Duh. The single biggest crime when it comes to cake is that it’s too dry and not flavorful. Trophy has moist flavorful cake. Their Hummingbird cupcake, which is banana cake with bits of pineapple and nuts, is almost like a super moist muffin. In fact, why aren’t more muffins like this? The straight up chocolate and vanilla are the dictionary definitions of chocolate and vanilla cupcake cake. Their warm round smooth unintrusive flavors fill your mouth while the frosting smushes everything together with creamy goodness.

When it comes to frosting there are two paths — the typical sugar bomb, or the more intense buttercream approach. While the sugar bomb can be all granular and really belongs only on supermarket cupcakes, I have to admit that buttercream can be too waxy and oily tasting. And at least in my experience, that’s true of most buttercream frostings I try. Not the case at Trophy. Their frosting has a dense center, but it’s neither greasy nor heavy. It’s frosting with depth but the flavor is up front as opposed to the fat.

On the creativity front, Trophy is no slouch either. The keep things simple, but well executed. Nothing too crazy. Just a focus on clean simple combinations like Lemon and Coconut, or S’mores, or mint and chocolate.

If I had to pick on one thing about Trophy it’s that they don’t sell their mini-cupcakes except for special orders. If you thought that miniaturized cakes with frosting were adorable, what about miniaturized miniaturized cakes with frosting. That’s called double adorable in my book. [Note: there is no actual book.] But small is not enough. The trick is the ratios. Trophy’s competitors have mini-cupcakes too, but the ratios are off. The cake is a little too big. Bitesize is really the way to go with just a dollop of frosting on top. Luckily I happened to stop by Trophy one day when they were having some kind of open house and they were handing them out. It seemed like I ate a hundred of them. (It “seemed” that way to the lady counting the number of cupcakes I ate and giving me dirty looks.)

We used to get cupcakes at the cupcakery near our house. Since we started eating Trophy’s, we’re stuck driving all the way to Wallingford (or now University Village) to get our cupcake fix. I suggest you do the same.

See all our Seattle writeups and photo galleries at our Seattle restaurant guide on Tastingmenu.

Some confessions up front. Two of my co-workers have basically moved into Volunteer Park Cafe. They work out of the cafe many days out of the week. This adorable little cafe located in an otherwise residential portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle is quite homey, so it’s no surprise they’re making it their workday “home”. In addition, as I joined them and another friend for lunch, after we ordered, one of the “regulars” informed the owner that I’d be writing about my meal. In addition to all the food we ordered and paid for, a plate of free cookies and cake magically appeared towards the end of our meal. I make it a rule not to let restaurant owners know why I’m there and I pay for my food. I chastised the informer appropriately, but I did eat those cookies.

My general philosophy is that I try to be as fair as possible. I don’t ask for special treatment, and I don’t expect any. That said, I do photograph my food and restaurant folk are not dopes. However, in my experience, any diner that loyally patronizes a restaurant and interacts with the staff in a consistently positive way will get treated like a prince. People in the restaurant business tend to take care of their loyal customers whether they are blogging about the meal or not. OK… enough disclosure. On to the food!

As I’ve written before, as much as I may like the decor or environment of a restaurant, and Volunteer Park Cafe is way cute, I really count it for very little as ultimately I care primarily about the food. Luckily, the food at Volunteer Park Cafe does not disappoint. This is not complicated fair, but it is executed well and with a delicate touch. You stand in line walking past all the prepared baked goods, cookies, and quiches as you decide what to order off the big menu. It’s hard not to salivate. Luckily there’s a glass divider keeping saliva squarely away from the food.

We ended up kicking off with some of the Ham Quiche. Solid if not striking. Moist insides, flaky buttery shell, and a smooth wide flavor. No sparks, but satisfying. The platter of cured meat is hard to beat with a little bean salad, cheese, and cornichons to adorn your bread and meat combinations. Adorn we did. It’s hard to say anything bad about flavorful cured pork products, on fresh french bread, accompanied by various flavorful condiments. And I won’t. The same goes for the Prosciutto Mozarella Baguette. We should have had a more diverse menu but the prosciutto was hard to ignore.

Luckily we ordered the Chicken Salad. A chicken salad sandwich is not something to be ordered lightly. In fact, I generally make it a rule to order anything other than a chicken salad sandwich on menus. A chicken salad sandwich does not automatically get all the benefit of thin slices of smokey ham like the prosciutto sandwich does. Prosciutto sandwiches start with the ball one yard from the goal line. Chicken salad sandwiches start from deep in their own end zone. A very bland end zone. The typical response is to season it. Heavily. Curry is always a favorite path to take. But that’s not what happened here. Instead, the chicken salad was covered with melty cheese. The whole thing came together in a creamy, melty, stretchy, almost sweet bite. The seasoning didn’t need to be “exotic”, it was just right.

While I’m relatively picky about desserts (my co-blogger’s are the exception of course) a cookie is the way to my heart. Chocolate chip with toffee bits that has just the right balance between chewiness and crispyness? Yes! But raisins are my mortal enemy. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do about it. I will never like them. Other dried fruit I’m generally OK with but over the past several years there is a deplorable trend to dry other fruits as some sort of raising substitute — I’m looking at you cherries and cranberries! Combine that with oatmeal raisin cookies masquerading as chocolate chip cookies presented to those who don’t examine their cookies closely and you can start to understand the depth of my fear. As you can imagine, seeing a Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal cookie on my plate felt like a tease at best, and a nightmare at worst. And then, I tried it. That same crispy chewy yin yang harmony was at play. But instead of the comfort of the toffee bits as with the other cookie, this time those dried cherries transcended their raisin cousins and added little sparks of bright sour flavor into my cookie. Fantastic.

Here’s the thing. The folks running Volunteer Park Cafe are not confused. They know what they’re about. Simple, flavorful, slightly refined, down-to-earth, comfort. There’s no need to try to be anything else. This is plenty.

And this is why I have no problem falling in love with a restaurant over one dish. One. Perfect. Dish.

A thriving street food scene would not only enrich our city for tourists, it would make the downtown Seattle lunch options much richer. Your choices today are basically fast-food, soup/sandwich/salad, cafeteria quality ethnic food, and the businessman’s sit down lunch. Not a delectable assortment. There are a few exceptions, and while it’s not “street food” as it has its own small establishment, my favorite lunch spot is Red Bowls on Third near Columbia in downtown Seattle. Open only for lunch, five days a week, and run by a sweet Korean couple, Red Bowls is a beacon of focus and freshness in the otherwise overcooked lunch landscape. It’s not that they only make one dish. It’s that they only make one dish that I have fallen in love with. It’s possible the other items on the menu are great. One of my co-workers assures me there are. And they cover a range of Korean protein/rice/veggie bowl combos (as well as some Udon bowls to boot). Despite my constant efforts to expand my experiences, I can’t help but order the same thing every time I go into Red Bowls.

Imagine a thick layer of rice (brown at your option but I always get white). On top of the rice is a heaping helping of fresh vegetables. Carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli. Crunchy, filling, raw, healthy, tasty vegetables. And then a generous portion of chopped raw fish — tuna and salmon combo for me. On top some spicy korean sauce as well as sesame oil and chopped scallions. And finally, because I ask for it every time, some avocado slices on top.

I’ll admit, the slivers of pickled ginger do complete the sushi-ness of the dish, and I do like pickled ginger, but I always leave it on the side. For some reason, I think the dish is complete without it.

For under $10, this bowl of fresh spicy deliciousness pleases every single time. It’s like a huge bowl of Spicy Tuna Roll (without the roll). I’ll admit, that if you put a pile of rice, raw fish, and spicy sauce in front of me I’ll have a hard time not liking it. But the freshness of all the ingredients, the combination of the sesame oil and the scallions, and the value have me in love.

And while it doesn’t affect the way the food tastes, the fact that the proprietors of Red Bowls are absolute sweethearts doesn’t hurt. And if a bowl of spicy (or not spicy) raw fish doesn’t make you happy, I’m assured by many of my dining companions that there are plenty of other delicious dishes on the menu that employ the same core values of freshness and focus. Maybe some day I’ll even try one of them.

If I could wave a magic wand, I would replace 90% of the lunch establishments in downtown Seattle with single dish carts/restaurants focusing on one item, and delivering it consistently and with super fresh ingredients day in and day out. But since I don’t have that magic wand I’ll have to keep eating at Red Bowls and wait for a real street food scene to develop in Seattle. We’re having some fits and starts so now may be the time after all.

Administrative note: Our local formerly print and now web only newspaper has been going without a restaurant column since they dumped the dead tree edition. Since we have an obsession with finding quality restaurants and writing about them, it seemed like there might be a good match. As of today, we’ll have regular Seattle restaurant reviews appearing on Tastingmenu and the Seattle PI simultaneously. We encourage readers of the PI to visit the rest of Tastingmenu where we have other food writing beyond just Seattle restaurant reviews, and we encourage readers of Tastingmenu to check out the rest of the PI. Apparently there’s more to life than food, and they do a good job covering that stuff as well. : ) Should be a fun experiment.

While Lampreia’s food is from the Alto-Adige region of Italy, and I love every bit of it, I wouldn’t say that going there scratches my itch for Italian food. Tavolata opened recently and I still haven’t made up my mind about it. Beyond that the place I rely on the most for high quality hyper simple Italian dishes is Da Pino’s. Pino cures his own meat, and serves simple, flavorful fresh dishes. But refined AND traditional Italian food? It still escapes Seattle, until that is Spinasse arrived.

Spinasse talks the talk. The window declares “Trattoria Pastificio Artigianale”. I don’t speak Italian but I’m guessing that’s some variation on artisanal pasta restaurant. And honestly, that’s one word more than you need to get me to show up. Spinasse is adorable of course. Small, and homey and instantly comfortable. I really don’t care much about decor (or all that much beyond the service) but the atmosphere at Spinasse is notable in how ably it projects the image of the small authentic artisanal pasta restaurant.

I’m always in a quandary in terms of how excited I should get about a plate of prosciutto as it relates to the restaurant itself. On the one hand, you could serve me some good prosciutto at Burger King and I’d be in love. But, it does take some expertise to make sure to get quality product and serve it well. Regardless of how much credit accrues to the establishment, I find it difficult to complain about a plate covered in delicious cured ham.

Next up is the pasta but I want to talk about that last as it’s clearly the center of attention at Spinasse. The meat dishes, notably the succulent and juicy braised duck leg, the bursting savory handmade sausage, and the absolutely melting squab were all excellent. Juicy, savory, warm, and deep. We did have a some rabbit on our most recent visit that came out dry. That was disappointing but definitely the exception.

The pasta though is really the signature of the restaurant. I’ve been to Spinasse three separate times and think I finally know how I feel. The single best pasta dish on the menu is the artichoke ravioli with sage butter and pine nuts. I have it every time. It’s gentle and warm. Like a quartet of french horns. Buttery, nutty, with a slight tanginess from the cheese. I love and hate finding a favorite dish. Only because I worry that by ordering it I will limit myself from trying other exciting dishes. Luckily, on our last trip we ordered Spinasse’s entire menu. No chance of missing anything that way. The other pasta dishes are good as well, the ragu, etc. The first time I was there I ordered one of the pasta dishes with truffles, and honestly the truffles were not super flavorful. I have a hard time faulting the restaurant for this too badly. A lot of times to get the best truffles you have to get them via mail from Italy. Once the thing shows up, if its not as pungent as it should be it’s not like a small restaurant can eat the cost. The best they can do is tell their supplier to do a better job next time or switch suppliers. But I’m not expert so I’m speculating.

The real issue is the other pasta dishes. They’re good, but they don’t leave the warm tonal range set by the ravioli. It’s not that they all taste like butter and nuts. But they are all in the subtler part of the range with a warm gentle savory quality. This of course is not a bad thing. But it can get a little repetitive. I’m not savvy enough about the region the food comes from to know if I’m longing for flavors that are just not at home for this restaurant, but for me I find the range a touch more narrow than I’d like. It’s not that it would stop me from coming to Spinasse, but it might make me come less often.

One other note, Spinasse has communal seating, which isn’t my favorite, but is absolutely unloved by many of my regular dinner companions. You have to request in advance the one table for four that doesn’t involve listening in on anyone else’s dinner blather. I understand why they do communal sitting. It’s a small restaurant, and the rent ain’t cheap. But it’s not for everyone.

Bottom line, Spinasse is lovely. They’re trying hard, and Seattle is lucky to have them. That said, I know they have a talented new chef transitioning into the lead role. My last visit was likely too early to experience him putting his mark on the menu. But I do hope that while he preserves everything that’s good about Spinasse, he expands on those basic values of authentic/simple/subtle/fresh to a broader range of flavors. I’m sure I’ll be back.

“Dana Cree, the pastry chef at Poppy (and one of the Rebel Chefs from April’s Best Restaurants issue) is the thinking-diner’s pastry chef. She analyzes, tweeks, re-works (and Twitters about all of it @deensie) and all of her smarty-chef work really pays off.”

She goes on:

“The most intriguing thing I tasted was Cree’s sassafrass ice cream, made with anise hyssop and sassafrass root (plus spices). I kept taking small spoonfuls and catching intriguing tastes of this, no that. It didn’t quite taste like a rootbeer float, as our waiter had said, it was more like those little barrel-shaped rootbeer candies, with a strange, illusive heat somewhere that disappeared before you could nail exactly what it was. What a fantastic scoop of ice cream.”

And finally:

“…for a dessert that’ll make you think, that might leave you in awe or open your eyes to possibilities you might not have imagined, do yourself a favor and get to Poppy. Dana Cree’s a serious talent.”

Yay Dana! Go read the entire thing.

Pending a major restructuring of this country’s priorities when it comes to fresh vegetables, I had been resigned to mediocre veggies once a week from the supermarket, and eating expensive quality veggies from Wholefoods once every two weeks. But, I still yearn for better. The econapocolypse and the inevitable crumbling of society has brought all this into focus for me — I need to grow my own vegetables. Unfortunately, if I gauged my ability to nurture living things based on my history with plants then I never would have had children. Past performance would have indicated that they never would have made it to their first birthdays. In addition, the pacific northwest is not exactly prime vegetable growing territory.

Enter Seattle Farm.

For a minimum of $250 they’ll come set up a raised bed in a sunny spot in your yard, fill it with good dirt, run automatic drip irrigation lines so you don’t have to water it every day (this is key for me!!!). And then, even better, for $35 a week they’ll come and maintain your vegetable garden, pick the vegetables, plant new ones, and then walk the freshly picked veggies the 10 feet from the garden to the door to our kitchen. This is my kind of vegetable gardening!!! As for the $35, I spend that much on vegetables just driving by Wholefoods.

Here’s a shot of our new garden:

Over the next few weeks/months we’ll be swimming in: cucumbers, tomatoes, golden beets, sugar snap peas, red cabbage, arugula, ratte potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, purple carrots, scallions, radishes, shallots, cilantro, basil, garlic, and kohlrabi (Dana’s request). Be nice and you might get some.

This company is adorable. They’re providing an awesome and convenient service. While it’s too early to tell you about the quality of my veggies, so far they’ve been doing a great job. I hope they become a huge success.

Surfing your collection of food blogs daily? Thinking about food? Maybe thinking about ice cream?

Snacking?

Maybe snacking on ice cream?

You like ice cream, I can tell. I do too!

Didn’t I just see you waiting in an obscenely long line for a scoop or two at Full Tilt, or Mollly Moons, or Humphry Slocombes, or Bi Rite, or Ici? In the rain?

It was you! You were the person eagerly asking for just one more sample, juggling 10 dirty paddle spoons as you reached to take the teensy bite from the scooper, promising the people behind you, “the last one, I swear.”

I’ll bet you have some pretty good ideas for ice cream flavors.

I’ll even bet you could win a competition with some of your original ideas.

Maybe you could even win this competition.

Winner not only gets to brag that their ice cream flavor is on Spur’s summer menu, but gets to do so at Spur, with 5 friends all eating your ice cream at an ice cream social.

And hey, I’m curious. What flavor did you make up?

Oh, I feel ya. Don’t wanna give the competition any ideas. Yeah, that’s cool. I get it. But I’ll just put this out there. I do moderate comments, you know. And I could, if need be, delete any comment that was super duper top secret after reading it.

Hmmmmmm, understood. I see where you are coming from. Well, I wasn’t going to enter the competition myself, that’s not really fair. Those guys are my friends, and I’ve already got my ice cream inventions on a menu. This is about your unsung creative genius. But you’re smart, intellectual property is valuable. In that case, just go ahead and email your ideas strait over to this guy…..

spellmans@spurseattle.com

And put “Spur Ice Cream Idea” in the subject box.

Now get out there and show them what you are made of!