Sunday dinner, the ritual, is what restaurants like to do. Saturday nights are from hell (most places), Monday's dark (many places), so Sunday's when the chefs strut their stuff. At Tavolata, for example, they do $65 "feasts" that feature suckling pig or whole goat around their communal table. Emmer & Rye does Sunday dinners in their lofty upstairs space. Le Pichet does Sunday afternoon events, Harvest Vine does special Sunday menus. more ›

bbq chicken and corn on the cob by Ellie Lonardo from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

Foster Farms Imposter "tastes" recipes at Kathy Casey Food Studios in Ballard more ›

Another great option for creating flavorful food at home without breaking the bank is to make a small investment in some fresh Thai curry paste. It's inexpensive, a little bit goes a long way, it has no preservatives and makes your cooking taste really, really good. We favor the red, but there are other kinds as well. more ›

The problem with this particular project is that the Seahawks play St. Louis twice a year. After meals of toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake we are left with slingers, St. Paul sandwiches, and the city’s official dish, Crisco covered in fried caramel and broken glass. more ›

One hour. more ›

We were introduced to In the Bowl: Vegetarian Noodle Bistro on Capitol Hill a few days ago and have been planning our return ever since. New (to us anyway, apparently it's been around since at least February), In the Bowl is a welcome addition to the quick, cheap Asian-fare genre on The Hill. A bonus: It's all-veggie and every meal comes with Black Rice Pudding for dessert. The restaurant is small, with an atmosphere reminiscent... more ›

Look up the definition of “hot-to-trot” and you’ll find two sets of meanings: (1) willing and eager and (2) sexually exciting. more ›

As a soukous band plays and the audience noshes on couscous, red rice, and chicken, all doused with a hearty amount of spicy peanut sauce, a man sways to the music while carrying a fluorescent light to the center of the floor. We whisper to our companion for the evening, "I think it's started." more ›

Baby, it’s getting cold outside. Not that we need that excuse, but the nip in the air has us craving something volcanic. Time for some soon-doo-boo chigae. more ›

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. more ›

Our country is in restaurant danger. In many parts of America, pizza is Pizza Hut, Mexican food is Taco Bell, and chicken is Kentucky-fried. YUM. That’s not praise, but the stock symbol of Tricon Global Restaurants, which represents that trio and is trying to reintroduce Taco Bell into Mexico after failure the first time. (Will renaming the tacos “tacostadas” and adding French fries to the menu add to the Americana appeal?) more ›

We're not very strong on commas -- maybe that should be "Our Post About Lunch, With Elizabeth Hurley"? Oh well! We had the chicken ciabatta ($9.95) at the Nordstrom's Grill. That's the lunch part. Wait, we had a cup of decaf, too. more ›

Last night, we trekked over to Madison Market to get our favorite toothpaste. (Yes, it is strange to like a toothpaste enough to go out of our way for it, but the stuff widely available does not make us want to stick it in our mouth and brush away.) The store is always insanely packed, and we dread going there because the lines, oh the lines. But yesterday found the store a relative ghost town, and we slid right into line behind an older, sixty-ish man as he unloaded his cart to be checked out. He was sporting a magnificent salt-and-pepper mustache atop his scraggy beard, and we guessed that he was perhaps Greek or Turkish but we really weren't sure. more ›

(This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.) more ›

(This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.) more ›

(This season we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.) more ›

North of Seattle, in Lynnwood, is the restaurant Kirirom. Lurking low in the shadows of the big box stores, the chain restaurants, and the Alderwood Mall, Kirirom means “mountain of joy” and is a national park in Cambodia. more ›

Chicken broth-based soups are some of the ultimate comfort foods, and are especially good when sick. We love them all, from matzo ball soup (a.k.a. “Jewish penicillin”) to tortilla soup to good ol’ Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (or, better yet, Chicken & Stars – our childhood favorite, though we shudder to think about the sodium content). more ›

Our cooking habits this summer have followed a peculiar pattern. First we go the farmer’s market when ravenous (always a bad idea), then we impulse-buy produce, and finally at home we wonder: what sort of a meal could we possibly fashion out the eclectic collection of ingredients now sprawled out all over our kitchen? more ›

Back in Emeril's pre-Katrina heyday, chefs and serious foodies used to dismiss it as the Bam! network. Now it's disdained as All-Rachael, All-The-Time. You know, the Food Network, not about cooking so much as lifestyle (travel, glitz), weaponry (knife-wielding, cake-frosting) and tours of candy factories. Deliberate programming choices, made to draw viewers too sedate for Housewives and too chicken for Survivor. more ›

Seattlest isn’t really a discriminating diner. We don’t have a sophisticated palate. We don’t demand impeccable service. If we get what we order, the food is reasonably priced and tasty, and the wait staff leans friendly, we’re content. We do, however, expect near-perfection from new restaurants. And fair, unbiased criticism from those who evaluate them. After reading a “first look” review of new Ballard eatery Austin Cantina, and subsequently eating there Saturday night with our chicken fried steak-loving friend, we felt duped on both counts. more ›

So, accompanied by friends who've long lived in Morocco, we drop by. Uh-oh. Decorations, good. Romantic hideway, not so much. Diverse delicacies, no way. Of all the gin joints in the world, we've walked into this one. Rick would be aghast. more ›

He was speaking about another quiz he'd been to, but by the end of the quiz at Fremont's George & Dragon pub we were chuckling wryly at his foresight. more ›

We'd just polished off the Poulet rôti à votre commande, potage aux légumes de printemps (“Chicken roasted to order, on a celery-scallion-sultana ragout and salt-roasted fingerling potatoes”) at Le Pichet ($34, serves two, allow an hour for the roasting) and life seemed particularly pleasant, generous, abundant. more ›

Over in Ballard, Archie McPhee sells a cheerful Lunch Lady action figure for $9.95. Tell the disgruntled lunch ladies in Chicago, who are demanding respect from a school system that pays them peanuts (well, $10.46 an hour) and expects them to serve slop to thousands of kids. more ›

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! more ›

Yes, technically it’s spring, but here in Seattle temperatures are still bouncing from arctic to downright balmy and almost everyone we know (including yours truly) is sick, so we’re going out on a limb and declaring Seattle safely inside the Chicken Soup Zone. more ›

Are you looking for the finest pasta on the Eastside? How about some real, old country eggplant parm or chicken picatta? Kirkland boasts a trio of restaurants that proudly fly the green, white, and red flag. But which is best you may ask? Over the course of the next three weeks the Seattlest will sample the best of all three Italian-themed restaurants located in the heart of downtown Kirkland : Mama Lucia's, Ristorante Paradiso, and Calabria. more ›

Stems. Leaves. Flowers. In the Asian market, the sea of green can be a tough section of store to navigate. You’ll see some stuff you recognize, and sniff some, too. But some herbs will be new, yet well worth exploring. more ›