[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: September 8, 2014]
It was actually the week before Labor Day that I flew out to west to introduce my New York family to my Vancouver family, stopping off in Seattle along the way (which means I'm behind with this journal).
Some very good dining too, even with a three (going 0n four) year old in tow.
Thanks to the time difference, it was lunch on Second Avenue (black spaghetti with clams at an Italian restaurant my diary doesn't name); then the flight JFK to SEA; then sandwiches for supper after checking in at Inn at the Market, a really pleasant spot built practically on top of Pike Place.
I'd visited Seattle on business before, and this time around did some tourist stuff. After an early lunch at Lowell's in Pike Place Market--crab salad sandwiches and fried clam bellies--we walked over to the Space Needle in glorious sunshine, checked out the amusements and the children's museum.
I sidled off for beers at Café Campagne before we all set off on a hearty trek to the first planned meal of the trip at John Sundstrom's Lark, then a year old--ambitious food in a plain setting. In fact, the setting was so downbeat, my family really didn't think I knew where we were going.
Lark was focused on small plates and seasonal produce in a casual environment in a way which now seems very predictable, but back then was actually noteworthy. We ordered a tasting menu (or maybe it was just a lot of dishes), and only had second thoughts about the length of the meal when my daughter decided to stand on her seat and sing.
Foie gras terrine, raisins on the vine, verjus ice cream
Pork rillettes
Yellow tomato chilled soup shots
Beet salad
Pork belly
Roast squab
Cheeses
Malt chocolate ice cream
Not to nag the new Nordics, but raisins on the vine are so much nicer than sprouts on the stalk. Anyway, Grüner Veltliner and Ribera del Duero to help out with that, then a walk back, stopping off (child not sleepy) at an amusement arcade.
Next day was a long day with plenty of eating. After breakfast at the hotel, an in depth tour of Pike Place and the surrounding area, watching the fish chucking, sampling pepper jellies and white clam chowder, checking out the cheeses at Beecher's. Lunch was at Union with some people I'd only previously met virtually on the eGullet PNW message board. Grilled lambs' tongue salad, blue snapper, cheeses (a nice choice for lunch, since closed).
In the afternoon, we drifted along the waterfront, got lost in the Old Curiosity Shop, then found an oyster happy hour with a water view at Ivar's ("Acres of Clams").
The evening's main event was at one of Seattle's longest established smart restaurants (a previous outlet for John Sundstrom of Lark), the Dahlia Lounge. I'd been before, on a client's dollar, and it's old school American dining: leather banquettes, booths, martinis. It made a curious follow-up to Lark. Food was straight down the line: chilled crabmeat cocktail with clam sauce, saddle of lamb with potato croquettes, and a bag of donuts for dessert. The meal demanded a local Merlot, and that's what it got.
Such a warm, late summer evening, we ended up hanging out in the park near the hotel, listening to inept folk singers until the wee hours.
We still hadn't visited the old Pioneer Square area, so we headed down there on our last morning, stopping briefly for baja fish tacos at Blue Water Tacos, and then of course for lunch at Armandino Batali's famous Salume. Tongue on a roll with peppers and onions, then a big plate of the incredibly good house-cured meats, and a few cheeses too.
I'd opted out of the flight up to Vancouver in favor of a sea voyage. I'd sailed the ferry from Vancouver Island to the city years before--and it's one of the prettiest little journeys you can take on the planet, especially as the sun goes down and the boat steers between dark, looming rocks and islets. The Victoria Clipper trip up the coast from Seattle to the island was a little choppier than I'd expected, but I managed to sip some cava while all around were swooning.
Next week, B.C.
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