In somewhat of a Christmas Miracle, both my cousin and I were in the same town just after New Year's. Seeing that we're both foodies and gluttons, what better way to celebrate both our birthdays, the new year, Christmas and just seeing each other after such a long while.... than to have some delicious food!

First though we spent the day doing some touristy spots in Seattle. We went to the aquarium to see some cute sea critters (before we were due to eat some delicious sea critters later that night).

We ended up all ordering the sushi omakase. It was so much food! First course of white fish, then some delicious matsutake soup in a tea pot and a cold appetizer of grilled salmon belly. Then it was three more pieces of sushi, various cuts of salmon. Then delicious tuna and seared chutoro, and a slightly old fashioned nigiri where the tuna was aged and marinated a bit.

Then it was finished by a large plate of various sushi: anego, uni ikura, amaebi, geoduck, saba, cucumber and umeboshi roll, and salmon roll. And the most impressive piece on the plate: the tamagoyaki that had the texture of a dense Castella cake. It was sweet, eggy and unbelievably delicious and unlike any tamagoyaki I ever had.

It took some real effort to finish all that food! I was full until well past the next morning. Each piece was super yummy and each piece was just the right size. Even looking at the pictures now I'm starting to drool...

A parade of the food of March, starting off with one of my new favourite sushi restaurant. The links to the restaurant website will be at the end of the post.

Yes, that is three type of roe and a wealth of sashimi placed at the side, including plump scallops. What really separates it from the rest are the pickles and the sprouts. Their tamagoyaki is also amazing.

Some more pictures of various sushi from the same place:

Delicious sushi (can't remember what they were called) from Tsuki Sushi Bar.

One of my stand-by favourites is Kita-no-Donburi. Judging by the name you would expect me to rave about their donburi, except they're unfortunately quite average. They are delicious, but nothing exceptional. Rather, their special sushi rolls are more of a standout. Again it's the little touches, like the sprinkled nori or those red things, that makes it a bit extra-special.

The more typical downtown lunch fare (if there is such a thing) would be sandwiches and etc. from what I call "faux-rustic/industrial brasserie-inspired West Coast fusion hipster retro café-restaurant". Yes, that was a lot of words. No, I don't have a more compact or elegant way to describe the type of food shops common in Gastown and Downtown.

Above are some delicious house-made terrine and sausage with mustard, spicy pickled vegetables and lightly roasted bread. Although called a Ploughman's Plank, the portion is only suitable if you happen to be an exceedingly tiny (or lazy) ploughman. I happen to love cured meats and vegetables, so things like this are right up my alley. Chill Winston has pretty slow service at lunch though, so don't go with a large crowd. This dish required minimum preparations and the place was practically empty but it still took them a good 15 min to bring this out of the kitchen. The waitresses were also not very attentive at all. Their food is good though and I recommend coming back in the evenings for some of their cocktails.

Soup and salad lunch combo from Rainier Provisions.

The decor of this place screams retro (and hipster). They have lovely turquoise steel folding chairs and all food comes on these tin trays. This was cream of mushroom soup (rotating daily soup) and a beet and roasted fennel salad (with local goat cheese!). Rainier Provisions is also unfortunately lacking in the service department. Nothing severe but everything is just quite slow.

On the cooking front, I haven't done much this month (that I've taken photos of). I did take a picture of my totally not authentic cabbage rolls. I was craving them due to the cold weather (spring, where?). I think the ones I make are a little closer to the Polish variety but I honesty have no clue. I just slapped together some ingredients and wrapped them up.

The filling is half and half ground beef and pork, finely diced onions, cabbage and potatoes, some coriander and a mix of ground spices containing sea salt, peppercorn, allspice and paprika. The cabbage leaves were parboiled first to make them more malleable for wrapping. It's simmered in a mix of tomatoes and onions, seasoned with sea salt, pepper and rock sugar.

Although I did so well to not get sick while everyone around me was deathly contagious, I finally fell victim to the plague at the end of March. Strangely it made me crave South-Eastern curries, so I went out and bought some. It's all semi-instant roux because I don't usually cook with any spices, and as such don't tend to stock any. I forgot to take a picture, but the brand of the curry noodles below also makes a delicious (for instant noodles) laksa. I also bought some cream stew (クリームシチュー) roux as well because I've been wanting to try a half-curry half-cream stew concoction à la 鴛鴦炒飯.

I'll be heading to Italy for just over a week in April, so stay tuned for next month's food porn.

Tsuki Sushi Bar | Kita no Donburi | Chill Winston | Rainier Provisions

Sushi at Shiro's

Food, glorious food!

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