Eat, Play, Run

Hong Kong: Rainbow Seafood Restaurant

Doug, Kenwyn and I took about a 30-minute boat ride out to the island of Lamma to eat at Rainbow. It was a pretty cool experience.

Once exiting the boat, there is outdoor seating along the waterfront (covered by a canopy) and on the right there are tanks of seafood and the kitchens. There are menus, but really, you're supposed to choose what you want from the tanks and they'll prepare it for you. In other words, the food is really freakin' fresh.

I'm not going to go too in depth here, I'm just going to post the pictures. But, I will say that the crab dish, prepared with red chili peppers was unbelievable.

Pissing prawns with salt and pepper. Kind of a pain in the ass to eat, but once you got to the meat, it was quite good. The texture of the meat itself was a little mushy, but the salt and pepper sauce was really good. This was definitely a finger-licking type dish.

Spicy crab with spicy garlic, black bean and chili. Oh so good. The spice was just right. Again, the crab, which we chose out of the tank, was fresh and tasty.

Fried bamboo clams (razor clams) with black beans and chili sauce. Because razor clams tend to be little rubbery, I sometimes don't like them. But, in this case, the black beans and chili sauce added such great flavor, I really enjoyed them.

Deep fried squid with sweet and sour sauce. This was actually served with three different sauces, including a spicy garlic sauce. The calamari itself was well prepared, very light and crispy on the outside nice a tender on the inside.

Steamed broccoli. It was fine. Nothing much to say here.

Fried rice with assorted seafood. Excellent fried rice. The seafood, especially the shrimp, was very good.

Fried noodles with bean sorest and salt sauce. We ordered this after the rest of the food was gone. Doug and I were still hungry, plus we had an hour until the next boat left for Hong Kong island. These noodles were fantastic. I love fried noodles and I just don't eat them often enough.

Birthday Dinner II: Dahlia Lounge

I'm calling this one, the Giada De Laurentiis Special.

The Friday prior to my birthday, I was watching this great show on the Food Network called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." Each 30 minute episode has a theme. They were running a mini-marathon, so I watched four episodes. Here's where it gets interesting. On the Fried Foods show, Giada says that her favorite fried food she's ever eaten is the donuts from Tom Douglas' Lola, here in Seattle. That's high praise coming from a woman who travels the world in search of food. Then, on the Obsessions episode, Giada chose the crab cakes from Douglas' Dahlia Lounge as her number one food obsession. Just for the record, on the Pizza episode, Tyler Florence chose a pizza from Douglas' Serious Pie as his favorite pizza. I guess Douglas is regarded highly in the food world!

So, for my birthday, I went to the Dahlia and ate Giada's two favorite foods. Though she recommended the donuts from Lola, I'm assuming they're the same at the Dahlia, which is literally across the street.

Before I got to them though, I started with a happy hour app. of steamed penn cove manila clams w/spicy pork belly and nectarine relish. Wow. Easily one of the best appetizers I've ever eaten. Coming from the happy hour menu, it was only $6. The spicy pork belly was wonderful and heat paired nicely with the sweetness of the relish.

Next came the crab cakes. I have to say, the crab cakes were good, great even, but I would not call them my biggest food obsession. They are packed with Dungeness crab meat and have a nice spiciness to them. The two cakes are definitely enough for a full entree as they're quite large. I would recommend you order them and split them with your dining companion so you can try something else, too.

Finally, I had the donuts. This is my second go around with the donuts. They were great then, and they were on my birthday. Again, they're freshly baked to order and served in a brown paper bag filled with cinnamon and sugar. You then shake the bag and pour them onto the plate. They're served with two dipping sauces, and seasonal jam, in this case, huckleberry, and a vanilla marscapone. Simply wonderful.

It was a great birthday dinner. Now that I know they have a unbelievable happy hour menu, I have a feeling I'll be bellying up to that bar often.

Birthday Dinner: Salty's on Alki

My mom and I share the same birthday. so celebrating is always fun. This year, me, my mom, dad, brother James and his girlfriend Kristen went to Salty's on Alki in West Seattle for dinner.

We were surprised to find a bottle of champagne waiting for us at our table courtesy of my brother Steve and his fiance Leslie who couldn't join us due to the fact they live on Maui. Yeah, I don't feel too bad for them either.

We started the dinner with a seafood appetizer tower that consisted of crab cakes, fried calamari and coconut-flaked tiger prawns. All were very good.

For my dinner, I ordered the Alaskan Halibut Oscar. The halibut was prepared with Dungeness crab and a bearnaise sauce over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. I forgot that halibut itself doesn't have much flavor, but the crab and sauce made it quite good. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were also prepared well.

As it was our birthdays, my mom and I each received complimentary slices of the fantastic white chocolate mousse cake. The cake was moist and the frosting not overly sweet. I highly recommend this cake!

All in all, the food was good and the company great. It's not every day you turn 39... or something like that... :)

Ballard: Ray's Boathouse

My friend Karen came to Seattle this week for work. Her only free night to meet up was Sunday night. She had no idea what kind of food she wanted or where she wanted to go.

She wanted something Northwest, that she couldn't get in New York... and really wasn't interested in seafood. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure you can eat in anything New York. Looking back, I probably should've chosen Thai food, because outside of seafood, that's the one area where northwest cuisine kicks the crap out of New York.

But, going against her wishes, I chose Ray's Boathouse in Ballard. It was a beautiful evening, so getting a table along the windows that overlook the Puget Sound was perfect.

We each started with a salad. Karen a Dungeness Crab salad that she said she enjoyed. I went with the Boathouse Salad, made up of butter lettuce, blue cheese, almonds, and a raspberry-thyme vinaigrette. I loved this salad. In fact, I liked it more than my entree, but more on that a little later.

For her main course, I sort of insisted Karen order the Copper River King. She wanted something "northwest"... it doesn't get more northwest than Copper River salmon, right? Her salmon was pretty good. It was light and had great salmon flavor, though maybe a little on the dry side. It was served over a bed of mashed potatoes and asparagus. I never order salmon at restaurants because my brother tends to catch them quite often, and when he does, we usually have a big family dinner.

My meal, though, wasn't all that great. I ordered the Chatham Strait Sablefish in Sake Kasu. Prepared much like Chilean Sea Bass in an Asian restaurant, the fish itself was very fresh and well cooked. There, was one fatal flaw, though. It was WAY over-salted. I'm not sure what went wrong there, but the saltiness really detracted from the flavor of the fish and the sauce. This is supposed to be their "award-winning specialty"... but I can't recommend it.

What I can recommend whole-heartedly is the sinful Marcia's Chocolate Folly dessert. It's a delightful, rich, flourless chocolate cake topped with a mascarpone cream, served over a dribbling of mint coulis and bittersweet chocolate sauce. It's wonderful. Our server recommended a scoop of vanilla ice cream to offset the richness of the cake. It was a great call. We killed the dessert in less than five minutes.

On a beautiful day, Ray's seems like a good spot to take out of town guests who are looking for a "Seattle" experience. But, I'm not sure I've visit otherwise. The view is impressive, but the food is rather pedestrian.

(Ray's sign image courtesy "borrowed" from likeme.net. FYI, you click on any of the small images found on the blog for larger pictures.)

Maui: Alexander's

When in Hawaii, one thing to take advantage of is the seafood. Or, at least the seafood that's caught locally. The cheapest way to do that is to order fish and chips.

On Maui, along the south shore in Kihei, is a little shack called Alexander's. There's no seating available inside the shack, but they have some covered tables as well as a few tables out in the sun.

I went back the last two days to try the two types of fish for which they're renowned: mahimahi and ono. Two different fish, and depending on your preference, you're bound to like one much more than the other. Mahimahi and Ono are sort of like Jack and Locke on "Lost," they're polar opposites.

The batter on both is excellent. Both are white fish, but the comparison ends there.

The ono is firm and somewhat dry. The flavor is also very mild. I would say the ono is perfect who doesn't really like fish and chips, but finds themselves at a little seafood shack with nothing else to order.

The mahimahi, on the hand, is flaky and moist, loaded with flavor. I love this. It's some of the best fish and chips I've ever had. If you like fish and chips, and don't mind a little grease running down your chin, this is the type you need to order.

The fries are of the krinkly variety and quite good. However, steer clear of the tempura battered sweet potatoes. The sweet potato is woefully undercooked. In fact, giving them the benefit of the doubt, the cook may have just screwed up. If they meant for them to be that 'snappy' then they really need to go back and fix their prepartion.

There used to be a fish and chips window a couple of blocks down that street that was also very good, but it's gone now, replaced by a Mexican food restaurant. Oh well, Alexander's is great. I definitely recommend it.

2009 Seattle Maritime Festival Chowder Cook-Off

Went to the 2009 Seattle Maritime Festival Chowder Cook-Off today. The event took place at nine participating restaurants along the waterfront. I do the waterfront run nearly every morning, so I know from the first restaurant to the last restaurant was about a one mile walk. The distance between the restaurants actually nice. Not sure I could've done nine chowders in one seating.

My favorite chowder was Elliott's... least favorite, by far, was Steamers. Really, though, the first three are all fantastic. On the flip side, the bottom three were really at the bottom. So, here they are in order from best to worst with a couple quick notes about each.

Elliott's Oyster House: It could be that this was the 8th chowder I tried, but for some reason it tasted refreshing. It was neither too heavy, nor too light. Also had just the right amount of spice and clam flavor. I was somewhat surprised this ended up being my favorite.

Six/Seven at the Edgewater Hotel: I'm not sure how much butter they use in their recipe, and no, I don't want to know, but their chowder is pure buttery goodness. It's a little on the clammy side. For me, that's a great thing. Ask me tomorrow, and this might be my favorite.

Anthony's Pier 66: This had the homefield advantage as I worked at an Anthony's back in college. The recipe doesn't seem to have changed much. Love their use of bacon to give the chowder a richer flavor. This was real close to the best, too.

Bell Harbor Conference Center: They serve a different type of chowder. It's very spicy with negligible amounts of clams. But, it's still really good. I enjoyed the taste of this one quite a bit.

The Fisherman's Restaurant and Bar: A very heavy, almost stew-like chowder. The flavor, however, is nice.

The Crab Pot: While not clammy enough, it still tastes good. Where the chowder shines is its consistency, its thickness is just right.

Ivar's: Ivar's is a local institution, so I'll try to be nice. When eating it with a meal, the fact that it's as thin as chicken noodle soup, probably isn't noticeable. But, when compared to the other chowders today, it just didn't hold up. It's just way too thin, and it lacks richness and flavor.

2100 Bistro at the Marriott: Very watery. Taste wasn't bad. But overall, it just wasn't very good.

Steamers: Ugh. I'm not sure what they were serving, but it certainly didn't taste like clam chowder. It was pretty horrible. The only one I had no designs on finishing. Granted, there were others I didn't finish, but it wasn't because they were bad, it was because I was too full. With this one, it was just bad chowder.

So, there you have it. Nine chowders in about 90 minutes. Did I tell you I'm lactose intolerant? Yeah, good times. The things I do for you people...

Another NY Fave: Pearl Oyster Bar

OK, here's something else I miss about the east coast... lobster rolls. Obviously, they're brilliant in the New England area. But they aren't too shabby in the City, either.

This bad boy here is from Pearl Oyster Bar, down in the Village. It's damn good. So is the lobster roll from Mary's Fish Camp. If you're in New York, you can't go wrong at either place.