Posts Tagged ‘Nutella’
- In: Eating | Food truck | Seattle | USA | Washington
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I have a love-hate relationship with the food truck pod in the Amazon precinct. In a car park on Harrison near Fairview in South Lake Union, there is a diverse selection of food trucks on rotation on weekdays. I love that there’s a location for the mobile eateries in the neighbourhood. I hate that the crowds idle on the footpath. I’m in the area several times a week and it’s an obstacle course to hustle through the blue badge coterie.
I’ve noticed some trucks position their windows towards the car park so the queues are away from the street. Others park their trucks at an angle to maximise the space between their vehicle and the footpath. I appreciate the pedestrian friendly effort!
On the day of the Feast on the Farm dinner, Shirley and I enjoyed a frybread lunch from Off the Rez.
Frybread is a Native American specialty and we both ordered the combo of two Indian tacos and one sweet frybread. On the left is chicken chilli verde and on the right is pulled pork. The frybread was a golden puff, a fluffy pillow for the taco toppings. A sturdy container for the meats, the frybread soaked up the marinade and had a lightly chewy texture.
The Indian tacos were garnished with coleslaw and sprigs of coriander. Braised in beer, the chicken was drizzled with a rich crema sauce. Smoked for ten hours, a honey bourbon barbecue sauce was stirred in the pulled pork. Both were tender and strongly seasoned, an unctuous introduction to frybreads.
Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, the sweet frybread resembled a doughnut minus the hole. It was ethereal, so delicate and similar to Greek loukoumades and Italian zeppole.
The Nutella version of sweet frybread was a sticky mess, the viscous hazelnut chocolate dripped down the side.
Off the Rez has affirmed my liking for food trucks!
Il Corvo mushroom farm harvest dinner at [storefront] Olson Kundig Architects – Pioneer Square, Seattle
Posted on: Monday 19 March 2012
A collaboration between CityLab7, Olson Kundig Architects and Schuchart/Dow, the mushroom farm was installed at [storefront] in Pioneer Square.
Funded by Invoking the Pause, the Fertile Grounds project by CityLab7 partnered with local cafés, Caffe Umbria, Starbucks and Zeitgeist, to reuse coffee grounds to grow oyster mushrooms.
One of the events of the pop up concept was a mushroom farm harvest dinner hosted by Il Corvo.
A trough displayed the coffee grounds at the front window.
The structure is built with reclaimed plywood and cocooned in plastic.
22°C (71°F) temperature and 88% humidity, the subtropical atmosphere within the tent was calibrated for growing oyster mushrooms.
Bricks of coffee grounds were inoculated with mycelium and the spores germinated into fairy floss (cotton candy) like fibres, weaving a web on the surface of the caffeine soil.
Clusters of oyster mushrooms sprouted through the perforated skin.
The oyster mushrooms grow exponentially towards the end of the six week period.
These wide gills were ready for harvesting.
An illustrated mind map of urban food systems connections.
‘Counting and cultivating co-benefits of coffee culture.’
Handwritten comments were tacked on the wall.
Can you decipher these cute, neat notes? ‘I like to plant blueberries. I like to plant strawberries.’
And in an elegant script, ‘eating is the life’!
[storefront] is a bare space for creativity and thus a mobile kitchen was a couple of portable gas cookers.
The dining table and benches are made with salvaged wood, lovely lumbers that accentuated the sustainability theme.
We sipped Cava (Spanish sparkling wine), and nibbled on porcini and Parmesan grissini.
We settled into our seats and bottles of Elena Walch Schiava were poured. The first course was a simple salad of leafy greens, fennel, pine nuts, raw oyster mushrooms and vinaigrette. It was fresh and zingy, the crunch of the lettuce and pine nuts paired well with the firm and meaty mushrooms.
‘Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.’
Chef Mike Easton stirred the pot of risotto with an oar wooden spoon.
Cooked in porcini stock, seasoned with thyme and a bottle of wine, the oyster mushroom risotto was superb. A viscous bowl of comfort food, we savoured each spoonful of the vegetarian main dish.
Chewy discs of chocolate hazelnut cookies concluded a special meal. 1.5 kg of Nutella was in the batch of cookies for twenty people!
Sincere thanks to CityLab7, Il Corvo and Olson Kundig Architects for a unique experience!
- In: Eating | Seattle | South Lake Union | USA | Washington
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We’ve had meals with several Australians in the last couple of weeks. Some were visiting for work, others were on holiday. There’s a homely comfort to hearing an Aussie accent, laughing at a sarcastic comment and understanding a cultural reference.
Our sunburnt country is girt by sea and with the exception of New Zealand, it takes many hours on a plane to get to another country. In this tyranny of distance, Aussies tend to travel for weeks and months and not days.
Sustained by a warm day and long daylight hours, Mr N overcame jet lag for dinner at Cuoco. Occupying the street level of the Terry Avenue Building, the restaurant is resplendent in its restoration with brick walls, wooden beams and Georgian windows.
A wide entrance welcomes you with a view of the open plan pasta making area, lined with Atlas Marcato pasta machines in rainbow hues. We were ushered to the bar for an apéritif before being seated at our table.
I noticed a couple of private dining rooms, ideal for business meetings and special celebrations. I read on the website that there’s also a chef’s table, a concept that’s popular (and expensive) in Sydney.
The tables had dividers or were generously spaced which made for good conversation. As with all other Tom Douglas restaurants, Cuoco is dimly lit but we were lucky to be by a window.
We shared house made bread with extra virgin olive oil tasting. Fresh and fluffy, the thickly sliced bread had a chewy crust and a soft centre for soaking up the fluorescent liquids.
Our waiter was congenial and knowledgeable about the menu. Mr S ordered spaghetti with garlic, anchovy, breadcrumbs, chilli flakes, Parmigiano and grilled wild prawns. A dryer style pasta with flavoured breadcrumbs, the combination was a pleasant textural contrast. The prawns were succulent and added bulk to the meal.
Mr N craved a classic dish after seventeen hours of airline and airport food. The seven layer lasagna with tiers of Bolognese and besciamella was cosy and soothing.
I don’t recall ever eating lamb in pasta so I was intrigued by the lamb ravioli served with garlic, spring onions, English peas and Pecorino. Plain in appearance, the flat, jagged edged parcels were silky and protected a dollop of finely minced lamb.
A bowl of Bing cherries was the dessert special but my love for chocolate and hazelnut pairings prevailed. Salted, roasted and crushed hazelnuts were scattered on top of a slice of chocolate Nutella semifreddo. The waiter brought three spoons but only one was used – mine!
It was still dusk as we left. Mr N commented that Seattle is a liveable city in summer and we wholeheartedly agree.
