A Good Morning Guarantee

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A Good Morning Guarantee

Ce n'est pas une McMuffin.

While Take 5's Executive Chef, Bryan, had a high school gig grilling at a nearby McDonald's, his hand-crafted, breakfast sandwich is similar only in form and packaging to the fast food classic.  At Take 5,  slathered butter fills each nook and cranny of a toasted English muffin.  Topped with scrambled egg, melted cheese, and ribbons of honey-roasted ham, it is hearty enough to fuel a day at work, yet sufficiently naughty for a hangover cure. Worth the trip from across the Sound and picnic-worthy for a beach brunch.

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It Was A Good Day

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It Was A Good Day

3am. Ext. Belltown Street. 1st day of 2013   

First bite of 2013....a hot dog from Monster Dog.  I discover that cream cheese is the signature of a "Seattle Dog"...can someone please tell me the connection between shmear and this city? Initially skeptical, I love how the spread tempers the salty dog, which is served in my favorite fashion: split down the middle and grilled so that char is the primary condiment.  Robin adds pickled jalapenos and Steve doctors a spicy weiner with sliced onions and Sriracha.   Both genius.  Admittedly, anything would taste divine pre-dawn and post-boozing, yet these particular sausages embody more than just meat.  They are the sweet success after numerous failed attempts to find food. They are warmth as we chow down in the heated cocoon of the Jetta.  They are togetherness as we pass them among old friends, sister, husband.  They are the beginning, a taste of what will come. 

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Tuck Into Tasty

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Tuck Into Tasty

Like Vienna's Wiener Schnitzel and Naples' pizza, Montreal boasts her own gastronomic stereotypes:  poutine, smoked meat, bagels, and, more recently, pig-centric cuisine (see Au Pied De Cochon).  While indeed they are delicious (and naughtily not nutritious), after dozens of family trips to the City Of Stars, I was eager to venture beyond the culinary cliché.  My newfound friend and native Montrealer, David, guided me on this edible expedition. Luckily, he led me to Tuck Shop.

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This Little Restaurant From A Market

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This Little Restaurant From A Market

"Our produce, meat and seafood comes from farms, ranches and fisheries guided by principles of sustainability"  

This credo lines the menu at Cortez, the new, pint-sized restaurant on the edge of Echo Park. Phrases of this sort, peppered with utopian, food lingo--seasonal, local, organic--have become standard practice all over town.  Yet, how does a diner know if they are true?

Considering that Cortez is run by the pair who own Cookbook, the neighborhood's green grocer, the the proof is in the product. Cookbook's shelves are stocked--by owners Marta Teegan and Robert Stelzner--with artisan cheese & charcuterie, fresh-picked produce, and grass-fed beef. Each visit makes me feel like a kid in a candy store, yet instead of sweets, I swoon for caperberries, purple cauliflower, and olive bread.  

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