Amy's Kitchen

My friend Amy can cook.  She makes amazing meals and my favorite thing to hear in the world is "when can you come over?  I want to cook for you."  She is so passionate about food and I love hearing her talk about food.  I love going to the restaurants that she adores because I know it is the real deal.  Here is her fabulous blog with some awesome recipes!  Below are some pictures from a recent dinner she hosted.

Green Leaf Restaurant

My dad had been wanting to go to Green Leaf Restaurant for a long time.  It's not the type of restaurant our family would normally frequent.  Mainly because they don't serve Chinese food.  My dad kept seeing lines and lines of people outside of this restaurant and he knew that he was missing out on something good.  The Vietnamese flavors were fresh and vibrant and delivered to our taste buds the flavors of sweet, sour, savory, and hot.

Tofu and lotus root appetizer salad

BBQ pork vermicelli noodles

Seafood pan friend noodles

Ivar's Salmon House

Buffets are a pregnant woman's best friend - you can get so many cravings satisfied in one place!  This was a fantastic meal and I enjoyed every single bite.  There was an omelette and crepe station, heaps of breakfast food like pancakes, bacon, sausages, along with seafood pasta, pizza, chowder, steamed clams, mussels, and crab legs.  The dessert bar had a nice variety (the chocolate eclairs and lemon tart were my favorite) and the chocolate fountain was the icing on the cake.

Bastille

fries, curried mussels, ham and cheese sandwich, lamb burger

Cold cuts and olives plate

Bastille is a delightful little french bistro in Ballard.  I love the booth seats and the casual atmosphere.  The happy hour menu is quite varied and my favorite were the curried mussels and the lamb burger (and I don't even normally like lamb!).

Queen Sheba

Queen Sheba - it was a great experience to eat with my hands.  I can't tell you how satisfying it was to eat with my hands (the right one of course.)  Sure, sure, you can do it anytime...but when the food is designed for you to grab a hold with your fingers, it's such a fun thing. The only warning I would give is that the food takes about 20-25 minutes to make.  We were the first ones at the restaurant (around 5pm) and it took us that long to get the food.  The waitress got annoyed at me for even asking about the status of our food, and later, my friend tells me that it takes about that long.

Other friends have recommended additional (even more authentic) Ethiopian Restaurants in the Seattle area:  Zobel, Lalibela, and Saba, Dahlak Eritrean Cuisine and Enat Ethiopian Restaurant

Red Mill Burgers

It's not often you watch a TV show, spot a restaurant you really want to go to and then go the next day.  Man Vs. Food did a segment on Seattle and Red Mill Burgers was featured.  Our cousin was visiting so it was the perfect place to take him.  We went there around lunchtime and there was a 10 person line that greeted us.  The line went along as we decided what we wanted to order and before long, we got our order. 

Man vs. Food.... Man won!  The burgers were delicious and the onion rings were extra crispy.  Compared to other burgers, the burgers here were super juicy and not greasy at all - that really makes the burger stand out for me.

Portage Bay Cafe

A perfect day starts with a perfect brunch.  My friend ordered the big breakfast and with it, came huge pancakes that you can top with loads and loads of fresh fruit.  I order the Joe Scramble and it was the best ever - it had fresh baby spinach, freshly grated Parmesano-Reggiano, and chicken sausage.  The toast was honey wheat bread. 

Portage Bay does a really great job with their breakfast - the atmosphere is casual, but modern.  The food is tasty, but not greasy.  They source from organic, sustainable producers, and all the eggs are cage free, hormone free and all the veggies are organic.  I've become a big fan!  I tried going there for dinner, but turns out they only do brunch and lunch and reserve dinner for private parties.

Yummy House Cafe

Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood, near Children's Hospital in Seattle, this place makes the best chinese comfort food.  The crispy noodles, salty fish fried rice, seafood hot pot, salt and pepper pork chops, etc, always tastes great and comes out piping hot.  It's a little house of a restaurant and the owners are also the chef and waitress.

The Counter

The Counter in Ballard, the place where you can get the hamburger that you've always wanted - add an egg, blue cheese, brie, brussel sprouts, pineapple, avocado, etc, whatever your heart desires.  I'm all for choice, but I gotta say, nothing beats a plain old hamburger with cheese and the regular fixings.  I got brie and other fancy things on my burger and the combination just didn't work.

This place does a great job in cooking the burger exactly how you want it.  You just have to be careful what you end up ordering.  With freedom/choice comes responsibility - think about how the combo might taste!  They also have the best matchstick fries - regular or sweet potato, which was a major highlight to the meal.

Mikes Noodles vs Wonton Noodle House

It's nice to have more and more options available in the north-end these days for good chinese eats.  Dim sum, won ton noodles, and bubble tea are all available in a very lovely corner in Edmonds - Ranch 99 and a strip mall a block north of the complex.  Wonton Noodles is quite good, given my expectations of the location (not in chinatown!).  Definitely worth the trip if you are stuck up north and want congee or noodles.

Mike's Noodles in Seattle's Chinatown is still the gold standard though, even compared to some of noodle houses in the Chinatowns at NYC and SF.  Everything involved in making an amazing bowl of noodles - the broth, the noodles, the wontons, the brisket - is done well and the broth is hard to beat.  Mike's Noodles can be inconsistent at times, but they are still the best noodles around, even when they are a little off their game.  Their long lines during rush hour prove it.

Tandoor

A favorite of our friends within the U-district, this is a lovely little restaurant, and if you hit them around 5pm on a sunday, you get the dining room almost all to yourself.  We had a small feast - butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, chicken tandoori, and aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato).  It's such a vibrant meal - I love all the different colors.

Chipotles

Another family similarity - our love for Chipotles - at least for most of the girl cousins, we love their burrito bowls - some like chicken, some like steak.  We went at least 2-3 times in a week and loved every meal!

Flying Fish

Ahi Tuna Poke with won-tons and wasabi tobiko marinade

Two of my friends were nice enough to invite me along to an annual tradition of theirs - going to Flying Fish to partake in a evening of crab - the salt and pepper crab, to be more specific.  We started out with the poke appetizer and while it was good, the flavors were somewhat bland. 

Salt and Pepper Dungeness Crab with sesame noodles and carrot daikon salad

The crab, however, did not disappoint.  It was absolutely amazing and after the second bite, I signed myself for next year's dinner.  The waiter shared his wisdom and helped us figure out that sharing the platter of crab was quite plenty.  The crab was completely covered in salt and peppercorns, and the flavors burst in my mouth, along with the delicate, sweet crab.  It was a very messy ordeal as we were up to our elbows in salt and pepper/crab shells, so as much as I wanted pictures of us, I'm glad that we didn't take pictures.

Shiku

Late summer, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted as I walked through Ballard, to meet up a friend for happy hour.  The shops were so cute and the restaurants were plenty - we spotted a couple that we definitely want to come back for, including Bastille for brunch.

The Bruce Lee roll - I thought it was a total cliche, but it totally lived up to its name.

Fried Cheesestick with Shiso with strawberry marmalade dipping sauce - it was an adventurous pick but it was so delicious!

How cute is this neighborhood!