where:Matt's in the Market
city: Seattle, Pike Place Market
Experience:
My love for Matt's in the Market is its charm. Inviting, Informative and wonderfully fresh it is Seattle at it's best. Located steps up and away from the heart of Pike Place Market, they take full advantage of their location with the freshest foods.
If you like a quaint restaurant with amazing food that you can watch being prepared make sure you come here.
Make sure to make reservations even for lunch. UPDATE: they are expanding!!!
Aruna's experience
We have been to Matt's 4 or 5 times and the food has been amazing every time. The first time we walked right in and where seated at the bar. Granted this may have been beginners luck and because we walked in when they opened for dinner. Be warned this place is small hence difficult if not impossible to eat there without reservations. Maybe 8 tables and 4 spots for couples at the bar where you can watch them cook right there.
HOLY $%#@! they are expanding. I just googled them and look what I found: Matt's in the Making
YEAY! wow you have no idea how excited this makes me. There have been a few times that I have tried to make reservations and it has been fully booked for the evening...(smiling as i write..check out the progress at Matt's blog:
Wow that is lovely...how exciting for them. So apparently you will have to wait a few before you eat there BUT it competely worth the wait.
I wonder if by the time they open again if they will have a new menu. My instinct says yes...but if not make sure to get the special whatever it is. They take care in making these dishes, and are very innovative. We have usually gotten the special and whatever wine recommendation they say. We have found one of our favorite wines through a Matt's recommendation. The Sancerre! :) They are experts at making you feel at home in their kitchen, and that is exactly what it feels like. You have come into an evening to spend with an intimate party. Steve and I went there last year for his birthday and there were 3 other parties there celebrating b-days. Every hour we sang "Happy Birthday" to someone.
I can't wait to check out the new space, If you get the chance to please let us know how it is!
February 19, 2007
Review: Matt's in the Market
Labels: Pike Place Market, Romantic, Seafood, Seattle
A week of Seattle
So we need to be more pro-active about these posting so I have decided that I will start doing local Seattle restaurants that we LOVE! Today will be ....hmm... Matt's in the Market . This is one of the first restaurants that Steve and I went to here in Seattle. And it is by far one of our favorites..coming later today :)
Monday: Matt's in the Market
Tuesday: Via Tribunali
Wednesday: Marjorie's
Thursday: México
Friday: Canlis
Labels: Best of Seattle, Restaurants, Seattle
February 13, 2007
Cookie variants
Every week Steve will get the urging for some homemade cookies, seriously kids its every week...
Usually its the traditional chocolate chip..but we decided to make something new. We have the Mrs.Fields Best Cookies book , but it has failed us numerous times so I wouldn't recommend getting it. Anyway we decided to make a chocolate cookie with mints in it.
I wasnt in the mood for that so I took half the batter and added dark chocolate Toberlone (yum!).
They turned out FANTASTIC. Crispy on the edges and chewy on the inside. Even a couple days later.Seriously...try making these. I would also try putting in buttersotch chips or even dark orange chocolate cut up. I might try that next. Read more to get the yummy recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 Tobelrone bar -or- 2 cups Mint Chocolate Chips (Hersheys makes them now)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine the cocoa, flour, and baking soda, gradually stir into the creamed mixture.
Add chopped up chocolate or mint chocolate chips. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffy but still soft. Let cookies sit for a minute before removing.
February 04, 2007
Review: Le Colonial
Where: Le Colonial
City: Chicago, Rush Street
Experience:
SO here is our first tastebudies adventure..yes its a month late...but its here! soo...excuse the spelling mistakes and enjoy!
hhmmmm:) ok so i immediately smiled thinking back to this place. why? because as you will come to find out I am a sucker for great atmosphere, because I know how hard it is to find. UGH...so quaint..so french/carribean and so dimmly lit, i say...yes please...
Aruna's experience
Le Colonial in downtown Chicago.
January 25, 2007 8:00pm
We walked up the inviting windows on a FREEZING chicago night. I had never heard of the place and when I glimpsed at the menu to see if its was an interestesing one and i realize it is basically fancy vietnamese food. I had been craving Pho for weeks now..hmm...Pho..If you haven't had the pleasure of enjoy Pho...I will write about it soon.
We go inside and I'm sure my eyes were all googly looking because it was so perfect inside. I am insanely picking about intimate lovely places to take the lovely people in my life and i could and probably will be taking many to this place. There were numerous couples inter-mixed with a couple of large groups. The place looked to seat about 80 people comfortably.
We sit down next to a large column (which I will say is the only negative part of the experience..its a little tight in there..but it was cozy)
so the staff was attentive, the place was lovely now the FOOD, it was late at night and i didnt feel like eating a whole dinner so I decided to get a couple of appetizers. I started with a monkfish appetizer cause it was the first thing that caught my eye...well i lie..it was actually the chao tom(shrimp wrapped around sugar cane..yummy)...but i had just gotten shrimp the other day..so i got...
ca bam xuc banh trang, Wok-seared monkfish with chili, lemongrass, peanuts, & toasted sesame crackers:
Now this of course came out the same time that steve's ribs appetizer and compared to those...this looked bland. It tasted pretty good, it was a little oily but tasted warm and was cooked great. I wish the chunks of fish were bigger and had more chili spice to them. I like kick with my food.
Chao Tom
Grilled shrimp wrapped around sugar cane, With angel-hair noodles, mint, cilantro, & lettuce, with peanut plum dipping sauce. This was more like it. All the elements were seperate so I could create each bite differently. This is something I would never expect to see on a menu and so inviting for the eyes. I loved it... It definitely made me think of eating sugar cane in pakistan :) its always a wonderful thing to have food jog a wonderful memory...so I woudl definitely order this again.
lastly desert!
holy lovely banana ok that wasnt the name but it should be...i cant remember that name but we will find out. Holy *!#@...thats how good this was..expleciticily good. It was basically a banana in a fried won-ton with lovely creamy and smooth white/dark chocolate on the rims to roll each bite in. This restaurant trip was worth just the dessert alone. I cant believe how good this was. If you eat here you must get this...the picture alone should sell it for you.
Overall I loved this place...i wish we would have known about the bar upstairs just to peek at it. But I know I'll be back so thats ok..I'll save it for another evening. i'm sure steve will have something interesting to say...we had some good laugh there so i'm sure he'll mention something about it looking like a banana republic..please comment :)
Labels: Chicago, Dessert, French, Rush St., Vietnamese