FUNNY: Tricia & Johanna: Yelpers

Tricia & Johanna: Yelpers - watch more funny videos

FOOD EVENT: Seattle Restaurant Week

10 days. Over 150 Restaurants. 3 courses for $28.

Dine out and celebrate the fall run of Seattle Restaurant Week, October 16-27, 2011 (excluding Friday, Saturday and Sunday brunch). More than 150 local restaurants are serving up three-course dinners for just $28 - and many of them are offering three-course lunch for $15.

Find out more info on the event's website, Facebook, & Twitter.

FUNNY: Coffee Snobs

Coffee Snobs - watch more funny videos

FOOD NEWS: Seattle's Best Coffee new Pumpkin Crème Latte

Seattle's Best Coffee introduces their new Pumpkin Crème Latte! It is the perfect accompaniment for any fall activity. The Latte is an irresistible combination of pumpkin spice flavors, white chocolate, espresso, and velvety steamed milk topped with a sprinkle of pumpkin spice.

Seattle’s Best Coffee is offering $1 off a medium Pumpkin Crème Latte at cafes in the Seattle area through November 6.  For additional savings, check in to your local Seattle’s Best Coffee in Seattle on Foursquare to save an extra 50 cents off a medium Pumpkin Crème Latte.

Find a Seattle's Best Coffee café near you at their website.

FOOD EVENT: Mobile Chowdown VI

This Sunday is Mobile Chowdown VI! This time the food trucks are headed West, to West Seattle.

Date: Sunday, October 2, 2011

Time: 11 am – 5 pm

Entry Fee: Free!
Location: West Seattle Junction – California Ave between SW Oregon and SW Edmunds St. (Alaska St will still be open to through traffic)

Food Trucks: A Lunch in Hand, Andrae's Kitchen, Beloved Mexico, BigFood Mobile, BUNS, Charlies Buns N' Stuff, Dante's Inferno Dogs, El Camion, Fusion on the Run, I Want Curry Now, Kaosamai Thai, Lumpia World, Marination Mobile, Maximus Minimus, Molly Moon's Ice Cream, Pai's, Parfait Ice Cream, Pretzelwagen, Raney Brothers BBQ, Skillet, Snout and Company, Street Donuts, Street Treats, The Bistro Box, Veraci Pizza, Where Ya At Matt

More Info: Website, Twitter, Facebook

Bring your appetite and check out all the great Food Trucks!

FOOD NEWS: Happy National Coffee Day!

Today is National Coffee Day! Two national chains are offering free coffee today. You can get a free medium coffee from 7 to 11 am at participating 7-Eleven stores. You can stop by the closest Krispy Kreme store or drive-thru anytime on Sept 29, 2011 for a free 12 oz cup of their new House Blend coffee.

OPENING: Dick's in Edmonds to open before Thanksgiving

Dick's newest location in Edmonds will open before Thanksgiving. The fast food restaurant chain would like its fans to be a part of the grand opening! Dick's will be hiding 12 orange tickets throughout the city of Edmonds. Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 14, 2011, clues as to where and when you can find an Orange Ticket will be posted on the Dick's Drive-In Facebook page and on Twitter. Orange Ticket holders will be VIPs at the Edmonds Grand Opening ceremonies and be among the very first fans to eat at the new Edmonds drive-in. Check out the official rules at their website.

FOODBUZZ: Tastemakers with Peet's Coffee

Today I received this great package in the mail from Foodbuzz.com! As part of their Tastemakers program, I received a bag of Peet's Café Domingo coffee and a bag of Café Solano coffee. Both are medium roast blends. Café Domingo is described as "a blend of Central and South American coffees that is smooth, balanced and medium-bodied with more pure coffee taste."  Café Solano is described as "a blend of African, Indo-Pacific and South American coffees that is lively and aromatic." Peet's experts describe it as a world blend with floral notes and a subtle fruit essence for a lively, yet rounded cup.

I also received a coffee tumbler! Now I need to come up with a good brunch or dessert pairing for the coffees to post to the blog. I'll probably lean more towards a dessert, as I already have a few good ideas. This package arrived just in time for National Coffee Day which is this Thursday, September 29th!

TV SHOW: Top Chef has four Seattle hopefuls

The ninth season of Top Chef is taking place in Texas. Bravo has released the names of 29 possible contestants. 16 of those 29 go on to compete on the popular Bravo reality show. Four of those 29 "hopefuls" are from Seattle!

The four Seattle hopefuls are: Simon Pantet of Capitol Hill's 22; Colin Patterson of Wallingford's Sutra; Nina Vicente of Belltown's Spur Gastropub; and Ashley Villaluz, who is listed as a Sous Chef in Seattle. Top Chef: Texas premieres November 2nd. The entire list of all 29 hopefuls can be found at Eater National.

I'm a huge fan of Top Chef and I wish all the Seattle hopefuls the best of luck!

FOOD PRODUCT: Skillet Pumpkin Sauce

Just in time for Fall, Skillet has introduced their new Pumpkin Sauce. You may know Skillet for their famous Bacon Jam, or their great food from their airstream trailer, or their new Skillet Diner. Now you can use their Pumpkin Sauce as a ketchup on a burger or your favorite food. Skillet's Pumpkin Sauce comes in three unique flavors: Brown Sugar & Apple Vinegar, Thai Coconut, and Chipotle.

FOOD NEWS: Happy National Cream-Filled Donut Day!

Today is National Cream-Filled Donut Day. Get out and get some!

FOOD NEWS: Happy International Chocolate Day!

Eat some chocolate! Celebrate!

FOOD EVENT: Mobile Food Rodeo

This Saturday, September 17th, is Seattle's premier mobile food truck festival, the Mobile Food Rodeo!   25 mobile food trucks from Seattle and Portland will be competing for the 1st Annual Wagon Wheel Awards. The Rodeo will be circling its wagons at Interbay, 1600 West Armory Way between Queen Anne and Magnolia.  Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will be on hand to present the awards. The 1st Annual Mobile Food Rodeo will feature Seattle food trucks Maximus/Minimus, Skillet, Kaosamai Thai, and a lot more! Check out the full list of Seattle and Portland food trucks, and all the event's info at their website, Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

The Mobile Food Rodeo is already planning two more Rodeos next year. One will be in Bellevue in the Spring, and the other in Seattle in late Summer. Round up your family and friends, and mosey on over to the Mobile Food Rodeo!

NAME CHANGE: Campagne to reopen as Marché

Eater Seattle reports that Pike Place Market's Campagne will change its name to Marché. Campagne has been closed for renovations since January. Chef/owner Daisley Gordon plans to reopen as Marché on September 1st. Marché will continue to offer French cuisine, but it will also include other European and North African fare. Downstairs, Cafe Campagne will continue operations as normal.

CLOSING: Tidbit Bistro

According to Nosh Pit News in the Seattle Met Magazine, Capitol Hill's Tidbit Bistro will be closing its doors on Saturday, August 27, 2011. Both owners, John van Deinse and Nicola Longo, are planning on moving out of the restaurant business. They opened Tidbit Bistro four years ago. They moved from their 10th Avenue location to Broadway on Capitol Hill last year. Stop in for a bite, and bid the owners a fond farewell!

FOOD NEWS: Congrats to The Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard!

Congratulations to Ballard's The Walrus and the Carpenter for being chosen by Bon Appetit Magazine as one of the Best New Restaurants of 2011!

RECIPE: Homemade Vintage Lemonade

I love lemonade, especially in the Summer. Whenever I go out to eat, if I'm not having wine, beer, or a mixed drink, I will order a lemonade. Some restaurants make fresh lemonade (very few) and others just use Minute Maid lemonade from the soda gun behind the bar. I searched online for a good recipe for homemade lemonade and I found this recipe. It came from "Aunt Suzie" from Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients
5 lemons
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/4 quarts water 

Directions
1. Peel the rinds from the 5 lemons and cut them into 1/2 inch slices. Set the lemons aside.

2. Place the rinds in a bowl and sprinkle the sugar over them. Let this stand for about one hour, so that the sugar begins to soak up the oils from the lemons.

3. Bring water to a boil in a covered saucepan and then pour the hot water over the sugared lemon rinds. Allow this mixture to cool for 20 minutes and then remove the rinds.

4. Cut the lemons in half and use a reamer to squeeze the lemon juice out of the lemons into another bowl. Pour the juice through a strainer into the sugar mixture. Stir well, pour into a pitcher and chill in the fridge. Serve with ice cubes. Enjoy!

Adjustments
You may need to adjust the lemonade to taste. You might want to add more water or more sugar.

OPINION: Hey chain restaurants, stay off of my streets!! Leave Food Trucks Alone!

Some cities like Los Angeles, New York and Portland have rich food truck histories. Their food trucks are part of their food culture. In the past several years, the food truck craze has been spreading across the country. Seattle is a good example. The number of food trucks keeps multiplying each year. So much so, Seattle has been the host of several Mobile Chowdowns, which even featured food trucks from Portland. I'm a huge fan of food trucks and have attended a few of the Mobile Chowdowns.

Now some of the chain restaurants want to get in on the food truck action. Jack In The Box introduced its Jack's Munchie Mobile back in March in Southern California. Does Jack In The Box really need to get into the food truck business? Jack In The Box has over 900 brick-and-mortar restaurants in California alone! Do we really need a food truck like this showing up at food festivals, block parties and neighborhood blocks when you can find a Jack In The Box restaurant just about wherever you go?

Jack In The Box Munchie Mobile

Applebee's in Colorado rolled out its first food truck at its Colorado Burger contest. The Applebee's food truck is going to travel across Colorado. Yet again, do we really need an Applebee's food truck? Just like Jack In The Box, there are plenty of Applebee's restaurants throughout the country. In my opinion, any chain restaurant should stick to their brick-and-mortar restaurants. Chain restaurants and fast food chains make mass produced, processed, unoriginal food. Most of the food is bland and very unhealthy. It's bad enough that a lot of people drive to these places and eat this food, but now these chains are going to be driving through our neighborhoods trying to sell this slop to us? Most Americans are overweight as it is. Do we really need to make the access even easier to this fatty food? I think not.

Applebee's executive chef Shannon Johnson in front of Applebee's Colorado's new food truck.

Seattle has a lot of great food trucks: Maximus/Minimus, Marination Mobile, Skillet, Where Ya At Matt, El Camion, Pai's, Rancho Bravo Tacos, and many, many more! These food trucks offer fresh ingredients that are turned into amazing, original, and very tasty meals. Not to mention, they are all local businesses. Last month, the Seattle City Council approved a bill that allows food trucks to do business on the street. Previously food trucks were only allowed on private property. The bill also allows food carts to sell more kinds of food. This is all good news to food truck owners in Seattle. Hopefully this will spur on even more food trucks, just not already established fast food chains and other restaurants who have no business moving into town with their own food trucks.

Skillet

Maximus/Minimus

Marination Mobile

REVIEW: Hudson

Just south of downtown Seattle is an often overlooked neighborhood called Georgetown. This neighborhood has a lot of cool and unique bars and restaurants. One of these cool places is Hudson, a restaurant right off of Highway 99 (East Marginal Way). Hudson is from the owners of Smarty Pants, another restaurant in the heart of Georgetown. My friends and I were traveling to Portland, and we decided to stop in to Hudson for some breakfast.

Hudson is not a large restaurant, but they do have a cool horseshoe-shaped counter giving the place the traditional diner feeling.  The space is very bright with huge windows with booths and tables located around the diner counter. The building itself is a renovated brick building.

I ordered the Federal Scramble. It is made with three eggs, button mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and parmesan cheese. The scramble is served with hash browns, and your choice of bread, muffin or biscuit. I went with the biscuit. The scramble was delicious. It had an over abundance of mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. I wish it had a bit more parmesan cheese, as I love cheese. So next time, I will ask for extra cheese. Still, the scramble was very tasty! The hash browns were cooked perfectly golden brown, and the biscuit was delicious with a huge slab of butter.

My friend Penny ordered the SODO Breakfast. It comes with two buttermilk pancakes served with two eggs any style and two pieces of Zoe's bacon. Penny ordered her eggs basted. The pancakes were quite large and browned perfectly. The pieces of Zoe's bacon were thick slabs of pork goodness.

My friend Shay ordered the Breakfast Tacos. The two tacos were made with scrambled eggs, seasoned sausage, cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and spicy sour cream. The tacos came with hash browns. I had a taste of the breakfast tacos, and they were pretty good. The sour cream is definitely spicy. All three of us enjoyed our meals, and were happy that we came upon Hudson. Our server was very friendly, and so were all the other servers there. We will definitely be back.

Front of Hudson off of Marginal Way.

Hudson is open seven days a week. They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sunday Brunch is served until 3 p.m. Happy Hour is 4-6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight.

Entrance to Hudson.

SHORT FILM: EAT

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= a trip of a lifetime.

Check out their two other videos, and EAT!!