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!!

REVIEW: Le Fournil

I finally made a visit to Le Fournil French Bakery. The bakery has been in the Eastlake neighborhood by the University Bridge since 1997. The owner, who is originally from France, wanted to bring the French bakery experience to Seattle.

I ordered a chocolate/orange tart with a vanilla latte. The tart was ridiculously good! It was very rich, and had just a hint of orange flavor. Half of the tart was dusted with cocoa powder. The latte was pretty good on its own. I love French bread, so I also purchased a loaf to take home. The bread was very tasty. Le Fournil offers a full menu of sandwiches, quiche, salads and soups. Not to mention, their dessert case is full of delicious looking pastries that changes seasonally. I highly recommend visiting Le Fournil for all that they have to offer!

Happy Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day from Chow Down Seattle!!

FOOD EVENT: 30th Annual Bite of Seattle

One of my favorite food events takes place this weekend. The 30th Annual Bite of Seattle starts Friday, July 15th at Seattle Center. Each year this event gets bigger and bigger. Although one thing is getting smaller this year. All restaurant booths will offer a Just a Bite! item (a smaller portion of one of their popular menu items for a lower price). So now you can sample a variety of restaurants, instead of getting full after just one or two food booths.

  One of my favorite foods to try is the grilled corn on the cob. The line for this is always dozens of people long, but it's well worth it! Nothing is better than an ear of corn grilled in its husk, peeled, and then dipped in melted butter. YUM!!

As always, the Bite will have entertainment for the entire family. Stop by and check it out. This is a great opportunity to try some of the best food Seattle has to offer!

July 15-17, 2011

FREE ADMISSION
Seattle Center
Friday & Saturday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
www.comcastbiteofseattle.com

FOOD NEWS: Seattle is One of America's Best Beer Cities

Travel + Leisure magazine recently conducted a poll of its readers to determine the Best Beer Cities in America. Seattle ranked 3rd on their list! The Emerald City is known for its coffee, but it is also known for its great beers! Seattle has a lot of great breweries. Below is a list of just some of them:

Big Al Brewing
Big Time Brewing Company
Elliott Bay Brewing Company
Elysian Brewing Company
Fremont Brewing
Georgetown Brewing Company
Hale's Brewery
Maritime Pacific Brewing Company
Naked City Brewing
Pike Brewing Company
Pyramid Brewing
Redhook Brewery
Schooner Exact Brewing Company
Six Arms Brewery
Two Beers Brewing Company

Do you have a favorite beer? Microbrew? Brewery?

REVIEW: Brave Horse Tavern

This week my friend and I paid a visit to one of Tom Douglas' new eating establishments, Brave Horse Tavern. This is one of three new eateries in the Terry Building located in the heart of the new Amazon.com campus in South Lake Union. I have heard a lot of good things about this place, so I was excited to try it out. The day I visited was nice and sunny, so we decided to sit at one of the picnic tables outside.

I have heard a lot about the hand-made pretzels, so I tried one out as an appetizer. You can choose to have a number of dips with your pretzel. I went with the sour cream and crispy onion dip. This pretzel was delicious! It came to the table nice and warm. It had a perfect amount of sea salt dusted on top. I could have easily had three of these for lunch. Brave Horse Tavern also has a great selection of beers.

After my pretzel appetizer, I ordered the fennel and chili rubbed pork shoulder sandwich. The pork was served on a ciabatta with garlic rapini and green sauce. This sandwich was very tasty, although it was quite messy to eat. I didn't add the green sauce to my sandwich, as it would have made my sandwich soggy. Otherwise, it was a good sandwich. I look forward to going back for some more pretzels!

REVIEW: Cicchetti

My best friend recently moved back to the Eastlake neighborhood. We have both lived in the neighborhood years before and have always loved the area, so I was very happy when he moved back. We decided to walk on over to Cicchetti, Serafina's sister restaurant. It is located directly behind Serafina. Cicchetti is a perfect addition to the Eastlake neighborhood. Cicchetti has great outdoor seating. On this visit, we sat at the bar. The bar is great. All the liquor bottles are shelved up against large windows that face West, so as the sun is setting all the bottles glow in the sunlight.

We arrived just in time for Happy Hour (5pm - 6:30pm). Cicchetti has a great Happy Hour menu with $5 specialty drinks. One of the drinks I tried is called "The Rumbler". It is a refreshing rum based drink.

Next we ordered some small plates. We started with the Truffle oil popcorn for only $1. I love popcorn and I love Truffle oil, so this was a match made in heaven. I could have easily eaten a jumbo-sized bucket of this stuff. We also tried the Kalamata olives with feta. These were also very tasty.

Next we tried the Margherita Pizza, which is only $5 during Happy Hour. The pizza was delicious. It is cooked in their wood fire oven. The crust was perfect!

Lastly, we had our main course of Hanger Steak. The steak was tender and juicy, and served on a light salad. I highly recommend! Overall, I love this place! Right off the bat, our Server was very friendly. Our Bartender was great. He made great drinks and always made sure we were happy with our food and drinks. The rest of the staff at Cicchetti was just as friendly. The place has a very laid-back vibe about it. Cicchetti is a perfect neighborhood restaurant/bar. I can't wait for my next visit to Cicchetti!

TRAVEL: La Velvet Margarita Cantina - Hollywood, CA

Over the weekend I went down to California with my best friend to visit our friend Jill. She took us to this excellent restaurant called La Velvet Margarita Cantina. The decor alone is awesome in this place. They have cool skull painting on the wall, sombreros on the ceiling, and cool metallic wallpaper throughout. I started my meal with the VMC House Salad. It was a nice mixed greens salad with mama Carmelita's special vinaigrette orange dressing. This was a very tasty and refreshing salad. For my entree, I had the Chicken Asada Taco Platter. This consisted of grilled chicken served open faced on corn tortillas topped with salsa, guacamole, onions and sour cream. The tacos were served with rice and beans. All of the food was delicious.

One of the drinks I had with dinner was their Pina Colada which was served in a shaved coconut. This was honestly one of the best Pina Coladas I have ever tasted. It was so smooth and creamy.

The second drink I had was their Velvet Margarita. This was served in a fresh pineapple. This too was one of the best margaritas I have tasted. I highly recommend it!

OPENING: Stopsky's Deli on Mercer Island

Stopsky's Delicatessen, a traditional Jewish delicatessen, will be opening on Mercer Island on Monday, May 16th!

3016 78th Ave. SE

Mercer Island, WA 98040

Hours: Mon-Fri 7-7, Sat-Sun 7-5:30

Contact:

Toll-Free: 855-STOPSKY

Phone: 206-236-4564

Fax: 206-236-4565

Email: info@stopskysdelicatessen.com

Find out more at: www.stopskysdelicatessen.com