Pacific Northwest Journey 2016: Culinary Roundup

Local apples and cider at Port Townsend's Food Co-op.

We just returned the other day from our annual visit to Seattle for the Puget Sound Mycological Society annual mushroom fair. Along the way, we had some great meals at local restaurants and food co-ops.

Organic arugula is one of the best things you can take on a long car journey, or if you are manning a booth at a fair all day. I drink coffee every day, but after noon, I prefer fresh greens for a pick me up that's similar to a wheat grass shot, but much cheaper. 

Above & below: Indian cuisine at Glassy Junction in Weed, California, just past Mount Shasta on Interstate 5. Killer stuff. Aloo Gobhii (cauliflower curry) & Lamb Saag (tender lamb in spinach curry), served here with freshly cooked naan. Heightened and sophisticated use of spices. Best Indian food in Northern California.

Local cheeses and bread in Oregon. Some we got in Ashland, more later near Portland.

We always try to shop at Cooperatives when on the road, and October is Co-op Month. Here's a shot from our visit at Seattle's Central Co-op.

Pickled cabbage appetizer & tea at Seven Stars Pepper Szechwan Restaurant in Seattle.

Many of the meals we had in Seattle were just improvised from ingredients we bought at co-ops and Uwajimaya, the local Japanese chain with great sashimi, yogurt and much else. We planned to arrive in Seattle one day early just so we'd have time to check out Seattle museums, bookstores, and some restaurants. 

It made sense to us to focus on Chinese, so first we opted for Seven Stars Pepper, in a Vietnamese neighborhood just south of downtown, with plenty of free parking. Before heading to the restaurant (in a non-descript strip mall, natch), we checked out the neighborhood first. Definitely we'd be shopping the grocery stores here if we lived in Seattle.

Hand-shaven Dan Dan Noodles With Pork being served by the waitress (above & below) at Seven Stars Pepper. 

The hand-shaven noodles at Seven Star was without a doubt the star of the show. The pork and sauce was a balance of texture and flavor. We're lucky to have a few comparable restaurants here in the Bay Area.

I'm getting hungry posting this stuff.

Walnut Prawns at Seven Stars: spot on!

Tea-smoked Duck at Seven Stars. We were so full that we took most of this to go, and the next day we snacked on the duck with such concentrated flavor of duck, chili and szechuan peppercorn.

http://www.sevenstarspepper.com/menu.aspx

Condiments at Miah's Kitchen Xi'an Food in Redmond, Washington.

Robin & I had already decided on checking out this hand-pulled & house-made dumpling place, cuisine from the Xi'an region of China, because there was one so close to Bellevue College, where the mushroom fair was taking place. Some of the other vendors/mushroom experts tagged along. Above, you can see Curt with a small bowl of noodles and a small bowl of dumplings.

Josh here is ready to tuck into his large bowl of Biang-Biang noodles.

Britt ordered noodles in a rich sauce.

Robin's Biang-Biang noodles with beef & bok choy.

Britt's dumplings.

And finally, my dish: Stewed Pork Shoulder with bok choy and hand-pulled Biang Biang Noodles. All these dishes are savory, rustic, and similar to home-cooking. Judging from what we were lucky to experience at Miah's, the cuisine of the region is nothing fancy, though now the idea of hand made noodles seems exotic because we're so used to machine-made noodles. Great stuff, highly recommended.

http://miahskitchen.weebly.com

Ellenos greek-style yogurt: you can find it in many places in Seattle (& even Portland), such as Uwajimaya, or here, at Pike Place Market.

Here's some garlic grown by our friends Dan & Liann who live in the Olympic peninsula, in Sequim, Washington. They are also mushroom enthusiasts, and we always go hunting for chanterelles with them, as followers of my blog may recall from our previous trips.

We had some errands to run in Port Townsend, so we checked out the Food Co-op there (see the selection of local organic apples & cider at the top of this post), then decided to eat lunch at this Thai place nearby, which was surprisingly good. 

Ka Pao Kai at 123 Thai in Port Townsend, Washington. Chiles and chicken sauteed in a spicy thai sauce with an egg on top. I'm pretty sure I got the best dish 123 Thai makes--I highly recommend this. By the way, those red and green peppers are bells; even though I ordered my dish as spicy, it was still pretty tame as far as heat goes.

BBQ Pork. Pork loin sauteed in a chile-based sauce.

Larb. Great version of this chicken dish.

Pad Thai. Pretty much a spot-on version of the national dish of Thailand, and from what I've had & know about, this is close to the typical Bangkok version of Pad Thai that one usually finds in the United States. 

Lemongrass vegetables & chicken. Not much lemongrass flavor, but still delicious.

Curry Corner in Lacey, Washington. This is their lunch special--we both got Lamb Curry. Above, I opted for Palak Paneer (cheese cubes in minced spinach) for my vegetable side, below Robin got the Navrattan Korma (mixed vegetables in a cashew sauce). Dal and Rice were spot on, the iceberg salad pointless, and there wasn't much room for the rice dessert, because we were so full! The Lamb Curry was fantastic, highly nuanced, and in the same territory as Glassy Junction in Weed, and Mirchi & Allspice here in Solano County.