Let us start off with Pomogrante, the recently opened Lisa Dupar restaurant, located in Redmond. Off the beaten path and a little hard to find...it's next to a Xerox shop, this is a fun and interesting place that allows you to see what is happening in the kitchen(always like that). I ate just from the appetizer menu. I started off with a salad of pears, goat cheese and hazelnuts. It was lovely. I then had the fried calamari and fried marinated artichokes served with a citrus aioli. The batter was light and the citrus in the aioli was quite refreshing from the standard. Very good. A few of the girls I went with ordered the Vegetarian Pot Pie and both said that they would not order that again. Everyone else seem to enjoy their meal immensely. All but one of us had dessert and everyone of us loved what we ordered. I had the warmed bread pudding with spiced rum whipped cream, delightful! I love bread pudding and order it often. This is one of the best I have had. Very old school with … [Read more...]

I had read about it for many years in my culinary magazines and yesterday, Thanksgiving 2005, I ate there. There was much hype surrounding the Herb Farm and many times when there is hype there is let down, luckily that was not the case here. What a wonderful journey of the senses the Herb Farm was. When we entered the building we were greeted with hot apple cider to chase away the chill, which it did quite nicely. That was followed by a quick history of the Herb Farm and how it came to be as well as an introduction to the herbs that we would be eating that night. My husband and I chose to sit European style and were fortunate to sit at a table with interesting souls( I mean that in a good way, they were delightful people). We could not fathum sitting with just the two of us for 5 hours, so the European style seating was a refreshing option. Our first course started with a sparkling white wine(200 Argyle Oregon Brut) infused with the herb of your choice, I chose pineapple sage. … [Read more...]

Having just moved to the Seattle area in recent times we(mostly me) are out exploring the culinary world around us. Let me just start by saying the my favorite so far of places to go is the Purple Cafe in Kirkland. I love going on Wine Down Wednesdays when appetizers and certain wines by the glass are $5. If you go I suggest the coconut prawns served with a sweet ginger sauce, bucheron goat cheese warmed & topped with honey, fresh herbs & dried cherries, or the bacon wrapped scallops served in a blackberry demi glace. Unfortunately, the scallops are not part of Wine Down Wednesday but there are plenty of great choices to choose from. Special kuddos to them for carrying one of my faovrite wines by the glass.... Ato Z Pinot Gris from Oregon. The have a tantalizing menu but we always just end up getting appetizers and a lot of wine. One time I will try the lobster mac and cheese. I am lucky to have a McMenamins(yes, I know they are a chain) about a mile down the street from me. This … [Read more...]