Hamming it Up for Easter

Michael made a heck of a ham for Easter Sunday.

We had it with fresh spring asparagus and roasted red potatoes that were finished with butter, salt and pepper, fresh parsley and--get this--lemon zest. Yumski!


Looking forward to leftovers!

"Mmm, it's so watery! And yet there's a smack of ham to it."

-Buster

Chicchetti - FAIL

I was excited to try out another new place on the Eastlake corridor, Chicchetti. Venetian tapas? Sign me up!

But not for a return visit. The food wasn't great.

The foccaccia was too thick and a little on the dry/dense side. The olive oil for dipping was too plain, even for a girl like me who adores her EVOO. Add some herbs or vinegar, please!

We were intruiged by the Octopus with salsa verde and chickpeas, which turned out to be chopped octopus with garbanzos, more plain olive oil (are they not using high quality olive oil? why don't I like it?) and some unhelpful flavorless green herbs. Was it fresh parsley? There was no flavor. The dish was sadly under-seasoned. We thought maybe some lemon or some salt might have helped? Or a recognizable fresh herb? There were some pickled onions on top, but not nearly enough to help the dish be anything but plain.

The pizzas? Pass. The margharita was fine I guess, but you can find so much better versions of that in Seattle. The pizza that caught our attention turned out to be too heavy and salty--which is hard to do on a thin crust pizza, isn't it? Don't know what kind of cheese it was, but it wasn't paired well with the strange olive oil (there it is again!) and the hunks of cured pork. The pork had some fancy name we couldn't pronounce and was sold to us as "sort of like bacon." It was fatty and tough and tasted oddly salty in a way that put me in mind of anchovies. Not in a good way.

There were children (?) wandering through the dining area. Mmm, no thank you. This place reads more like a bar. Why are kids here?

The best thing going for this place is its warm and friendly servers and the fries with yummy drippy bleu cheesey dipping sauce. But come on--how hard is it to find good fries?

Dear Chicceti, Figure out how to season things and pair flavors and textures. It's not that hard. Love, Jean

Hilo Bay Cafe

The host at our B&B in Hilo directed us to Cafe Pesto on our first night there. It was easy, predictable, overpriced, and the food was...edible. The next night we discovered Hilo Bay Cafe. Hilariously situated next to Walmart, it's a cute little fancy place. We were able to get a table without much wait, but on our last night there we opted for reservations and got a great table by the front window with super comfy leather chairs. We were very happy with our food and beverages, and the service was lovely.

We had a chicken dish and the barbecued ribs with some sort of savory bread pudding thing. It was tasty, but the two most memorable dishes were as follows:

This is the pan-roasted jumbo pork chop with gorgonzola fondue potatoes (amazing), broccolini, and smoked bacon-apple vinaigrette.

Beef carpaccio that changed my life. Those are dollops of horseradish and sprinklings of truffle oil.

Loco Moco

We had heard that the Loco Moco was invented in Hilo, and that Cafe 100 was the place to get it. Legend has it that the Loco Moco was invented in this very restaurant.

It reminds me of Dick's Burgers in Seattle, with its walk-up window. There are plenty of picnic tables even for the hoardes of people waiting in line for lunch on the day we went.

There are about a gazillion different variations on the Loco Moco. We got the standard rice + hamburger patty + gravy + fried eggs, but also had a little slab of grilled Spam and a couple of slices of yummy portuguese sausage (linguica?).

And of course the requisite macaroni salad on top of a dollop of coleslaw. Such a hearty and homey meal! I think this would be something you'd want to eat as a stick-to-your ribs breakfast before taking a tropical hike. Too bad all we had planned on that day was bumming around Hilo. We wouldn't have had to eat again for our entire trip. Oh, but we did eat again...

Duck!

In 2008 we visited Arles, France and had dinner at La Caravelle. I ordered le canard, and it was fantastic. It was duck with some sort of tomato based sauce, and green olvies, served over wide ribbon noodles. I found this recipe for Duck Legs in Green Olive Sauce with Cracklings and Pappardelle, which is close to what I remember.


We found duck legs in the freezer section of Whole Foods, but we were hoping for fresh. I think we need to find an actual butcher here in Seattle.

So we made cracklins out of the duck skin and boy is there a lot of fat in those things! I have a little jar of in my fridge because it's supposed to be great for frying potatoes. How French am I? Pretty darn tootin' French, that's for sure.

The cracked green olives were fantastic. They must have crack in them. And we were delighted to try a new ingredient--green peppercorns in brine. They added a very nice flavor to the sauce. The tomato sauce balances nicely with the briney/salty flavors and the bright orange zest and cointreau. The cracklins, breadcrumbs and parsley on top were brilliant additions of texture, flavor, and color. This is a wonderful special-occasion dish, but I can easily see making a version of it with chicken for a faster, simpler meal.


We also tried a new-to-us wine -- a burgundy. It was floral and tart all at the same time, and had a beautiful bright red color. It paired very well with the rich, gamey poultry.

The best part of the meal was, of course, cooking it and sharing it with my Valentine:

Pastis-marinated Chèvre

We were looking for a Provence-inspired appetizer recipe and stumbled upon this fantastic and simple preparation of goat cheese: Pastis-marinated Chèvre.

We brought some pastis home from Arles in a really cute little bottle. It's yummy as an apertif, but a little goes a long way. It was fun to stumble upon another purpose for the pastis.

Michael sliced up the goat cheese into little disks, added extra virgin olive oil, the pastis, and herbes de provence and let it all get friendly with each other in a jar in the fridge. The next day we had some fantastic cheese to spread on slices of baguette. It was even better toasted!

Aloha Fresh Fruit

I could get used to this.

10 (I counted) kinds of fresh fruit every morning

Kona coffee

and an ocean view

Hilo has it figured out!

Mikey's Gyro's

Mikey's is one of the few local restaurants in Moscow that has managed to survive over the years. It's definitely a local institution. On this particular New Year's visit we stopped by for lunch and a pint of dark beer. So yummy on a winter's afternoon!


Their homemade strawberry lemonade is fantastic, especially on a hot summer's day when there is a free table out on the sidewalk.

Their menu hasn't changed as far as I can remember. They are still serving up all kinds of tasty Greek goodness, with lots of vegetarian options. They do homemade soups. They do hummus. They do all kinds of gyros.

We had their standard Gyro With Cheese -- a fluffy warm pita topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, yogurt-cucumber dressing, and of course, grilled lamb.

I hope they stick it out on Main Street for many many years to come. Cheers to Mikey's!