Skillet Street Food - Seattle, WA - Restaurant Review

Skillet Street Food in Seattle, WA

Skillet is easily the most talked about mobile restaurant in America. In many other countries, street food is a highly developed art form, but in America it has been left mainly to "roach coaches", hot dog stands, and (often fantastic) taco trucks. CIA-trained chef Josh Henderson and foodservice veteran Danny Sizemore changed all that when they started roaming the streets of Seattle in their vintage Airstream trailer, cranking out beautifully prepared, delicious, seasonal meals.

I find it incredibly inspirational that there are so many new places to eat that question the very idea of a restaurant. Skillet goes right to the heart of that investigation. To serve top notch food, do you have to have waiters? Tablecloths? A printed menu? Nope. Not even a fixed base of operations.

(Hmm, which makes me think someone should do the opposite and build a white tablecloth restaurant with captains and sommeliers and valet parking, charge $100+ per person, and serve McDonald's burgers and King Dons for dessert).

But can a vegetarian eat at Skillet? Well I knew it might not be easy. They are best known for Kobe beef burgers and poutine (a French-Canadian specialty involving french fries, cheese curds, and gravy). Still, your intrepid Herbivoracious correspondent braved 60 degree weather and partly cloudy skies to answer this all-important question.

I settled on the Bibb salad and poutine-hold-the-gravy. I shoulda got the berry crisp too in the interest of research. The salad was a huge portion of tender lettuce leaves tossed with crisp pears, red onions, toasted hazelnuts and a dressing describe as "ranchy" - meaning sour cream / buttermilk / fresh herbs. Yum. They even took the time to rub the skins off of the hazelnuts, which is a fine dining touch you would never expect from street food.

Granted, poutine without the gravy ain't really poutine. Cry me a frickin' river. Super crisp, deep brown, well salted, wicked hot fries. Soft, cheddary cheese curds relaxing into the fries. A sprinkle of fresh dill and parsley on top. It might not be authentic, but it was ridiculously delicious. I'd even go so far as to say it is probably better this way because the gravy doesn't sog up the taters.

So yes, a vegetarian can eat very well at Skillet. I respect the fact that they didn't just offer a crappy veggie burger patty as an option on their Kobe beef burger. Most veggie patties suck, so that would just compromise their whole package. Hey J & D - here's the vegetarian item you should make: sabich - the Israeli eggplant sandwich phenomenon. I will then be lined up at your window every morning at 11:00 AM promptly.

Check their website for the location calendar, current menu, private event info and more.

Kisaku Sushi - Seattle, WA - Restaurant Review

Vegetarian Sushi At Kisaku Sushi In Seattle

Some folks might think that a vegetarian reviewing a sushi restaurant is like Ralph Nader reviewing Fashion Week. In some sense that is probably true, since I can't give you any report on the quality of the fish, but we can still talk about the rice & nori, which are critical components, not to mention the service and atmosphere.

We chose Kisaku rather than our regular Nishino last night, just to shake things up a bit. It had a ton of positive votes on Urbanspoon (see link at end), and I can see why. There is a lot to like.

Kisaku is in the Tangletown neighborhood, near Green Lake. When we arrived around 6:00, there were several families with young children. I'm sure as the evening progresses it becomes more of a grownup atmosphere, but it is nice that it is kid friendly. That fits well with the rest of the scene, which is bright and inviting, moderately upscale but not at all fussy.

I'd read good things about the mushroom salad, which turns out to be mixed greens with a variety of mushrooms (oyster, shiitake, button) sauteed in a warm, gingery vinaigrette. It was pleasing, though I think it would be even better if the shrooms had been caramelized a bit. I think they are on to something and want to try my hand at a similar dish at home.

They had a good selection of vegetarian sushi rolls. The Devil's Vegetarian rolls (left side of the picture above) was filled with red bell pepper, cucumber & shiso and topped withdeep fried & marinated eggplant. Shiso is one of my favorite herbs, so that was a hit. I wasn't sure why they deep fried the eggplant; that conjured crispy images in my mind but it was soft.

We also had a vegetarian futomaki (back right), a garden roll (front) which included asparagus, red pepper (again), and mayo, and a traditional cucumber roll (front right).

While I enjoyed the creativity that went into each of these rolls, and the relatively large vegetarian selection, somehow I found the rice slightly lacking. Maybe just a bit overly sticky, and a slight corresponding soginess to the nori. Nothing major, just the difference between good and awesome.

Kisaku has an extensive sake list. I tried an unusual "purple morning" sake brewed with red rice. It had a somewhat dry fruit flavor. I probably wouldn't order it again but was grateful for the opportunity to try something different.

Everything above, plus a spicy tuna roll for Sarina, edamame, and vegetable tempura came to $67 including tax and tip, which seemed reasonable to me.

So bottom. Pluses: nice place, nice people, lots of vegetarian choices, creative food, reasonable prices for higher-end sushi. Probably awesome fish but I couldn't tell ya. Minuses: to me, and I'm no expert, the sushi rice itself wasn't outstanding and some of those combinations were maybe a bit too untraditional for my bent.

Molly Moon's Ice Cream - Seattle, WA - Review

Coffee ice cream with vanilla-bean caramel sauce at Molly Moon's in Seattle

Anyone who has spent time in the Midwest or on the East Coast will agree, Seattle is not a great ice cream town. So when I heard that Molly Moons in Wallingford was making the good stuff on site with mostly organic ingredients and interesting flavors, it was on my radar right away. Then when Dana Cree, a wonderful pastry chef and co-author of Tasting Menu was leaving Veil to work at Molly's, I couldn't wait any longer.

My wife and I tried the coffee, chocolate, and salted caramel ice creams. The coffee was my favorite, made with beans from Vivace which may be the greatest roaster in America. (I know, I'll probably get some hate mail from someone who is a fan of a place I've never heard of that roasts their beans one at a time with forceps and a bunsen burner. Go ahead, I can handle it). You can see that scoop up above, with caramel sauce. Sarina objected to the slight grittiness of the very fine coffee grounds remaining in the ice cream, but it didn't bother me.

Honestly, I felt the chocolate was just good, not chocolate reverie inducing. And we both thought that the salted caramel was out of balance. I adore salt in my caramel, but this just seemed to go too far. And the salt was very evenly distributed in the mix, so every bite tasted the same. I think less salt and mixed in at the last moment so you get the occasional capricious flake of sea salt would be better.

Dana's toppings were absolutely stellar, and a great treat for only $1 per serving. The aforementioned vanilla bean caramel sauce was rich and buttery and neither too runny nor chewy. The seasonal compote achieved a texture I've never come close to, somehow thick and consistent without being at all gummy, and no sacrifice in fresh fruit flavor. Amazingly good.

Molly's is definitely worth a visit, and I'll be back to try some of those other interesting flavors, like the Thai Iced Tea and Balsamic Strawberry. At just $3 for a scoop and $4.50 for a double, it is an affordable and very fun treat - especially for us transplants that miss having good ice cream in every neighborhood.

p.s. kudos to Molly for using organic dairy, lots of local ingredients, and all compostable serving bowls and utensils!