Palace Kitchen

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Kiichi

Seattle

Immediately after wrapping up what was one of the best shows on the Dream Theater tour, Ash/Me, Meg/Evan, Sean/Melissa, and Paolo made our way to another highly recommended place from our friends – Palace Kitchen.

If I weren’t in the air right now between Sydney and Melbourne, I could ask Evan who the owner/chef of Palace Kitchen was again… Evan mentioned that one of the best chefs in Seattle owns a few food spots, and that Palace is one of his places.

A sleekly designed, well-lit, modern-looking New American spot is the Palace Kitchen. Invitingly designed, a large open bar in the center of the floor, tables surrounding – in the back is the kitchen – openly viewable by patrons of the restaurant. Everything here is done right. When you come to a New American spot in a place like Seattle – everything down to the menus, fonts, sources of meats and vegetables, music, lighting, decor, casual (but still uniform) look of the servers – is all done right. Seattle has got to be one of the best food cities in all of North America (alongside Portland, San Francisco, New York (inclusive of Brooklyn of course), and Vancouver). Continue reading →

Monkey Bridge

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Kiichi

Seattle

The double-date food combo of Megan/Evan and Ashley/Matt is something that seems to be a common theme in my Kiichi Chaos-ings. It was the Seattle show of the Dream Theater tour when Meg and Ev picked Ash and I up to (once again) eat some great food in Seattle.

To date, I feel like I’ve eaten almost everywhere worth eating at in Seattle – and I’ve always been very pleasantly surprised how amazing the food has been.

Our lunch spot was Monkey Bridge, a Vietnamese joint. If you haven’t been to proper Vietnamese before… or are one of those people who think all Asian food is either mall-food-court fried rice and sweet and sour pork (crap) or sushi… you are wrong. Every Asian country (and region for that matter) has something new and exciting to offer – don’t get me wrong, you can go to the wrong place, you can get something terrible made by someone who doesn’t give a shit about your food experience… food takes a bit of digging. I have found that every single one of my “random” food drop ins (going into somewhere with no research, recommendation, or preparation) of recent – have been absolute shite (even in places like Paris, Vancouver, Sydney – there is food that sucks… you just have to evade that crap – I can help). Continue reading →

Canon in D Major traded for Ragged Wood

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Kiichi

Gluttony In Seattle part V

After our bountiful feast of what had to have been more than 15 or so different things, it was time to head to Sambar, all our Seattle-friends’ favorite cocktail bar in the States. We were told that this place was unlike any cocktail bar we would have been to.

We made our way to a tiny bar, tucked away in a neighborhood, adjoined to a fancy French place. Everyone was stoked to bring us here – apparently the bartender here goes beyond mixologist, he’s sort of a doctor of cocktails. You tell him what liquor you like… or even what mood you’re in…and he knows what kind of drink you need. Continue reading →

Mas Mexicana, Fleet Foxes, and Kiichi the DJ

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Kiichi

Gluttony In Seattle part III

Good Mexican food is something I don’t have in Orlando. I am not into gringo-Mex. I don’t know why traditional Mexican preparations have been so warped to appease the taste-buds of the standard American-pallete. I hope everyone who has really fantastic Mexican food where they live, really backs that place – tell your friends about it, go splurge some bucks there – let’s keep these culinary traditions alive. I am so completely in love with Mexican food, culture, drinks – it’s got to be one of my favorite styles of food on the globe.

For some reason, Seattle has a lot of really great Mexican food. As you’ve seen in parts I and II of this Seattle-bonanza, we have eaten our fair share of Mexican-food… there is much more to come.

Our hotel was slightly off the beaten path of the food spots in Ballard, so we had to make due with what was within walking distance – luckily for us, there was a really killer place, Citizen – very close. Citizen is very much so like something you’d expect to see in Seattle… a old building – bought and refurbished to still have the exposed duct-work-style loft, serving great coffee, with fashionable servers.

We start with coffee and juice – into my main: The Cowboy Egg Casserole. Layered corn tortilla, pork sausage, eggs, poblano, jalapeno peppers and cheese. Served with black beans, creme fraiche and their own pico de gallo. This was a cake. A monster portion of breakfast goodness. It was basically the Mexican/Seattle take on the breakfast casserole – a meaty chunk of a corn-cake featuring all those flavors and substances that just go so well together. One person alone shouldn’t be able to conquer that feat alone – but I had to. Filling. Great.

Continue reading →