Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Deathly Doughnuts?


Fellow Seattle blogger, the Savvy Savorer, posted a nice little piece on Voodoo Doughnuts. I'm sad I missed them the last time I was in Portland. Looks tasty and sounds even better. All for the low low price of $1.30. Head on over and check it out.

How I Ate The Voodoo Doll


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Monday, December 3, 2007

More cheap eats - cheap ass food

I just discovered cheapassfood.com. I have to admit I'm jealous. Its everything this blog will never be. Not to mention the primary subject is NYC. Check it out. These folks are advancing the cheap food mission with a passion. I've also put a link on the right.

cheap ass food

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Sunday, December 2, 2007

Portillo's - Chicago Syle Dog

With over a dozen hot dog establishments all vying for top position as the greatest hot dog its hard to go wrong when looking for an authentic Chicago style dog. Its pretty easy to find Chicago style dog recommendations in the blogosphere. Hundreds of opinions are out there. The Chicago Traveler has done a couple recent pieces on Hot Doug's and Portillo's, both pillars in hot dog world, as one example.

I was recently in Chicago for a meeting and trapped downtown, without a car, and in need of a a cheap hot dog. Unlike most of the better hot dog joints around town, Portillo's has a branch downtown easily accessible without car or train.

The interior of the shop (above) is pretty crappy. It sort of has that food court mall feel but without the benefit of a mall. There are a bunch of community tables scattered around two food court-esque store fronts - one for dogs/meats one for pasta. What? Pasta? You do get the feel that the place is touristed out a bit. What none of the online reviews tells you is that the restaurants are themed. The particular branch I went to was a silly "30s, 40s gangster theme." Which means there is all kinds of crap plastered (old cars, a barbershop?) on the walls and scattered about the restaurant. Whatever. I was there for the dogs.

I ended up ordering the beef dog with fries and a diet coke.What makes a Chicago dog a Chicago dog is primarily the way that it is served. The hot dog is placed in a poppy seed bun, topped with mustard, onion, relish (usually a fluorescent green concoction), a dill pickle, tomato slices, sport peppers (like mini-jalapenos), and celery salt. Supposedly its taboo to put catchup on a true Chicago dog so I stayed away from that. By a stroke of luck I was given an extra order of fries. It might not be the healthiest thing (according to Chicago Moms blog), but quite honestly, the dog rivaled any hot dog or other cheap food I've ever had. Even better, the bill was about $9

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Baguette Box

Having lived in Seattle for nearly eight years I've struggled to find a decent cheap sandwich. The recent opening of Goldberg's Deli in Factorial mall has certainly improved the quality of sandwiches available to those in the Puget sound area. Finally there was an answer for everyone who thought the Boarshead corned beef served up at the Other Coast "is the best in town." While Goldberg's has taken the east coast deli title as one of the best sandwiches around it is anything but cheap. Fortunately a relatively new restaurant, The Baguette Box, provides everything I need in a sandwich - fantastic quality and cheap price.Although the Baguette Box has not been open for too long, they already have have two locations: Capitol Hill and another in Fremont. The restaurant is the "little brother" of the restaurant Monsoon which is, in my opinion, one of the best under-the-radar restaurants in Seattle. As it turns out, this little brother takes its inspiration from big-sister's specialty - Vietnamese Pacific Northwest fusion.

Sandwiches served at Baguette Box are all variations of the traditional Vietnamese
Bánh mì sandwich which typically include spiced meat or tofu, a crunchy vegetable (carrots, radish), jalapenos, and cilantro all served in a baguette. While the options for variation are virtually infinite, Baguette Box has crafted a dozen or so fantastic combinations. Crispy drunken chicken , braised pork shoulder with red wine, salumi cured meat (thats what I said, SALUMI!), grilled lemon grass skirt steat, grilled yellow squash and eggplant, and of course tofu. Price varies from $4.75 (tofu) to $7.50 (lamb, salumi) for a generous sandwich. Bánh mì lovers will recognize that this is dramatically higher than the typical Bánh mì found in the ID ($2), but the attention and work put into these sandwiches make the price justified.

A number of salads and french fries as well as truffle fries (fries drizzled with truffle oil) provide the sides.

My first experience was the braised pork in red wine sauce. Delicious. The bread is beautifully baked, crispy with a soft center. The meat was tender and savory. The truffle fries were a highlight offering a novel complex earthy flavor to what was a pretty good fry on its own. Total price for sandwich and fries - $11.05.

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