Nestled on a side street of Fremont sits an old brick building; it doesn’t look like much, but appearances can often be deceiving. Take a minute to investigate it further and you’ll realize the unique thing about this building is that it smells like a giant brownie. Now you may wonder why there are wafts of chocolaty goodness blowing in the breeze luring in passersby left and right. The reason is simple. Theo Chocolate calls this place home; proudly holding the title of the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States.

It's hard to go wrong with these tasty morsels!

Inside the small shop fresh made chocolate truffles and chocolate bars are displayed, as well as numerous other chocolate products available for purchase; lotion, beer & wine chocolate pairing kits and sipping chocolate just to mention a few. Marble slabs are placed on the tables with little nibbles of their luscious chocolate in various flavors enticing the customers to linger a while and try their delicious wares. Sample some of their intriguing flavor combinations like the Coconut Curry (milk chocolate with toasted coconut and savory curry spices), Bread and Chocolate (dark chocolate with buttery, toasted artisan breadcrumbs), Nib Brittle (dark chocolate with organic roasted cocoa nibs in sweet & crunchy brittle) or one of the fabulous Origins bars which have distinctive flavors depending on the region the cocoa beans came from. Scope out the goods and browse the list of chocolates on display while you decide which of the sweet tidbits will be finding its way home with you.

Or you can do more than just graze; Theo Chocolate offers a variety of events and classes to participate in! Did someone say Yoga & Chocolate and Ice Cream Socials? Oh and don’t forget the popular factory tours either. Join the other customers near the fireplace as they excitedly await the start of the next tour. A tour which is not only interesting and educational, but a great way to spend a rainy Seattle afternoon for just $6! You get to sample bits of chocolate throughout the entire tour! They offer public tours 7 days a week, but it’s best to call ahead and make reservations due to their popularity. It is guaranteed to be the best time you’ll ever have in a spiffy blue hairnet! So swing on by and try some purely delicious chocolate….and remember dads like chocolate too and Father’s Day is just around the corner.

Theo Chocolate
3400 Phinney Ave. N.
Seattle, WA
(206) 632-5100
www.theochocolate.com

 …is proudly emblazoned across the shirts of the staff at Po Dogs and it won’t take long before you come to same conclusion. These hot dogs are amazing! Po Dogs offers up some seriously creative gourmet hot dogs for your munching pleasure. They start with high quality selected meats made from the finest locally sourced ingredients and stick them between deliciously soft and flavorful buns. Steamed then grilled fresh, these hot dogs would be wonderful on their own, but Po Dogs takes it a step further offering over 25 different toppings for the customers to create a winning wiener. With choices ranging from fresh mango and banana to bacon jam and hot peppers, customers can have a brand new experience every visit or simply re-create their favorite. 

Texas Dog is topped with melted Tillamook cheddar, homemade crispy onion straws and a Smokey BBQ Sauce!

If the staggering amount of topping choices makes you a bit antsy, try one of their internationally researched specialty dogs. Take a bite of the Dub-T dog topped with creamy cheese sauce, crushed potato chips, mustard and ketchup. Or be brave and try the Deep Fried Danger Dog; this dog is wrapped in pepper bacon, deep fried then topped with sauteed onions and a homemade spicy chili sauce! 

Wasabi Egg Roll Dog is wrapped in wonton paper then deep fried and topped with homemade wasabi aioli.

Either way, those at Po Dogs certainly aim to please and will let you arrange your hot dog however you like. Oh and one more thing….you can buy one of those awesome “I Heart Wieners” t-shirts! 

Chocolate Old Fashioned, Rainbow Sprinkle and Double Trouble

Nothing seems to induce a larger smile on people’s face like the colorful sprinkles atop a doughnut. A stand out among the others’ dull brown coatings, rainbow sprinkle doughnuts simultaneously induce a flood of childhood memories and drool. They are the ray of light in the doughnut box, a sweet moment on a rainy morning; rainbow sprinkles make the doughnut world go round. Luckily for us in Seattle, Top Pot Doughnuts commits itself to creating these and over FORTY other different varieties of quality morsels. Not to mention they do things the old fashioned way with a secret 1920′s recipe and a beautiful attention to detail (including those colorful tidbits). Hand-forged gourmet doughnuts and hand-roasted coffee are paired perfectly in gorgeous vintage shops around the city, providing a uniquely delicious opportunity to approach the old “coffee and doughnuts” routine in a new way.

Worth the wait in line!

There are five different locations, as well as a charming airstream mobile unit from which to pick up these delightful treats; so give into your sweet tooth and try one! With so many choices it may not be easy to choose, but it’s hard to go wrong.

Top Pot Doughnuts
Capitol Hill
609 Summit Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
(206)323-7841
www.toppotdoughnuts.com

Growing up, when it came to manners, there was always an endless stream of wisdom paired with healthy doses of scolding at the dinner table; “chew with your mouth closed,” “eat your vegetables,” and of course, “don’t play with your food.” It was always one rule or another, but really who decided we shouldn’t play with our food in the first place?

Peanuts and Pints

At the Diamond Knot Brewery & Alehouse manners are gently nudged aside and in their place, a fun and rebellious spirit takes hold. Inside the flood of conversation and laughter echoes around sturdy wooden beams and the open plank ceiling in this nautical themed alehouse. A casual crowd lingers over pints of fresh brewed beer and the crunch under foot are the remnants of peanuts placed on every table. Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to discard your peanut shells on the floor here; a freedom which at first is a bit disconcerting, but eventually quite liberating! But please keep in mind that the haze of peanut dust on every surface may just put a damper on the dining experience for those with severe peanut allergies.

Steamy, meaty goodness!

The peanuts, however, are just the beginning. With the introduction of the Stonegrill Concept into various portions of their menu, Diamond Knot enables their customers to take a unique interactive approach to their meal. Searing hot lava rocks (about 750 degrees F) are presented with raw meat, sides and sauces for your cooking pleasure at the table. You’ll never want for that perfectly cooked steak again! But if the idea of starting your meal with a piece of raw meat on your plate makes you a tad squeamish, try ordering one of their hand thrown pizzas to accompany your delicious pint instead. Either way, sit back, relax and play with your food…no one will scold you for it here.

Diamond Knot Brewery & Alehouse
621A Front Street
Mukilteo, WA 98275
(425)355-4488
www.diamondknot.com

Much to the surprise of many I meet, my formative years were spent in a suburb just outside of Dallas. I am often greeted with “But you don’t have an accent” and “Did you ride a horse to school?”. I will assure you that, while Texas is indeed a very foreign-feeling place to yuppie-fied hipster city folk like myself, it’s not as backwater as you’d think. Plano is actually a very flat, boring suburb with a bizarre 50-50 mix of shiny over-the-top malls and crumbling shopping centers.

As such, good food is kinda hard to find in Plano. Most restaurants are soulless chains, and those that are independent look like soulless chains. Lots of neon, insane decorating schemes, giant vinyl-covered menus, you get the idea. When I come to visit my folks, who a few years ago moved back to Plano after a stint in Washington state, I pretty much bank on never going out, unless it’s for Korean at one of the local Asian markets, or my own mother’s reliably effing-delicious Korean dishes.

And while my mom’s a fantastic Korean cook (I’ve not yet met a dish hailing from that tiny country that matched the quality of her variations), her take on classical and American food is decidedly less homespun. Growing up, there was a lot of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Shake ‘N Bake, and more Tuna Helper than a picky seafood-resistant child (such as myself) could handle. Thanksgiving, in my home, always meant a parched turkey, gummy mashed potatoes, Stouffer’s stuffing, and that awful jellied purple stuff claiming to be “cranberry sauce”. No disrespect to my mother, who labored alone for days to provide us with a giant spread befitting the great American tradition. But I think it’s pretty typical in a lot households to regard Thanksgiving as that holiday where you make the same stuff every year, lots of it, and in the interest of stress-reduction and time, you head to prepared box mixes and button-popping turkeys and shrug your shoulders when the turkey turns out dry–after all, that’s how turkey just is, isn’t it?

Never one to succumb to such illogical culinary rules of the American culture, I endeavored to make the entire meal–from scratch–and prove that Thanksgiving isn’t a meal you feel obligated to say you enjoy, but one that you actually do. It was me now, alone in the kitchen, cooking for eight (no one but my mom really understood why I cared so much). It was hard. I got really sweaty. But my goals, though lofty–a somewhat-juicy turkey with a burnished-gold skin, creamy mashed potatoes, a cranberry sauce that required at least some jaw movement to digest, and a three-in-one dessert that screamed “Thanksgiving! Wooo!” but wasn’t cloying–were satisfyingly, deliciously, triumphantly attained.

If I do say so myself.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Praline Topping

Katherine Beto, Braeburn (Originally appeared in Food & Wine, November 2008)

CHEESECAKE

One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
8 whole graham crackers, broken
1/2 cup pecans (2 ounces)
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups cream cheese (14 ounces), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pecan Praline Topping (below) and whipped cream, for serving

1. Set a rack over a baking sheet and line the rack with 2 layers of paper towels. Spread the pumpkin puree over the paper towels and let drain for 2 hours, until the puree is fairly dry.

2. Preheat the oven to 500°. Butter the bottom and side of a 9-inch springform pan. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers until finely ground. Add the pecans and brown sugar and pulse until finely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse just until incorporated. Press the crumbs onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for about 8 minutes, just until it is fragrant and lightly browned. Let the crust cool completely. (Note: I found that in my oven the crust nearly burned at 7 minutes–I recommend checking at 4 to see how it’s coming along).

3. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the cream cheese until it is very smooth. In a small bowl, whisk the sugar with the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. With the machine on, add the spiced sugar to the cream cheese and beat until creamy, scraping the bottom and side of the bowl. Carefully add the drained pumpkin puree and beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in the heavy cream, lemon juice and vanilla until the cheesecake mixture is smooth.

4. Pour the cheesecake mixture over the cooled crust and bake for 12 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 225° and bake the cheesecake for about 3 hours, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 150°; the center will be very jiggly but not liquidy. Let the cheesecake cool on a rack, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

5. Run a hot knife around the cheesecake and loosen the springform ring. Carefully remove the ring and transfer the cake to a plate. Using a warm knife, cut the cake into wedges and serve with the Pecan Praline Topping and whipped cream.

PECAN PRALINE TOPPING

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups pecans (8 ounces)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream and salt and bring to a boil. Simmer just until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Let the caramel cool.

2. Spread the pecans on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for about 8 minutes, until they are lightly browned and fragrant. Transfer the pecans to a work surface and let them cool. Coarsely chop the nuts, stir them into the cooled caramel and serve.

I can only imagine the questions and snickers that the servers at Jon Davis’s new “equatorial” restaurant in Magnolia will be getting for years to come.

Seattle Weekly’s Voracious got the scoop–Davis managed the very popular Jai Thai chain for years, but he decided to turn in the hectic life of a Thai restaurant operator for a simpler, smaller joint specializing in to-go orders. The salacious name was inspired by Davis’s travels around the equator, where cock-fighting is sadly quite popular (he claims he randomly picked the name because, well, he had to pick something). Thus far, no cock will be finding its way into the food, which include a wide range of cuisines and their dishes, like pulled-pork sandwiches and various iterations of rice and beans.

Sounds like this place might have a fighting chance. Although I have to wonder how much more successful a place called Fightin’ Cock Roaster could be if it were located, say, on the Ave?

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From Voracious:

These cookies from Little Rae’s Bakery in South Park are quite impressive cookie-likenesses of the family-elect, wouldn’t you say? They especially nailed Michelle’s smile, I do declare. And you gotta love the rendition of the future First Pup, which no one can seem to stop talking about.

Pick up a pack for $9.95, or have some shipped for $15.95 (order online here–love that).

If you are anyone that reads food journalism, you know about the No-Knead Bread Recipe. Back in 2006, the New York Times published an article by one of my food idols, Mark Bittman, that rattled the food world. It claimed that it was not only possible, but easy, to produce a bakery-quality loaf at home.

Now, if you’ve ever attempted any sort of bread-baking yourself, you know the ridiculousness of such an assertion. No matter what, a home oven never gets hot enough–your crusts turn out sad and pallid, the texture is tough, and where-oh-where is that lovely, moist, airy crumb? Us amateur bread bakers/professional carbophytes accepted the fact that at home you could very certainly beat the pants off any conventional store loaf, but a bakery loaf could only be approximated. But I was relatively undeterred, as homemade bread of even poor quality trumps foamy-spongy white junk in every case that I’ve experienced.

And so, after absentmindedly polishing off the last crust of a squat and homely loaf, I’d head off to the bakery (Bakery Nouveau being Seattle’s best) for the real stuff. That shatteringly-crisp burnished crust concealing pockets of velvety, chewy innards that, upon the intrusion of a bite, exhale an intoxicatingly yeasty and almost audible sigh. That is bread, and anything else, I’m afraid, is not. It can come close; it can come very close; it is not bread.

The point is that there seemed to be very finite limit to what could be achieved at home in terms of bread, and you just had to deal with it. The Bittman/Jim Lahey recipe claimed to obliterate this fact by simply throwing together a wet dough and sticking it in a pot. That’s. It.

Ever since coming upon this Holy Grail of home-baked bread, I ached to try it. However, crucial to the recipe is a Dutch oven, which I did not own. I did not go out and buy the requisite Dutch oven because I had my heart set on the Holy Grail of Dutch ovens, a Le Creuset. Les Creusets are danged expensive. But I could not settle for less–I had wanted one for too long. So my desire for beautiful kitchen gadgetry won out over my love for bread. It was a tough battle. Bread was sad. Le Creuset, bitterly triumphant.

Then Christmas 2009 came along, and my man fulfilled my enameled cast-iron fantasy. A beautiful 7 1/2-qt specimen in a fantastic gradated gray shade. Now, it was time.

Time. That’s the first thing you need for No-Knead. It’s not a lot of work to get the dough together–couldn’t be simpler, really–but it does take time. I’ll add here that I didn’t try Bittman’s original recipe; I actually went with a newer riff on the technique that was published in Cook’s Illustrated, which claimed to improve upon the original’s flavor and texture. Since nearly every CI recipe that I’ve used has knocked my socks off, that’s the one I went with. The major difference in this recipe is that it advocates for some kneading to create a better crumb, which makes sense. Kneading is what creates that great structure in most breads and pizza doughs. But the recipe is still basically no-knead–seriously, it’s just about 10 pushes of the palm, that’s it. It’s an extra step, but 

Three years ago, I left a sleepy, slow-moving college town, called Bellingham, for Seattle. I moved principally because Seattle was the only place in all of Washington that could be considered a real, bonafide city. A city city, if you know what I mean–although no disrespect to some other very populous and cultured areas in the state. After moving to the Capitol Hill neighborhood over three years ago, I can’t stop marveling at how much I’ve grown to love this city.

Not that it’s a hard city love. Nope. There’s so much to love about Seattle that I find it insane that more people don’t know about its awesomeness. You’d be hard-pressed to find a city more beautiful, for one. Water, water everywhere–and it’s pretty darn safe to drink (and anyone with a pulse will have a Nalgene bottle and/or Brita-filtered pitcher to offer you). Everything is so many different shades of green. You get a whole zoo of cute critters wandering up to your back stoop if you’ve happened to leave the trash out overnight. And on a clear day, the snow-tipped mountains stretch beyond the range of your peripheral vision, and they will blow your mind.

I must admit here and now: I am far from a granola-munching, REI-sporting, Teva-sandal-and-socks-wearing kind of girl. I like nature, I do. But at the core, I’m a city girl. I like variety. I like innovation. I like a breathless array of ethnic cuisine at the ready when I have a particular exotic hankering. I also like white linen tablecloths. And I really like a good cupcake. To my knowledge, Seattle’s natural beauty has yet to produce cupcake trees. It does, however, produce fantastic cherries, unbelievably sweet onions, unmatched specimens of salmon and crab. And those things are almost as good as cupcakes (okay, they’re better).

So I’m bragging a bit. I live in a place literally bursting with organic, local, sustainable, honestly grown food where you can still put a face to a farmer. And I also live in a place where young chefs are flocking, where new ideas about food and how you interact with it are taking root, where there’s a spirit of innovation that more famous food towns simply don’t have the freedom to entertain. In so many ways, Seattle is a perpetual underdog, somehow always on the verge of greatness but never quite getting to the big time (ask any Seahawks fan).

I say, to heck with greatness. Without the spotlight shining so brightly, we’ve got room to do almost anything we want. From underground restaurants to hilarious online cooking shows, from mega-chefs with trademarked snack mixes to an achingly authentic taco truck, from nine-course feasts to a local greasy burger joint offering the best soggy fries and health insurance, Seattle can do it all. And I’ll share it all, with you.

Never, ever underestimate the underdog.

-Shirley