Earlier this year, Theo Chocolate offered music, massage, and meditation. This Thursday, you can head over to Theo for the Chocolate Barbeque. While not a formal sit-down dinner, this event will offer you grilled chicken and brisket done with two of Tom Douglas’ barbeque sauces—one using Theo’s cocoa nibs! Salads will round out the meal. Tom will be on hand to demo the grilling, as well as to sign books. There will also be......

Follow the pink umbrella. Seattlest felt silly taking a tour in its own city—but we’re pleased to report it was tasty fun. Angela Shen is founder of Savor Seattle food tours, and while she’s been conducting a 2-hour Pike Place Market Tour, she’s pleased to unveil her newest offering: a 3-hour Gourmet Downtown Seattle Tour. Although she’s a relative newcomer to Seattle, Angela has gained encyclopedic knowledge of our city; combined with her zest for......

Imagine your menu for the evening: Chilled cauliflower and leek soup with salsa verde from Serafina Kobe-style beef salad with arugula, parmesan and balsamic vinaigrette from Chez Shea Grilled lamb burger with balsamic onions, roasted red peppers and aioli from Café Campagne Hungry? You can have all this and much, much more (we had a sneak peek at the menu) by attending one of the most popular stomach-stuffers of the summer: the annual Sunset Supper......

Just announced, the 2008 James Beard award nominations and Seattle does just fine, thank you. Tom Douglas, left, is one of five nominees for outstanding restaurateur in America; Canlis a nominee for best restaurant service, and four Seattle chefs in the running for "Best Northwest Chef:" Maria Hines, center (Tilth), Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Ethan Stowell, right (Union) and Jason Wilson (Crush). Winners to be announced early June.......

The 4th Annual Care for the Market luncheon, held yesterday at The Paramount Theatre, was a wake-up call for us. When we think of Pike Place Market, we picture ourselves gorging on Beecher's macaroni and cheese. We envision ourselves carrying bundles of ginormous dahlias, sampling oh-my-god-these-are-good peaches, and listening to the funky sounds of street musicians. We don't necessarily think of meals and housing for low-income senior citizens, childcare for those who can't otherwise......

Comfort is a two-way street. Sometimes we need comfort. And sometimes we give it. Crave has been the giver by way of its menu of “contemporary comfort food,” which includes favorites like blintzes, overnight baked beans, and shiitake macaroni & cheese. Now is the time for us to give. Diagnosed with two forms of lymphoma, Crave’s chef-owner Robin Leventhal is giving away her collection of copper Jello molds to some of Seattle’s finest chefs.......

Do not be surprised to see a $1 suggested donation for tap water on your restaurant bill if you dine out from March 16 to March 22. During this week in March, restaurants around the nation will ask patrons to donate the price of their tap water to support UNICEF’s Tap Project, which provides clean drinking water for children in need. One dollar affords 40 days of clean drinking water for a child –......

The dispiriting weather forecast--below, via Google. Friggin' cold and friggin' rainy. On days like these, there is but one sure pick-me-up: soup. In a typically magnificent essay her classic How to Cook a Wolf, the food writer M.F.K. Fisher made an inarguable case that, if you can make tea, it's silly not to try and make soup.The natural progression from boiling water to boiling water with something in it can hardly be avoided, and in......

It's a newer, thinner Dan Thiessen presiding over Bellevue's 0/8 Seafood Grill and the adjacent bar, Twisted Cork. "I stopped drinking and lost 80 pounds," he confides, no mean feat for a dude who clearly wants to become the Tom Douglas of the Eastside. His most recent accomplishment: winning the Seattle leg of national poke championship with a three-level, "Walk on the Beach" theme: a palate-cleansing spritzer of Kestrel Viognier and Dry Soda Lemongrass; the......

Our land, this inlet on the western coast of the North American continent, is a fortunate one, endowed with natural riches and settled by people who do not confuse prosperity with moral superiority. Modesty becomes us; we do not flaunt our advantages. With pleasure, then, we open Kurt Dammeier's new book, Pure Flavor, which celebrates our region's bounty and offers some suggestions for simple preparations that enhance the pleasure this fare brings to our senses.......

How easy it is to poke mean-spirited fun at Silverman Festivals, aka Bite of Seattle. The family-owned commercial enterprise, enabled by the City of Seattle in the guise of a community festival, symbolizes so much of what's wrong with America today: greed, exploitation, overweening appetite and tons of just plain crappy food. A cheap and easy target for the smug and self-satisfied. (For one such potshot, see Cornichon's "Blah of Seattle" post a year ago.)......

Garlic Gulch, that's what Belltown's Fourth Avenue has turned into, between downtown and Denny Way. At the north end, the venerable Zeek's appears to take intergalactic orders for traditional, predictable, topping-heavy slices. Bambino, a block away on Cedar, styles itself as "East Coast Pizza," whatever that means (thin crust, light toppings, one assumes). Given the flap over Domino's so-called Brooklyn-Style Pizza, probably not a great idea. Ordered a Tropicale (east-coast-speak for Hawaiian); despite 575-degree, wood-fired......

The final full week of SIFF is upon us. It's time to get some last few films before the sun sets on this year's fest. This week's got a couple great music events as well: Friday night, Portastatic will be on hand to perform a specially-commissioned live score accompanying circus freakshow-themed silent film The Unknown (more about that in a few days). Meanwhile, Thursday night's the Face the Music Rock Party at Neumo's, featuring......

Until the mid-17th century, the Royal Navy would give its sailors daily ration of brandy. Then they captured Jamaica and switched to the local hooch, rum, which they diluted with water & lemon juice. The citrus prevented scurvy, kept the Brits healthier than the French and Spanish, whose sailors were still knocking back brandy; Britannia soon ruled the world. With such historical cred, you'd think rum would get more respect. Instead, the Temperance Movement named......

Long ago, when Seattlest was growing up, our most eagerly anticipated holiday gift came not from Santa, but from one of our neighbors. It was the size of a baseball and twice as heavy, rolled in nuts, wrapped in festive red cellophane, and meant to be spread on crackers. It was a homemade cheese ball. The fun, however, was not in its consumption, but rather its destruction. Each year, with our mother’s blessing, we held......

Seattlest has our finger firmly on the pulse of the local food writing scene. From the abundance of local food blogs, to the food critics of the local newspapers, we like feeling a part of something bigger. That we add our own din to the noise is something we feel a tad bit proud of. So we here at Seattlest feel a tad bit of sorrow that one of our favorite Seattle Food Critics......

We know, we know...you've been patiently waiting for this unscientific list of why Seattle's food scene is better than nearly any other city's food scene. Petitions have been drawn, bets have been placed. So let's not wait any longer, shall we? Well, let's wait a little longer. Seattlest should mention items that could have been put on the list, but didn't quite make the cut. Things like Salumi, or Tom Douglas, or Fresh Seafood nearly......

How can we put this? Seattlest is a sucker for cheesy television, especially cooking shows that aren't actually cooking shows. We like Iron Chef especially, since it's more related to food porn, and there's a special place in our heart for those masters of their domains, the chefs who participate. Not familiar with Iron Chef? It's a Food Network televion show that pits a famous chef against an über-famous chef. They are given three ingredients......