Dinner was so fabulous I had to come for lunch. Jenn and I are might start making this a monthly treat...although there are quite a few other places we would like to try. So after a crazy stressful work week, I was definitely looking forward to a Friday off. And what better way to start your Friday than with stuffing yourself silly at Matt's?
I am a huge mimosa fan...I find it pretty difficult to turn down a mimosa no matter what time of day. It was how I started every "morning" in New Orleans and the thought of sweet fruity bubbles always gets me excited. We sat at the bar and chatted with the bartender a bit and said they served two kinds of mimosas (an orange one and one with cranberry apple juice). Being that we felt you could get an orange mimosa anywhere we went for the latter. It was not as bubbly as I'm used to but yummy just the same.
We started with the chips and dip...basically homemade potato chips and a dip that is so delicious and creamy, it makes you want to not think about what is in it. The bartender told us anyway. Something along the lines of cream cheese, bacon, scallions, sour cream, parmesean, grana cheese (never heard of it but it was tasty in it!). But yeah fat city.
Jenn ordered the Ragda. Potato-grabonzo bean cakes, roasted egglant puree, papdum and cucumber yogurt. In non fancy terms: pan-friend falafels. The cakes had a really strong curry flavor to them. Personally I wasn't a huge fan of the strong flavor with the super soft texture. It reminded me of a reduced curry paste. However, Jenn loved it!
I ordered the Lamb Burger. It was topped with goat cheese, bacon, herb aioli, onion jam on brioche served with a garbanzo-sultana salad. The burger was great but not exceptional. However I think the shining item was the salad. It was light and fresh with a sweet vinegar mint taste. It almost reminded me of a very sweet less fishy vietnamese fish sauce but not as smelly. The fresh mint was a great touch and smelled great. I think that is what reminded me of the vietnamese thing.
At this point we ordered our second mimosa, this time we went for the "regular" orange one. Except this orange mimosa was nothing less than spectacular. Incredibly unique in taste and served with a slice of orange confit that was simmered in simple syrup for hours and hours. It was so tender you could just eat the rind. It was great.
And even after all that, I of course had to top it all off with the bread pudding. That bread pudding is seriously just the definition of "Food-gasm". Every bite is so incredible and I wanted to savor it but then I didn't want the salted caramel ice cream to melt!
As we were eating I noticed there was a large percentage of people that ordered the cobb salad. I wish I had known they were going to used deviled eggs because I would've probably got that! The special that day was beef tounge tacos which also looked heavenly...but once again - a great time at Matt's. The food was quite reasonably priced for fine dining lunch (Average $11-$14 an entree) so I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nicer longer lunch. Like those things all those people in the private sector get to do for free. (ok - not ranting about working in public service) I'll need to take a break from this place for now though because there are so many other places to try!
Coming up next: My first copper river salmon bbq experience.
What do you do when you go to a ballgame? Remember the 90's? Ahh..those were the days when I actually paid attention to the game. I love my Mariner's but lately ball games have been reduced to talking and eating food with my friends, and only paying attention if we're sitting in the foul zone. Normally my go-to items are Kettle Corn and Ivars clam chowder. But the other day, I discovered they have PULLED PORK NACHOS. MMMMMM...yeah it pretty much tastes as amazingly unhealthy as it looks. Pulled pork with BBQ sauce over chips with fake cheese sauce? Heck yes.
Next up: Bowl of Balls. Yup. That's what it said on the menu. This is a bowl of balls from Rory's in Edmonds. Located just off of Main Street a block up from the ferry terminal. Behold, meatballs in a creamy pesto with Parmesan. They were delish and I am definitely looking forward to recreating them. Maybe with some real meatballs. These ones kind of reminded me of the frozen ones from Costco.
This is what roasted duck looks like from Uwajimaya. I had a really bad craving for duck that day. That is all.
So my friend Ashley was house sitting for a couple with a rooftop deck in the Leschi neighborhood recently..if you're not familiar, it's basically ritzy. We decided we needed some catch up time so I made us a picnic dinner and we brought it to the house and ate on the roof watching the sun set looking out at Lake Washington. It was great. I wanted to note this event because I found this AMAZING picnic basket brand new at Goodwill for $10 a year ago and this was the first time I've ever used it. The silverware was still wrapped up in plastic! I have been waiting to take it out on some cute picnic date...That basically tells you how exciting my dating life is. My poor picnic basket went unused for a year! But I whipped up some bow tie pasta with a garlic basil rose sauce, veggies, and chicken. The wine in the house was old, so we kept with the sparking cider instead. Romantic indeed. :)
