The Bite of Seattle 2012

This past weekend, Mikey and I attended the Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival held in downtown Seattle. It’s basically a 3-day-long event that showcases local food from fried PB&J’s, to selections from some of the nicest restaurants in the city.

My personal favorite part is The Alley, a sampling of a half dozen restaurants from around the area, hosted by the city’s famed chef, Tom Douglas. Not only is the food pretty great, but 95% of the proceeds go to Food Lifeline, a local hunger relief organization.

 

Mikey and I attended Friday and Saturday. We had planned on going Sunday as well, but we were feeling like two days of shoveling all the food we could handle into our mouths was probably more than enough, hah. Not to mention, we didn’t exactly feel like dealing with the crowds of kajillions of people all over again.

Friday’s Alley included:

Dahlia Lounge
Ancho-Rubbed Steak Salad with Hazelnuts and Blueberries

Al Boccalino
Bruschetta con la Muffoletta with Olive Salsa

Gordon’s on Blueberry Hill
Roasted Beet and Chervil Chevre Cheesecake with Hazelnut Crust

Koral
Marinated Grilled Shrimp with Watermelon Salsa

Purple Café 
Cranberry Chicken Salad- Grilled Chicken, Bacon, Almonds, Scallions, Celery, Apples, Dried Cranberries, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Cranberry-Dijon Vinaigrette

Din Tai Fung
Taiwan’s Famous Hand-Made Steamed Juicy Pork Dumplings Filled with Soup

PinkaBella Cupcakes
Strawberry Mini Cupcakes

 

Saturday’s spread:

Palace Kitchen
Flat Iron Steak with Tomato Salad and Blueberry Vinaigrette

Al Boccalino
Bruschetta con la Muffoletta with Olive Salsa

Belltown Pub
German Bread Dumplings, also known as Semmelknoedel, with Rye Bread, Parsley, Onions and Garlic

Salty’s
Mini Salmon Braut with Fennel Kraut and Walla Walla Onion Mustard Served in a House Made Brioche Bun

Fremont Fire Pit
Pulled Pork Sliders

Din Tai Fung
Taiwan’s Famous Hand-Made Steamed Juicy Pork Dumplings Filled with Soup

PinkaBella Cupcakes
Mini Strawberry Cupcakes

 

The star of both days was definitely the meat from Tom Douglas’s restaurants (Dahlia Lounge and Palace Kitchen).

It was succulent, juicy, seasoned perfectly, and cooked to a beautiful medium-rare. I did happen to overhear a guy ask for his steak pieces to be cooked to well-done…  I attempted to at least somewhat coverup the exasperated sigh I let out, but the people manning the grills were noticeably irked.

Another stand-out was Koral’s shrimp. I’m extremely picky when it comes to shrimp, and if they are overcooked at all, I won’t touch them. These, however, were tasty, refreshing, and perfect for summer.

Din Tai Fung made some seriously awesome soup dumplings all 3 days, that they steamed fresh right there in the blazing sun, but really, what do you expect from a restaurant chain that is a legend throughout the world?

I was quite surprised by Belltown Pub’s German dumplings. The were quite flavorful, and the mixture of butter and apple cider they were swimming in was divine!

When I heard that PinkaBella Cupcakes was going to have a booth at the Alley, I was a bit weary. I tried their cupcakes once before when they first went into the Bellevue mall, and couldn’t get through one bite. Their cupcakes were very fake tasting with a weird, almost chemical aftertaste. HOWEVER, the strawberry cupcakes they had at The Alley were a HUUUUUGGGE improvement! The chemical taste was gone, and the flavor altogether was quite good. But, I do still have a gripe with their frosting. It seems they probably use too much shortening and not enough butter as the frosting doesn’t melt in your mouth; it’s rather thick and heavy :/.

While there were a lot of delicious dishes, there were some serious flops.

Al Boccalino’s was there all three days, and there contribution was basically some olive tapenade spread on a slice of bread. For an event that is meant to showcase your restaurant, and leave your visitors wanting more, I can honestly say that I will never be visiting Al Boccalino.

Salty’s which is actually one of my favorite seafood restaurants, was a pretty big disappointment. I was intrigued when I heard that they were making salmon brats, and even asked the chef to describe the process to me, but the end result was a dry, fishy mess. I do, however, think it could have been partially saved from some citrus acidity that, unfortunately, was not present.

The biggest let-down of the Bite of Seattle, though, was that I didn’t get to meet two very famous people who were there on Friday- Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio! I’m not sure if any of you are aware of this, but for the past couple of weeks, the newest season of Top Chef has “secretly” been filming in Seattle! I somehow keep narrowly missing run-ins with the chefs and judges, as they are always spotted at places I just was at, or was just about to go to :[

I hope you guys enjoyed my little review on The Bite of Seattle! Please let me know if you would like more posts like this, or if you think I should just stick to recipes ;)!