Text 8013, 79 rader
Skriven 2008-05-30 07:47:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Seattle 380
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Next morning was our (only) trip to Seattle and Pike Place,
where we visited the old lady with the fried chicken stand:
a snack of gizzards and livers hit the spot. Poked around
there for a while and got some tea for Annie, but the lunch
order of the day was BBQ, so we saved ourselves mostly.

Hap took me to Esquin, a wine merchant with whom he has had
a long and mutually profitable association, which has stuff
from $3.99 a bottle to Latour 03 at a cool thou, all on the
shelf. Guess which end we shopped from?

And then we had two choices for lunch - BBQ places near the
stadium. We chose Mac's, a pleasantly divey establishment
(Hap refuses to call it a "joint," which it calls itself,
because the food isn't good enough). There are good things
to say about it, though, mostly that in addition to mass-market
stuff the bar pours a selection of local products.

Manny's pale ale (Georgetown) - pleasant, insubstantial,
somewhat low hopped, smooth, slightly citrusy;

Red Menace amber ale (Hale's Ales) - well hopped, well
balanced, a little sweet and yeasty. Would have gone okay
with food, but I preferred the Manny's for that;

Mongoose IPA (Hale's Ales) - extremely hoppy, herbal, some
citrus, slightly sweet. Were I drinking it by itself rather
than with BBQ, I'd have preferred it.

Hap's "East Carolina pork" sandwich was a reasonable amount
of reasonably tender sliced pork slathered in a decent sauce:
as he pointed out, Carolina pork should be pulled rather than
sliced and should come with slaw on top (this came with a
mediocre slaw on the side); also, the meat was hardly smoked
if at all. Fries were decent.

My brisket and pork ribs combo was somewhat better, the brisket
a good balance between fat and lean (going toward lean) but
also hardly smoked. The ribs, not very meaty, were at least
decently smoked and cooked the way I like them, i.e., tender
but with some chew, none of this "falling off the bone" stuff.
This comes with slaw and red beans and rice; as Hap wanted to
try the potato salad, I substituted that for the slaw. Odd
beans - tasted very smoky, almost acrid; the flavoring meat was
not hot links (as advertised) but rather brisket trimmings -
but from a different brisket than had gone onto my plate.

All in all, an okay bar experience with okay minus food.

Then on to Hap's "secret steak place," which turns out to be
Cash and Carry, a wholesale outlet that sells to the public.
In a big walk-in there are subprimals stacked up, from which
we chose a 10-lb sirloin strip (I lobbied for a 15-lb shell,
which would have cost less and provided a lot more almost as
tender and quite as tasty food, but Hap wanted to go whole
hog, er, beef, and show his guest a great time, which he did).

Annie's brother-in-law makes beer, and there was a bottle of
his Porter - rich, moderately carbonated, malty, molassesy,
lightly hopped, slightly sweet and chocolaty - waiting for me.

Inch-plus-thick steaks on a hot pan atop the stove - 4 min a
side for medium-rare; 2 min a side perfect for me, crusted on
the outside but just barely warm and still wiggly inside.

Spinach was a good accompaniment, as was Hap's last bottle
of Gruet Barrel Reserve Pinot Noir 04 - started off pretty
oaky and dark, with a hint of Cabernetty dark herbs,
blackberries, and so forth; in the glass it calmed down to
redder berries, plums, and meat broth - much more as it
should be I think. A very pleasant wine, though I was
surprised (and honored) to discover that it had cost Hap
$40 a bottle.

And so, boozily and well fattened, to the guest room,
where I worked a long time before going to sleep.
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