I don’t normally do food reviews, but today we’re making an exception.

Backstory: Dropped in on a new writing group up in the Roosevelt neighbor of north Seattle this week to see some friends and write with them. It’s a long drive from the farm, and they wanted to meet at 6pm, so Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) and I headed out mid-day. Got north and hit the Starbucks nearby for a while to do some of the heavy interwebs things I don’t want to do on my limited bandwidth out at the farm.

From there, we had some time to kill, and a whole bunch of new restaurants to try out. Normally, I would have walked three blocks over to Pies and Pints, but they’re gone now. Which sucks, but I have a different dealer for my fix. (Email me if you want her contact info. Got seven pies left in the freezer after seeing her this week. They’ll last me a month or two at most.)

So I had checked out all the places in the neighborhood. Sushi, burgers, vegan, whatever. One place jumped out at me, and she decided it would be a nice place to eat, so we went.

The joint is called Toronado and includes heaven.

She and I are carnivores who graze. Dead critter. Fresh veggies. No bread. Plus with our mix of food allergies, I’m always hesitant to try places at random.

But I cracked open their menu to see what we had. Page One includes a Plate Of Bacon. Beef, Pork, Lamb. Yes, you read that correctly. Beef Bacon. Lamb Bacon. Homemade on site, as I understand it. (The publican was also the owner. Really nice guy happy to nerd out about food on a quiet Tuesday afternoon.)

I have never had beef bacon. Or lamb. I had no idea what I was missing. You have no idea what you’re missing, either.

Then, I spotted something on Page Two to review. Macaroni and Modern Cheese.

WTF is Modern Cheese?

Turns out to be a different way to make the roux, with sodium citrate warmed as a binder.

This being Seattle, I had to ask. Every fool wanna-be chef in this town makes his roux with onion powder. Same with his gravy. To me, that’s the sign that there’s no more cheese involved than you need to give it color. Same with the gravy, they made it without tailings from frying sausage.

(I have gotten into arguments with professional chefs that you don’t include onion powder in roux and gravy. Where I come from, that’s possibly a tar-and-feather offense. And the farther I get from downtown Seattle, the more cooks agree with me, and the safer I am with chicken fried steak, eggs over easy, and biscuits.)

But there’s no onions in the modern cheese. He went back and asked the cook, just to be sure. And they do a three bacon version.

I’m sold.

She got a pulled pork sandwich.

About two bites into the bacon appetizer, she immediately texts a friend of hers. They frequently do Girl’s Night without me on Thursdays, where they try out new restaurants to see what’s good. They’ll be going back there. And I have already ordered a to-go box of the mac and cheese for her to bring home.

When I write Jessica Keller, it is almost always fashion porn to some extent. With coffee thrown in as well. I have been writing new Javier Aritza (Science Officer) stories lately, and those have tended towards  food porn. Hell, I just wrote a scene in the new Gareth novel (book 2 when it comes out) that takes place exactly in Toronado, just because I wanted to nerd out on the food for my readers.

And oh, by the way, beer bar with a massive, rotating selection of stuff, and an owner/publican who was nerding out with two businessmen at the next table over about a variety of beers he kept delivering in basically shot glasses for them to sample. Smart guy, knows his stuff.

You will thank me. Go up to the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle. Corner of 12th Ave NE and 65th St. Right next to the Whole Foods.

Come hungry.

We now return you to your regular tv dinners.

🙂