Pacific Coast Road Trip!

A few weeks ago I took a little road trip! Well, I'm not sure what the definition of "little" is but it was about 6 days and 24 total hours of driving, so whatever that works out to. 

Almost three years ago my mom and I drove from LA to SF together, and on that trip we got to wondering what driving from the other direction would be like, if Seattle to SF would be as fun or as beautiful. I had to be in Seattle for a conference in June, so I decided we should finally find out! She flew out to Seattle, where we spent a bit of time before driving down to Portland, then through the Willamette Valley, over to the coast, south for a bit, back in to Crater Lake, back out to the coast, and finally down through Northern CA to SF. Our zig zagging route wasn't exactly efficient, but we maximized the scenery and to me, that is the point of a road trip. That, and the food!

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I hung out and conference for a couple days in Seattle (though I got a little fun in with a boat ride on Lake Union with friends and a detour to the new Spheres at Amazon!), then my mom arrived and we hit a bunch of the tourist spots in Seattle, including the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum, and the Underground Tour. My mom must have become brave after hanging out above the skyline and then literally under the city, because she shocked me by requesting a ride on the ferris wheel, the one that hangs out over the water off Pier 57. I suppose after getting her up in a Gondola last year I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I didn't even have to bribe her with an Irish Coffee this time!

We capped off Seattle with a loooooong wait to eat at JuneBaby (but I will defend that decision on the smoked carrots alone) before moving on to Portland. Neither of us had ever been to Oregon before, and so we both checked the full West Coast off our bucket lists (bucket maps?). I found out my mother has only never been to 7 states!! I'd argue it's 6 because she told me she drove through a corner of Idaho one time, but apparently that doesn't count.

Eating in Seattle

Good Bar I ate here my first night in Seattle because 1) it was open and 2) I was exhausted and it was right outside the front door of my Airbnb. Convenience aside, it was actually a great place to sit at the bar, have a couple drinks and a meal. The food was pretty good, but I really liked the quiet atmosphere. I could see this place getting crazy on a Friday night but luckily for me, that wasn't the case.

The London Plane Another place that was close to my Airbnb, but even if you aren't staying nearby I would check this place out for the baked eggs. They. Were. Awesome. This little cafe is also located in a flower shop, and the space is bright and airy with walls of windows and high ceilings. If you aren't into small menus, keep in mind the menu was tiny, with only a few things for breakfast and lunch. They all sounded amazing though, so it's quality over quantity.

How To Cook A Wolf When my friend Susan asked me if I had heard of this place, I thought she was talking about M.F.K. Fisher's book, but actually it's a restaurant in Seattle named after the book. We ordered basically everything, and I braved trying beef carpaccio and eating all the dishes with fennel seeds. It was all good, though I admit I'd love to go back in a time of year when mushrooms and elderflowers aren't in season, because the chef was really into both in an overwhelming way.

Intermezzo Carmine My Lyft driver from the airport recommended this place, and, shout out to Brian because it was great! I sat at the marble bar and stuffed myself with pasta and roasted veggies, and on a Tuesday night it was quiet and relaxed. 

Cafe Munir When we showed up to this Lebanese restaurant in Ballard it was starting to rain, the wait was at least an hour, and there were no real bars or cafes nearby to wait at. Even so, I declared we had to eat here, because I had made the mistake of going inside, and therefore smelling the incredible aromas of grilled meats coming out of the kitchen. I was ruined. You will be too. Go. Order everything.

Toulouse Petit If The London Plane is an example of small-menu dining, this place is the opposite, but everything here is opulently large, from the breakfast menu to the size of the entrees. My mom and I split an egg dish and beignets and still had to waddle out of here. They make an excellent bloody mary to soak up all that filling food, though.

Il Corvo Pasta Unfortunately for us both, we ate at Toulouse Petit the morning I planned to check out this pasta shop. I figured, since this place is only open a few hours a day and known for long waits, we would be at least a little hungry by the time we got seated. Not really, since our wait was only about 30 minutes, but it speaks to the quality of the pasta and the rest of the menu that we still managed to scarf an entire plate of noodles and a kale salad.

JuneBaby Possibly one of the most hyped restaurants in the country at the moment, if you pay attention to James Beard lists or watch David Chang shows on Netflix. But, I have to say all that hype is quite possibly earned in this case. Yes, you will wait forever to eat, since the restaurant doesn't take reservations, and yes, you will probably run out of ways to entertain your mother in the meantime, but the food is worth it. At the very least, order the smoked carrots, or whatever vegetable is getting that treatment this week. They were phenomenal. The boiled peanuts were, as they usually are in restaurants, not salty enough and undercooked, but the southern rice of the day and the collard greens were excellent. 

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Portland was full of bridges and ice cream and donuts. After a quick hop out to Cannon Beach, we came back to try vegan dim sum, Oregon beers, and 6 flavors of donuts from Blue Star. We stayed in a Tiny House Hotel, which was so awesome I'm still not over it. I built a fire and roasted marshmallows from the s'mores drawer and people stared in at us like we were a zoo attraction (that part was less awesome).

South of Portland we basked in the sun in the Willamette Valley and tried sparkling wines and Oregon Pinots and I bought way too many to take home. We wound our way south down the coast, trading our cell signals for delicious, fresh seafood and ruggedly stunning views. We ventured back East to Crater Lake, where we admired the strange, volcanic terrain. We stayed in an airstream on a farm in Rogue River, where I got to hold goat babies and give them shoulder scratches. We learned all about guard llamas and I milked a goat, and then we had fresh-laid eggs for breakfast before driving on to California. 

In California we drove through endless redwoods to Eureka. Up until this point, Eureka to me was just the place on the 101 North signs, but now it's the place where we drank in a community crafting place and stayed in a haunted-looking inn. It was actually quiet and lovely in the Old Town section of the city. 

Eating in Portland

Bollywood Theater This cafe serves up Indian cuisine in photo-ready metal dishes, and it tastes just as good as it looks. We had the Goan shrimp and and a whole host of sides, including Bhel Puri, a salad-like assortment of all the things that was one of my favorite dishes I ate the entire trip. 

Ichiza Kitchen I don't know if vegan Dim Sum would be my usual first choice, but I was intrigued, and this little restaurant did not disappoint. Standouts were chili oil wontons and kimchi gyoza. I still don't know what made up the "pork belly & beef" but it was delicious enough that I don't really care, TBH.

Ava Gene's This place is right down the street from Pok Pok and just as popular from all appearances. We had a late dinner here after a day of exploring Portland. The fish with buttermilk we had was extremely good, as was the pasta, as was the wine. 

Back Pedal Brewing This little brewery room was right next door to the much larger, much noisier 10 Barrel Brewing, and we ducked inside just as it started raining for much calmer beer flight and some scrabble. 

Blue Star Donuts Ok, yes, Voodoo gets all the attention, but I didn't even try to wait in that line. Everyone told me to go to Blue Star instead, and I can't imagine they were wrong after trying these donuts. I took a box of 6 on the road south with us, and they were still enjoyable two days later. My favorite was probably the original horchata glaze and the creme brulee, sans the dropper of cointreau.

Whiz Bang Bar Salt and Straw has soft serve! Or, at least they do in Portland! I ordered a giant cone of vanilla soft serve with black raspberry shell, sprinkles, and a generous garnish of their marionberry habanero cheesecake. My mother was rightfully horrified by life choices.

Helser's on Alberta We had a great diner-style breakfast here, down the street from our hotel. It doesn't look fancy from the outside, but the line of locals waiting to eat should tell you all you need to know. 

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Coastal

Arts and Drafts A crafting spot and a bar, all in one place? Sounds weird, but it does exist in Eureka. They had a large selection of beers on tap and the location right on the waterfront and the crafts on display made for a cozy spot to get a drink.

Cafe Waterfront The food here was nothing special, but the restaurant is in an historic building in Old Eureka, and it's waterfront location and atmosphere more than made up for the food just being serviceable. We went back for breakfast, and the blueberry pancakes were more than serviceable.

Local Ocean Seafoods We stopped here for dinner in Newport on our way down the Oregon coast, and feasted on crab legs and a Brazilian fish stew containing seemingly every creature to ever surface from the deep.

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I fully recommend taking your time to drive between Seattle and San Francisco! If you have the time, the rugged Oregon coast, natural wonders, and fun cities are not to be missed. I flew back to Seattle this past weekend for a brief stop on the way to Canada, and it just wasn't as fun covering all that scenery in 2 hours and from high up above. Though, I was able to point down as we flew over Portland and think, "hey! I was just there!" so that part was ok.

Sunday Supper: Salt Baked Whole Fish

There's something about baking an entire fish, head to tail, that tends to scare people off. I get it, since it took me a few tries not to be squeamish while staring into that milky eye whenever I order roasted fish in restaurants.

But the benefits of roasting a fish whole should really encourage more people to do it. It's cheaper per pound, since you aren't buying a precisely cut filet, and it's almost impossible to screw up, since roasting the meat around the bones and sealed in the skin makes it hard to overcook. Plus, you can stuff the cavity with all kinds of aromatics that give the fish lovely added flavor! 

Just don't stare the fish dead in its dead, white eyes and you'll be fine.

Here, I've taken the added step of encasing the fish in a salt crust, which both seasons the fish and steams it, yielding beautiful, delicious, moist fish. Serve it drizzled with a little olive oil and it is sublime. Also? Cracking into that baked crust is second only to the fun of breaking into a creme brulee.

Now, somebody just teach me how to properly flake this thing apart after cooking. Other recipes tell me it's a simple matter of pulling the flesh from the spine and lifting it off with a fork. My little pile of shredded fish was fun, but I don't think that's really how it was supposed to turn out. Hopefully you have better luck, and play a less dangerous guessing game with the pin bones.

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Whole Salt Baked Fish

Adapted from Dave Pasternack

• one, 2 lb whole fish (or two, 1 lb whole fish) such as branzino, black bass, etc., cleaned and scaled
• 2 lbs kosher salt or fine sea salt (about 3 cups)
• 3 large egg whites
• extra virgin olive oil, for brushing and serving
• parsley, thyme, lemon slices, garlic, for stuffing

1. Heat oven to 425. Bring fish to room temperature for 20 minutes. In a large bowl, mix salt and egg whites until mixture is the texture of moistened sand.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush with oil. Sprinkle a bit of the salt mixture into a thin layer in roughly the shape of your fish. Brush fish with oil and set on top of the layer of salt. Stuff with sprigs of parsley, thyme, lemon slices and a clove of garlic in each fish, then top with remaining salt mixture and lightly pack. It's ok if tails and heads poke out a bit at the ends (if you manage to completely enclose your fish, use a skewer to poke a hole through the salt pack near where the head meets the body).
3. Bake fish for 25 minutes, to about 135 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes, then crack the salt and discard. Brush off any excess salt, remove skin and stuffing, then debone and fillet the flesh (my strategy is to remove the top filets with a spoon, lift out the spine, remove any visible pin bones, and then chew VERY carefully while eating). Serve, drizzled with olive oil.

American Flag Cake

Happy 4th of July! I hope you have fun things planned for celebrating tomorrow! I will be...not working, at the very least, so that will be a good way to Wednesday! I will also be eating a slice of this cake and some bonus dessert I made with the extras, so even though I'm struggling to feel patriotic these days, my insides will def be red, white, and blue!

So, how about this beauty? Can we pause for a sec and just look at this thing? I managed to impress even myself, and as my own biggest critic, that is hard to do. But this cake is an accomplishment, and I'm going to take a beat and recognize that. 

I took two cake recipes from my favorite cake book, American Cake, and mashed them together to create a tasty, edible flag. The red and blue layers are classic red velvet, dyed with shocking amounts of food dye (so sorry but it's just how you do it) and the white layers are my favorite cake of 2018, champagne (previously here and here). They get stacked with a little peach jam to make it all stick together, and then the whole tower gets wrapped in a cloak of tangy cream cheese frosting. I will pledge allegiance to that!

Before you look at this cake and think, "I could never do that, it's too much work," then let me assure you that, yes, yes it is definitely too much work. But you can still do it! I promise, the satisfaction of knowing your cake looks like a real flag with thirteen whole layers of red velvet and white champagne stripes is almost worth it! When you are building a masterpiece, you've gotta spend the time. 

Now, I say this after the fact, with a hazy recollection of the wee hours of last Friday morning and fresher memories of peoples' compliments. So maybe take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. I did have my moments of wondering why oh why couldn't Betsy Ross just have stopped with two colors when sewing the flag? TWO WAS FINE! Because by the time I was baking yet a second blue layer the next day and trying to perfectly color match it to the first one, I was ready to call that long-dead lady some not-so-nice names. But again, I was making a masterpiece, and sacrifices will be made, such as sleep and time and adherence to FDA recommended levels of food dye. 

So I will warn you, the directions below are a tad involved. You can, of course, bake thicker layers and cut them into the thinner layers, but I don't have those torting skills and so I opted for the more time-consuming option of baking my layers individually. But, no matter which method you choose, don't worry too much about perfectly even, stacked layers. This is after all a cake, not a real flag, and you can just tell everyone that your sliced cake is supposed to look like it is waving in the wind o'er all those ramparts. Ta da!

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Red & Blue Velvet Champagne Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red & Blue Velvet Cake and Champagne Cake layers adapted from Anne Byrn. You will want to make the full recipe for each color, to make sure you have enough batter for all the layers plus any extra for mistakes (trust me). In total, you will need three 8-inch red layers, three 8-inch white layers, four 6-inch red layers, three 6-inch white layers and two 8-inch blue layers, so plan accordingly.

For Red & Blue Layers: make 1 full recipe for each color

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs red food coloring (for blue, use 2 tbs royal blue food coloring + 1-2 drops violet)
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup milk, room temperature
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 1 tsp baking soda

For White Layers:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (see notes)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• scant 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 5 egg whites, room temp
• 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup dry champagne, room temperature
• 1 2/3 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs + 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 stick + 1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

For assembly and the frosting:

• 3/4 cup peach jam
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 packages (16 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
• 8 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Make the red and blue layers, one at a time: place a rack in the center of oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour as many 8-inch and 6-inch cake pans as you have, or use disposable pans. For the red layers you will need three 8-inch pans and four 6-inch pans; for the blue, you will only need two 8-inch pans.
2. Decide which color you are starting with, and make one recipe of the velvet cake: Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, then blend in the vanilla and the food coloring and set aside. 
3. In a separate, large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt. In a measuring cup, stir together the milk, vinegar, and baking soda. Add the dry and wet ingredients to the batter while mixing on low speed, alternating, and beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
4. Divide the batter between prepared pans: for the red layers, spread two heaping spoonfuls of batter (see notes) evenly in each 6-inch pan (4 total) and three heaping spoonfuls in each 8-inch pan (3 total). For the blue layers, divide the batter evenly between two prepared 8-inch pans.
5. For red layers, bake the cakes for 6-8 minutes for 6-inch layers and 8-9 minutes for 8-inch layers. For blue layers, bake 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the layers are pulling slightly away from the edges of the pans. Let layers cool slightly in pans and then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.
6. Make the batter again for your second color (red or blue) and repeat.
7. Make the white layers: Again, butter and flour your pans. You will need three each of the 8-inch and 6-inch layers.
8. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate large bowl, add the egg whites, champagne, vanilla and oil and whisk to combine well. Set aside.
9. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat sugar and butter for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and the egg white mixture, alternating, starting and ending with the dry mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Divide the batter between pans, spreading 2 heaping spoonfuls of batter in each 6-inch pan and 3 heaping spoonfuls in each 8-inch pan.
10. Bake, 6-8 minutes for 6-inch layers and 8-10 minutes for 8-inch layers, until cakes are just beginning to pull back from the sides of the pans. Cool on a rack for a few minutes, remove from pans and cool completely.
11. When ready to assemble, heat peach jam in a small saucepan over low heat until it thins out a little. Place a red, 8-inch cake layer on a cake board and brush a thin layer of the warm jam over the top using a pastry brush or back of a small spoon. Place a white 8-inch layer on top and brush with jam, then top with a red layer. Repeat until you have three each of the red and white layers. 
12. Trim off any rounded tops from your blue cake layers, then, using a 6-inch cake ring or 6-inch diameter bowl to cut a 6-inch circle out of your blue cake layers. Stack the first 8-inch ring on top of your stacked red and white layers, then brush the inside and top of the blue layer with jam. Gently place a red 6-inch layer inside the blue ring, brush with jam, and top with a white 6-inch layer. Brush with jam and top with a red layer, and repeat, until you have 4 red layers and 3 white 6-inch layers. The top layer should be red. Brush the sides of the exposed red and white 6-inch layers and then gently lower the remaining blue 8-inch ring of cake over the top and sides. The top of the blue layer and last red layer should be relatively flush with each other, but it doesn't have to be exact. The difference just shouldn't be so extreme that you can't hide it with frosting.
13. Make the frosting and ice the cake! In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy and well-blended. Slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar until fully combined and frosting is stiff but spreadable. Mix in the vanilla and beat for a minute to make sure frosting is as fluffy as can be. Spread a bit of the frosting over the sides and top of the cake to smooth out any crumbs. Chill cake for 20 minutes, then frost with remaining frosting as desired. Slice and serve!

Notes:

• I'm sorry to call for 2 kinds of flour, but the champagne cake really gets its amazing texture from using the cake flour, while the red velvet can hold up to using regular AP flour. 
• When I saying "heaping spoonful" for spreading the batters in the pans, I'm talking about regular-sized spoons you'd use for eating, not serving spoons or little teaspoons. You should have enough batter in each pan to fully cover the bottoms but only come up the sides about 1/4 inch, no more than 1/2 inch. I wish I had been more scientific in my measurements but this part was happening around 1 am, so I was not.