2023, Family, Food, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

All The Risotto In Seattle

44 Comments

Our children grew up eating a lot of rice, especially Basmati rice since we made curry pretty often. I made risotto occasionally, but not often since it was such a boring pain to make, standing at the stove and stirring and adding the broth for what seemed like an eternity.

The advent of the Instant Pot has revolutionized risotto making, and you can get a really decent risotto in no time with very little effort. I splurged and got a large bag of Carnaroli rice from a fancy, mail order Italian grocery store. It is heavenly. It is said to be far superior to Arborio rice. I haven’t decided yet.

I was tickled the other day when our daughter told me that she and a friend are determined to sample every risotto in Seattle. Their most recent foray into risotto was at a very fancy Italian restaurant where the risotto was green (presumably from pesto) and had Wagyu beef on the top. Daughter said it was wonderful.

I think she and her friend are on a lovely quest, and I wondered where I would want to go to sample a delicacy. All the minestrone in Tuscany? All the baguettes in Paris?

Where would you like to travel to sample the food? What is your favorite rice dish?

44 thoughts on “All The Risotto In Seattle”

  1. My favorite rice dish is Chia-yi Turkey Rice (嘉義火雞飯). My favorite place to eat it is a little hole-in-the-wall place on Youth Road in Tainan, Taiwan. (I was in Taiwan last year at thanksgiving, and that’s the turkey I had.) I’d happily go back.

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      1. Rice is my soul food. Greasy and salty sauces with ANY sort of meats and veggies in them are the best accompaniment. Fruit at the conclusion of a meal takes the place of starchy sweet desserts common in North America.

        I’ve made the transition, it wasn’t easy, but now I’m settled here and visits to Taiwan are just that, visits, though it will always feel like home there, and the sound of Taiwanese in and on my ears will always be natural to me.

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  3. All the patisseries in France. I’d die within a year from high cholesterol and too much sugar and processed flour and fat, but I’d have the biggest smile known to man on my face when I did. 🙂 (“Of all the bakery joints in all the world, he walks into mine!”) *slam hand onto table and knock over drink*

    Second might be all the chocolate in Switzerland. Or all the pasta in Italy.

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  4. I’m thinking I would like to sample all the Swedish meatballs in Stockholm, and while I’m there do some genealogy research.

    I’ve also attempted a Spanish Potato Omelet (Tortilla Espanola) that I’m sure must be better than my version – and the recipe says every tapas bar in Spain serves this – that would be fun to try.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    We are tucked away in Fountain Hills, now, where it is “cold.” It is to rain today and tomorrow and it will snow in the mountains. Yes I looked at the weather in Minnesota! All comparisons reflect relative suffering.

    I cannot choose from so many wonderful cuisines. The best I can do is issue a list of favorites.

    1. Time Travel: I would love to sit at my remarkable Grandma’s table again for a Midwest-style fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy. And then there was her Thanksgiving dinner…

    2. Italy and France: Everything Chris said with Italian seafood and French Patissieres.

    3. Viet Nam: In 1981 when I had a newly minted MSW (Master of Social Work) it was hard to get a job due to the Reagan Recession. I worked in refugee resettlement for a short while just to make a living. I made friends with a Vietnamese man, Mr. Cu Ha, once a Colonel in the Vietnamese army and a former POW, who cooked for us. The combination of French Cuisine and traditional Vietnamese cuisine was divine.

    On my never eat list: English “Cuisine.” The worst food I ever experienced was in London. It was remarkably bad, unless we tried their ethnic food. We tried a Turkish restaurant that was delicious.

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  7. At least once a week I make basmati rice with a little cumin seed and black pepper. It goes with many dishes, even non-Indian, and is a nice staple to have on hand.

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  9. I like rice! It lends itself to so many different dishes from sweet to savory, to hot and spicy. We enjoy an occasional risotto, but I mostly shy away from making as it tends to be too rich and heavy. A good paella, though, is to die for. Haven’t had that in a long while, mainly because of husband’s dislike of seafood. No sense in making the effort and spending good money if we don’t both enjoy it.

    My idea of traveling these days is to go to a local restaurant that specializes in food from somewhere specific, like Japan, Italy, Greece, Kurdistan, or Ethiopia, to name a few. The list goes on and on. We have such a wealth of good restaurants in the Twin Cities that specialize in various ethnic cuisines, and a lot of them are small, family run affairs with no frills, and very reasonable prices, but the food is really good. A far cry from the food scene during my first seven years in this country.

    If there was a decent restaurant in Cheyenne when I lived there, we never went there. That, of course, is entirely possible since we were pretty destitute, and Carbondale wasn’t much of an improvement.

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  10. Winnipeg was the best place to be a poor graduate student who loved good food. There were so many recent immigrant groups with wonderful restaurants and grocery stores.

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  12. You all have heard my tiramisu and sticky toffee pudding stories before, but I’d be happy to travel anywhere and keeping trying them out.

    One of my best STPs was actually in London and I also have fond memories of a cheese and chutney on toast at a lovely little pub near Stongehenge, so while I won’t say I can speak to the whole of British cuisine, but I have had a few great dishes there!

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  13. I love fried rice. I remember St. Paul once had a Chinese restaurant called Mei Chu, and their fried rice was delicious.

    The sticky rice you get with Thai food is also scrumptious when it’s the base layer of a panang or massuman curry.

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  15. No one said rice pudding. I love rice pudding with raisins and walnuts. This made me so hungry for risotto, that is what I made for supper with chicken and veggies.

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  16. Evening. Thought I posted on this today, but it is Monday and I kept getting distracted.
    Kelly made risotto just the other day. Didn’t know she had to stir that much. Sounds like a job for the Robo-stir. Who had that, VS??

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        1. Well, that it was good goes without saying, and yes, there are many different kinds of risotto. Just about anything from asparagus to shrimp can go in risotto, so yes, there are many, many different kinds. 🙂

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    1. I forwarded this to my grandson Ari, who will be getting piano lessons this year. His brain is incredible being able to memorize stuff so the exercise of memorizing. The increments for chopsticks is perfect for him as pre-piano intro. It never occurred to me that they called it chopsticks because you put your two fingers out, and that looks like a chopstick before duh.

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  18. i would go to coco beach florida for my stone crab feast or i guess i could travel the caribbean
    then if to italy to try tiramassou my favorite spot is a sidewalk cafe in milan but i think i be willing toctry it in 102 other locations
    i like italy
    good shoes good shorts good hats and tailors good wine good art good food good cars good people good scenery sunshine on the mediterranean coast is the best

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  19. years ago I saw Calvin Trillin speak. I think it was your penpals and he was talking about how the world has become screwed up because we have red lobster and McDonald’s and every freeway exit in America and how we lost the local foods for example, in Kansas City where he’s from you go on you find the best barbecue place and it’s almost required that you eat on a formica table top with brown paper instead of a plate for your ribs that’s how you know you’re in a good joint and when you travel around the country, you don’t go to Florida looking for ribs you go to Florida looking for Florida stuff like my Stone crab when you go to Texas maybe you’re looking for ribs but you’re looking for Texas style ribs you’re also looking for whatever else it is Texas is good that I think of New Mexico has a wonderful spot for all the Mexican food. That’s where I got introduced to it you go to Seattle and you need to do seafood kind of like the gulf of California over on the Mexico side. I’ve heard about people that vacation there and they just going to town every night for dinner to eat seafood because it’s caught 45 minutes before it’s on their plate. I’d like to travel the world, trying to figure out how to do vegetarian food everywhere I’ve done it in Thailand and Italy, and in China and in France, but wouldn’t it be fun to be able just to travel to the different African nations to Australia, New Zealand to sit up south and central America, as well as Europe, Scandinavia India. It just goes on anon think of all the different places where you can just go eat there local specialties sounds like a life’s work I’d be willing to try.

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