After scouring South Sound farmers markets for marvelous munchies, I’m looking for farm-fresh foods to cook with. I stopped briefly at both the Puyallup and Proctor farmers markets this morning. I picked up asparagus, leeks, Walla Wallas, chives, sorrel, goat cheese, eggs, chorizo, grass-fed ground beef and a day-old cinnamon roll. (The latter’s going to be French toast tomorrow, with either apple-cider syrup or blackberry rhubarb jam, both purchased from farmers at markets.)

Pictured above is the lunch I cooked today: asparagus rellenos. Here’s the

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It sounded a bit like a fairy tale ending to a bad dream: Ranch House BBQ was demolished by mudslide in December. Then Olympia’s Governor Hotel gave the restaurant’s owners six months free rent and three months free utilities. Now the fairy tale is fracturing. The News Tribune’s sister paper The Olympian reports:

Since moving in January after its Kennedy Creek Road location was destroyed by flooding, the business

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Today’s New York Times reports that an Arlington pizza parlor is considering putting its used grease under video surveillance. Call it deterrence against biodiesel bandits.

"Fryer grease has become gold," said a co-owner of Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant, whose 50-gallon grease barrels have been sucked by siphoners at least a half dozen times since last summer.

Here’s the kicker to our food-crazed, oil-crazed times, in which it’s hip to

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The artwork of former Lakewood resident Ivan the Gorilla – he spent 31 years of his life at the B&I shopping center on South Tacoma Way before moving to Atlanta in 1994 — is on display and up for auction at an Atlanta restaurant.

Diners at Stella Neighborhood Trattoria can purchase $2 raffle tickets for a chance to win abstract paintings by Ivan and his fellow Zoo Atlanta gorilla Willie B. Jr.

All proceeds will be donated to the

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In the comments to my post about Bella Vita morphing into a sports bar, Ed’s Diner patron ABH writes:

…. Speaking of sports bar…Has anyone tried Wings, Pizza N Things at the old Beach House in Purdy? No pizza anywhere on the menu, except for a picture on the menu cover. … I could see about 3 little flat screen t.v.’s. in the whole place …

Wings, Pizza N Things Sports and Grill opened three weeks ago in the waterfront spot that formerly housed Pearl’s by the Sea, The Beach House and Margarita

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I’m researching a GOEAT cover story about great seafood meals in the South Sound.

I’m curious to know:

Who makes your favorite salmon entree?

How about halibut?

Or any other seafood dish.

Oysters. Clams. Mussels.

Chowder. Cioppino.

You name it.

I welcome your recomendations from Anthony’s to Xinh’s.

The cosmetic remodel of iconic Tacoma restaurant Southern Kitchen looks complete.

About a year ago, the inside got a bright new coat of paint. Recently, the exterior was spiffed up with new siding, new windows and new paint.

That old plastic sign that promoted Pepsi as much as it did Southern Kitchen is gone, replaced with a painted wood sign that evokes the restaurant’s down-home roots.

Some tables and chairs on the sidewalk add extra curb appeal.

Idling in my car at the intersection of Sixth-Sprague-Division last night, I stared

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I got my first look at Primo Grill’s new paint job today. (Sorry, no photo; a camera is not among the tools of my trade on some assignments.)

The change is not huge, but it’s noticeable. Gone is the mustard yellow that shouted from the dining room walls. It’s been replaced with a metallic copper and mahagony overglaze that mellows the room.

Between slices of proscuitto-fig-goat cheese pizza at my perch at the chef’s counter, I looked the restaurant up and down and thought:

As long as they’ve repainted some walls, I wish

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