Best foods contest winners

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ptleader.com
serving Port townsend & jefferson county since 1889
Wednesday
November 24, 2010
Best Foods Contest Winners
By James Robinson of the Leader
Reading through the interviews
with the chefs, managers and restaurateurs acknowledged in the
Leader’s 2010 Best Foods poll, it
may become clear that many of
these men and women share one
thing in common – a commitment
to providing healthful, flavorful
creative cuisine, using the finest,
freshest local ingredients possible.
Whether it’s Jim Switz and Peter
Nakamura at Ichikawa Japanese
Cuisine seeking out fresh uni from
Neah Bay, or Kristan McCary of
the Ajax Café creating tasty burgers with beef from Roger Short’s
Chimacum Valley farm, or Tina
Fink and Kim Hendricks of Owl
Sprit Café making sumptuous salads with greens from Colinwood
Farms, all agreed their menus benefit from the Olympic Peninsula’s
bounty.
And diners benefit as well.
With its wine and cider makers, farmers and fishers, cheese
mongers, bakers and entrepreneurs, Port Townsend and Jefferson
County offer many fine local ingredients, and no shortage – based on
this year’s results – of restaurateurs willing to create exceptional
cuisine with them. That said, Port
Townsend and Jefferson County
residents have much to celebrate
with this year’s winners and a
plethora of exciting dining options
available in the months ahead.
■ Best Asian
Ichikawa
Japanese Cuisine
Just 10 votes split the top three
winners in the Asian category, yet
six-time award winner Ichikawa
Japanese Cuisine took first, followed by Khu Larb Thai Restaurant
at a close second, and 1-2-3 Thai
Food in third.
“It’s the quality of the sushi
that Peter [Nakamura] makes that
draws people in,” said Ichikawa
co-owner Jim Switz. “He’s spent 30
years making sushi in the Puget
Sound region, so he’s developed a
lot of relationships with suppliers.
We buy as much as we can from
local vendors, but for some of the
key Japanese ingredients, he knows
where to get the best stuff.”
As for local ingredients, Switz
said he and Nakamura take advantage of the region’s bounty and are
able to purchase about 40 percent
of their products from local vendors
and suppliers – including uni (sea
urchin) and geoduck.
“We get the live urchin usually about five or six hours out of
the water,” Switz said. “Uni lovers
love our uni because the quality is
unsurpassed. For people who love it,
it’s seafood crack.”
In addition to uni, and a full line
of nigiri and sashimi, Switz and
Nakamura offer numerous specialty
soups with stocks made in house,
from scratch.
“Our soups are phenomenal,”
Switz said, with selections including an assorted seafood option,
smoked duck and a tempura soup
with udon or soba noodles. Soup
prices range from $12.95 to $16.95
at dinner.
Beyond soups, and for diners
with a yen for something other than
sushi, Ichikawa offers a grilled New
York or rib eye steak seasoned with
garlic and finished with Ichikawa’s
Seven Element sauce ($18.95).
Ichikawa’s menu also boasts an
alder-smoked duck, seasoned with
Ichikawa’s chili-miso sauce for
$16.95.
Ichikawa’s sushi menu includes
seven specialty rolls, such as the
Seventh Heaven – raw salmon,
hamachi and maguro layered on
top of a California roll for $12.50 –
plus nine different hand rolls and
13 smaller specialty rolls ranging
from $4 to $11.25.
Nakamura’s signature bento
special with miso soup and rice is
available at lunch for $13.95 and at
dinner for $17.50.
Ichikawa Japanese Cuisine has
won the Leader’s Best Asian award
in 2008 and 2010, and has been a
five-time winner for “Best Japanese
Food in Jefferson County” in the
Peninsula Daily News’ reader poll
from 2005 to 2010.
Ichikawa Japanese Cuisine is
located opposite the ferry dock at
1208 Water St. The restaurant is
open Tuesday through Saturday
from 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. for
lunch, and from 5 to 9 p.m. for
dinner. For more information, call
379-4000.
(A close second place, Khu Larb
Thai; third place, 1-2-3 Thai Food.)
Kim Hendricks (left) and Tina Fink bring their passion for high quality, local and organic foods to Owl Sprit Cafe, located on Polk Street
in downtown Port Townsend. Opened in June, the cafe offers lamb köfte and organic chicken kebabs; made-to-order salads and sandwiches; house-made soups, tacos, burritos; and a variety of pastas for dinner. Leader readers voted it the best new restaurant to arrive
on the scene in 2010. Photos by James Robinson
Linda Yakush, co-owner of Pane
d’Amore, said customers crowd into
her diminutive storefront seeking
her seedy and sourdough loaves,
and Wednesday and Saturday specials such as the fig-anise and cranberry-walnut loaves. Pane d’Amore
also offers fresh challah on Fridays,
which sets the stage for heavenly
French toast on Saturday morning.
In addition to a wide variety
of classic and specialty loaves,
Yakush said, a visit to Pane
d’Amore wouldn’t be complete without purchasing a few Giacometti –
Parmesan-crusted breadsticks – or
her signature panini buns.
“These are the perfect burger
■ Best Baked Goods
bun,” she said, holding one high for
inspection.
And for shoppers with a sweet
When you walk off the side- tooth, Pane d’Amore offers pain
walk on Tyler Street and into Pane au chocolat, almond croissants, a
d’Amore, it’s like walking out of variety of Danishes and, of course,
Port Townsend and into a tiny Paris canelé.
“They’re like portable crème
boulangerie.
With at least 10 types of bread brûlée,” Yakush said. “They’re
available fresh daily, fresh pastries, crunchy and caramelized on the
house-made pasta, local artisanal outside, soft and eggy in the middle,
cheeses, olive oil and other gourmet and redolent with rum and lemon
accoutrements, it’s clear no other zest.”
Pane d’Amore, owned by Yakush
place packs so much gastronomic
goodness into so few square feet. and legendary Port Townsend
It’s no wonder the Leader’s readers baker Frank D’Amore, is located
voted Pane d’Amore the best place in Uptown at 617 Tyler St., across
from the Port Townsend Recreation
for baked goods in 2010.
Center. There are also locations in
Sequim and on Bainbridge Island.
Pane d’Amore in Uptown is open
Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to
5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 385-1199.
(Second place, Sweet Laurette’s
Café & Bistro; third place,
Courtyard Café.)
,
Pane d Amore
in Port Hadlock offers that kind
of burger. Defibrillators sold separately.
Since 2003, locals have picked
Bloomers Landing as the top spot
to get their burger fix. And with
its famous quarter-pounders and
double-patty specialty burgers, the
Leader’s readers picked Bloomers
Landing again in 2010 as the undisputed burger capital of Jefferson
County.
The menu ranges from the simple cheeseburger to the classic double-bacon cheeseburger, to house
specialties such as the Hawaiian
and the Western.
The Hawaiian offers all the
■ Best Burger
thrills of a juicy Bloomers burger
with layers of Swiss cheese, pineapple and ham. The Western boasts
There are burgers, and then bacon, cheese, an onion ring and
there are burgers – the kind that barbecue sauce. Both behemoths
make carnivores swoon and cardiol- sell for $4.60.
Burger prices start at $3.10
ogists cry – and Bloomers Landing
huevos rancheros ($7.95), omelettes,
scramblers, oatmeal, granola, pancakes and French toast.
The Blue Moose Café is located
in the Boat Haven at 311 Haines
Place, No. B. The cafe is open
Monday through Friday from 6:30
a.m. to 2 p.m., with breakfast service until 11 a.m. On Saturday and
Sunday, the cafe is open from 7:30
a.m until 2 p.m. and breakfast is
served all day. For more information, call the Blue Moose Café at
385-7339.
(Very close second place, Salal
Café; third place, Spruce Goose
Café.)
Bloomers Landing
See best foods, Page 2▼
■ Best Breakfast
Blue Moose CafE
Port Ludlow
Located on Haines Place in the
Port Townsend Boat Haven, Blue
Moose Café offers solid breakfast
fare at reasonable prices.
Waitress Tiffany Whiteford said
the famous Scooter’s breakfast
($4.25) is always a crowd pleaser.
“That’s black beans and cheese
and scrambled eggs on the inside
of a tortilla with sour cream and
salsa,” Whiteford said. “And you
can add chorizo and bacon to it, and
avocado also.”
Also popular, Whiteford said,
is the Blue Moose’s basic breakfast with sausage and sweet home
potatoes ($7.50). The sweet home
potatoes are a mix of red potatoes
and yams.
The menu also includes classics,
The Ajax Cafe’s grilled T-bone looks juicy, dressed with sautéed green beans and stuffed such as corned beef hash with two
butternut squash. The Ajax Cafe won – again – for Jefferson County’s best steak in 2010. eggs and toast ($8.50); Grandma The bento at Ichikawa Japanese Cuisine showcases executive chef Peter Nakamura’s
Photo by Rina Jordan Byrd’s biscuits and gravy ($6.25), talents. Leader readers voted Ichikawa the best Asian restaurant in 2010.
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