Salumi-Seattle

I'm sorry I have ignored my precious blog for far too long. I'm back in New York and completed my first week of work last week and I'm dead tired. While many people enjoyed Easter weekend with their family, I slept 13 hours Friday and Saturday night. It was much needed. Then I treated myself to one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten at the famous Katz Delicatessen, but that will be a later post.

This post is dedicated to my hometown: Seattle. I lived there for pretty much my whole life and while people only asked questions like "does it really rain all the time" and "is there really a Seattle Grace hospital (from the show Grey's Anatomy), I couldn't ask for a better place to grow up. Seattle is beautiful with the combination of water, mountains and all the green you see for miles. Before I left for New York, I request that my dad and I venture to Salumi Artisan Cured Meats in Seattle.

I first learned about Salumi when I was reading Anthony Bourdain's 13 Places to Eat Before You Die. I was excited to see a place in Seattle and wanted to go instantly. I mean who wouldn't trust Anthony Bourdain!? I soon discovered Salumi is opened by Mario Batali's parents, Marilyn and Armandino Batali and is still run by the Batali family. I really couldn't decide what to get, but after reading some reviews online I decided to get the Porchetta sandwich. Especially for a meat lover like me, it is difficult to pick something from one of the best meat sandwich shops out there! My dad ordered the meatball sandwich that came highly recommended as well.

There was a line when we got there, of course. Again, this is something I read about so we anticipated to wait out in the cold. But it was well worth it. It's quite small inside, but they have family style tables with water, utensils and quick clean up ready for the crowd. Porchetta is defined as "the savory, fatty and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition." It is also combined with other herbs and garlic, rosemary, etc. This sandwich, seriously, was one of the best I've ever had. I could only eat half since it was so big, but I was dreaming about the rest of the sandwich only a few hours after.

Pictures don't do it justice. You need to come and physically take a bite of this sandwich and taste the meat and the combination of herbs. Not only that, but the juices from it all soak into the bread and it makes it 10x more flavorful. My mouth is watering as we speak! Tasting the juices in the bread, combined with the meat and peppers is pure heaven. Since the sandwiches were split in the middle, my dad and I exchanged the other half. My dad is lucky I love him since I could have gobbled up that sandwich, but I wanted to try the meatball too. Though I would pick the porchetta over the meatball, I enjoyed the meatball itself and actually being able to taste the meat and the combination of the herbs inside. Plus, the slices of fresh provolone cheese made it that much better. It was a great leftover snack after a visit to the toaster oven.

Wow sorry for the long post, but that's what you get when I eat somewhere great! Now time for me to pretend I'm eating a porchetta sandwich through pictures :).


Salumi with the usual line.


I love their signature pig with the cuts marked on its body. Kind of disturbing thinking about it, but meat lovers don't think that way! Salumi also has pastas and other foods besides sandwiches.


The famous cured meats.


The assembly line. I love the stack of breads, the meat slicer and when they make your sandwich right in front of you.


The one and only porchetta. Sorry, I guess the lighting wasn't good as I thought, not that I cared after my first bite.


I wish I had gotten a better picture of the meat, but I couldn't put the sandwich down! Plus, the juices were running down my hands :).


My dad's meatball sandwich. The peppers and onions were delicious as well.




And of course being a cured meat shop, you can buy their meats. I found a love for coppa during my Wine Appreciation class and of course, salami!


Coppa.


Great on a simple cracker.

So all you Seattlities- if you love meat, I highly recommend Salumi!

A New York Slice.

Pizza, pizza, pizza. It comes to no surprise that pizza has been a big part of most people's life. From when we were kids having pizza at birthday or sports parties, college students chowing down [drunk or sober] or ordering one during a lazy family night. My ideal pizza is a thin crust simple margherita pizza. The more simple and fresh ingredients, the better. Plus, I love the crisp of the thin crust because I hate feeling bloated after eating a regular slice with so much dough.

I knew I would enjoy a New York style pizza. It is described as wide, thin and foldable, and from what I see they aren't overly loaded with toppings. That's what I love.

I was craving pizza one night and decided to check out Bleeker Street Pizza. It's close to my cousin's place (Commerce and Bleeker St.) and it said it was named "Food Network's best NY pizza." While this might be a tourist trap, it got pretty good reviews online with a sprinkling of a few haters, but which restaurant doesn't have those? There was a line when I got there, so that's always a pretty good sign right?

I ordered two slices of Nonna Maria which is just fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce and fresh basil at $3 a slice. I love the crunch of the crust and the simplicity and freshness of the toppings. Maybe there's a better New York slice out there and I'll be on the lookout for other places, but as of right now I'm a big fan of New York style pizza. Yay for thin crust!!!

p.s. tomorrow is the big move to New York and I'm currently updating my blog. I'm a big procrastinator when it comes to big, important things in my life.






My gluttonous self ordered 2 pieces. Me going overboard is not a surprise.


Thin & Simple.

A New Chapter.

A lack of posting on my part, but here are some exciting things that have happened and has distracted me from updating:

1. I GOT A JOB- Starting April 18th, I will be an employee of Macys.com in New York City. A HUGE dream of mine has come true and I can't wait to start working and experiencing everything that comes with the job and living in the city. Plus, I get to live in one of the biggest food capitals of the world. Hopefully this doesn't lead to instant weight gain.

2. Note to self: Don't ever think you are in college again. I recently visited Purdue to see all my friends before they graduated and my body is sore and out of commission. That will be my last visit to my alma mater for a longgggg time, but it was so great to see my best friends again and celebrate.

3. I have 4 pictures that will not upload onto my computer. It is very frustrating, so I will just have to make this post without them.

One of the biggest suggestions from my parents to eat cheap when I got to NYC was to go to Chinatown. The food is not only cheap and good, but you also have leftovers to eat for another meal. After a long day shopping with a friend, I stopped by Chinatown on the pursuit of a scallion pancake. I love scallion pancakes so much, but haven't eaten one in a while so I was excited to get one. I googled "best scallion pancake in NYC Chinatown" and a place called Nice Green Bo Restaurant kept popping up. When I arrived, it was crowded in the small restaurant, so I ordered take-out.

My gluttonous self ordered TWO scallion pancakes and a wonton soup. Altogether I believe this was only $8. I ate one of the pancakes on my walk home (I was so hungry) and it was everything I could ever imagine. It was fried to the right crisp and the pancake was flaky and flavorful. I ate the wonton soup when I got back to the apartment and while I do love my mom's homemade wontons the most, these were pretty good as well. You could taste the meat and vegetables, so you know it isn't some artificial, old filling. I saved what I couldn't finish for later. Chinatown will definitely be frequented by my broke self in the near future. Plus, I never get sick of my favorite cuisine.


Nice Green Bo Restaurant-the windows are filled with articles about their food.


Scallion pancake. Perfectly flaky, greasy and fried, who wouldn't love that :).
(I had more great close ups of the pancake, but those are the pictures that won't load).


Wontons.


Oink. I love the atmosphere of Chinatown-you see/smell/hear the weirdest things, but I'm used to it.

Shake Shack.

As we all know from my In-N-Out post, I'm a sucker for burger and fries even though I try to be "healthy." So of course, I was excited to go to Shake Shack when arriving to NYC. This place was all over the food blogs this summer while I was in Shanghai, pictures of long lines at their different locations. A long line=you know it has to be good. There is even a Shack Cam that is a streaming video of the line, so people know how long it is!

I decided to go to the Madison Square Park location-the first location, which is in the beautiful Madison Square Park (duh?). It's also an outside location and still was bustling on a cold day at 4pm. I decided to go all out and order the Shack burger, cheese fries and a strawberry milkshake. I was never so excited to consume 1,000+ calories. They have these custards full of different custard ice cream and toppings that looked so good, but I decided to spare my arteries.

After a little wait, I got my order in a cute little box. I was excited to see that the fries were crinkle fries, which is one of my favorite types of french fries but I don't see it around much. The burger was great, I especially enjoyed the meat. It was juicy and flavorful. I am in love with the crinkle fries. They were perfectly fried and the cheese sauce was great. Even in the cold, it didn't curdle, obviously because it was made from real cheese. I'm use to fake cheese, so this was definitely a great upgrade. And of course, the strawberry milkshake was good. Very creamy, but not over-the-top that it makes you sick.






A box of heaven/a heart attack.


Shack burger.


Yay crinkle fries with cheese.


I love the detailing on the fries fork.


I will definitely be making more future trips!