Ten minutes into my first dinner at Mezcaleria, the Queen Anne sister restaurant to Ballard’s excellent La Carta de Oaxaca, I could no longer feel my tongue. That’s a plus in my book; spice is nice. If heat is your thing, too, Mezcaleria should be on your short list of restaurants to try. Start with…

When summer tomatoes are at their fragrant best, their acidic edge balanced by ripe sweetness—for what seems like a hot minute between July and September—it’s best to treat them as you would your other ripest fruits, your peaches and plums: Barely gild the lily. The Walrus and the Carpenter’s tomatoes with vanilla and olive oilis this philosophy come…

Arts and culture editor Brangien Davis recommends Maria Semple’s new book (along with two others from local authors) in the June issue of Seattle mag. This funny trailer, featuring local book nerds (and Tom Skerritt), is just another good reason to put Where’d You Go, Bernadette? on your summer reading list.  

Jacques Pepin shook my hand and called me cherie. Talk about the ultimate Rocky Mountain High! I’m at the 30th annual Aspen Food & Wine Classic, where it’s perfectly possible to bump into the A-list culinary talent. The people who put the celebrity into celebrity chef. So far, I’ve seen Mario Batali hugging it out…

MUST SEEYour Sister’s SisterThe latest release from local filmmaker Lynn Shelton stars Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt as sisters, and Mark Duplass (from Humpday) as Blunt’s best friend. The movie is romantic and a comedy, sure, but it has nothing in common with the rom-coms Hollywood churns out. Like all Shelton’s work, the film is…

On Thursday, June 14, beloved Grand Central Bakery is offering 25 cent cinnamon rolls as part of its 40th anniversary celebration. 25 cents is the original price from 1972, when the bakery first opened. Nothing can quite top that Tom Douglas/mullet picture (above) shared on the bakery’s Facebook page, but here’s a charming portrait of…

Like climbing Mount Rainier, fishing for steelhead or performing a microbrew pub crawl across Seattle, digging for the wily geoduck is an exercise in regional identity. Although a few of the big clams live as far south as Baja California, Puget Sound is a stronghold of abundance, and it is here where the art of…

Although he grows a mean Chinese eggplant—a rare variety not found elsewhere in the Seattle area—Westover Farm’s Darrell Westover admits he’s not the biggest eggplant fan. “I learned that it’s not what you like, but what the customer wants,” Westover says. “I’ve had enough customers tell me how good it is. I’m not bashful about…

Looking forward to this: