5 Things You Need to Eat and Drink in November

Is it May yet? Yeah, yeah, enough about the weather. It’s November, which means you have a carte blanche to indulge in all the things. A few ideas:

Get some tacos with your beer and mini golf.
Manu Alfau—the chef/owner behind Manu’s Bodega in Pioneer Square, and recently opened walk-up window Manu’s Bodegita—can do no wrong when it comes to tacos. His budding empire of Latin American eats is growing again, this time with a taco counter inside Flatstick Pub. These won’t be just any taco—Alfau is focusing on guisado-style tacos, with an opening menu that includes carnitas, chicken tinga, black bean and queso, and more. Manu’s Tacos opens officially today, with $2 tacos, half-price games, and discounted beers all day.

Knock back the ‘nog.
Every year, Sun Liquor makes what many consider the best boozy eggnog in the city, but sadly, you can only score a glass by visiting the Capitol Hill distillery on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Thankfully, Snoqualmie Ice Cream has taken all the nuanced deliciousness from this most excellent beverage (minus the alcohol) and turned it into frozen custard you can find by the pint at QFC, PCC, Safeway, etc. Their other holiday flavors—pumpkin custard, peppermint gelato, etc.—are great, too, but the eggnog is a requirement on your next grocery store run.

Order your Thanksgiving porchetta.
Last year, I ordered Mike Easton’s porchetta for Thanksgiving, and it was the best $90 I spent out of that whole meal prep. The six-pound beauties—tender pork loin wrapped in pork belly, complete with skin that crackles and blisters when you roast it—are available again this year, by special order only until Nov. 18, to pick up at Il Corvo’s pasta studio the week of Thanksgiving. Your guests won’t even notice if you forego the turkey.

Discover a hidden gem.
Have you ever had sabich, an Israeli vegetarian sandwich of fried eggplant and hardboiled eggs? I hadn’t, until last week a friend and I discovered Eggs & Plants, a tucked away café selling a small menu of Mediterranean dishes like shakshuka, falafel, and the aforementioned sabich. The sandwich itself is great—the pita clearly made in-house—but the entertainment is just as enjoyable: the shop is located next to the Seattle Glassblowing Studio downtown and the dine-in tables at the back of the café have a floor-to-ceiling window right into the studio. Lunch and an art show for less than $10.

Buy better bread.
Chophouse Row has some big changes coming—namely the recent announcement that Le Gourmand’s incredibly talented Bruce and Sara Naftaly will take over the vacant Chop Shop space when they open Marmite in December. But the cluster of Capitol Hill retailers will this month launch a weekly farmers market, held Wednesdays starting Nov. 2 from 4 to 8 p.m. in the courtyard. Matt Dillon is organizing and curating, so you can bet the assortment of local produce will be as good as it gets. Exciting, too, is the fact that it’ll be the only place outside of the London Plane where you’ll be able to pick up Michael Sanders’ crusty, perfect loaves of sourdough.