Choice Morsel

After years of sampling shaved ice treats from all across Asia, I still find ABC Ice Kachang to be thoroughly exotic. 

This Malaysian concoction includes some of the usual suspects I've discussed these passed few weeks, shaved ice and red beans, but features something you won't find in other shaved ice desserts, palm sugar syrup. Palm sugar's distinctive flavor recalls maple syrup, but tastes really nothing like it, though both are technically sap from their respective trees.

At Malay Satay Hut in Seattle's International District ABC Ice Kachang (ABC is an acronym for air batu campur which means mixed ice) is served up in an enormous bowl that's been filled with shaved ice and then topped with red kidney beans, corn kernals, palm seeds and peanuts. Their ABC is finished off with th coconut palm syrup as well as evaporated milk.

What a concoction! Achingly sweet and incredibly refreshing, ABC Ice Kachang is more than treat, it's a trip to the exotic in every spoonful.

Beat the heat with shaved ice treats from all over Asia--but found in and around the Puget Sound. Have you already tried Filipino halo-halo and Korean bingsu? Don't miss a single one of these sweet sensations. Stay tuned for our final installment.

Filipino halo halo at Inay's Asian Pacific Cuisine on Beacon Hill

For generations across Asia, young and old have found refuge from the summer heat in the form of elaborate shaved-ice concoctions. In China, Malaysia, Korea and the Philippines, icy treats — sweet, wet and bracingly cold — quite literally refresh the body (and the spirit too!).

These summer coolers are not terribly well-known here in the U.S., and that’s an oversight it is time to correct. You can find shaved ice specialties from all of these countries right here in Seattle:

Direct from the Philippines, by way of Inay’s Asian Pacific Cuisine on Beacon Hill (2503 Beacon Ave. S.), comes halo-halo, the country’s icy sweet that includes so much more than shaved ice: taro ice cream, flan, jello, sweetened red and white beans, bananas, jackfruit, coconut meat and condensed milk.

Halo-halo means “mix-mix” in Tagalog, which is exactly what you’re supposed to do with this perfectly coifed bowl of ice. Yes, stir it all together until it becomes a slushy mess and dig in with a friend. A single bowl is enormous and easily serves two if not three people, especially if you’ve indulged in some of Inay’s pancit and chicken adobo.

Do you have a favorite haunt for shaved ice? Let me know, and I’ll share some more of my favorites with you!

Follow Choice Morsel biweekly on CAB and daily on Twitter @choicemorsel.

Two local restaurants perfecting rhubarb mocktails

It was way back in 2005 when Sharelle Klaus launched DRY sodas (above), her line of sophisticated, all-natural soft drinks that she developed, designed, and even bottled in Seattle. (Today DRY Soda is bottled in California.) Among her four original flavors was rhubarb, inspired, Klaus says, by her grandmother’s rhubarb pies. You could say that Klaus was ahead of the curve, because rhubarb drinks, alcoholic and not, are popping up on cocktail menus all over town these days.

If you haven’t given them a try, it’s time.

Read more after the jump.

I have long been a fan of Olympus Spa, a women-only Korean spa with branches in Lynnwood and Tacoma, where I have indulged in rigorous body scrubs and soothing moisturizing treatments, not to mention long soaks in its many hot pools.

Spa visits are routine in Korean culture, for both men and women, and a great way to cleanse, socialize and snack. The snacking, no surprise, is my favorite part, which is why I was thrilled to learn that another Korean spa just opened in Lynwood, called Bella Luna Spa and Sauna.

Formerly a coed spa, Bella Luna is under new management and now for women only. It is sprawling, airy and newly renovated, with multiple pools and sauna rooms that offer healing for both mind and body, including the Jade Room (designed to aid blood circulation), the Charcoal Room (absorbs toxins) and the Snow Room (promotes deep muscle relaxation).

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to try out the restaurant, whose owner, Young M. Chung, is an accomplished home cook and new to professional cooking. Thanks to her I was eating authentic Korean spa fare, nothing like what you’ll find in a restaurant.

Brown eggs! [Learn why after the jump.]

Exploring the indulgent world of "spa food"

Spa cuisine, the high-style, low-cal cooking that was hugely popular throughout the U.S. in the 1980s was actually created in France by the renowned chef, Michel Guerard, as a marketing tool to lure Parisians to his wife’s family’s struggling spa. It worked, and cuisine minceur, as it is called in French, helped to turn the floundering spa and the tiny town where it was located, Eugénie-les-Bains, into a destination.

Fortunately, here in Seattle, we have several spas that take their cuisine as seriously as their saunas. Today we travel to Russia, by way of Banya 5 and the Venik Lounge. Because you have to love a spa that values food so highly that it builds a sister restaurant right next door.

Banya 5 is a Russian-style spa in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood that offers wet and dry heat experiences (a sauna, steam room, cold plunge pool, salt water pool and hot pool). These vary by some 200 degrees and treat your body to a sensory experience more akin to a wild roller coaster ride than a relaxing Sunday drive.

After a few hours, or a whole day of schvitzing (admission includes unlimited use of the spa facilities with no time limit), you’ll need to rehydrate, and that means heading next door to the Venik Lounge for some vodka infusions. Regulars call it the “detox, retox.”

The Venik is a 25-seat bar and lounge (21 and up only) which offers a European-style menu with Russian highlights. When I stopped by earlier in the week there was no pierogi platter or borsht soup on the menu, which changes seasonally and includes several daily specials, so I contented myself with the Venik’s delicious signature meatballs served in a creamy porcini sauce and the mixed green salad with a favorite Russian ingredient, pickled beets, sourced locally from Full Circle Farm.

It’s Chef Niki Erickson’s house-infused vodkas that will really blow you away, like the Health Vodka, infused with organic garlic and Anaheim peppers and served the traditional Russian way — with a pickle. If “health” is not what you’re looking for, consider the other infusions: beet, wasabi, horseradish, cinnamon, chocolate and orange. The beet tastes just like fresh beets. So does the horseradish, and boy, does it have a kick. Experiment with a flight of three.

If vodka just isn’t your thing, get in the spirit with one of Russia’s most popular beers, Baltika, and drink it the way the Russians do: with a side of hard, dried fish — their version of beef jerky. It’s an experience you’re unlikely to forget, just like that dip in the plunge pool!

“Detox, retox” or staying hydrated, the Banya 5 way

Custom blended teas such as “Purify,” with burdock root, dandelion root, licorice root, lemongrass, anise seed, ginger and orange peel, from Seattle’s Laurel Teas, are complimentary in the Banya 5 lounge. Drink cupfuls the way the Russians do with plenty of black currant jam, used as a sweetener instead of sugar or honey.

Down a large glass or two of the marvelously refreshing cucumber water (served in lieu of tap water) as soon as you’re seated at the Venik Lounge.

If you like spas, you may be glad to know that this week is Spa Week. Visit spaweek.com to learn about local deals and discounts, available through April 18.

Crispy, fried doughnuts on a stick. Yes, please.

I might never have considered karioka to be doughnuts had I not first discovered them in a small doughnut case at Uwajimaya several years ago. That case is long gone, but I finally found them again at Delite Bakery, a Filipino bakery on Beacon Hill that carries such an array of unusual treats it’s taking me multiple visits to eat my way through. Part of that reason, no doubt, is that whenever I visit I always come home with some karioka.

Karioka are golf ball-sized doughnuts made from glutinous rice flour and coconut. They are deep-fried, covered in a sugary glaze and strung onto a skewer in groups of four. At once, crunchy, chewy and sticky, of all the doughnuts I’ve ever eaten, karioka are easily the most fun.

Karioka are the final installment in our eight-part series on Seattle’s international doughnut scene. If you’re just joining us, why not sample some of the other doughnuts we’ve discovered:

• French beignets
• Polish paczki
• Portuguese malasadas
• Chinese saa jung
• Greek loukoumades
• Italian zeppole
• Spanish churros

Did we miss your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.  And stay tuned for the next series of delectable discoveries from Choice Morsel on the CAB.

Photograph by Van Schilperoort

Italian doughnuts (top): Cantinetta’s bombolini with citrus confit; Tavolata’s zeppole with chocolate sauce,;
(bottom) bomboloni from La Spiga; and Cicchetti’s ricotta zeppole filled with huckleberry sauce.

Move over gelato, zeppole and bomboloni are crashing your party!

written by Tracy Schneider

When I was a student in Bologna, I’d walk to the post office almost every Saturday afternoon and use the international phones there to call my family in the U.S. On the way home, I’d go right past the gelato shop and make a beeline for BomboCrep, a local hangout that specialized in crepes and bomboloni. The Italian version of a filled doughnut, bomboloni are made from rolled yeast dough, deep-fried and then filled with delectable chocolate or vanilla cream.

There’s no BomboCrep in Seattle, but you can still enjoy bomboloni, now that Cantinetta has added them to their dessert menu for the month of March. Cantinetta serves miniature bomboloni, called bombolini, made to order and stuffed with a mascarpone pastry cream. Warm and oozing on the inside with that decadent rich cream, these bombolini are also perfectly crisped on the outside and make a satisfying crunch when you take that first bite.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of reading this in April, and Cantinetta has changed its menu, you’re not quite out of luck. Over the summer, La Spiga celebrates Ferragosto, an Italian holiday that takes place on August 15 with trays of bomboloni (above). And if you can’t wait until August, you can call the restaurant forty-eight hours in advance, whatever the month, and pastry chef Betsy Balog will make them just for you.

While bomboloni are typical in northern Italy, zeppole are the doughnuts of choice in the South. Typically considered street food and traditionally eaten on March 19 for La Festa di San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph's Day), in Seattle you can eat zeppole — a ricotta version stuffed with huckleberry sauce at Cicchetti and an unfilled version served with chocolate sauce at Tavolata — everyday, but why not make reservations for March 19 anyway and celebrate like an Italian?   

Our doughnuts of the world series continues next week, as we scour Seattle for Spanish churros.

For more doughnuts from around the globe, try French beignets, Polish paczki, Portuguese malasadas, Chinese saa jung and Greek loukoumades.

Photography by Tracy Schneider and Van Schilperoort

The beginning of the 15-day Chinese New Year festival was on Valentine's Day. Continue the celebration with a Chinese doughnut...or four...

I didn't know Chinese cuisine included bread until I traveled through China in 1984 and discovered bao. In fact, doughy fried treats are not unknown to China, and even better, you can sample many of them here in Seattle.

A medley of Chinese doughnuts
(top) youtiao at Canton Wonton House; Wild Ginger Bellevue's deep-fried steamed buns;
(bottom) jin deui at Jade Garden; and saa jung from Mon Hei Bakery.

(More after the jump.)

Discover the power of the paczki — available only two weeks out of the year.

text and photography by Tracy Schneider

 
William Leaman, owner of West Seattle’s Bakery Nouveau, bakes paczki.    

If you popped into Metropolitan Market yesterday morning, you may have noticed a new selection of perfectly round, glazed and filled doughnuts, neatly arranged in the bakery case. If you passed them up only to return later to pick up a few, as I did, you’d have been disappointed. They had sold out hours earlier.

Such is the power of paczki.

Paczki (pronounced “pooch-key”) are Polish glazed and filled doughnuts that date back to the Middle Ages. Traditionally, they created a way for households to use up the sugar and fat in their cupboards before Lent, explains William Leaman, head baker and owner of West Seattle’s Bakery Nouveau. They also offered a way for bakeries to use up their candied fruits left over from Christmas baking. Chef Leaman’s recipe was passed down to him from a chef who made paczki from a family recipe that dated back to the 1930s.

Paczki dough is much richer than a typical doughnut, and Bakery Nouveau’s version contains more egg yolks, more sugar, plus lots of candied orange peel. Each paczki is filled with the Bakery’s own luscious crémeux custard, be it chocolate or lemon, strawberry or raspberry, and then thickly glazed or covered in powdered sugar.

While paczki are well known in the Midwest, where people buy dozens at a time to share, they only arrived in Seattle last year. Find them now at Bakery Nouveau and Metropolitan Market, but don’t tarry. They sell out in a flash, and they’re here for a limited time only.

Tracy Schneider, a “foodie” long before the term was coined, scours farmers markets, specialty food shops and out-of-the-way eateries for the choice morsel. She has eaten her way across Europe and Asia and now forages in and around the Pacific Northwest. Follow her weekly on the CAB and daily on Twitter.