Gorgeous George

This is the first part of the chronicle of the culinary adventures of July 18/19/20 when my parents came to town for a particularly food-filled weekend.

When my parents come to visit the entire experience usually centers around food - what we're going to eat when or what we're going to eat next. When their visit happens to coincide with a weekend that saw a particular embarassment of riches in the way of food-related events it makes for a particularly memorable (and full) couple of days. It so happens that Seattle has one hell of a summer, though for an indeterminate lenght of time ranging from several months (two summers ago) to a very few weeks (last summer.) The unpredictability of the summer seems to incline event and festival planners to all try to cram their respective events and festivals into the few weekends when they can be reasonably sure the weather will cooperate, though history dictates that even with such careful planning the cold and damp can strike any time. This year, the weekend of 19/20 July contained at least these events - Bite of Seattle, the Sequim Lavender Festival, Seattle Bon Odori, The Kirkland Wine Tasting, the Ballard Seafood Fest - and who knows how many others. Add to this list an inevitable trip to Pike Place Market and the desire to enjoy some of the other treasures of Seattle food and the idea of making it through the long weekend and remaining upright seems a bit of a tall order. But when faced with such an epic and delicious challenge what is there to do but accept it and enjoy the gastronomical adventure?

Part 1: Gorgeous George
Gorgeous George runs a delicious mediterranean restaurant on Greenwood Avenue at 77th Street. It is a small place that he's had for about a year, having finally opened his own place after working all over the Seattle area and in many places in Europe and Israel. It is hard to decide if the best thing about the place is food or George, so I think the best way to sum it up is by saying that going there will be good for the stomach and good for the soul. Let's start with the smell. On walking into the restaurant your nose is greeted with a mixture of garlic, hot pita bread, and the tart but savory mix of lemon, mint, oregano and rosemary that hints at the flavours of the meal to come. George himself is warm and affable and gregarious, and very accommodating, but also serious about his business of feeding you well in a comfortable environment. And you will be fed well.

The home-made hummus is smooth and refreshing, and the pita warm and addictive. The falafel is perfect - cruncy on the outside and hot and tender inside and a little bit sweet. In short, everything I've eaten there tastes like it was made by family - made with love. The greek salad - a huge pile of vegetables with that verges on sensory overload with lemon, oregano, and tarragon (I think...) and a generous handful of feta that makes the whole thing look like Mt. Rainier in the winter and seem almost as big. And the lamb kebob is simple and hearty, with rosemary and some other spices that sneak past under the radar but deepen and intensify the flavours of the juicy and velvety chunks of lamb tenderloin (!). And if you have room, by some miracle of the multi-dimensionality of stomachs, the baklava provides a suitably intense and beautiful finale to the tastebud fireworks, crispy and flaky, with crumbling ground pistachios, and a glowing sweetness that seems impossible in something so unassumingly small. And if this preceding paragraph smacks of sensationalism I guess you'll just have to go see for yourself!

[Part 2: Pike Place Market >> ]