Taste Washington and the 60-course dinner

Where else can you go in Seattle to taste food from 60 restaurants along with 800 wines from 225 wineries?

I think of Taste Washington as a 60-course tasting menu walkabout. It also lets you sample different restaurants side by side – answering questions like whose steak or salmon you like best or who makes the best desserts. I’ve been going for years and I thought Sunday’s Grand Tasting food was better than ever than it’s ever been. The flavor bar seems to have been raised, which isn’t easy when you’re serving over 3,500 people.

What was there to eat this year? I tried everything and here are a few of the best bites:

·        The Georgian restaurant at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel served warm poppers filled with Dungeness crab and mac ‘n cheese

·        From the Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips, one of Apolo Ohno’s fave vacation spots, came a silky clam chowder that was full of cream and slightly smoky

·        SkyCity at the Needle got scads of fans with its wild stinging nettle soup

·         Alaskan weathervane scallop shumai Chinese dumplings from Ray’s Boathouse were rich and fresh tasting

·        Goat cheese panna cotta with ratatouille marmalade from Artisanal Brasserie & Winebar was a standout

·        Anita’s Crepes popped out crepes all day – it was so nice to get them warm, just out of the pan

·        Steak tartare from El Gaucho tasted bright, and was spiced to ease up the kapow of the rich beef

·        Slightly crispy, sweet Chinese almond cookies were handed out by The Triple Door

·        The BlackFish Wild Salmon Grill from Tulalip Resort Casino served their excellent house-smoked sockeye salmon, which had a sweet, gentle smokiness and firm, chunky texture

·        9,000 kumamoto, Totten Inlet and Pacific oysters on the half shell from Elliott’s Oyster Bar were shucked on the spot, then handed to you

·        Salty’s had pork belly sliders in a tender, golden bun

·        Visconti’s Italian Market in Leavenworth, offered a plate with a small sammie and extra slices of their Cured brand salami

·        Uli’s Famous Sausage passed out chunks of zippy chorizo

·        Theo Chocolate had bites of its candy bars – I tried the Bread & Chocolate and the Fig, Fennel & Almond for a quick dessert

·        Rich chocolate truffles from Oh! Chocolate were fun to try alongside the Theo offerings, a real classic chocolate/un-classic chocolate comparison.

·        Tomato soup cupcakes from The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. were fun, with a smidgeon of soup taste in the cake and a big topknot of buttercream frosting, which I washed down with another cupcake, a Simply Vanilla

As for those 800 wines, I left those to Seattle magazine’s Shannon Borg and Lorna Yee. After my 60-course dinner I was about 50 courses past being hungry.