Veg Fed: It's My Party & I'll Eat if I Want to

So one of the greatest things about having a food blog is that when people are looking for things to do for, oh, say your birthday, they automatically think of food. Dads make the world's best cinnamon rolls and fettuccine, moms make delicious red velvet cupcakes and boyfriends let you eat your way around Seattle. This post shall be dedicated to the latter. I arrived in Seattle last Saturday afternoon to be told by Derek, man of infinite wisdom and constant inspiration when it comes to eating with reckless abandon, that he had selected several places to take me for my gorge-fest. I'm not sure he realized until after the fact just how much I really am capable of consuming in one afternoon. Sorry, love.

We started out at Highline on Capitol Hill. Highline is situated right on top of Castle and as such can be easy to overlook. If you don't know what Castle is, nevermind; I'm not going to link it. ANYWAY, Highline serves Vegan food, and Derek knows just how much I love going to restaurants where I can order anything on the menu and not have to interrogate staff as to how the food is prepared. I will have to admit, I took a chance and ordered the "fish" and chips knowing full well that I may not like them. And I was right. As such, I didn't think to take any pictures of that particular meal. I did, however, order a Long Island Ice Tea that tasted like key lime pie in a glass. Double woot for strong drinks that taste like dessert!

Our next destination was also on Capitol Hill and quite possibly my new favorite spot on the hill. Joe Bar is a small place that one might call a "hole in the wall" for its size but certainly not for its atmosphere. Or its menu for that matter. Inspired by my Long Island, I told Derek to surprise me with a red wine. He chose a Dolin Vermouth Rouge. And a giant molasses cookie for us to share. Ha. Share. Right. Molasses cookies are quite possibly my favorite kind of cookies and while we ate this one I'm pretty sure I vowed to perfect a ginger-molasses cookie recipe as my next project. The vermouth (teaching moment: for those unaware, like myself, vermouth is a "fortified" wine. Dry vermouth is white, sweet is red. Thus, my drink would be considered a sweet vermouth) actually went quite well with the cookie, I thought. Plus, as a photographer, they made such a lovely visual on the table!

Our last stop before dinner (like we needed a full meal at this point, right?) was at Tidbit, also on Capitol Hill. I had some very tasty Prosecco (look at all these teaching moments! Prosecco is a sparkling wine similar to Champagne. Also like Champagne, which has to be made in the Champagne region of France, Prosecco has to be made in a certain region of Italy in order to earn the name!) and we shared a very tasty warm caprese. And then we drew on the table. Don't worry, it's sanctioned. Or at least implied by the presence of crayons and a paper tablecloth. Overall, it was a little overpriced for two drinks and an appetizer. But I got to use the word tapas!

Finally, dinner was at my very favorite vegetarian restaurant in Seattle. Sutra. Yes, it's so good that it needs its own sentence. It's so good that I can't even bring myself to call that sentence incomplete. Sutra serves up a four-course menu that changes every couple of weeks. The food is fresh, local, vegetarian, seasonal and some of it is also foraged. And they do such beautiful things with it. This is our fourth visit to Sutra and I'll let you in on a little secret. Against my better (read: selfish) judgement. If you can, do your best to sit at the bar facing into the kitchen. You get to talk with the chef and staff and watch them pull the dishes together. A huge shout out to "everything" man, Ian, who grabbed us an extra custard from a couple nights prior so we could sample what the heat level was before they brought it down. Side note: if you've never had spicy chocolate anything in your life seriously, do not deprive yourself any longer! Anyway, I can never say enough about Sutra so I'll move on to what y'all really want to see: the photos! I'll do my best to give you a good idea of what is on the plate - if you check out Sutra's menu you'll see that remembering every detail can be difficult if you're cocky enough to think you don't need to write it down like some bloggers I know... Sorry for the quality of a couple, the lighting wasn't great.