Last year's Asian Pear and cheese curds; this year's curds and lineup of six whites.
Twas a year ago this month: a terrific lunch at Kevin Davis's Steelhead Diner that started with flash-fried cheese curds from Market neighbor Beecher's and a glass of Asian Pear from Windfall Winery. A match made in heaven, but not a universal dish. The curds have to be dead fresh or they lose their appealing squeak; a nearby cheesemaker is essential. Beecher's sells its curds by weight ($11.50 a pound), chef Davis plates them up as an appetizer for $8.95.
Now, on deadline for a wine-and-cheese article, it's time to reconfirm those initial impressions. Down to Steelhead we go, only to find that wine steward Aaron Angelo has moved on. Sigh. That's the restaurant biz. But, gulp! The Asian Pear has dropped off the list! What to do?
Two-part solution. Thank goodness, the staff lets me arrange an impromptu tasting of six wines being poured by the glass, all the usual suspects (chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, viognier, riesling), as well as Abacela winery's remarkable albariño. The riesling, named Kung Fu Girl (from iconoclastic winemaker Charles Smith in Mattawa, Wash.), is the perfect foil for an appetizer plate of Westcott Bay flat oysters...especially when they're topped with a dab of champagne mignonette. The Boomtown chardonnay (a second label of Dusted Valley Vintners) is a textbook example of what local chardonnays should be: an unoaked welterweight of wines. It's clean, crisp, powerful without being too hefty. And the albariño is stunning with a Portuguese dish of clams, tomatoes and spicy pork.
Meantime, dining room manager Jessica Skye Bolt ducks out to buy a bottle of the Asian Pear at Pike & Western down the block. Ah! There's a reason for cheese and apples, cheese and pears. The crunchy, salty cheese curds, whether dipped in tartar or mustard sauce, cry out for a shot of tart, juicy fruit. Yes, I say, yes!
Stumble back to Belltown, resolve to complain less bitterly about wretched working conditions of freelance writers.
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