Since I don’t eat pork myself, and don’t cook it at home, my meat-lovin’ better half often orders it when we dine out.

And even though I won’t order it, I will taste it, and these two recent dishes are real finds. . .worthy of winning a joint Dish-of-the-Day award.

Here is Seared Pork Tenderloin with Smoked Yam, Clams, and Pickled Pepper from Tilikum Place Café. It’s very European in style, reminiscent of Portuguese Pork and Clams.

The spices (a dash of chipotle?) were amazing with the sweet, yet smoky, sweet potatoes.

And here is a Large Plate from Olivar’s menu–Duo de Cerdo–Grilled Pork Loin, Braised Pork-Shoulder Lasagne, and Spring Vegetables.

Although both parts of this duet were tasty, Spencer is STILL raving about the lasagne, in particular.

Cheers to Olivar and Tilikum Place Café for creating such original Dishes of the Day!

It’s a rite of passage in the Northwest. . .and a sign of spring and summer soon to come. . . when the Pike Place Market’s famous Pink Door Restaurant offers up its Everything Green Salad.

It’s a tasty combo of fava beans, English peas, asparagus, pistachios, and bibb lettuce served with creamy tarragon dressing.

I order a side of Dungeness Crab meat and–whoosh–this becomes a main-dish salad.

Just for good measure, here’s a shot of PD’s Antipasti Platter, one of the most colorful and beautiful about town.

The platter includes prosciutto, tuscan bean salad, mozzarella, tapanada, grilled seasonal vegetables, salami, and more.

But since I don’t do the charcuterie thing, I order mine with extra veggies and cheese. Delish!

Either of these treats more than deserve being crowned with today’s Dish of the Day.

Nothing beats a cup of Red (Manhattan-Style) Clam Chowder. And one of the richest and most satisfying versions I’ve yet found about town is served up at Elliott’s Oyster House, perfectly perched along the Seattle Waterfront.

The picture-perfect Spinach Salad with Alder-Smoked Salmon that includes crumbled house-smoked salmon,toasted slivered almonds, Jack cheese, chopped egg, button mushrooms, and tomato in a caper vinaigrette.

Whenever I eat this combo, I feel satiated, yet somehow virtuous (spinach, veggies, salmon, and lots of lycophene–good for the heart!–from the soup’s hearty tomato-based broth).

Which more than qualifies Elliott’s Soup and Salad as our Dish of the Day.

On a gorgeous spring Saturday, when we struck out from home hungry and in search of the perfect lunch/brunch, we stopped in at Steelhead Diner for some sustenance before a bunch of errands and chores.

Now I’ve always been a BIG fan of Alex’s Vegetable Chili, served with pico de gallo, melted pepperjack cheese, and cilantro sour cream.

But casting out for something a bit more meaty, this day I opted instead for a cup of the Diner’s Chicken & Sausage Gumbo, a hearty concoction redolent with chipotle and assorted other peppers and teaming with chicken chunks and coins of Hempler’s Smoked Andouille Sausage.

Now I don’t even eat pork, but it was not much of an inconvenience to pick out the piggy parts and enjoy the rest.

An accompanying Golden Beet Salad with Watercress, Toasted Walnuts, Oregonzola & Toasted Black Mustard Seed Vinaigrette completed my meal on a healthy note. The vinaigrette was a joyous surprise of flavors–I never would have guessed its main ingredient if I hadn’t looked back at the menu.

Great work, Chef Anthony (Polizzi)! You’ve just won our Dish(es) of the Day award!

Remember the holidays? They seem like such a long time ago. We’ve even seen Valentine’s Day come and go. Times flies when you’re having fun, etc.

But one meal we enjoyed in December still sticks in my mind. We enjoyed it right after we returned from our Carmel and San Francisco getaway/food-and-wine fest/decadent dalliance.

Since we overindulged so much during those glorious nine days, the moment we returned to Seattle I knew it was time to get back to my usual, more sensible diet.

As often happens when we return from and an eat-and-drink fest, I craved The Pike Pub’s Spinach Salad with an Oven-Roasted Wild Salmon Fillet. It’s a healthy combination of the freshest baby spinach leaves, a perfectly cooked piece of wild salmon (medium-rare in the middle), slivered almonds, a sprinkling of real Parmigiano-Reggiano, and hard-boiled eggs.

It’s usually tossed with low-cal Honey-Mustard Dressing. Good girl that I was and am, I always ask for my dressing on the side so I can drizzle, dip, and dab to my heart’s content.

It’s served with a freshly baked Spent-Grain Roll, which, by meal’s end, helped me scrape up every last piece of spinach and salmon from my plate.

My better half ordered his favorite, the Pub’s perfectly battered and air-fried Halibut and Chips. As good as I was trying to be diet-wise that day, I really love it when he orders this dish cuz I can steal a good, browned corner of one of the fish fillets and a few fries, and thereby get my crunch and potato fix for the week.

During our meal, we enjoyed catching up with the Pike Pub’s effusive founders and owners–Rose Ann and Charles Finkel–one of the most fun couples we know.

We realized that, as much as we love California, it felt great to be home. . .

Which more than qualifies The Pike Pub’s Spinach Salmon Salad and Halibut and Chips as our Dishes of the Day.

We loved our first visit to the new iteration of a long-standing Seattle restaurant, Vito’s, which is located on Pill Hill near the Sorrento Hotel and St. James Cathedral.

The first night we ate there, it was my vegetarian night, something I’ve observed one night a week for many year now, so I enjoyed the Vegetarian Lasagne.

This time my diet was more free, so I ordered the dish that caught my eye the first time–Ahi Tuna Puttanesca. This glorious dish of slices of rosebud-pink tuna with a spicy, caponata-like puttanesca partnered perfectly with lightly olive-oil-bathed angel hair pasta. I’m getting hungry just describing and thinking about it.

It paired nicely with a wine we liked so much on our first visit, we ordered again (something we rarely do)–Tommasi Ripasso, which is reminiscent of a lighter-style Amarone.

More fun finds when I went to the Ladies Room and discovered a miniature statue of Michelangelo’s “David!”

But the best surprise that evening came thanks to our server, Ron, who suggested we visit the Cougar Room (just past the restrooms). We discovered a full-size, stuffed cat behind glass and 13 red-leather armchairs around a rectangular table. Talk about the perfect place for a small dinner party or business meeting!

After the perfect voyage from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia, during which we were surrounded by two super pods of Orca whales who danced around our boat for several magical minutes, we had worked up quite an appetite.

So, after checking into our hotel, The Magnolia Hotel & Spa, we made a beeline for Pescatores Seafood & Grill, located in the Inner Harbour right across from the venerable Fairmont Empress hotel.

We’d eaten there on our last trip to Victoria and had fond memories of the place with its 20-foot ceilings, dark wood paneling, attractive bar, and five-blade, eight-foot-in-diameter chain-and-pulley ceiling fans turning lazily.

This visit, all three dishes we tried were good, from Pescatores Manhattan Clam Chowder (full of toothsome chunks of clam) to Pescatores Famous Seafood Salad (the salad and seafood–marinated scallops, mussels, clams, prawns, shrimp, and Dungeness crab–corralled by a long strip of cucumber so it looked like a frilly hat) to the Fish + Chips.

But it was the Fish + Chips that really shone, the freshest of fresh halibut cooked in the lightest of light tempura-style batter made with one of the three beers on draft–Sea Dog Amber Ale. The thin-sliced French fries were fluffy and not at all greasy; the tartar sauce delicious and whimsically served in a huge Pacific oyster shell, which we’d not seen done anywhere else before.

A couple of glasses of Mission Hill Family Estate 2008 Chardonnay from the Okanagan Valley, and we were well-stoked for some afternoon sightseeing and shopping in the cool autumn air.

Doesn’t this dish just make you proud of the Pacific Northwest?

It’s the Whole Roasted Dungeness Crab with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and Grilled Asparagus from Shuckers seafood restaurant. Worth every penny of its $37 price tag, it also merits a Dish of the Day award

On a recent Saturday, as it was gettin’ toward noon, I was hankerin’ for some water views and a good seafood salad, so we hauled it over to Chinook’s at Fisherman’s Terminal for a Dungeness Crab and Bay Shrimp Salad, a special of the day. It more than fit the bill. . .plenty of succulent shrimp and salty-sweet crab with a good, garlic-y Caesar dressing.

Which more than qualifies Chinook’s seafood salad as our Dish of the Day.

We’ve been very remiss in writing about our friend Naomi Kakiuchi’s dyn-o-mite cooking classes that she offers through her company, NuCulinary.

Here’s a shot of the hands-on sushi-making class I attended and loved. Naomi is at the end of the table in the neon-green chef’s coat, with yours truly in the right foreground.

Class that evening was taught by “sushi whore” himself, Chef Hajime Sato, who owns and operates Mashiko in West Seattle and offers an instructional sushi-making-at-home DVD.

Naomi’s extraordinary spring roll recipe and wine-pairing suggestions will make for some simple summer supping and sipping.

Fresh Spring Shrimp Spring Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

Wine Varietals: Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris

Makes 8

These simple Thai spring rolls need no cooking, just a few newly sprouted herbs and vegetables, rice wrappers, and small cooked prawns from your fish counter. Make the dipping sauce and you have a roll-your-own appetizer in just 30 minutes. Serve with a crisp Sauvingon Blanc or Pinot Gris as their slight sweetness pairs nicely with the vinegar and chili in the dipping sauce.

16 small cooked prawns
2 ounces dried mung bean vermicelli
2 cups hot water
8 dried rice paper wrappers
16 fresh Thai basil leaves
1 cup fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)
1 medium carrot, cut short julienne
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

Dipping Sauce

1/3 cup cold water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 small red chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander

1. Soak vermicelli in hot water 10 minutes and drain.

2. To make the rolls: Dip rice paper wrapper into lukewarm water until softened and place on work surface. Put in 2 shrimp, 2 basil leaves, coriander, carrot strips, lime rind and vermicelli. Spoon on chili sauce.

3. Fold in two sides and roll up. Place on serving dish, sprinkle with cold water to keep moist, and cover with plastic wrap.

4. To make the Dipping Sauce: Place cold water in small bowl; add sugar, stir until dissolved. Stir in fish sauce, vinegar, chili and coriander leaves.