We had a memorable dinner on a recent Sunday evening at Luc, the casual bistro sibling to Chef in the Hat Thierry Rautureau’s long-running white-tablecloth restaurant, Rover’s. The two sit in the very same block in Madison Valley, just outside of downtown Seattle.

Here’s the gorgeous plate of Copper River Salmon Gravlax Salad, an appetizer that was so substantial I enjoyed it as my main course.

Next to it sits a very serviceable Bibb Lettuce Salad with Walnuts and a light, tasty vinaigrette.

Spencer’s Whole Trout Amandine was one of the best we’ve had about town–a thick, meaty fillet with tons of butter, almonds, lemon, and parsley. The roasted potatoes were butter-bathed and yummy as well.

A couple of glasses of Rosé (both sparkling and still) for me and a Pinot Noir for Spencer and we could easily understand why Luc has become such a popular destination for both neighborhood folk and visitors like us alike.

Last week we spent a few days on the Oregon Coast in Lincoln City, then two days in Astoria, a charming maritime-based town on the border between Oregon and Washington.

It was a good, if rather hectic, trip.

Last Monday  in our hotel room in Astoria, I woke up with two insect bites on my left forearm. We’d slept with our balcony door propped open, and I figured a hungry mosquito had made a midnight feast of me.

The “mosquito bites” itched like crazy and got very red and raised over the next two days. From the outset Spencer, who’s deathly afraid of spiders, said he thought they were not “mosquito bites,” but spider bites.

By the time we arrived home on Tuesday night, they were looking pretty angry. By noon Wednesday, there was a pink ring radiating out from the two bites and moving up and down my arm.

Spencer insisted I call our doctor. I did better and sent the iPhone photo (above).

Christy, the nurse, called back quickly with a bevy of questions and a concerned/worried tone in her voice.

Our doctor called a few minutes later and slapped me on antibiotics and Benadryl Anti-Itch Cream to fight sepsis!!!

As much as I hate taking medicine, almost instantly, I began to feel better.

Over the next several days, the puffiness and pink circle went away. I was so relieved. Thanks heavens for penicillin!

It’s been a tough couple of months for the left side of my body, between my run in with the tape dispenser in March, and now, a venomous spider in August!

Let’s hope these incidents don’t come in series of threes.

We finally had a chance to try Cioppino, the wonderful new bistro we’ve written about before that overlooks Green Lake, on a recent Saturday night (busy, busy!) and were wowed by the signature and eponymous dish–Cioppino!

Here’s the gorgeous stew that was loaded with gobs of seafood–tiny octopi, salmon fillet, mussels, Alaskan spot prawns, Mediterranean mussels, halibut, and who knows what else–all perfectly (not overly) cooked to just tender in a hearty tomato-saffron-scented broth.

General manager Erik Brisbin suggested we heat up the leftovers for Sunday brunch and add a few eggs. Sounded yummy, but we added a can of Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, some additional seafood, and whipped up an amazing Seafood Stew for Sunday dinner.

For all of these reasons, Cioppino’s Cioppino wins our Dish of the Day.

If you haven’t already, you need to buy your tickets for one of the best parties of the year: Sunset Supper at the Pike Place Market.

Enjoy food from Seattle’s best restaurants and the region’s premium winemakers and microbreweries.

Dance under the stars and buy a raffle ticket or spin the wheel for great prizes to support the Pike Place Market Foundation and all the good work they do.

Other upcoming dates of interest to Market lovers include:

Market Anniversary Celebration: Tomorrow–August 17

Downtown Home Tour: September 18

Second Annual Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival: October 1-2

One of our favorite restaurants in the ‘hood, right down the street from our condo along the Harbor Steps, is Matt Janke’s luscious Lecosho.

We’ve been remiss about writing about Matt’s second restaurant, not because we don’t love it, but because we sometimes just want to sit and eat and enjoy and not overthink things too much.

It’s the same reason I sometimes order a favorite dish time and again. And that favorite dish at Lecosho is the Grilled Octopus with Chickpeas, Salsa Brava, and Mama Lil’s Vinaigrette. It’s listed as an appetizer, but I find the bulky bowl of beans and tentacles is plenty to satisfy and satiate my appetite.

A few weeks ago, I had my grilled octopus accompanied by a side order of good grilled asparagus. Oftentimes, when “Yakima grass” isn’t in season, I substitute one of Lecosho’s finely crafted House Green Salads that’s always topped with a perfectly coddled egg.

These two dishes, plus Matt Janke’s thoughtfully selected and reasonably priced wines by the bottle and glass round out a dining experience of “food we like” (the restaurant’s catch phrase).

Way to go, Matt!

One of my favorites dishes–something that I get a fierce craving for from time to time–is the vegetarian chili at the Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market.

Here’s a gorgeous cup of Alex’s Vegetable Chili, the thick, spicy stew topped with a melt of oooey, gooey Pepperjack cheese; a BIG dollop of sour cream; cilantro; and pico de gallo; and accompanied by a rakish raft of crispy cracker.

For being so warm, comforting, and downright satisfying, Steelhead Diner’s vegetarian chili more than deserves my Dish of the Day.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran an article about finding the best salmon burger in Seattle. Ray’s Boathouse Cafe won by a mile.

When I sent the link to my brother and sister-in-law in central Florida, they were inspired. So that very evening, with their three teenagers off at camp and a quiet night on their hands, Nancy and Brad grilled up a batch of salmon burgers purchased from Fresh Market.

Sad to say, they weren’t very impressed with the burgers (we would have been better off just grilling a piece of salmon, Brad reports), they were impressed with the evening’s wine pairing, a bottle of  Cruz Allen 2008 Reserve Pinot Noir from Mendoza, Argentina.

In a follow-up email, Brad had this to say about Argentinian wines in general:

“Although known for Malbec, Argentina is producing other great varietals now. They are excellent quality for the price. Argentina is similar to Australia about 5-10 years ago, before Australia was ‘discovered,’ and prices went up. Here is a good piece on Argentinian wine making.”

Thanks for the insight, Nancy and Brad!

A few weeks ago, with a new camera in hand that gave me an excuse to attend an event I might not normally have gone to, Spencer and I set out in the Lex for Fremont, a.k.a, The Center of the Universe.

Our destination?

The Red, White, and Dead World’s Longest Zombie Walk.

As reported by the seattlest blog, “Last year the event managed to get 3,894 zombies to come to Fremont, taking the world record. However that was soon beaten by 4,026 undead bodies at England’s Big Chill Music Festival. This year the event managed to take back the title by bringing 4,233 people to the streets!”

The Zombie Squad had a colorful booth, and we met lots of other likely suspects along the way. The hearse in the photo above seems a particularly appropriate backdrop, as does the sign in the background advertising local radio station 107.7, The End.

Since this is, after all, mainly a food blog, I wanted to prove to you that zombies work up an appetite when they are out doing whatever it is zombies do all day. Here they are eating real food–no human flesh!–along the sidewalk.

There were zombie children. . .this one with a zombie baby perched on his shoulder. . .

And zombie families.

A young zombie boy enjoyed breakdancing with adult creatures of his ilk. . .

While a zombie d.j. spun appropriate tunes for the somewhat dazed, bloody crowd on this uniquely Seattle and totally unforgettable summer afternoon.

Seared Albacore Tuna with Feta, Olives, and Tomato

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Serves 4

This recipe comes from the culinary department at King Estate Winery in southern Oregon. It makes use of one of the Northwest’s best summertime catches—albacore tuna—in a Mediterranean-leaning sauce redolent with salty/tangy feta cheese, Roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, and fresh oregano. Pair it with the earthy/smoky/spicy flavors of your favorite Oregon Pinot Noir.

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 (6- to 7-ounce) albacore tuna steaks, rinsed, drained, and patted dry

Kosher salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 tablespoon minced shallots

1/2 pound fresh spinach leaves

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

8 plum tomatoes, cored and chopped

1 cup (about 6 ounces) kalamata olives, pitted and halved lengthwise

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Greek, crumbled

6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the tuna steaks lightly on both sides with salt and pepper.

2. When the oil just begins to smoke, place the fish in the skillet without crowding and cook for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Place the tuna in the oven and cook 4 to 5 minutes (for medium rare), or to desired doneness.

3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and shallots and cook, stirring often, until the shallots are translucent but not browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spinach a handful or two at a time, turning with kitchen tongs and adding more spinach as it cooks down, until all the spinach is lightly wilted. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and the lemon juice.

4. Divide the spinach among 4 warmed dinner plates. Remove the fish from the oven and arrange 1 tuna steak over each bed of spinach.

5. Working quickly, return the hot tuna skillet to the stove over medium-high heat and cook the plum tomatoes, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the olives, white wine, and oregano and cook, stirring occasionally, until the wine is reduced by half, 1 to 2 minutes.

6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the feta. Spoon the sauce around the tuna and serve immediately.

Late last month, The Hogue Cellars, Washington’s fourth largest winery, stunned industry insiders when it announced it had decided to move 100% of its production to screwcap closures.

On June 23, the company announced the results of groundbreaking research conducted between 2005 and 2010 that confirmed Saranex**-lined screwcaps as the ideal closure for preserving and aging The Hogue Cellars wines.

According to a press release, “Saranex liners comprise layered polyethylene which is slightly permeable to oxygen, meaning a desirable ratio of oxygen comes in contact with the wine to allow slow, steady development while maintaining freshness. These screwcap closures were proven to hold fruit flavors and aromas without significant reductive character compared to natural cork.”

Jordan Ferrier, Research Winemaker for Constellation Wines U.S., presented the winery’s extensive study results at the 62nd annual American Society of Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) Conference in Monterey, California.

The study is the first conducted at a large-scale winery that compares multiple closure types sealed on a commercial bottling line under controlled conditions with findings shared publically.

“Until now, acceptable wine-aging standards have been defined by the cork closure,” said Conan Dinn, The Hogue Cellars director of winemaking. “However, this study shows that wines aged under the right screwcap closure over five years were better preserved, aged well, and were deemed the highest quality.”

The study was conducted in two parts, the first focused on analyzing the impact of closure type on The Hogue Cellars 2004 Sauvignon (Fume) Blanc – an oxygen-sensitive white wine.

The second section was dedicated to understanding the effects of screwcap closures on the long-term age-ability of a 2004 Hogue Merlot and 2003 Genesis Merlot.

Ten closure types were evaluated for the Sauvignon (Fume) Blanc and nine closure types for each of the two Merlots, with white samples evaluated at four-month intervals for three years and red wines evaluated at 12-month intervals for five years.

In total, more than 3,200 samples were tasted over the five-year span. And overall, the panel preferred closures that allowed slower oxygen ingress and therefore, held proper levels of free sulfur dioxide (a common preservative) in the bottle.

A team of seven trained winemaking and production experts at The Hogue Cellars blind-tasted and assessed each of the wines, with specific insights as follows:

— Wines under aluminum and tin-lined screwcap closures showed reductive wine qualities or flinty characters, a smoky, gunpowder smell or taste.

— Wines sealed with synthetic corks oxidized more rapidly than other samples in the set.

— Wine sealed with an experimental alternative polymer liner exhibited dried fruit or oxidative characters.

— Wines sealed under a screwcap with a Saranex liner held bright fruit tastes and aromas, showed steady, consistent oxygen exchange and preservation of free sulfur dioxide.

— High quality natural cork showed signs of fruit preservation and steady oxygen ingress, but with great bottle to bottle variation and inconsistency.

In summary, wines aged under Saranex-lined screwcaps tasted better and offered better results than aluminum or tin-lined screwcaps or synthetic closures, and eliminated any risk of TCA or taint that can occur using traditional cork means.

This is the second screwcap study conducted by The Hogue Cellars. The findings of the winery’s first study released in 2004 compared natural cork, synthetic closures, and screwcaps, and found that wines bottled under screwcap were cleanest and best retained fruit flavors.

As a result of those findings, The Hogue Cellars moved 70 percent of its production under screwcap closures.

The latest findings released today expand on the initial study by measuring the effects of each closure’s age-ability over time based on the level and rate of oxygen ingress.

As a result of this second study, The Hogue Cellars will move 100 percent of its production–which includes its premium-tier Genesis and Reserve wines–to screwcap closures with Saranex liners.

By the 2009 vintage, all wines in The Hogue Cellars portfolio will be under this closure type.

“It all comes down to quality. We want consumers to know that when they purchase a bottle of The Hogue Cellars wine, whether it’s to enjoy that night or in five years, the wine in the bottle will be fresh because it’s been sealed with the best closure currently on the market,” said Dinn. “Our studies prove that high quality white and red wines can be sealed and preserved with screwcaps and we believe that our extensive research and proven results will help to positively shift the perception of screwcap closures with consumers.”

** SARANEX(TM) barrier films are coextruded multilayered films containing a layer of SARAN(TM) resin integrally sandwiched between outer layers of polyolefins. SARANEX films offer a balance of barrier properties, toughness, chemical resistance, softness, flexibility, attractive appearance, and good economics in a single film structure. SARANEX(TM) is part of Dow Specialty Packaging & Films.