Delancey

For those of you who know, the title is perfectly clear...I finally got to eat here! So they're still working on a sign and it's nearly impossible to realize that tucked away along NW 70th Street in Ballard is this sweet little spot. Unless, of course, you've gone to the website and dutifully Google-mapped the location.

For those of you who don't know, Delancey is the creation of blogger Orangette's husband. We did, in fact, see Molly, but since I had neglected to bring my book we didn't bother meeting her.

The idea behind Delancey is to offer New York-style pizzas with a thin crust. The pizzas are fired, not baked, at a very high temperature in a brick oven, producing yummy charred, blackened bits amid an otherwise soft and chewy crust. The four of us shared 3 pizzas: A margherita, prosciutto, and foraged mushroom. The margherita was pretty much your standard pizza with tomato sauce (but really, really, really...good tomato sauce), mozzarella, and basil. I found it interesting and point-winning that the tomato sauce on the margherita tasted different from the one on the prosciutto and both complimented their accompanying ingredients well. The mushroom pizza was a whole different animal: No tomato sauce, just the mushrooms and cheese. It was delightful, actually.

Dessert: Grey salt covered chocolate chip cookies. 'Nuf said. Well, maybe not: Gooey, oozing chocolate on a warm cookie with a crispy edge and chewy center, topped with a smattering of salt crystals to create that just right blend of salty and sweet.

We had been told the wait would be about an hour, but the party before us were no-shows, so within 10 minutes we were seated at the table by the window (in the blog Molly mentions that she wants to sit at this table someday). Otherwise, they don't take reservations unless you have a party of 6 or more, for which one table is reserved.

My take? I'm not a New Yorker, but having grown up on the East Coast I feel like this pizza is more Italian than New York style, especially with the Europe-dominated wine list. However, it's tasty and the place is homey. I'd like to go back for my autograph, of course, and another cookie. I'd definitely take friends here who read Orangette and have followed the restaurant's saga.

How to satisfy cravings

The ice cream aisle at Fred Meyer: Good
Laughing hysterically with your sister while choosing said ice cream: Better
The resulting photo: Priceless

Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk: A

Tillamook Marionberry Pie: A+ (always a favorite)

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato: Familiar taste of Starbucks coffee, A, but the whole effect of the ice cream, B+

Fred Meyer Private Selection "Fried" Ice Cream: A+ (cinnamon tostada chips...nuf said)

Haagen Dazs five (Passion Fruit): A- (I hate to say it, but all those fake ingredients in the other stuff pull it together; however, this does taste very much like the product of a home ice cream machine)

Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide: B- (too much happening)

I think my scores above were slightly skewed by my secondary cinnamon craving tonight.

Note to the diet police: We only sampled one spoonful of each one. Really. Ok, I might have had two of the "fried" ice cream.

These are the days when birds come back...

A very few, a bird or two, to take a backward look. (Emily Dickinson, Indian Summer)

Last day of the market. Summer's unofficial end. Sigh. And it was 80 degrees, perfectly described in the above mentioned poem--
These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June,
-A blue and gold mistake.

Since I couldn't break my promise to you in June, I finally had a chocolate truffle today. I chose Xocolatl: A velvety rich bit of chocolate garnished with chili pepper flakes and a sprinkling of salt. It was tasty!

After the chocolate appetizer came dinner - phad Thai and potstickers from one of the vendors (who, perchance, is opening a restaurant at the end of October on Lake Street along the waterfront in Kirkland, so there will be ample opportunity to try her food cooked indoors this winter).

I came home armed with a flat of raspberries, pluots, plums, leeks, corn on the cob, and cucumbers. Due to a proliferation of dinners out and being away for the weekend I am still working on last week's blueberries and zucchini.

Otherwise...I had a friend visiting for the greater part of the last two weeks during which time I showed her my favorite haunts around Seattle while discovering new ones. I promise to share all the new (and some of the old) discoveries with you in a future post.