The Seattle Sounders weren’t able to convert an otherwise extremely successful season into a championship, but fans of soccer still get a chance to get in one more game as this weekend Qwest Field plays host to the MLS Cup. To celebrate this important game, the chefs at Qwest have created a series of special dishes for fans to enjoy during the game, including Sounders fan favorite, the Seafood Shocker which features breaded halibut, shoe string French fries, vinegar-marinated red cabbage slaw and spicy malt tartar sauce served on a foot-long toasted roll skewered with shrimp, lemon and tomato.

As the LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake duke it out for supremacy, fans can snack on the Galaxy Dog which features two strips of applewood smoked bacon, nacho cheese sauce, red onion and diced tomatoes and is available, naturally, at Seattle Dogs. Ciao Down will offer the Galaxy Pizza, topped with ground buffalo, caramelized red onions, thick cut bacon, and pepper-jack cheese. Real Salt Lake is represented by Grill 12’s Salt Lake Burger topped with caramelized red onion jam, apple wood smoked bacon, blue cheese, and black cherry barbeque sauce.

The FSN Lounge will be honoring the world’s love for the beautiful game with an assortment of internationally-inspired dishes like Dungeness crab macaroni and Cheese (England), Pissaladiere baked puff pastry with olives, grape tomatoes, caramelized onions and triple cream brie (Spain), Mama’s meatballs (Italy), Bossa Nova chicken sandwich (Brazil) and more.

Everybody loves pretzels, or nearly everyone enough to ensure that pretzels have long been a staple item at sporting events. Since the MLS Cup is a big event, it makes sense that this game has available a big pretzel–the Victory Knot is a two-pound pretzel topped with sea salt and served with three dipping sauces (spicy mustard, beer cheese and sweet vanilla cream). This pretzel is so big that it is served in a full-size pizza box.

Finally, no matter who wins the game, everyone can celebrate the day with MLS cupcakes – cupcakes decorated with the MLS and team logos.

Kick off for the MLS cup is at 5:30 pm on Sunday, November 22, but there are plenty of events to occupy you until game time. On Friday, November 20, MLS players will go toss a fish at the Pike Place Market at 3pm. Fado Irish Pub hosts a Meet and Greet and Silent Auction from 6 – 8 pm with happy hour drink specials all night long, appearances by Sounders FC players Sébastien Le Toux and Taylor Graham, and a silent auction to raise money for Seattle Children’s Hospital.

The 2009 Supporters Summit happens at Qwest Field on Saturday, November 21, featuring a State of the League speech by MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Supporters Shield history and presentation by Sam Perron, Kansas City Wizards, a raffle and an officiating and technical discussion panel with Joe Machnick and Alfonso Mondelo.

Saturday night features the Sounders End of Season party at The Baltic Room and a Pioneer Square Supporters Social at Elysian Fields.

On Sunday, get psyched for the game in the morning at the FIFA 2010 Tournament at Fado, sponsored by Gorilla FC, in which teams of players compete to find out who is the best FIFA10 XBOX player, winning great Sounders prizes and raising money for the victims of Black October in Bolivia.

Sunday afternoon there’s a Pre-Game Spaghetti Feed at Fuel and then at 3:45 soccer fans meet up at Occidental Square for the traditional March to the Match, accompanied by Sounders FC owners, players, coaches and MLS Commissioner Don Garber.

Let’s face it. Most of us don’t have a lot of spare cash these days. Yet occasionally we still want to go out for dinner and have a nice meal. Here are just a few tips for dining out and while still sticking to your budget.
Use Twitter. Many of your favorite restaurants are on Twitter. Many of these same restaurants have Twitter specials. Whether it is Fuel Coffee giving you an extra shot for mentioning Twitter or Counter Burger offering a half priced appetizer, you can save on all sorts of things just by following some of your favorite restaurants.
Sign Up for Newsletters. Most restaurant newsletters are few and far between, so you won’t be cluttering up your inbox with overly frequent messages. But in return for a few kilobites here and there, you’ll get notification of happy hour times, special events, and sometimes… secret phrases or days when items are discounted.
Stick to Happy Hour Happy hours are a fantastic way to save cash. Some restaurants have up to 50% off appetizers and multiple dollars off of drinks. Granted, you’ll need to eat a little earlier (or a little later for those late shift happy hours), but if you can swing it, you can save some solid cash just by adjusting your mealtimes.

I’m sure most of you out there are already know this, but you can make it from Seattle out to wine country in the same amount of time it takes a bottle of red to properly breathe.

However, I’m not here to talk to you about wine.  Which I can assure you is to our mutual benefit, as all I have to offer on the subject involves the painfully embarrassing consequences that befall me those times I muster the bravery to take another shot at drinking it.  What I’d like to touch on today is an oft-misunderstood spirit favored by my curly-headed 70’s hero, Ron Burgundy:

I love Scotch. Scotchy, Scotch, Scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly…

And down into my belly it has gone on many a fair occasion.  Sadly, my lack of respect for the true potential of this Scottish delight has led it to make almost as many return trips from my belly as well.  Cutty Sark, J & B, Chivas Regal — these are the names I had associated with Scotch throughout the years.  It’s not that I particularly enjoy slumming it on the bottom shelf, I had simply been under the impression that it was all going to go down like battery acid anyway.  It’s almost comical that it took a certified “master of whisky” to set me straight on the subject.

(more…)

I’m not even going to pretend that I have anything resembling positive feelings towards the “Twilight” series of books and films, because I don’t, but I AM impressed by the special “New Moon Menu” debuting November 20 at midnight at Gold Class Cinemas, the upscale theater with a Redmond Town Center location, that offers a bar and a lounge in addition to a full menu delivered by a patron’s own personal server to the fully reclining armchair from which they’re watching a movie on a super-wide digital screen. It’s quite a lavish way to watch a film, definitely a big change from the cineplex. Gold Class’s full bar and kitchen gives them the opportunity to customize the movie experience based on the movie, which they’ve done to delicious effect for New Moon.

The “New Moon” menu pays a culinary tribute to the story’s themes with “Vegetarian” Stakes, a/k/a picatta seared chicken satay over parmesan risotto and sauteed spinach (I’m not quite sure how chicken gets to be vegetarian, but, boy, does this sound tasty to me); Lion’s Love, which is paprika seared lamb chops with roasted vegetable cous cous; and Bella’s birthday cake which is red velvet cake with sour cream frosting and dark chocolate sauce.

The cocktail menu is appealing, too: Bella’s Papercut combines Absolut Mandarin, Cointreau, and Grenadine. Edward’s Cold Touch is concocted with blueberry Stoli, Poma, Sprite and Blue Curacao. Jacob’s Warmth heats things up with Clover coffee with Bailey’s, Rumpleminze, and whipped cream.

If you’re a Twilight fan, you’re probably already delirious with excitement about New Moon and really don’t need any encouragement to go see it, but why not go see it in style?

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve going clamming. What joy there is in crossing the beach in hot pursuit of the wily razor clam and what pleasure there is concluding the hunt with a clambake. Clams are quite fun to catch and even more fun to eat.

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife has given the go-ahead for some razor clam digging in November. Their season update approves digging at Twin Harbors November 14 – 17; Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks for November 14 – 15; and Kalaloch Beach for Monday, November 16 only. Additional dates have been tentatively scheduled through January. It is important to always verify the approved dates for clamming before you go out.

If you do decide to go clamming–and really, you should, it really is quite fun–you might want to take advantage of the special deal being offered by the Kalaloch Lodge in the Olympic National Park. Their Clam Digger Lodging Package offers clam diggers at all levels from first-timers to old hands a night of lodging in their beautiful facility conveniently located near to the beach plus breakfast in the morning. It’s available Monday, November 16, and is tentatively scheduled for Friday, December 4, Saturday, December 5, Thursday, December 31 and Friday, January 1, subject to approval from the Washington and National Park Services. Newbie clammers can book a room using the code CLAMDIGNEW for a package that starts at $169 and includes a night at the lodge, a bucket, shovel and net and breakfast for two the next morning. Clam diggers who already have their own tools can use the code CLAMDIGPRO for a package that starts at $129 and includes the room and breakfast. Guests can stay additional nights for just $99 a night, an excellent deal. Besides clamming there are all kinds of things to do and see in the Olympic NP which contains beaches, rain forest valleys, mountain peaks and far, far more different types of plants and animals than you can name. It’s one of the most beautiful places in our state, and, honestly, maybe in the whole world.

To learn more about the Kalaloch Lodge or to book your clamming experience, visit their website. (Even if you’ve decided that clamming is just not for you, it’s an excellent vacation spot and the lodge offers a bunch of great package deals aimed at a variety of interests.) To learn more about the Olympic National Park, visit theirs.

All the information you need to know about clamming in Washington (including how to clean and cook the tasty things) can be found in the Razor Clam section of their website.

Some basics: a license is required for any digger 15 years or older. Any 2009 annual shellfish/seaweed license or combination fishing license is still valid or you can get a razor-clam only license available in annual or three-day only versions. Buy a license online, by phone at 866.246.9453 or in person at any of the more than 600 authorized license vendors. ALWAYS check the weather and surf conditions before heading down to the beach so that you know what you’re facing and, seriously, don’t be stupid about the ocean. It may be a beautiful source of bounty but “killer waves” is a literal expression sometimes.

Jesse Jones of King5 News tests Campbell Soup’s claim that there are 32′ of noodles in every can. He lays out a can’s worth of noodles on a football field.

Slow news day? If you want to kill some time at work, watch it here. Way to embarrass us on Consumerist Jesse.

Seattle has turned into quite the street food center over the past few years. Granted, our street food is a little different when you have such a mix like grass fed burgers with bacon jam, spam, gourmet ice cream, and BBQ.

On October 10th, you’ll get a chance to try a wide variety of street food all in one place. Mobile Chowdown brings a bunch of Seattle’s street food vendors all to one location. The event is free (other than the food that you buy), so come bring a chair and hang out with your fellow street food aficionados.

In the lead up to Mobile Chowdown, there’s even a trivia contest on Twitter. Follow @mobilechowdown and answer their trivia questions each day for a chance to win dinner at Tilth and a night at the Sorrento Hotel (plus a subscription to Seattle Magazine). Make sure when you respond to the trivia though, that you include the hashtag #mcd in your tweet.

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10
Where: 1616 W. Bertona (Interbay)

On Monday, the much anticipated Counter Burger located in the new Ballard Blocks opened.

Counter Burger has been “previewed” several times already on several different blogs. So far, the buzz seems to be favorable.

We checked it out during one of their preview parties, and the food was excellent. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has been there in the past two days.

Be sure to follow them on Twitter as well. They often tweet specials or coupons.

Okay, it’s a bit late in the evening but if you’ve got back to school shopping to do and you’re not too far away from Southcenter, head to the Southcenter Office Depot (300 Andover Parkway) and buy at least $20 worth of supplies to get a free burrito at the Southcenter Chipotle (17520 Southcenter Parkway). You can only get your free burrito at the Southcenter location and you have to do it by 9 pm tonight.

Can’t make it tonight? You have two more chances to score a free burrito as Chipotle is making the same deal for Tuesday, September 8 and Wednesday, September 9. Bring in a receipt for $20 or more at the Southcenter Office Depot and get a free burrito at the Southcenter Chipotle between 11:00 am and 9:00 pm.

Belltown, your brunchtime options are expanding: this weekend Del Rey started serving brunch. I don’t know how it will compare to Rite Aid during the afternoon as a pick-up spot, but I do know that the Kahlua french toast was really, really good. The batter was not too sweet, the portion not too huge, and the jam on the side possibly lifesaving jam.

My companions all went for more savory dishes (I can’t tell you what they were because the menu isn’t up yet, although there was definitely a giant breakfast burrito and some ham cups), and there was a significant amount of passing plates around and enthusiastic mumbling. The chorizo is excellent, and stuck on a skewer with an olive to garnish the Bloody Mary. If you really need to wake up, the Angry Maria is a Bloody Mary using habanero-infused tequila. Personally, I will stick to mimosas.

Brunch is the most important meal (or two) of the week, so another option in Belltown is definitely a thing to be happy about. As a bonus, you can follow Del Rey on Twitter, and sometimes they will give you things. Del Rey is also the only place in town I know of so far with a mayor special if you use foursquare–happy hour prices all day for the mayor and one guest. Everyone else gets $2 off their first well drink Sunday – Thursday.