A Look at Jude’s Old Town. Plus: Norway’s Great Butter Crisis of 2011.
We check in on an excellent South End, Seattle eatery. And, who remembers when Norway ran out of butter?
There are “Hidden Gems,” then there are “Hidden Gems,” the latter being a category Jude’s falls flatly into. Type the address from their website into Google Maps, and this is what you get:
“9252 57th Ave S,” without city, state, and zip, does work, so I’m not sure if we should welcome Google as our AI overlord quite yet.
But, I digress – Jude’s.
This worker-owned cooperative serves Cajun-meets-Northwestern fare in a casual setting. To be clear, the food isn’t Northwestern in style, but Jude’s use of local ingredients and providers gives the dishes a Washingtonian je ne sais quoi. Want a vegetarian twist on a Louisiana mainstay (as one does in these parts)? Make your Po’ Boy a Fo’ Boy – an impossibly great name for the tofu sandwich.
While I’m wont to go with Jude’s fried chicken sandwich1, my recent encounter with their Cajun Pasta serves as a reminder that branching out is a good thing. The pappardelle is served al dente in a creamy sauce with a subtle kick – spicy enough to linger for a minute but not to the point where you break out in a sweat.
In contrast, the lemon and Vermouth – flanked by blistered cherry tomatoes – add a sharp zest. Neither sauce overpowers the other, making for a well-balanced and hearty pasta dish – particularly when you add Andouille sausage.
And, if there are two of you, the “Date Night” special at $72.50 is a great deal. You get two entrées, a choice of either spiced chickpeas or beignets, and two cocktails. For the latter I recommend the N/Agroni2 – yet again, a perfect name.
So, a hidden gem as it may be, the emphasis is definitely more on “gem” than it is on “hidden” as long as you follow the proper directions.
Find Jude’s at 9252 57th Ave S or on the web.
Some may remember Norway’s Great Butter Crisis of 2011. Leading up to Christmas, the dairy-forward country saw a severe butter shortage – products disappeared from shelves, and prices skyrocketed. Not surprisingly, the story was so absurd it gained international notoriety, seeing its fair share of ridicule in the US.
Well, as reported by TV2, Norway finally got its revenge:
The US asks Norway for an egg solution: – We don’t have a single egg to sell.
A US in an egg-crisis hopes Norway can hatch a solution.
Norway has shown little desire to hatch such a solution and has kept a firm grip on its eggs.
I’m tired of people being down on chicken sandwiches. Sure, they have been overdone, but a good fried chicken sandwich doesn’t become bad just because Chick-fil-A and Popeye’s got into a war over their sub-standard fare.
Props for using the “N/A” moniker, too. “Mocktails” is not a great name, with “mock” carrying a negative connotation in our modern vernacular.