should i wear a frock?

There's a new little gem on the shores of West Seattle, that's all i'm telling, that was waiting with open arms for us on Saturday night. My husband, suprising me, something he's great at and i'm not very great at, gave me a little piece of heaven in the delicious form of food.

You see, up until a week ago, this little beauty was under drastic new change. Through many hours of blood, sweat and tears, hopefully less blood and more sweat, became a very family run and intimate place to just sit, smile and smell, smell, smell. O gosh, the smell of passing seared sea scallops were so oceanic that they took me back to the first time they were made for me. It was really difficult not to just walk on over to other tables, sampling and moaning here and there, moving on once satisfied.

Tonight though, it was all about the pizza. The kind of pizza that you're going to go straight for the crust. Inviting, feather weight, dusted with burn, puffy, crispy and flavour country crust. The star of the pizza show.

For me, it is hard to have a pizza without the single most marvelous ingredient, mushrooms. The mushrooms tonight were yellow foot mushrooms. What a wispy name. Adjusting my already exploding taste buds, I sprinkled delicate boulders of sea salt and dried chili, too much, but I love for my mouth to burn so much that it's dripping with saliva.

After all this hob-wash of babbling, I forgot to even mention the homemade pita and the smokey, most eggplanty baba ganoush I've experienced in years. How could such simplicity slip my mind.

In the end, a place can only deliver so much great food, or wine, or a view with dazzling lights. Its the ghosts that are visiting that make it your experience. Your memories and your now, coming together to create that explosive flavor in your mouth. When i see the mother or the grandmother, sisters and cousins, uncles and brothers, rushing around greeting people, arguing in the back, giggling about who such and such just walked in with, that's when I know that the food will taste memorable. A journey has been made in your honor. These people, these searchers, have come to where you are, to open a door; to open an umbrella; to pull a cart, for you to open your mouth, close your eyes and just surrender to their magic.