Well, it's that time of year once again when we do our annual vacation jaunt, this year we try to single handedly boost the economy of the great Northwest, specifically Whidbey Island and downtown Seattle. On our last visit 2 years ago, we discovered a bistro located above our favorite hangout in Langley, the Star Store. The Star Store is almost like the Hasegawa General Store of Langley with a great selection of wines, very cool, cool weather clothes, trinkets, kitchen supplies and a market with gourmet breads and cheeses, great produce and a mini deli section. However what resides upstairs is one the true treasures of Langley, Prima Bistro. We enjoyed our initial meal so much that we revisited it a 2nd time on the same trip. And it was no different on this trip either...
As usual, we took a red-eye from HNL to SEA arriving at 7:20am. The plan was to spend about half the trip with relatives then head to the city before heading home. Of course, said relatives were also just returning from a multi-week trip of their own on the same day so we'd have to entertain ourselves until at least lunchtime... NO PROBLEM! We'll just do a leisurely lunch at Prima Bistro!
I started with a glass of a local white Rhone blend while the Mrs opted for tea. We then selected several new starters (since our last visit), the Crispy Pig Ears served with chili gastrique which made pork rinds pale in comparison with the pleasing contrast of sweet and sour to balance the rich flavor...
And the Chickpea Fries served with a curry mayonnaise. They had just a subtle crunch on the outside with a steaming cake-like interior. The earthiness of the curry tied the dish together.
We then had the Mrs' favorite, the Pan Fried Veal Sweetbreads with apricot thyme gastrique. Not the crisp deep fried variety in most restaurants but rich, tender morsels balanced once again by sweet and sour with the herbal thyme tying the dish together.
We also selected something new; the Oeuf ala Meurettes mainly because if there's runny yolks on a dish, I'M THERE! This version also added fresh local mushrooms and like Chef Ludovico, Chef Jurriaans doesn't cook the eggs in the red wine leaving an attractive white orb of goodness.
We also decided to finally try the Bistro Burger - we didn't order it 2 years ago because our servers warned us it was a FULL meal in itself. It was a very good burger maybe just a tad behind Chef McGee's 21 day dry aged burger at The Whole Ox Deli but it was cooked perfectly medium rare with very good beef flavor.
So once again, we'll be back (we actually returned with our Coupeville relatives so they could sample the Crispy Pig Ears and Chickpea Fries)...
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