[Poppy](http://poppyseattle.com/) is this awesome restaurant in my neighborhood. The gimmick is that they serve thali meals, more or less Indian-influenced fare served in small dishes. You order a thali and you get a bunch of little delicious bites all to yourself. Here’s today’s thali, for example. (You can also get a smali, which has a couple fewer dishes and costs $10 less.)
Every day’s menu has a name. Last Tuesday, for example, was A Thali for Our 44th. I know, because we were there. Iris and I got Laurie a gift card for her birthday and we all had dinner at Poppy on Tuesday.
Iris liked the eggplant fries and the beef tongue and potato pancakes, but she was really after the dessert thali, made by our friend [Dana Cree](http://tastingmenu.com/). The dessert thali is insane. You get to choose an ice cream and a plated dessert, plus a variety of extra small desserts (crispy Nutter Butter squares and chocolate caramels were a couple of ours). Iris, naturally, went crazy for this and ate most of the chocolate malt ice cream.
Everything Iris loves, hates, fears, or covets ends up in a kitty-and-pirate story sooner or later, so tonight K. Rool and his crew headed for Poppy. Here are the savory and dessert menus.
A THALI FOR GETTING MAROONED
*two sandwiches*
*some fries*
*milk*
sorry, no rum
A DESSERT THALI FOR NUTTER BUTTER SQUARES
*cookies and cream cake*
*raspberry and chocolate ice cream bars*
*regular ice cream*
*milkshake*
*opera cake*
*slice of fun cake*
*strawberry-basil tart*
*cream horn*
sorry, no hardtack
Oh cute! (But I am sad that the “pyrats bootie” ice cream didn’t make it on the K. Rool menu.) I forgot to tell you that I put Iris on the “Hot Tables” list in the kitchen. So you probably got treated like VIP’s thanks to her.
That Poppy thali is way more fancy than the thali I used to get in Berkeley.
ooh this makes me drool *wipe. sorry. well what exactly is a kitty-and-pirate story? that sounds neat.
These are yuppie thalis, Kathleen. I’m sure the thali you used to get in Berkeley didn’t cost $32 or contain a lavender-rubbed duck leg, either. Not that this is a criticism.
Dana, I did mention the Pyrat Booty ice cream on K. Rool’s blog but forgot to mention it here.
kitti, Iris got this toy pirate ship for her third birthday and we have been doing play stories with it, sometimes (but usually not) with her Calico Critters animal figures, too, since then. K. Rool has had many adventures; the sheer number of times he has died and then popped up alive at his own funeral is pretty impressive. Most people only get to do that, what, two or three times?
I have today’s menu here.
a thali for your pegleg
hardtack loaf with kelp slaw and pickled sea cucumber
fresh-caught piranha with banana chimichurri
air-dried wagyu beef jerky with preserved lime
rum-glazed wild boar chops with “crow’s nest” potatoes
100 doubloons
a smali for your pegleg
just the hardtack
free
dessert thali
nori-wrapped palm sap chews
coconut gelato with mango-lime coulis
Tahitian vanilla creme brulee broiled under cuttings from sunken ships
Andes mints
Bananas with gallons of rum
25 doubloons
P.S.: Dana, since I know you’re going to steal this menu and serve it in the restaurant, be forewarned that there are rules about dredging up sunken ships. The permit process on that is a total bitch.
ok, FINE, make me start looking at airfare rates to seattle …
I’m not sure where to post this, but hey everyone, on 28 April, Kim Ricketts’ Books and Cooks Events is hosting “What We Talk About When We Talk About Food: An Evening with Seattle Writersâ€, featuring Matthew Amster-Burton. It doesn’t appear on the Events page of her website yet, but I’m sure Mamster will provide us with details. (I’m out of town that week, unfortunately).
It’s listed on the Hungry Monkey site. I’m trying not to spam this site with book news, although I certainly don’t mind if other people do. :)