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Bistecca Italian Steakhouse Owners: Caitac Realty Group For authentic regional Italian cooking, try Bellingham’s new Bistecca Italian Steakhouse. In this country, Italian cooking may bring up images of rich pasta dishes or pizza. However, at Bistecca (Italian for “steak”), the focus is on steak, veal and poultry entrées. The restaurant serves a variety of menu items from various regions of Italy. The restaurant’s insistence on hiring experienced and professional employees starts at the top with chef Mark Moehn. Moehn has cooked at numerous fine-dining establishments, both locally and around the country. He’s worked under now-famous chef Emeril Lagasse at the Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. “We served 700 people four courses of fine dining a night there,” Moehn recalls. “It was very intense.” Moehn has also cooked at the Riversong Lodge in Alaska and, most recently, was the executive chef at the Homestead Restaurant in Lynden. After working in New Orleans, he attended the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Ore., where he graduated with honors. One dish that Moehn considers a specialty is Veal Saltinbaco, veal cutlets topped with sage prosciutto. Another is Agnolitti, handmade ravioli from the Pimonte region of Italy, stuffed with pheasant, or potato and cheese. He also highly recommends the homemade desserts, such as tiramisu soup, a ladyfinger cake soaked in espresso and layered with sweetened mascarpone cheese. “Try our decadent chocolate pistachio cake with mocha ganache, and I must stress the word decadent,” he laughs. Moehn says Bistecca also offers a nice wine list that is split between Italian and Pacific Northwest fine wines. Reservations are recommended. Caitac Realty Group owns the building and assumed operation of the facility in July. Caitac owns real estate and business holdings throughout Whatcom County, including North Bellingham Golf Course, Holiday Inn Express and the Meridian Grill, located on the bottom floor of the same building that houses Bistecca. It also owns the Pacific Meridian Plaza complex of buildings, which includes the restaurants, the hotel, City Gym and other commercial tenants. — Patricia Rathbun
What’s Cookin! Gourmet Foods Owners: Jules Marie Too tired to cook dinner at the end of a hard day at work? Now you can call Jules Marie to cook a healthy, delicious gourmet meal for you! Jules Marie is the owner of What’s Cookin’! Gourmet Foods. The business recently began operations in Bellingham. Marie describes herself as a “15-year gourmet natural foods chef committed to preparing nutritious and delicious foods vital to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.” Marie charges $20 an hour to prepare a meal in the client’s home, plus the cost of the food she purchases. It usually takes from four hours to six hours, then she leaves the menu, food, and serving and reheating instructions “Families of today are so busy that cooking is sometimes an afterthought for them. I go into the kitchen of busy, health-conscious families and after four to six hours, I leave a counter filled with homemade bread, fresh salad, dressing, entrees, delicious vegetable or pasta salads, and even a delectable, mouth-watering dessert; all for a reasonable cost,” Marie says. Her clients are usually a couple where both husband and wife work. She may work for them an average of once a week for periods of six months to three years. Then they are ready to start cooking healthy meals themselves. In many instances, they’ll ask her to organize their kitchen so they can cook meals like she does. What’s Cookin! specialties include unusual hors d’oeuvres and soups. Marie is especially fond of the vegetarian lentil-walnut pate that people say tastes like chicken. She also offers hearty soups such as minestrone, cold avocado and raspberry soup. To create healthy gourmet recipes, Marie said she takes her 30-year-old Betty Crocker cookbook and makes the recipes healthy and natural. For example, one dish she’s revised is mashed potatoes. “You don’t need to add all that butter to mashed potatoes. I just add a little bit of balsamic vinegar to give them a delicious flavor,” she explains. Another specialty is a red sauce that can replace tomato pasta sauce. “Some people are allergic to tomatoes or just don’t like them,” Marie says. “I make a red sauce out of beets, onions and carrots that I cook in a pressure cooker, then put it in a food processor.” Marie stresses that she only cooks in private homes or a health department-certified kitchen, such as a church. “I don’t cook and sell from my home. Legally, you can’t prepare and sell food from your home,” she emphasizes. Before opening her business in Bellingham, Marie cooked professionally and taught children’s cooking classes in California for 10 years. She is now offering classes to kids throughout the Bellingham and Puget Sound area. “Kids seem to enjoy the process of cooking so much and have so much fun,” she notes. In addition to teaching children’s classes at Larry’s Market in Bellevue and the Puget Consumer’s Co-Op in Seattle, Marie will offer “Kids Cook Breakfast” through the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. She is also offering “Kids Make Bread” from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on March 16 at the Bellingham Food Co-Op’s Healthy Connections building. “The first bread class I offered here was sold out and a wonderful success. The kids all went home with pizza, cinnamon rolls and bread they made — the parents were very impressed! Most of the kids immediately signed up for the next class,” she says. — Patricia Rathbun
Mediterranean Specialties Owners: Marco Boulos A charming new addition to Bellingham’s ethnic food scene is tastefully tucked into a corner spot in the Viking Plaza. Mediterranean Specialties, a deli and specialty grocery store, featuring Middle Eastern cuisine, was opened by Marco Boulos in late November as a way of bringing his family’s healthy traditional cuisine to Whatcom County customers. Boulos is already known to the county as a purveyor of Aldopho’s olive oil, high-quality olive oil produced by his family in the El Koura region in the northern part of Lebanon. The olives they use are grown in groves owned and tended by Boulos’ family for centuries. “The way we do olive oil is still the old way,” says Boulos proudly. Their extra virgin olive oil is made from “the healthiest olives,” which are hand-shaken from the family’s trees with long sticks and gathered onto large canvas tarps. They are taken to the press the same day they are picked, and are cold-pressed. Made in limited quantities, the finished product is sold unfiltered, so small amounts of sediment may be seen in the bottom of the bottles. “It’s a labor of love to do olive oil. To us, it is a matter of our identity,” explains Boulos, who adds, “We don’t spray the olive trees, either.” Adolpho’s olive oil, with its clean, fruity taste, is used by Marti Jones of Marti’s Salad Dressings, a local company, as the oil of choice for her commercially bottled dressings, Boulos notes. The oil is a featured item at Boulos’ new deli, and he recommends it atop hummus or baba ghanouj — dips for pita bread made of garbanzos or eggplant — or simply poured onto a plate with good vinegar and mopped up by crusty wedges of fresh bread. Hummus and baba ghanouj are on the menu, to eat on site or to go, as are other Mediterranean favorites such as falafel, orzo salad, stuffed grape leaves, spanakopita and panini grilled with turkey, ham or roasted vegetables. All of the deli menu is made fresh in their kitchen. The deli’s array of vegan offerings is already attracting the attention of vegetarian patrons hungry for something new. In particular, Boulos says he has been pleasantly surprised by the number of high school students who have been coming in for their vegan options. Mediterranean Specialties also carries a variety of difficult-to-find ingredients for cooks wanting to produce Mediterranean regional recipes. This includes sheep cheeses such as halloumi and kashakaval, as well as mastica, also known as Greek mustic gum, an ingredient used in pastries. For cooks who need recipes, they carry cookbooks as well. Got a sweet tooth? The deli offers homemade pastries, cheesecakes and pies, as well as exotic imported treats like manna. Manna is “like manna from heaven,” says Boulos. It is a soft, nut-studded, nougat-like sweet flavored with a tree sap reminiscent of honey. For coffee lovers, Mediterranean Specialties serves a full range of coffee drinks, including espresso and lattes, made with Lavazza coffee from Italy. Boulos enjoys the healthy aspects of his ethnic cuisine, and is enthusiastic about sharing it. “We want to feed people nice, healthy food,” he enthuses. “Our philosophy is to see smiles on people’s faces when they have had a nice meal. Healthy people are happy.” — Heidi Henken |
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