Hot Cakes photo by queen-o'-good-taste Nancy Leson, a fellow fan

Autumn Martin, former head chocolatier at Theo Chocolate, won hearts with her Hot Cakes business from the minute she started selling her molten chocolate cakes at farmers markets in 2008. The bake-it-in-a-jar combination of adorable and scrumptious couldn't be beat.

In the years since, Martin has added an ambrosial array of new products, from pocket pies to chocolate toffee cookies to salted caramel sauce (and even a vegan version of that last one). In addition to her farmers market booths, her treats are now distributed several places around town. And before too long you'll be able to find them almost whenever you please, because Martin now has a lease on her own brick-and-mortar shop.

TV food personality Andrew Zimmern scouted out Seattle for his latest episode of "Bizarre Foods America," which will air on the Travel Channel Monday night. What sorts of disgusting degustations did he dig up?

Some of his Seattle finds were par for our usual TV-show courses, like hauling up geoducks and experimenting with a $20,000 Slayer espresso machine. ("This looks like it could put a man on the moon!") The extra fun came with a trip to the Modernist Cuisine laboratory for dishes like infusion-of-everything-bagel-in-a-glass, and a bucolic journey to Sea Breeze Farm, where Zimmern ate cheese and charcuterie... and... raw cow placenta...and...fresh chicken blood. Most touching, to me, was his shift teaching students to prepare ox hearts and sweetbreads at Fare Start, giving sound advice and support to cooks who have faced some of the same hard knocks he has in life.

I asked Zimmern a few questions about his travels here. I fear I may have insulted him when I asked if George Page of Sea Breeze, whose farm work I have appreciated myself in the past, was punking him by offering up the glass of just-slaughtered chicken blood. I was just struck by the gleam in Page's eye... and, I guess, maybe the idea hit my own "bizarre" trigger in a way the other Sea Breeze thirst-quencher, a glass of colostrum, did not. Here are his e-mail answers and his kind words about our lovely city:

Chili spice photo by David Dickey

The secret to the best chili in town? I still haven't found a bowl that beats the one at John Howie's Sport restaurant. Even better, Howie is generous about sharing the secrets behind that chili, freely giving up the recipe years back when I asked him to help out with some Super Bowl winners. His Texas-style brew is all meat, no beans, and the knockout flavor comes from a generous mix of spices -- ancho, chipotle, habanero, and mild chili powders, along with coriander, basil, and some other surprises. Pineapple juice lends it acidity and a note of sweetness. Best of all, it's a breeze to make.

So let's say you gamble on opening your own restaurant in these tight economic times. And then let's say you win the hearts of critics and locals alike, and Bon Appetit magazine calls your place one of the best new restaurants in America, and Food and Wine magazine calls you one of the best new chefs in America, and diners are practically ready to pay ransoms for reservations at your fried chicken dinners, which also happen to get short-listed among the best in the country.

What's next?

In the case of Spring Hill in West Seattle, and owners Mark Fuller and Marjorie Chang Fuller, the answer is that you make a big change. Say goodbye to Spring Hill as you know it. Starting Feb. 8 the 4-year-old restaurant will shift into a new incarnation called ma'ono, a "fried chicken shop and whiskey bar" specializing in the sort of Hawaiian and mid-Pacific comfort food that Mark Fuller loved growing up in Kauai. Same address (4437 California Ave. S.W.), same owners, same chef.

Here's what Marjorie Chang Fuller had to say about the change: