What our writers love this week

TV

'The Amazing Race'

The winner of seven consecutive Emmy Awards for outstanding reality-competition program kicks off its 15th (!) season with 12 new teams (including Harlem Globetrotters, professional poker players and a father/son team) taking off for a 21-day, eight-continent-spanning race. As always, host Phil Keoghan will be there to greet the racers at each pit stop with his expressive eyebrows. 8 tonight on CBS.

Doug Knoop, Seattle Times staff

Food

Cheese at ART

Visitors will gawk at the zen garden, abstract art or the majestic view of Elliott Bay at The Four Seasons hotel. For me, none is as glorious as the 10-foot-long gourmet cheese spread with crackers, breads and other condiments at the hotel's ART Restaurant and Lounge. All-you-can-eat cheese for $12 from 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. Glasses of wine start at $5. (99 Union St., 206-749-7070 or fourseasons.com/seattle).

Tan Vinh, Seattle Times staff

Music & dance

'Romeo and Juliet'

Of all the great ballet scores (Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"), Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" is a personal favorite. Sweeping, romantic, intricately plotted: It's Shakespeare in sound. Experience it live during Pacific Northwest Ballet's run of Jean-Christophe Maillot's gripping "Roméo et Juliette," through Oct. 4 at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St.; $25-$160 (206-441-2424). See — and hear — a preview online at www.pnb.org.