Author: Rachel

Today’s the 17th anniversary of my friend K@r3n’s 17th birthday. So we went to seat Eat, Pray, Love, at lunchtime and work our way through most of a giant tub of popcorn.

While we were inside, the sun came back out.

Everyday in Summer, The Baron insists on saluting sunshine by rolling in the grass.

I got out the house early (for me) to meet up with Rocky at the Where Ya At Matt? truck on Beacon Hill, for my second visit in under a week. Today’s poboy: Creole Pork. Not exactly photogenic, but the bread was still right on.

If you go hunting for the truck when it’s Tuesday on Beacon Hill, it’s in the very far back of the Amazon/Pac Med campus, behind some of the side buildings. It took me about 10 minutes of dawdling to find it, but considering it’s the most perfect day of the year so far weather-wise, it wasn’t exactly an issue.

I was downtown near sunset and near the Smith Tower at just the right moment.

I voted today! A day early.

In the Summertime, Golden Gardens is a popular wedding destination. The couple above came out to the waterfront for pictures, right at sunset.

For the 2nd year in a row, we had book club at Golden Gardens’ beach. Officially, the book was Ramona Quimby, Age 8, but it wasn’t exactly mandatory despite the short length. We ate fried chicken, hung out, & watched the spectacular sunset.

Earlier in the day, my friend Gennie invited a bunch of us over for an Ice Cream Social, where we were wowed by homemade butter pecan, gelato & an assortment of other ice creams, fudge sauce and … pickles. (Love them.)

I am always enchanted by her 2 children. This is her new daughter, DJ Plum.

Last week, Mr. T told me the theme of his company’s Summer party today would be Medieval Times.
Me: Oh! Is it too late to order a RenFaire costume!??
Him: Yes. Pantaloons can’t be rushed.

So, Medieval Times translates into: archery, jousting, giant turkey legs, ice cream sandwiches & barrel rolling!

Karen & I went to check out the Where Ya At Matt? Creole Food Truck for lunch. Along the way, I found a letterpress booth & made my first sign.

By the by, the poboys at WYAM? are the real deal. Next time, I’m checking out the muffuletta. Matt, a NOLA native, says they have someone specifically making bread for those & the poboys, which explains why they’re so right & more like Leidenheimer. Leidenheimer’s the perfect bread for a poboy. I’ve missed it. Matt also had the right recipe down for the muffuletta, but they ran out. An hour or so later, I swung back to pick up more take out for Mr. T — chicken/andouille gumbo & Red Beans and Rice! Both were good, but I’m for the gumbo.

Tonight I took a sailing excursion with a very old friend of mine, Karen. In fact, she’s the oldest friend I have in Seattle — we go way back to Mrs. Jones’ 6th grade English class. I love how we both ended up here, even if she did witness my late-80s hairdo.

More pictures, in the set:

Today, I had one of the best lunches of recent memory at Sitka & Spruce. What took me so long? Exquisite summer tomato salad with feta, the best lemon hummus (fresh!), and exotic lamb manti. A work of art.

The eating tour rolled on in the evening at Cần ThÆ¡ Dinner at Monsoon, billed as a culinary tour of Southern Viet Nam. I’d skipped pictures at lunch due to great dinner plans.

In the end, none of my Monsoon images turned out. Alas. Above is the menu.

This promises to be a glorious food week. So much is on the books!

For today’s lunch, I finally visited Facing East with Frank & Naomi, my two DimSumCouver pals. I couldn’t have had better dining companions. (In fact, we hope to make a habit out of exploring the Eastside’s ethnic options.)

Unfairly, I had too-high expectations for this place. I enjoyed it but wasn’t blown away. But I’d hit it again to double-check.

We ordered: five spice fried chicken, soy noodles with green onions, salt & pepper shrimp, sautéed sliced lamb, a sweet potato oyster pancake, and stir-fried king oyster mushrooms. My highlight was the fried chicken (surprise, surprise) but I was impressed by how much I liked the stir-fried mushrooms, something I don’t normally go for. My least favorite was the sweet potato-blobby looking dish. Too formless and slithery for me.

But then there was dinner, with other friends – Maggi, Kate, & Megan. I visited Shanghai Garden on Saturday, not realizing it’s where I had dinner plans already the following Tuesday…when I put it together, I was THRILLED. I could get the Shanghai juicy dumplings again! So we did, plus shaved noodles & green beans.

I ♥ dumplings! Aren’t they beautiful?
I recommend Shanghai Garden wholeheartedly.

Remember Saturday’s visit to Spur for class? With such pleasant memories, when Mr. T suggested I meet him & his colleagues visiting from San Francisco for happy hour at Spur, I jumped on that. We tried the sliders, the pork rillettes, the burger, the oxtail, & the salmon tartare but the fries may be my current favorite in Seattle. Skinny, tossed in chives & smoked. Couldn’t stop eating them. And Marley was back behind the bar!

I recommend Spur to any visitor to Seattle & especially to those from places like en-why-see or ess-eff-oh, unreservedly. Their happy hour food might be the best in the city & will engender envy from people from fancy-pants locales.

The fries were an excellent base for my next stop of the evening: Cake vs. Pie.

As its title would suggest, Cake vs. Pie was a cake/pie battle ROYALE. It was hosted by the ever-cheerful & delightful Cakespy at her new gallery on Pine. After the 6th cake, I cried uncle & effectively spoiled my appetite for sweets for the week.

For the record, my allegiance was with cake. Sadly, pie won. In this corner of the country, pie never had a chance. At least I got to meet Porkchop, Pug Extraordinaire.

Today rolled in gray, making my earlier decision to attend the LUPEC Rum Class appear almost prescient. (Like many in Seattle, I dread boxing myself inside on a potentially sunny day!)

The event was held at Spur & our teacher was the talented Marley. We arrived to find a great spread of antipasti & a thick packet of information, all about rum. Marley led us through tasting many kinds before wrapping up class with two kinds of Mai Tais & the potent final: The Zombie. Sidebar: this was an excellent exercise in pacing. One must be on their marks, right out the gate.

In our state, an impromptu dumpling crawl in the International District sounded like an ace plan. First up, the Ping Lee Market to investigate future takeout. Excellent:

Then we wandered into the cave-like Fu Lin for our first delicious order of Shanghai Juicy (soup) Dumplings. They were solidly good & inexpensive.

Next, we visited Shanghai Garden for Shanghai Juicy Dumplings with ginger, pork & scallion, High Nutrition Barleygreen Noodles, and Spare Ribs.


The verdict at Shanghai Garden: wicked awesome.

Our final tasting stop was Uwajimaya’s Food Court for Beard Papa’s new Paris Brest and the Dulce de Leche Cream Puffs. Good, but I almost always want their cream puffs to be more than they are.

Sufficiently back down to earth, we wrapped up our late afternoon shopping the aisles of Uwajimaya.

Yeah, I’d say it was the perfect rainy Seattle Saturday.

We waited in line to get into Mike Daisey‘s show tonight at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Seats were free, and we lined up an hour early, and strangely, the line thickened in front of us. Consequently, we found ourselves heading elsewhere for our evening’s entertainment. At least the company was delightful. We’ll try again when he comes back.

This was such a lovely evening, it nearly gave me writer’s block.

Tonight, I was lucky to have dinner with two friends, Eliza & Sara at Ray’s. Sara recently re-introduced me to this Shilshole gem over a sunny July lunch — we agreed we must take Eliza here during her upcoming visit. Eliza’s visiting the state from my hometown.

Ray’s is a classic seafood restaurant with high standards, but what I really love is the deck of Ray’s Cafe on a Summer evening. See above (top picture), the view from our table. We were in prime sunset hours.

We talked late. Can’t wait til we meet again.

Around 2 o’clock, my dog quickly and quietly ran to the front door, only to stop and glare at the weatherstrip. Thirty seconds later, I heard the postman thud. Inside — pictured above, my new note set. Thanks, mom!

We had abysmal service at a little pizza place in Ballard tonight. You know it. Memories fade when you don’t get into details, so I’ll say aside from the reserve-able big table with friends, I only ever want to sit at the bar in the future.

Today, sprizee & I had lunch with a talented photographer from Dunder Mifflin at The 35th Street Bistro.

My dining companions had a Croque Madame Brioche & a Farmer’s Lunch that included a grilled cheese on brioche plus a side salad and Watermelon, Cucumber and Honeydew Melon Soup. All bistro-lovely. I had the Salade de Crevette et de Romaine Grillée. There were only 3 prawns, grilling the romaine was unnecessary, and it benefited greatly from a healthy dash of salt — but I will still happy with it. Must be something to do with the bacon lardons included. I’d return. There are few places of this restaurant genre near “south Fremont.”

We caught up on this week’s Mad Men.

Note to broadcasters: I’d love to be able to buy an episode a la carte, on the night of! Someday.

We joined friends at Tilth for today’s installment Seattle Chef’s Table. Chefs were present from Rover’s, Lark, Cafe Juanita, Crush, Terra Plata, & Tilth. It made me want to swear never to visit their establishments without checking that they’re behind the stove. It makes such an immense difference.

My favorite dishes were Billy’s Tomatoes & Burrata and the Greek Yogurt Mousse. Oh, but that smoked blackcod’s memorable too…Ok, so I enjoyed every last dish. If you can go, do it.

Our menu, transcribed from above & with my opinions, behind the cut:

I joined Karen, Ryan & Melissa for a party for the Seafair Torchlight. In 10 years in Seattle, I’ve never seen so much diversity in one place for one activity. It felt like every cultural group in the area had representation from Leavenworth-Bavarian beauty queens to high school drill teams to Mexican-American equestrians to Pacific Islanders dancing to Sikh Martial Artists. The crowd was nearly as diverse. Like. Plus, there were the well-known pirates, clowns, and special guests: Alaska Airlines flight attendants doing a choreographed routine to “I Gotta Feeling,” while being led by traffic controllers down 4th.

And crocodiles, too.

More in the set here:

There’s been buzz about the Buckaroo closing, but I first caught wind of it earlier today.

Else, today was dedicated to naps.