Category: about Seattle

We were in serious need of some downtime so today was slow-paced. In the evening, I met up with girlfriends Sara, Natala, and Sarah at Citizen Coffee in Lower Queen Anne.

We got to chatting with the owner during dinner. I love the neighborhood feel to this place. People can stop in to get coffee, crepes (savory & dessert, with a side salad or and egg on top!), vietnamese sandwiches, and wines. The crepes were delicious. Reasonable prices — especially the wine list. Natala picked up extra bottles of the sparkling Shiraz to take home. We followed Citizen with Laredo for Sangria and crazy-addicting chips and salsa, then Crow for Bellinis. Perfect evening with friends.

Backstory: we’d made plans with Rocky for Salumi’s backroom lunch. I’ve heard about it for years, but neither Naomi nor I had been. Rocky set it up weeks ago.

Last night at Korean BBQ, Naomi asked,
“GUESS who’s coming to lunch with us tomorrow?”
“Who?”
“Frank Bruni.”
“NO. Really? Get. Out.”

He’d be in town for an Elliott Bay book talk and two Kim Ricketts events for Friday night. I loved Bruni’s 5-year stint as a down-to-earth critic in the New York Times, and when running, regularly listened to his podcasts. But things came up & I had plans elsewhere.

So. He joined our group for the epic backroom lunch. My favorite — the lardo lollipops on grissini. We had sweet-and-sour cippolini onions, pasta with spicy pork, spicy pepper stew, pork loin porcetta, culatello on gnocco fritto (fried gnocchi puffs)…that’s only a sampling of dishes, as I wrote nothing down and took few pictures so I’d take it all in.

Just a day in the life, y’all.

Salumi graciously commemorated a birthday (Leslie‘s) in our party with these.

Gastrognome, Rachel, and I (the Muffin Top Trio — it’s a story) reunited for Korean BBQ tonight. Sure, the grill was great but the unanimous favorite was the raw beef appetizer. If you go to Kaya, keep in mind the portions are huge. We ordered the BBQ for 3 people, when there were actually 6 at our table, and ordered more dishes to complement, like naengmyun and dduk sam. We were stuffed. The space is as gorgeous as the Seattle Weekly article on Korean in Seattle suggests.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the Kites from yesterday, I did catch some of them late afternoon.

I pulled into Gasworks this afternoon to take some quick pictures in honor of Worldwide Moment for 09/09/09, 9:09 AM Tokyo time. I realized I’d arrived upon the artists setting up the 121 Kite art installation for tomorrow.

For my mom & brother’s last night visiting, we took them to our neighborhood fave – India Bistro for dinner.

Today was the big LSU vs. UW game at Husky Stadium. My mom, bro, me & Mr. T bussed it down and met with Mr. T’s Dad. He was wearing all Husky gear, while I was in my LSU cap. The guys behind us saw us walking up at one point and laughed, “Y’all are one confused family, huh?” Mr. T’s Dad & I just laughed right back.

Thanks to the ESPN media timeouts, the game lasted over 4 hours. Nonetheless, our team won. 43-31, Tigers!

This dude was funny.

For my mom and brother’s first full day in Seattle, we headed to Pike Place Market. I’d never been to the Athenian, but heard it was good to watch the ferries come and go. I loved that they served their fries as the Greeks do. Their Uli’s Gyro wasn’t shabby either.

We spent several hours amongst the mob where I finally realized Seattle would be overrun by Louisianans visiting for the game. I enjoyed chattin up all the folks from my hometown, though. I even spotted tiger tails:

Mid-afternoon, we visited the Space Needle. I’ve got an annual pass right now. For every trip, I can bring along a guest and get breaks on the rest. I’ve had it for six months and today’s the first time I made the visit…I’ll be going again soon.

In line at the ticket booth, Tiger fans were chanting in rounds for their team. Everyone on top of the Space Needle seemed to be from Louisiana.

Once Mr. T got home from work, we decided waterfront dining would be best with the spectacular weather. We headed to Lake Union and watched the ships go by until the sun set. After dinner, we decided to show my brother Husky Stadium & went to a bookstore. I found a gem “Breaking Bad News with Baby Animals” — I’d have picked it up, but the only copy was falling apart.
Witness:

Great first day.

I’ve given up on most other mobile food trucks, but I just love the folks at Marination Mobile. Before a lunchtime meeting, I dashed over to pick up my weekly fix. Kalua Pork Slider, kalbi beef & pork tacos.

Tonight, I’m headed to the airport to pick up my mom and brother. They’re visiting Seattle for the first time since I’ve moved here nine years ago.

I’m on the hunt for a new side buffet in our kitchen. I was hoping to have it set up before my mom’s upcoming visit, but World Market was handing out rain checks on the piece I wanted.

While I was waiting for the stockers to verify that the item was out of stock, I noticed these Googles cookies. Apparently no relation to the megacorp, but I say it’d be great diversification.

Promotion the way it used to be done, before sites and twitter and gCalendars. I’d be surprised if any Fremont residents don’t know Skillet’s here weekly. You can follow a trail of people every week to find the trailer.

Tonight is Sprizee‘s dude’s birthday. We’re going to wing it. And maybe have some birthday cake.

I also backfilled the last day of our San Francisco trip here: SF Street Food Festival + Humphry Slocombe.

Cupcakes might be on their way to bacon’s fate (overplayed, man), but I love ’em.

Vanessa‘s going out of town for a bit & will be gone on her birthday. Tonight at her place on Alki Beach, we celebrated in advance.

In San Francisco last week, the dudes at 15 Romolo suggested Txori to Mr. T. It’s been on my List for a while, to try. Tonight, we went with Gus & Matt to check it out.

Drinks were great, except for that last Pepino. I was mostly whelmed, neither over or under, by the food selection. Choices are divided between pintxos frios (cold) and pintxos caldos (hot). The albondigas (caldo) were my favorite, but I liked the Prosciutto (frio). The braised pork and braised beef bites were just okay, almost lacking in flavor like the ingredients themselves weren’t at their best.

I’m guessing this Tuesday night just was an off night, much like how none of my pictures turned out. Ah well, ’twas no Romolo. I’ll try ’em again though.

2207 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA 98121

Tonight I went to Alki for another Canvolution meeting at Kim’s. This weekend’s our first major event, so we talked of final strategies and future ones as well.

It amuses me to no end that she’s basically a neighbor of a friend I visit every week. Alki’s my second-favorite neighborhood this year.

I know, I know. I go to San Francisco and back, and all you got was this shot taken before Sunday brunch in Ballard instead of those other picks: “Follow Me to the Sundown Saloon. It’s nicer than this car.”

We met up with Ian & Celeste to go to A Caprice Kitchen. Good, as it was last time. Service more hurried than I’d expect. It’s got great company down the street with Delancey and Honoré— Celeste & I picked up treats for mid-afternoon on our way home.

All the rich food and drink is catching up with me, reminding me of our trip to New Orleans in March.

I wasn’t hungry for a month afterward. We had dinner plans with Deborah at Nopa, so I soldiered on for great conversation and a late night walk through Hayes Valley, the Civic Center area, back via the BART to Embarcadero, talking all the way. I’ve really missed Deborah.

the bar at Nopa

We are lucky enough this year that the tomatoes are coming in! We harvested some of the Black Prince tomatoes today, with cucumbers, lettuce, and cherry tomatoes all from the garden. We’re getting ready for a trip to San Francisco this week, so it seemed a great excuse to stay in and use up our fresh veggies and bread before we leave.

I learned to read by Sesame Street when I was 3 or 4. I loved the word-scramble animations back then. My Dad used to call me Oscar the Grouch when I was overtired. I loved Bert & Ernie, Big Bird and Mr. Snuffalapagus. I couldn’t miss the Fantastic World Exhibit at the EMP. Mr. T and I went shortly after he made an awesome brunch of blackberry pancakes.

They showed all sorts of Jim Henson projects over his lifetime of work. Including storyboards, early muppeteering, and later fantasy projects. I left the exhibit totally inspired to do something creative.

I liked the soft wall of exotic muppet fur so much, Mr. T threatened, “I know what someone’s getting installed for Christmas…”

Tonight, some of my pals from my book club are headed to Golden Gardens & later, Mad Men!!

Mr. T’s colleagues met up to check out the snow leopards. Two babies were born — on Mr. T’s birthday, as it happened — this past May. We waited in a good long line before learning that they were asleep, do not disturb.

The day wasn’t wasted. We visited penguins, giraffes, and the dingos. More in the set here on flickr.

After work, I bussed downtown to see a friend & her husband visiting from Phoenix. We met at Lola’s, my favorite of all of the Tom Douglas restaurants. A few hours later, I headed back to Fremont to officially head home for the evening. I spotted these two best friends outside of the pho joint. They kept resting their heads on top of each other, watching out in either direction. Adorable.

About four years ago, I made my first wishlist of Seattle restaurants. Matt’s in the Market was in the top ten. I’m not sure why I never made it before tonight, but I’m not sure if we’ll ever go again.

As I described to a friend later:
Our reservation was at 8:30. We should have had the salmon or the snapper — we tried 4 smaller plates and a dessert and were pretty underwhelmed. We’d been hoping that the variety would yield good results, but no go.

The bad: For over $110, I expect a really good meal. We tried the “caprese” (the tomatoes were TERRIBLE — how do you do that above the market?), the foie gras BLT, the pork belly, and the raspberry lemon bread pudding. Come to think of it, Mr. T REALLY loved that bread pudding. That should go in the good column.

I’d heard great things about Matt’s for years, so it was a let down. I’d go again if someone else insisted, but I’d never recommend this to a visitor, even for the great view of Pike Place Market.