Joel Robuchon Extravaganza

For our 30th birthday dinner, Way and I decided to treat ourselves to the Tasting Menu at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Joel Robuchon is a fancy-pants French chef that has has 25 Michelin-stars - the most of any chef in the world. His only US-based restaurant is in Vegas.

I haven't had many tasting menus, and none nearly as expensive as this one, and I have to be honest - I was a mite dissappointed with our meal here. The service was good, but not top notch. The decor was cool, but with the blaring music and all that darkness, it felt more trendy than posh. And, the food, while well-executed, wasn't all that creative. Nor, worth the expense. For example, my foie-gras stuffed quail included a tiny little portion of foie gras. I recall going to Restaurant Zoe in Seattle a few weeks ago with my aunt, and her foie gras appetizer was the size of a fist!

I don't mean to make it sound like the meal was bad though. It was all very good, just not mind-blowing good. I'm glad that I did the menu too. If I hadn't, I would always wonder about this place.

Anyway, pics of our dinner below. Enjoy!

Foie-Gras Parfait with Port Wine and Parmesan Foam: Way loved this one, but I thought the Parmesan Foam was too strong. I waxed on and on about the Truffle Cauliflower Flan at Tilth a few months ago, and this one couldn't compare. I know, truffle is not the same as foie gras, but the textures were very similar.

Smoked Salmon in Herb Gelee with Wasabi Cream: This was lovely! Nice and light, with just a hint of wasabi hot-ness.

Poached Baby Kusshi Oysters: SOOO delectable. Definitely one of the standouts!

Cripsy Langoustine Fritter: Tasted like a very well done Tempura shrimp.

Foie Gras Ravioli: My favorite of the night. The Ravioli was melt-in-your-mouth good, bursting with Foie-Gras flavor. Excellent!

Dover Sole with Warm Leek Salad: Excellently prepared, but a bit boring.

Foie Gras Stuffed Quail: I was really looking forward to this dish, but it fell flat for me. No foie-gras flavor, and the accompanying sauce was too sweet. The truffle mash potato had no truffle flavor either!

Savarin with Rum: Way too rum-y for me!

Strawberry Mergingue with Fennel Parfait: A very good end to the meal. Nice and light with tons of strawberry flavor.

Birthday Surprise! Very nice of them.

Tired but happy after our meal!

Vegas Baby!

I officially joined Scott in the over-30s-club last weekend. To celebrate, we hopped on a plane and headed to Las Vegas where we met up with Way, Kevin, Rebecca and Patrick. It was SO nice to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. It made me really really miss the dry heat. And, I had a new appreciation for the desert landscape - it's so different from Seattle and very impressive in its own way.

The past few times I've gone to Vegas has been ... different ... and I used to pinpoint it on the fact that we were going with our husbands. But now, I think I might have to lay the blame on the fact that we're just all getting older and more boring. Gone are the nights where we dress to the nines and then stay up dancing until our feet hurt. Now, we seek out good food and then have a few drinks before tucking into bed at a relatively early hour (for Vegas anyway). While I like the good food part, I do really miss going dancing at the clubs. There's nothing quite like clubbing in Vegas!

Anyway, here's a few pics of the weekend. I'll do a separate post on our 30th bday dinner!

Tulip Time!

The Skagit Valley's claim to fame is their annual Tulip Festival in April. The past few weeks of April have been dreary but since it is finally warming up all the flowers are in bloom and we made it a priority to check out the tulip fields! The tulip fields were lovely and they really inspire you to want to plant your own tulips. After all that walking around, we decided that our favorite colors were the red with orange tips, red, and dark pink flowers.

First Mariner's Game!

One of the consulting companies we work with had four tickets to last night's Mariner's game and my coworker Annie snagged them for the MyTMO team! Unfortunately, our two other teammates couldn't make it so we ended up going with some of our friends on the Web team. For Julie and I, it was our first ever Mariner's game and we did it up in style!

First stop was the beer garden at Pyramid Brewery, right across the street from Safeco Field. We downed some beers (I got the Amber but didn't have a chance to try the "Curveball" ale), had some grub and then skipped over to the ballpark. Our seats were terrific - 3rd base, 2nd row! Easily the best seats I've ever had at a baseball game before (heh, I'm used to the $1 tix at Dodger games!). The gentlemen in front of us left the game early and generously offered for us to take their seats so we moved down to sit right on the field. The seats gave us great views but they were also super cold! The roof on the stadium was closed, but the wind was whipping the rain around and being in the first row meant no shield for that water or wind! Still, it felt very "Seattle", and it just gives me an excuse to go back to a game when it's nice and sunny out!

Checkout the new Sidekick!

I've been heads down on several projects at work and my first one launched tonight! I was working on the pre-sale of the new 3G Sidekick. This is only the second presale TMobile has done so there was a lot of internal coordination that was needed. It's been very interesting, and different, working for a company that sells a consumer product. I've been so used to working at a company where all of my "products" are online; now I have to take into consideration all the business and operational aspects of a tangible asset and it's been a fun learning experience!

Anyway, if you want to check out the new Sidekick, go to the sidekick.com site. You won't be able to purchase it right now unless you are a T-Mobile customer though. If you aren't a TMO customer, you will have to wait and try to get it when it launches on May 13th. See - being TMO customer has its perks!

Spring is in the air!

The weather is starting to slowly warm up (if you call 50 and 60s warm!) and spring flowers are starting to bloom. I see patches of daffodils everywhere. Along Greenlake, there are beds and beds of yellow and white daffodils and they look so friendly and cheerful!

We took advantage of a sunbreak yesterday to walk through the Arboretum to see what's going on. If you remember, we were there in the fall when the leaves were just starting to turn and it was gorgeous! We were hoping spring would be just as pretty there. Not everything is in bloom yet though but a lot of the fruit trees were flowering which made for a nice walk. There were lots of trees that looked like cotton candy sticks, there were so full of little flowers! There were a lot of other trees with little buds so we will need to go back in a few weeks again.

Block party... Phinney style

This evening May and I joined the rest of our neighborhood in the first annual "Summer Street Festival". The city organized an event for all the residents to get together, hang out and visit the local merchants. Who knew so many kids lived in our neighborhood? It was really fun to see hundreds of locals walking around, socializing and popping into the local shops (most for the first time).

In order to accomodate the anticipated crowds, the Seattle police came in force and blocked-off almost 20 blocks on Greenwood to allow for easy roaming on the streets. Okay, so it's the first year of this event and Phinney is the first of many Seattle neighborhoods to participate, but the local store owners really didn't capitalize on the flock of people and set-up stands on the street. I anticipate in future years seeing a lot more outdoor tents, merchandise displays and street food. Hopefully they will pick a warmer day too.

Interesting new stores:
- Strut (walking shoe store)
- Greenwood Space Travel Company (creative writing non-profit - very 1960's space theme)
- Zak & Zoe (fun pet accessory store)

A little taste of Bavaria

Scott and I have been to Europe a few times now but we've never made it over to Germany or the Bavarian Alps even though it is high on our list of places to visit. Well - we made due last weekend by visiting the little Bavarian village right here in Washington!

Leavenworth is this cheesy little Bavarian themed town about 2.5 hours from Seattle. It's nestled right up against the mountains and is supposedly lots of fun to visit during Oktoberfest or in December when they have Christmas markets. It reminded us very much of Solvang, except German-themed instead of Dutch-themed. We spent a few hours walking around town, checking out the nutcracker shop and doing some wine tasting and had a nice afternoon. We also go out fill of beer and sausage - a very fine German meal! Truthfully though, we were disappointed in the beer selection; the beer on tap were ones you could easily find at the supermarket.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed over to Mission Ridge ski area to test out our snowshoes! We bought these babies a while ago, but haven't had a chance to try them out. The snow was started to melt away but there was lots of it so the sun didn't do as much damage as it probably wanted to. We had a great time stomping around in the snow and definitely plan on doing it again next season. I think I may have found my new winter sport!

New in the Neighborhood

Happy happy joy joy! I just read online that a new Ramen joint will be coming to our neighborhood! Apparently, they are taking over the King Falafel place that is several blocks away. Hooray! I love the thought of having another noodle joint nearby. Right now, we have 2 pho places nearby. I've seen a sign at one of the Chinese restaurants that they have 'hand-shaven' noodles so I'm going to have to try those out soon. But... you know me - I heart soup noodles so I'm excited that there will be ramen restaurant!

In other neighborhood news, we have a lot of new things going up! Ken's market expansion is well underway and we're really looking forward to having a good size grocery store so close to us. A few blocks south of us, probably around 60th or so, is Phinney Market. From the photos I've seen, the store got a nice makeover and has a nice deli and cheese counter now. And, next door is a new thai restaurant called Tangerine Thai. It's set to open later this month.

Lots going on here!

Arrgh - St. Patrick's Day with a Pirate Theme

On St. Patrick's day, May and I decided to take a slight departure from the typical Irish pub, instead we opted for some mead and grog! A new pub called "Pillager's Pub" opened up in our neighborhood recently and needless to say, we were curious to visit the place. The Jerk Chicken Wing appetizer was surprisingly tasty which we washed-down with the Cutthroat Red (Baron) Ale. On our walk back home we decided to visit our favorite local tap house, Naked City. To our delight, they were blaring some U2 tunes and it was packed. It's always fun to see what the rotating handles for the week are. Afterward we went back home and some good ol' corned beef and cabbage left overs (can't have enough of this).

Happy Hours

It's been a pretty quiet few weeks, what with the weather being so rainy and cloudy. The most fun we've had has been trying out different happy hours. Unlike LA, we've found that Seattle has a rockin' happy hour life. It's a double bonus that since we take the bus to and from work, stopping for a drink on the way home is do-able since neither one of us has to drink and drive!

Way turned us on to UrbanDrinks.com, a wonderfully simple concept-of-a-website but oh-so-useful! It lists out all of the happy hours, by neighborhood, that are happening right now. We have consulted it numerous times and have even updated it with happy hours that we know of that were missing from their list.

Anyhoo, we had some time last Saturday and were excited to see that there were even happy hours going on during a weekend afternoon! We were in downtown doing some shopping and had time to kill before we watched Watchmen, so we walked up a few blocks to Ruth's Chris to check out their HH.

The HH was actually pretty impressive! Scott ordered a Gin Martini and I got a Lemon Drop (YUM!), and then we split Ribeye Sliders, Ahi Tuni, Kobe Beef Sliders and BBQ Shrimp. It was more than enough to make a full meal, and the Ribeye Sliders were so so so delectable! The service was also really friendly and quick, so I'd give their happy hour an A rating.