Wallingford Date Night!

Scott and I had a date night out last night and explored the little neighborhood of Wallingford!

First stop was Issian Japanese Stone Grill for dinner. I've read a little bit about this Yakitori joint and we were both really happy with our meal. Scott liked the JFC (Japenese Fried Chicken), which was very hot, moist and tasty. My fave was the grilled Kurobata Pork Belly - so fatty and delicious! We'll definitely be back.

Next, we popped into Bottleworks. This places gets mentioned all the time for having a great selection of bottled beers from around the world. It's a pretty small store, but both sides of the wall are lined with bottles and it is a pretty impressive collection. I couldn't find any Australian beer, but there sure were lots of lambics and other specialty bottles that we had never heard of before.

Lastly, we watched (500) Days of Summer at the old Guild Theater. We had been in the Theater before to watch Australia a few months ago and Scott commented that for such an old theater, they charge premium prices ($9.50) and don't seem to be using that money to spruce up the place! I think the theater is fine though - it's old, but clean and since it's never too crowded, you don't miss the stadium seating that the new theaters have. The movie itself was pretty good, but a little depressing.

I love Tacos!

There's very little out there as satisfying as a really great "Mexico-city style" taco. It's such a simple idea of a dish but so hard to come by a really good one. I liken it to a really great Bolognese - everyone can make it, but few can make it swoon-worthy. The tortilla has to be the right texture of soft and smooth but not too thick. The meat has to be juicy, perhaps even fatty, salty and slightly charred. This all needs to then be topped with a generous heaping of onions and cilantro. No more, no less. Don't destroy this lovely bundle of tastiness with tomatoes or cheese; it doesn't need all those extras! The finishing touch is to douse on salsa - something spicy, runny and home-made. Tapatio is not what I'm talking about here. Next, assemble your plate to have some sliced radishes ready in case your mouth needs to be cooled down from all that salsa. Grab a napkin and a big cup of soda and you're ready to have one fine meal.

I've been missing tasty tacos for awhile now. We've run into some ok places so far in Seattle, but home-made, authentic Mexican food isn't as easy to access as it is in LA. Driving through Toppenish this weekend on our way to the wineries, we noticed the large hispanic population and the numerous taco trucks and that got me super-excited about finding a hole-in-the-wall joint that could give me my taco fix. We randomly pulled into El Charrito and I'm happy to report my tummy left satisfied! I ordered a Carnitas taco and Carne Asada taco. Both weren't the best I've ever had, but they soothed the cravings for now. The tortillas were wonderful and the meat well seasoned, but I wished the salsa was spicier and the carne asada not be so chopped up. In any case, it felt a little like being back in the Valley, what with the hot weather outside. the Mexican radio inside and me munching away on tacos!

Saturday Wine Tasting

Saturday proved to be a nice, warm sunny day for us in Yakima. We started out at a few wineries near Toppenish (Bonair, Two Mountain, Porteus), the most tasty of the afternoon we thought was Two Mountain and the most friendly was Porteus. We spoke to the wine makers at Porteus for quite awhile and they shared tips on restaurants, breweries and pics of last year's snow fall on the valley floor. Quite fun.

We had fun driving around the farm country hunting down the wineries and for lunch we decided to venture into Toppenish for some local Mexican food. Boy was it tasty. The town itself was quite interesting, it is famous for all of the historical murals (on most public & private buildings) and 1800's style frontier store fronts. Made us feel like we were in an old west town from the movies - yeeehaa!

Our timing was impecable, we arrived on "Hop Fest" weekend - the annual celebration for the upcoming hop gathering. We didn't stay long though, there really wasn't much tying back to the Hop theme at the event - huge tractor displays, classic snowmobile show and some cheesy live music. We went hunting at the event for Pickled Hop Shoots (found only at our local pub), but alas no one in town had ever heard of such a thing.

Sunny Yakima Valley

This past weekend May and I switched plans and instead of visiting the northern Olympic Peninsula (due to some forecasted rain), we decided to explore the sunny Yakima Valley.

Yakima valley is about 2.5 hours away from Seattle, due east. It's known for a few things, namely: the Yakima river which runs through town, it's the start of the Washington wine region and it's the largest concentration of "Hop" vines in North America (approx 80% of hops in domestic beer comes from this little region).

We booked our hotel last minute, so there weren't many options, but I was able to get a decent deal on the local HoJo (Howard Johnson) hotel. All in all not bad - good location in town and a great shower. For those familiar with California, Yakima wasn't quite what we were expecting having grown up with Santa Ynez wineries nearby with all their charm and breath-taking views. Now, that said, there was a notable distinction we found: wine tasting on the winery properties were usually pretty modest (and free), but they winery staff were a bit more friendly than at California wineries.

On Friday night May and I came across Bert's pub and had a tasty dinner of Jalapeno Mac & Cheese, Burger Sliders and a few of the local brews (Yakima Craft Amber and the Iron Horse IPA). It was good, but I probably would not go again - had a little too much of a true bar feel to it.

Lip-smackin' Crab

After a full day of snacking and crab trap throwing, we ventured back to our friend's home and prepared our catch for dinner. Thankfully our friends had a ginormous turkey-fryer pot that we used to cook up all the crabs in at once. Once the water got to a boil we flopped the still-alive crabs into the pot and 10 minutes later we had crispy goodness. We decided to crack all the crabs and extract the meat before eating - both fun and a lot of work. Only down side is that the meat is cold by the time you eat it. There were rumors that we might get sick off of eating too much crab. The rumor proved false, I could still eat more of them.

After dinner we visited our friend's chicken coop (big fat chickens looked tasty too), the kiddies went swimming in their little pool and then we went fishing on their dock. Low and behold, I was the only person to catch a fish...it was 2" long.

Neighborhood Thai Place

The weather has turned from hot hot to pleasantly warm and we took advantage by walking down a few blocks to Tangerine, the new Thai restaurant that opened up in our neighborhood. Verdict: two thumbs up! Since it was warm out, I stuck with a nice light Squid Salad while Scott ordered the Pad Keur (eggplant) with Chicken. Both were really quite nice - good flavor and lots of heat. Me-thinks we will be back soon!

On a side note, like a lot of other restaurants in town, Tangerine doesn't really have windows; instead of windows, it has a see-through garage door. On nice days, they roll up the garage door and the restaurant becomes open air. It's really great actually since it lets in so much light and lets you enjoy the weather!

Crab Goodness

Yesterday marked the first time May and I went crabbing. Would we do it again? Definitely. One of the most leisurely "sports" in the world. It consists of throwing a crab trap ("pot") in the water, eating lunch and then checking your traps. That's about it. Best part about it was that it actually didn't require a boat.

We joined our friend's Scott & Corrin along with their family on a ferry ride from Edmunds (about 12 miles north of us) to Kingston (tip of the Olympic peninsula). We walked off the boat with a cooler for the crabs, traps and some ropes and walked about 200 feet to the fishing pier. The biggest mistake of the day was using frozen crab bait ("hockey pucks") and removing them from their protective plastic cover. We should have known better, but while we were at lunch they disintegrated pretty quickly. After about 2 hours we returned and found only 2 crabs in all 3 of the traps we were using and no bait left. Bummer. So we headed to the local store and picked up some near-expiring chicken thighs. They worked brilliantly! Within 2 hours (and a lot of crab pot micro-managing) we collected another 7 Red-rock crabs.

Things we learned:

• Check pots regularly, numerous times starfish entered the cage and enveloped the bait.
• Male crabs have a pointed abdomen, females are round.
• Use tongs to handle the little suckers, they move really fast and have mean pinchers.
• Everyone loves chicken, including crabs.

Seafood Fest - Cross it off of our list!

Cross the Ballard Seafood Fest off of our "to-do" list! We made our way over yesterday morning after conveniently dropping our car off at a nearby tire center to get the tire fixed. We were lame and didn't see the Smoked Salmon lunch booth so instead, I got a Blackened Shrimp lunch while Scott ate some Indian food. I gave him a hard time about it - why get chicken when you are a seafood fest? Anyway, then we walked around a bit more and checked out some of the shops in Ballard. It was a pleasant morning since it wasn't too crowded or too hot. Next year we'll make sure to try the smoked salmon!

PNA Summer Beer Taste

Last weekend May and I joined our friend Greg for the annual Phinney Neighborhood Association beer taste. It was a beautiful hot, summer evening, chock-full of beer enthusiasts with live music to boot.




Best food:

• Barking Dog bratwurst sandwiches
  

Best beer:

1. Alpine Brewing - Weizen-Bock
2. Boulevard Brewing - Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
3. Georgetown Brewing - Manny's Pale Ale
4. Issaquah Brewery - Menage-a-Frog (belgian style trippel)
5. Maritime Pacific Brewery - Triple Dry-Hopped Islander Pale Ale

To finish off the evening we had a burger-rifick BBQ in the backyard followed by a competitive game of Scrabble (thankfully May was on my team).

Congrats to Erica and Dave!

Two weeks ago we flew down to LA for our friend's Erica and Dave's wedding. The weather was typical LA - sunny, hot and dry. Scott didn't like it one bit and I admit I complained a little here and there, but it felt so nice to not worry about bringing a sweater in case the weather turns!

The wedding was held in Calamigos Ranch in the Malibu hills. Erica looked stunning in her custom made dress, and she and Dave looked happy as clams! They're moving to Atlanta after the get back from their honeymoon in Paris and while I'm excited they are starting their new life together, it's also sad to think that my friends are scattering all across the country. Oh well - this just gives me a reason to visit the South!