Breakfast at Andy’s Flour Power
We love this place, a local bakery where everything served is fresh cooked. No matter what I order, I always love that it smells of cinnamon when it arrives, because of the home baked walnut-raisin toast on the plate. Normally, I can pass on toast, it is just filler. When it is Andy’s Flour Power walnut-raising toast – I groan, and eat every bite.
After Thanksgiving Dinner, we thought we would never eat again. But after fasting from afternoon until the next day, we find that, after all, we are hungry for breakfast. Here is what we had for breakfast – I had a spinach – swiss cheese omelette:
AdventureMan’s biscuits and gravy were to die for (he says):
Law and Order Man’s Ham and Cheese Omelette:
EnviroGirl got the most beautiful dish of all – a vegetable frittata:
It was thundery and a little rainy on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving:
“Seriously Bad Men”
AdventureMan and I are on a beach, and enjoyed one of the most magnificent sunsets we have ever seen, absolutely painterly, and I took lots of shots to share with you only to discover I don’t have my card reader/uploader little stick, so I have to wait until I can share them with you.
AdventureMan is having so much fun he has worn himself out, and today he came down with a bad cold. He spent some time napping while I spent some time out on the balcony, enjoying the sun and the crashing waves. When it came time for dinner, we decided some nice hot soup and hot tea would help him feel a lot better. Went down to the car, and our car is blocked by a huge white SUV, left running, doors locked, no driver.
For a minute we thought we were back in Kuwait.
There were three guys standing outside the office to the hotel, smoking and chatting (think Hank Hill) and we asked them if the car was their’s, and they said “No, it is the POLICE. There are some seriously bad men they are after, with guns!”
After about fifteen minutes, a couple beefy cops came by and one moved the car and parked it legally. We went and had a very delicious dinner at a Japanese restaurant where, when we told the owner we live in Kuwait, he said “Salaam A’aleikum” which astounded me, but he said he was Canadian-Japanese, and grew up with Arab immigrant kids. I love America.
On our way home, we stopped at a Publix, a very wonderful food market, where we picked up some green tea and coffee and bananas, just a little something to have in the room, and we also picked up some Thanksgiving bundles – how cool is this? Publix puts together grocery bags of Thanksgiving foods for the poor and needy, and has them on a stand by the check-out stands. You pick them up, pay for them, drop them in a bin and some needy family gets food for the holidays. They make it so easy to donate. We have so much for which we are thankful. I love this place.
When we got back to the motel, the cops were still surrounding the room (not in our building) where the seriously bad guys were holed up, and now, a couple hours later, there are two great big slow moving helicopters patrolling the beach area with huge spotlights, evidently trying to spot them on the move or something.
One of the bad buys is “SWAT trained” we were told.
The locks on our doors are not very serious locks. I am just hoping they catch them and go home so I can listen to the crashing of the waves in peace.
Joanna Brady and Tumbleweeds
I have a lot going on right now, and that is when I turn to books, I don’t know why. The more scheduled I am, the more important it is that I have fairly lightweight reading. My favorite genre is mystery, and there are a number of authors I follow, some more important than others.
I was reading the lastest Joanna Brady mystery, Dead Wrong, by Seattle author J.A. Jance. Joanna Brady became Police Chief in the small (fictional) Arizona town of Bisbee when her husband, then the police chief, was killed and she was asked to fill his position. Since then (several books) she has been elected and re-elected, and solved a lot of crimes, and re-married.
Now, in Dead Wrong, she is heavily pregnant, trying to solve a tricky murder that involves a puppy breeding mill and dog fighting ring.
“We have to go to Tumbleweeds tonight!” I call out to AdventureMan. “Joanna Brady is pregnant and she can’t eat creme brulee, but she dives right into tacos and enchiladas! Now I am starving for Mexican food!”
AdventureMan just laughs, he is always ready for Mexican food.
So just after sunset, we are king of the road, and we drive to Tumbleweeds.
I would love to say something nice about Tumbleweeds.
The service was slow. The servers were poorly trained. The food was SO mediocre. The chips were thick, and cold, and you could see fat congealed on them. The salsa was dull. The burritos and tacos were bland. No wonder we go there so rarely.
Dinner at Girardi’s Osteria in Edmonds
It was one of those magical not-to-be-predicted warm summer evenings in Seattle. We’ve had a funny week, alternating rain and bright, sunny days. This happened to be one of those bright sunny ones, and Sparkle and Mariner Man had invited Mom and me to dinner. They picked a place I had never been and had been interested in trying.
Oh! Wow!
I got there early, and thought I would take a quick look at the menu, posted outside. I’ve always loved it that in Europe, it is a requirement, so you can get a look to see what is offered before you go in and sit down and then discover that they don’t make what you have your heart set on. But I only had time for a quick glance before I heard Wooo Hooooos, and people calling my name; Sparkle and Mariner Man and my Mom had made it to the restaurant just minutes before I did.
They were waiting patiently, and what a great wait – Sparkle was sipping a pomegranate martini, and I had something red, dry and Italian – wine. We all started with crab cakes, which, I am sorry to say, were so good we just went right ahead and ate them and I didn’t even think to photograph. When the main courses arrived, Mariner Man pulled out his camera, thank God, or I might have just jumped right in and forgotten all about you!
I had the very delicious antipasti salad – with grilled shrimp. The shrimp had a delicious smokey flavor, and the salad was perfect for a warm summer night. They grate the fresh Parmesan over your salad – I was engrossed in conversation with Mariner Man over some camera technicalities before I noticed that my salad was getting LOADED with Parmesan and said “Whoa!”
Mom had the Veal Scallopine, very mild, very tender, very delicious:
She said that as a bonus, the carrots were parboiled, so that they were still crunchy, but not crisp, and were sweet and tender. She loved those carrots.
Sparkle started with the Tricolore Salad (Caprese: tomato slices with mozarella, basil and balsamic vinegar) That had an awesome basil pesto with it, then proceeded to the Pollo Putanesca – WOW. That is one of my favorite sauces, and when it is done well, it is awesome. This one was amazing – full of kalamata olives, anchovies, capers – and was intensely flavorful. She ate every bite (except the one she shared with me so I could taste 🙂 )
Mariner Man started with a Ceasar salad – again, WOW, the real thing, served with a whole anchovy and slices of parmesan cheese, and then his main course – Pollo Masala – which was better than good – it was amazing!
The dessert list was also amazing. Creme Caramel. Tiramisu. A whole list of sorbets. We all looked at it, and then looked at each other in dismay – we hadn’t saved any room! We were stuffed!
I would go to Girardi’s again in a heartbeat. The service was friendly without being intrusive, the atmosphere was comfortable and elegant, and the food was delicious. Thank you, Sparkle! Thank you, Mariner Man!
High Schoolers Find Trumped Up Fish in Sushi
This is a great story; you can read the whole article at The New York Times. High school students, listening to a dad talking about DNA coding, wondered if sushi served in New York was what it was labled. They took samples, examined just one gene, and found that a lot of the fish was marketed as much more select than it really was. Don’t you just love it? These kids have made the news!
Fish Tale Has DNA Hook: Students Find Bad Labels
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: August 21, 2008
Many New York sushi restaurants and seafood markets are playing a game of bait and switch, say two high school students turned high-tech sleuths.
In a tale of teenagers, sushi and science, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.
They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species.
What may be most impressive about the experiment is the ease with which the students accomplished it. Although the testing technique is at the forefront of research, the fact that anyone can take advantage of it by sending samples off to a laboratory meant the kind of investigative tools once restricted to Ph.D.’s and crime labs can move into the hands of curious diners and amateur scientists everywhere.
Read the entire article HERE.
Tai-ho’s in Kenmore, WA
“If she didn’t have a refrigerator, Intlxpatr (only she calls me by my real name), what did she do about laundry and diapers when you came along?”
I just looked at her stupidly. That had never occurred to me.
“I remember our next door neighbors had a barrel-shaped washing machine with a hand cranked wringer,” I responded, “but I think by that point my Mom had a more modern washing machine. I don’t know what she was using when I was born.”
Then, over noodles at Tai-Ho’s, where you watch the noodle-maker man in a specially built window, surrounded by Chinese, Chinese-Americans and Chinese-food lovers, we reminisced about our own babies, and laundry services. We were mothers of the hip generation, back-to-nature, and for eco reasons, we used a diaper service, which was considered much more earth-friendly.
“Oh! The smell of that diaper pail!” I groaned. We both moved on to Pampers after a few months with the soiled diaper smell.
We were rescued from any further contemplation of those pungent smells by the arrival of a delicious Hot and Sour Soup, a big bowl, which we divided, followed quickly by the Green Beans with Meat:
And then – one of the specialities of the house, the Seafood Basket, which is served in a basket of those noodles we saw the noodle-maker-guy making, filled with delectable scallops, shrimp, fish, fresh steamed crispy broccoli and water chestnuts, covered with a foam of egg whites – magnificent.
My friend had recommended the Green Beans, but she didn’t know about the Seafood Basket – we just ordered it to see what it was like. After it came, we saw other diners asking the waitress about it and several more came out of the kitchen. It was DELICIOUS.
Tai-Ho Restaurant
http://www.taihorestaurant.com
6312 NE Bothell Way
Kenmore, WA 98028
(425) 485-4020
If you are coming from Kuwait – or elsewhere – and want to eat like a local, you want Tai-Ho’s. It is purely wonderful.
Ivar’s Favorites
Just a little light supper – Ivar’s crab bisque and their wonderful sourdough rolls. A soft rain and just a brief flash of sunset as accompaniment.
Summer Sunday at the Pike Place Market
We have a great favorite tradition – hit the early service, 0800 – what my friend calls “speed church”, the one hour service instead of the longer family services – and then head straight for the Pike Place Market. Things get started there slowly on a summer Sunday morning, and we even found a free parking space – totally amazing.
First stop is breakfast at Campagne. We don’t have reservations, but they find a place for us:
The sun breaks forth and the market is teeming with people by the time we are finishing up:
In the 1970’s, the market was a little run-down and shabby, and many business people wanted to raze it and use the space for office buildings. Seattle residents said “NO!” and instead, the market was revitalized. It is one of the major tourist destinations in the city, and a lively spot every day of the week.
A long time ago, before the big Seattle fire, my family lived just up the street from this market.
Riverside BBQ in Seaside, OR
AdventureMan and I love eating out in Kuwait, and the only thing we really yearn for are: genuine Mexican food, Vietnamese food, and southern (USA) Barbecue. When we come to the US we make sure to sample those three main food groups. And we laugh at ourselves, because when we are in the US, we are always looking for a good Middle Eastern restaurant. 🙂
We all had a yearning for barbecue today, so we stopped by a little pink restaurant by the side of Highway 101 in Seaside that had two smokers outside. The smell was divine.
They had an extensive menu – beef, chicken and pork, and loads of sides – cornbread, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, cole slaw – just to name a few. Here were some of the platters:
This was the smoked chicken salad
The Meat Lover's Platter
The Rib dinner
The Rib platter for two with a side of potato salad
The counter where you order
The food was delicious. We ordered way too much – we had no idea how much food would come with each order. We boxed up the rest and brought it home to warm up later when we get hungry again, if ever.
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