Hot Lunch: Seattle Edition

Our vacation started off in Newark Airport at the Garden State Diner, which has a 1950's theme: they play all 50's music and fake newscasts with 50's news. Sample menu items: Lefty's Blue Collar Meatloaf and B29 Bomber Wings. They also serve the frigteningly alcoholic "Big Maki's Wild Card" which consists of vodka, rum, gin, Cointreau, cranberry juice and sweet and sour mix. Too many of these and you're sure to have an air marshall on your ass! G. opted for a garden salad and pizza fries, and we both had a glass of red wine. I'm pleased to report I didn't eat even one pizza fry - I knew I would be helpless to resist the food awaiting me in Seattle and wanted to hold out.

And good thing I did. On Friday we ate our way through the Pike Place Market. We both had a potato, onion and cheese pirosky from Piroshky Piroshky, which are definitely my new favorite food.

Next it was onto the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company, where we shared a grab bag of six mini-donuts. They were hot out of the oil and so delicious, especially the cinnamon suger ones. Here you can see them coming off the little conveyor belt.

Pike Place Market is home of the original Starbucks, so I snapped a pic of their original sign. Note the mermaid has breasts AND nipples, unlike her corporate extreme makeover version.

Mother's Day gift idea from Pike Place Fish.

On Friday night, while I parked myself on a bar stool with a glass of red wine and a pile of cheese, Kerry and G got busy in the kitchen. In the foreground you can see Kerry's famous, delicious crab cakes! She uses the recipe for Dungeness Crab Cakes from the Junior League of Seattle "Simply Classic" cookbook. Also on the table is Kerry's "secret recipe" aioli sauce, salad, bread, and homemade macaroni and cheese prepared by G, which was incredible. He used gruyere from Beecher's Handmade Cheese, Jack Daniels mustard, and lots of cayenne, which was mistanely labeled as paprika, but this was definitely a happy accident.

Mac and cheese close-up.

Crab cakes a fryin'.

For dessert Kerry whipped up this insanely delicious coconut cream pie. Not sure where the recipe was from, but it was mentioned in conjunction with famous Seattle chef Tom Douglas, so maybe it was his recipe?

On Saturday we had breakfast at the Portage Bay Cafe. They are known for their breakfast bar chock full of pancake toppings, including the biggest bowl of whipped cream I'd ever seen. I got scrambled eggs, toast, homefries and chicken-basil sausage and inhaled it before I could snap a pic.

Random nibblings: these coffee vanilla frappe samples from Seattle's Best Coffee. G ordered an espresso and we sat down at the bar to wait, so the barrista gave us some of this leftover frappe. I poured a tiny bit of G's hot esprsso on the cold frappe - heaven. Saturday night dinner was pizza from Piecora's. And there was lots of random chocolate and cheese snacking, and as you would expect, lots of delicous coffee was consumed.

It's now Monday evening, I'm back home, and am starting down the long, slow road to gastronomic recovery. I've been overindulging for four days straight, and the results of my culinary hedonism are reflected in the fact that I gained FIVE POUNDS. Can you really gain five pounds in four days? Good grief. Eh, whatever. It was worth every calorie, and I'm sure a week of eating normally again will even me out. Thanks to Kerry for all the cooking, cleaning and wonderful hosting - I'll be back soon for the pancake breakfast at the Swedish Cultural Center!

A quick note on the airplane food: I'm convinced I gained at least two pounds from the airplane food alone. I'm ashamed to admit I ate the disgusting, grey mystery meat offered on both flights. G was smart and ordered special vegan meals, and I was so sorry I didn't do the same: he got aloo muttar gobi on the way there, and an Amy's bean and rice burrito on the way back. I had a vile "hamburger" and a "steak" and cheese sub, both with a bag of potato chips and Milano cookies. Live and learn...

Pre-Vacation Refrigerator

Cleaned out my side of the fridge (the right), as I'll be gone for four days in Seattle starting Thursday. So, the remains of the day:

-Half a loaf of whole wheat bread
-Three half-empty packages of soy cheese
-Half empty package of soy bologna
-Container of shaved asiago
-Three fat-free Jello pudding cups
-Three pieces of seitan
-Polaner grape jelly
-Natural peanut butter

Got rid of some slightly moldy blueberries, limp lettuce, and some vanilla fat-free yogurt. I now have basically no food until I get back. I should have just thrown all of this crap away as none of it is appealing whatsoever. Except the peanut butter. So stay tuned for the Hot Lunch: Seattle Edition sometime next week!

Fondue!

My roommate brought home this package of fondue cheese, which was a nice surprise. We don't have a fondue set, so we settled for heating it up on the stove and using chopsticks to spear the bread chunks. The cheese was very tangy, and stringy. We used whole-grain bread, which was fine, but I would probably use a baguette next time. But I'm not biting the hand that feeds me fondue - it was great! Thanks M!

Dinner and Dessert in JC

Today G and I had a late lunch at The Merchant in JC. I really like this place - it's an old renovated bank and they still have the giant vault, which is really neat (you can see it over on the right on the homepage). We both had the veggie burger and french fries. The veggie burger is homemade, not some frozen patty from the grocery store. It's a bit hard to eat however, as it's pretty mushy and usually comes sliding out the back and sides of the bun right after the first bite. So we just take the top bun off and eat it with a fork and knife. I had mine with a Heiferweisen (sp?) and G had a Manger's hard cider. I always forget that Heferweisen comes in those giant glasses and I always feel like a retard sitting there with a giant tank of beer in front of me. We were starving and cleaned our plates a bit too quickly. And there was a "private party" on the upstairs level, which was not too private as there were screaming kids running all over the restaurant being totally obnoxious.

We then headed over to Beachwood Cafe for coffee and dessert. We shared a huge slab of tiarmisu, which is my new favorite dessert, and boy was it delicious. I also had a decaf esspresso, which was equally delicious, but I am paying the price with full-on caffeine jitters that are making me feel horrible! They said it was decaf, but I'm not sure. I feel like I read some expose somwhere about how half the time people order decaf when they are out it's really caffeinated. But I am really sensitive to caffeine, and the waitress did say that they almost gave me caffeinated and had to go back and make a decaf. I need to just skip the coffee when I'm out...but I love it so! Nothing beats a nice, strong espresso after a big meal, with a thin, beautiful dark brown layer of foam on top.

Communal Dinner Aftermath

My roommate made dinner for me and her friend, and I forgot to take a picture before we attacked everything. We had plates piled full of spaghetti with a really yummy tomato sauce, fresh grated parmesean, olives, red wine, and salad. I was able to contribute one of the Ghiradelli chocolate bars I procured in SF for dessert. We don't have a kitchen table (don't ask) so M. threw a cloth over the small plastic bench thingy we use for piling up our recyling on.