We had another successful Christmas evening feast at Chuck and Yuki's house.
The menu included the following:
Turkey
Roast Chicken
Lasagna
Mac and Cheese
Sachiyo's Popular Chow Mein
Obaachan's Popular Scallop Casserole
Beef Stew
Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing
Mash Potatoes
Rice
Garlic Green Beans
Green Salad
Corn Casserole
Garlic Bread
Cranberry Sauce
Mango Sticky Rice
Sachiyo's Popular Egg Rolls
Homemade Gravy
And for dessert we had apple and cherry pie with spumoni, peanut butter and chocolate and/or strawberry ice cream.
And before the meal, our intrepid bakers came bearing several types of cookies.
And before that there were countless bags and plates of chocolates.
Here is collage with proof of the food carnage. Okay, so there wasn't much carnage. Mostly just happy eaters. We are still eating left overs today.
But alas, our hosts opted to stick to just sweet potatoes...
After dinner and dessert, all manner of card games and a viewing of everyone's all time Christmas favorite "Pacific Rim" ( a story of robots doing battle with monsters) was had by some.
On a story about "best fries" was an entry for one Bay Area location called Frjtz in SF. They have burgers, sandwiches, crepes, breakfast and even mussels on their menu. Will have to go check it out one of these days. Do you have a favorite place for fries?
Although mostly rainy, we did manage to get out and about the Seattle area. The Seattle Sheraton had its annual Gingerbread House display to raise funding for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. On the flight to Seattle, we took in the sights from 30,000 feet to spy Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier. Although Christmas evening dinner was the height of food smells and sights, we sampled small and large bites at:
Locol Barley & Vine in West Seattle where Chuck had a gig playing jazz adaptations of tunes by local grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden to name a few as part of a keyboard, drums and bass trio; the atmosphere was local, the food was good (we sampled kale chips, a beet salad and a spicy corn and chicken chowder), and the music was a hit;
boom noodle at the U Village (which is no longer the U Village that I remember from my days as a kid going to the Village to bowl); while walking to the place from where we parked a horde of young men only wearing underwear crossed our path (didn't get this photo);
Red Mill Burgers in the Magnolia area; drive by this place several times as it is near where our relatives live; we first heard about this place on a show on the Food Network; the burgers and fries were terrific;
Kaname Izakaya in the International District that we visited for Happy Hour and consumed way too much food, the idea was to go and eat a little bit of this and little bit of that off their Happy Hour menu; we continued onto order ramen, soba and donburi; the food was good but the service was a little off;
Blue Star Cafe & Pub in the Wallingford district that must have one of the largest selection listing of scrambles and omelets known to humankind; I think I already know what I'd order for the next 10 times that I visit; not only is the menu large so is the establishment itself;
Stell's Burgers and More across the street from Seattle Pacific University is another place that we drive by frequently but had never tried; we tried the gyro sandwiches and Greek fries and were pleasantly surprised; the pita bread used for the sandwiches were warm, light and fluffy;
Old Mill Cafe outside Sequim where we stopped on the way back from our visit to the Olympic Game Farm; another stop being the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and Spit (could see Canada across the way!);
Getting to the Olympic Game Farm included crossings of Puget Sound on the Washington State ferries. In all the years going to Seattle, this was the first such crossing for our kids.
Mixed into this fun was two movies with the kids: The Adventures of Tintin in 3D (we even convinced Ojiichan to see what was his first or second movie ever) and Arthur Christmas. The parents had a movie night too and took in the latest Sherlock Holmes offering.
The Adventures of Tintin was at the IMAX theater at the Pacific Science Center which we visited a second time to see the exhibits. Finally, we hiked over the Fremont district on two occasions - the place has really grown up to have an interesting mix of restaurants and eclectic shops.
But really for the kids the best times seemed to be when they were just hanging out. They built forts with the bedding. They built their own arcade and shops. They played games and discovered a new favorite game called Forbidden Island that was actually based on the need for teamwork to succeed rather than on winning or losing.
Perhaps that should be the message for all of us in 2012 - let's succeed together.
Dorothy and I had a chance to get away from the kids for a short while today. It didn't matter that this was only made possible because we had a dental appointment in San Francisco and Dorothy's sister was able to watch the kids for us. After the appointment, we sampled a trio of edamame, maki sushi, chirashi shushi, and shioyaki salmon at one of our favorite restaurants in the City, Ebisu. We actually tried to get a table at Hotei which is a noodle restaurant owned by the Ebisu owners just across the street from Ebisu, but the place was full. If your appetite is for ramen or other noodle dishes, then Hotei should be your destination. Ebisu does not feature much in the way of noodles. The one new item for us was the trio of edamame which featured the usual salted edamame, and then two variants: togarashi lime edamame and lemon garlic edamame. Our usual use of togarashi is on udon or other noodle dishes so having it on edamame was a first. The lemon garlic edamame reminded us of eating garlic fries. Thumbs up from us!
One of our best food finds this year during our trip to Seattle was Paseo Caribbean Restaurant in the Fremont District. It's been around since the mid 90s so we've probably driven by the place (which is easy to do).
Be prepared to stand in line to get your eats at Paseo and don't forget to bring cash. They don't take credit cards. Also, don't plan on eating in. They might have enough seats for perhaps 8 people, maybe less.
We went for sandwiches because it was lunch time, but it seems that they serve just about everything on the menu in a sandwich or as a plate. The sandwiches that we got were the Cuban Roast (made with super tender pork shoulder meat - came highly recommended by Chuck's mom), Smokin' Thighs (chicken thighs marinated with the skin on - great flavors!), Fish of the Day (which turned out to be catfish - never had catfish so good!), and Grilled Pork (had to try their original sandwich). We also got an order of rice and beans. Everything was terrific!
They are closed on Sundays and Mondays. They have a second location in the Ballard District. The original location in the Fremont District is at about 43rd Street on Fremont Avenue.
A place for a good Sunday brunch is Katy's Kreek in Walnut Creek. This weekend's visit included sampling the Basque Omelette and their bowl of mixed berries. Thumbs up to both!
...before the good food came a little waiting for a table.
Saw an on-line article that talked about foods good for you and those that are not so I thought why not plan a daily menu around these foods. The main problem was trying to match up items that made sense for the meals.
Breakfast: Low fat yogurt sprinkled with nuts and blueberries mixed in along with a cup of coffee. This will give a boost to short-term memory (coffee), benefit long-term memory (blueberries), and provide a calming effect (low-fat yogurt and nuts) for the commute.
Lunch: High-protein salad with vinaigrette sprinkled with ground flaxseed and a mug of peppermint tea. The salad with diced chicken will provide needed mid-day energy, and the flaxseed will sharpen your senses while the tea boosts your concentration level.
Dinner: Salmon with spinach salad. The salmon helps to speed up your thought processing, while the spinach promotes a good mood and grins. Yes, these were the actual words in the article.
Avoid the following or at the least moderate: energy drinks, too much coffee, unripe/unready fruits, full fat ice cream, pancakes, bagels, soda, candy, white chocolate and alcohol.
The Food Detectives hosted on the Food Network by Ted Allen (former food and wine specialist on Queer Eye and current judge on Top Chef) had a segment where they investigated methods for tear-free onion slicing and dicing. They tested four methods: a piece of bread between your teeth, cutting onions in water, having a lit candle nearby, and chilling.
A piece of bread is suppose to be able to offset the sulfuric gases emitted from a cut onion by soaking up the gases before they reach your eyes. No dice. Did not work.
Submerging the onion in water while cutting is suppose to be able to dampen the effects. Onions float. The cut pieces end up floating and emitting gases. Again a thumbs down.
The flame from a lit candle is suppose to oxidize the gases, but again this did not work. Perhaps a romantic setting with a thousand candles would work.
A chilled onion is suppose to slow down the release of the impacting enzymes. Eureka, it works! So the next time you are going to cut onions put them in the fridge crisper for about an hour before slicing and dicing.
