Allrecipes.com - Miso Salmon

MISO SALMON

Recipe

Panda Express

Good choice for lunch when presented with food court options...GREAT choice for lunch when nursing a hang over.  Mmmmm...oily, fatty goodness!

What I ate:

2-ENTREE PLATE

Stir-fried Noodles, Beef Broccoli, Orange Chicken

Taste: 6

Presentation:4

Ambience: n/a

www.pandaexpress.com

Cafe Besalu

I first heard about Cafe Besalu from CeCe.  She told me that the pastries there were really good, so naturally I had to see for myself.  I had previously tried to go here 3 times, all attempts were unsuccessful.  The first attempt I went with Gina.  Turns out that the staff here has 'summer break'.  Second try - CeCe and I go there after work one day, again - closed.  They close at 3pm daily.  Third time - I leave my house early before work last week to see if I can get my coffee and pastry here instead of Starbucks.  The line was out the door, I waited for about 5 minutes, and with no sign of movement, I decided to leave.

Today, CeCe and I try again.  This time, it's open, with no line...perfect!  They have a lot of different pastries to choose from, I chose the Plum Danish.  I also get a Chai Latte.  CeCe picks the Strawberry Danish and a Latte.  

To be honest, I was little disappointed.  I read so many wonderful reviews about Cafe Besalu and with my many failed attempts at eating here, I guess I expected more.  The pastry was fine.  It was everything you would expect a good pastry to be - flaky, light, not oily or overly sweet...yet, it was just 'OK'.  But to be fair - I don't recall ever deeming a pastry as 'amazing'.  Maybe pastries aren't my thing...I should stick to muffins and scones.

The cafe itself is also nothing special, although it seemed super clean - always a plus when it comes to food establishments. 

What we ate:

PLUM DANISH

CHAI LATTE

STRAWBERRY DANISH

LATTE

Taste: 6.5

Presentation: 7

Ambience: 7

Cafe Besalu

Wann Japanese Izakaya

Tonight I met Nick for Happy Hour after work at Wann, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Seattle.  Their Happy Hour menu is great, lots of yummy dishes to choose from.  Plus, a bonus - it's their 2-year anniversary this month, so a lot of their beers and cocktails were just $2.  Yay!

I am obsessed with Squid and Octopus! (Especially the tentacles, which is great since most people stay away from those parts...good, more for me!)  So tonight, we ordered both Takoyaki (octopus fritters) and Squid Tempura.  Mmm, mmm, mmmmm!!!  We also got a spicy tuna roll and some seasoned potatoes.  

I like this place.  This is my second time here.  Both times were for Happy Hour and both times the food was tasty and the service was quick.  Maybe one of these days I'll go for a regular (non-HH) meal here, but seriously -- how can you beat 4 plates of food + 2 beers, for under $20?!! Don't think you can.

What we ate:

FRIED AONORI POTATOES

Fried Potatoes seasoned with Dried Seaweed

DEEP-FRIED TAKOYAKI

Battered and Deep Fried Octopus with Okonomi Sauce, Mayonnaise, Aonori, Bonito Flakes

DRIED SQUID TEMPURA

Tempura Fried Dried Squid served with Seven Spice Mayonnaise.

SPICY TUNA ROLL

Spicy Tuna, Cucumber, Sesame Seeds Sushi Roll

Taste: 7.5

Presentation: 7

Ambience: 7

www.wann-izakaya.com

Piroshky Piroshky and Mee Sum Pastry

I met Tyson for lunch today down at Pike Place Market.  My quest to find Seattle's Best Falafel continues...so off to Turkish Delight we go! 

However, when we get there I realize:

1. They only accept cash (this wouldn't be a problem if I ever carried CASH..but I don't)

2. They raised their prices since the last time I was there ($12 for a Kebab?! WTF?)

3. I didn't see FALAFEL on their menu

4. The line was out the door and I was too hungry to wait

So, onto the next best thing - Piroshkys!!  A piroshky is a russian filled pastry (either sweet or savory).  The aroma that flows from this tiny place is spellbinding.  Hungry or not, one whiff will make you immediately crave one!  The few times I've been here I've gotten a sweet piroshky....today however, seeing as though it was lunchtime I went the savory route.  As much as it pains me to speak ill of this place, my savory choice was bleh.  It wasn't gross...but at the same time it wasn't anything to write home about.  

Before heading back to the office I stopped by Mee Sum Pastry to pick up hom bow for CeCe.  Mee Sum Pastry is another one of the many food stands surrounding Pike Place Market.  I bought a BBQ Pork Hom Bow and a Curry Beef Hom Bow.  The BBQ Pork was ok...but the Curry Beef!!  ICK! Don't EVER buy this!!  It was dis-gust-ing.

What's weird is that the two things I bought at lunch today were basically the same concept (hand-held 'pot pies')...the only difference was their origins were from different countries - Russia vs. China.  Weird!  (Sorry, that was just a random comment/observation I had...)

What I ate:

SMOKED MOZZARELLA, MUSHROOM, BROCCOLI 

Mushroom, Broccoli and Mozzarella in a flaky pastry 

BBQ PORK HOM BOW

CURRY BEEF HOM BOW

Taste: 5

Presentation: 5

Ambience: 4

www.piroshkybakery.com

Mee Sum Pastry

Seattle Coffee Works & Sisters European Snacks

I met CeCe downtown this morning before work to get some breakfast.  We met up at Seattle Coffee Works, it's a coffee shop that's next to her bus stop.  It's a cute place and is pretty decent, price-wise.  The only thing they lacked was pastry options.  We decided to get our drinks here and run over to Sisters European Snacks, located in Pike Place Market, for our food.  

Drink and muffin was an ok variation from my daily Starbucks, but as I said before...Starbucks cannot be replaced in my book.

What I ate:

CHAI LATTE

CARROT SPICE MUFFIN

Taste: 7

Presentation: 6

Ambience 6

www.seattlecoffeeworks.com

www.sisterssnacks.com

Whole Foods

Whole Foods -- they have a wide variety of prepared food options, but because I am a creature of habit, I usually eat the same thing whenever I go here.  That wondrous choice is the Aurora Sandwich, a vegetarian option that is made to order at the deli counter.

One day when I'm feeling adventurous I will venture out to taste test the other available offerings.  As mentioned above, Whole Foods offers a lot of choices when it comes to prepared foods.  They have the typical sandwiches and salads, but they also have lots of 'ethnic' choices -- japanese (sushi & udon), mediterranean, mexican and indian. They also have pizza and fried chicken.  Everything is on the pricier side since it's Whole Foods...but I'm assuming they also taste a little better than the average 'pick and choose' bar.  I'll update this review if I ever venture out from my Aurora Sandwich.

What I ate:

AURORA SANDWICH

Tomatoes, Red Onions, Cucumbers, Pickles, Roasted Red Peppers and Hummus on Pretzel Bread.

Taste: 7

Presentation:6

Ambience:5

www.wholefoodsmarket.com

Allrecipes.com - Karla's Birthday Cake

STRAWBERRY DREAM CAKE I

Made this for Karla's Birthday

Recipe

Mediterranean Avenue

Met Gina for lunch at the Westlake Center food court.  This food court has all the typical food court options -- Sub Sandwiches, Chinese, Wraps, Burgers, etc. I decided on Mediterranean Avenue because they sold falafel, something I have been wanting to try for some time now.  Plus having hummus & pita on the menu didn't hurt either.  After weighing my options, I went with the Sampler Plate. 

This was a surprisingly very tasty meal! Hummus, Chicken with Tzatziki Sauce, and the two types of salads were all good.  But the falafel...that was DELICIOUS!  This makes me super excited to try falafel from other places...because if I liked 'food court falafel' this much, just imagine an actual Mediterranean restaurant's version!!  

Yay for falafel!!!

Mediterranean Sampler Plate: Tabouli Salad, Greek Salad, Hummus w/ Pita Bread, Falafel, Rotisserie Chicken (the other option was Gyro Meat - lamb/beef combo). 

Taste: 8

Presentation: 6.5

Ambience: 3

www.westlakecenter.com

Allrecipes.com - Puppy Cupcakes

I enjoy cooking and baking (not as much as going out to new restaurants...), but nonetheless if it involves food - I'm in!

I love Allrecipes.com, it's where I go to find something new to cook. Recently I went to there website and noticed that they have a new feature on their homepage - "Favorite Photos". Basically, people upload photos of things they've made and specify which recipe they used. For all photos received between 12am and 11:59pm one day, it's thrown into the hopper for the next day's 'contest'. Anyone who visits the Allrecipes.com site has the ability to vote on which photo is their favorite out of all photos submitted the day before - the top 4 vote-getters are displayed on the homepage the following day.

A while back, I baked some Puppy Cupcakes for my friend's nephew's b-day. I thought they were cute, and since I love taking food pictures, I snapped a few. I used a white cake recipe from Allrecipes.com, so figured it'd be cool to see if I make it to the top 4. And I did!

I was 4th place and it was so cool to see my Puppy Cupcakes on the homepage!!! I'll be sending all of my personal food creations to see if I can win again! Yay!

Boom Noodle

Boom Noodle is a fairly new restaurant, it opened in the beginning of 2008 in the Capitol Hill area.  This was my second time here, during my first attempt at Boom Noodle I ordered a chilled noodle dish -- not impressive.  This time around I went with hot ramen.  Good choice!

Had dinner with CeCe and Tyson after work.  I ordered the Wild Salmon Udon and a Ginger-flavored Beer, Tyson had the Sesame Ramen, CeCe did a few small plates -- Tori Karaage & Salmon Chazuke and Yuzu Lemonade. We also shared Okonomiyaki for an appetizer.

My Wild Salmon Udon was excellent! Lots of noodles in a miso broth and topped off with two big slices of fried salmon skin.  Delish!  The okonomiyaki was pretty good, but I'm sure there are a lot of better ones out there in okonomiyaki-land.  It's a japanese 'pancake' filled with pork and veggies then topped with aioli and tonkatsu sauce.

What we ate:

OKONOMIYAKI: Braised Pork and Cabbage Pancake with Veggies, Serrano Peppers, Aioli & Tonkatsu Sauce.

TORI KARAAGE: Fried Chicken with Tonkatsu Sauce

SALMON CHAZUKE: Grilled Salmon and Nasubi (Japanese Eggplant) served over Rice and Green Tea & Dashi Broth

SESAME RAMEN: Romaine Lettuce, Kinshi (egg), Cucumber, Tomato, Green Onion, Wakame (seaweed), Pickled Ginger, Hot Mustard, Cilantro and Chicken.

WILD SALMON UDON: Smoked Salmon, Shiitake Mushrooms, Spinach, Tamago (egg) and Crispy Salmon Skin in White Miso Broth.

Taste: 7.5

Presentation: 7

Ambience: 8

www.boomnoodle.com

Joule

Joule is one of those restaurants I read a bunch of reviews on and have been wanting to go to for a while, but put it off.

I finally made it over there tonight for an early dinner. We got there pretty early (5:30pm) so we beat the crowd and didn't need reservations. In fact, it was empty when we walked in.

They offer a great selection of dishes that is categorized into 5 groups:

• Tossed
  
• Simmered
  
• Crisped
  
• Sparked
  
• Pickled

We tried 3 of the 5 categories and from what I tasted, I am definitely going back to try out the other two that I missed out on.

What we ate:

LASAGNA

Lasagna with shiitake mushrooms and caramelized Bleu D'auvergne (blue cheese).

ZUCCHINI AND CRISPY SHRIMP PANCAKES

Shredded zucchinis and shrimp filled Korean type savory 'pancake'. (This was my favorite dish of the night)

CUCUMBER KIMCHEE

Pickled cucumber and shiitake mushrooms served in a mason jar.

WHOLE MACKEREL WITH TAPENADE

A whole fried mackerel, topped with olive tapenade and pickled grape tomatoes

BISON HANGER STEAK

Bison hanger steak loin with garlic chive chimichurri sauce and preserved garlic cloves

PB&J CREME BRULEE

Peanut Butter Creme Brulee with Red Raspberry Jam and Chocolate Biscotti

Taste: 8.5

Presentation: 8

Ambience:7.5

http://www.joulerestaurant.com/

Chinoise Cafe

Today CeCe and I decided to explore the Queen Anne neighborhood again for a different lunch spot since CeCe drove to work instead of taking the bus.  So we hopped into Hatchi (CeCe's car) and headed out on our little lunchtime exploration.

We decided on Ototo Sushi.  However, when we got there it was closed! Boo!  But across the street was Chinoise Cafe, another sushi restaurant.  We figured, what the heck, we're already here, let's just go.  

The menu wasn't too impressive.  There was some sushi, some stir fries and some noodle dishes.  All in all, it was a good getaway from the office but not a restaurant I would necessarily choose to eat at again (although I did see a Happy Hour menu, so maybe once more....)

What we ate:

BUDDHIST TOFU STIR FRY

Tofu, Broccoli, Bok Choy, Snow Peas, Green Beans and Carrots served over white rice.

MISO SOUP

SPICY TUNA ROLL

Taste: 6

Presentation: 6

Ambience: 6

www.chinoisecafe.com