Happy At The Bay Teriyaki

Lunch with FIT... I love this kid.

We decided to try out a new teriyaki place.  He was sold from the moment he saw the shrimp.  So I agreed to get the plate with the teriyaki chicken, rice, salad, and tempura shrimp.  I must say I only had about 2 bites of the shrimp.  He loved it and said it was delicious.

FIT's drink.  He only drank about half of it, but it was special to him.

Our plate.  Chicken was fine, sauce was good but not Fuji quality, and the salad dressing was.... not good.  

Overall, I think this is likely not a place we will frequent.  But it is SO fun to take this kid to lunch. 

The Keg

When The Big Guy's away, the rest of us will enjoy a meal out with real food.  This all began with asking the FIT one tiny little question.

Have you ever had lobster?

The Critic has a birthday celebration which gives him some money to burn at The Keg.  The Keg is one of our first true great food memories.  Back in our dating days, we used to frequent the Whistler Keg for a meal of bacon wrapped scallops and French onion soup after a long day of skiing.  The critic learned to make his own "FOS" after indulging at this restaurant.  Then, years ago, the parent of one of my students asked if I'd like to be a "secret shopper" for her.  She would give us a gift card (anywhere from $75 to $100) and we'd go just like any other customer.  We felt like ROYALTY!  It was awesome and we loved getting to give valuable feedback.  But honestly, we just loved the food!  Also, this restaurant was a favorite of The Critic's dad... so lots of memories in this dark little steakhouse.

The night began with FIT's complimentary kid plate, which I thought was nice since I wasn't buying him a kid's meal.  I mean really... the "cheap" ones are over $8 and while that's nice, he's eating steak and lobster tonight... off my plate, thank you very much.  So he began with carrots, celery, ranch, crackers and oranges.  He inhaled the whole thing.  Excellent! 

I started with my favorite -- the wedge salad.  So typical yet still so good.  Where was this salad my whole growing up years?  Oh yes... sitting underneath a mound of bleu cheese I had yet to acquire a taste for.  Said taste is now fully acquired, thank you very much!

As a table we also shared the amazing tempura snap peas and asparagus.  Green french fries, we call them.  Super yum and good. 

And finally.. the main course.  Yes, steak and lobster.  FIT LOVED it of course (he said that it was so cool you got to dip it in butter!).  It is now firmly in his top 3 foods of all time (only preceded by "noodle soup" -- top ramen, and pad see ew).  Good thing he likes shrimp because he'll be eating that a lot more often than lobster! 

Finished up with their ever popular chocolate mints.  A good date.  Happy birthday, Critic!

Man Pies

There is really no nice way to write that.  And I'll refrain from bursting out in a Sondheim song... well, at least outside of my own head.

The Critic wanted to try this place after seeing them at the Bellingham Farmer's Market.  Thanks to The Guys for being troopers in trying something new.  I think the promise of ice cream at Lafeen's helped.  The Little Guy (aka the FIT -- Foodie in Training) loved them.  The Big Guy... he gave it an honest effort.  They are really good and, if you find yourself in the Bellingham area, I suggest you go get yourself some MORE HOT PIES!  Oops.... sorry.

As I recall, one was a beef pie and one was pork.  Beyond that, I can't remember the specifics.  But both were really tasty! 

Skillet Diner

After Sitka and Spruce, well, we were still hungry!  Rather than go for the mega foodie desserts (which I don't even remember what they were... bad sign), The Critic said he wanted to head to Skillet Diner.  He's been raving about the Skillet Food Truck that he has been able to go to (sniff, without me) several times so I was all for it.  At first I was super disappointed that we didn't just hit that place for dinner.  They had a mac and cheese dish that sounded like pure heaven!  Definitely want to go there sometime, but I might need to check into Harborview immediately following to take care of the heart attack... still.  Someday.

But we went for dessert.  And, in the words of The Critic, the foodie in me rejoiced AND the need for comfort food was satisfied! Hooray!  Two delicious desserts, both of which warrant a revisit someday.

 How fun is it to drink diet coke out of a Mason jar?  Just love this idea.  I do have to mention that The Critic said he got that "cleaner taste" we both are prone to here.  I didn't.  He thinks it's because I used a straw.  I'm not so sure, because that stuff usually is VERY apparent to me.

 This was AWESOME!  Pie in a bowl.  It was a chocolate pudding that had a "housemade cool whip" folded in.  Also had cocoa nibs, sea salt, and pie crust flakes on the top.  It is official.  I will order any, and I mean ANY dessert that has both cocoa nibs and sea salt.  This thing had it all... texture, flavor, super unique and ultra delicious!

Apple pie.  Classic.  Perfect.  And get it... it's in a skillet!  We did end up getting the necessary scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.  Sometimes a dessert just needs to be a classic.  If you're looking for a delicious apple pie, get this one.

Totally going back.  And I think this would be a fun place to take The Guys.  I know they'd love the pie in a bowl and I have to get me some of that mac and cheese (and I should probably share it!).

Sitka and Spruce

Date night!  The Critic picked the places.  Sitka and Spruce was the first spot.  This is the same owner as The Corson Building, so a similar concept.  It's located in the back of an almost oddly placed market on Capitol Hill.  I had to check several times to make sure I was in the right place.  When you go ALL the way to the back, there is a little kitchen with tables right there so you can watch all the cooking action.  I swear this is my favorite type of thing to do, but I feel bad for the guys in the kitchen.  Always some foodie watching your work in the kitchen... I am likely exactly the person they roll their eyes at.  Oh well.  I have fun and they get paid, so that's a win-win, right?

The food was okay.  Some things are even to "foodie" for us.  As The Critic put it, the foodie in me rejoiced, but the need for comfort food in me was sadly under served.  It is a balance.  I'm posting this on a delay and have very little idea what the food was.  Pretty to look at but, with one exception, hard to mention and sometimes, hard to finish!

 This bread was delicious!  The spread it came with was kind of like spreadable ham.  So, um... fancy spam?  It was good, but the bread was better served later.

 Hmmmm.   A grilled vegetable thing.  I had high hopes because it had roasted broccoli and cauliflower listed.  I know.  I don't see them either.  What we did get was a LOT of radicchio.  Very bitter.  Occasionally you'd get a zip from some meyer lemon peel which was nice.  This didn't get finished.

 An interesting dish.  The tarte on the left was nice, a bit too buttery, if such a thing is possible.  The shame of this was the eggplant.  WAY undercooked.  We tried.  

 Ahhhhhh... the shining star!  And the answer to that comfort food dish we needed!  Without the delicious lamb dish, we really probably would have needed to head elsewhere for our "meal".  The standout of this was the AMAZING heirloom tomatoes that even The Critic raved about.  So many delicious flavors going on in this dish.  And all that sauce?  Yep.  That's where the bread came back into play!

 The expeditor and likely head chef for the evening.  This poor guy has to deal with people like me every night, but hey!  He chose to work here, right?  He can cut herbs like nobody's business!  So fun to watch people cook in the kitchen!!

A sous chef and a grill master.  That fire is where the lamb was cooked.  This is also where a lot of the prep was done so we could watch the dishes get their finishing touches.  And yes, they often cleaned plates with a towel before calling for service.

Overall, I don't know.  The food might just have been to "foodie" for even me.  But it was a fun experience!  I liked The Corson Building better.

Food Truck Rodeo

It's great to be a foodie.  Today was fun.  :-)

About 2 weeks ago, a groupon deal came up offering a buy one, get one free to the "Food Truck Rodeo".  The "1st annual" in Seattle.  First, I love that term.  And when I say I love it, I really mean I find it tremendously useless.  It can't be the first annual.  NEXT year, if they do it again, it will be the 2nd annual Food Truck Rodeo.  So far, it's just the first.  Oh, but there WILL be a 2nd.  And they will find a better location!

So after talking it over every so quickly with The Critic, we agreed to go.  Here's the fun part. Last summer I watched (and really enjoyed) The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network.  This summer, I've been watching season 2.  The fun part is that The Big Guy LOVES it.  He's so into it it's adorable.  He has his favorites (usually Hodge Podge) and often can be quoted saying "I think they're gonna kill it this time!  Uh oh, that must be Tyler calling about a Speed Bump."  So the chance to go to an event and be like we're there was just FUN!  The Little Guy watches the show on occasion as well, but remember, he's the adventurous eater.  So really, going to this event with both of them is a no-brainer. 

It really was incredibly fun.  Pretty much what you'd picture... a bunch of food trucks behind barbed wire.  My understanding is that they had NO idea it would be so popular and they dealt with some fire marshal issues.  Thankfully we didn't have to wait in the ridiculously long line to get in (with our pre-paid tickets).  The Critic's good friend JB, a fellow foodie, did the waiting for us and we sauntered up to the front with very little wait.

I can't do my typical list of food eaten and return factor liklihood... this is more in that food festival category.  I can tell you that The Critic was itching to get his hands on a Cuban he'd heard about and loved.  JB thoroughly enjoyed his duck confit on grilled flatbread of sorts (they ran out of it within minutes of him ordering it) and I was grateful for the grill truck that broke their exception of "no substitutions" to make a plain meat, cheese, and bun burger for The Big Guy.  There was cumin in that patty!  Interesting! 

 

I can't fill you in on the details of what I ate, because JB ordered it (a sampler plate of some kind).  The chicken was YUM (not pictured because, well, it was inhaled).  The vegetarian was a close second... a delicious mango salsa on it).  And of the pork sliders pictured here, the one with the carrot on top was a habanero honey BBQ sauce while the other was ancho chile.  And the habanero was much much much preferred by all of us, even The Little Guy who is not a fan of spice.  

The Big Guy also had a slice of pepperoni pizza, hand tossed in the truck and wood fired.  I did take that opportunity to be both grateful for providing for the simple palate, but it also affords the opportunity to express my disappointment.  This event had a cover to get in and was not well advertised.  You had to be in the know to go.  So why dumb down to your audience?  The Thai place had... Phad Thai.  I guess sometimes I just expected to see a bit more.

Now the desserts... those were something special.  I'm not a dessert person really, but all three of my guys are.  At one cart, The Guys designed their own ice cream sandwich on homemade snickerdoodles that were really good.  The "plain vanilla" ice cream was really tasty, almost having a coconut flavor to it.  The bigger folks, The Critic, JB, and me, all ordered from a place called Parfait (hey I remembered a name!).  The blackberry ice cream was dubbed "crackberry" by JB.  The Guys had the Meyer Lemon which was really good and not at all the tart sorbet-y dish I was expecting.  The toffee was a bit of a disappointment.  If you got the toffee it was incredible, but there was very very little toffee to be gotten.  Mine was my favorite... dark chocolate decadence.  Yes.  Yes it was. 

The main problem with a place like this is the same problem with any food festival.  Too many choices, too small of a stomach.  Yes, even I have too small of a stomach it seems.  But based on the line of about a billion (give or take a few thousand) who were attempting to get in and the fact that Skillet, one of the most famous trucks in Seattle right now, left before the event was over, well... I'd say it was a success they will truly be turning into an annual event.

And it was pretty much like being in a line for the Food Truck Race.  The Big Guy and I were both not disappointed by that.

Return to Bai Tong

Previously blogged here

A return to Bai Tong (I think I need to take better pictures from there).  Repeat of all our personal favorites (crispy garlic chicken, phad sei-iew, and moo dade deaw).  The moo dade deaw did not have as much pork as it usually does and The Big Guy could easily have polished off the plate on his own.  We tried the new dish (I can't recall its name, nor find it on the website).  It was essentially crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli.  Unfortunately, it was not a winner.  In the words of The Critic, "I didn't know it was possible for pork belly to be, well, NOT delicious."  The basic consensus was it was like shoe leather.  Very sad.  Still, Bai Tong is a FAVORITE for our entire family.