Tag: seattle

Categories
breakfast brunch travel

The 5 Spot (Seattle)

In Seattle, we went to The 5 Spot as a family, including my baby nieces. They do an alternating city themed menu and restaurant decor. We happen to be there for New Mexico. So they had UFOs hanging up.

I got the Adobada and Eggs (Chile braised pork served over spiced red potatoes, with flour tortillas, avocado and eggs $9.75). Pretty good. I also liked my sister’s hash browns and her husband’s griddle cakes.

I’m surprised that the babies slept through it all.

The 5 Spot – 1502 Queen Anne Ave N. Seattle, WA 98109

Categories
chinese

Jade Garden (Seattle)

My family and nieces had dim sum lunch at Jade Garden in Seattle’s Chinatown. Decent dim sum. I’m getting to the point where I can’t really tell the difference from one place and another. I just like dim sum. Dim sum good.

I do like how they had red vinegar on the table with the soy sauce. I don’t ever see that. It’s good with almost everything.

Jade Garden – 424 7th Ave S (between James St & Lane St) Seattle, WA 98104

Categories
chinese

Kau Kau BBQ (Seattle)

I met up with my parents to see my new nieces in Seattle. We first picked up some BBQ Pork and Roasted Pig at Kau Kau. The slabs of meat were huge. It lasted several meals.

Kau Kau BBQ – 656 S King St (@ S Maynard Ave) Seattle, WA 98104

Categories
travel

Belle Epicurean in Seattle

I rarely ever eat breakfast and rarely ever eat pastries …and pastries for breakfast? Maybe when I was five. Jennifer, Richard and I walked around downtown Seattle a bit before our flights home. We stopped in Belle Epicurean (part of the Fairmont Hotel). I didn’t want anything except some bubbly seltzer water. Why is it so hard to find seltzer water on the west coast? I can only find club soda in California and sparkling water in Seattle. So I got a Pierre. I tasted Jennifer’s Pain au Raisin sweet bun. Tasty. I ended up eating half of it.

Belle Epicurean – 1206 4th Ave (btw Seneca & University St) Seattle, WA 98101

Categories
concert/event travel

My Sister’s Wedding Reception

At Seattle’s Arctic Club: Lobster sliders, shrimp spring rolls, tuna tartare, fish and chips …How about some tartar sauce? …Tuna Tartar Tartare? Kung Fu Dragon dance, special wedding cakes for each table (Ours was based on my parents’ old Chinese Restaurant, Lam’s Garden), Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake) station, Satay Station & Dim Sum station. They had Zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf). My mom kept correcting me “Jong-chay” and then my dad would correct me from that, “Jong-chi.” Back and forth. Hilarity ensues …with the small audience in my head.

Congratulations Jenny & Adrian!

(update: That Zongzi is actually Lo mai gai – steamed chicken & sticky rice in lotus wrap)

Cool video with good shots of the cakes and making the okonomiyaki pancakes.

Jenny and Adrian Wedding Montage from Mitch Mattraw on Vimeo.

Categories
restauranting travel

Szechuan Chef & Bluebird Ice Cream

My sister’s good friend Hillel of Tastingmenu.com took me out to Szechuan Chef to taste their Chong Qing Chicken –fried pieces of chicken cooked with spicy Szechuan peppercorns that are supposed to make your mouth numb. It was a spicy flavor explosion when biting down into one of the pieces, juices squirting. My roof of my mouth went raw from the heat and fried crunchiness.

We then went to Bluebird to cool off with some ice cream, where they have a monster themed store (SnowMonkey’s House of Monsters) with a lot of Miyazaki characters. Maple Hickory ice cream on waffle cone did its job.

…I just had to go back and re-spell all the “Szechuans” in the post. I’ve been so used to spelling it “Szechwan” since my first band was called Szechwan Pork years ago. We didn’t have wikipedia back then and I always wondered what the correct spelling was. I think at that time Szechwan and Szechuan maybe had two hits each on the Yahoo search engine. Looks like they’re both correct, along with Sichuan. Cool.

Szechuan Chef – 15015 Main St. Bellevue, WA 98007
Bluebird – 1205 E. Pike Street Suite 1A (btw 12th & 13th Ave) Seattle, WA 98122

Categories
lunch travel

Maximilien Restaurant

My sister’s wedding rehearsal luncheon at Maximilien right next to the fish throwing markets in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. I saw one vendor across from the fish throwing selling a tiny bag of nuts for $10. That’s nuts!

Maximilien Restaurant – 81A Pike St. Seattle, WA 98101

Categories
travel

Chef Jason Wilson of Crush Catering the Meet & Greet

Meet & Greet for my sister’s wedding at her friends’ awesome house, sporting an amazing roof-deck view of Seattle. The food by Chef Jason Wilson (James Beard 2009 Award Nominee) of Crush Restaurant. I wasn’t able to stay too long, but some fancy hors d’Å“uvres and drinks here. Watermelon that looked like cubes of tuna on a stick (that’s fancy, right?), tuna tartare springrolls, pickled vegetables, pate, figs, some geoduck ceviche on endive lettuce.