Seattle, WA

Before this slips away in my mind, I want to write about the last days of our road trip to Washington State.  After our little stay at Port Angeles, we drove to Seattle, taking the Bainbridge Island ferry.  The ferry is a real pain in the ass.  Basically, you have to drive there, and if it is a busy day, you basically sit in line (make sure you get in line, because if you try to cut, whether knowingly or mistakenly, the police will yell at you and you will have to go back in line way back and probably many cars after where you would originally have been had you not cut, and the line is weird because it goes into some strip mall) and hope you get on the ferry.  The Washington Department of Transportation shows how many cars can get on the ferry, and has a live feed video cam of that, so you should check that if you are planning on doing this.  We did not get on the ferry that was docked at the time we arrived, and waited a little over an hour to get onto the next one.  This is our view approaching Seattle.  It was H-O-T, I think like 85 degrees.

We stayed at the W Hotel, and got upgraded to one of the 4 (or so) corner rooms, but honestly and not to sound like a brat or anything, the hotel was rather mediocre.  It used to be a Sheraton or something, and I love Sheratons, but this did not have a W vibe, except for the lobby which was outfitted quite nicely.

We went to Pike Place Market, and since it was July 4th weekend, the place was packed and awful.  I made sure Lingon walked a little inside, so he could say he did it, and then we left, rather underwhelmed.  I tried to go to the first Starbucks ever, but that line was long too, so I abandoned it.  I had not had lunch, so I went to Beecher's, a cheese place in the market area, recommendation of MetroMan, and true to what he said, this place served a damn solid mac and cheese.  I got greedy and ordered a crab melt sandwich, but this was very so so.  Please do not order this sandwich.

MetroMan said Capitol Hill was the new hip neighbourhood, so I took a walk there.  Lingon was already there with some people getting coffee.  I went to the big Starbucks shop that had a giant roaster.  It was super hip, and the roaster was super cool.  The guy at the W Hotel had recommended me to visit Molly Moon's ice cream, which again was super hip, and had a lot of people there, so we did.  We got a sorbet for the heat, and chocolate, just coz, and it was perfect for the hot weather.

We had contemplated moving to Seattle, since we were in a little bit of a funk with SF, so we drove around the Seattle suburbs of Bellevue, Medina (where Mr. Gates lives) and Mercer Island to see if we liked the feel of the places.  We tried to find Mr. Gates' house, and the address was readily available online, but sadly we did not manage to find the house.  I guess I should have expected that?  He's so technologically advanced, he probably had a Harry Potter-esque cloak of invisibility so we could not see his house.  The suburbs looked nice, and it would be gorgeous if one lived on the lake.

For dinner, we had all these thoughts and ideas, but in the end were tired from our journey and did take out from Italian Family Pizza, which was near our hotel and had good Yelp reviews.  We ordered a small, and that was great for us.

The next day, we had breakfast at the W with our platinum amenity, which was a continental breakfast worth $19 on the menu - bananas or seasonal fruit, cold cereal, granola or oatmeal, bakery toast or bagel perricone juice and brewed coffee.  Yay.

After breakfast, we promptly left for the 13 hour drive back to SF.  Bye bye Seattle, we had fun, but I don't think we will be moving.

Basik Cafe, SF

My new favourite place for healthy food is Basik Cafe in Russian Hill on Polk Street.  This summer has been especially hot, which has contributed to my constant desire to go back to this place.  Thankfully I do not live near this place, otherwise a lot of my hard earned moolah would be spent here.  They serve acai bowls and smoothies.  I honestly have no real idea what acai is, I think it is a berry, and it is really quite a hot superfood right now.  Antioxidants, super vitamins, blahblah.  I really do feel very good after eating it, not sure if it's psychological, or if it is the cold yummy goodness going down my oesophagus on a hot SF summer day, but either way, no complaints.  It is rather expensive, at $11 for a small bowl, and the $14 large bowl seems like a much more worthy investment.  I imagine myself going there with Lingon and sharing a bowl, but most of the time he's too busy and I'm not sure he digs the stuff as much as me anyway.  To date, I have tried 2 different bowls, both amazing.  A friend introduced me to this place when it first opened, as he knew of it from friends of friends.  Apparently the couple who started it are from Hawaii, and had tried this concept there, and brought it here.  I don't think the bowl itself is a new concept, but maybe their ingredients are super fresh or something?

Here is the menu.  I don't understand why I did not even try cropping the photo, so now it looks worse than my usual not-so-great-anyway photos, but here is.

Here are my food pictures.  I have tried both the forager and the banyan.  They use the Nature's Farm pumpkin seed granola, which is my favourite granola on the earth.  So that's great, right?  Except I have that all the time, bought in bulk from Costco, so honestly I feel a bit jipped, but it does taste really really good with the acai bowl.  The first picture is the Forager, and the second is the Banyan.  I think Banyan is really popular.  Oh gawd I could use a bowl right now, looking at these pictures.  Yum.

Wakuriya, San Mateo

I scored an elusive reservation at Wakuriya for a friend and his wife, but unfortunately they could not make it.  A one-star Michelin restaurant with possibly only 20 covers a day, and at a reasonable price tag of $98, this place is IMPOSSIBLE to make a reservation at.  One has to wait till midnight, give them a call (or many calls, a number of which lead to a dial tone), leave a voicemail, and hope to get a call back the next day.  There were only 3 people working in the restaurant as far as we could see - the married Japanese couple who own the restaurant, and another younger gentlemen who was maybe the apprentice and helped with some food prep, bussing and cleaning.  We had been here before a couple of years with some friends, and had a fabulous experience there, and we were really looking forward to the repeat.

Here was our multi-course dinner, exquisitely presented  We started with a glass of refreshing soju-ish drink, some seafood courses, then a duck, their usual Snake River Farm beef, and dessert.  I have the menu at home, but unfortunately do not remember most of it.

I thought the meal tasted really good, but somehow remember it being more delicious the last time.  I do find that when I hype up somewhere previously attended in my mind, I usually get disappointed.  Still a great place, at a steal, with amazing Japanese service (and food), with a Michelin star.  Please go, and make a reservation, and enjoy this fabulous meal.

Kabuto Sushi, SF

This post is almost 6 months ago, wow.  We decided to go to Kabuto Sushi in the Richmond one February weekend, and lo and behold they had their Valentine's Day menu.  OK, it really was not that surprising, since it was the weekend after Valentine's Day, but still, big yay!  I had been here eons ago, and had always wanted to come back, but Lingon and I are so lazy that we rarely get out of our immediate neighbourhood to get some good grub.  The dishes were not served in the same order as the menu, so I reorganized the photos and made them match the menu, but I thought that was really weird.  I thought the food was very innovative and delish.  I would DEFINITELY go back, but if only it was not so far away...  I want to say this cost about $80ish/person before tax (just the food, we didn't get anything to drink except maybe tea), really good price for so much food.  So innovative, and the ingredients were pretty amazing!

Boston, MA

A perfect few days in May in Boston.  Food, history, exercise.

We stayed at the Liberty Hotel, which is part of the Starwood Luxury Collection.  The building used to be the old jail, and in the lobby they had photos of the extensive renovations and modifications they had undertaken when trying to change this building from a defunct jail to a modern luxurious hotel.  The lobby hotel was like an interior "courtyard" with hallways/balconies on the higher floors overlooking the central courtyard.  All along the hallways/balconies were doors to event and conference spaces and a bar.  Really cool use of space, kept the lobby very open, especially with the cupola up top letting light in.  The hotel had a couple of restaurants, with a jail theme, cool touch to remember what it used to be, but not at all creepy like what a jail would have been like.  Our room was nothing to cry home about, but we did get a really nice view of Boston from the hotel room.  We chose the free continental breakfast at one of the restaurants, Clink, as our Platinum amenity, which was very nice, and had a value of $25 attached to it.  Coffee/tea, juice, and a choice of two of fresh fruit, steel cut oats, dry cereal, 2 eggs, toast, yoghurt, bacon, sausage or a pastry.  I tried a number of the items, all fairly standard, but with healthy enough options, and they were pretty good.  I think I really like the texture of steel cut oats, but just seems like a pain to cook at home.

We had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, Scampo, which apparently is very well known and highly regarded in Boston, as a number of people had said we had to eat there.  The bread came with some green dipping sauce (sorry, this was really so long ago that I don't remember much), and then we ordered calamari, foie gras, ravioli and maybe a halibut?  I remember thinking everything was kind of nice, but not particularly fantabulous.

One night we tried to go to Neptune's Oyster, but we were too late and they were not seating anymore people (run out of seafood I guess, sad face), so we went to Rabia's, just a few doors down, in the North End, which is Boston's oldest residential district.  We got the lobster roll and lobster risotto, which were both decent, considering probably all the drop outs from Neptune's Oyster go here.

The last dinner place we tried was o ya in Boston for sushi/Japanese.  Again, the food was not bad, but kind of expensive.  We were thinking of doing the omakase, but I decided it was too expensive, so we got a la carte instead.  The fish was all pretty good in quality and taste, but I thought the quantity was measly.  The menu was extensive, so we made some notes on our menu on what to order.

I have always loved walking around European towns, and parts of Boston certainly felt like that.  One day I decided to take the Freedom Trail, "a 2.5-mile, red-lined route that leads you to 16 historically significant sites — each one an authentic treasure".  A lot of the path is or looks like red brick, which is kind of cool, but I learnt that it may have been mostly just brick facade as opposed to a real brick slab.  I had done this before, but it's always fun doing history stuff in Boston.  I sort of started at Quincy Market because I have an affinity for markets and wanted to eat there.  Nothing particularly special or Bostonian called to me, so I decided to have some clam chowder - as Bostonian as I would get, I suppose.  Onto the trail, which you can read about here, I remember trying to get into the Paul Revere House, but they took cash only and I had $0 on me.  A few other tourists were turned away too.  Sad times.  They really should take credit card.  Think of the loss of customers!!  I also climbed the Bunker Hill Monument, lots of great views up there, and would have been better if not for the dirty glass or metal grates.  Loved the parks too - Boston Common, which is part of the trail, and Boston Public Garden, which isn't, but also very pretty.  Parks really add an element of beauty to a city.

Saw a funny truck on my walk around Boston.

And ice cream from JP Licks.

For anyone who loves history and old European looking towns, Boston is a great place for that.  Walking without a purpose, observing the old architecture, checking out cool shops, relaxing in the park.  Summer only, though.  ;-)  Enjoy your 9 months of cold, Boston, and I'll see you next when the weather is good!  xoxo

Los Angeles, CA

Well, it turns out I am at least 6 months delinquent in my posts.  I'm just going to combine 2 LA posts into one.

This LA trip was back in January.  I think I posted a bit from that trip, maybe restaurants, but here are a few random ones.

I can't remember where I first saw this place, I think someone I knew posted it on Facebook.  Bottega Louie.  Prettiest little cafe in crappy little downtown.  Big windows, lots of light, pretty pastries, and they had these Argo teas that we loved to get back in Chicago - green tea ginger twist, mmmm mmmmm.  I never ate anything here, since I stopped by during a run, but they also do sandwiches and stuff, great place to meet a friend if you have the afternoon off in downtown LA.

I ran past Grand Central Market, also in downtown.  This market was a mix of food stalls and artisan foods, very cool vibe, with a very old school feel.  Also did not get to eat there, but I just might the next time I am in the neighbourhood.

I feel like most people think downtown is pretty dumpy, and for the most part it is, but it has these little treasures here and there.  Maybe some day downtown LA will be cool.

Our second trip to LA happened in June.  On our way down, we stopped at an old place I used to go to, Yaki's in Burbank, which is famous for its bulldogs.  They are really quite disgusting.  Sausage wrapped in cheese and deep fried to a crisp.  The cheese is all melty and gooey, and they give you a side of teriyaki sauce to dip it in, and it's oh so heaven.  But after that you feel like you shouldn't eat for months.

This time we stayed at the SLS, which we have stayed in before.  We got a regular room, which was nothing special, but the problem is our room smelled like weed and cigarettes.  On day 2, even after they came in and had fans blowing in the room for hours, the weed and cigarette smell did not go away.  So, I called and complained, and we got upgraded to a room that was one tier below the presidential suite.  WOW!  The room was enormous, and had a large sitting area and a long dining table for... the 20 friends I was planning to host.  Haha.  It was great.  Quite honestly, not needed, but super cool being able to live in style.  ;-)

The first night we were there, we went to Night + Market.  This was the other Thai place on the Travel and Leisure list.  Things we got:
1)  Nam khao tod (crispy rice salad) - really really good, the sour and spicy blended really well
2)  Pork toro (grilled fatty pig neck) - also really yummy, with the spicy sauce giving it a nice kick
3)  Special pad thai - no idea what so special about it, it really was the worst dish by far
4)  Basil pork (I think) - good
5)  Ice cream sandwich with home-made coconut ice cream atop coconut rice in a sweet bun - reminded me of Asia and really nice cooling end to the meal
Lingon met some Thai folks who said this place was for tourists.  He got some "authentic" recommendations but I think at this point had drank too much to remember.  Oh well.  We had a good experience here, and I would come back for sure!

With Lingon's Starwood Platinum status, we get free continental breakfast.  The SLS provided a buffet at the lobby.  Everyone raves about the yoghurt, which is really good, but I'm not certain is like super duper special.  Goes back to the point that I'm not that discerning in food, but I would definitely eat it again and again!  Anyway, every morning, here is where we would eat.  Berries, pastries, meats, granola, I had to be careful not to eat too many of those raisin rolls.  I love having breakfast here.  One can be as healthy or unhealthy as one wants, and I think this time I was decently healthy (I did not eat all the pastries in these pictures!).

We had one dinner at Bazaar, the restaurant at the SLS.  I've been wanting to eat here for a while, since this is probably the third or fourth time we have stayed at this hotel.  We had been to an event before so we were not that hungry, and Lingon really just went along with me so I did not have to eat alone.  Honestly I had done poor research on this trip, so a few hours before I just did some Yelp reviews and ordered the popular items.  We got:
1)  Philly cheese steak sandwich - so this thing looked like a roll with some steak bits on top.  When you bite into it, cheese oozes out.
2)  Uni buns - now I love uni, and this was very very high quality uni.
3)  Olives - there were the innovative olives, which looked like real olives but were really gooey olives with a concentrate of olive tasting liquid inside, so once one bites into it the kind of burst in your mouth with an intense flavour.  Then there were the traditional olives.
4)  Foie gras cotton candy - foie gras on a stick with cotton candy around.
So, I feel like two of these 4 dishes, the Philly cheese steak sandwich and the olives, really reminded me of Tickets in Barcelona.  Exactly the same.  Which are genius, really.  I just feel like, they are copied.  And that's all I will say about it.  The food was great, and the restaurant has a very hip, cool vibe, and I would probably recommend it if someone asked me about it.

In other news, I learned about the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM machine.  Intrigued, I decided to take a run to the cupcake ATM to get a cupcake!  When I arrived, the damned machine was being reloaded and the screen said it would be 30 mins.  Since I ran all of 1 or 2 miles to get here, I decided to stay put.  I just HAD to have my cupcake from the machine!  So I waited.  And while I waited, other people showed up trying to buy cupcakes and I had to tell them they had to wait and I was in line.  30 mins passed, and nothing happened, so I went in to check and the folks in the store said the machine was being reloaded.  I was sad.  I kept waiting in the store.  Store lady feels sorry for me and gives me free cinnamon cupcake.  I was happy.  Thank you, Sprinkles!  Then the machine got working again, and I bought my cupcake, and my excursion was complete.  YUM!  Woohoo!

I also decided to go back to my old stomping ground, the Westside.  In the morning, I went for a run by Santa Monica/Brentwood/Malibu.  Did not really know exactly where.  It was cloudy but kind of muggy and not too cold, and I made it from wherever I parked with all the hot mums doing boot camp down to the beach.  I saw some really weird house with trailers in it, like a playhouse, and I thought it was so cool.  How does one get a trailer in the house, even if it was a small one?!

I had been meaning to try 800 Degrees Pizza, because so many people have recommended it to me.  The concept is simple, yet genius.  It's like a Chipotle pizza, where you build your own pizza.  I chose the white pizza with mozzarella and garlic and added sausage to it, and DAMN was it good.  I think it was less than $8 too.  Crazy.  At 800 degrees, the pizza is supposed to cook in about a minute.  They did not have normal chili pepper but some kind of chili sauce.  I highly recommend it.  They had a thousand toppings and the sky's the limit!

Then I went to Diddy Riese for the standard UCLA fare - ice cream sandwich!!  I used to get strawberry shortcake ice cream, but for some reason this was not available.  I got a white chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookie.  So, back when I was at UCLA, I used to get the ice cream in a cup, and the cookies separate, and the price was the same.  The guy making my sandwich said if I wanted to do that, it was 50 cents extra,  WTF?  So of course I just say gimme the sandwich and a cup, and then I scooped the ice cream from the cookie myself.  Lol.  Back then, which was a very long time ago, this thing cost $1.  I remember when they raised the price by a quarter.  This time, June 2015, it was $2.  Ohhh inflation haha.  It was still super yummy though.

I guess this kind of sums it for my 2 LA trips.  Man I love LA, but everytime I go back I feel like I want to kill all the mean testosterone-filled drivers there who refuse to let you change lane when you signal.  Seems like a certain Singapore.  And everyone looks so fake.  And traffic sucks.  OK maybe I don't love LA that much, but I do have huge nostalgic lovey dovey feelings when I think about it.

Portland, OR Eats - Pok Pok and Blue Star Donuts

On our recent road trip to Seattle, Lingon and I stopped by the famed Pok Pok Thai restaurant.  After hearing SO MUCH about this restaurant, both from friends and in the T&L Best Thai Food article.  There was a crap load of traffic getting into Portland, and we did not make it until about 1.30pm or so, and were told there was a 45 min wait.  We said OK, and took a little walk, and discovered Tidbit Food Farm and Garden, which was a park with trailers into shops and restaurants.  There was a cute area on the interior were one could sit down and enjoy the chow.  Since we were saving ourselves for Pok Pok, we did not try this.  But they had shops like Hapa Ramen and Namu, SF names but we don't think are from SF, a bakery, really a whole lot of different cuisines, and was super cool.  Gotta save something for our next trip to Portland!  My photo from the outside sucked, but it's all I've got.

We finally got the callback to Pok Pok and excitedly headed back.  In my mind, I already knew I wanted the famed chicken wings and the shrimp and pork belly glass noodle.  Both were REALLY REALLY good.  In addition to that, we got the papaya salad, which was the most disappointing dish.  The papaya was neither tart nor sweet, just kind of bland, and did not really have a kick to it either.  For all that was recommended about it, I have to give it a zero for lack of taste, and being overhyped due to its Pok Pok-ness.  We got a Chiang Mai sausage that was pretty good, but we recently had better sausage so were not all that impressed.  I got a Thai iced tea and Lingon got a gin and tonic with kefir lime in it.  So, we had a couple of great dishes, a pretty good one, a bad one, and some beverages.  Not a bad meal, really, but more than the food itself, the atmosphere of the restaurant was unparallel.  A whole bunch of outdoor seating, 90 degree Portland weather (supposedly unheard of), gave the feel of being by the beach in a hut type restaurant in Phuket or something.  It was just cool to hang out at, and the atmosphere really made the place.  Another one off the Travel and Leisure list.

After lunch, we went to the also-famed Blue Star Donuts.  The shop had very unique flavours, such as vegan pistachio cake with raspberry hibiscus and cointreau creme brulee.  We chose the chocolate ganache and maple bacon donuts.  They were both good, though were not blown away.  Disclaimer: I don't think we are the best judges of donuts since neither of us is in love with donuts.

That was round one.

On the way back, we stopped again at Pok Pok, opting to try totally things.  Round two.  We got the boar collar, which was spicy and totally delish, the catfish over vermicelli rice, which was super meh (the catfish was perfectly fried, great texture, but rather tasteless, and the noodles were just oily and just as tasteless), and the pork belly and shoulder curry, so good!  Since we only got 3 dishes this time, we got a side of sticky rice, which came in this cute basket that seems to be all the trend, and that was not super flavourful but worked well with the food.  Lingon got a Thai coffee, super sweet, which I liked.  In short, I would say we enjoyed Pok Pok, some of the dishes really blew me away, and I liked that their menu was not the generic pad thai, or pad see ew, etc. (though I do love those dishes), and the super chill beach side hut atmosphere really attracted me.

The first time I went to Portland was with Lingon maybe in 2008 or 2009.  We stayed in downtown, it was February, Valentine's Day weekend, rainy and miserable.  I thought I hated it.  But this time round, it seemed we were in Southeast Portland (not super familiar with the neighbourhoods since I did not do any research beyond Pok Pok), and the vibe was really cool.  I think I will give Portland another chance, and come back for its other culinary delights.  There will be a round three, Portland.