Accents

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language,

and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.

- John Ciardi

(Quote via http://www.singlishdictionary.com/)

Sunday tea

I was reading "Eating- A memoir" by Jason Epstein and was most pleasantly surprised to learn that the famous Yuen Ren Chao's wife had a cookbook which he wrote on her behalf in English. It's a real geeky thing to be impressed by, these connexions life makes, but wow.. I knew him as the linguist we quote on Chinese grammatical stuff in my masters thesis.. and now there's Mrs. Chao and her first cookbook to attempt authentic Chinese techniques and recipes in English. It has been two weeks ago since I learnt this and I haven't found anyone who's as excited to know of this but me. The serendipity of it all welling up inside me with no one to appreciate how cool it is. Now that I've come to terms with my un-ebbing excitement about this, I've grabbed a copy off Ebay. Can't wait to see T at the conference and share this little nugget of fun fact with her.

Beaujolais & Boeuf Bourguignon

It appears that watching "Julie and Julia" inspires this in most of us. It's more effortful to make sure that everything browns properly, including my mushrooms, but the end result is worth it. The taste is a complex, rich beefy brownness, with the red wine and herbs so well integrated that you can't single them out. We used only 1 cup of Syrah and 1 cup of beef stock. So in the end there wasn't a need to reduce the sauce. I liked how the carrots tasted, so I'll use more next time.

Seared tuna over rice

The Pike Brewery

Monk's Uncle tripel ale & Pike Stout

Pacific Manila clams & Penn Cove Mussels

四季 (Shiki) Sushi, Seattle

Chef Ken's deft hands

Omakase sashimi

Tonkatsu

Chawanmushi

View from top of the hill

We found our way to this rather hole-in-the-wall japanese restaurant. The food is fresh and perfectly done without pretense. The scallops were the sweetest I've tasted so far, and J's really happy with his Tonkatsu. The place is empty-ish; there was another couple who left soon after we came in, and then there was a regular who walked in by himself, sat at the bar, ordered sushi, and then a sashimi. Finally, no one's asking for rolls. It was an off-season just after the new year so Chef Ken was forthright about the lack of variability in the ingredients. There wouldn't be any fresh uni as the fishermen haven't really gone back to work, live sweet shrimp and fugu was of course out of the question. If I do return one day, I'll make sure to make special orders for those items if they are in season. We chatted a little with Chef Ken, and he learnt that we were visiting from out of town. After we were done with the meal, he tried to tell me in a mixture of Japanese, English and hand gestures to go climb up the hill. "Go up until you see the flashing yellow light, turn left, and there will be a vast expense of the city skyline." is what I figured from his gestures and animated enthusiasm. Granted, I did hear "yellow", "blinking" and "left" in there somewhere. If left to his own devices however, J would not have deciphered a thing. Good that we all have our strengths. :) A steep climb up the hill after a sumptuous Japanese meal was new for me. Doubts did cross my mind. 'Why the chef wanted me to spill all that wonderful food on the hillside?' 'Did I really understand what he said??' At the end of it however, left after the yellow blinking lights, was a breath-taking view of the Seattle skyline indeed. Life is good.

Lai Lai, Seattle Chinatown

Century egg congee in claypot

Wanton mee

Dumplings

A pink-tinged spoon

What a lovely find. I was craving congee as I do whenever I'm within a mile of any Chinatown, so we found this place that serves them in a claypot. I think the last time I had congee in a claypot involved frog's legs at Geylang. Long time ago. Anyhow, best congee I had on the trip so I was hardly distracted by the other items. According to J, the wanton mee and dumplings were Cantonese style. He finished half of the bottle of red vinegar with the noodles. Lai Lai sells their homemade dumplings and noodles too, which I thought was really cool.

Uwajimaya, Seattle

Sashimi

Ootoro

Kumamoto oysters

Beard Papa

I could live here! It's like the perfect Japanese supermarket, there's fresh sashimi, live seafood, oysters, cooked foods like grilled black cod, tempura everything, and so on. Oh, and Beard Papa cream puffs. There's no other cartoon mug of a man that excites me more than his. It sounds just slightly pathetic, since it's not that uncommon back home. But even then, I have to have one every time I pass a Beard Papa outlet. Tastes pretty much the same too. I shared one this time, and thought back when I could scarf down half a dozen in a day- I'll have a vanilla, then a chocolate, and then decide I like vanilla better. Haha. Oh here they list the caloric value. I'm actually surprised it's only 220 calories each. Almost makes me want to have another. And there was a nice security guard guy standing next to Beard Papa who offered me a packet of soy sauce after I opened my box of sashimi. Thank you sir, I only stopped short of the next step because I didn't know where to pour the soy sauce since the tray was covered by shrink wrap and not the usual clear plastic lid. The guard also watched shopping carts for ladies who were shopping alone. How sweet! Wished I had more time to hang out at Uwajimaya, there's Kinokuniya in there too, and it would have been nice to just idly wander the aisles and ogle at kawaii japanese stationery. Ahhh.. being in such a place just restores a sense of balance and equilibrium within me.

Bamboo Sushi, Portland

Daiginjo flight

Sashimi

Tempura Udon

The sashimi is so-so. The udon is a tiny portion, cold and the egg was sour, like it was poached in vinegar. I don't think it's normal. Perhaps we should have stuck to rolls, since that's what people here eat mostly anyways. Between delicious and sustainable, at least Bamboo sushi was one of them.

Coffeehouse Northwest, Portland

Most excellent cup of cappuccino. The barista even looked in my direction after I took and sip and asked how it was. Marvelous. And I loved your latte art too.

Typhoon, Portland

Lamb shank

Tom Yum noodles

Stir-fried vegetable

It was a chilly evening and we walked into a nearby Thai food restaurant, thinking that something spicy might warm us up. It was promising initially, we saw Thai cooks working in the kitchen and there were delicious aromas wafting from its direction. Unfortunately every single item presented to us was too sweet; it's American Thai food, not Thai Thai food. At the end of the meal we were left with a sick cloying feeling of having had a dessert version of a meal and not real food. I wonder if people realise how much sugar they are inadvertently consuming.

Bouchon at Yontville

Pistachios and butter

Epi Baguette

Gnocchi

Steak Frites

The gnocchi seems to be many people's favorite, but we found it lacking in flavor. The fries accompanying steak frites were indeed crisp and tasty. The caramelized shallots helped the flatiron steak. The house red is by winemaker Celia Welch and was the highlight of our evening.