Pike Place Market

At any US urban metropolis you may find foods from the far east to the Mediterranean.  Same goes for Seattle and it comes with a bit of interesting history.  Thanks to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum, I learned that one of the reasons Seattle became the largest city in the northwest was the gold rush, when the city became kind like a one stop shop for gold miners to obtain goods for their journey up north.  People all over US, some out of the country, were crossing through the town.  Growing business meant that the city also saw the chance to offer a variety of different types of food to meet the demands of the travelers and the passerby alike.  Pike Place Market is an excellent example of where one can experience this culinary diversity in this city. 
I love the Pike Place Market.  I always thought of it as a place where you find seafood but its more like a conglomerate of various international foods.  Up until recently I've been calling it Pike's place!! oopz. lulz  I've been living in Seattle for 3 years but I still haven't tried all of the little food places in the market.  So far, my  favorites are: 

• Piroshky Piroshky- salmon piroshky is orgasmic
• Uli's Famous Sausage - i love em big juicy sausage mmm
• Pasta Bar - ok its like a food court place but seriously, REALLY awesome pasta
• Beecher's Cheese - macaroni and cheese here is dangerously amazing. 

borscht at Cafe Yarmarka, a russian food court place. My roommate/bff from college is Russian, her mom cooked really good borscht.  This place isn't really comparable to their homestyle cooking, but still god really good taste. 

Uli's sausage serves Bavarian + American sausage.  personally, i like the cajun style ones better. 

So a couple weeks back, I went to the Cheese festival at the martket.  There were over 200 different types of cheese you can sample and buy plus seminars and cooking demonstrations.  I love cheese, I mean my name is made of cheese.  I sampled a LOT at the event. By the end everything tasted the same (　*´Д｀) But! there were a couple of different types that stood out in my mind.  One was this super stinky 9 year old cheese; my sample was the size of a tiny booger but boy it was pungent, my mouth tasted like all my teeth rotted.(´ж｀;)  Another one was the one we ended up buying.  It was "smoked" cheese made locally and it kind of had a smoked meat kind of smell to it when you bite down.  mMMm 

We were real cheesed out at the end, but it was a fun event.  below are more pix, you can see they had vendors lined up serving free samples. 

Grilled Cheeeese made with artichoke cream cheese and some kind of white cheddar.  

My first meal after I went to the gym... MMMMm.  

some kind of cow cheese

some kind of goat cheese

Baking

On a very rare occasion, I become ecstatic about baking.

When its all over, I stand by the kitchen absolutely petrified by the amount of butter and sugar content I just smothered onto my creation. 

Recently I went through the same episode of this baking seizure and reminded me of my housemate in college who used to bake stuff all the time.  She wasn't exactly the social type, judging from the fact that she stayed home most of the time and that I never really recall her bringing any of her friends over during that year.  It didn't take me long to speculate that one of the reasons for her social ineptness was the way her facial expression stayed still in a very uncomfortable way when we would have a conversation. 

Nevertheless, she was nice enough to always share her baked goods.  In fact, when I say always, I mean ALL THE TIME.  I'd often come down the stairs high as a kite and then find her freshly baked cookies patiently waiting for me with my housemate never in sight.   Back then I only thought as far as appreciating how F'n awesome it was to have tasty sweets conveniently available as soon as I smoked a bowl.

It was not until I graduated college I learned how to bake cookies, let alone learned the amount of butter it takes to make a batch.  Now that I look back, I can think of several good reasons for her to murder me and rest of my housemates by slowly inducing diabetes in all of us with her cookies.  The walls in the house we lived in were made of tissue paper so I'm sure we made a lot of noise partying and coming home late.  When she did bake cookies, at least for my part, sometimes I would forget to thank her because she was not around.   or when she cracked a joke, no one laughed because at least for me, I was too busy trying to see when she would blink.  So this is how I imagine it went down:

But, I'm sure she didn't.

Anyway, I guess long story short, I made an apple tart the other day and here is how it turned out:

I forgot to put syrup on the apple before I took the pic.  = \  *sigh* I'd like to bake more but its just so hard to eat them after you see what goes inside.. = (

Qat Comics

Battle with Itch
 

Face of Yakuza Qat



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Tulip Festival

My friend Steph took me on a day trip to Woodburn Oregon's Tulip Festival + Portland this past weekend :D

It was.. my first time *blush*

The place was filled with ACRES of tulips of all different kinds.  It was incredible! 

The weather was actually really nice in the upper 60's/low 70's, a little overcast.  

After 4.5 hour drive from Seattle, when we arrived and this man fed us Bratwurst.. 

'TWAZ DELISH.  I F'n LOVE sauerkraut and he loaded it up MMM <3 

Bratwurst then gave me super powers.

I could talk to animals. I made a new friend.

then I rejoiced in the field of flowers like you do.  

and then I hid, because all the terrorists are doing it.   

 
and then I fell in love with Steph's dslr.

and then I took an AWESOME pic of steph, I mean look at this, its perfect.  can someone give me like $1000 so I can continue this effort in producing pretty photos?  kthx

The End :D

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Oinarisaturday

Made sum inarizushi today.

A pack of 6 inari cost $6 at Uwajimaya.  Instead, I bought a frozen abura-age pack for $1.50 a pack (came with enough to make 8 pieces).

Recipe Link
It was really simple.  Mine came out tasting exactly like the store bought ones, which was EXACTLY what I was craving. \(｡◕‿◕｡)/ *yay*

Next time I think I'll stuff it with some mixed rice with beans and hijiki.

Design Inspiration Saturday

Conrad Roset

Without a winner or a loser, it ain't no game

At first I thought I was the one to blame.

I told myself, its an infatuation, not to feel shame.

My love awaits in a land far from here.

Ain't easy to play and disappear. 

That night I brought him a case of beer.

We could talk and wipe away the tears.

I could tell the truth and all would be clear...

But I entered the door and found nothing to fear

as I looked into his blank stare....

 

"You don't need to hide anymore" he said. 

"What?" 

"I'm in love with another man."

He turned and there he was, embraced by the love of another....

So as the bromance progressively intensifies, thought I'd announce that I am officially 3rd wheeling it in my own household.  Strangely enough, around the time we adopted him, my mom told me Tucky caught a cold =(  I feel so guilty!! 

Rollin' for Allison's Bday

Adam and Allison invited us to ROLLERSKATING

for Allison's Birthday!!! 

YAH YAH SO EXCITED MMHUMPH 

ALWAYS SAY YES TO NACHOZ WHEN YOU ROLLIN' ON BLADEZ*

Awww look at diz kodak momentz XD


denz za festivitiez continued at da Zoo Tavern where za dragonz turn deeferent color eyez dependin on how drunk you arr.  harhAr.

Happy Birthday Allison, i lubba yoOu <3

*disclaimer: while the title of this blog entry or choice of vocabulary used in this entry may suggest otherwise, none of us were under any influence of illegal drugs--just high on life, muthaFuka. 

I open google news and the media fills up my screen with faces of hardship and tragedy all over the world.  My heart goes out especially to all affected by Japan's earthquake/tsunami, the scientists and engineers cooling off the nuclear power plants and last but not least, those fighting for their rights and freedom in the Arab nations.  

I just want to share this tweet by Shabadaba-O, a japanese entertainer:

@shabadaba_o: 今日被災者に電話ｲﾝﾀﾋﾞｭｰした。家を無くした４０代の女性が言った。「私達は他人の幸せや喜びをねたむほど落ちぶれてはいない。皆さんどうぞ我慢せ ず楽しい時は笑い嬉しい時は喜んでください。私達も一日も早く皆さんに追いつきます」俺は涙をこらえ笑顔でエールを送った。

Translation: "Today, I phone interviewed an earthquake victim, a 40 year old woman who lost her home from the tsunami, and she said, 'We do not feel contempt for the people unaffected by the tragedy nor do we intent on bringing down others' happiness because we are the victims of tsunami.  Please don't hesitate to laugh or smile if something makes you happy.  We will catch up with everyone soon.' I fought back my tears and wished her best of luck"

YES. No more fears, scares and potassium iodide!!!
Live and laugh!!!

chirashizushi

I've been craving ikura/chirashi and girls day happened to be around the corner, so I decided to give it a try. I simmered shiitake, carrots, hijiki and bamboo shoots in konbu/katsuodashi, a dash of shoyu, and mirin which later I mixed with sushi rice.  I used 2 eggs beaten with 1 table spoon of sugar, cooked it low heat with oil, front and back then cut in thin strips. thats pretty much the base of it.  I bought the ikura and shrimp sashimi at the store, but I think you can pretty much put any kind of sashimi if you want. I think traditionally for hinamatsuri, people put a layer of denbu (sweet pink flakes) but I hate that stuff so I didn't buy it. 

For the cucumber flower, the trick is to keep the slices REAL thin otherwise it won't stay in tact.  you cut thin cucumber slices, put salt and squeeze away the moisture. place the slices vertically away from you and begin rolling up. heres a video I found.

it turned out pretty damn good.  *pat on shoulder*
I put reject cucumber slices around the dish so not to waste them lol.

tada~ ( ^_^ )

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