ramblings of a Seattle travel, food and photography hound
Back in 2009, Newport appeared on our culinary radar when we ate a remarkable cioppino at Sharks Seafood Bar. It would be enough of a reason to come back again (and again). Aside from its many seafood restaurants, this town of 10,000 residents has several other attractions. The most obvious physical presence in the city... Continue Reading →
Surrounded by large tracts of farmland on the outskirts of Salem is a small stretch of local shops and businesses. Among them is a taqueria innocuously housed in a flat building, which you might normally drive past since there's nothing remarkable about the exterior except that it's painted in the tricolors of Mexico. Los Temos specializes... Continue Reading →
Because my wife and I will be driving down to Southern California in a few days, she and my daughter took me out for an early Father's Day dinner at Stumbling Goat, a restaurant in the Phinney Ridge/Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. It's been around for at least ten years at the same location and has... Continue Reading →
Italian restaurants around here have gone upscale. It's almost impossible to find a ristorante with reasonable prices, especially in the suburbs where it's unlikely you'll come across a neighborhood spot. In walkable U.S. cities with large Italian-American populations like along the East Coast and in Chicago, this is probably not the case, but out here... Continue Reading →
If there is one sure sign that the Issaquah Farmers Market has started in earnest for the season, it's the silhouette of a familiar food truck when driving past Pickering Farm. Maximus/Minimus has been feeding the faithful for several years running. It draws many customers not only because of the good pulled pork sandwiches but... Continue Reading →
A sure sign of impending summer is the long-awaited appearance of the peony. It is greatly admired and revered in China and has unofficially been regarded as its national flower. More than ever, peonies have been popping up for sale here in the Seattle area (and I imagine elsewhere). When Costco and Trader Joe's begin... Continue Reading →
Getting a good banh mi sandwich on the Eastside is problematic. Several places sell them, but not exclusively, which doesn't mean that they're bad. It's just that the best places, like those in Seattle, specialize in this delicious Vietnamese sandwich. Much attention is paid to using the freshest bread and preparing the variety of fillings... Continue Reading →
One of the best burgers I've had in a long time was served at the Dundee Bistro, a restaurant associated with Ponzi Vineyards in the town of Dundee, which is situated in the gorgeous rolling hills of Tualatin Valley wine country. Friends of ours who live in nearby Sherwood treated us to lunch. There is a tasting... Continue Reading →
One of the most unusual crystal specimens I've ever seen on display is the Alma Rose rhodochrosite at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro. This extravagantly beautiful specimen boasts five large rhodochrosite crystals, speckled with yellowish calcite deposits. Almost pure MnCO3, they have a deep pink, almost cherry-reddish coloring and are shaped... Continue Reading →
Once in a long while, you stumble across a store so phenomenal that it takes your breath away. After lunch at Taqueria Hermanos Ochoa's, four of us were trying to kill some time before the start of Star Trek: Into Darkness at a multiplex. There used to be a market attached to Ochoa's, but it... Continue Reading →
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