BlaringSmelly

Yesterday I took Mango out to the backyard to pee. Since I got some time to kill, I went check on the tomatoes. Behind layers of green leaves, I spotted a red tomato. Needless to say, I was very excited. I wasn’t sure if the tomato was ready to be picked, so carefully I reached in to get a close look. The moment I touched the tomato, it detached from the vine and fall into my hand.

I started looking for other red tomatoes but didn’t see any. Then I saw one already dropped and was lying on the pot soil. I had no idea how long that tomato had being there. It felt firm on the touch. So I rescued it out of the pot. Then I saw several holes on the tomato. And a slug caught in action, still munching away my tomato.

So really I only harvested one good tomato. There were tons of green ones but very few of them were turning red. Quite a few green one also growing out of my other type of tomato. I hope there’s still time for a second harvest this year.

Sunday lunch was a wakening call that our lives have changed with the addition of Mr. Mango. It was Mango’s second day with us. We didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone. When Sunday lunchtime was upon us, instead of “what are we craving for”, we were brainstorming pet friendly restaurants.

I suggested Baguette Box in Fremont as I remembered seeing dog photos wanted sign and several oversize dog paintings on the wall. Baguette Box must love dogs there right? Not exactly. It was entirely my own assumption. Still I felt rather deceived when I was told by the staff dogs are not welcomed there.

I mentioned this incident to my coworker Jonathan. Also a Shiba Inu owner, Jonathan told me Norm’s Eatery & Ale House in Fremont is dog friendly, so are many restaurants’ outdoor seating.

Encouraged by his suggestion, I searched online and found both Pet Friendly Travel and Google pet friendly restaurant search have very comprehensive lists of dog friendly restaurants.

Not having to give up dining in restaurants for Mango is no doubt a huge relief for us food lovers.

It’s a shame I’ve not been to Bite of Seattle all these years I reside in Seattle. This past Friday, I was told a lunch plan that involved drinking, eating, and iMax movie afterward. It was the ultimate Friday lunch plan that I had to tag alone.

First stop was the Whisky Bar. I had water as I was still recovering from yesterday’s quarterly meeting. We left after a pool game and couple shots of whisky.

On the way, Matt was telling us about alligator on a stick. We found New Orleans Cookery booth was selling alligator on a stick. For $7, we were handed a stick of chicken nugget-looking fried-to-perfection alligator. The portion was good for the money we paid. And boy, it was tasty!!!

I’ve never had alligator before. I was pleasantly surprised how much it tasted like Taiwanese style chicken nuggets (鹹酥雞）. It’s juicy, spicy, and simply delicious. I couldn’t shut up about how good it was.

Too bad New Orleans Cookery is not in my neighborhood. Or I’d be showing up to have that tasty alligator anytime I want. I had a bite of Crab Cake Narisa got also from the Cookery. It was pretty tasty too.

Ktula fund out this is the last weekend of razor claming season in Washington. His obsession catching shellfish alike kicked in. That meant by 3:00 am, we were on the road to Twin Harbors.

2.5 hour later, we arrived at state park beach just before sunrise. In the darkness, already you could see people with their flashlights scattered all alone the beach line.

We must have “rookie” written all over. A guy approached us and pointed to a couple spots next to ktula and told him to dig. And that’s how we got our first and second clams. His name is Alex, he geared up like a Mt. Everest climber and he sure knew what he was doing. The beach was freezing cold and the wind were consistently blasting.

Alex was one of the many friendly clamming enthusiasts we encountered at the beach. He made clamming look so easy. For the next hour and half, we were digging wrong holes and finding nothing. Ktula almost had one of our clams stolen by a black lab puppy. Damn cute dog, we were laughing and cheering when the puppy attempted stealing from our bucket again.

After few more friendly clamming pros shared their tips, we finally get a hang of it. Most of the clams were found in the last 30 minutes. Just one after the other, in areas we searched earlier but didn’t see a thing, crazy!

We were done clam digging by 8:00 am. But digging these babies out and getting them home were just half of the work. Ktula spent couple hours rinsing clamming gears and cleaning the catch. I’d offer to help, but I hate cleaning.

After a much needed nap, we went to ktula sister’s place to prepare a razor clam feast. First, the clam meat were processed to get rid of parts that’s not edible, the process was messy and time consuming. After that, rinsed the clam pieces thoroughly to wash off all the sand. Then hand padded each piece before its 3 batter coatings, then into the frying oil.

The end result was 3 big plates of Japanese style clam tempura. It was meaty and tender, definitely passed our tasting test.

Shortly after Erich reported his company’s legendary 9-hour all-staff meeting marathon, the company I work for scheduled Tuesday our first quarterly meeting of the year. We were promised food (the unhealthy kind), drinks (2 alcoholic ones and unlimited soda and water), and 2-hour free play at Game Works.

The real meeting was kept under 2 hour. We were (or at least I was) entertained by customer story shared by support team, hat tossing to new employees, cash and reward giveaways, short video montage of popular games from studio and people behind it.

Then Game Works time!

Lately we’ve being going to Ho Ho Seafood Restaurant for its spot shrimps. Last time the hostess recommended the next time we come, try spot shrimps prepared in 2 ways – deep-fried the heads and sashimi the body. We got really excited just hearing about it.

Last Tuesday we didn’t feel like cooking. When ktula said “Ho Ho?”, I knew he was talking about that shrimps in 2 ways. We raced to the restaurant and ordered a pound of spot shrimps. I was excited. Seafood doesn’t get any fresher than this.

Sashimi shrimps and a plate of wasabi arrived shortly. Beheaded shrimps arranged neatly on a bed of crushed ice. Peeling off the shell was rather difficult because the shrimps’ freshness. I was concentrating on the peeling when one of the shrimps jumped out of the plate.

What the hell? These guys were missing their heads and therefore should be dead for some times now. My brain cannot register what just happened. I resume to my peeling, then another shrimp jump out of the plate.

I freaked out and did a sissy-girl shriek. ktula peeled a shrimp for me so I didn’t have to deal with it. Just when I was about to bite into it, the body jerked.

ktula can have rest of the sashimi shrimps. Fresh is a good thing, but when that food moved in your mouth, that’s freaky. I finished the deep-fried peeper and salt shrimp heads. And that was plenty fresh and tasty for me. As for the sashimi part, I was too busy freaking out I honestly can’t tell you if it’s any good. However, ktula will tell you otherwise.