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.

Last night ktula suggested Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza for dinner. Where I had the most terrible food in a very long time.

To be fair, I’m not a pizza fan. If I have to, I like my pizza thin crust. ktula mistakenly ordered the thick crust pizza. In addition to that, we ordered a 10-piece garlic wings. The wings looked like they were swimming in oil before sending to our table. Despite my cluttered up blood vessels, the taste was acceptable.

Moments later, the pizza was served. We ordered a garlic chicken pizza. However I couldn’t see traces or identify objects resemblance of chicken on the pizza. The crust was soggy from god knows what. A thick layer of what appeared to be cheese smothered on top. The only reason I guessed it was based on the substance’s unnatural yellow color. The smell of gourmet cooking was completely absent. This steamy pile of sadness made me wish I were having McDonald’s chicken nuggets or KFC’s fried chickens. They are bad for me but at least taste good.

No reason to describe the pizza’s taste as it was as bad as it looked. I chose to stick with grease dripping wings.

Most of my friends know I’m a bit of a picky eater. Now that I’m over the age to be able to binge like a garbage can, my philosophy at eating has become to eat only things I like and nothing else. People gave me craps about not eating this and that. But when I gave in like last night’s dinner. I broke my rules of thumb and now feeling gross and bloated even more than 12 hours later. I work hard to keep myself healthy. I regretted last night I didn’t stand firmly on my grounds.

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.

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.

We’ve being craving for barbeque since last Tuesday. Ktula’s friend invited us to Rainier BBQ for dinner. We were expecting top-notch smoky ribs and messy sauce. The place ended up serving Asian style barbeque meat and Vietnamese dish. What da??

Today we decided to try Jone’s Barbeque. We usually drove by this barbeque joint on Saturday, on our way to Pho Cycle for lunch.

We ordered a dinner combo to share. It came with a pile of Jones pork ribs and small ends, a side of baked beans and coleslaw. I wasn’t sure what is small end. Turned out small ends were also ribs, only it’s the small end part of the ribs. Ok, silly me. We also pick our bbq sauce spicy.

Compared to the street-side barbeque joint we ate during our shrimping trip last summer, Jone’s coleslaw was much better and refreshing. Ribs were a bit too fat for my liking, but the meat was smoky and the sauce delivered the spicy hotness as we requested.

Jone’s Barbeque was voted one of the people’s favorite barbeque joints finalists in the 2006 People’s Picks. However, Ktula thought the barbeque was just ok. I personally didn’t try enough barbeque joints to really tell the good from the bad. I recall watching a show on Food Network featuring 3 distinct BBQ styles in the US – Memphis, Carolina, and Texas. Giving me the opportunity, I wouldn’t mind traveling to these places and try out some of them good BBQ ribs.

It was almost a sure thing we’d be spending our Presidents Day weekend at Whistler. I was told that was the busiest weekend of the year for Whistler. Partially due to the holiday crowds from the U.S., also because some race happening in the following week.

We had no luck getting a room in Whistler on Saturday, so we ended up spending a night at Richmond. Inspired by Anthony Bourdian’s recent Vancouver episode, we headed to Vij’s. The restaurant, according to The New York Times review, is “easily among the finest India restaurant in the world.”

Vij’s doesn’t take reservation. We arrived the restaurant 5 minutes before 5:30pm opening time. Already there was a line formed outside the restaurant entrance. The early birds got seated right away. We were too late and had to wait for another 1.5 hour. The head chef and owner Vikram Vij was in the restaurant since the opening. It was almost mesmerizing to watch Vikram’s constant movement from table to table. From greeting guests, taking orders, serving appetizers, to signing his cookbooks, there was no doubt he ran the restaurant and provided a heck of a dinning experience.

The Chows joined us for dinner. Between the 4 of us, we were able to try a variety of dishes: duck breast in spiced mango reduction, beef short ribs and red wine curry, wine marinated lamb popsicles, and Fennel and zucchini dumplings in pomegranate curry. Later the desserts were served with a thin sheet of silver on top.

These were certainly no ordinary Indian food. We enjoyed our meals. But best of all was to shake hands and talk to Vikram. I mentioned my obsession with Anthony Broudian and his show. Vikram shared the days he spent with Anthony while they were recording the Vancouver episode. He recalled Anthony smoked, drank, and cursed so much during the 3 days shooting. If I ever get to hang out with Anthony Bourdain, I think I might cave in and start smoking.

Sunday was a good snowboarding day at Whistler. The snow was quite soft, but the weather was so sunny it was almost too hot to wear the heavy winter gear.

On Monday, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After we were seated, Ktula signaled me the person seating on the right side of our table was Ang Lee. I used my peripheral and right away recognized that was Mr. Lee. Ktula and I were making faces back and forth to “discuss” if we should approach him. We decided to respect his privacy and didn’t do anything. Later I checked with our waitress if that’s really him. She didn’t know but she checked his signed bill and went “Yup, that’s him.”