Hi hi! I'm still alive!
I can't believe it's been over a year since I've last updated my blog but life has been busy to say the least. It's uncertain if I'll return to blogging but I thought it wasn't right to leave the Seattle series unfinished. So here I am, to tie up loose ends.
Breakfast consisted of a mishmash of pastries that we bought from Fuji Bakery the day before. Some ham and cheese croissants, a cream cheese danish, a bacon and cheese braid, and some sugar doughnuts. A balanced breakfast I must say.
We started the day with a ride on the monorail, a quick 2 minute ride between downtown Seattle and the Seattle Center. The Seattle Center is home to the Space Needle, Climate Pledge Arena, and a number of museums. The monorail is super convenient and only costs $4 per person.
We decided to forego the Space Needle and visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass, an art museum that showcases the work of Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass artist.
It's a stunning exhibit that will have you 'oohing' and 'aahing' as you make your way through the gallery.
My favourite room in the exhibit is definitely the Glasshouse, as seen below.
It's like hundreds of flowers dancing along the 40 foot tall ceiling
It's particularly amazing when you spy the Space Needle in the background. Just gorgeous.
After we finished at the museum, we took an Uber over to Kerry Park, one of Seattle's most popular viewpoints. It wasn't a particularly sunny day but we still managed to get a great view of the downtown skyline. Can you imagine the real estate prices in this area?!
From there, we walked to the Queen Anne location of Un Bien, a popular Caribbean spot known for amazing sandwiches. There's some lore behind the origin of Un Bien, but we'll just let the food do the talking.
We ordered the seafood in red sauce ($10.75) where you can choose between the fish of the day, black tiger prawns, or scallops. We went for the scallops which were sweet and perfectly tender. We chose a spice level of 2 out of 5, but honestly could have gone for more. This was a nice warming dish and honestly a steal for $10.
The star at Un Bien is definitely the Caribbean Roast sandwich ($14.25). A toasted baguette slathered with garlic aioli, topped with slow roasted pork shoulder, fresh cilantro, pickled jalapenos, romaine lettuce, and thick strands of caramelized onions. The pork shoulder is juicy and dripping with marinade that is sweet and tangy. They're not shy with portions either. It's a messy sandwich, so I suggest ordering a side of napkins.
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For a lil sweet treat, we simply went next door to Molly Moon's. Molly Moon's is a local ice cream shop that has 10 locations around the Seattle area. They are committed to supporting local, with 90% of their ingredients sourced from local farmers in the Pacific Northwest.
Like many ice cream shops, they have a selection of 'always' flavours and 'seasonal' flavours that change monthly. LT got a kid's scoop of the chocolate covered strawberry, a vegan special that combines strawberries and rich coconut milk. There's also flecks of vegan chocolate hardshell to mimic the snap of a chocolate covered strawberry. KT got a regular scoop of cookies & cream in a waffle bowl. They make their own homemade Oreo cookies which get crumbled in a sweet cream base. I went for the yeti, a sweet cream base swirled with vanilla bean caramel, granola, and chocolate chips. It was really creamy with lots of texture in every bite. It maybe leaned a touch too sweet because of the caramel swirl but it was still really good.
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No trip to the states is complete without a trip to Trader Joe's. This is my clubbing.
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We had a late dinner reservation but felt a bit peckish by late afternoon. After some shopping in the area, we stopped at Dog in the Park, a hot dog stand right in the middle of Westlake Plaza. We had to try a Seattle dog ($9.00), which is topped with cream cheese and grilled veggies (onions, cabbage, peppers). It tasted very much like a Costco hot dog, with some crunchiness from the caramelized veggies and richness from the cream cheese. It was okay. I think I'll stick to bagels for my cream cheese intake.
It was coincidentally Superbowl Sunday so we watched some of the game at the hotel. Go sports!
Another American institution checked off the list -- The Cheesecake Factory!
One of my hobbies is reading restaurant menus (it started from a young age reading take out menus in the phone book, that's how old I am) and The Cheesecake Factory might possibly have one of the biggest menus I've ever seen.
We started off the meal with free bread. We love free bread. Especially in this economy. They give both brown bread and a sourdough loaf with salted butter. The brown bread is superior in every way, both in texture and flavour. It's much softer with a touch of sweetness from molasses and honey.
For an appetizer, we got the fried macaroni and cheese ($18.95). These were amazing! They reminded me of an upgraded mozzarella stick, with cheesy mac & cheese inside a thin crumb coating. The creamy marinara sauce helped cut through some of that richness.
I had really high hopes for the truffle honey chicken ($25.95) but this dish was just okay. The truffle flavour was prominent but the fried chicken was overdone. It was a bit too hard and the meat was dry. I did like the side of mashed potatoes.
The miso salmon ($29.95) was surprisingly huge! It was a miso marinated salmon filet served over white rice, snow peas, and a creamy miso sauce. This was my favourite entree of the night, even though it was on the salty side.
LT requested the pasta carbonara ($24.95), spaghetti with smoked bacon, green peas, and a garlic parmesan cream sauce. A bit forgettable.
Because it was LT's birthday, we got a free slice of cheesecake! We got the fresh strawberry cheesecake, the original topped with glazed strawberries. For something that's 1000 calories, it ate incredibly soft and light. Dangerous.
Day 4:
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For our last morning in Seattle, we took a stroll around downtown, stopping to take a peek at the Amazon spheres.
We had breakfast at Pho Bac, a popular Vietnamese restaurant with multiple locations in Seattle. LT got the showstopper, pho suon bo (19.59) that had 3 large beef ribs sitting on top.
My pho dac biet ($15.46) was a bit less dramatic but still featured all the cuts of meat. The pho was decent, but I've been spoiled growing up in a Vietnamese houshold, so my standards are a bit higher. I did notice that the bo vien (beef ball) had a bouncy texture, almost like a fish ball, which wasn't my favourite.
Off to the airport! We arrived early so we took to exploring the whole airport, making use of the different shuttles around the terminals.
We couldn't leave Seattle without trying another classic -- teriyaki. We shared the chicken teriyaki entree ($17.50) with rice and salad at Hachi-ko in the airport. Sweet, gingery, with a bit of char. You can do a lot worse at an airport.
So that was our trip to Seattle, thanks for patiently following along. I'm still undecided on the future of this blog, but if you're missing me, I'm always updating my travels and food adventures over on my Instagram. Mostly stories, because I hate writing captions.
Au revoir.
- CT
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