Canada, with two points and people in between

By James

Last weekend, as with what seems like all our weekends, mine and Karen's plans changed again and again until we came upon our final plan and destination(s), Canada.  We invited Bruce and Soo (affectionately known as Broo) to come with us and at 12:30PM (yes, late start) we were off!  Knowing that our plans primarily made up of eating, we tried to keep all our meals small with plans to do some shopping to induce further hunger later.

Our first stop was to Bellingham to visit both Dan's and Soo's parents restaurants.  There is something that is very charming about going to friends' restaurants and seeing their parents there. Seeing welcoming eyes and big smiling faces, it always makes it definitely worth it to visit and have some grub.

Soo's mom had just recently opened a Korean restaurant in Bellingham and we were very excited to go and try it.  It's a small little restaurant with two Korean ladies in the back kitchen.  We ordered seafood pancake and japchae.  Unfortunately our plans to eat small was quickly foiled with the arrival of a giant plate of japchae and a seafood pancake filled with ridiculous amounts of seafood.  Considering the fact that Soo is a terrific cook, and along with that the natural assumption that her mom is also, the food definitely lived up to our expectations.

Our second stop in Bellingham was Morries.  It is amazing to both Karen and I that this was our first time here since we know Dan so well.  As we pulled into the restaurant, Dan's parents instantly saw and recognized us with huge smiles on their faces.  Soo popped out of the car and saw Dan's dad and instantly started pointing with a "is that....is that....is that...", yes Soo that guy that looks like Dan in 40 years is Dan's dad.  It is here where we had some delicious milkshakes.  It is also here that our plans to eat small was foiled for a second time, we ordered just two milkshakes and four came out along with two plates of fries.

Thanks Dan and Soo (Doo) for your parents' hospitality!

With our bellies already full and food coma already setting in, we headed towards the border.  We decided on not going to Vancouver and just staying in Richmond, which I believe may have been a first for me.  Being very aware of our fullness, we tried our best to delay further eating by doing some shopping at Aberdeen mall.  One of mine and Karen's favorite stores there is Daiso.  It's a store from Japan where everything is $1.50, unless specified.  This particular Daiso is two stories, you can literally fill your basket full of stuff and only spend $20.
After our Daiso "spree", we finally gave in and headed up to the third floor food court. Our first introduction to this food court was through Dan. I still remember how excited Dan was to bring us here...SO excited, actually, that he paid for everything. Karen and I have both brought our parents here and it is here that I was able to fill my mom's long unfulfilled void of good soup dumplings at Shanghai Shanghai. Though we're sure that there are better places for soup dumplings, I do particularly enjoy this place for the modest Chinese lady standing in the front and rolling them out right before your eyes.  Of course, no stop at Aberdeen is complete without a stop to get wings.  If you look around the food court, most tables will have at least one order of wings with them.  I forget the name of the place, but it's something "Dessert" and no matter how long or short the line is, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will have to wait 10 minutes to receive your order.

After walking around Aberdeen a little bit more, and the Yaohan supermarket where we watched Bruce and Soo buy massive amounts of pastries, we headed our to our final destination.  With our bellies still full and digestion not setting in fast enough, we were headed towards the original point of our trip, the Richmond Night Market.

This place opened a couple of years ago and Karen and I first coming here a couple of years ago, and it's been a go to summer destination for us ever since.  Though not quite a Taiwanese night market, it is definitely a place to get your fix on various asian street foods.  The place, stands and crowds here get bigger every year.

A must for me everytime is lamb skewers, while for Karen is octopus balls.  One new and very popular item this time around is the hurricane potato, which Karen and Soo our holding on the picture to the left.  Though not as awesome tasting as it looks, it was definitely worth the try.  Other interesting, new and worth a try items were: a giant corn stand, a new filipino stand, curry fish balls, squid and octopus skewers.  All and all, lots to do and lots to buy, Soo ended up with a new iPhone case at the night market.

Again, theme of the trip, bellies still full and near comatose, we finally headed back home.  A successful trip with Soo getting her first introduction to Aberdeen mall and the night market.  Definitely lots to do in Canada and lots to see.  Haven't done everything for sure, but this is mine and Karen's Canada.  Great trip and will definitely do it again!

Something old, something new...Whidbey Island

By James

One of mine and Karen's all-time favorite places to go to is definitely Whidbey Island.  We usually end up going 2-3 times a year, at least, and it doesn't really matter what time of year it is.  In the fall, there is pumpkin picking and corn mazes; in the winter the beaches are desolate and windy, yet nice somehow; in early spring there is a mussel festival with lots of seafood to be enjoyed; and in the summer there is just nice weather, warm beaches, art festivals...the things to do at Whidbey are endless.

After changing our plans a couple of times for this past weekend to go to Yakima, Carnation and what feels like all points in between, Karen and I finally landed upon going to Whidbey Island (big surprise, right?).  We've always "planned" on going clam digging, but never got around to doing it.  This time around though, Karen found out that there was a clam digging class and we decided to go.  We were definitely glad we went to the class, despite the general reaction of, who needs a clam digging class, aren't the just stuck in the dirt?

We hopped on the ferry at Mukilteo and made it to the class a little late.  The instructor was a nice older gentleman named Eugene.  He had been doing it for 10 years and was ranting about the internet for a bit.  Simply put, he was awesome!  He gave us a run down on what to look for, how to open the clams, and which parts were used/cooked for what.

What to come prepared with...
- a good pair of shoes, shovels and buckets

- don't forget your shellfish licenses also, $14 for a day or $17 for a year, we went with the yearly  

As you can tell by the way we're dressed, it doesn't really matter what else you're wearing. Karen opted for the skirt and Run DMC tank. She's got her poka dot rubber boots, I found a reason to buy Crocs. Also, check the tide table to make sure it's low tide. It's really nice and picturesque during low tide.

After the class, we got to work. The beach we were at (Double Bluff) had butter clams, imagine a clam the size of your hand. We spent about 2 hours walking around and digging, we worked up a sweat for sure but it was well worth it. This hole gifted us with 21 clams for us! The things near my right foot are not rocks, those are the clams.

After hitting our quota, we headed north to Coupeville to start the food part of our adventure. This time of the year, Whidbey is definitely a nice drive. Certain parts of the road are surrounded by lavenders, just literally roll down your windows and enjoy the sweet breeze.  Last time we went to Whidbey Island in the spring, there was a mussel festival in Coupeville. We had some good mussels, but a lot of the vendors were sold out. So of course, we decided to fulfill our void from last time of mussels in curry from a local Thai restaurant.

It's a great little place, a house turned into a restaurant.  The owners came out and asked us how we wanted our mussels, in the shell or outside the shells.  They made sure to remind us also that these mussels were from the very nearby Penn Cove mussel farms.

Afterwards, we drove to one of our standard stops on Whidbey, Dugualla Bay Farms.  They always have u-pick produce year round and Whidbey Island Ice Cream.  Last fall, we came here to pick pumpkins.  We didn't get any ice cream this time, but we did get to pick some strawberries.

Last part of this story?  Sweet D's Shrimp Shack!  This is the standard of all standard stops for us.  Usually we come from up north and drive through Deception Pass and stop by Sweet D's on the way down south.  This time around, we drove from south to north, ferry first then through Deception Pass to Sweet D's.  We discovered this place three years back on our first trip to Whidbey in the spring and have been going here ever since.  It feels like every time we come here they have something new going on.  First they put in a new giant fridge room, then the temperature signage and now they have a giant smoker.  Dieder, the owner of Sweet D's was standing around his smoker.  He definitely looks like a man who's living the dream, just hanging out and chatting it up with all the customers.

I've never had anything bad here, but it's been well confirmed that the plain boiled shrimp is a must.  I'm not sure what they do with it, but it's delicious!  This time of year, you're going to get spotted shrimp since that's what's in season.  

Being full already, we attempted to order just a pound of shrimp.  The lady at the counter nonchalantly asked us if we were sure we wanted just a pound "cause I can eat a pound all by myself."  We had to explain to her that we had been eating all day but relented to a pound and a half, she seem decently satisfied with the updated order and finally gave it to us.

Overall, another awesome trip with Karen through Whidbey Island.  Always something to do here, and always something new to experience.  The next day, we shared our bountiful harvest with some friends and made clam chowder, clam strips and sashimi.  Sashimi was a bust, tasted way too much like the sea for me, but the chowder and strips were definite winners!

Chicken Vindaloo

By Karen

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Photo Credit: Gourmet

 When James and I saw Ruth Reichl make Chicken Vindaloo a few months ago on Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, we knew that this recipe was for us.  Simple to make, healthy to eat, and packed with flavor - this is exactly how we like to cook and eat. 

As a bonus, most of the required ingredients were already staples in our pantry - the only special ingredient we had to buy was Patak's brand Vindaloo Paste.  We were initially found ours at Mayuri, a local Indian grocery store, but have since discovered that it is also availible at many mainstream grocery stores in the "ethnic food" aisle and online.

Over the past few months, Chicken Vindaloo has become a regular part of our cooking repretoire.  Last night, James whipped up batch for us both to bring to work today - his over basmati rice and mine over baby spinach with a cucumber-yogurt dressing.  Delicious both ways!

Recipe for Chicken Vindaloo (adapted from Gourmet)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoons Patka's brand vindaloo paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

Instructions:

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 500 degrees farenheit
2. Add water to fill bottom of brioler pan 1/3 full and line top of broiler pan with foil
3. Stir together all ingredients except chicken in a large bowl until combined well. Coat both sides of chicken well with yogurt mixture (use all of it), then transfer to broiler pan, arranging them in 1 layer.
4. Roast chicken until charred in some spots and cooked through, about 20 minutes

Notes:

• This would also be great with cubed chicken on skewers cooked over the grill.
• The original recipe called for skinless chicken legs, but used boneless skinless chicken breast instead to make the recipie healthier.

Rain, 4th, rain, clouds...sun!

By James

It's been an eventful weekend for sure. One of Karen's future bridesmaids came up from San Francisco with her boyfriend to visit. Being that Karen's place has a rooftop deck, we had to take advantage of this and invited some friends over to enjoy the awesome view of Gasworks, Lake Union and, of course, the fireworks. It was sunny all week, then the clouds decided to move in on the 4th, rain and then just plain stay cloudy. Our camera didn't take any good pictures, but I got one to share with a cool camera effect (starry starry):


Late Monday afternoon, the sun finally decided to come out and Karen and I got to spend some quality time together. We went to our go to sun spot (though it was quite cold) at Gasworks park. Everytime I come here, I am reminded of how our life revolves around this park. Our first real date involved Gasworks on a cold wintery night. We spent an anniversary at Gasworks park...on a cold wintry night. And, of course, I proposed to Karen here.


Needless to say, we love coming here. It's built on an old refinery that has been mostly covered up, thus the big hill, with a great view of Lake Union, downtown, and the Space Needle. Boats drive by, sailboats are sailing and kayakers are exploring. As the sun set, it started getting cold we started heading back to our car and walked upon the following on the ground written in chalk...

Being inspired and the ever-opportunists we were, we decided to go to McMenamin's and get some cajunized tots.

Maybe we'll take up working out again...

First post!

By Karen

This first blog post is dedicated to my dear friend Anna, who recently started the blog Anna in Wonderland.  While chatting with Anna about her cute new blog, she reminded me of my old blogging days, and encouraged me to start a new one of my own. 

I went back through my old blogs, and was surprised at how nice it was to revisit moments in the past that had been frozen in time and on the web.  Many thoughts, images, and details of moments in life that I may have otherwise forgotten about suddenly came back to me... and came back much more vividly than they would have if I was simply looking at an old photograph or scrap book.

As James and I embark on the next journey of our lives together, I thought that it would be fitting to create a blog together, where we could both could post about whatever we felt like, capture those special moments and memories, and share with our friends. 

Cheers Anna, and thanks for being inspirational as always!