Memorable Seattle Food
I was planning on putting up a post about our trip to Seattle. The thing is I really did not want this to be one of those turn by turn travelogues. The problem with those is that, particularly in my case, they go on for far too long. The longer the trip the longer the post and in my case, the much, much longer the post. Writing itself becomes a chore and consequently reading it can become a much bigger one. And no, inserting a ton of images throughout the post really does not help the reader much. It barely breaks up the monotony. So, in that vein, I am going to just throw up snippets from our travel. I will first put together any general thoughts about Seattle and then dive into memorable events, particularly people, food and sights. The order will still be chronological and I might even use a date stamp to help cement that.
So to begin, I think Seattle is a lovely city. However, much like many cities out West it lacks a certain bit of heritage. What this means is that a trip of Seattle, covering the sights in the downtown area, can be completed in really a day and a half. So what should draw one? I would hate for people to think I am a foodie, particularly because my palette is far from refined, however the food there is quite exemplary and that alone is good enough reason to visit Seattle. In our case, we had a third reason as well, seeing friends and finally getting a chance to meet Mike and Ying in domestic bliss. Some of you might know Mike, but in short, he was my roommate for three years of college and got married shortly thereafter to move out to Seattle and work for Microsoft.
Back to Seattle, the thing is that even the famed "underground" tour is rather plain. The guide tries to spice it up with as much potty humor as possible (and I did appreciate this), yet there is no denying that there is very little depth. The rides along the harbor coast are quite similar, as the view of Seattle is nice, but plain and awfully redundant. Seattle truly lacks when it comes to architecture. It is funny how Seattle residents readily admit to this and then proceed to make up for this deficiency by giving quite colorful and hilarious names to the buildings.
On that note, I must state that Seattleites have a terrific sense of humor. Still, if the sights are lacking, so is the shopping. Seattle has a ridiculously high sales tax. This of course makes up for the lack of a state tax and in turn royally takes advantage of the tourists. Subsequently, as you might imagine, Camille and I did nary any shopping there. The good thing is that the food is indeed amazing. We had a variety of cuisines and all of them were great. There was an infusion of sea food, but straying outside that norm still resulted in amazing concoctions. There is such an eclectic availability of cuisine as well. Truly, I cannot say enough good things about the food. If you have to make a trip to Seattle, plan out your food strategy well in advance and make reservations. That part of your trip will not fail to disappoint you.
The Pike Market
The Pike Market was actually pretty cool, though it provided Camille with much more entertainment than I. I was surprised by the very low prices and also by how fresh food was. As mentioned in many a guide book, there are a lot of freely available goodies around the place. If they are not free, then they usually are pretty cheap. For example, I picked up a half-dozen of fresh and pipping hot mini-doughnuts for around $2. I pretty much walked around the area with Camille, sprinkles in one hand, popping them into my mouth. The area does have its charms and one of them has to be this French bakery on the main road: Le Panier, A Very French Bakery. Everything was fresh and everything was absolutely delicious.
Grab a Starbucks from next door, the original Starbucks, and then some food from here. We loved it so much that every day of our stay we made it a point to come down and pick something up before our travels.
Most guide books say that there is a good day's worth of stuff to do here, but I am not really sure about that. Be that as it may, it was still a lot of fun and let me just say that it is an absolutely necessary stop. The thing is that even if the Market is not your cup of tea there are a number of good eateries around it. This includes Club Campagne, The Pink Door and Cutters, a rather good seafood place. So, you really cannot escape the Pike Market area. For downtown Seattle this is really in the midst of much of everything.
Club Campagne
I had done some reading a day or two before we had to leave and rudely interjected Club Campagne into Camille's plans. Thank god I did! I usually like to pick one good restaurant, usually expensive, that we can eat at as a highlight of our trip. This was a resoundingly good choice. I had culled through New York Times' list of restaurants and while I felt like narrowing on a seafood choice, I also knew that it was something Camille would not fully appreciate. So instead, I decided to try out this lovely French restaurant.
The story has a neurotic beginning to it. Even though we paid good money to stay at the Grand Hyatt, it seems the people of the Hyatt do not know that the Internet is a commodity that should be given away freely. Thus, we were using the piddling EDGE network on Camille's iPhone to get some last minute information. As I scanned through the restaurants again, I noticed that there was not only a Club Campagne, but a Campagne as well. Thinking that the latter was the better, albeit more expensive, place, I quickly switched my reservation there. Then after using my head a little more, I figured out that Club Campagne, where we had originally got reservations was indeed better. I was too embarrassed to call, but Camille sighed, picked up the phone, and corrected my wrongs. We headed out to this little French restaurant located in Pike Market. The walk was short and Camille got quite a few nods from the men walking by us. We entered the restaurant and even though we were sitting at a window, we were neatly cut off from all the hustle and bustle outside. The menu was short, but it had a lot of good stuff on it. From what I read, the Prix Fie seemed to be the best bet. This took one through a variety of French foods with a full three courses. Considering that my palette for French cuisine was limited, I thought it best to just be taken on a course.
On the other hand, Camille got a salad, steak and fries and a sorbet for dinner. Yes, hers was rather plain (but still delicious food), but mine was amazing. For an appetizer I got a fish soup that was good, but nothing outstanding. However, the main course was lamb cooked in this sauce that was just outstanding. The lamb was succulent and just sliced apart like butter. The sauce was delicious with just the right flavoring and a smattering of vegetables to soak in it. The dinner was an orange custard that was really a great way to end the evening. For wine that evening we had a Gorman's Bully. When the waitress came she asked if we would like to have some wine, a bottle or a glass. I opted for a bottle and upon asking for a recommendation she sent over the sommelier (when Camille went there again with her boss and ordered a glass the sommelier did not come over). He was rather cool and not only did he help us choose a great wine with our food, but he also gave us some fun history about the wine itself. The wine he provided tasted fabulous with the entrée, with just the right hint of spice to go along with the food. We kept the cork as a memento and I was sad when he told me that this wine had not travelled far East enough, Detroit, for me to buy it at home. Still, if the lamb was the highlight of the evening, it was only made possible through the great wine selection that accompanied it. And yes, if Camille and I go back to Seattle (or if any of you travel to that area) this is a restaurant you cannot miss!
Belmont & Redmond Area
Hanging out with Mike and Ying meant that we had to tour the Belmont and Redmond area. Mainly, I wanted to see the Microsoft campus and mostly because we wanted to partake in Wii fun on Mike's huge plasma screen.
The trip up started with dim sum at what must be the best dim sum place in Seattle. Why? Mostly because the line stretched outside and getting a table took over an hour and a half. In the meantime, we walked around and picked up nick-nacks. I got myself Final Fantasy III for the DS. So we ate, and then off we headed to Redmond. Our first stop was the campus and it was rather spartan. It is huge, but it all feels so disconnected. We stopped by Mike's building, but could not go in there.
With a little adventuring we found Nintendo, located a few blocks from Microsoft. We peered into the windows and took a picture and that was really about it. For some of you this might be a letdown, but let us face it, I was at the Nintendo headquarters for America.
Then off we went to Mike and Ying's house. It is one of those suburbia establishments. The houses all look the same and I think they keep the black people out. Alright, while joking about diversity, I must say the Indian population here is huge, as one might expect. The mall, for example, was entirely covered with Asians and Indians. It was rather interesting to see. Mike and Ying's house was cozy. Their first floor was not finished, but they had gotten a ways through on their second floor. Camille was insanely jealous, as they had converted an entire room into a closet for Ying. Mike on the other hand had a huge, thirty inch, monitor at his desk. I played Team Fortress 2 on it at native resolution... It was like a Pixar movie.
We then played some Wii. Wii on a huge 46 inch plasma was interesting. For one thing, I think the Wii looks decidedly bad on that huge a screen. Here is where a 360 or PS3 would have shined. I lost many a tennis game... badly. After that we watched Team America. That was an exceedingly bad movie. I found nothing redemptive about it, but both Mike and Ying loved it. Then again I am not a fan of Family Guy or South Park. After that we headed out to dinner at Bill Gates' favorite Indian restaurant. We need to take Billy G for some better Indian food. One place I can recommend Mr. Gates is Amar's in Dayton, OH. It blows the pants of this place, that doesn't even offer free rice!
After that Camille and I were dropped off at our hotel and we all took one parting photo together. They offered to drop us off at the airport the next morning, but we kindly declined so as not to put them out. It was still nice of them though, but then again, they had done so much more by gracing us with their presence for two days.
Underground Tour, SAM & the Aquarium
The reason I write of these three things together, even though they were spread apart on three different day, is because they all occurred in roughly the same geographical area.
The first was the Seattle Aquarium, where we stopped as we walked around the piers on our first day. We took a trip down Pike Market and after a little stumbling, and wondering how we got through the Market so quickly, we landed at the Aquarium. Camille wanted to take a boat tour of the city as well and it worked out well that we got a discount when we registered for the boat and bought a ticket for the aquarium. The aquarium was fairly large, contained in two whole buildings. What I really enjoyed was all the fun stuff to play with.
We touched flora and fauna and it was particularly interesting to touch starfish. There was a level of grossness I felt that must be unique only to me. A small problem was that the area was relatively crowded. It also meant that kids would hog some of the areas with, as is accustomed for kids, no respect for others. So we had to squeeze our way in between people. The first building contained fish in tanks, while the second one had more amphibious animals, including seals. So there was a lot more open air and we could see out into the Seattle bay. I was actually impressed with the aquarium, it was clean and a ton of fun, more than I expected it to be.
We did the Underground Tour with Mike and Ying. The four of us walked towards the center of town, surprisingly Camille and I doing much of the leading. We then sampled some free Starbucks and paid for our trip through the underground. This trip came highly recommended, though to me it felt like it showed the deficiencies in the city's history (or lack thereof). For one, there was not that much to see, but I must give the tour guides credit for making it an absolute riot. Of course potty jokes are in full swing and it is fun to see swipes taken at Tacoma. So what is down there? By and large the city had a fire, they were going to make the streets higher, but businesses did not want to be out of commission for a year.
So businesses rebuilt and when it came time, they abandoned their first floor and moved themselves up a notch. Simple enough? Still it was entertaining to see how the city builders thought of so many different contingencies and moreover how people and the businesses worked their way around the sheer number of challenges. The promise of an adult version of the tour makes me feel like doing that in particular if we ever head back to Seattle.
The Seattle Art Museum is supported by a generous grant from the Gates Foundation. Having so much money means they are one of the most stuck up and worst art museums I have ever gone to. Going to art museums is important to me. Any trip I take usually involves a stop at one and at least 3-5 hours wasted there. It is what I love to do... Intellectually stimulating and relaxing. So, let me tell you my story about SAM, because other than that one story it was just unremarkable. I don't photograph many things in an art museum, but if something strikes me a lot, I usually take a picture. Largely this is to preserve the memory, but mostly because I probably won't come there again soon and this might be something I want to keep. So I was walking through SAM, about half way through the second floor and I had taken two pictures. All of a sudden it felt like a security guard was following me. I chalked this up to my paranoia at first, but sideways glances and more following just made me upset. I walked into a secluded area and he immediately approached me, asked me if I had taken pictures, then told me they had security cameras everywhere and I should stop it. I was a little flabbergasted at first, but after a bit of time I regained my composure and then looked around. There were no signs forbidding photography! Moreover, even the little brochure one received upon entering made no mention about no photography. In contrast, other better museums like the ones in Chicago, Detroit, DC and even the Met provide for the use of private photography. They all understand that most visitors don't live in the area, we can't travel to see your art whenever the mood strikes us. This thoroughly pissed me off and it means that I can heartily recommend you not to go there. They encroach on a patron's rights and moreover are quite rude.
Experience and Science Fiction
Camille and I made use of every day of our trip. We are one of those people who feel that you can relax anytime, but you only visit places once. This means that we would rather take some time sight-seeing rather than relaxing some place. For one, me personally, it makes me feel like I am wasting my vacation. Anyway, what this meant was that even on Monday we were determined to finish up a few straggling pieces of Seattle. We had hit pretty much everything, with a few small exceptions.
Those exceptions could easily be cordoned off at the Space Needle and the area surrounding it. Luckily, there was a one-way tram to that area, a few blocks from us and so in a skip and a jump, we were at the Space Needle on a bright and early Monday morning. The Space Needle was fine, the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum were better. These are located in the same area, a short bit away, and seem to be contained in the same building. The architecture is unique and like much Seattle fair a Softie had donated a lot of money to it, Paul Allen. An entire room was devoted here to Jimi Hendrix. There were pages from his notebook digitized, his songs playing on iPods and video montages on the walls. The entire thing was a splendid use of technology and pop culture history and that is what fascinated me the most about it. The second floor contained sound booths where people could experiment on instruments.
I showed Camille how to beatmatch, I mixed a Eurythmics song, and Camille played on the keyboards. All of this was each in its own enclosed space and it was so much fun to go wild on these things. There were even short demos to help one get acquainted to the instruments. All in all, this was a definite hit! Mike and Ying had downplayed this, so maybe my expectations were muted, but the interplay between technology and music was priceless.
The Science Fiction museum was much more like a museum. Here too photography was prohibited, though everything was behind a glass case. The museum took care to chronicle written science fiction, though there was plenty of television and movie science fiction as well. A lot of props were the primary exhibits with a little bit of technology scattered about. I expected this to be more technologically advanced, which unfortunately it was not. It was still a really fun time and there were so many parts of it I got and so many more that I did not. That actually baffled me and I took copious notes and compiled a long reading list for when I got back home. Nice thing, in the science fiction authors hall of fame, there were only half a dozen authors I had not read.
Conclusion
Last year for the July 4th weekend we went out to Vegas. That was my first trip out West. A year later, a little shorter than a year really, and I had now scored two trips out West to widely different parts of the country. Where Vegas was hot and dry, Seattle was luke warm and quite wet. Still, they were both fun trips, each with their own charms. I did not get into much of the Seattle nightlife and that is something I hope to rectify on any other trip. I will say though that making reservations in advance for hotels was a good idea, something I will keep doing. Over all though, it is easy to get a cheaper hotel on the outskirts, but having a hotel downtown makes life simpler and a lot more enjoyable. It takes out much of the hassle of driving and parking in a crowded and expensive city. Also, this trip was worth it just to see Mike and Ying. They were so much fun to be with, did not realize how much fun we had in college. He invited us back over for PAX (Penny-Arcade Expo) and it is doubtful I will go this year. However, next year is a different ball of wax. Most importantly, one more trip with Camille, she travels more than I do these days, but I hope she has more fun on these trips. In all, Seattle was an emphatic win.
