Satiety in Seattle

After spending ten days in Seattle, I'm trying to decided what was the best food experience.  The weather was hot most the time we were there so beverages were on our mind a lot and they seemed to taste especially good; from the brew pubs we visited to the lemonade stand on the waterfront.  But for me, the Baja Margaritas at Cactus, really hit the spot.  Yes, that's a jalapeño pepper you see mixed into that wonderful concoction.

I've had jalapeño margaritas before and they are usually so hot you can't drink them but not at Cactus.  They somehow make them so the spicy-ness of the peppers somehow counteracts the sour-ness of the limes for the perfect spice/sour combination.  And they are not too hot at all, in fact, they go down rather fast.

We went there twice during our stay. Nick flew into Seattle from Japan for a friend's wedding and he said that he can't get good Mexican food in Japan, so he enjoyed Cactus. (Surprisingly, they have great Italian food and French bakeries in Japan)

Cactus has multiple locations but on a hot day, you can't beat the one at Alki Beach.

From inside, you can see ferries going by.

Another good meal that comes to mind was the first meal we had after our eight hour drive to Seattle from Boise.  Of course, there's always the road trip food.

We always stop at McDonald's in Pendleton, Oregon at the Wild Horse casino and resort. (They have good restrooms there). McDonald's doesn't have bad salads and I like the Southwest Salad. I don't even put any dressing on it because it has so much stuff on it.  And we always get smoothies, too. This is our traveling routine.

But I forgot to mention that our routine is to also stop at La Grande at the Starbucks first.

After 15 years of making this drive multiple times per year, you develop routines.  So, after the eight hours, you really feel like something good and hot.  Or, on this day, as warm as it was in Seattle, we felt like something cool!

Our vacation rental for this trip was just around the corner from one of our favorites, Pyramid Alehouse so that's where we headed for our first meal.

My first meal in town is usually fish & chips and so you can guess what I ordered.  I can't resist after stepping out of the car and smelling the salty, sea air.  It's my favorite.

But I still have to say that my favorite meal to eat out in Seattle is breakfast.  Nick wanted to hit all his favorite places while in town and one of those is the Blue Star Cafe or what used to be called EggsEctera.  Nick and Lauren grew up going to breakfast here because it was one of our favorites and their breakfasts are still superb. 

They have dozens for different "scrambles" and they are served with breakfast potatoes and your choice of scone, biscuit or toast.  I got sourdough toast on this day, Lauren always gets the biscuit and Nick gets the scones.  They also have delicious freezer jam made locally.  You can sit there all morning savoring this breakfast, spreading more jam on your scone or biscuit, licking up each little crumb. And another breakfast place we love is Dahlia Lounge which is a Tom Douglas restaurant, who is a top chef in Seattle.  Any of Tom Douglas's restaurants will be a big treat and this breakfast most definitely was.  We always start out with the made-to-order doughnuts (still hot) served with mascarpone and Tom Douglas jam - out of this world...

We must have an espresso to go with it.

I ordered another scramble made with asparagus, accompanied with housemade sausage, smashed potatoes and homemade biscuit.  Every bite was exquisite!

Lauren ordered the eggs Benedict which is exceptional at Dahlia's.  It is made with smoked pork loin, arugula, jalapeño hollandaise sauce on toasted English muffin.  Also, with the smashed potatoes.

Even the jam, butter and catsup is so elegantly displayed at our table.

You can see why Dahlia's is one of our favorite places. After a few days, Nick started craving Japanese food again so he wanted to try a place he had spotted earlier called Boom Noodles.

Unfortunately, if failed miserably.  Actually, those of us who don't live in Japan thought it was delicious.  But Nick kept pointing out how wrong everything was from the texture of the noodles, the broth, even the type of serving bowl.  

Don't get me wrong, it tasted delicious to those of us with Americanized palate.

However, when dessert came around, Nick said the crepes were outstanding and so did the rest of us! (Crepes are actually very popular in Japan.) We ordered two flavors; mango-ginger

and raspberry chocolate.

Nick said they ought to just close the restaurant and serve only crepes.  Then we noticed that outside adjacent to the restaruant there was a little walk-up crepe hut called Tokyo Sweets.  We figured that must be where Boom gets their crepes.  Then it made sense to Nick why the food was not authentic but the desserts were.

Another little place we liked was Menchie's Frozen Yogurt

where you serve yourself, mix the flavors you want, weight your dish and pay. So simple!  Lots of toppings to choose from, too.

I hope we get one in Idaho since they are a franchise. 

And as treats go, our first day in Seattle was spent at the Public Market with unlimited treats! Cinnamon Works is one of our favorites where were bought some cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast.

Three Girls Bakery is another favorite.

But for some serious food, we stopped in at the Pike's Brewery.

I had not eaten here before so since we had some time to kill, we wandered on in.

Bruce's company put in a lot of their brewery equipment.

They were actually brewing some beer while we were there and we could look down and watch.

There are some buckets of hops.

This made us thirsty again so Nick ordered their sampler.

It really wasn't a mealtime for us but we ordered a couple of snacks and enjoyed our beverages on another warm Seattle day.  Their snacks were wonderful and we decided we had to return for a full meal when we could really get into the food here.  Today, it was about a cool beverage...again.

We had walked up to the Market from our vacation rental so we were ready for a thirst quencher and a rest.

I love being able to walk everywhere we go when in Seattle, especially when Mt. Rainier is out and proudly showing off all her splendor and glory.

Overall, our visit was a wonderful ten days of spending time with the family, enjoying sunny Seattle, and tasting all the delicious food (and beverage) this city has to offer.