by ·1 Comment

Well Restaurant Week is drawing to a close tomorrow night, it is probably a good thing for my waist line. I held back from indulging a to much but I still had some good opportunities to get out and try some amazing food at some of the best restaurants in town. For those who aren’t familiar with what Restaurant week is, it is essentially where all the top restaurants in a City (its not only in Seattle but many other cities like Chicago, New York, Miami, San Francisco) all come together and for a short period (in Seattles case 2 weeks) offer 3 course menus for Lunch or Dinner for a heavily reduced cost ($28 for dinner, $15 for lunch).

Now this concept just would not fly down in Australia, I have a feeling no one would get behind it. But it is a great concept and I love it! I am still a foodie at heart. I love to get out, experience new foods, new tastes, new restaurants but it also gives me a chance to do it on the cheap. The biggest bargain is always the lunch menus as they give some fantastic bargain lunches but that never works as its only ever run Sunday through Thursday (Friday and Saturday are excluded for obvious reasons).

Well this year I decided to hit up 3 places, and I had a good excuse with Ross visiting. The three places I ended up visiting were “Seastar Raw” in Bellevue, Steelhead Diner in Seattle and of course Preservation Kitchen in Bothell. The main one i wanted to try was Preservation Kitchen, it’s just down the road from me in Bothell, has a fantastic reputation as well. But they were pretty heavily booked (as expected when this lists and dates come out, the good places get booked solid pretty quickly), so I couldn’t go when Ross was here and instead had to book it for another night. Because of this Ross and I decided to go to Seastar during the first week as the menu was good, it was convienient to work (just across the street) and they had space (I wanted to try the Barking Frog in Woodinville but sadly it was booked out as well!). The last one was Steelhead, one of my favourite places in Seattle and gave me a good excuse to shout Ross to one final hurrah before he flew home. So here are the mini reviews with at least one photo from each.

Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar Belleve – Menu Link

Fantastic sort of out of the way restaurant that you wouldnt even notice it was there as its surrounded by a Microsoft Building, Expedia, a Bank and just general looking office blocks. Yet it has this upmarket fine dining feel to it. Went here on a Wednesday night and although we couldnt be seated early they were pumping through the tables. The service was ok, a little bit rushed (as you sometimes get during Restaurant week where they try to turn out as many tables as they can. The food was damn good. I went with the Spicy Ahi Tuna Sushi Roll as I was desperate for some sushi lately, and followed it up with the Steelhead for the Entree (main for those aussies). The tuna was great and fresh and tasty and the Steelhead was just to die for. The pesto mash was ok but the fish was just amazing. The kicker of the meal though was this:

From Ross Comes to Visit

That is a White Chocolate Coconut Creme Pie. It was TO DIE FOR. I could of eaten a dozen of them and wanted more they were that good. I will come back to this place just for that dessert.

Steelhead Diner – Menu Link

This is still one of my favourites in Seattle, and it never fails to deliver. They are located right in the middle of downtown Seattle, pretty much in Pikes Place Market (right next to Post Alley actually). If you can see the Famous Seattles Best Coffee cup sign, turn around you will probably be standing right outside Steelhead. The food is a tribute to old school diner but with a modern twist and using mainly local ingrediants. Just what you would expect in the market area. Service was great and in the end, our waiter got a nice sized tip. It was a cold evening so went with the Soup and figured it would be a good start to the meal. The two hits of evening was something I was looking forward to. First up was the main. Steelhead never fails to deliver on tasty Entrees. I had the Pork Collar while Ross had the Salmon. Although they swapped out Ivory King Salmon for Coho as they had run out, Ross was still singing its praises and my Pork was just jaw droppingly tasty. I wanted to lick my plate.

From Ross Comes to Visit

The desserts were just *drool* I had the Pumpkin Spice Cake (i mean seriously everyone who knows me, knows how much i love pumpkin). This cake was just yum! Ross had the Chocolate Pecan Pie. I was glad he couldnt finish it cause it meant i got to 😉 That is their signature dessert I think using locally made chocolate and comes with Bourbon Chantilly Cream. Its always a treat imo.

From Ross Comes to Visit

Steelhead sealed the deal again for me and I will bring so many people back here just because I love the place. It is always a great one to visit.

Preservation Kitchen – Menu Link

I had been looking forward to this one the most, but to be honest, it dissapointed me the most. The company was good and the main course was great and just looked fantastic and tasted just great, but overall it just dissapointed me. It didn’t live up to the hype. They had changed some things on the menu so it wasn’t to be expected. They had run out of the dessert I wanted (and it didn’t look all that busy). The other dessert choices to me were just “so so” One of them wasn’t even on the main Restaurant Week menu (linked above). The two savoury courses i was suckered into as they had 2 of my favourite things. The Starter i went with the Spinach and Beet Salad cause I love beetroot, but this was a non listed menu item so must of been added last minute. the Main i went with the Stuffed Delicate Squash (aka Pumpkin). I was told it was phenomanl and it was. It tasted just tender and soft but so savoury and it was a Vegetarian dish.

From Ross Comes to Visit

The dessert was just totally uninspiring and felt like it was on the list just cause they needed to have a third course. This is it:

From Ross Comes to Visit

Yep thats carrot cake. It tasted like Safeway Carrot cake. Totally totally dissapointing! So not happy with that choice. I don’t know if I will go back as the service was fairly non existant. Not sure if they deserve the reputation they have.

With that being said I will probably need to work out heaps to work off all the good stuff I have eaten in the last 2 weeks, so it will be a bit of punishment runs and training but well worth it overall!

(more photos here)

Ross Comes to Visit

by ·0 Comments

Wow… just wow… Today was one of the most unbelievable days since I have moved here to Seattle. I have had some amazing experiences, Getting onto the Tarmac at Paine Field and also at SeaTac to shoot photos, flying in a B-17 bomber, getting to buy my trio of dream things (truck, coffee machine, kitchenaid mixer) but today just adds another one to that list.

One of the first things I did back at the release of the 2012 NFL Season Schedule was check to see who was coming to Seattle for games, figuring I would go to at least one game, no matter who was playing. The FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) was smiling down that day, because when I checked.. my beloved Patriots were scheduled to play in Seattle. That day was today.

I had breakfast with Ross at one of my favourite places in Seattle, Skillet Diner. It has the food I like (old school yet modern) in a kind of atmosphere that I like (that Diner feel). Everything about it was just spot on. But this morning I was up for a little bit of indulgence. So I had their famous Cinnamon Rolls and they didn’t disappoint (I did have some granola, fruit and yoghurt as well, just to offset that sugary sugary goodness).

After filling ourselves full of morning goodness (and a few mugs of their awesome coffee albeit not as quickly topped up as I would of liked) we headed downtown, to park the truck and wander on over to Centurylink for the game. We did a small amount of exploring while we went hunting for Ross to get some Seahawks gear and then we met up with my workmate Melodie who helped me get the tickets in the first place. We had a good chat and caught up before the game and then we climbed all the way to the top to our seats. We may have had seats up on the 301 section but the view was still pretty damn good and gave a good overview of the plays. Sure it was right up the top and I would rather be closer to the action, but this was a pretty epic match up with Bradys first visit to Seattle.

The game was DAMN close, I almost lost my voice from trying to out cheer the Seahawks fans (and that is a tough call), pretty sure both Ross and I lost some of our hearing but it was SO worth it. The game was super close with Seattle scoring a touch down just inside the last 2 minutes clinching the game by 1 point. We just could not recover the ball and get through the Seattle defence in time to get a Field Goal to win the match. Even though we lost, I don’t mind. Just getting to see the game is a special thing and sure if we had of one, I am sure it would be all the more sweeter, but still it was awesome either way. Next year I am so heading East to Foxborough for a game.

by ·0 Comments

Yesterday was a Big big day. Spent pretty much the entirity of the day out in the downtown area. After a bootcamp session in the morning and being able to shower, eat breakfast and clean a few things up in less than 20 minutes both Ross and I were out the door before 945, heading downtown. On the plans today was a few Seattle staples. Pikes Place Market, Columbia Center Sky Deck and Seattle Center. By the time we reached downtown after parking at Northgate and bussing it into the city (to avoid stupid parking charges) we headed towards Columbia Center first.

I stumbled upon the Columbia Center last year when I was on my big trip and it was a good find. It is essentially an office building with a Viewing Deck on the 73rd floor. What makes it different to the iconic Space Needle? Well for one its almost half the price ($9 vs $20) and 2 its higher. Way higher. Hell there is a Starbucks at the 43rd floor, which is free to enter, and has the same height views as the Space Needle. There is only one downside and that is it does not have 360 degree views of the city. I think i know which one i am staking still. What made this one even better, I picked up a 2 for 1 on living social a couple of weeks back. Total win!

The views from the Deck weren’t the best overall but they were still better than they would of been earlier that morning during the rain. Still a good way to start the day giving Ross plenty of perspective of the city and the Bay/Sound area from way way up. Even got to see Centurylink field getting prepped for the Huskies game. After Columbia Center we walked our way (we had decided to walk the day to work off the days indulgences) towards Pike Place market passing the Seattle Public Library (love that building) the Fairmont Olympic and a whole heap of Trojan Fans in town for the USC vs UW game.

We did the usual things at Pikes Place despite the crowds, the Bubblegum wall, Pikes Place Fish, the fruit and veg stalls etc. Ross bought some Prints as gifts for home, I bought some old school prints for the walls of the apartment, I showed Ross what he claimed were the best cinnamon donuts he had tried in Seattle (well the only ones but they were fresh out of the fryer) and we had a good time before heading over to Three Girls bakery for a Bite to eat. Now this place is hands down my favourite place to eat in the market. The most freshest sandwhiches I have had in Seattle and possibly the best sandwhich outright. The yummiest Dark Rye bread, fresh pastrami, fresh vegies all good.

We ended up finishing off Pikes Place with that tourist staple, linig up at the “First” starbucks (even though it isnt really the first) and getting a drink (me a coffee, Ross a hot chocolate) before walking our way further north to Seattle Center. We were heading the Pacific Science Center to see the King Tut exhibition. We had picked up tickets cheaply at Costco a few days prior and I had wanted to see it eventually, Ross was interested, why the hell not. Couple of shots of the Space Needle while we waited for our entry but the lines were not to bad. The entry fee came with an audio guide which was ok I guess. Overall the exhibit was a little bit dissapointing. Yes it was crowded, it was a wet Saturday so I will not complain about that (even though I want to) but the dissapointing thing mainly was just they didn’t have the items I thought they would. They talk about the Treasures of King Tut the boy Pharoah. There wasn’t really all that much about it, it was mainly about the Pharoahs overall. But either way it was something to tick off the list.

By this stage we were both pretty beat, so we walked back from Seattle Center via Top Pot Doughnuts (i was hoping they had some pumpkin donuts left, they didnt though 🙁 ) and we headed back on the bus back towards home. We made a pit stop so I could do some shopping but when we stopped at a Vegie stand with plenty of pumpkin there was one last highlight of the afternoon. Seeing all the different fall pumpkins, the selection was a like a Demtel ad, “But Wait theres More”. We even saw a pumpkin that weighed the same as I did.

By this time we were back home and well and truly beat!

by ·0 Comments

Well tonight was the 2nd of 3 burger installments for September. But this one was meant to be pretty neat. It was definately more what I was expecting for a “typical” American burger… well.. in some ways. Last Saturday was chatting with Dan and he told me about a place in Mukilteo (about 5-10 minutes drive away, just down the road from Future of Flight really. It was a crazy place, part burger joint, part Avgeek nirvana. The way he described it, I was in! Z’s Burgers it was to be!

They close kind of early on a Saturday night (8pm) so considering we were there at 7 it was REALLY quiet, which kind of breaks my rules about eating in empty places. BUT i think its cause it was just “late” for them. Most people think that it would of been closed. At least the sun gave a half decent show as it went down over Whidbey Island. Snapped a couple of photos of the sunset as usual

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

But the main attraction was Z’s burgers itself. Being that they are just near the Boeing Factory, its all Boeing here baby! Aircraft on the walls, aircraft on the roof, aircraft on the counter. It was all boeing and it was all awesome! There was also a good stock of Coke memoribilia in the corner but I was here for the Avgeekiness of this place.

From Expat Life

Hell even the burgers are named after Boeing planes!

From Expat Life

Who seriously isn’t going to try the 747! So i ordered it, all the while being told I will regret that decision in life. But I just had to at least once try it! We sat up at the window for a little while, but it was getting a bit chilly so moved further indoors. The burgers are cooked to order so ours took about 10 minutes or so, which is fine with me, I like them fresh. Just before I go into how the burger tasted. Lets look at the description of the “747 Jumbo Burger”. A Cheeseburger with Ham, Turkey and a Grilled Hot Dog. Yep thats right. The wierdest ever hamburger I have ever seen. To hell with it! This is right in the territory of my Man vs Food showdowns but they should of had this place on it!

From Expat Life

The burger was DAMN good. Yeah it may sound wierd and the hot dog did give it the wierdest texture. But the Ham worked and the Turkey to some extent. But everything on it was super fresh. When looking at burgers like this, it reminds me of the Fish & Chip shop burgers back home. Fresh, tasty, a nice looking bun filled with awesome looking ingrediants. A sauce that runs down your hands and arms and requires mountains of Napkins (the sauce actually was pretty close to what is on a Big Mac, not sure how they managed that!).

Add on the fact that Z’s burgers is Avgeek heaven, fresh made burgers, good size, price wasn’t bad $10 for burger, drink and a freaking huge burger is pretty good if you ask me! This was the type of Burger place here in the USA I was looking for. A mom and pop place that is 100% local and totally crazy to boot! This kind of place you would expect off the highway somewhere remote, not in the middle of Subrubia, down the road from one of the largest buildings in the world.

From Expat Life

I did finish the burger by the way… but barely.. Couldnt get through all my fries.. #fail? Nah #win! The end of the burger chronicles will be next Saturday… with the Ultimate avgeek burger journey.

by ·0 Comments

So I do like a good burger. A while back (pretty sure it may have been memorial day weekend) I posted my review of Red Mill Burger which was spot #2 in my Man vs Food Trilogy. But I had been chatting with one of my friends over here Daniel who swore black and blue the best burgers were at Red Robin. I really wasn’t sure, because to be honest I have had some good burgers in my life. I had flown down to LAX just for a Burger in July (funnily enough… that may happen again soon 😉 ) and have always enjoyed In n Out. But I don’t usually like fast food burgers to much, I like me a good burger that’s been made well.

Sure the burger can come from a semi fast food place like Red Mill, but i don’t count that as true “Fast Food” cause sure as hell it wasn’t fast. I waited in line longer than it took for me to eat the burger. That to me is not a sign of fast food but GOOD food. A Place that puts effort into its food. So Daniel had made a big call saying that the Burgers were good. I was determined to make him prove it. So without much on the plans for the weekend, and both of us free Saturday night. We decided to hit up Red Robin.

The weather was pretty damn good yesterday (1 day of rain in almost 2 months can NOT be complained about), it wasn’t to cold so I decided to walk to Red Robin as its about a mile away and enjoy the evening as the Sun set. That way i wouldnt feel as guilty. The sun sure didn’t dissapoint.

By the time we got to Red Robin it was pretty packed. I was there first so got our name on the list and few minutes later Daniel joined me and while we waited the sun finished setting off Brilliantly.

We moved inside as it was getting close to the end of our “expected wait” of about 10 minutes and the place was still pumping. This suprised Daniel a bit as he expected it to be a bit slower. I had no expectations but if this is a normal Saturday night… damn he must be right. They had the college football game on some of the screens around and even on the TV sets in the floor! It felt more like a Bar mixed with a Diner. Booths and Tables, a bar area off to one side. It looked pretty good to be honest. By the time we got our table we had to wait a bit, the service wasn’t the best overall but to be honest, I’ve had worse in Australia. It wasn’t the worst I have had over here, but it wasn’t good to start.

I didn’t even chose what Burger i wanted from the menu, Daniel told me that I had to try the “Royal Robin” as it was exactly what he had his first time there. I was up for whatever so I took his advice. The kitchen was pumping out the goods but it didn’t look sloppy or anything like that. The food all looked good. We got our burgers ordered and a side of “Towering Onion Rings” and i was told to be impressed. The menu was pretty good, plenty of burgers (obviously) but also a good selection of salads and other items and plenty of stuff for the kids. The Milkshakes looked good, but a bit to big for me. All the burgers came with Bottomless Steak Fries (to be honest my favourite kind of fry) and the thought of Bottomless Rootbeer Floats sounded good till I saw how big they were and then had 2nd thoughts.

First up was our Onion Rings.

Now the onion rings were good, don’t get me wrong. They were definately not on the same scale of goodness that the Red Mill Burger onion rings were, but they were definately better than the generic frozen ones they serve at Hungry Jacks/Burger King or most places. So that was a win. It came with two sauces, Ranch Dressing & Campfire Sauce, of which I preffered the Camp Fire Sauce. It was slightly smokey and went well with the Onion rings. But then the goodness arrived.

The Royal Robin is described on their menu as:

This is the aristocrat of all burgers because we crown it with a fresh fried egg. It’s topped with hardwood-smoked bacon, American cheese, crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes and mayo.

And it looked good. It looked fresh & Tasty and not at all fast foodish as I expected considering they are a chain restaurant. So definately winning out here. After a few bites I was sold. The burger was damn good. Now is it the “best” burger in Seattle. I don’t know. But is it the “best” burger I have ever eaten…. Dunno on that call either. Is it the best burger I’ve had lately… yeah. We were discussing the merits of Burgers and decided although In N Out are not that great, the LAX store is more about the location and atmosphere than the burger itself and it kind of has a bit of an advantage of Atmosphere. Red Mill has the better onion rings, but Red Robin had the winner of the 3 burgers in my opinion.

Plans were made for another burger outage next weekend and as we were both pretty full, Daniel made his way to his car to drive himself home, while I walked home to make me feel less guilty… Which i don’t at all.

by ·0 Comments

So as I have mentioned before Seattle is obsessed with Teriyaki. It’s cheap, filling and good value. Although probably just as bad for you as other fast food I don’t feel nearly as guilty eating it compared to say Macdonalds or Burger King (not that I have eaten at either in years). Maybe it’s cause they are usually all Mom & Pop operations.

After a rough Saturday I didn’t feel like doing much at all so decided to hit up the local Teriyaki joint (well the closest one to me as there are 8 within 1km) a few minutes walk away. Midori Teriyaki seems more like it has something to do with the ugly Green Liquer than it does Asian food.

From Expat Life

Located in a group of shops (I don’t think it quite fits into the Strip Mall category, a little bit to small) with a couple of other food outlets, a dry cleaners and others it fits into the overall scheme of the small shops. Plus its literally about 2-3 minutes stroll from my apartment (technically next door). It looks like any other place from the outside. Inside the store does match its name sake drink. Ugly green!!!

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

It was pretty quiet around 8 on the Saturday night which kinda broke my normal food outlet rules, but considering it’s a local joint and there was people inside and a few more came in after I ordered it was acceptable. The menu was not just your normal choices of Teriyaki or Spicy Chicken & Beef, but had some sushi options and some other random Asian options as well. Pricing was pretty average and a Teriyaki Chicken set me back with Tax, $7.09 (and that was with Brown Rice which sometimes costs extra). Can’t complain about that. I had to wait about 5 minutes or so for it to be made but the TV on the wall playing the Seahawks game kept me entertained.

What through me though when my order was ready was she kept asking “what drink you want”. The meal came with a free soda! Wasn’t much choice but a free can of warm diet coke (didn’t matter much as I had cold ones back in the fridge at home) can not be complained about. Looking good here! By the time I had walked home, gotten a dvd ready and opened up my dinner I was stunned at exactly how much there was crammed into that little box!

From Expat Life

The serve was HUGE! There was a decent amount of chicken, an epic proportion of rice (and good sticky brown rice, the way I like it) and a good portion of salad. The chicken was good, the sauce not overly sweet and it was sticky just the way I like it. Brown rice was sticky but separated if pushed, and held together nicely with a bit of sauce. Again the way I like it. I had some Siracha on the side (which was all over the place on the tables there but I didn’t need to ask for it) and it complimented it well.
To be honest though the one downside was the amount of dressing on the salad. There was way to much of it for my liking. But that’s not a big issue, cause next time I am sure I can get it undressed or on the side. The salad was crunchy though and lots of iceberg lettuce. All in all a damn good meal for $7!

I give it a 4/5 on the Mal Teriyaki Scale (this is a made up scale)

Pros: Free Soda, BIG serve
Cons: To much dressing on the salad

by ·2 Comments

So I have been meaning to review this product for quite some time but only been able to do it now cause for some crazy reason it dissapeared for a while. One day while out doing my weekly grcoery shop I came across the craziest thing. I saw some ice cream that claimed 150 Calories. When I saw it as I was walking past I was like “that’s probably per serve, whatever, why even put that there”. But for some reason I took a second look. It claims its the entire Pint of ice cream for that amount of calories. So I did a bit of research online into it and it was legit. So I figured next time I am at the shops doing a buy, I will get some and try it out. Went back the next week… GONE! Recalled for some reason for a packaging problem. I didn’t see it for weeks on end. Till the other night when I was at the shops. I quickly grabbed some and put it in the freezer till last night.

From Expat Life

Now the stuff I read online was a bit of a mixed bag in reviews but to be honest, I wasn’t going to complain. I was going try it out and make my own opinion. I grabbed the “Cookies & Cream” flavour figuring that would be the safest bet. They have other flavours including Peanut Butter, Mint Chocolate and Vanilla Maple (and apparently pumpkin at certain times of the year). But if you check out the below photo. It doesn’t really look like what you would expect. Certainly doesn’t look like any other Cookies and Cream i’ve ever eaten before. The taste was ok I guess, nothing really all that over the top, not mind blowing. It was the texture that was just not right to me. I definately wouldn’t call this ice cream at all, probably why its a “frozen dessert”. It had a texture more like an Ice Block mixed with Ice Cream, kind of hard to explain but definately was not Ice Cream like at all.

From Expat Life

It was an ok Treat. Definately for those times when you want something but don’t want to feel bad eating it. For 150 calories (which is about 1.5 snacks for me) I didn’t feel guilty eating the whole pint, had that been ice cream at around 1000 calories for the pint, yeah thats a whole other story. But it wouldn’t be something I would go out of my way to get. Plus its $5.30 PER PINT! That’s almost double the cost of a Ben & Jerrys pint or even a Quart (litre) of ice cream of the normal brands. Its REALLY expensive, and something I probably won’t have all that often, But at least I know there is something out there that I can have without feeling guilty for those times when I just want to have some ice cream and not “have some ice cream”… if you know what I mean.

by ·0 Comments

I alluded to this in my last post and it will actually be a bit of an informative post… kind of.

Back when i started all my weight loss, one thing my Nutritionist taught me was to keep my snacking to 400kj or 100 Calories and she gave me a nice big list of stuff that fits into that band. Things like a Freddo Frog, 2 chocolate wheatens, all different kinds of fruit (ranging from 1 apple or a banana to an entire punnet of strawberries). It pretty much meant I could have whatever I would like as long as I used some common sense and kept it to within that range.

Well over here in the USA they have something that makes this kind of snacking so much easier. 100 calorie packs. The perfect invention in my opinion. All the good snacks you like, cookies, cake, brownies, museli bars, chips, nuts etc all conviently portioned out for you in 100 calorie packs. Could it get any better?? In some cases they are even under 100 Calories! I have found delicious yoghurts (made my Kroger foods, so generic brand but damn delicious) for 60 calories, numerous different bits and pieces but the thing that makes me happy the most is my usual morning snack at work.

I try to grab a coffee if i have the time (depends on the day really and how busy I am) and enjoy a little snack. Now my morning snack tends to be something non fruit (as thats my afternoon snack) and since I got to the USA I have had some awesome snacks. Granola bars have always been one of the easiest as they transport easily and they are generally good with a coffee. Well two snacks I have found work awesomely though one (I dont have a picture sadly) has always been the best. Hostess (the makers of twinkies) have 100 calorie packs and they have little cinnamon coffee cakes which when had with a coffee just are AMAZING!!! Now these arent big snacks, they are the perfect little snack size. 3 small little cakes about the size of a Aussie 50c piece. Bite size and yummy.

But they are treats every now and then the cakes but two that I have found are my favourites are the Quaker Oats Chewy Granola Bars – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip or a Fibre One Browne Bar.

From Expat Life

These snacks are just awesome. Now I haven’t yet had the brownies pictured as its a new box, but the flavour i just finished off earlier in the week was the “Fudge Brownie” one and it was DAMN delicious. And the museli Granola bars are by far the most delicious ones I have EVER tasted. They go so well with a coffee and the slightly savoury taste is just perfect. It makes me so so happy to be over here and be able to have these snacks and not feel guilty. I couldn’t of done this back home at all. They just didn’t exist at all, and I struggled to find any variety at all. But over here they are all put on the plate for me to select.

Another one of my favourites are the Chocolate coated pretzels (either White or Milk) that are part of the snackwells range. God damn they are yummy! I could sit here and talk all day about them. But I won’t. I might have to send some samples home for people, I know that Costco sells these brownies and museli bars in giant boxes so that makes it even easier 😀 YAY!

by ·0 Comments

So for my birthday I wanted something that i would not normally go to, and since I would be with people I am happy to go to somewhere that I consider a bit more special than normal. Beth’s Cafe was it. I had seen it on the Seattle episode of Man v Food. A few years ago during my first ever trip to Seattle I ate at the Crab Pot down town for a decent serving of PNW fish & chips. Then in my first month here I visited location #2 being Red Mill burger up in Phinney Ridge. But #3 was somewhere I wanted to visit, but didn’t really feel right taking up space in an always packed location on my own. So I kept it for a special occasion. My birthday was it!

Beth’s cafe was used as the challenge location in the episode as they have a unique product on location. A 12 egg omlette. Now there was no way in hell I was going to go for a 12 egg omlette, served with toast and unlimited hash browns. Not even gonna try! Even their standard omlettes are 6 eggs. Again not even gonna try. But there was still some good looking food on their menu. So with my birthday falling on a Sunday morning, what better way than a Sunday early brunch/late breakfast (930 cant really be brunch, but its late enough to be close, but early enough to beat the rush) to celebrate my birthday.

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

Beth’s looks like a bit of a dive bar kind of old school diner feel to it. Mismatched table where, random pieces of crayon artwork all over the walls (which i helped contribute) to (see pic below) but thats what I kind of like really. An old school diner feel, somewhere I can relax and read a book/newspaper while i eat & drink my morning coffee (i did just this for a little bit while I waited for my friends). The coffee was good to! Caffe Vita coffee blend and plenty of it. I don’t think there was ever a time my cup went empty.

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

I went with “the sampler” which was a Biscuit (aka scone) with Sausage Gravy, 2 eggs, toast, hash browns and i grabbed a side of bacon cause dammit if its my birthday, I want BACON! It was good, sausage gravy was creamy yet not overly so, biscuit was light and fluffy, plenty of hash (didnt need a 2nd plate since I was so stuffed by the time i finished all of that) and the eggs were damn good. All up this was a good breakfast. Now my side of bacon cost me almost an extra $5 but next time i reckon i’ll drop the biscuits and gravy if im in a bacon mood and just go straight bacon and eggs (maybe some extra hash) or go straight biscuits and gravy if im craving it. Either way.. awesome breakfast and most of the items were under $12! Which for a good quality seattle breakfast is DAMN good! I’d come back for the coffee alone at times!

My trifecta is now complete. Now to get myself to Salumi to work through the Anthony Bourdain locations.

by ·Comments Off on A Giant store

So as most aussies back home know, Costco is just starting out down in Australia. Well what you probably don’t know is that Costco is a Seattle based company. They actually started about 5 or 6 miles from where i work. The original store is still there!!

I figured it was about time i hit up CostCo, and if I was going to do it, I was gonna do it right! I was gonna hit it up first thing on a Saturday morning with the hordes, and I was going to visit the very first ever CostCo. Now you need a CostCo card to enter the building (thankfully work has one) and I managed to score it for the weekend. It wouldn’t let me buy anything as apparently they are id’ing at the checkout lately. But if i decided I wanted to buy, I could just sign up and fork over the $55 fee.

So i rocked up nice and early, right on opening time (and was joined by Clare my friend from work who was also interested in checking it out to see if it was worth it or not). It was pretty bedlamish as people were flowing in straight away. It kind of felt like an Ikea almost as by the entrance was a bit of a cafe with cheap food and definately competing with Ikea as Hot Dog and a Soft Drink… $1.50!

As we explored it seemed some stuff was worth it, some was not. There was definately things that were a little to big like Washing Detergent for your laundry. For a single person a bottle that does 110 loads is definately not worth it, thats seriously almost a years worth! I dont need that much!

There was some good deals on brand name tvs, and watches and stuff (hell you can get phones and diamond rings) but to be honest, those tvs can be matched elsewhere (like Frys… but thats a story for another day). The biggest savings are on booze in some instances (now that Washington has changed their liquor laws) and on the fresh/Frozen food.

Speaking of food, around 10am the samples come out, and so do the people. As they start offering out the samples the hordes come from no where all clambouring for some free food. It was a little more like bedlam around the food area during this time, but a quick exit and I was ok!

Did I buy anything, nope. Is it really worth me getting a membership, nope. If I was going to buy anything I would just tag along with whoever goes from work and as Clare put it “hit the road for a Costco Run!”. This way I don’t have to fork out for the $55 a year for something that probably wouldn’t save me all that much per year.

If I had a big family, that would be a whole different story, but I don’t. It was still fun though, do you think I could eat 10lbs of Rolled Oats?