Patty's Eggnest and Turkey House, Kubota Gardens, El Malecon

Country Girl and I had a fine Sunday a couple weekends back visiting a new breakfast place in the neighborhood, made a trip to the south end to visit a Japanese garden and topped it off with a margarita pit stop downtown.

Patty's Eggnest is a local chain of breakfast spots and one opened near our neck of the 'burbs recently.  We stopped by to give it a look see and mostly liked what we saw.  It's quite spacious and full of natural light.  The prior tenant was a bar and grill of sorts and while the bar is still there, no booze was available on our visit (boo).  The food, however, delivered heat.  Country Girl had a fruit waffle with their fancy devonshire cream and she had high praise for it.  I had their Irish eggs benedict which comes with corned beef under poached eggs with hollandaise.  Never had anything like it and will certainly try it again.

After breakfast, it was off to the Kubota Gardens in Ranier Beach.  It was the first visit there for both of us and we came away impressed.  It's a 4 1/2 acre garden over varying elevation complete with a stream, a couple of bridges and a couple of ponds.  Lots of colorful plants and flowers and very well manicured.  There's also a stone garden that's pretty neat.  Despite being pretty far south, well worth the trip. 

After the garden, we headed downtown to walk along the waterfront.  While getting on stroll on there, a tout was kind enough to let us know about inexpensive margaritas at a Mexican place not too far away.  We decided to check it out and sure enough, margaritas were available in abundance.  Turns out it was Cinco de Mayo and it was a lively affair at El Malecon.  In addition to lots of revelers, there was also a couple doing some traditional Mexican dancing from time to time.  Though a bit inattentive at times, the bartender was quite friendly when around.  After a couple margaritas and a brief chat with the most interesting man in the world, it was time to head home.  Another exciting outing with Country Girl in the books.  

Hunger - Freemont

Thanks to an online coupon, Country Girl and I checked out a new place in Fremont called Hunger.  To sum it up, incredibly impressed and highly recommended even factoring in the terrible parking situation that is Fremont.

The decor in Hunger was simplistic and inviting.  One wall is nearly entirely composed of massive windows allowing in lots of light.  They also have a neat curved bar situated near the middle of the restaurant. 

The food in a word?  Fantastic.  Country Girl had the croque madame while I had the steak and eggs.  Both were full of flavor and darn near perfect.  The harissa sauce that came on the steak was flat out amazing.  As impressive as the food is, the smiles didn't stop there.  

The coupon included "bottomless mimosas" which I hoped meant they gave you pitcher to start and would perhaps grudgingly refill it once after we made a stink.  Quite wrong, I was.  I noticed several patrons had mimosas in standard (tiny) champagne glasses when we being seated.  Didn't like our chances of getting regular refills at that point.  As it turns out, our server couldn't have done a better job bringing fresh drinks.    He came by time and again asking whether we'd like more.  At one point, another server who was just passing our table must have noticed we were running low and asked if we'd like a couple more.  Even after we finished our meal, our server was still on it with the fresh drinks.  Very, very impressed with the attentive service.  Do yourself a favor, eat at Hunger. 

Ricotta Frittata

Country Girl worked up her usual magic making a ricotta fritatta the other day.  We recently watch an Italian focused cooking show where the host prepared a couple different types of fritattas.  One with ricotta, tomato and onion was prepared first on a stove top and then went into the oven.  Another one with asparagus and onoin was prepared just on the stove.  Both looked delicious. 

Neither Country Girl or myself had previously had a fritatta and were duly intrigued.  Country Girl located the recipe from the show here.  The web version varied somewhat from what Lidia prepared on the show as she didn't use bell peppers, so Country Girl didn't include either.  She subbed skim milk for heavy cream and eggbeaters for four of the eggs while also including spinach.  Finally, we don't have a pan that can go in the oven so, she skillful transferred to a baking stone for the oven part.

 The final product turned out incredibly well.  The dish was much lighter than I was expecting and had a wonderful flavor.  We enjoyed with strawberry and powdered sugar topped waffles.  Country Girl killing it in the kitchen once again.

Holiday in Costa Rica and Panama

So much fun and such wonderful times.  Best holiday yet!

Looks harmless but sadly full of food poisoning =(

Top Sirloin Chimichurri, Asparagus, Spaghetti in Herb Butter Walnut Sauce

It was delicious!  May use a bit of parsley in the pasta next time to add a bit of color but otherwise, turned out fantastic.

Pair, Alibi Room

The hits kept going during Celebration Week as Country Girl and I checked out nearby Pair for happy hour then ambled over to the Alibi Room in Pike's Place with hopes of dancing.

Pair is relatively nearby where we live (most everything is kinda far away out here in the country =D) and also close to a place where Country Girl lived previously though neither of us had been there before.  It strikes me as quintessential neighborhood restaurant in size, decor and layout.   It's relatively small with an entirely open layout.  The seating runs pretty cozy though didn't seem crowded.  The decoration is minimal but long on warm and inviting.  Sitting at the bar, we were at the mercy of the lone bartender working at the time.  She was decidedly not friendly, unfortunately, but was prompt enough in taking our order and making the food and drink show up. Even this wasn't without its hitches as she messed up Country Girl's drink order first time through.  We tried the brisket sliders, mac and cheese, herb and cheese gougères, a green salad and smoked salmon on toast.  Everything was tasty with both the mac and cheese and gougères really standing out.  Despite the chilly reception, we may well check out Pair again for their tasty bites.

Afterwards we made our way down to the Alibi Room to get our boogie on.  En route, we stopped so Country Girl could get a pic with the new Great Wheel. 

Albi Room was another first to us both.  After making our way down into the Market and walking through the doors, we learned it's a restaurant with a a club sorta thing in the basement.  When we arrived, there was a private party in the club for the next 30 odd minutes so we decided to wait it out in the bar area.  I don't recall much about the decor other than the decor, furniture and lighting were all quite dark.  Once the club opened, we headed down with high hopes.  These were quickly dashed as the club is quite the bleak affair.  It's a single, not terribly large concrete walled room with a combo bar/dj station taking up the far end of the room.  The music turned out to be similarly bleak.  DJ Mullet was on the ones and twos putting on a poor display of playing terrible tunes (top-40, perhaps?) coupled with very awkward, ill timed breaks between songs.  It's difficult to say how impressed the crowd was as it was relatively early in the evening and the weren't many people there.  One very redeeming quality Albi Room had was that playing on one of the large screens was some sort of Soul Train compilation.  Seeing the moves, the outfits and a young and especially dapper Don Cornelius was very impressive.  Sadly, this was about the only thing the place had going for it while we were there.  We put on a brave face for a while and had some smiles but it was a relatively short stay for us.  Unlikely the Alibi Room will see a repeat visit. 

Fumaca, Can Can, Montlake Ale House

Celebration week rolled on with Country Girl and myself hitting up a few spots in one night last week.  We started at Fumaca Brazilian Steakhouse for din din.  A brazillian steakhouse ("churrascarias") is basically a charcoal grilled meat buffet and is every bit as wonderful as it sounds.  Servers come around with a wide selection of perfectly grilled meats on metal spits and carve it off for you table side.  We tried prime rib, sirloin, lamb, bacon wrapped turkey, garlic steak and shrimp, among others.  Grilled pineapple, filet mignon and pork loin were also available.  Country Girl and I both heartily agree that it's unbelievable how incredibly seasoned and perfectly grilled every item arrives.  While some things tasted better than others, we're talking degrees of excellent.  In addition to the table side grilled goodies, a cold buffet including fresh sliced fruits, cold cuts and gourmet cheeses.  Veggies and pasta salads were also available. 

After pulling ourselves away from the grilled meat temple, we headed to the Can Can at Pike's Place Market for a burlesque show.  Neither of us had previously been to the Can Can though we had seen a burlesque show once prior while in Vancouver.  Can Can was decidedly cozy as they packed in quite a number of tables along with a stage in a fairly narrow but long space.  The dancers for the night's show were all  impressive with a belly dance act that we both found particularly noteworthy.

After the Can Can, we stopped by the Montlake Ale House while heading home for pint to cap the evening.  It was my first visit there while Country Girl had been there previously to eat.  I tried the Nectar Ales Humboldt Brown and Country Girl had the Stone Smoked Porter.  We both liked the brown and she enjoyed the porter as well.  I found it bitter while Country Girl loved the full flavor.   

Want to again say what a wonderful time we had at Fumaca.  Highly recommend that anyone who enjoys grilled meat to give a Brazilian steakhouse a go.  Every place we visited delivered the goods.  No surprise really, as Country Girl makes any place a destination.  Another wonderful evening of food and entertainment with my fav partner in crime.