Sleepless in Seattle

Easier to write a post on a weekend trip than a 2-week trip. I'd better blog Peru before I forget...but not yet.

Spent the past weekend in Seattle due to a convergence of circumstances. Namely, my parents had invited my aunt in Taiwan to come visit in celebration of her 60th birthday, and they decided to meet up in Seattle (where my sister lives), and do a tour of Vancouver, the Canadian Rockies, and Yellowstone. This was the weekend they were all arriving, which was also the weekend of my parents' wedding anniversary and Father's Day. All these circumstances meant even my older sister, who's in the middle of a lot of stuff in her life, decided to fly up to Seattle for a little family reunion.

My bf and I stayed with a friend of his in Wallingford, my parents and aunt stayed at a hotel in Redmond (Marriott Residence Inn which is right by the town center and the Saturday farmers' market, to their delight), and my older sister stayed with my younger sister.

My bf, his friend's wife, their 9-month old baby, and I all had breakfast at the Five Spot in Queen Anne on Saturday. We'd been to this restaurant with them on a previous trip and remembered the cinnamon twist french toast with caramel sauce very very well, and specifically chose to go back for it. That didn't stop my bf from ordering the Cherry Jubilee French Toast instead, regretting it, and then trying to steal my french toast. Caramel sauce instead of maple syrup is very very yummy. Though not quite as delectable as last time, not quite sure what the difference was.

The 520 bridge was closed all weekend which led to some traffic debacles. My bf was originally supposed to meet up with another friend/colleague in Seattle for lunch, but when the guy encountered the pretty much stopped traffic going into Seattle, they decided to meet in Bellevue instead, so my bf drove me there and had my sister pick me up. We joined my parents and aunt at the farmer's market, where they were happily browsing, and chose to get food there since some of us were quite full from breakfast while others needed lunch. I got a peanut butter, banana, and raspberry freezer jam crepe that was pretty good initially, but rapidly got to be too much peanut butter which was far too rich quite quickly. We then bummed around their hotel room for a while before deciding to drive off to Ballard to check out the locks and fish ladder.

My bf stayed behind b/c he needed to pick up my older sister from the airport at 4:30, so he went go-karting while the rest of us went to watch fish. The locks were fairly neat in concept though not incredibly exciting to watch in person (ooh the water is draining and the boats are going down. now the gate is opening and the boats are driving away! ok done). The fish ladder was neat - I was a bit disappointed not to see the fish jumping up it (apparently they just swim through) but we did see a couple fish jumping out in the river, and saw schools and schools of salmon just under the water surface. It was kind of fun watching for them and feeling a sense of satisfaction when we spotted more. Evidently when we went was in the beginning of sockeye season but before chinook season - if we went in July/August, we would have seen a lot more fish and more kinds of fish. As it was, it was still pretty cool, and fun to watch some herons staring intently into the water as they waited for prey. The locks also had a botanical garden that my parents and aunt enjoyed walking around.

We had an early dinner reservation Oceanaire restaurant, which was kitty corner from Pacific Place. The intention was to find food that would make my parents happy, since this was our main celebration for their anniversary and Father's Day, and I think we succeeded. The restaurant is not at all cheap, but had a great selection of different fresh fish prepared in a number of interesting sounding ways. My bf got the mahi-mahi, my sister got the seared salmon, my other sister got the halibut, I got an Alaskan rockfish as part of a 3-course prix fixe, and my parents and aunt all got platters that involved a multitude of seafood types. The clam chowder I got as my starter was also very good, and nicely pepped up with some bacon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to try my apricot peach walnut cobbler dessert until the next day, after it'd sat in a fridge all night and a car for several hours, so I don't think I got the best taste of that. My bf did say that the new york cheesecake that they shared was quite good, though.

My sisters and I had to run off early so we could see Rent. And not just any production of Rent, but the cast featuring original cast members Anthony Rapp as Mark, and Adam Pascal as Roger. I've loved Rent since it first emerged in 1996, so this cast meant a lot to me, and it was a relief seeing them unfettered on stage, instead of in the fairly lame screen adaptation. Anthony Rapp owns the role of Mark. He inhabits it thoroughly and knows it well - every other Mark has emulated him since, I think. It was awesome finally seeing him in the role, especially during La Vie Boheme. Adam Pascal's voice has gotten a bit odd to me. Better by far than what it was in the movie, it still felt a bit off at times, like his voice has deepened a bit over the years and now he's straining a little to sound unpolished. I think his high bits and soft bits were beautifully done but when he belted, it wasn't always pleasant to my ears. My little sister's theory is that his voice is actually overtrained and now he's trying too hard to sound rough and rocky. That being said, he was still wonderful in the role and listening to him and Anthony harmonize and sing together was amazing, a real privilege. And his voice, like I said, was really good at the soft parts and the emotional parts - Without You was just gorgeous. The Mimi we saw, Lexi Lawson, was probably the best Mimi I've ever seen, and I've seen Rent I think 5 times now. Her voice was terrific, plus she was physically flexible and dexterous, and really attacked "Out Tonight". I've seen Mimis that looked too tentative and afraid (and I don't blame them) but she mostly went for it. And, as I said, her singing was wonderful. The Angel we saw was the one from the closing cast on Broadway. I don't remember his name but he had an amazing voice, and brought some really cute humorous touches to the role. Plus, he can actually drum and high kick and dance, unlike a couple Angels I've seen, which helps a lot. Collins had a less deep voice than I was used to, but an utterly beautiful one, and he provided one of the best renditions of the I'll Cover You reprise I've seen. I was less enamored with the Maureen and Joanne in this production, unfortunately. From the mezzanine, I couldn't tell half the time if Joanne was actually moving her lips - she seemed to be singing through gritted bared teeth in a fixed smile a lot - and I didn't like her voice as much. Maureen's "Over the Moon" was amusing, though as I whispered to my sister, more like Kristin Chenoweth (who I do love) as Maureen rather than Idina Menzel. Bit more ditzy hehe than I'm used to. And I really didn't like her voice when she was actually singing in the second act. I noticed from her bio that she was in Legally Blonde, and having seen all of one song from that show at the Tony's and really detesting how *that* girl sang, there may be a correlation here. Which is too bad. Though I still loved Tango Maureen, and they mostly made Take Me As I Am work. Overall though, I thought this was an awesome production. It's amazing to me that after all these years and seeing it 5 times, I still get totally taken up by this show and still adore the music to bits. I do notice now that the lyrics to "I'll Cover You" are actually fairly lame, and that "Your Eyes" is not remotely good enough to be a song it took Roger all year to write, but aside from those flaws, I absolutely love this show. And I was so happy to get to see Anthony and Adam perform it.

On Sunday, we had breakfast with our hosts at their house, and then headed down to Seattle to take the Ducks tour with my parents. The Ducks is totally cheesy and they try way too hard to be loud and silly, but we did get a lot of interesting information (never knew Boeing founded United Airlines or that Nordstrom was originally a shoe store founded by a Norwegian? Swedish? gold miner), got to see a lot of downtown Seattle, and I always enjoy water views, so overall it was an entertaining diversion. We then got lunch at a random Thai restaurant near the Seattle Center which was ok, not great, and then one sister took the other to the airport, while the rest of us headed to Pike's Place Market to hang out. I kind of like markets these days so I rather enjoyed this part, though I'm regretting not getting any cherries while I was there. We were there fairly close to closing, though, so they were putting away the fish and closing the booths as we walked by. We then found our way to the waterfront, walked around Miner's Landing and listened to a band play, and then hurried back to our car so we could drop my parents and aunt off in Redmond before returning to the airport for our flight back to SF. And that was our trip to Seattle.

Another restaurant

Ate at Cafe Altano in Hayes Valley last night. It's a newish Italian place across the street from Suppenkuche, at Hayes and Laguna. We quite enjoyed it. It's a nice, light restaurant, at least during daytime hours, since there are a lot of windows. I got a baby spinach salad I really liked, and a wild mushroom risotto that was fine. Pretty good, though I like creamier risottos. My bf got the chicken stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, and said it was pretty good as well. Everything was flavored decently and it was a decent mid-range price place very close to our route home, so I think we'd go back.

Almost forgot, saw Porgy and Bess at the SF Opera on Sunday night. I'm really not an opera fan, I've realized. I don't like the style of singing, can't get into the music, plus it's just really really long. I just have to acknowledge that I'm really a musical theater fan and like the more pop music sensibility. That said, I did enjoy the show more as it went on. I do find it kind of interesting reading the bios - it's like every time they stage a production of Porgy and Bess, they have to draw on every opera company around the country to get a big enough African-American cast. Or black cast, anyway, not all of them are American I think. Talented singers, though, and a definitely passionate performance of the story. If it wasn't opera, I might have liked it more...

Restaurant update

Haven't blogged food in forever, totally behind. Not much time now.

Just a few mentions.

For DAT this June, we went two places - Isa and Anzu. I usually like Isa but we were a bit disappointed this time because it was completely full and therefore service was quite slow. We weren't in the mood for a slow meal and would have liked things to move along faster. Also, I'm supposed to note that my bf doesn't like the molten chocolate cake there and really should stop ordering it. My amaretto semifreddo was ok though huge and I couldn't quite figure out what a semifreddo was, even as I ate it. I usually like duck at Isa and it was pretty good, but not as delectable as last time. Bread was good as usual. Appetizer was good - I think I got the tuna and he got the salmon and they were both yummy.

Anzu was in the Hotel Nikko. Food was ok but unmemorable. My bf liked the salad better than I did, probably b/c of the Meyer lemon vinaigrette (I thought the greens were too bitter and I'm not as big a fan of sour as he is). Bf got the seared ahi entree, which was pretty good (from the bites I tried), on a bed of sweet corn that was yummy. I got the butternut squash ravioli which was fine. I've had worse, I've definitely had better. For dessert I got the chocolate croissant bread pudding which, unlike a previous chocolate croissant bread pudding I had at a different restaurant, barely hinted at its croissant origins. It was ok, not great. Bf got a creme brulee, I think, which was fine. It was fine to visit once, I probably wouldn't rush back.

Went to Chez Spencer last night just randomly. We were definitely the most underdressed there but the waiters never batted an eye. Service was great - nice, attentive waiter, frequent water refills, frequent offer of fresh warm bread. Food was ok, but not spectacular. I had the duck, which on the menu said "blackberry, blueberry" so I was envisioning the berries being involved in the sauce, but instead I got five blueberries and 3 blackberries on my duck. It was fine but a bit too salty. I liked the heirloom tomato thing on the side though. Spinach was also too salty. My bf got the venison, rare. I tried a bit and it was quite good. He seemed to like it ok. We didn't get dessert or appetizer. Had bf's homemade burnt caramel gelato and vanilla ice cream instesad.

Did Memphis Minnie's again. May have to switch my usual entrees. The beef seems to have been more moist than the pork the last few times - ribs and brisket. I got the pork ribs and brisket this time, and liked the brisket the best by far.

Where else have eaten?

Ate at Walzwerk in the Mission and quite liked it. Cute German place, good food. Nice servers though not always the most attentive.

Don't like Nate's BBQ across from the Sports Authority.

Can't remember what else.

Went to Peru almost two weeks ago. Still need to blog...