Saturday, September 22, 2012

Dumpling Party

After Jackie and John (probably more so Jackie than John) heard about my attempt at making home-made dumplings, they (and we) insisted on having a dumpling party.  So Tina and I invited them over, they brought over Albert, and we had ourselves a party.  


Of course, we allocated different roles for different people.  I started off making and rolling the skin (my favorite part of home-made dumplings are the home-made skin).  John and Albert were assigned the role of stuffing and folding the dumplings.  Jackie is in the background prepping the filling for her wontons (which were absolutely delicious, by the way).  She ended up making a shrimp, pork, and bok choy filling, but I think what made everything so tasty was the sauce she used - a spicy chili sauce reminiscent of what they use at Din Tai Fung, with cilantro on top.  Very good.


After some time, we switched roles.  Jackie finished her filling and came to the table to help make the dumplings.  Albert switched over to skin rolling, and Tina also started to make some dumplings.


John started getting ambitious with his dumpling-making, and decided to see what types of shapes he could turn his dumplings in to.


This is what resulted.  From left to right: Dumpling Camel (or Dog?  Or some sort of animal?), Dumpling Cube, and Dumpling Pyramid.  I was impressed at his ability to manipulate the skin and make these shapes.  It wasn't an easy feat.


Final layout of the meal.  On either side were dumplings, and in the middle was bok choy (top) and the spicy wontons that Jackie made (bottom).


Needless to say, we were all very happy at the final product.  I think we were also all very impatient while taking this photo, because all we wanted to do was eat.  It takes a good amount of discipline to want to take a group photo when there's delicious food right in front of you waiting to be eaten, and you're pretty hungry because you've spent much of the evening preparing it.  It was a fun time, and I hope we get to do it again soon.  :)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sabina Visits

Tina and I hadn't seen Sabina since we got married (3 years ago), so it was great to catch up with her.  She told us how glad she was that we were now on the West Coast and we'd be able to see each other more.  Because of Tina's schedule, we didn't have enough time to take a trip up to Vancouver, so Sabina came down to see us instead.  As you'll see by the photos below, we did a lot of eating.

We first went to Din Tai Fung in Bellevue, a famous restaurant known for its xiao long bao (soup dumplings).  Originating in Taipei, the owner brought its recipes and popularity over to America, opening two locations in LA and one in Seattle.  Was it good?  Yes, it was very good.  Was it the best I had ever had?  Not sure.  I have a feeling the original restaurant in Taipei would probably produce better xiao long bao - the ingredients are probably different, even though the recipe is the same.  But it was still great food.


Group picture with the xiao long bao.  I was surprised at how quickly everything came out, but I suppose they have to make a lot in a short amount of time to meet the demand.  We went early to beat the crowds, but I heard the wait for a table can get ridiculous during busy hours.


Tina and I with the xiao long bao and veggie dumplings.  We also got a taro-filled xiao long bao, which was as interesting as it sounds.  The filling was great, but I think I personally prefer the fluffy bao exterior over the dumpling-style skin for sweets.


Tina wanted to take a picture with the Din Tai Fung mascot.


Later that day, we went to Volunteer Park, where there was an outdoor concert going on.  Whole Foods was handing out free fruit popsicles, so we gladly accepted.  The rest of the day was spent walking around or watching episodes of Tin Tin.  

The following day, we went to the Broadway Street Farmer's Market, hoping to find some lunch there.  Instead, we decided to go to Plum Vegan Bistro, in part because Sabina prefers not to eat meat.  You can read the Yelp review I wrote, but to summarize it: it was very salty.  It's interesting how some vegan restaurants can try really hard to imitate non-vegan things, when they could probably make good food by just making food without using animal products as ingredients (they had imitation mac n cheese, ricotta cheese, vegan crepes, etc. - I think they just tried too hard).  It was good to check out a new restaurant, though.


Group photo at Plum Vegan Bistro.


Later that day, we walked to Melrose Market, where we experienced an interesting outdoor festival going on.  Then we headed to the International District, walked / shopped around for a bit, and decided to go to Spring Garden for Vietnamese food.


Group photo at Spring Garden.  Sabina and I ordered pho, which was not bad.  Tina had lemongrass beef with vermicelli, which she enjoyed.


Overall, it was a fun weekend.  The weather held up nicely, we were able to check out new restaurants, and most importantly, we got to spend some time with Sabina.  Next on the list of places to visit is Vancouver!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Portland, Oregon

Howard and Lan flew over to the West Coast to visit Portland, Oregon, and gave Tina and I a good reason to go see the city for the first time.  We spent the first day walking around the farmer's market at Portland State University, which was huge and took up much of the campus.  After eating some delicious Sin Dog Cinnamon Roll from Dave's Killer Bread and home-made biscuits from Pine State Biscuits, we decided to burn off what we ate by going for a hike around the Eagle Creek area.  It was a beautiful day for a hike, so it worked out well.






We easily became hungry again after our hike, so we checked out some of the "food pods" that were around the city.  These were just parking lots that had food trucks camped out daily (at least on the weekends).  It provided a good opportunity to try a little from one truck and a little from another, because they were all in one convenient location.


Tina at one of the food pods.  We didn't try anything from The Honey Pot, but it all looked good.


Our dinner - bits and pieces from the various food trucks.


We had to leave by noon the following day, so that only gave us time to grab brunch and walk for a bit.  We ate at Kenny & Zuke's Deli, which I enjoyed.  They had pretty good bagels and pastrami, which is what they are known for.

Group picture.


Tina ordered cheese blintzes, which were essentially crepes filled with a ricotta-like cheese topped with fruits and sour cream.  She really liked them.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Rebecca and Regina Visit

Our good friends from NC and Boston, Rebecca and Regina, came to visit en route to their family vacation to Vancouver and the Canadian National Parks.  Thankfully, both Tina and I had the day off, so we tried our best to show them around.

Regina and I are unofficially non-traveling-together travel buddies.  As in, we've seen each other in so many different places around the world, not having traveled there together.  Here is a quick rundown of those places:

Cleveland, July 2007.

Not pictured: Princeton, October 2007.

Shanghai, July 2008.

Taipei, January 2009.

Chapel Hill, July 2009.

New York, December 2009.

And now, Seattle, August 2012.


We went to Pike Place Market, and they decided to get some coffee from the original Starbucks.  I think they were pretty happy about it.  We also went to Piroshky, Piroshky, Pike Place Clam Chowder, and did some walking around.


Then we took them to Kerry Park for the nice view of the city.  This was the obligatory city skyline photo.


The circles sculpture is where their true personalities came out.


We then went to the Ballard Locks to see the salmon swimming upstream in preparation for mating season.  I think Regina was more interested in how she could look like a gargoyle or a Tim Burton character atop these interesting sculptures.  Tina was the one who told Regina to pose, but she was thinking more along the lines of this:
Close enough, I guess.


We also made it to Pho Bac in the International District for dinner.  It was good, but there was too much MSG in the soup.  It made me very thirsty afterwards.  We also took them to Molly Moon's for ice cream.  I think the Earl Grey flavor it was a hit, especially with Rebecca.  It's quite good!