Ice Cream for Dinner???

Good thing to be adult is you can do whatever you want.
We went to the beach for the day and BBQ burger for late lunch.
No enough room for dinner so ice cream was the dinner. Butter pecan.

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Home Cooking

It was Friday and I was home. This means home cooking. Fried chicken Japanese stile.

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Up In The Air

On the way back home. Very small airplane this time. I wonder when was the last time I took this kind...

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Best Sweets in Town

I have not been eating either of them since I started coming back here.
Here you go finally I had chances to go to these places this weekend.
First stop - ice cream store. This time I tried their dark chocolate. Not too dark as you might think but not too sweet either, so it was good. I know the view is not good but there were a lot of people enjoying this summer treat.

Next stop - of course the doughnut shop. My favorite chocolate old fashion with small coffee - since this was my afternoon snack. Love their old fashion as it has a bit of crunchiness still there.
Actually both were chocolate...

It Should Be...

Today was one of these days - it should be like this and it actually was...
The weather was PERFECT - sorry NYC and Japan dealing with way above 90 degree with high humidity. Here just about 80 degree with low humidity.
I started my day by doing a jog for 15 minutes or so to just feel good, before grabbing a cereal breakfast - no more oily stuff.
I headed to the university district where U of Washington is located. There are many "cheap" food for school kids and my target for today (or every day???) was - Korean.

I have been eating very well this week so I needed something not feel too bad but a the same time a bit of guilty pleasure to me. This must be for TWO people in Japan but there was no other person but me.
There were a few Korean girls eating there, so it must be authentic enough and at least it was good for me. I will add this to my "to go for the weekend" restaurant list.

Next stop was Magnolia park - northwest side of Seattle. I brought my book "The Help" with me along with a few towels there and I was laying down under the tree for a couple of hours reading and napping... Sunshine was strong but as long as you are under the shade, I felt even chilly with shorts and short sleeve shirt.
It was a perfect Saturday and I am hoping tomorrow will be as nice as today. I am thinking to go for a hike with my friend, so stay tuned for some "wild" pictures.

Good Day and Bad Day

This is a typical lunch these days in Seattle (not outside every day as it is not SUNNY every day yet - where is the SUN???)
Salad... I know it sounds boring, right? Not really here. I have tons of selections - vegetables, beans, nuts, chicken... usually with vinegar and olive oil - so I can control everything. I am trying to eat all vegetable requirements at lunch so I feel OK to eat anything for dinner. (I still watch what I eat, even though I can't/don't cook here in Seattle)

Here is my bad day - this morning. Yup this was my breakfast. I usually eat cereal but I was not in the mood today. I was planning to eat this cake for desert over the week when I bought this, but it was still sitting there this morning and I was like I have to eat this otherwise it goes bad... Good news it was not too bad AND it is a carrot cake, so I am eating vegetables,right? This means the title should have been "Good Day and Good Day"?

Weekend in NYC and Back Seattle

It is always good to be back home even it was 90 degree with high humidity this weekend.
We went to the beach on Saturday as usual. Many people but not overly crowded. This season, we have never faced super crowded beach for some reason. Maybe people have started spending their money on the vacation and not coming to local beaches like us...
Anyway, spending a few hours just not do anything but enjoying the sound and breeze was just we needed - especially after taking over 6 hours of flight from Seattle on Friday.
Home cooking as usual, but much lighter side - cold noodle (So-Men) with roasted chicken and summer vegetables.

Sunday was already the day me going back to Seattle - less than 72 hours staying in NYC, but it was still worth the trip. I am not sure where it was but I saw pretty interesting view from the window. There were only one house per squire area and I was assuming that they were farm fields or something like that.
Very cool here - around 70s with no humidity. What a difference...
BTW, I started using my new phone - Droid Incredible (yup I am not iPhone user...) I think the pictures came out really nicely. Don't you agree?

Seattle Life

It is so different here in Seattle from NYC or Tokyo.
This is where I have been eating the lunch these days... Yup it is not a hotel but an office under the blue sky. I know the summer in Seattle is short but still it does not get any better than this. I tend to take a longer lunch time to enjoy the weather before going back to the desk, which is not too bad either (I can't show the picture here I think).

This weekend, I went to a famous burger joint - thank to SOMEONE who found this place for me. It is not at the heart of Seattle city but many young kids were enjoying the their burgers under nice weather. Cool menu board... So many combination and for me as beginner I just chose pre-configured burger - SMOKEY.
Oh boy, I should have chosen 1/4 pound patty instead of 1/2 pound.

Look at this gigantic burger. Not sure you can see this but it has more than 1/2 pound of bacon along with beef patty. Along with this, I had banana pie shake freshly made out of vanilla ice cream. I was planning to go to my favorite ice cream shop after this but there was no way to do nor to eat dinner tonight.
It was good but I could share this with someone not by myself.

On the Way to Seattle

Weekends are always too short even a long weekend, like this time.
I was already on the way back to Seattle on Monday afternoon. This time I took connection flights at Chicago. There was a couple hours of layover there. I think I was here more than 10 years ago when I went back to Japan from Penn State (obviously no direct flight from Penn State). It is a pretty airport design wise, but it was HOT.

Lucky I was upgraded to the business class (thank G. my status due to many business travels) this time too, so at least I was able to enjoy a glass of wine and meal (and freshly baked chocolate chip cookie). Not too bad but still tiring to travel for more than 6 hours to across the country.

Very close to Seattle, I was able to see the mountain almost fully covered by the snow even it is already July.
90 degree in NY when I left, 60 degree in Seattle when I arrived. I heard that it was not a great weekend weather wise in Seattle, but it got better and now we are hitting 70s and 80s. It is still dry and in the morning you can still jog without sweating like crazy.
Stay tuned for more entries from Seattle...

Home Cooking July 4th (Independence Day)

It was really hot July 4th this year - way above 90 degree. Good news was there was no humidity YET. We took easy by staying mainly in house to avoid heavy traffic or this heat.
This means, we cooked lunch and dinner at home.
To feel cool and refreshing, we cooked cold noodle and some vegetable dishes for lunch. I have never topped the noodle with tomato before, but it added the freshness to the dish and I will do this again especially during the summer. (You should try this too.)

Dinner was a bit more sophisticated as we cooked chicken with tomato sauce. My secret ingredient for the night was lemon zest. It gave fresh flavor to the dish, even I used canned tomato.
There are a lot of summer vegetables at the market, e.g. corn, zucchini, so roasted vegetables will be our stable dish on the table this summer.
We love going out, but we can't live without home cooking meals either.
I hope everyone had a great July 4th with your family and friends.

Beach and Italian in Brooklyn

July 4th weekend!! I am back in NYC.
We went to the beach in this SUMMER weather, which I could not feel in Seattle last two week. Heavier traffic than usual weekends, but it did not take more than one hour. Left the house by 8 am (stopping by at DK for a doughnut and coffee) and we were laying down at the beach by 9:30. Very quiet and calming - surprisingly.
Even though it was in the upper 80s, the wind from the ocean was very cool.

I always start thinking about the food - lunch at the beach listening the wave sounds. Even though it was nice to laying down at the beach, it was the time to leave and head to the restaurant we found on Court street in Caroll Garden (Frankie 457) - another up coming neighborhood in Brooklyn. They have garden seatings where REAL grapes were hanging down/growing.
We had beets and avocado salad (interesting combination) with balsamic vinegar dressing. Refreshing and fulfilling. Their bread was really nice too.

We had two pasta dishes. Both were home made fresh pasta, so they were true al dente. Very summery by seeing this type of beens in the pasta. The short pasta had fresh sage butter sauce with spicy Italian sausages.
This was a great find and I am sure we will come back AGAIN.

Dinner on the Lake Washington

After a long day of work, we decided to go for dinner.
This time, it was in Kirkland - a few miles north of Bellevue - just across from Seattle over Lake Washington. A seafood restaurant was chosen by a local guy, which was a great one. I had a blackened fish with pineapple and mango salsa sauce, which was OK. The best thing came at the end - home made strawberry short cake. Actually I have never had it before anywhere so I can't compare with others, but the whipped cream was home made (not from the can), and so as short cake.
Look at the view from the window...