Restaurant Alert! Small plates & wine bar in Seattle

Purple Cafe & Wine Bar
1225 4th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101

This Downtown restaurant is the newest member of the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar establishments. There are 3 in the Seattle metro region, but as far as I'm concerned, the Downtown location is the only one worth going to because the other two do offer the small plates menu. Think about it this way. J and I have become hard-core suburbanites. We hate going into the city because we can never find parking. Also, one of the (less worthy) Purples is less than 5-minute drive away from our house and offers free parking! Yet, the Downtown Purple is the only one we go to. It's just that much better!

I hate writing paragraphs, so will just summarize highlights in a bulleted list.

- simple, tasty foods made from fresh and seasonal ingredients
- stylish modern decor including a massive wine tower complete with winding staircase
- small plates menu and a separate cheese tasting menu is available in addition to the regular menu
- entrees are also very good and they're more than happy to divide one entree into two tasting plates 
- if you bring in bottles of wine that is not in their arsenal, they will uncork the first one at no charge
- dessert is also tasting size, so you can order just one or a few to try (I think there's 15+ options)
- they will happily deal with any kind of crazy bill splits that you throw at them. Do you see a pattern here?
- if you go on Sunday, wines regularly sold at $50 or less are half-priced

Since their tasting menu changes seasonally, it's hard to say what are the must-haves. I would say anything with duck confit or beef carpaccio is a sure thing. From their regular entree, I have enjoyed the gorgonzola and pancetta pasta (picture) and J really liked the pasta bolognese before they took it off their menu.

Bottom line: Purple is just a fun place to go with a bunch of friends for tasty foods and friendly service at a reasonable price.

p.s. Seattle area Costcos sell Purple gift cards - two $50 gift cards for $80. You do the math.
p.p.s. Do not confuse this place with The Purple Dot Cafe which is a ghetto Chinese restaurant located in the International District. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but I hear it's really good after a night of clubbing and sufficient inebriation.

Day -49: J's new point-and-shoot arrives

After months of going back and forth between the Canon SD1100  IS and Canon SD770 IS, he finally decided on the 1100. Two main reason contributed to this decision. First, in true Asian fashion, the price was too good at Dell.com for him to pass up. Second, the key selling point of the 770, a wide(r)-angle lens, was no longer that important with the purchase of my digital SLR.

Just one more week until my Ph.D defense!!!!


Current Location: Kirkland, WA

Don't believe everything you read on the "Internets"

I'll admit - I am not the first person to proliferate the story I am about to tell. It's about Rush Limbaugh and a guy named Paul Alexander Gusmorino III. If you haven't heard of this story, keep reading.

 Paul is a friend of mine and J's. He went to Harvard with J and now works at Microsoft. For those of you Harvard Alums out there, you may know Paul as the student body president who wore bright orange sneakers. Anyhow, a few years ago, Paul mentioned told us that if you searched for "causes of the great depression" on Google, a term paper he wrote for 10th grade would be the first hit. Even back then, we cracked up in laughter when he told us that his term paper is often cited in various essays and papers written around the world and that he's gotten emails from teacher and Ph.Ds asking him questions and requesting to reference his paper. It is even used as a reference on Wikipedia (he swears he had nothing to do with that).

 This year, the ridiculousness of this story went to a whole new level when it was extensively cited by Rush Limbaugh back in May (12 years after the paper was written). I kid you not, people. Rush Limbaugh cited a 10th grader's term paper and proceeded to rip it to shreds. I couldn't find a real audio file, but here's a YouTube video that someone filmed in the car while the show was on the radio.

 I really want to say "This is what you get when you don't go to college." But, according to Paul, even Ph.Ds don't know any better!

Restaurant Alert! Tofu in Seattle

Northwest Tofu, Inc.
1913 Jackson St.
Seattle, WA 98144

It is important to know that Northwest Tofu is first and foremost a tofu manufacturer (Picture 3). I think that's all I really need to say to convince most Asian people that the tofu dishes that they serve in the attached restaurant is ridiculously good!

I haven't tried all of their plates, but I bet you can't go wrong with any of the ones that have tofu. My favorites includes scallion pancake with egg and cold bean curd noodles. However, the must-get dish is definitely the salt and pepper tofu (Picture 2). I often describe it as eating a mouthful of deep fried soup, if that's possible. Unlike most restaurants who uses firm tofu, soft tofu is used here. The batter is extremely thin, crunchy and well-seasoned. The inside is really soft, almost soup-like. This dish is best eaten immediately after coming out of the kitchen. You will probably burn your mouth, but it's so worth it!

Day -61: An aftenoon in the city

Today, I took the afternoon off from thesis writing and hung out with IL in the city. Unlike J, IL claims that she's not embarassed when I whip out my SLR and start snapping photos. Our trip to the city was in part a dry-run for the Lowepro Flipside/Rebel XSI set up I had planned for my solo excursions during our RTW trip. I had with me just the bag, camera, Zune, various layers of clothing and a jacket as IL and I walked through Pike Place Market. Here are my thoughts:

 - I loooooove how the zipper to the main compartment faces my backside. I was not in any fear that someone was going to steal something from the bag.
- The waistbelt feature which allowed me to access the compartment without putting my bag down was great, but a little hard to maneuver with so many layers of clothing on and especially hard when I needed to take my jacket off with the backpack on, but with the camera around my neck.
- My shoulders and upper back started getting sore after two hours, but I'm blaming it on bad posture.
- The bag is big enough that I can put my keys and wallet in the main compartment.  As a bonus, I figured out a way to access those items without having to open the entire bag.

 Overall, I still feel that the Flipside was a good choice and look foward to using it on the big trip.

 After Pike Place, we stopped by Bed, Bath and Beyond where IL found a severely discounted hot pink floor/reading combo lamp, which she couldn't resist buying. It can't get better than $9.99! From there, we headed to Capitol Hill to try Crazy Cherry (formerly known as Crazy Berry). I think I'm hooked on this frozen yogurt craze and now, I have IL to enjoy it with!!

 

Current Location: Kirkland, WA

Day -63: Fun with my Rebel

I haven't had much of a chance to use my new Rebel, but here's two shots I took this afternoon. I think they both scream "amateur trying to be artistic." But, it's fun playing around with all the buttons, half of which I still don't know the function of.

1. A spider dangling outside my home office window. It was cloudy and nearing dusk.
2. Two stuffed animals - the Blues Clue was a Christmas present from IL who carried it all the way to Boston from Cali back in 2000 and the red blow fish was a gift from VVolfii for this past Christmas.

Current Location: Kirkland, WA, but wishing I was in San Francisco, CA with J

Karma

J and I have been experiencing some serious karma lately - only the really good and the really bad. Interestingly, all the good stuff is happening in relation to our trip and all the bad stuff is happening here on the homefront. Which way does the scale tip towards? You decide for yourself.

The Bad
- The water heater in our condo broke after 8 years (since the building opened). Due to the special nature of how our building was constructed, the cost will be $3600 to replace it. In comparison, the average cost to replace a water heater is less than 1K.
- Our 50" Sony Rear-Projection LCD TV (bought in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics) broke a few days ago. The $350+ 4-year warranty we splurged for expired this past June.
- My 2004 Mazda3 needs all 4 tires replaced.
- I accidentally dropped and broke J's perfectly functioning, mint condition Canon SD400 a few months ago


The Good
- IL is starting her job at MS conveniently around the same we're leaving for our trip and has agreed to house-sit for us
- We were able to buy significantly cheaper plane tickets in Vancouver instead of flying to London thanks to loopholes regarding Canada (see Loopholes and Canada post)
- There is a South America cruise that sails conveniently between where we'll be staying (Buenos Aires) and city that we need to depart from to get to Sydney (Santiago)
- Our timeframe for Taiwan matches up nicely with VVolfii's, J's sister, spring break
- Our timeframe for London coincides with a 3-day weekend which allows us to explore an additional city that we didn't intend to stop at.
- Our trip to Vancouver was a complete success (including the unanticipated and miraculous finding of an open Nexus office on a Sunday which helped us avoid a 2+ hour wait at the border). Prior to this trip, Vancouver/Whistler roadtrips have always without fail been plagued with at least one of the following: a serious argument in the car with no where to hide, a troubled phone call from a family member making us pull over at a rest area for a couple of hours before we cross the border so that we don't have to pay roaming charges, a flat tire, an avalanche, an empty car battery, a spin-out on the highway into a ditch on the other side of the road OR a record-setting/car-stranding snowstorm.

At this point, J & I are so excited about our trip that we have tunnel vision set on our departure date. Nothing else seems to phase us that much. Let's hope the good karma for the trip continues. *knock on wood*

Day -65: Itinerary confirmed through February 2009

At long last... we have a trip itinerary that is confirmed at least through the beginning of next February! We will not be posting the details of our itinerary for privacy reasons. If you'd like consult our schedule between now and July 2009 for the possibility of joining us for a week or two (or just for curiosity sake) email me an I'll send you an itinerary with the most updated information.

- Friends who don't have my email address can leave a comment and I'll find your contact somehow.
- Strangers who read this blog will not be eligible to receive said itinerary no matter how much they beg, but they will be able to follow our travel in real-time on this blog!

Current Location: Kirkland, WA

Pork Buns, OneWorld Explorer, YVR, Nexus, WC, Torrential Downpour

Vancouver, BC has always been a favorite weekend destination of mine and J's since moving to Seattle more than 5 years ago. Amazing Asian food can be found a mere 3 hour drive away in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. An additional 2 hours beyond the city core along the Sea-to-Sky Highway puts us in Whistler/Blackcomb, one of the main venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics. We used to go so often that we enrolled ourselves in the Nexus Program, a border-crossing program in which card-carrying individuals are allowed to take a special lane at the border and essentially "cut" the line. The ironic thing is that ever since our enrollment, we have not gone to Canada as often, thanks to the rise in gas prices, the weak US dollar and a large morgage associated with the purchase of our house.

However, we were on a mission this past weekend to purchase our OneWorld Explorer tickets at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), a transaction which involved a complex conversion of the original ticket price in British Pounds to Canadian Dollars to US Dollars. $75 for gas, $30 for sukiyaki dinner, $100 for a hotel room, $7 for pork buns, $200 loss to currency conversion and $15 for beef noodle soup later, we still saved over $2500 by purchasing our tickets in Vancouver! As a bonus, I was able to get my Nexus card in working condition again! Back in May, I got a new passport and this information needed to be updated in person before the Nexus card can be used again. Lucky for me, I unexpectedly came across a Nexus office in YVR which happened to be open for business on a Sunday!

With our tickets in hand, our bellies full of good Asian food and a week's stock worth of pork buns in the backseat, we headed our way back to Seattle with the intention of stopping by Burlington, WA to pick up WC, J's brother, who was in town this weekend for an ultimate tournament. Thank GOODNESS we could use our Nexus cards now that I had everything updated because the regular wait at the border was more than 2 hours long!!!! Less than 30 seconds after arriving at the border, we were back in the States.

Seeing WC was fun like always. Driving for 2 hours in torrential downpour was not fun. We were originaly going to grab dinner together somewhere before dropping WC off at the airport, but ended up not having enough time due to traffic. Still, we enjoyed good conversations and a delicious dinner of pork buns in the car as we drove back down to Seattle through the rain.