Top Pot on 5th

lemon bismark

Everyone loves Top Pot. Now it's my turn to sing its praises.

It's not just the doughnuts, though those tend to be very good. I like the lemon bismark. Can you tell? It's not just the coffee, which I also like a lot and is perfect for dipping. It's the place itself.

Top pot has a certain aesthetic, which it applies at all its stores. It's always nice. But it fits perfectly in the location on 5th in Bell Town. It's a perfect place to have a sit down while you're out on a downtown walk-about.

A few more photos for the curious.

Real Foods (company)

I love hummus, but I'm never happy with my attempts at homemade. Which is just my round about way of saying that I buy a lot of premade. The best hummus that my favorite retailer (amazon fresh) carries, is from Real Foods. It's really tasty, and only two chemicals on the ingredients list.

For the 4th of July we tried to be traditional, but also lazy, so we got some Real Foods ballpark potato salad. It was fantastic. It had hard boiled eggs in it. It was really peppery and super dense.

So, I think I'm a fan of this company. I just ordered some of their Tzatziki. I'll let you know how that goes.

Oh, by the way, their website is a little misleading. Amazon has a lot more than one item when you search for Real Foods.

update
The Tzatziki is good!

out on a Whym

Whym is the one that replaced Cafe Minnies; comparisons are inevitable. Let's get it out of the way; Whym is not Minnies, thank christ*.

Admittedly this was my first visit. And it was between lunch and dinner, so it was really slow. But the service was super fast. My glass was never empty; it felt like that time with the Pham's I told you about a while back. The kitchen was really fast too.

It's a little pricey for an esculents restaurant; you can get something for less than $10, but not much. That's what happens when you cross Denny, I guess.

The food was good. Rakka liked her mushroom sandwich a lot.

Mushroom sandwiches are tasty

My eggs benedict was yummy too, though the hollandaise wasn't very subtle. I mean, it was bright neon yellow. The flavor was 'rich', but I can't think of any more adjectives. It was ten bucks.

Eggs Benedict, Florentine style
(there are 4 styles to choose from)

The name is a little too much for me. It's like they're trying to make me pun, the bums. It's like they know my weaknesses. Don't worry though, I'm not going to do it. Except for the title. At least I used the least sensical pun I could think of. It made me feel better somehow.

[Insert Whim pun here]
[no, don't! -ed]

I'm pretty happy with with the place, overall. I'll be back, I'm sure. Their dinner menu is said to be fantastic (source: head server).

* there's something about waiting an hour and a half for food that makes you sick, that makes you only do it once.

[where: 101 Denny Way, Seattle, WA, 98109]

Jackson Grill in Paradise

I'm a hungry traveler with a love of road food, so it's not surprising that I photo documented lunch at the Jackson Grill. It's in Paradise on Mt. Rainier, which I visited for the first time this weekend. (more about that on leff, if you're interested)

One of the things I most wanted to see other than the mountain itself (which was a bust, btw. stupid weather), was the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center. It's not long for this world, and I'd hate to have missed it. The Jackson Grill is the food concession in there.

I'll be honest. It's not the best food you'll ever eat. It's certainly competent and useful national park concession food. I'm totally down with it. The perfect pick-me-up after a long drive up a volcano.

It's not the only food choice on the mountain. There's the restaurant at the Paradise Inn. It was serving thirty dollar brunch when we were there. Not my cup of tea. The other option is the restaurant at the National Park Inn, down the hill in Longmire. They mysteriously warned us about two large parties that were just seated. Not sure why, the place didn't look half full. Maybe we were smelly after our light hike.



Anyway, I totally dig on the Jackson Grill and plan to go back as many times as possible before they tear down the building (next year).

[where: paradise, washington]

Asia Ginger Teriyaki

Everybody loves Yakisoba, right? I hope so, because that's all I got for you today. Not that Asia Ginger's menu is limited in this way. It's just the only thing anybody happened to get last time. Doctor D, who turned me on to the place, goes there for the Udon, btw.

So, here's some GC's chicken version.

And, I got the shrimp.

Undo pictures were not taken. Oops. Too busy chomping on the ridiculous amount of carbs, maybe. I'm no expert, but it's not a dish I expected to be served over rice. Damn filling, though. I can say that much.

Pretty good flavor too. And cheap, oh so cheap. The place itself is nice on the inside. Yeah, I'll be back.

rice-n-roll

We've talked before about my second favorite parking garage restaurant. Rice-n-roll is the #1 favorite. Best place! Parking garage food doesn't get much better.

Salmon teriyaki bento lunch. a bunch of stuff for ~$8

It's got my two favorite things: cheap and tasty. And healthy. Which is three things, but who's counting? You can order individual rolls and stuff, but I usually go for the bento. You get to choose one of three or four main dishes and one of three or four sushi rolls. They all come with edamame and miso soup.

The salmon is an extra buck. You can get a bento for about seven dollars. I will not complain. See, this is me being happy about that.

Spicy Tuna roll. it's not top notch, but I think tasty

Full disclosure time. Not everybody likes it. There's at least one person in the office who claims to have had a bad experience. Resulting stomach trouble was implied. I, myself, have had no problems.

I have to admit, it's questionable if RnR should be considered parking garage food or not. The building that houses it is an office building, not a dedicated parking structure. But if you look closely, the only entrance is in the parking garage. I think it counts.

That entrance was designed for cars, not people

[where: 214 Madison St, Seattle, WA 98104]

"sweet potato scramble" or "crap in a pan"?

When you go through the fridge some lazy sunday morning, and chuck everything you find there in to a pan, is that cooking? It is if you call it "sweet potato scramble".

sweet potato scramble

Actually, no. It looks gross. It was gross. I felt gross afterward. Rakka was right, it was "crap in a pan".

I should, maybe, think these things through a little better.