[Seattle 09.09] pike's market

Almost every time we went to Seattle we visited the Pike Place Market, and this time it was no exception.



As usual, there were the fun fishermen, fun shops, stands, and foods, and fun street performers. Ahhh I love this place.


Fresh veggies.


Pretty flowers.

Seeing people holding bouquets of flowers made me happy.

We walked inside the market, and then headed out onto the outer street, looked at the unique shops, and ate yummy snacks. Here were some of my favorites:


Hmm... the simple and delicious pork and curry beef buns.


Cheese!


Piroshky's pastries.


Yumminess.

After the light lunch we headed down where we could see the port.




Pike's Market was awesome.

[Seattle 09.09] espresso vivace

After the Victrola party we headed out to Espresso Vivace, and everyone knows this is one of my favorite spots in Seattle.


And of course there was an awesome barista.

Happy and friendly, confident, efficient, and very skilled.


Cappuccino. John already took a sip before I took a picture. Yum.


Macchiato. Yum.

On the second round John got an espresso and I got a small iced Americano. Yum.

Yummers, yummers, yummers!


It was a quiet evening, and oh so pleasant pleasant and comforting.

I love Vivace!

Oh, and on our way back to the hotel I made John act "against the law"...


A total rebel! hahahahaha.

[Seattle 09.09] latte art jam at victrola

Victrola hosted a latte art jam that Saturday night.


Lots of people showed up, and there was a lot of beer.


Fun stuff.


It was a beautiful night.

[Seattle 09.09] crepe and stinky tofu

There's a little crepe place outside of the Convention Center. John and I had seen it many times but never tried it until this time.


Cute girls are a bonus.


Lots of choices.


We got a savory one.

It had ham, Swiss cheese, spinach, herb butter, and white sauce. Simple, quick, and good.

How come we only got one? you ask. It was because we were heading down to the International District to have some Taiwanese food! When we were at Kappo, the lovely server lady told us about a Taiwanese food place called "Henry's Bento." We decided to give it a try.


We had the soy sauce eggs for appetizer.


Beef noodle soup with "shaved" noodles.


Stinky tofu.

They were tasty!

Crepe and stinky tofu for lunch was a good thing.

[Seattle 09.09] Chiso Kappo

Another big event for us in Seattle this time was to visit Chiso Kappo. John made a reservation for us, and it was one of the best dinners EVER.

We were served omakase style, and we got to talk to Chef Taichi, who was simply talented and amazing.

All the dishes served that day were delicious. I believe they came to us in a particular order so we could taste enjoy each of them competely (if what I'm describing actually make sense.) Chef Taichi even got John to try something he had never thought of having before!

We were served many dishes (and different sake), and I took too many photos. I loved all of them, but I'm just going to post a few here. You can check out the rest on our flickr page and see everything we had.

Chef Taichi started us off with a spinach and ikura. Delicious already. And here are some of the dishes we had that evening:


Super fresh small oysters. I think John actually enjoyed them very much!


Chef Taichi showing us how to enjoy the soup in the clay "teapot."


Preparing one of the most delicious dishes ever...

Chef Taichi would explain each of the dishes to us in detail, which I totally love!


... mushrooms, clams, scallops, and magic.


Yes it was a fishhead, and yes that was a fish eyeball. It was cooked in a special broth for a long time. Wow.


And then we got nigiri.

Chef Taichi's skills were amazing. The nigiri we had were very well crafted, the flavors were balanced, and the mouth feel and flavors were amazing.


After sushi we had some green tea. I believe it was sencha.


Almond custard for dessert.

The almond custard had the most amazing texture. It was perfect to end the meal with a delicate and carefully prepared treat.

I was in love.


Cheers and bravo to Chef Taichi Kitamura!

[Seattle 09.09] Coffee Fest funness

One of the main purposes for our trip to Seattle this time was to attend Coffee Fest. John and I used to go almost every year before we opened up the shop. I really enjoyed checking out new products, meeting with the people that we usually only talked on the phone with, and all the fun stuff that Coffee Fest has to offer.

This year it was great, too!


We tasted awesome gelato and pastries.


Mr. Schomer working behind the Synesso.

Mark at Synesso was kind enough to bring us parts for our Cyncra. Thanks Mark!


And we were fortunate enough to have David make us an espresso and a macchiato!


We also tested the cup/pitcher rinser. I want one.


Hmm... matcha.


I also watched the latte art competition...


... with the cool judges.


We also watched the NWRBC. Awesome.

ANd of course there were a lot of goodies that we got. My favorite were the Synesso pins and bottle opener. They were so cool. I even got some with Synesso's old logo on! Now that I think of it, I probably should have grabbed more of those.

[Seattle 09.09] first night and serious pie

We flew in to Seattle-Tacoma late afternoon, and took Metro bus 194, heading toward downtown Seattle.


The last stop of the bus was the downtown terminal, which was new to us. It was conveniently located (just a couple blocks above the Convention Center.


We checked in to the 6th Avenue Inn.

There were a few conventions going on that weekend, and a lot of people were in town. We saw a LOT of Japanese people.

We relaxed for a little whie, and headed out to explore Belltown.

It seemed like a lot of things had changed... some new shops opened up, and some closed.

We then decided to go to Serious Pie for dinner. We had seen it many time in the past, with it being really close to the hotel and all. We had to wait for a little white before we were seated, but I'm glad we went in.


Serious Pie.


Meat and cheese aging(?) and storage behind the counter.


Watching pizza dough being "stretched."

When we were finally seated, we sat by the window, which I really liked.


The space was pretty dark and "tight." Reminded me of some Japanese bars.



I got the "roasted mushrooms, truffle cheese," and John got the "cherry bomb peppers, sweet fennel sausage" pizza. Yum.


Gotta have beer with pizza. We both had the "pike kilt lifter" that was recommended by our server.

I like the Serious Pie logo.

And then it was dessert time.


"cannoli, ricotta, huckleberry." I really like the berries.


"spiced olive oil cake, poached apple sabayon." It was probably just me, but the cake had corn bread texture. Interesting.

Serious Pie it was.