So one of the things we did while I was visiting Seattle was go out to a kid-friendly restaurant, and at Chiang's Gourmet (which is quite tasty, and has also passed muster with Margaret's father), I ran across that fabled phenomenon of dual menus: American menu, and their much more interesting Chinese menu ("Authentic food like you saw in China") which thankfully came with English descriptions. Their homemade noodles were very tender (a la the difference between fresh and dried pasta), like this giant bowl of homemade noodles with beef and veggies, recommended by Margaret's dad and ordered by her husband (and sampled by us -- score!)
One of the dishes which truly awed Margaret and myself (yes, this was from the Chinese menu) was a bowl of Five Star Spicy Hot Chicken, which honestly literally looked like and entire bowl of Szechuan chili peppers (what chicken? we didn't see any chicken in that bowl when we walked by!)
Another thing which amused us was the reaction of their baby, perfectly captured in this shot: "But Mommy, I want grown up food, not baby food!" heh. Now Margaret makes her baby really good food from scratch (ex: curried chicken, garlic beans, etc. all pureed and adjusted for baby's palate, of course) -- and after reading reading the ingredients in some commercial baby food last night I can see why: additives galore! -- but I guess textural food does LOOK way more interesting than various purees. You can't blame the little guy, can ya?
However, since cutiepie only has 2 bottom teeth, he is not yet past the puree stage. So his attempt to reach this variation on dan dan noodles (described as "Home Made Noodles, Ground Pork & Diced Drybean Curd w/Bean Paste Sauce" -- and did we forget to mention the chilies? why yes we did) was foiled by all of the adults. I mean, we would have let him try a piece of the soft, fresh, noodles of there weren't chilies involved. Sorry, kiddo.
And did I mention that all of the portions were GIGANTIC? That deep bowl of noodles was enormous. All the spoons you see wedged in the photos are BIG serving spoons, not tablespoons. Consider that after we finished eating, the spicy noddles still filled a takeout container to the brim, and THIS dish was an appetizer (!) portion. Say what?!
I ordered it because it sounded intriguing ("Chicken w/Ground Green Beans Sheets" -- oh yeah, and with mustard oil) and it was tasty, but we simply ran out of room to eat any more!
And what is a trip to another city with a stop at a yarn store? (Buwahahaha!) Little Knits, whose website is annoying but whose store is quite pleasant, provided entertaining browsing, where Margaret stalwartly refused all temptation, and I manege to restrain myself to only 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (only $6 total!!) which I am currently knitting up for baby Olivia. I am making Sublime Yarns' Little Sailor Coat in Coral Sunset, which I am using US4s to knit, in order to get the correct gauge.
During my trip, I managed to finish Olivia's second sweater, the unnecessarily complicated but still tres cute Little Daisy Cardigan in Marks and Kattens Pacific cotton yarn, a discontinued yarn which I bought from a now defunct LYS, which goes to show you how long it's been in my stash. (I still have 3-4 more balls though!)
I find that I like British designs but their instructions are infuriating (witness: Debbie Bliss). As they say, 2 countries separated by a common language. But really, the Sublime Yarn baby designs are adorable. And I am still coasting on my vacation bliss, so I can't even get too aggravated about that at the moment.
However, lunch time is now OVAH. Ciao!
One of the dishes which truly awed Margaret and myself (yes, this was from the Chinese menu) was a bowl of Five Star Spicy Hot Chicken, which honestly literally looked like and entire bowl of Szechuan chili peppers (what chicken? we didn't see any chicken in that bowl when we walked by!)
Another thing which amused us was the reaction of their baby, perfectly captured in this shot: "But Mommy, I want grown up food, not baby food!" heh. Now Margaret makes her baby really good food from scratch (ex: curried chicken, garlic beans, etc. all pureed and adjusted for baby's palate, of course) -- and after reading reading the ingredients in some commercial baby food last night I can see why: additives galore! -- but I guess textural food does LOOK way more interesting than various purees. You can't blame the little guy, can ya?
However, since cutiepie only has 2 bottom teeth, he is not yet past the puree stage. So his attempt to reach this variation on dan dan noodles (described as "Home Made Noodles, Ground Pork & Diced Drybean Curd w/Bean Paste Sauce" -- and did we forget to mention the chilies? why yes we did) was foiled by all of the adults. I mean, we would have let him try a piece of the soft, fresh, noodles of there weren't chilies involved. Sorry, kiddo.
And did I mention that all of the portions were GIGANTIC? That deep bowl of noodles was enormous. All the spoons you see wedged in the photos are BIG serving spoons, not tablespoons. Consider that after we finished eating, the spicy noddles still filled a takeout container to the brim, and THIS dish was an appetizer (!) portion. Say what?!I ordered it because it sounded intriguing ("Chicken w/Ground Green Beans Sheets" -- oh yeah, and with mustard oil) and it was tasty, but we simply ran out of room to eat any more!
And what is a trip to another city with a stop at a yarn store? (Buwahahaha!) Little Knits, whose website is annoying but whose store is quite pleasant, provided entertaining browsing, where Margaret stalwartly refused all temptation, and I manege to restrain myself to only 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (only $6 total!!) which I am currently knitting up for baby Olivia. I am making Sublime Yarns' Little Sailor Coat in Coral Sunset, which I am using US4s to knit, in order to get the correct gauge.
During my trip, I managed to finish Olivia's second sweater, the unnecessarily complicated but still tres cute Little Daisy Cardigan in Marks and Kattens Pacific cotton yarn, a discontinued yarn which I bought from a now defunct LYS, which goes to show you how long it's been in my stash. (I still have 3-4 more balls though!) I find that I like British designs but their instructions are infuriating (witness: Debbie Bliss). As they say, 2 countries separated by a common language. But really, the Sublime Yarn baby designs are adorable. And I am still coasting on my vacation bliss, so I can't even get too aggravated about that at the moment.
However, lunch time is now OVAH. Ciao!
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