Only two good things have ever come from Pullman

As many of you may know I am a diehard Husky fan and along with that passion comes a dislike for anything from Pullman especially Cougars. However over the past 8 years or so I've come to find that only two good things have ever come from that horrible, horrible place; my beautiful wife Emi and Cougar Gold.

For anyone who has never tried Cougar Gold, seriously get over the WSU thing and get a can of the stuff. "Gold" is a good way to describe this awesome aged cheddar. The cheddar has a crystalized layer of goodness on the outside that comes with every bite. I think the cheddar is best enjoyed with crackers and it also makes a great present, just make sure you're there when they open up the can.

Emi's parents bought a few cans of Cougar Gold from Costco which supposedly has the best prices, since it can run upwards of $40 a can.

Cougar Gold bringing Huskies and Cougars together. At least the can isn't crimson and silver...

- Kyle

Dinner at Bai Pai

It seems every time one of the guys in my group of friends has a special occasion to celebrate we all meet at Bai Pai to share an amazing Thai family style meal. Seattle has some great Thai restaurants, but Bai Pai really stands out as one of the best. Bai Pai is located in Ravenna off of 65th and 25th.

This isn't your whole in the wall Thai restaurant off the Ave, but a fancier more refined type of establishment. Pert's dad is good friend's with the owner so we were lucky enough to pick his brain for tips on how to make some of our favorite dishes. We also found out that he started and used to own some of our other favorite Thai restaurants in Seattle: Mar Lai and Royal Palm. No wonder we love Bai Pai as well!

Spicy garlic green beans - one of our favorite dishes at Bai Pai and their best selling dish. The owner said the way he gets the green beans crispy, but keeps them fresh is by blanching and then quickly deep frying them before cooking them in a wok with the various ingredients.

The spicy garlic green beans, panang curry, along with our other favorite dish the Bai Pai Noodles (spicy wide rice noodles with Thai basil and chicken), and we also tried out the very flavorful Coriander Beef (sauteed with garlic coriander seed, honey soy sauce, over crispy rice noodles).

Chicken Panang Curry (we ordered everything with 3 stars which Pert and I really enjoyed, but for those of you who don't like too spicy I would recommend 1 or 2 stars, since Emi thought it was a little too hot)

The owner hooked us up with a complimentary dessert. The dessert was basically a sweet red bean rice with coconut milk drizzled over it.

Also thanks to my friend Kenny for the Bai Pai gift card that I had been saving since last year.

We highly recommend Bai Pai to anyone who loves good food and wants to try something off of the Ave. Even though the price is higher you'll quickly agree that the flavor, ambiance, and service is well worth it.

- Kyle

One Day's Wages

With the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, there are many organizations and groups dedicating themselves to helping with relief efforts. Our best friend, Pert Lin, is involved in an amazing organization called One Day's Wages. One Day's Wages has partnered with World Concern who has an excellent reputation for their humanitarian work and a strong presence in Haiti. Their office in Port Au Prince is still standing and they are engaged in emergency relief right now.

Please help with the relief efforts and donate to this important cause. The link to do so is: http://www.onedayswages.org/donate/org/haiti-emergency-relief-fund.

We encourage you all to check out the website on One Day's Wages to find out how they are helping to fight extreme global poverty and issues surrounding global poverty in other areas such as fighting human trafficking, providing clean drinking water, and helping people develop skills to support themselves - one day's wage at a time.

We are so fortunate to be able to have food on our table every night (and good food, too--good enough to blog about...). Situations like this further highlight the blessings in our life. It is my hope that we can help, in even a little way, to ensure that others are able to have nourishment and clean water for them and their families. Thanks for your support and concern.

-Emi

Staycation Stop #2: Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream

The second place on my list of places to visit during our staycation was the Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream headquarters in Maltby, WA. Emi and I have probably been their best customers over the past two years. We always enjoy a scoop or two of their coconut or lemon custard ice cream after dinner at Emi's parent's house. After our wedding last year we had 50 or so relatives over for a BBQ and served basically every flavor they have to all of our guests.

Even if you've never heard of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream you may have already tried it without even knowing. They serve Snoqualmie Gourmet at fancy restaurants across Seattle from The Waterfront Grill to Ponti. Also they make ice cream for multiple brands like Three Greek Gods and the ice cream mix for Mollie Moon's. They sell Snoqualmie ice cream at Metropolitan Market, Central Market, and along with some QFC's and Safeway's. Learn more about Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream by visiting their website.

Now back to the tour. I emailed Snoqualmie to see if they gave tours and found out they did, but I had to have a minimum of ten people to go with me. Luckily I was able to get enough people together last minute for all of us to get a tour of the place. They are located about 5 minutes outside of Woodinville in Maltby. The tour is only $6 a person and includes a 30 min tour of the factory where you learn all about their sustainable business that focuses on community, environment, and their consumers. Even better, at the end of the tour you get a scoop of ice cream.

They sell 13 different flavors of ice cream, but have the capabilities to make over 600 different flavors. We highly recommend the tour for anyone with family or friends from out of town who want to have a fun truly local experience.

The Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream storefront. Even if you don't go on the tour, make a trip out to Maltby to try some of their fun flavors that you can't find in the grocery store. I saw a black licorice (yuck), lime mojito, and toasted coconut among the flavors onsite that I've never seen in grocery stores.

The owner of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream. He said they grew from 10,000 pints to over 500,000 pints of ice cream sold a year. He gave us the tour of the factory and taught our group a lot about how ice cream is made along with some fun stories behind some of their flavor creations. Fun fact: coconut is their best selling ice cream and also my favorite.

Becca, Emi, and Ali before the tour inside of the deli where you can buy homemade soups and sandwiches with of course a scoop of ice cream.

Pert with his Neopolitan ice cream in a waffle cone.

Greyson picking at his butt and I'm not sure what flavor he chose, but I'm sure it was good.

Becca and Emi got the caramel gingersnap ice cream. The story is that a general manager in Safeway from Bellingham called in a favor to the owner of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream because his wife had a craving for gingersnaps and caramel. So they whipped up the new flavor of ice cream and loved it so much they mass produced it and turned it into their 13th flavor to be sold in stores. It was honestly amazing, so creamy and sweet. We should have bought a pint to take home!

The company's focus is on having the best and highest quality ingredients and they really do come out in the final product.

Besides family and friends my favorite part of the holidays is the fact that eggnog is back for a few months. I consume everything eggnog from eggnog with Sprite and rum to eggnog cupcakes at Cupcake Royale to my new favorite eggnog ice cream. It was freaking amazing. The owner said they added Makers Mark, Captain Morgan's, and cognac among other things to the eggnog ice cream. Later that day after closing he was going to go to the liquor store to buy $1,000 worth of alcohol so that everyone in the store could taste test and come up with new ideas for future ice cream flavors. I wish we could have stayed for that!

We had a great time on the tour and I wanted to thank everyone who was able to come out for the last minute trip making it all possible for Emi and I. Hopefully everyone had as great of a time as we did and we'll have to do it again.

- Kyle

Staycation Stop #1 - The Loft

Emi and I enjoyed a week long staycation relaxing, spending time with friends, and of course by eating. One of the things we wanted to do was to eat at some fun places that we could then blog about. The Loft in downtown Edmonds is a swanky little wine bar with great small dishes that we wanted to visit with friends. We've been there a few times for a late night drink, but never for food.

Our friend Pert had a coupon for $25 off when you spend $50 or more on food, so even though we had just finished dinner at Emi's parent's house, we decided to split $50+ of food between our small group.

The Loft makes homemade real pineapple infused vodka so we had to try one. It tasted like pineapple juice, definitely dangerous.

My new favorite: truffle fries. Boka (connected to Hotel 1000 downtown) has some good ones as well. Nothing is better than some salty, greasy, truffle oil infused french fries for a late night snack. We also enjoyed the spicy pancetta pesto prawns. These were my two favorite dishes of the night.

We ordered the Quattro Fromage to snack on with our drinks: multiple types of cheese including brie, cheddar, goat and bleu cheese, prosciutto, figs, balsamic honey syrup, and almonds.

Emi's favorite dish of the night the Roasted Apple and Mascarpone Ravioli. The ravioli came with crispy pancetta, Granny Smith apples, sauteed greens and citrus fennel butter.

The best tiramisu I've ever had. It was rich, creamy, and the caramel was a great sweet addition to the dish. Even though we were stuffed we all enjoyed this dessert.

White chocolate creme brulee. None of us have had white chocolate creme brulee. Instead of a vanilla or simple dark chocolate creme brulee, this what I imagine a great combination of the two would taste like.

From the small dishes to the ravioli to the desserts we really enjoyed our late night dinner at The Loft and highly recommend the place to everyone. We usually sit upstairs because it's more private, but there's also a cool back patio area that is covered and a great place to sit when the weather is warmer. Also after dinner you can head across the street to a Very Taki Tiki Bar for a good time and some cheap beers.

- Kyle

Eating our way through the Holidays

Like most people, Emi and I gained a few pounds over the holidays. We still made it into the gym a few times, but we just couldn't overcome all of the calories we consumed.

Food is always an important part of our lives, but gets elevated to an even higher level during the holidays. Food is what brings all of our families together and I thought some of the meals we enjoyed over Christmas and New Year's should be shared with all of you as well.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Steve made the lobster in black bean sauce with pork dish for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Coconut Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream with homemade ginger snap cookies. I'll have a post soon about our tour of the Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream plant.

Christmas Day

We barely had 24 hours to recover from our lobster feast before Christmas dinner at my parents house. Every year my parents have around 25 people over for dinner and everyone leaves stuffed.

Emi's second attempt at Tom Douglas's brussel sprouts and pork belly dish.

Steve impressed everyone by roasting up a Christmas goose for the meal. Goose is much fattier than chicken and the taste is similar to duck.

Carving up the prime rib

Spiral glazed ham

The rest of the spread

Blueberry, lemon, and pumpkin pie for dessert

New Year's Day

Every year we go to my grandparents house in Tacoma to celebrate New Year's which is a very important holiday for Japanese Americans. My mom and aunt go over to my grandparent's the night before New Year's to help my grandmother cook and prep for the huge feast that is served the next day. Usually my grandparents host up to 50 people throughout the day. I usually eat, watch the Rose Bowl, eat some more, and then take a nap. It's a pretty awesome day.

Every food has a special meaning and it's good luck to try everything.

Happy New Year to everyone and here's to another year of good eats. Now it's time to hit the gym.

- Kyle

Katz's Deli Sandwiches

Ahh, the first blog post of 2010...! I thought I'd start it off with a bang and spend a couple of posts reminiscing about some of the fabulous food-related presents we received during the holidays. People sure know the key to our hearts! We got some amazing spices and hot chocolate, gourmet teas and coffees, a very generous gift certificate to our favorite restaurant, Palisades, a fabulous 10 course Chinese meal with our family friends, chocolates, our favorite caramel chex mix, cookbooks, and so much more...phew, we are spoiled!

My very good family friends, Fred and Michele Schwarzbach and their daughter Betsy, live in the heart of NYC. Our families go way back to when we lived in Pullman (cough, cough--I hate admitting that!). We all found a better life by moving to bigger and better cities and they now live in one of the world's food capitals. Both of our families have always had a love of food in common. I remember I used to look forward to Betsy's birthday every year because Michele would slave away to make a gourmet, beautiful birthday cake that was way before Ace of Cakes' day and would easily be worthy of the foodnetwork or Martha Stewart magazine!

When I first got hired for my job and had to go to New Jersey for training, I spent several of the weekends visiting them in the city. They took me to all of the best restaurants and cafes--I hope to go back again soon to relive the delicious experience! One of the places they took me to was Katz's Deli. This is the infamous place where Harry and Sally ate and Meg Ryan had her famous "moment"...

Fred and Michele sent my family a gift basket from Katz and we had some amazing sandwiches with the fresh baked rye bread, cheese and salami. Mmmm, my mouth is watering remembering this great lunch.

Here it is! We added some fresh tomatoes, Swiss cheese, olives, lettuce, and a sweet pickle.

A key to every great sandwich is this great raspberry honey mustard. It adds a little sweetness and spice. It is also great when used in homemade salad dressings!

Thank you Fred and Michele for the amazing food and we hope to see you all soon. My next post will be about the wonderful 10 course Chinese meal we had last night!

Happy Eating,

Emi