Last night, I met up with my foodie friend – Nicole, Lan, and Missy – for a little culinary tour of Chinatown. Nicole, our guide on this trek, had us hopping from one place to the next, covering four different places in which we sampled about a dozen different dishes…
We met at The Pie Shoppe, a tiny place that offers a variety of pies both sweet and savory. On this night, only half an hour away from closing, they were out of savory options so we settled for (and by settled, I mean devoured) two of the sweet pies: apple-rhubarb and chocolate pecan. I can’t fairly judge a fruit pie without ice cream so I won’t weigh in on the apple-rhubarb, but that chocolate-pecan pie was outstanding on its own. I was tempted to try the salted honey pie but Nicole had to remind me to pace myself. This, after all, was a marathon.
From there, we headed one block over to a place called Oyster Express that offered about a dozen varieties of oysters on the shell in addition to a number of other menu items. But, come on! The place is called Oyster Express! So we ordered two dozen assorted raw oysters. They were all excellent. Akemi, who had to beg off because she was feeling under the weather, would have loved it.
One block over and two blocks down, we hit Besties, a restaurant specializing in sausages.
We ordered a number of items and shared. Among them:
For me, the highlight of this stop was the venison and blueberry sausage (that, for some reason, I failed to snap). They were out of the intriguing sounding Butter Chicken sausage, so I’ll definitely have to make a return visit.
From there, it was one block over, three blocks up (through the downtown east side’s more colourful area), and around the corner to the Dunleavy Snack Bar. At this point, Lan was tapped out and declared himself stuffed. BUT that didn’t stop him from having some of the bimbimbap – and later, finishing it off when the waiter asked/threatened to take the plate away…
We didn’t order dessert, but only because we’d already had some at the start of our tour.
Thanks to Nicole for organizing and Lan and Missy batting clean-up on those fries and rice.
Next up, braise and bourbon at my place!
Continuing our Stargate: Atlantis re-watch with…The Shrine.
Our viewing of this fan favorite episode kicked off with this out-of-left-field exchange:
Akemi: “Teyla is weird name. Like fixing clothes.”
Me: “No. That’s TAI-LOR.”
Akemi (clearly disappointed): “Oh.”
This episode reinforced David Hewlitt’s talents as an actor: “McKay is a good actor.”
And also reinforced how pretty Jewel Staite is: “Jewel is very cute, don’t you think so?” Hmmm. Is this a trick question?
Akemi was also delighted to see actor Jason Momoa get a few more lines than his average: “Happy to see handsome guy speak a little more than usual.”
She loved the night time establisher of Atlantis all lit up: “Beautiful! Like Shanghai or Hong Kong.”
But found the lighting in the famed pier scene a little “too dramatic”. As for the gorgeous night time setting: “Nice scene for young couple but instead two middle-aged guys.”
Again, high marks to Mark Savela and the VFX team: “I liked the insect coming out. It looked really real!.”
But the surgery scene – moreover, the prospect of the scene – made her squeamish.
In the end though: “I found it sad from the get-go. Very sad episode but happy ending – which I like!”
Today’s entry is dedicated to Denise McInerney. Condolences on the passing of your beloved Jeter.
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