Week 2: eating on the street

Today my friend Teresa and I went to Queen Anne farmer's market to do our on the street eating. There were many potential choices for us there. But we chose to eat at "where ya at Matt?". This street truck is known in Seattle for it's Cajun influence cuisine. Teresa got a small bowl of gumbo, and I had a fried oyster po boy. It was delicious, and I run hot and cold on oysters. The bread was fresh, the fried oysters were tender, and there was a good amount of salad vegetables on it mixed with a tasty mayonnaise sauce. There were so many things on their menu I want to try. I definitely will go back to "where ya at, Matt?"

We also had homeade draft ginger beer from a local vendor, and we shared a dessert crepe at Gina's place at the market. It was a peanut butter, banana and raspberry jam crepe. Delicious! I left the market with some fresh mozzarella and bacon.

On another note earlier this week I went to a vegan bar called highline for a birthday party. They had great vegan cake, but I tried vegan poutine out of curiosity. Let's just say poutine should not be vegetarian!

Best of the. 2010-2011 TV season- Best competive Reality show

Here are the best in competive reality television.

Runner's up

The amazing race After many season of the amazing race a team made up of two women finally one! And then on the next season it happened again. Unfortunately the Alk star season didn't fly ( all star season's rarely do). The teams were too nice and there wasn't a villain that you love to hate. It was a good season for Amazing race but not a great one.

Top chef top chef is it's own industry now with top chef masters and top chef:just dessert. Both are entertaining but neither lives up to the original show. This year top chef did the all star thing. They brought back a lot of my favorites, but ultimately the whole season seemed to be about the redemption of Richard who was never one of my favorite chefs.

Survivor the last two seasons were kind of lacking in terms of great character, but watching Boston rob do what should have been impossible and finally win Survivor made for some pretty great TV.

Project runway project runway would have been the runaway winner if it weren't for one thing. The shoe brought us one of the greatest characters of reality tv with HIV positive and gay Mondo. He was also one of the best designers the show has ever seen. But then they went and ruined it by giving the win to evil Gretchen and her ready to wear forest ranger outfits! Sorry project runway but with your finale you ruined a great season.


The winner is
rupaul's Drag Race The queens weren't as great of characters as the ones in season 2. But the series continued to wear it's campy heart on it's sleeve while taking light hearted looks at issues such as gays in the military. The episode in which the queens dressed straight athletes as drag queens goes down as one of the best episodes of any TV show this season.

Street food week one and the sixth state

Today I started week one of my street food adventures with a trip to my favorite food truck so far, marination. I ordered my regulars--a pulled pork slider. Their pork is so juicy and spiced just right. Only problem was that mine was piled so high that the bread and a lot of the veggies toppled over onto the ground. :). I was more successful with my kimchi quesadilla which is the perfect mix of pork cheese kimchi and spicy sauce. It sounds a bit odd, but it is more than a bit delicious.

So on another note this gay pride weekend is definitely one to celebrate with New York becoming the sixth state to allow gay marriage. It doubled the amount of people in this country who can have a legal same sex marriage. More remarkably is that it happened in a republican controlled state senate thanks to the votes of four republican senators. This is the kind of thing that shows that change is really happening. It's a remarkable victory. I only hope the 7th, 8th, 9th state and so on will soon follow. Hopefully it will happen on the west coast soon. Happy Pride weekend to one and all!

What I had for dinner: courtesy of Martha Stewart.

So I decided this summer to go through my Martha Stewart magazines and books to cook some of the recipes I skimmed over, salivates, but never cooked. Tonight was my first night, and I made: Chicken Koftas with Cucumbers and Yogurt! Basically it is a spicy chicken meatball in a pita with a cucumber yogurt sauce garnished with tomatoes and mint leaves. I thought I had overcooked the chicken in my haste to get them cooked through but the slight char gave the slickness an extra punch that made it more delicious. I also toasted the pita slightly which made it taste better, but not as easy to bend! It was delicious for a relaxed summer night!

The best in Television for the 2010-2011 season- Reality tv shows. Non- competitive

Now that the season is over I'll be talking about my favorites I will write about my favorites in Television over three blog posts. Tonight's army favorite in reality television.

The best in Reality Television- Non competitive
Honorable mentions
The A list: New York- Sure there were some obnoxious stereotypical gay guys on this, and a lot of it felt really staged. But my guilty conscience was entertained. (logo)
Kathy Griffin My life on the D-list- This was the last season of the show, and it had definitely run it's course, but it was always good for a few laughs. (bravo)
Million Dollar listing- this show has started to run it's course, but the new Josh was a welcome change over android Chad. And old Josh's coming out was touching if totally not surprising. No straight guys loves bubble baths and his grandmother that much!(bravo)

Million dollar matchmaker- something about this show didn't work in NYC but Patti the matchmaker kept the misbehavers in their place.

But the best Reality show- non competitive was
Season 25: Oprah behind the scenes

I've only just caught select episodes of Oprah winfrey's cultural milestone talk show, but season 25 is a can't miss. It shows how hard all these people work to make that show successful, and that you don't become as successful as Oprah Winfrey has without having a strong opinion or two. I will miss it when it ends.

The first day of summer. Last day of work. Celebrating with a pastry.

Yeah yeah today was the last day of work before summer break It went by. I'm happy to start summer vacation. Yes I celebrated by drinking lots of beer. But what I really want to talk about is my celebration pastry. This year because of the location job I have become familiar with one of seattle's culinary treasures--the salvadorian bakery. It is in funky awesome neighborhood in west Seattle called white center. I had been eating their pupusas and pineapple empanadas for special lunches throughout the school year. One day I was charming he lady behind the counter as I am prone to do, and asked her her favorite dessert pastry. She introduced me to the Maria Luisa de Leche pastry. Essentially it is a rectangle pastry that looks like a very blonde brownie. The consistency of the dough is a mix of brownie and shortbread. The taste of the cake is like a moist shortbread. But that's not all! It is filled with this delicious Creamy custard and dusted with cinnamon then chilled. It is best served cold! I'm not really a dessert peson, but this is one of the best sweet trees I've ever eaten! And I am so glad I bought one today!

Summer is here. Time to blog.

Summer is here so I am back to my neglected blog. I hope that it is going to be a fun exciting summer! I plan on doing a few things on my blog this summer. First, I am going to attempt to cook one or more Martha Stewart recipe a day and report about it. I decided to do this because I have so many of her magazines and books and I rarely make any recipes from them. So I am going to and report back on them. Second, I may display some of my own original writing for a project I plan to work on this summer. Third, I plan to go eat at a street vendor a week and report back on it here in Seattle. Im also thinking about going down to Portland to experience street food central! I will also write about moviestv, concerts, musics, vacation, politics and other things I like. It should be an exciting summer!