the Walrus and the Carpenter

 Great oyster bar in Seattle.  I love the sign, especially the font!  And the oysters were very good, too.

 Really cool chandelier.

 This gentleman was a very skilled oyster shucker.

Buckets of oysters on ice.

Love the open shelving with neatly stacked items.

 I liked this wall.

Ode to Summer Foods

Now that summer is officially over and it's cold and rainy over here, I've been dreaming about the delicious foods I had this summer.  Ok, some of these aren't exactly summer foods, but you get my drift. 

 Tomato caprese drenched in olive oil.  I miss you already.

Veggie lasagna.

Fried pork cutlets with pickled cabbage and spaetzle from Bratz in the U District in Seattle.  So good!

Morel mushrooms from the farmer's market.  They look very suspicious, but fry them in butter and they taste amazing!

In and Out. (We ate it in 108 degree Las Vegas heat.  That qualifies it as a summer food.)

 The best blueberry jam I've ever had comes from Pike Place.  Canter-Berry Farms.

 Iberian ham in Spain.

 Marinated potatoes and anchovies.

 Hooray for grilled summer vegetables!

 My husband smoked a brisket for the very first time this summer.  It was a little dry, but very delicious!  Isn't that what sauce is for?

Barcelona

Our very first stop in Spain was Barcelona.  This is an old area called the Barri Gotic.  Lots of narrow lanes and cobblestone.  It feels like a different world in here.

Pig legs at the outdoor Boqueria Market.  This store specializes in Iberian ham.  The black hoofed pigs are fed only acorns.

 The Boqueria (outdoor market)

 The Sagrada Familia.  Antoni Gaudi's famous church.  That's not renovations.  It's still being built today.

Front entrance

Inside the church.  It was very bright inside.  A nice change from all the dark, gothic cathedrals that pepper Spain. 

Another entrance to the Sagrada Familia.  When I first saw this on tv, I hated it.  But looking at it close up and personal, I appreciated the artistry.  And it's pretty awesome to look at it live and in the flesh.

Parc Guell.  Colorful park created by Gaudi that was packed with tourists.  You couldn't snap a photo without someone's head in it.  Here is the famous salamander/dragon thing that everyone wants a photo of. 

Parc Guell from the bookstore window.

Dinner at a ham shop.  The food in Spain was absolutely amazing.  Everything was marinated in delicious olive oil.  Strangely, the bread was surprisingly mediocre.  This was the case at almost every restaurant we went to.  They automatically brought it to your table as some sort of cover charge.  Sometimes they just brought crackers.  Since we couldn't mop up all the leftover olive oil with crackers, we just picked up our dishes and drank it. 

Madrid

We just got back from a trip to Spain.  Our last stop was in Madrid.  We spent one full day there.  My favorite place was the Mercado de San Miguel.  We stumbled on it while doing a Rick Steves' walk backwards through Madrid.

It's a marketplace with all sorts of ready to eat food.  Fruits, iberian ham, oysters, gazpacho and little sardine bruschettas.  You can even order a glass of wine and carry it around from shop to shop. 

 Pickled foods. 

My husband was excited about this cone of iberian ham.  Iberian ham bellotta comes from black hoofed pigs that are fed acorns.  Very delicious!

Fruits and vegetables.  And my husband.

The Counter (It's a burger joint)

I have to write about the delicious lunch I had a couple weeks ago.  I didn't have high hopes when we walked towards The Counter and saw their store sign.  Their font reminded me of a Kinkos.  But we had a groupon, so that's where we headed for lunch.

I loved the inside though.  Very clean, modern, lots of stainless steel.  But it was sunny, so I didn't feel cold.  We each got a form to fill out, so we could build our burger.  You get your choice of 1/3, 2/3, or a 1 lb burger meat.  You get four vegetable toppings, one sauce on the side and a whole lot of other toppings I never thought to put on a burger.  (eggs, mesclun greens, chili).

Both our burgers were delicious!  I opted for a standard burger, but with grilled pineapple.  It was amazing!  Grilled pineapple should be a standard burger condiment.  My husband got the chili burger with a fried egg on top.  Not my favorite, but objectively delicious.  The Counter gets two thumbs up!  We'll be back!

Odd Sign

I thought this sign was odd.  Made me laugh though.  At Tutta Bella in Seattle.

Sweet Treats

Amazing desserts from Belle Pastry in Bellevue, WA.  The chef studied in France and his croissants were voted the best by his peers!  This was supposed to be my once-in-a-great-while-special treat place, but it's quickly turning into a more frequent habit.  Everything there is good.  And I mean EVERYTHING!  Pictured above is the raspberry napoleon and a pear caramel tart mousse. Yum!

Persian Food

Check out this delicious Persian food we had at an office party tonight.  Some of us made the mistake of starving all day so we could eat more at dinner.  This totally backfired because our stomachs shrunk and couldn't accommodate very much.  Rookie mistake.