Explosive Donut

A few days ago I went to Burger King to try the new Quad Stacker, a burger whose description alone could cause a heart attack: four beef patties, four slices of cheese, and eight pieces of bacon. A few workmates came to provide moral support although no one else dared try the monster of a burger.

Although it sounded truly disgusting, it only tasted mildly so. Sure, it has four patties, but they weren’t that big. It was really like eatting two quarter pounders with cheese, plus a side of bacon. A large amount of food, but not really sickening (unlike the omelete breakfast sandwich that came out last year). I ate the burger pretty fast and didn’t really feel that bad afterwords. The only difference was that I felt really jumpy, like I had a quadruple cappuccino (which has happened). Maybe Burger King is pumping caffeine in to make it addictive.
Thanks Spencer for the picture!

After some buddies and I watched all of Upright Citizens Brigade Season 1, some of us walked down the street to Thai Tom. I’ve always noticed the constant huge line coming out the restaurant but assumed that they only went because there was a huge line the day before.
I was very very wrong. I got garlic beansprouts and fried tofu. Aweeeeesome. The place is like the soup nazi episode of Seinfeld except the cook is really nice.
The restaurant is really small. I doubt more than twenty people could fit at once. We were sitting at the bar watching the cook make food very quickly. Eric caught a little splatter from the stove, but he seemed to enjoy his soup. The Phad Thai looked sweet too.
They are not fooling around with the spicy. I usually get a 4 or 5 (out of five) because most of the places around here are too toned down (I suspect because they associate my whiteness with a low tolerance for spicy food). This was not one of those places. Wow. Spicy.
Info on CitySearch
Seattle PI review

Melody and I tried a new Korean Restaurant on University Ave called “Sunnie’s” last night. She had the beef bulgogi (the korean equivalent of general tso’s chicken – every korean place serves it). I had the longest thing on the menu – special rice cake with spicy sauce.
It was also the spiciest thing on the menu. The waitress even said, “Do you like spicy food?” I have to admit that only encouraged me more.
When the food came, my dish didn’t seem that hot. At first. After eating about a quarter of it, I had to slow down. About halfway through, the waitress stopped filling my glass with more water and just gave me the whole pitcher. With one quarter left to go, Melody was queueing up glasses of water. After finishing, it still took me ten minutes to cool off.
The dish was good but absurdly spicy. I think it’s only intended for dares and/or punishment. Melody’s food was good and not so spicy though, so the place wasn’t a house of pain for her. Well, unless you count having to watch me torture myself.

Melody and I just got back from dim sum at China Pearl in Boston Chinatown.
The food was pretty average except for one cart which was unapologetically cold. We did get there at 1:30 though, which is after the main rush.
Most of the food was good and we were seated fast. We got a calamari-ish dish and fried dumplings from the first cart. They tasted good but were at room temperature. We asked the roaming host to have it heated and he grudgingly did. He seemed to think warm food was too much to ask.
The rest of the food was good. The Siu mai, chives buns, and turnip cake was good but there wasn’t anything adventurous.
Melody rates it 1.5 siu mai (out of 4)

I made chocolate chip macadamia cookies on monday for my workmates. But of course I saved the biggest one for me. Delicious…

This is the closest restaurant to my work.

The cafeteria isn’t the most popular so this place gets pretty crowded during lunchtime. But I ate too much Easter candy and I’m eatting lunch at 2pm.
The food is pretty simple but good. I like the spicy chicken which comes with a salad and a crazy amount of rice. There’s also a ton of chicken so I rarely eat the whole thing.
They have no pretense of serving real Japanese food which bodes well with one of my coworkers. It’s clear the availability of cheesesticks make Acacia the only “Asian” restaurant he visits.

I started going to Cafe Allegro last weekend and it’s by far my favorite place to get a Cappuccino in Seattle (which is saying something).
I stumbled on the cafe while walking around Saturday. I was looking for a new cafe when I ran into some hooligans who were hanging out in an alleyway by a dumpster. Actually, one of them was standing in the dumpster. Another had a cape. He informed me that he was a superhero. I think my reply was “Awesome.” But across the alley was Cafe Allegro.
The cafe is really two rooms. The main cafe area is nice and bright. There’s an “upstairs” which is literally up three stairs (not sets of stairs) and is a bit more shaded. I think it used to be the smoking room before Seattle’s glorious ban, so now it’s just another room that tends to be quieter. The espresso has been very good the past two times I went there. The people working there have also been really friendly and quick too.
Allegro is the only place I don’t go to fill some reason. I go to Starbucks when I need some coffee early in the morning since they’re open first (or to put it in Seattle-speak: “I only go when they’re absolutely the only cafe open”). I go to Solstice when I don’t need to use my laptop (they are the one cafe in Seattle that doesn’t seem to have WiFi). I’ll go to Sureshot when it’s late (they seem to be open the latest).
But each of these places have issues too. Starbucks charges for WiFi (although you can steal it from across the street), the espresso is a bit burnt, and the Seattlite in me feels like an ass for going there. Solstice doesn’t have WiFi so if I need to get anything done I don’t go there. Sureshot doesn’t open until late and it’s really dark so I only go there when I’m out on the weekends.
But Allegro seems pretty well rounded. They’re open early and close late, so I can go before or after work or pretty much any time I want on the weekends. They’re very close to my apartment so it’s not a huge trek to go there. It’s very sunny and the music is nice, so I don’t even want to use headphones. There’s a good mix of students, professionals, and seniors there but everyone seems pretty cheery with each other. You won’t feel guilty for using a laptop there (and the wifi is excellent) but you won’t feel left out if you don’t have one. CitySearch also seems to consider it the best cafe in the U-District.
If you’ve ever been to Woodstar in Northampton, MA it feels like that, just older.
It’s a bit tricky to find Cafe Allegro though. Although it’s technically on University Ave, it’s really in an alley between the University and 15th Ave off of 42nd St.
Cafe Allegro (CitySearch)

Eric and I went to get dinner last night. We started pretty late and went to try “The Garlic Tree”, which was recommended to me for really spicy korean food (a personal favorite). I remembered a place with the same name near where I used to live, in Pike Market. Eric and i walked over to where I remembered it being, but it was some other restaurant. I figured I was one street off and tried to find it. That wasn’t working either, so I checked online. Citysearch seemed unable to point me to where it was and Yahoo told me it was off eastlake (a few miles away). I tried calling them and the phone line had been disconnected. At this point is was past 9PM and we decided we should find a different place if we wanted to eat dinner at all.
I’ve since looked up “The Garlic Tree” and found that it was where I thought it was. But I guess it didn’t do very well.
I had heard that there was a Little Saigon in Seattle, just up Jackson St. from Chinatown. Eric knew a good place there called Seven Stars Pepper (it’s tricky to say). I was happy to go some place that one of us knew existed and where it was.
We tried the “Fried Pork and Tofu with Spicy Tomato Sauce” (I like to order dishes with the longest names) and the “Szechuan Chicken” (which is a good call if you’re in a Szechuan restaurant). Both of the dishes were pretty good. The Fried Pork/Tofu dish was breaded and deep fried, I suspect heavily americanized. It was good, but I felt like I could have made a better choice. This is the sort of place you can’t order a bad dish, but some are certainly better than others. The Szechuan Chicken was really good – pan fried peppery chicken with onions. I was a bit disappointed on the spicyness level. For a Szechuanese restaurant named “Seven Stars Pepper” it was really mild. I suspect they saw two white guys and thought they should tone it down. We did show up at 9:30 though, so maybe that had something to do with it too.
I’ll definitely be going again and requesting more fire. After reading the Seattle PI review, it seems that there’s some specialties I’ll have to try too.
Seattle PI Review
Seattle Weekly Review
The Stranger Review