Mead and Dumplings

Today we took Ernie the party animal out on the town.

He did some pregaming at home first.

We were strolling around Fremont, Seattle and I decided that this was going to be the last time I walked passed the cool signs for Mr. B's Meadery without venturing inside.

These people do not play. They had about 400 flavors to try.

Ernie was mesmerized by the some trellis stuff overhead.

I stay up with you all night every night, feeding you every two hours and rocking you to sleep, catering to your every whim, but I have yet to get the reception you give to a ceiling fan. No, that's cool.

This flavor had some wild ingredients. I had to look up "lapsang souchong" and it turns out it "is a black tea consisting of Camellia sinensis leaves that may be smoke-dried over a pinewood fire."

We stopped for some food of the people at Dumpling Tzar.

Cool kids gonna cool.

Seattle Chili

My people come from the plains of Springfield, Illinois. It is a land of chili. Food out here is pretty good but they don't seem to do some things very well: diner food, bbq, and chili.

Mike's Chili Parlor in Ballard initially caught my eye because of its unique building. It's sort of the Mayan temple Tikal of chili structures.

The place is celebrating its 100th anniversary, starting out as a chili cart that catered to fishermen and lumber workers in the area. They moved into their current location in 1939.

The menu was very... chili forward, let's say.

I ordered a very large bowl of chili and topped it with cheese, onions, and jalapeños. I'm sort of a chili connoisseur and this was not my favorite chili in the world, but it is my favorite chili in Seattle. 

I did some sunglass shopping at Bellevue Square but couldn't find anything I liked. Ballin' ain't easy.

Persimmons are a fun feature of winter produce. Luckily Asian markets seem to be fans, as they even had multiple varieties of persimmons that I was excited to explore. I never even heard of the hachiya variety before.

I betrayed Din Tai Fung and tried a pretty decent dumpling joint: Supreme Dumplings.

My favorite dish were these tan tan noodles.

Din Tai Fung with the Fam

I was excited to share with my parents one of my favorite restaurants in the Seattle area: Din Tai Fung.

They were pretty good sports, and let me order delicious dumplings for the table.

I got weird and ordered one kind that had a crab filling, and was amused to find a little friend in the steamer.

Success!