Mixing the Flavors of Japan and Italy in my Mouth

It's kind of odd but the Seattle Center has somehow become the location for nearly every cultural festival in the whole city. It's kind of boring to return to the same venue over and over but what can you do? 

I was duty bound to make an appearance at the Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival.

One fun interaction was checking out the JET Program table.

The Mariners had a booth and were giving away these amazing Ichiro bobbleheads. It hilariously looks nothing like the man, but that is an impressive stack of Gold Glove Awards.

Awesomely our Seattle Art Museum membership that we bought also covers admission to the Seattle Asian Art Museum. So we checked that out today.

Call me crazy but I think this looks like Joe Biden.

"Some/One, 2001

Stainless steel military dog tags, nickel-plated copper sheets, steel structure, glass fiber reinforced resin, rubber sheets

Do Ho Suh

Korean, born 1962

An assignment at the Rhode Island School of Design-to express identity through clothing-made the artist think about "my identity as a Korean in the United States." Recalling his two-year mandatory service in the Korean military, Suh built a garment out of thousands of dog tags, soldiers' IDs that reduce individual lives to a handful of letters and numbers. The sculpture, taking the shape of an Asian armor, embodies a recurring theme for Suh: the relationship of the individual to the larger society."

It's funny I've heard this "ID number dehumanizes you" thing numerous times and haven't really pondered it previously. Now that I'm a data guy, though, I think that I disagree with this line of thinking. Those letters and numbers may look like nothing to the average eye but I know that they are a key. It's a long string of characters because it's meant to be unique. It achieves a level of uniqueness that your name cannot. And because it is unique it can be the key that ties all the information about your life together. Sort of like how your DNA sequence shouldn't make you feel dehumanized. It is you and describes you in a very specific way.

We strolled through Volunteer Park and entered the Lake View Cemetery next door.

I don't want to be dead but this is a pretty nice place to be dead, I have to admit.

Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee are both buried here. We're really doing the Bruce Lee pilgrimage lately, having been to his favorite restaurant a few days ago.

We stopped for a dessert break at Nana’s Green Tea.

Lydia had undergone quite a transformation since I met her. I distinctly remember her telling me she didn't like rice at one point and now she's begging for green tea ice cream, red bean paste, and warabimochi parfaits.

We had dinner at Ristorante Paradiso, partially for the food and partially assuage my guilt for not eating at the local Kirland restaurants I've walked past one thousand times.

I went with the:

"Linguine tutto mare

prawns, scallops, clams, mussels over linguine pasta with white wine sauce"

Bruce Lee's Favorite Restaurant

I found a free self guided walking tour of Pioneer Square that we did today. It did involve some light running from hobos but was enjoyable.

We learned some history of the above lands that dovetailed nicely with our experiences in the Seattle Underground.

Tai Tung Restaurant in the International District had quite a reputation as Bruce Lee's favorite eatery and Seattle's oldest Chinese restaurant in continuous operation. Things started off well with a giant mural of Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the building's exterior.

It was opened in 1935.

As soon as we were seated we were given a pot of tea on the house. This small gesture gave me major nostalgia for a place called the Golden Dragon that I used to go to as a kid in Springfield that also would give you free tea. It's my first memory of drinking tea and I thought it was super cool and exotic. I realized that without me really noticing that Chinese-American actual sit down restaurants have sort of died out, and all that remains is take-out joints. I already like this place a lot and I haven't even tried the food.

The crab rangoon was exotic looking. They must be homemade.

Bruce has a regular table in the back of the restaurant, I guess because he didn't want anyone sitting behind him. Dramatic.

I guess depending on your definition of "soon" this fortune is for once not really true. We're grounded until his baby highness arrives.

Back at headquarters Lydia predicted baby Ernie's arrival date.

Der Zitronenknoten ist Köstlich

Today we stopped by the bakery/coffee shop Kaffeeklatsch. The scene I walked into was the most German place in America.

I was a big fan of the baked goods labeled in German only. Do you want some blechkuchen or do you want to get the eff out of my bakery? While ordering I went with the flow same as I would in Germany. I may google it afterwards but I'm not going to ask what it is while ordering like some kind of tourist. I have self respect.

There was some live German music being played including an accordion. And at many of the tables sat people speaking German. I was very impressed.