{A Cactus in Seattle}

Which is actually a not-so-creative play on words for Cactus, the restaurant, one of my must visit destinations on a trip to the beautiful northwest. Thankfully, my mom enjoys a trip to this restaurant as much as I do, which makes it a tradition I look forward to every time I fly home.

We stopped in for lunch on an overcast day, after circling forever for a parking spot (damn you Kirkland!). Thankfully we were seated right away since the hunger was in full force and I'm sure I had a crazy look in my eye. Chips and salsa for the table could not have come more quickly, and were warm! Mmm nom.

My one request while home for vacation was that we didn't eat any mexican food, considering the saturation of mexican restaurants in my neighborhood. I do live in Phoenix after all. BUT I gave myself a little wiggle room since Cactus is a mixture of mexican, southwestern and spanish cuisine...which is completely different. Plus look at the menu! Couldn't pass it up.

{Carnitas Yucatecas}

{seafood enchiladas}

The entrees, which we split, were ridiculously good. Good enough to eat multiple times a week, good. I also highly recommend the butternut squash enchiladas, tortilla soup, navajo bread, or any of the salads.

{Daily Dozen Doughnuts}

Important things on my mind today? The correct spelling of doughnut, or donut. That, and how on earth I'm going to convince my mom to send me a care package of well preserved mini doughnuts from Pike Place Market, to brighten my day.

If you live in Seattle, or any part of Washington for that matter, I highly suggest adding a trip to Pike Place to your weekend agenda. People visit Pike Place for the obvious reason of it being a pretty well known landmark, but the Daily Dozen Doughnut stand is a draw all on its own. It's the secret reason I go to Pike Place at all.

The Donut Robot and it's glorious creations have been pleasing Seattle locals & unsuspecting tourist since before I moved to Washington way back in the 90s. I remember coming to this stand with my dad, ordering a half dozen golden plain doughnuts, and melting into the incredible doughnuty flavor one bite at a time. Back then they seemed much larger.

This time, a morning-after new yea'rs eve excursion, these doughnuts put the wind back in my sails after a long night of fun. My mom and I took a trip to Pike Place in search of the minis, which was fantastically empty. We parked directly outside the market's stalls, leisurely walking along the cobblestone road en route to the stand.

With most of the vendor stalls closed, I didn't fully get to experience Pike Place like I wanted. The cool breeze was the same, as was the lingering smell of fish and the ocean, but I missed the large flower bouquets, honey sticks and bustle of locals stocking up on produce for the week while tourists snap photos of the tiniest details, wanting to remember each moment at this iconic site.

But, truthfully, I just wanted some doughnuts. 

The Seattle hangover cure: Coffee, doughnuts & fresh air. Quickly followed by a nap.

{Toppings Bar at Portage Bay Cafe}

Portage Bay Cafe is hands down my favorite breakfast restaurant in Seattle. It might even be my favorite breakfast restaurant in all of the U.S., besides the obvious fact that I haven't actually visited every breakfast restaurant in the states. That would be impossible.

Sometimes you just know that you and a restaurant are meant to share a long existence with one another. It gives you little hints, like self serve endless coffee, a menu filled with every single thing you could possible ever think you may want to eat for breakfast, and most importantly, a toppings bar.

They also leave an entire jar of fresh, homemade jam that just BEGS to be globbed on top of thick cut, warm wheat toast. Sometimes I think I only eat toast because it is merely a tool to get jam into my mouth. True story.

Jam:bread ratio is completely uneven. I could barely focus on my omelette when the server first brought it to me, having been counting down the minutes until I was given something other than my spoon to eat the jam. Because obviously eating jam with a spoon straight out of the jar wouldn't be lady like.

My beautiful mama accompanied me on this breakfast quest, since I knew I wouldn't be able to leave Seattle until I had been to Portage Bay. The wait was long, like usual, but at least they give you big mugs and lots of coffee to keep you company.

We ordered Lemon Curd French Toast, made with homemade challah bread, and an Italian Omelette, which comes with the restaurant's fantastic roasted organic potatoes. For real people, this place is un.believable. The photos do not do it justice.

The best part of ordering any kind of french toast/pancake option, is you earn your self a trip to Portage Bay's illustrious toppings bar. I've mentioned before my love of toppings, which is almost criminal to unleash on the restaurant. They ask you to "take all you want, but eat all you take", which is a challenge I'll gladly accept.  

Until we meet again Portage Bay, you'll always have my heart. 

Thank you for teaching me to eat like I give a damn.

{Francophile}

I seem to have stumbled on a brilliant theory. If I visit enough french-themed restaurants and shops, eat enough french pastries, read enough novels about the city of light, and wear enough navy blue & white stripes, I will suddenly become french. Which will hopefully cause me to fall asleep in Phoenix, and suddenly wake up in Paris one morning. Logical, right?

My dad & I stumbled on this bakery one day while we were out for coffee, just having perused Half Price Books for about an hour (our favorite). I vaguely remember passing by the doors to this bakery a dozen times while growing up, but back then it was a hole in the wall. It was crowded, full of loyal customers, but somehow hadn't been enticing enough to pull us in. 

Well apparently sometime in the last year, the bakery decided to seriously get there act together, absorb the space next to them, and do a complete overhaul. It's beautiful now! Space for seating, way more goodies in the glass cases, a full coffee bar, and double the loyal customers & fans. 

Of the two times I visited while in Seattle, this place was buzzing. Customers would leave by turning to squeeze through the door as others entered, families clustered around the mini bistro tables and there was always a line. Both times we had to fight for a place to sit, luckily stealing enough chairs so that one of us didn't have to stand.

I couldn't even dream up the pastries they offered. Jumbo croissants the size of my face, guava pockets, marionberry creme cheese croissants, flaky palmiers the size, quite literally, of my palm, apricot cream cheese brioche buns, cookies, loaves and loaves of bread, and pain au chocolat that begged to be eaten as a reminder of my time abroad. This place gave me decision anxiety, and those were only a fraction of the pastries. They also had desserts, crepes, sandwiches and salads. It made me dizzy.

You know a place is legit when they have several REAL yule logs just hanging out in their display case. No one would take the time to make several yule logs, unless they were confident the huge desserts were about to be bought up in a matter of hours. Which actually happened while we were there! Two customers decided this was the year of the yule, and snatched them up.

Also cool? They make authentic galette des rios, or kings cake, which has been a french tradition (among others) for centuries, made to celebrate the Epiphany. The cake is home to la fève, and whoever finds the figurine gets the honor of baking, or buying, the next cake. The french are so cool. 

The first visit we were blown away by thy flaky quiches & my warm ham and cheese croissant. The second time I stuck to what I know, a cappuccino, which transported me along the banks of the Seine, a cool breeze running across my cheek as I sit along the cobblestone street watching locals briskly walk.

...I know. It's a sickness.

{Guest Blogging: Seattle & Phoenix}

Hi!

I'm over on Bri's blog today,

talking about life as a transplant to Phoenix & what I miss most about Seattle. 

Check it out here!

{the journey begins}

Chris & I recently took a trip to Seattle to round up all of my things to bring back to Arizona. The craziest two days of my life, I managed to pack up everything from my high school room (dumping most of it because I have developed an intense fear of hoarding...thanks A&E), mixed with sorting through everything I brought home from my college apartment which I just dumped before heading off to Europe. Not only that, I ran errands, had a birthday party, got to see my parents, friends, and managed to squeeze in a little shopping.

 {boots}

It hurt my heart a little to visit during this time of year. Fall has always been my favorite season, and Seattle is by far the most beautiful place you can be to experience it. One of my many excited thoughts for my post-graduation date, was getting to finally experience fall again after 4 long years of summer jumping straight to snowy winter in Pullman.

{rain, trench coat & changing leaves}

After I managed to fill every last nook in my mini Corolla (which I recently bought from my mom.Thanks mom! Even though she made me sign a contract to hold me to my monthly car payments...who does that? I'm your daughter! :)) We were off on our next adventure.

Introducing...

The Man-Vs.-Food Tour

I am sure many of you have seen the show. Being a giant fan of Adam's and pretty much all food shows out there, I realized we were going to hit many of the cities that had appeared on the Show, while driving from Seattle to Phoenix. I am still in shock that Chris not only agreed to this, he made a point of calling it 'the man vs. food tour' to everyone we saw on our trip. Kinda cute. Mostly Embarrassing.

First stop: Red Mill Burger

{menu}

Visited by man vs. food, called the best burger in Seattle by Seattle Weekly, and 'one of the top 20 burgers you must eat before you die' by Oprah and GQ magazine, I decided it was worthy of a stop.

{burger heaven}

I decided to go with the classic, Red Mill Delux with Cheddar Cheese.

Drool.

Thankfully, what I couldn't finish, Chris handled for me. 

SO GOOD. No wonder why they get such good press.

Next time you are in Seattle, add them to your must list!

Next stop: Portland!