Wallingford Gardens, Coffee + Carmelita

Welcome to Wallyhood--or Wallingford. A Seattle neighborhood just south of Woodland Park Zoo and east of the U-district.

 My parents are avid gardeners. Consequently, they have fostered a thriving appreciation for gardens in me (even if my physical skills at gardening are, frankly, tragically late blooming).  Nevertheless, as a way to celebrate this rare day of sunshine in June, they took me out on a garden tour this Sunday over in Wallingford.  Here is sampling a pictures I took at some of the gardens this morning/afternoon.  Looking at them makes me feel all inspired :)

We could smell these roses from yards away. Now, that is a fragrant flower.

 Onions, aliums and poppies. Oh my!

This kitty, Tux, was lounging about in one of the gardens on the tour. She was so freaking friendly. Thus, a mini cat photo shoot was in order.

 Of course, no sunny day in Seattle is complete without iced coffee. 

 Another awkward photo of my lower region + shoes. Perhaps I should actually attempt to do a proper OOTD? For anyone's reference, the shoes are by Harajuku Lovers (a Japanese style brand) and are covered in animal cracker box print.  No, seriously.  The tongue of the shoes has the "nutrition facts" label embossed down the front.  Reeeeaally old and worn in. But still cute.

After wandering through the Wallingford gardens, we went for a looooooong walk around  Green Lake Park before heading over for a bite to eat at Carmelita in Phinney Ridge. The weather in Seattle was abnormally sunny *shock horror* so we took the golden opportunity to linger over our food on the restaurant's back  patio.  Utterly beautiful.  I loved their use of "windows" and flower boxes ^_^

 A big glass of tamarind-ginger lemonade. Super tangy and crisp.

 A smoked chickpea and sofrito empanada. There was much hoarding of the romesco sauce (far left in the picture) on my part. 

 My mum ordered eggplant agnolotti. 

 My Dad chose the polenta gnocci with 'shrooms.  

 And I went really crazy with my order and ended up deciding on...errrmmm... pizza. But! this pizza was loaded up with arugula, caramelized shallots, hazelnuts and nettle pesto. Yum. Not your godfather's by any means.   

We also indulged in Carmeltia's scrumptious dessert selection, but unfortunately, we plowed through our sweets before I remembered to snap a few photos. *hang head in shame*.  I can only insist that you try anything with lavender on the dessert menu.  It will change your perspective on eating floral flavored drinks/food and such. Once that door is open, no going back. 

Cheers,

kaite ;]

Getting back into the swing of things

I have been back in Missoula for one week. And while I thoroughly enjoyed reacquainting myself with my old haunts, I hate my school schedule.  Monday through Wednesday I don't get out of class until after 7.00pm or 8.00pm.  Tuesday and Thursday I don't even start classes until around 3.30 in the afternoon.  Then out of the blue on Friday--BAM!--and 8.00am lab. Uck.  For what feels like the first time in my life I am regularly staying up extra late (like 1 in the morning late) in an effort to wake-up after 7 in the morning.  So far, my ingenious plan has only caused me to sleep in until 8.00am and induce massive, panging headaches that even a few liters of water and coffee can't cure.


 At least textbooks only cost $300 this semester instead of $600.


I spent this weekend catching up on a few zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Maybe I will wake up later this week, eh?


Just like my last week in Seattle, Missoula is a winter wonderland.  But unlike Seattle, the snow has not put the entire hamlet city under house arrest.  Everyone straps on their boots, piles on the coats and prays the Mountain Line buses won't be delayed. Below are a few pictures I snapped from my dorm window.

{little difficult to see in the picture, but in the center of the road between the traffic lanes is a 3 foot pile of snow.  NO ONE uses the crosswalks in this weather.  People literally just walk straight through the intersection}

In an attempt to cut down on my coffee expenses this semester, I decided to start sampling different brands/roasts of coffee I find around Missoula.  This particular brand, Blackcoffee Roasting Company (BRC), is roasted in Wyoming, but is sourced directly out of Missoula.  I picked up a bag of the AM blend at the campus grocery store shortly after determining I would be needing access to coffee well after all coffee shops close in the vicinity.  I've tried the BRC Mexican Chipatas blend before while at the Good Food Store and might give the Half Caf blend a go in the coming weeks.  

{dripping coffee before I devour a bowl of carrot cake oatmeal YUM}

Overall, I'd say I am rather satisfied with the brand.  The AM blend actually has a nice cocoa-creamy flavor even without soy milch. Tastes nice at 7am, 4pm and even at 6pm right before I head off to Psychology.

Other odds and bobs from the week:

On Friday, I got mail!!!!

And the one thing I was most excited to receive in the package was not the supply of much need socks, nor the ever elusive powdered soy milch, nor a borrowed copy of The Disappearing Spoon (although, as I am already a good quarter of the way through the book, I clearly am enjoying the read). Nope. I was ecstatic for crazy flavored extracts.  Yup. You read that sentence right.  I was over the moon to open up a box to see three little bottles of flavored chemicals.  I might one day develop cancer from consuming copious amounts of "Vanilla Butter Nut" flavor or artificial "Maple", but for now they are a guilty pleasure.  I slap happily dump a tsp in my oatmeal and coffee each morning. 

Broccoli sounded really yummy, so I made green peanut ramen-noodles.  Green because the ramen-noodles were green and the peanut sauce was green after I food processed a few broccoli florets into the  peanut sauce.

Over my winter holiday I fell back in love with an eyeshadow by MAC called "Club."  It is a green/brown/black oil-slick color.  Since coming back to Missoula, I have just continued to keep wearing the eyeshadow without abandon.  Its pretty. And mesmerizing. 

Cheers, kaite ;]

When the Weather Outside is Frightful...

Hello all. I am back from the dark-and-gloomy forest of "pre-finals."  The irony of university is: the weeks leading up to finals are nutty, but during the actual week of finals everyone has soooooooo much free time that we have no idea what to do with ourselves.  Or, at least, I don't. You mean I have all morning and afternoon for three days to prepare for a final?  Really. We didn't cover that much in five months. 

Anywho, December and the accompanying frigid weather has descended upon Missoula.  Most days are about 12deg F and snowing/icing. Yes, icing.  It just grows out of the ground in giant puddle shaped tubers. I feel like I live at the North Pole..  One of these mornings I will wake up to the sound of reindeer prancing on the roof.  I bet you those squirrel tracts in the snow are really squirrel tracks either; they're elf tracts.  Nevertheless, I am thoroughly enjoying the winter wonderland.  Even if it means I have to wear two pairs of socks most days to comfortably enjoy it.

 Transfer station for the Mountain Line (Missoula's bus system)

 Can you spot the 'M'?  On Friday it was all lit up for the Griz play-off game.

 My dormitory is antique. Everything is steam heated. Thus by 7.00 in the morning the windows are all foggied up.

The wind!  Not fun to walk in :(  The gusts practically topple me over on my way across campus...

In lou of going out in the weather to make snow-angels, I am expressing my holiday cheer by trucking out to toasty warm coffee shops.  They are all decorated up and I can listen to Christmas music while sipping steaming mugs of spiced coffee. Just keep the caffeine coming people; I have an Anatomy and Physiology exam to study/review for!  My most recent "re-discovery" is The Buttercup Market and Cafe. I haven't been here since the day before Uni started.  So, that would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in iced-coffee season.  But, I returned on a whim since the Buttercup is the only cafe open near the university after 5pm. 

Reasons why I am newly head over heels in love with the place???????

1) Free Wi-fi. Knuff' said there really.  I would not be writing this post right now without the complementary plug-in. ^_^

2) Monday is VEGAN MONDAY!!!  You heard me right.  The bakery case is chocked full of vegan muffins, scones and oatmeal bars.  And if you swing back around on Tuesday, all of the unsold veg goodies are half-off in their day old basket.  Throw in the fact that there is always a veg option on the menu (whether it be a soup, salad, or samosa), I am a little pig in poo. Today, I picked up a lemon-blueberry muffin.  

3) nummy coffee.  While I will still rank B's Bakery and Le Petit Outre's straight up drip and Americano above the Buttercup's, the Buttercup makes a mean dry cappuccino.  When I say dry, I mean they know how to make a velvety, frothy foamy cappuccino.  No crappy, watery or bitter disgrace of a cappuccino. Also, the cafe keeps soy milch out on the counter next to the half-n-half with the sugar/stevia packets.  I can order myself a bottomless cup of coffee and keep coming back for refills without getting a stink-eye from the barista for stretching that bottomless cup for all its worth.

Not the best picture.... this is after my cappuccino sat for about 15minutes.  When the barista first gave me the cup, the foam was billowing over the top of the mug.  

4) The market!  More on this later.  This deserves a mini-post all to itself.

5) The view and decor.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves here--but anyone who uses cranberries in table ornamentation is after my heart.

6) The collection of old cooking magazines and picture books stacked up along the walls instead of artwork.  Just pull down an old issue of Bon Appetit or a children's book on Frogs whenever you need a mental break from the study-fest.

Where does everyone else go when the weather is snowy? 

Cheers, kaite ;]

B’s Bakery: Where the Early Bird Gets the Croissant

…or, like me, you straggle in a ½ hour behind the morning crowed and get the vegan cranberry-oat-muffins just as they migrate out of the oven.

If I could have found a single bakery in all of Missoula that screams “KAITE”, then Bernice’s Bakery is just that.   It is an eclectic bunch of people that are utterly in love with the art of invention via the kitchen.  Their repetoir includes everything from gluten-free chocolate lava cakes, vegan frosting-stuffed scones to traditional buttery cookies and cinnamon rolls and rustic bread sandwiches.  It’s an all from scratch bakery with the rough edge of a continual work in progress.  You get the feeling that everyone still hasn’t quite grown-up there, but at the same time they are experienced beyond their age.  Sound familiar to anyone?

Perhaps the collages in the bathroom might bare resemblance to yours truly:

I digress, this is a keeper spot.   I just need to become enough of a “regular” to merit the “20% helmet sticker” and the wi-fi code.  Those who are loyal reap great benefits at B’s.  Let the ulterior motive scheme begin me thinks.

Beyond the pastry case, the coffee here is fantastic.  It is one of those complex roasts that strikes a weird balance between chocolaty and cinnamon-spicy-burnt-sugar.  (Note to self: I will need to improve my food description abilities if I ever desire to become a food critique).   Not to mention their entire brew is fair-trade certified—guilt free drinking all the way!  If you are a soy-milk drinker, like me, B’s doesn’t charge extra to splash a few tablespoons of soy-milk in your coffee like half of the coffee shops in Missoula.  Good deal :P

The dessert case stands by the shop window like a little display stand to tease passersby.  Literally, in the 5hrs I sat studying at B’s Bakery, three people walked in off the street to look at the primly decorated cakes.  Needless to say, all three of these pedestrians walked out of the bakery cradling a frosted, confectionary beauty. I think the only thing preventing me from gallivanting off with one of the vegan chocolate-raspberry cakes is the lack of room in my fridge. . .  Which you can see illustrated to the right.


At least pictures only take up about 1000KB of space on my hard drive J

Well, now it is back to the salt mines.  The educational dragons would be in need of some slaying.  In the words of Bernice’s Bakery: life is short, friends.  Have a cookie in the meantime.  It’ll take the edge off.  

Which it just what I think I will do.  Who says I can't multi-task?  

Cheers, kaite k ;]

Think Food for Thought!

Where there are exams and major essays, there is unequivocally studying, ceaseless revision and stress.  All of which put a damper on the whole cooking shin-dig.  In my pursuit to find a distraction-free haunt—that also made sure I kept well fed :P—I found my new favorite diner in Missoula.  The two major selling points: 1) It is literally a 3 minute walk across the street from my dorm and 2) they serve scrambled tofu and vegan omelets until 2 in the afternoon + endless coffee.  I am a pig in poo.

As you may already notice from the pictures, the University (if not all of Missoula) is a bastion for bicyclists.  The bike racks outside of the dorms and along the streets are congested with two-wheeled pedaling machines like macaroni and cheese in an artery.  Parking your bike can be just as bad as trying to park your car around here!  An they keep on coming.....

I figured that I would spare you pictures of my books and study-gear, so I have just included a sampling of photos from the inside of Food For Thought (FFT).   I love how their menu is displayed: a bunch of black-boards hung hodge-podge about the ceiling. If you are into the tofu and beans, there's a blackboard for you.  If you are there for eggs and breakfasty type times.  There are 3 whole blackboards for you.  Chicken? burgers? salads? sandwiches? COFFEE? There's a blackboard filled with creative combinations to choose from.

For breakfast here, I usually order only eggs, toast and a vat of raspberry jam.  Although, last Thursday I figured that I should try their 'taters' that everyone goes on and on and on about.  Apparently their browns are the best in the city.  The FFT people cut up huge wedges of potato, toss them liberally in oil and seasonings and then broil the little puppies until crispy.  Not sure if I am a tater kind of girl...but I believe I will be sticking to my toast and eggs from hence forth.  If you like your hash-browns, then FFT's version will probably taste like ambrosia (as I am led to believe).

 Art changes every few months.  Local artists put their works on display for purchase and admiration. While I will never fall into the former category, I always sit at the same table at FFT because of a particular painting.  It has a striking blue background splashed with crimson poppies.  Very cheery.  Exactly what I need while trying to tackle the less-than-merry prospect of studying.

 I practically did the little "Snoopy dance" when I saw a vegan quesadilla on the menu.  Instead of cheese, FFT uses a mixture of tofu and hummus-garbanzo-bean-mush.  Sounds bizarre, but crazy yummy.  I could eat one of these every weekend.  (I thought it was ironic that the dish is labeled 'vegan' but sour-cream still comes as an accompaniment haha).

Outside the diner, Summer flowers are still in full bloom.  Sunflowers, holly-hocks, poppies and different vines litter the garden along the South side of the restaurant.  I am not much of a plant photographer, but these orange-splattered sunflowers were something special.  That pumpkin-spice ring around the bloom's nucleus is probably my favorite color.  Memorizing, eh?

 Technically the study-fests never cease. They just come in "aaah, I can't look at another problem or analyze another frexing poem" waves and "There is much light at the end of the tunnel" waves.  At least while I am in hiatus mode, I will post blog entries.  Is there anywhere in Missoula anyone would like to here about?  I can just do general "travel log" posting about different restaurants/places as I discover them . . . or not.  Let me know what you want to hear and/or see.  (I like NOT writing about campus specifically as I spend nearly every freaking hour there.  It would be like blogging about your bedroom.  Here is my bed. Here is where I listen to lectures by Dr. Cracolice.  This is the food zoo; I don't eat hear as often as I should.  Over there is the Liberal Arts building where I have never been as I am a science major. Really? Do you want to read about that?)

Comments are appreciated!  The idea machine needs a direction to run with once and awhile, less this turn into a Mad Hatter blog.

Cheers, kaite ;]