Traveling – Seattle, Washington – Ivar’s Salmon House

The day after our anniversary, we met our son and his wife at their apartment in North Seattle so we could go out to lunch together.  Our son mentioned that while out riding his bicycle around Lake Union in Seattle, he could smell alder smoke and figured out it came from an Ivar’s restaurant situated on the edge of the lake.

If you live in the Seattle area, you have probably heard of Ivar’s seafood restaurants.  Ivar’s has been a Seattle landmark for many years offering tasty fish and chips from stands along the various waterfronts.  I can still sing part of the Ivar’s song from when I lived in the Seattle area in the 1970’s, and the Ivar’s catch phrase: “Keep Clam”.

We drove to the restaurant, found a place to park and went in, I was surprised to see that it was Ivar’s Salmon house.  I had never been there before because I felt that it would be too expensive, but this was still our anniversary trip, so what the heck.

Ivar’s Salmon House is decorated like a West Coast Native American long house.  Everything is cedar planking with large Indian graphics painted on the walls.  The seating looks out over Lake Union towards the downtown Seattle skyline and the Seattle Space Needle.

I was surprised that the lunch menu was actually reasonably priced and the entrees were comparable to other restaurant chains.  Both my wife and I decide to order the Coho salmon with Portobello mushrooms and asparagus.  Our son and his wife had fish and chips and a bowl of the house salmon chowder.

When our lunch arrived, I quickly took some photos and then started eating.  The salmon had been cooked over the alder flame, so it had a nice alder flavor added to the fish.  There was light sauce on the asparagus and mushrooms that had a smoky flavor with limejuice and a little sweetener to round out the flavor.

The entire meal was very refreshing and enjoyable.  Good food, great company and a wonderful view, what more could I ask for.  Keep Clam!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Seattle, Washington – Crab Pot

This week my wife and I celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary and we decided to take two days and travel to Seattle to celebrate.  Along the way, we stopped in Tacoma, Washington and toured the Museum of Glass.  Unless you want to see the process of glass blowing, I don’t recommend paying to go in the museum, but park nearby and walk over the bridge that features glass work by Dale Chihuly.  Then walk across the bridge to the US Court House (former Union Station) and see several glass installations by Chihuly.

After our visit to the museum, we drove another forty minutes North to Pier 57 in Seattle for dinner at the Crab Pot.  I had seen a segment about the Crab Pot on the cable TV show “Man v. Food” and I decided that we should have dinner there on a special occasion.  A thirty-year anniversary seemed like a special occasion so we planned on dinner.  I had called about reservations, but the restaurant does not accept reservations and we were prepared to wait for a table.

We arrived in the area of the restaurant about five minutes to six o’clock and once we found a parking place in city parking about three blocks away, we were very pleased to see that city parking is free after six pm.  We had a great stroll down the waterfront to the restaurant where we place our name in the queue and waited for about thirty minutes for a table.

We decided to order “The Westport” feast from our excellent waiter: Damon.  This is a meal for two or more people that contains: Dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp, mussels, steamed clams, anduoille sausage, red potatoes, and corn on the cob.  The fun thing about ordering the feast is each diner is provided a nice bib to keep clean, a small fork, and a mallet for cracking the crab.

The tables are covered with several layers of white butcher paper and the meal is ceremoniously dumped from a large metal bowl into the middle of the table.  We enjoyed all the different items.  I would recommend eating the shrimp first, because when they cooled, the texture seemed to become soft and they were not quite a good as when they were warm.  We were surprised because it is not corn season, but the corn was very sweet and delicious.  All I can say about the crab is that we wished there was more.  As we ate, all the shells and scraps were tossed into the metal serving bowl that was placed on the ground at our feet.

I had told Damon that this was our wedding anniversary in case the cooks wanted to throw in some of the Alaskan King crab legs that are served in “The Alaskan” feast.  He was unable to get us the King crab, but he did bring us a wonderful rhubarb and strawberry “Cake in a Pan” that is one of the Crab Pot’s signature desserts.  This cake was accompanied by a large bowl of vanilla ice cream and it was delicious.

We left the Crab Pot very full and extremely satisfied with our dinner, the service, and the restaurant.  I hope we don’t have to wait another thirty years to go back.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Hawaii, Big Island

In 2005, the company that I worked sent the top performers (and their spouses) to Hawaii for an awards banquet in honor of their achievements. My wife and I were privileged to attend this event because for the second time in three years, I was the highest achiever in North America for my job function. I was very fortunate to have three of my fourteen employees also exceed their goals with outstand performance and were also able to attend the event.

The company sent us to the big Island of Hawaii for several days and we stayed at the Fairmont Orchid Resort. This was an all expense paid trip and everyone enjoyed the time by relaxing and celebrating our accomplishments.

The hotel is situated next to the ocean and there is a little lagoon that is has a nice beach for swimming. We would get our day started with a little ocean swim and hoping to see some of the sea turtles that swam through the lagoon. One morning I was taking pictures with an underwater camera of several turtles (being careful to keep my legal distance), when one of the turtles took an interest in me. I managed to take it’s picture just before I had to swim away to keep my distance.

One of the little extras was that we could have breakfast room service every day. My wife and I enjoyed sitting on our balcony eating breakfast while looking out at the ocean. One thing that the server warned us about was the little sparrows that fly around the resort. The birds have a taste for butter and they will fly to your table and peck into the round little balls of butter.

We were actually surprised at how bold the little birds were. While we were sitting right at the table, they would fly in and try to get the butter. If we left the table for even a few seconds, the butter would be full of holes.

We enjoyed this extravagant adventure and even the little extra fun of the sparrows visiting us for breakfast. On a side note, three months later the company laid me off - go figure.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Where Do You Shop

One thing my wife and I like to do when we travel is to visit the stores and markets to see what types of foods are native to the area we visit.  We typically purchase food for lunch (sometimes for breakfast and dinner) that we can eat as a picnic.  We have encountered some beautiful displays and quite a few shops with things we think are strange, to the locals are normal.

These photos are of a cheese shop on the Rue Clair in Paris France.  The cheeses are molded into all kinds of shapes: pyramids, cylinders, bricks, cones and more.  Most of the cheeses have a nice mold covering.  The soft cheeses like cream cheese are in a large vat and sold in bulk according to weight.  We didn’t sample any of these cheese though during our travels we have eaten some moldy cheeses on cheese plates that sometimes follow dinner.

Most candy and pastry shops offer a much wider array of products then you find in the states.  These are not mass produced products encased in plastic with lots of preservatives, but products made on-site with a wonderful fresh flavor.

We always like to take pictures of unique foods that we encounter, the hedgehog candies are one example.  Another example is the women’s breasts that we saw in Bruges.  Do you suppose they have a mold to make those?  We didn’t go in to ask.

Meat products are handled differently than the states, while there are some supermarkets (Large European supermarkets would be considered small in the states), most of the food is sold through small shops that specialize in a specific product.  In these photos, a side of beef is delivered in the morning to a shop and a display of ducks complete with the head (so they can smile at you).

While their supermarkets are smaller, they typically have a better and wider offering of products than grocery stores where we shop.  When we travel we like to have yogurt in the morning, many of the yogurts in the states have about the same consistency and flavor with lots of added sugar.  The yogurts in Europe have a creamier texture with a more refined taste and without a lot of the added sugar.

One thing that initially takes some getting used to, is pricing your own produce.  After placing produce in a bag, you take it to a scale and select the appropriate product button (they use photographs so you don’t need to worry about reading a name), and place the printed label on the bag before heading to the check stand.

Larger cities do have a large market that consists of fifty to one hundred (or more) small individually owned and operated booths.  The booths are segregated by the type of food; poultry, dairy, produce, meat, etc.

Towns also have outdoor markets that depending on the size of the town, have different intervals from once a week to everyday (except Sunday).  The outdoor market stalls typically have beautiful displays of their products.  I have found that many of my most colorful photos were taken at these outdoor markets.

No matter where you purchase food; small shop or supermarket, shopping in Europe is usually a fun adventure.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Colmar, France

As we neared the end of our 2003 driving trip around France, we drove through the wine region of Alsace and visited the beautiful city of Colmar. Situated in the Northeastern corner of France, Colmar has a very pronounced German influence in its architecture and food.

We enjoyed walking through the old town of Colmar as well as some of the small surrounding towns. In Kaysersberg (birthplace of Albert Schweitzer), we walked the town and watched the famous storks nesting on the rooftops.

We ventured into the hills to Le Lingnes, a hilltop site of WWI fighting. It was amazing to see that the two opposing forces dug trenches within ten feet of each other all along the hilltop. We were not able to venture off the main trails are there are still sections covered with barbed wire and large sections of the woods still filled with mines. Outside of visiting the American cemetery in Normandy, our most sobering moment was when we rounded a corner on the road back to Colmar and encountered a WWI Germany cemetery shrouded in fog and extending well beyond our visibility.

In Colmar we enjoyed a great dinner of local foods. My entrée was three types of pork on sour kraut: pork shoulder, pork slice, and pork sausage. This is the Germany influence, but I loved every bite. We ate dinner with one of the fine white wines from the region and finished dinner with an apple pastry.

Over the last several hundred years the Alsace region has been controlled by both Germany and France, I don’t know if I should have said “sehr gut” or “très bon”, which every language, it was very good!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Portland Walks – Three Friends Coffeehouse and Cafe

In spite of the weather forecast, yesterday turned out to be a very nice day to be outdoors.  My wife and I took our fourth walk from the twenty walks list in our Portland City Walks book.  This walk (number 9), focuses on the East bank of the Willamette River.  The Willamette river runs through the center of Portland with commercial high-rises on the Westside, and light industrial on the Eastside.

In the mid to late 1800’s, the East bank of the river was a swampy area lined with sawmills and industrial manufacturing.  Now there is a wonderful esplanade that lines the river where people can sit and watch the city, run, bike and (like we did) walk along the river.  The esplanade also hosts several plaques and signs that provide historical information and photographs from the 1800’s of the river.

Our walk took us about three hours to walk the 2.7 mile course, as approached the final set of turns on the route, we read in the book that we could take a one block detour to a local coffee house on the corner of Ash and 12th.  We had not seen any other unique place to have a treat during our walk, so we decided to check it out.

The Three Friends Coffeehouse and Café looks like it is housed in either a very old bar or grocery store.  As we were quite warm from our walk and the sun, we decided to both have Italian Sodas – mine was blackberry and my wife had cherry.  We sat inside, sipped our drinks, and enjoyed the quiet ambiance of the coffeehouse.  I must say that I am still not quite sure why there are fake tombstones on the wall.

This was quite an interesting walk, and we really enjoyed the cool treat at the end.  With sixteen more walks to go, I look forward to uncovering new treat opportunities to share.

Walk 9, Grand Avenue Historic District to Eastbank Esplanade Loop, 2.7 miles, 3 hours and 15 minutes, 7219 steps.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Springhill, Montana

After we left Glacier National Park during our July 2005 vacation, we headed to Yellowstone National Park to spend a few days.  Along the way we stopped in Bozeman Montana to visit a family friend, then spent the night at a small bed and breakfast in Springhill, which is a small community just North of Bozeman.





We choose Springhill because my Great Aunt lived there and many of her descendants still live in the area.  We chose the Artful Lodger Bed and Breakfast, which is surrounded by my Great Aunt’s property because another friend of ours grew up with Ken (that owns and runs the Bed and Breakfast) and told us about his Bed and Breakfast.

The Artful Lodger is a small establishment with two buildings for sleeping: cabin and barn.  Don’t let the name cabin and barn deceive you, we stayed in the cabin and it is nicer than many four and five star hotels where we have stayed.  It was very peaceful to stay at the Artful Lodger, there is a small creek that runs through the property, and Ken has made a nice bridge across the creek to the sauna and hot tub facilities.

Ken took us on a walk of the area and pointed out place of interest as it relates to our family.  He also took us inside the Springhill pavilion that rented as a site for weddings.  The pavilion was used for the wedding in the Robert Redford movie: Horse Whisperer.  Ken also showed us the former site of my Great Aunt’s big red barn that was used in the movie A River Runs Through It.







After a restful night in the cabin, we were treated to breakfast in the main house Ken cooked for us.  It consisted of scones, bacon, skillet baked omelet, fruit, and hot beverages.  It was a great way to start our day before our drive to Yellowstone.  We really enjoyed our relaxing time in Springhill and I look forward to when we can visit again.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell