newelty » Tasty treats

I Wanna Eat Choco Bars

newelty — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:28:55 +0000

Condé Nast Traveller (British edition, hence the two L’s in traveler) has a great piece in their March 2010 issue about Belgian chocolatiers. The photo above was taken in The Chocolate Line, which is a personal favorite of mine, as well.

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to buy novelty chocolates–the Chocolate Line had a Coke-flavored dark chocolate–and ship them home to myself, my mom, and friends, It can take weeks, but anticipation is the fun, right?

It’s also fun to enjoy a few chocolates while in Bruges, home of the shop above, while enjoying this view:

Yum.

Also, here’s what the title of this blog post is referencing, in case you’re curious.

Betty’s Photo of the Day

newelty — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:35:26 +0000

I have the taste buds of an 85-year-old man. I love liverwurst. Pickles are to die for. Black coffee, please, and never with milk and sugar. I almost always pass on dessert, and why the Pringles you see above appealed.

I’ve been told I posses some sort of gene that predisposes me to the flavors of umami, a term originally coined by the Japanese for the preference of savory over sweet.

Which is why I seriously love Asia.

“A Neighborhood That Gets It”

newelty — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:30:51 +0000

I love to travel, but sometimes, I really love being home. Especially because home is Capitol Hill, a corner of Seattle located between downtown and the water (don’t ask me which body of water–that’s too much detail to keep track of).

It’s hipster heaven. The local hot-dog joint, Po Dog (who you can follow on Twitter, of course), took a crappy old garage, filled it with hot dogs and novelty wallpaper (including this giant closeup of a pug), and made a dead space awesome. (At the bottom of this post, you can see their gun wallpaper on the opposite wall.)

Have you ever heard of a hot dog place with designer wallpaper?

Both because of that and despite that, I heart Capitol Hill’s hot dog joint, just as I love the fact that they’ll make a Texas BBQ special with a veggie Field Roast dog. For real.

Even though Seattle is gloomy, rainy, blah blah blah, there are only a couple of other places in the world I’d like to live. And by and large, those places are gloomy and rainy too. But at least here we have great restaurants (yes, beyond just hot dogs), great parks, and great shops, all perpetually changing, giving it a novelty rating of A+.

According to this article in the local paper–admittedly not exactly hard-hitting journalism–it’s an example of “density done right.”

“When Walgreens was planning to build a new, single-level store, community activists went up in arms.

“They showed up to the meeting and said, ‘Are you out of your minds?’ ” Hunter recalls.

Walgreens listened. The result is Broadway Crossing, a mixed-use complex with the pharmacy at street level and affordable housing on the upper floors, “so the people who work in the Walgreens store could actually live in the building,” Hunter says.

New laws or not, residents are still piling into neighborhood planning meetings to make their voices heard, Hunter says.

“The great thing is, this is a neighborhood that gets it.”"

I couldn’t agree more. Hooray for those who take the time to make great urban density happen. And to hot dog places that invest in novelty wallpaper.

Ketchup, mustard, revolvers

In General, Let’s Be Skeptical of Any Kind of “Hut”

newelty — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:31:11 +0000

One of my 2010 travel goals is to make it up to Whistler. I’ve even got my own brand new shiny “trusted traveler” NEXUS card to allow me to slip across the U.S.-Canadian border, leaving all those other cars in my dust. (I hate lines enough to pay $50 for five years worth of line-skipping.)

I’ve wanted to see Whistler for five years, at least. The Times’ coverage of “36 hours in Whistler” just served to remind me that I need to make it there soon, hopefully post-Olympics, when all the facilities will still be new, shiny, and on sale.

Something always seems to get in my way, though. Vancouver.

Take, for example, this write-up of where to spend noon of your 36 hours:

5) BELGIAN WAFFLES AND BBQ

Come lunchtime, the huge lodges can feel like rush hour. Instead, seek out the lesser-known on-mountain restaurants. On Blackcomb, the Crystal Hut is a small log cabin near the top of the Crystal Chair that serves Belgian waffles all day and lunch specialties from a wood oven. On Whistler, the Chic Pea near the top of the Garbanzo Express lift serves toasted sandwiches, pizza and barbecued items on its outdoor deck.

I am an absolute sucker for waffles. But Crystal Hut causes little alarm bells to ring in my brain. Hut, really? I hate to discriminate, but I can see the ferns from here, can’t you? And the light jazz that will be playing as the Hut employees deliver the cold, tired waffles?

I’m being unfair, of course. This particular hut got rave reviews on Yelp, which is always my go-to benchmark.But maybe some of the skiers have been enjoying the famous B.C. bud, and upping the ratings of the Hut’s waffles? Just a theory. I’ll report back if I find out for myself.

All this waffle talk leads me back to Vancouver. Because if I’m on a waffle quest, my journey will end there.

Vancouver has one of my favorite restaurants, possibly in the world: Medina. I’ve been to Belgium enough to know my way around a liege waffle, and these are the real deal.

Let’s take a minute to stare at all their goodness from a photo provided by their web site:

Yes, they really do look like this.

Mmmm. What was I saying?