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03/01/10 - This Was Just Awful

We saw this corn on the cob for sale at Pike's Place Market. Curious, we asked:

Q: "Why is it called 'pirate corn'?"

A: "Because it's a buck-an-ear."

We did warn you that this was awful.

Actually, it looks like pretty good corn.

Keywords: seattle, humor


The train to the plane

02/28/10 - More on Seattle

We finally tried out the new train from Seatac to downtown. It was a pretty smooth ride, but no faster than the old 194 bus. Still, it gets you right to and from the airport.

Keywords: seattle

02/27/10 - We really have to ...

... write a review of Spinasse. We went back again, and once again the pasta was fantastic. They had ravioli stuffed with swiss chard and walnuts, and even more amazing, they had little packets of ricotta wrapped in meltingly tender pasta in brown butter with sage. The rabbit was as tender and delicious as ever, and they did a wonderful job with their braised pork belly. The skin was crisp and the center succulent.

They're on Capital Hill on 14th Avenue between Pike and Pine. Check out their website and look at the menus.

The bar at Spinasse

Keywords: restaurants, seattle

02/03/10 - Flying to Seattle

We recently flew to Seattle on Kenmore Air, and the views from the plane were spectacular. It wasn't a clear day. There was plenty of cloud cover, but the mountains and the skies were spectacular.

Fairchild Airport

Mountains

More mountains

The clouds washed up to the mountains like the sea washes up to the shore.

A tantalyzing mountain closeup

Mountains under our wing

Water below

Minas Morgul, aka Mount Rainier

The sound

Keywords: seattle, flying, kenmore, mount rainier

12/23/09 - Cassoulet for Christmas

This year was a cassoulet year at Casa Kaleberg. (We alternate cassolet and choucroute garnie every other Christmas.) That's a photo of our Christmas cassoulet on the right. Cassoulet, if you've never had it, contains white beans, duck confit, pork loin, ham hocks, pig skin, garlic sausages, andouille and a host of other pork products. It's an amazing dish. Just making the duck confit, that is, duck preserved in its own fat with spices, is a fair production, and it takes several days just to cook and assemble a cassoulet.

We tried to get a shot of the whole cassoulet, but our guests moved in too quickly, so enjoy this action shot.

This year we got our pork from the folks at The Swinery, a butcher shop based in West Seattle. They get their pork from a number of local farmers, and we have to say that the meat is first rate. They didn't blink when we asked for pig's knuckles, and they came through with a first rate piece of pig skin. We tried their Toulouse sausages and were quite impressed. You can see some of them in the photo above. The Swinery is based out in West Seattle, so now we have to explore more of West Seattle, and we have to try out The Swinery's new sandwich shop near Pioneer Square. If you live in Seattle and hear oinking in 2010, that might just be a couple of Kalebergs on the march.

Keywords: christmas, seattle, kale

12/16/09 - More From Seattle

These are just a few more Seattle photos. We had to include the Space Needle. We also have to write a review of Spinasse up on Capital Hill. They have amazing hand cut pasta. We had one dish of little squares served with a rabbit liver sauce that was out of this world, and the wonderful gnocci could have fed an army. The pork cheeks with polenta were tender and tasty. The rabbit excellent, but the surprise was the wonderful almond cake, and we don't even like almond cake. Maybe it was the blackberry sauce and the dollop of foamed olive oil?

The sunset

The Space Needle in context

Spinasse

Keywords: seattle, restaurants

12/11/09 - Bed, Bath and the Great Beyond

We saw this sign while wandering around Capital Hill in Seattle. For a moment we were sure we had gotten lost somehow and wound up in Fremont.

Keywords: seattle

10/23/09 - The Seattle Museum of Flight

We often fly Kenmore Air from Port Angeles to Boeing Field, but we rarely stick around the field for long. However on our latest trip our friends insisted that we head to the other side of the runway and see The Museum of Flight.

First, we stopped by the Fisherman's Terminal in Seattle and grabbed some lunch. We hadn't expected much. After all, this is supposed to be a tourist trap, so we were pleasantly surprised. The fish was fresh, as we had expected, but it and the side dishes were also well prepared. If nothing else, they used real butter, and that can make a lot of difference.

Then, we made our way the museum. It was much bigger than our friends had remembered with a veritable plethora of airplanes. We spent some time in the space exhibit. The full scale prototype module from the space station was larger than we had expected. Maybe there really is a space station orbiting up there, even if it doesn't have a cocktail lounge a la 2001.

A lot of our favorite planes were there including the Gossamer Albatross, the first man powered ultralight to cross the English Channel, the SR-71, always a crowd pleaser, an old Alaska Air DC-3, and, of course, the war planes from the first and second world wars. We didn't take too many pictures. If nothing else, the place was so chock full of aircraft it was hard to find a place to stand for a good shot.

We even crossed the road for a peek inside an old Concorde. Wow, it was cramped inside. Give us a full length, fold down bed seat, and we'll be happy even if it takes an extra hour or two to get there. We didn't get to see the old Boeing red barn and a whole lot of other things. All told, we were impressed, and we plan to come back.

The Museum of Flight

The Gossamer Albatross - one of the first successful man powered flying machines

From World War I

From World War II

High technology - The SR-71

Low technology

Keywords: seattle, art, science, kenmore, alaska

10/04/09 - The Space Needle Again

Yet another photo of the Space Needle in Seattle. Recession or no recession, there is still a lot of construction going on in town.

Keywords: seattle

10/03/09 - View From The West Seattle Water Taxi

We took the Water Taxi from Pier 55 out to West Seattle on our last trip into town, and here is a panorama of the wonderful view of the harbor. We took advantage of the convenient shuttles and made our way up to The Swinery. The Swinery actually sells a lot more than pork, including some great looking beef and lamb. We'll have to get back, and we'll have to explore West Seattle some more.

Click the image for a closer look

Keywords: seattle

09/03/09 - Some Seattle Sights

We were in Seattle recently and took some pictures.

The Space Needle in the morning fog

Seattle alley

The Space Needle from Volunteer Park

One of the water lilies

The greenhouse at Volunteer Park

Keywords: seattle

09/02/09 - Sad News About Quinn's

We have sad news about one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle, the place we once considered "meat heaven", Quinn's. They always seemed a bit out of place serving serious food in a beer and burger neighborhood, but now they fit right in. Unfortunately, we no longer do. Good bye to all that, and by "that" we mean marrow bones, tongue hash, crepinette and all of our favorites there.

Keywords: seattle, restaurants

09/01/09 - Front Seat To Seattle

One of the nice things about flying in little airplanes is that you don't need a lot of special skills to sit in the front seat. That means even a Kaleberg can get the advantages of a wonderful cockpit view as you can see in a these photos. It was a cloudy day, but that gave everything a quintessential Northwestern look.

Rule One - Mitts off!

Blue tones and mountains

Ediz Spit and lens flare

The propeller is too fast for our camera.

More mountains and cloud

Keywords: seattle, flying, kale

07/02/09 - The Space Needle Reflected

There are a lot of tall buildings in Seattle, many of them taller than the Space Needle. Many of these buildings, and not just the taller ones, make fairly good mirrors, if you don't mind a bit of warping. Look up every so often when you are in Seattle, and see if you can get a reflected view of the Needle like this one.

Keywords: seattle

06/30/09 - Ballard Locks

We happened to catch the Ballard Locks in action. There was a tugboat pulling a pair of barges and a host of smaller craft in the lock waiting for their trip down to the level of the Puget Sound. After a bit, they closed the far gate of the lock. Then, the bells rang, and the lock drained. When the water level in the lock matched the lower level, they opened the gate and let everyone out. It doesn't sound like much, but it is kind of amazing to watch. It works just the way it does in those science book illustrations.

A tugboat waiting for the lock: Note the high water level.

The water starts going down.

These sprayers keep gulls from attacking the salmon.

The water is farther down.

The gate opens and the tug goes through.

Keywords: science, seattle, salmon


Looking south

04/12/09 - Another Great View From Kenmore Air

We were in Seattle. We flew Kenmore Air. We had a great view of Puget Sound.

Keywords: seattle, flying, kenmore

04/02/09 - Seattle Report

We were in Seattle the other day buying some coffee ice cream for The Defense of Moscow. Russian Easter is coming soon, so we have to be prepared. In any event, we checked out Caffe Presse, which is owned by the same folks who run Le Pichet, and we had a very nice meal. Caffe Presse serves a rather hearty menu all through the day, but the food is not quite as good as the food at Le Pichet. We loved the braised ham with red cabbage, and we had a great raclette which was the perfect antidote to the cold, wet weather we have been having lately.

We also wandered around Capital Hill and came across a strange survivor, an actual used bookstore. Amazingly, it was not far from yet another used bookstore. Seattle used to be littered with these places, but the internet makes it so easy to find used books online, and rents have gone up, so most of them have vanished. We're not sure if it was that dinosaur sign in front of Twice Sold Sales or what, but we couldn't help thinking of The Lost World, Perhaps of Second Hand Bookstores.

The strange looking fountain is in Cal Anderson Park, another little gem. It is, or at least was, part of the Seattle water system. They have fountains and an aerating pond, and some gorgeous views.

It's amazing what one finds when one goes shopping for ice cream.

Cafe Presse - not quite as good as Le Pichet, but awfully good

Fountain at Cal Anderson Park

A true survivor, a used bookstore

Keywords: seattle

02/21/09 - Serendipity in Seattle

On our last trip to Seattle, we were a bit tight on time. We had climbed Queen Anne and had made it back to Seattle Center, but we had an appointment downtown, near the Nordstrom's. Could we get a taxi? That wasn't likely. We've had better luck with a street hail at Mosman Gorge in Queensland than in Seattle. What could we do?

Then we remembered the monorail. It's been around nearly 50 years, but it has such a limited route that one barely thinks of it as anything but a tourist attraction. But here we were, needing transportation, and that limited route would take us from where we were to where we wanted to go.

From here on, things went smoothly. The monorail was up and running. A train arrived as we stepped onto the platform, and in a few minutes we were on our way. We made our appointment with time to spare. That, and we got a glimpse of the future, like maybe 1975.

The train to tomorrow: That's the two cylinder Westin looming, another icon of the future.

Keywords: seattle

02/14/09 - Review of Poppy

We heard the hype about Poppy. We gave it a try. We were not impressed. Indian fusion, imaginative cocktails and a nine dish thali plate sound like a sure winner. To find out why it doesn't work, read our review of Poppy.

Keywords: seattle, restaurants

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