Dinner Club Dish

We had 9 for dinner at Zen Garden on Monday. They put us at a big round table in the middle of the room and we made the most of it with lots of conversation that included movies, college life, benefits of working at large software companies, etc.

The food was pretty good. There was an excellent prawns dish that was sweet with nuts. We just got a meal for 10...I think chrismul decided that because I don't even remember looking at the menu and food just came.

Toward the end of the meal a crane landed outside this large bay of windows (which had a beautiful "zen" garden view) and practically posed for us. Something about such a big bird is so enthralling...even if you're eating its distant relatives at the time.

I was planning to do next dinner club in January at Farestart but if things look open I may add a bonus on November to go to Serious Pie. Feel free to send me any restaurant ideas...eastside or westside.

This months Dinner Club is at Zen Garden in Mill Creek. I found a very cute kid's book called "Dim Sum for Everyone" at the library so have been craving dim sum ever since. I tried creating my own little dim sum experience at home by getting some frozen stuff at Central Market. It was OK but definitely not the same.

Other dining reports...still not eating out much. I had Teapot vegetarian for the first time the other day but only because of they are in building 16 cafeteria at work. I did go to Pomegranate Bistro a month ago. I'm torn between the Martha Stewartesqueness (how's that for an adjective) of the place and the really good food...it's always good food.

What are your favorite spots? Ones you want to try? Do you cook...have a specialty? These are the things other dinner clubbers want to know. In my case, it's not so exciting. We get pepperoni and pineapple pizza from Papa Murphy's every Friday night for pizza movie night, but I really love Pagailcci pizza. For weeknight dinners I actually rely on my trips to Dream Dinners a lot.

See you soon at the August Dinner Club on 8/2 at Kallaoo!

We ended up at Mama Melina's Mexican Kitchen in July. It was hot, very hot in the Elvis room since their outdoor seating couldn't handle a group our size. Despite forgetting about us then having a slightly crabby waitress, a good time was had by all. The fish taco I had was very yummy as was the margarita. Here's a pic of the group sans Sharont who snuck out by taking the picture. =)

Sushi Land in Bellevue was fun. It's wonky little parking lot was an appropriate entrance. I hadn't realized it would be so...cheap diner like. This could qualify on our most unromantic list, but boy did we put away some sushi. Not as much unagi (is that the eel one?) coming around as I would have liked and we never figured out how to get tempura sauce. Nevertheless, we had a good time and topped it off with the most expensive icecream in the world at Mora Iced Creamery.

We are going to Sushi Land this month for Dinner club. I had my first rotating sushi experience in March at Tsunami Sushi in Vancouver, BC. It was so fun and filling I decided to make it the May outing since I've been craving it ever since.

Since we're trying to alternate between the east and west side next time will be on the other side of the pond (our pond that is) so I'm thinking maybe an El Camino visit in July, which has been an outdoor favorite, although it would be fun to try a new open air eating experience too. For sure I'd like to go back to FareStart either when they open in their new location early next year or sooner.

I caught a few minutes of "The Splendid Table" on NPR the other day and heard the couple that write all the books about eating on the road (The Sterns) talking about their latest book Roadfood. They were talking about where to find the best this or that and they raved about the chili at Mike's Chili Parlor...the site of our first poo-poo on Valentine's day dinner. They said it "charmed the pants of them." Read their full review (complete with close-up photos of chili spaghetti.)