lundi 11 octobre 2010

Best Breakfast place ever

Lola (downtown Seattle)

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Lola is the best place Ive ever had a breakfast at.

It is located in downtown Seattle on 4th street in the hotel complex of a great looking and surely expensive hotel. The whole lobby of the hotel is amazing, moderne with great chairs and sofas to wait for a table.



Anyways the food is the most important thing here.

Every element in the plate is fresh, made for you, is chosen based on its quality and not just to sell and make money from (it feels that way) and is just soooo delicious.



So Ive had the Lola breakfast which included baked potatoes like you have never seen them, 2 eggs from free range chicken perfectly done to your taste, choice of bacon and sausages... i was offered half of both which is what i got!!!



So lets talk about the bacon first... it is the most succulent thing that you will ever eat that is called bacon or has it in its name! 3 really thick slices of the best bacon ive ever had were placed in my plate for me to love. It was juicy, well baked,crispy, none of this fat bacon that is still uncooked.



The sausages (2) were perfectly cooked. They tasted so good, they were big sausages, delicious and they made you want more even though there was no way you could eat anymore.



It was a perfect breakfast which I dream about sometimes :)



i also got an orange juice which for once was a real fresh pressed juice ... unlike other restaurant pretend to have ... just like home! :)



hmmmm enjoy!

vendredi 1 octobre 2010

Pecha Kucha!

So ive been to the last two of the Pecha Kucha conferences in Vancouver
These events are extremely interesting and everytime I hear those people talk I am impressed with how people are soooo creative and pursue their dreams until they get it done!

So the Pecha Kucha events are organized everywhere in the world once a month and it seems that Vancouver is the most popular or fast growing one. Pecha Kucha was invented in Japan and it consists in some people giving 4-5 minutes presentations of their accomplishments or talking about their companies and what they do to realize their dreams. They are talking over slides that are shown on the screen for 20 seconds each.

It is really impressive to listen to these people talk from their respective fields, so people come from different background and do different things, the only common factor between those presentations is that they have accomplished something for themselves or others.
Helping others or the planet are main themes in a lot of presentations.

So yesterday, I took some notes about some of the cool stuff going on...

  • check out Miss604 blog which is talking about a lot of different events in town and some ways to help different organisations.
  • Here is now : this guy organises different art galleries in town and next in Portland for one day only. So he goes to an abandonned building and put arts from local artists and shows them to the world.
  • In the house festival : this is really great and strange but every months or more often that women organises different events in people's houses who have donated their house for a day where people will present their own shows such as dance, painting, food, music, ... seems awesome anyways
  • Ethicaldeal.com : check it out
  • Bloodied but unbowed: check out this movie about the Punk scene in Vancouver and how it all started here. that presenter was really interesting and she really follows the music scene around here.

So many interesting people creating different designs to live better for them and others. Some students are building crazy good looking houses for people in need and come up with awesome architecture designs.

Im impressed by all those people who pursue their dreams!

Next Pecha Kucha is Nove 14 in Vancouver i believe

Restaurant

Stepho's Greek Taverna (1124 Davie st)

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Stepho's has been recommended to me by a friend who used to live in Vancouver and it was said to be the one restaurant that I needed to go to and experience the food and service.
Since February Ive seen lineups at this restaurant everyday until 9pm which is crazy(!) ... so I thought! How come this restaurant has lineups all the time (and pretty much the only restaurant in town that attracts so many people)? With a fast service and low cost that might be a reason why but I had to try for myself ...
So on a rainy night in Vancouver, I decided to go with a friend and thought that surely people wouldnt lineup outside in such a weather... but I was wrong! After a 45 min wait outside, we finally got in only to sit and wait another couple of minutes and smell the food ... it was painful ;)
Then we got a table and looked at the menu. Everything looked so good how could we decide on something when we were so hungry at this point... so many choices we couldnt get to try all we wanted which means i need to go back at some point!
Anyways, I got the premium red house wine ... not sure about that premium description though... housewine is housewine i would say.
As appetizers we got a plate of hummus with pita bread from the oven and a plate of olives and Greek Cheese. The hummus was delicious and oily hmmm so I ate a lot of it but needed to leave some space for the rest of the meal.
The olive plate and Greek cheese was good as well even though i dont really like Greek cheese normally I ate some and it was good mixed with the different types of olives coming with this plate it was a great combination.
For the main plate I got lamb on the bone and my friend got the half chicken plate.
The portions were really big and full of colors thanks to the vegetables. I think the vegetables were really impressive in their own homemade sauce it was actually really good and helped the plate to live up to my standards ;) It is really rare that I care so much about the vegetables but this time it was perfect. Big potatoes and rice(meh) accompanied the lamb as well. The lamb itself was so tender and juicy and easy to get from the bone. It was melting in my mouth as I was eating it. Hmmm yummy :)
The chicken plate I heard was really good as well but I cant describe it so well as I didnt taste it.
The service was really friendly, fast and good in general.
This restaurant received so many awards in the last years which can be seen on the walls of the place. The interior of the restaurant is really charming with his columns everywhere it feels you are in Greece somewhere. Lighting is low so you feel alone in this beautiful place.
i recommend it even if you have to wait in line for a while it is worth it :)