50 Shades of Delicious: 2 Chewsy for the Catwalk

The age old battle for foodie city supremacy in the Northwest took to the kitchen this spring.  Now if you don't live in either Portland or Seattle let us set the table for this epic battle.  Seattle is home of Starbucks and a coffee shop on each corner, grunge music, Eastside techies working at Microsoft or a wireless company (who keep Starbuck's in business), engineers building airplanes at Boeing and the iconic Space Needle.  Portland definitely gets the nod for advanced city transportation (something that Seattle can't seem to figure out), taking eco-friendly to an entirely new level, bikes, microbreweries, roses, kicked-up sneaks (home of Nike) and who can pass up the guilt-free no tax shopping. With the recent spotlight being placed on Portland with the hit IFC series Portlandia (written by and starring Fred Armisen (SNL) and Carrie Brownstein (Wild Flag vocalist/guitarist)), Seattle had to up the anti. One of our favorite restaurants Matt's in the ...

It's PRIDE week in Seattle.  The rainbow flags are out and flying proudly.  The sun has made a few guest appearances.  The energy is starting to perculate and the party is about to start.  Recently, I commented that I love pride weekend.  It made me stop and contemplate the force behind the emotion I feel during this week.  For me it's the feeling of belonging to a community, a family of people that don't judge.  It's a time where it's ok to be you-- truly yourself.  Whatever that may mean.  How often in our lives are we allowed that gift? I come from a very conservative state.  One, that although very religious, teaches that to belong and be accepted you have to look and act a certain way. It's a religion that has poured million of dollars from its members into the fight of Prop 8 (gay marriage) in California.   If you don't fit into that strict definition, you are rejected sometimes by parents and ot...

Ethan Stowell As pseudo foodies, when we heard that Seattle restaurant heavy weight and Food and Wine’s 2008 Best New Chef , Ethan Stowell (owner of the former Union, Tavolata, Anchovies  and Olives, Staple and Fancy and How to Cook a Wolf) was going to expand his empire and lay claim to the title of King of Ballard, it was like anticipating the release of the summer’s new blockbuster movie (any good ones coming out this year?).  More exciting than a new restaurant offering was the humble nature of the concept at Ballard Pizza Company .  There was new found respect for an established chef and James Beard Nominee taking his self taught Italian cuisine to a more basic level, pizza and beer.  Simple= good. After a few weeks of being open (we wanted to make sure some of the new kinks had been worked out) we ventured in on a Monday after work to check out the highly anticipated opening of the first of three new, basic concept restaurants Ethan is ...

From time to time, and on occasion we can be a spontaneous couple and will randomly have "date night."  About us alert: We tend to go out quite a bit, but typically it's planned out a month in advance (one of us does do project management for a day job).  Checking-in on Facebook everywhere we go allows us to remember the eating trail (sort of like leaving bread crumbs). As our friend Julie Hash puts it, "Don't you guys ever just stay home?"  Because of that comment, we tag her sometimes even when she isn't physically with us.  We digress so back to the story - on a recent work day when we didn't have anything penciled in, and no groceries in the house, Ro suggested that we check out a  SIFF   (Seattle International Film Festival) movie that was playing that evening.  Ro had acquired free SIFF tickets from Starbucks as part of their  "we-love-you-fridays"  so it was imperative that we use the...

The first place we visited when we arrived in Oahu was Pearl Harbor.  Ro had never been, surprisingly as a native Hawaiian.  Ro reminded FloJo that not everyone who lives in the islands takes advantage and visits the historical sites in their own backyard.  We talked about how strange it was that the Japanese have such a big presence in the islands (those that live in the islands and those that are tourists) considering the damage they did to the harbor and the bitter conflict that ensued during World War II. Although the damage was done and will forever remain one of the most memorable and iconic moments in American and Hawaiian histories, the Japanese have played a huge role in Hawai’i’s culture and especially the food.  One of the best meals we had on our trip to Hawai'i was what’s considered a basic hamburger and fries to the islanders-- the mixed plate lunch. A mixed plate can consist of many different kinds of protein, but the two scoops of rice...

Ro and FloJo Aloha and welcome to our new blog, 50 Shades of Delicious: 2 Chewsy for the Catwalk.  You might be asking yourself, "Who are you and what the beeswax does your blog name mean?" Okay, no one uses beeswax anymore, but we want to keep the first blog G rated-- let’s see how well we do.   About Us: Our blog greeting today starts with Aloha (conveniently both hello and good-bye in Hawaiian).  We chose "aloha" because half of the writing staff (and by staff we mean unpaid, untrained bloggers who think blogging seems really fun) consists of a beautiful Hawaiian, Ro, transplanted to Seattle to attend Seattle U. Additionally, we just got back from a vacation to four Hawaiian islands (Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Lana'i).  A shout out to her co-worker Kim (coincidentally also from Hawaii) who recently started a blog,  Vintage Modern  and got us thinking about the idea.  The other half of the writing staff, FloJo (a nickname from hig...