Skip to main content

Home for the holidays


I spent Christmas in Seattle and had a lovely time there with my brother and sister, father and his partner and especially my niece. In a stroke of luck my mom, who resides in Arizona, showed up the day before I left. So with the exception of my brother who is too-busy-for-anything-because-I-am-in-law-school-so-there, I got to see all of my family.

My knitted gifts were well received. I made a panta and mitt set for my sister that she said she really liked. My dad got his cashmere scarf that I have been working on. And my neice really took to the curly whirly scarf I crocheted for her. Unfortunately, I had some card issues in my digital camera and lost some photos of the recipients wearing my gifts. :sigh: But I have a nice one of my dad wearing the scarf to the right.

One of my goals was to eat as much Pho as possible while in Seattle. (pho is vietnamese noodle soup) It's just about my most favoritest food in the world. I love the broth, the rare beef and beef brisket, the cilantro, the basil, the lime, the beanspouts, chiles, well you get the idea. I think it's the combination of flavors and the fresh vs. the cooked that gets my tastebuds going.

So right after leaving the airport with my brother and sister we headed to Pho Van in Rainier Beach. This is my sister's pho hangout. And yum! We also had 3 bean desert. It's kind of strange at first for a western pallette, but really good. It consists of 3 different sweetened beans, layered with ice and cream. You mix it all up and slurp it down.

But that was the only bowl of Pho for me. We ended up going to a fabulously good vietnamese restaurant called Tamarind Tree in Little Saigon in the International District. Review Here. Another Review Here It was absolutely amazing. If you are ever in Seattle you must eat here!

I had marvelous Mojitos, fabulous platters of different foods that you could roll up with herbs and dip into sauces, and life changing roasted coconut icecream. They make it everyday and it's to die for. It tastes just like those samoa girlscout cookies sans chocolate. Oh. My. God.

It's owned by the same family that owns Pho Van (different siblings). Good cooking really runs in that family.

Well I didn't spend my whole vacation eating, but this is one of the big standouts. I will post about my new castons and christmas loot a little later.

Comments

JustApril said…
Sounds like you had a great trip! I want to see Seattle someday. =)
Your Dad's scarf is really gorgeous.

I'm feeling much better, now, thanks for the well wishing! =)Did your Mom like the worried sheep T? I still crack up every time I think about it. he he he
JustApril said…
I made a button for you =)
Miri Mack said…
OMG, April! That's so cool. Thanks :-)
Mothlady said…
Roasted coconut icecream? Sounds delicious :p

And there's a new photo of you, very nice!
Mothlady said…
Oh, and a bloglist, too. And I'm on it, yay! :D
JustApril said…
You can take it, if you want.

Popular posts from this blog

Pattern: Ice Princess Panta

For a long time now I have been wanting for make something to match the fingerless mitts I made with Cayli's gorgeous home-grown, hand-dyed, handspun that she gifted me with the holiday season before last . I had some left over still but wasn't sure about the yardage. However, I had a vision of making a head band, as I find them cute and convenient for a gal that wears her hair up in the winter. And they hardly take any yarn. Originally I wanted to make a headband like the cabled panta I made before, but the gauge was all wrong. So I improvised something late the Saturday night. And here it is: I love the subtle blue striping and the feel is OMG soft. Cayli's yarn is truly amazing and was such a pleasure to knit up. Ice Princess Panta Yarn: Heavy worsted Handspun <50g Needles: US 8 and a cable needle or DPN Gauge: not critical, but a row gauge of 5 rows/inch with make a nice fitting panta 18 inches in circumfrence. Special Stitches: FC (front cross) = Slip 2 stitch

Golden Gloves

So let me just start out by saying that I didn't win my match at the Syracuse Golden Gloves, but I did have a good time, a good fight and learned a great deal. We left Ithaca before noon on friday. There were 11 fighters plus coaches riding up together in a van from GIAC. It was crowded, but fun. The guys and gals from my gym are good natured and easy going so sitting hip to hip was not uncomfortable at all. When we arrived at the fairgrounds in Syracuse, we were able to weigh in right away. After the numbers were recorded the organizers looked to find matches in your weight and experience class (coaches kind of RSVP their fighters). It turned out that I didn't have one which really bummed me out, but with the weigh ins over there was something really important to catch up on: Eating. We all went out to lunch and then came back to the fairgrounds. If you were matched up, you had to see the doctor. It turned out that while I was gone someone my weight had registered. So I was se

Boxing, Knitting, Job Search Blues

The past two months haven't been a good ones here in kung fu knitting land. I think I have been depressed. Well, I know that I have been. I mean, about two months ago I stopped doing a lot of stuff that I normally do, like blog and knit and read. And I had a few days where I was barely able to keep it together. I mean I was on the verge of crumbling into a little heap. Yes, a little heap of sad-Miriness. I thank my sister and Ms. Missy for getting me through there. I'm no longer in danger of heapness, small nor large. In fact, I feel more balanced than I have for a long while. I'm not exactly sure what brought on this bout of melancholy. I was under a lot of stress to try to find another job that fits my schedule so that I can keep my School Age Program job. I have one now that fits the bill for the time being. So that's a little better, but I really think I was suffering from some sort of post-trauma depression. I mean it felt so good to get out of my old relationship.