Last weekend, I rode the 12 hours in the car to Seattle with my brother, Caleb, and mother to deliver Caleb back to school. While we were there, it was determined that we should do some shopping, particularly because I have been charged with the task of catering a party for some friends. The food is to be Thai and just hors d’oeuvres. I have been negligent with my photography, so there are fewer pictures than I would like.
My first foody experience was in a wee little place on Capitol Hill called Glo’s, very near where my brother lives, which serves only breakfast. They have really excellent Hollandaise, and truly supERB scrambled eggs and hash browns. High on MY list of favorite breakfast places, I’ll tell YOU.
Later, we walked down to the Pike Place Market, where we didn’t buy anything, but where it is so much fun to walk around because it is such a feasty for the EYES. Above and below are some pictures.
Pictured below, a great bakery, and close by, Sur Le Table, a famoose kitchen supply store:
Our last, and most important stop was at Uwajimaya market, which is like the Whole Foods of Asian food. I had a list of ingredients that can’t be found in Great Falls: lemongrass, kaffir leaves, Thai (Red) basil, galanga root, palm sugar, tamarind, Thai chilies, and glass noodles. We also bought spring roll wrappers and coconut milk for the better prices and selection. There were many rawther exotic-looking things that we didn’t find, like these really long mountain potatoes that a woman explained grow horizontally, three feet below ground, and these fruits that look like oranges from the top, but if you turn them sideways you’ll see that they are many-fingered and kind-of octopus-esque. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera for this. It was a great outing, especially after having gone out for really good Thai food the previous evening with my uncle in Bellevue.
I’m hoping I can get the Thai basil to last until I start making the food for the party, which isn’t ’til the end of the month. So far the menu is as follows: Thai corn cakes, spring rolls, grilled shrimp with some kind of Thai garlic-y sauce, these great things called Thai toasts, which usually involve pork but which I was taught to make with this meat-substitute called Smart Ground, which is very good, and for the meat eaters, some kind of skewer item involving chicken. I’m also planning on making several other Thai sauces and maybe a curry. Wish me luck!
