Olive Oyl

Here comes another round of Katie, in this post referred to as Olive Oyl for reasons soon to be revealed.  It took her weeks, months, before Olive would admit to me the one food she loathed without ever having tasted.  She wouldn't tell me for fear of what I might make her do*. So, I started guessing.  Can you imagine how long it would take to guess a food Katie hadn't tried?  Well, that's not hard, but how about one that she hadn't tried that already caused her violent reaction? It took a while, but for the sake of this blog was a worthy cause.  I finally guessed it:

Now, I know what you're thinking.  What about when you were a kid and you put them on your fingers?  Or at Thanksgiving when you're passing them around the table?  In a dirty martini?  Tapenade? No, no, no, and no.  Somewhere in the distance, I think I just heard someone say "I've never had a dirty martini."

When she tried it, she said something like, "Oh, woe is me! Oh, help! Saveth me! Saveth me!" Olive swore up and down she'd never eat an olive, and now swears she'll never have another, but at least she tried it!

*For the record, all parties were willing to try the olive.  She tried it as a birthday present to me.

Hi, readers.  I know it's been a while, but you won't believe this post, for both its astonishing number of megapixels and Katie's latest first.  So picture this: there we were in Ballard, famous for its fishermen bars, proximity to water, great restaurants, and even the Ballard Seafood Festival.    

So we pop into the next place that catches our attention, and it's just about snack time.  Our group orders pretzels, fried pickles, German sausage and fish 'n chips.  Do you wonder which one Katie hasn't tried?  FISH AND CHIPS OMG WHAT!!!!!!!!!!  Everyone said "Katie, are you drunk?" and she said "Yes!" but that's beside the point.  Twenty seven years on this planet, and never had fish 'n chips.  It went down like this:
 

And then she was all:

What's next, olives?!

Keepin' it Citrus

Next up on the lineup was another citrus first: kumquat.  Kumquats are slightly larger than a grape, and also are eaten with the skin on.  Katie, with moral support, tried one. 


And she was downright angry about it.  When asked what she thought of her first kumquat, she said, "Too sour and not worth the effort."  What effort?  You just pop the lil' bugger in your mouth and autopilot to chew.  "You have to spit out all the seeds," she said while head rolling and z-snapping.  Don't catch Katie in a dark alley with a kumquat.

What's orange, bitter, and foreign to Katie?

There I was, minding my own business and unpacking my lunch.  I commented that I thought I had grabbed an orange, but mistakenly grabbed a grapefruit instead.  Katie takes a few steps closer to me, and says in a hushed voice, "I don't think I've ever had grapefruit".

 

No folks, she is not human. 

So, I sliced the fruit open and gave Katie half.  I educated her how serrated spoons can completely change the grapefruit experience.  I did neglect to tell her about a splash guard and she bravely took a squirt to the eye.  She ate her half and dodged the subsequent squirts. 

Yay for grapefruit!

The International District - pilot episode 1

In the land of hanging roast duck and humbow, we start this next foodie chapter in Seattle's International District.

While most place in the ID are Chinese, we've thrown in other firsts. Notably, one of them is not chicken feet.  Katie has refused them the last three times. 

Lone uneaten chicken foot, reserved for Katie

First sake:

And wonton soup, with add-your-own noodles and baby bok choy, or as Katie called it "whatever that is" as she pushed it aside.  Maybe next time.

whatever that is

Lastly, unagi! 

Unagi (eel)

恭喜發財 - 新年快樂!

Foodie fast track

Have you ever heard of the revolutions being made with mobile phones? Before even learning to read and write, populations in third world developing nations have fast tracked to owning mobile phones (http://tinyurl.com/7vyfxwq). How do you charge keep a smartphone charged in a village without electricity?  If you're wondering why we're talking about developing countries and cellphones; it's a great analogy to Katie's most recent food adventure!  Katie hasn't had many of the basic foods, like yams or leeks, but she took the fast track to the foodie favorites and tried:

Steak tartare

fried oysters

brussels sprouts

oysters in the raw!

Oui oui, it's foie gras

Katie wasn't the only one trying new things.  Her trusty supporters also tried beef tartare for the first time.  mmmmmm!  Thank you Walrus and Carpenter restaurant!




In other news, salty chips make her mouth hurt.  Being a foodie is hard work!

Never met a cheese she didn't like

In all the daily Starbucks ventures, Katie Kookalot had never tried the cheese danish!  The cheese danish is not just a Starbucks treat; it's a gift from the gods! In Ballard, Katie's 'hood, Larsen's bakery famously makes the best danish in town.  So to have the city's best danish right under your nose, and not have even tried it is absurd. That's like living in the Northwest, and not having Salmon for 20+ years of your life--oh, wait...

So during on Starbucks outing, I wanted to split the Danish, and was floored when Katie said her famous "I haven't had a cheese danish before" (filled in the blank with the latest). So we split this  treat:

First words after trying were "tastes good."