I had not been in Pacific Place in a hot second and whoa, it's a ghost town. Spooky. There's even a retailer aptly named "Ghost Gallery." Serious Shoppingtown Mall vibes. At least Pacific Place has two things going for it that Destiny USA doesn't, named Din Tai Fung and Haidilao, for who knows how much longer. In the 2000s there was a Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Barnes and Noble and a rather large Tiffany's.
A silver lining to RTO? Authentic Taiwanese bentos in SLU. Tastes just like the lunchboxes you buy on the train in Taiwan. Yummy and filling, $16-17 a box (though half of that is rice).
Lunch On The Plate is a food truck parked in SLU weekdays 11-2. Paul's favorite was the diced pork belly, and Joseph's favorite thing was... the rice. The nice part is portions are generous, enough to fill up a teenage boy.
Mosley and Calder, they go together like sea salt and caramel. At the Seattle Art Museum through June 1.
Every time we walk through the Seattle Art Museum, we see something we didn't notice before. At first glance, this installation looks like enlarged Xeroxed pages of the Odyssey. But the artist actually hand-drew the pages, then erased most of it. She saved little piles of eraser shreds, on display under plexi.
Would you let a 9-year-old cut your hair??
Maybe if you need a fresh cut for New Year's and you're short on time and money. My stylist confidently laughed and said, “Easy!" He actually did a pretty good job, considering it was his first time. I've definitely paid more for worse haircuts.
Landed the cover for this story about maximalism! Maximalism is all about excess and pushing the boundaries. But Seattle’s interpretation is tempered with balance and smaller doses.
Here's a link to The Seattle Times:
https://www.seattletimes.com/explore/at-home/7-design-tips-for-embracing-maximalism/
Pike Place, after the holiday crowds.
At the *second* most beautiful museum building in Seattle, the National Nordic Museum. Do you know what the first is?
That glass art is very pretty, but Dale Chihuly the artist is a divisive character. Phony or genius? What do you think?
He's a phony: He doesn't even make that glass art himself, he "art-directs" the glass blowers. Also, the Chihuly museum sits on city-owned land, and charges an arm and a leg for admission. They don't do First Thursday or museum pass, only museum month, which gives downtown hotel visitors a discount. That's not very community friendly.
He's a genius: The old Renaissance masters used hordes of assistants too. And Chihuly is an artist with disabilities. (He lost the eye in a car accident, and hurt his shoulder surfing.)
Run, don't walk, to Tacos Extranjeros! Three blocks from the Ballard TJ's, inside the all-ages Fair Isle Brewery. I had a taco craving and this hit the spot.
The owners are a cute young couple from LA, Bo and Liz, and their pop-up has only been open 2 months. Right now tacos are $3.50 each.
The salsa de habenero was picked as one of the 8 best eats of the year by The Seattle Times, but it was the taco abodaba that stole my heart. You can sit at the counter and watch the chef at work, but we sat under tents outside so I could inhale the scent of that roasting pork.
I've died and gone to taco heaven. Standing in the parking lot of a TJ Maxx eating $3 tacos al pastor from a street vendor with questionable hygiene. Tacos la Cuadra is open 7:30 to midnight and has two locations, one at Northgate and one in Rainier Beach.
Tacos! At La Conasupa in Greenwood. They're $7 apiece, which sounds like extortion, until you see it and realize it's the size of 4 regular tacos. They're known for their lamb, so we had that, plus a tall cup of horchata.
I wrote about our taco eating for Seattle's Child:
https://www.seattleschild.com/tijuana-style-taquerias-to-visit-in-seattle/
Happy new year from Seattle!
