Pot Luck Lunch With Friends

Last year I got to know quite a few Malaysians who live in greater Seattle. We've been in Silverdale, WA for almost four years now and for the first three years, I've not met any of my fellow country mates except one, and she lives in Lacey, WA, which is about 60 miles from here. Part of the reason was definitely because of where we are. The Malaysian community in Washington is mostly concentrated on the other side of the water. Although I have this love-hate relationship with Facebook, but thanks to it, I was able to make new friends that I would otherwise, never would have known or met.

My friend Farina and I got invited to a pot luck get together last Thursday, at one of the Malaysian girls' houses. Farina just moved from California three months ago. I was introduced to her by my high school friend via Facebook a few weeks before her move so it was great to have someone from home that lives nearby (it's only 10 minutes away from my place!). It certainly does alleviate a little bit of that homesick feeling that I  always have.

We rode the Bremerton ferry to Seattle. It took us an hour to get there and I think it was too long of a ride for my squirmy baby.

It was a pretty foggy day. It got worse towards the evening. 

Meeting Kak Rossie for the first time. She's my latest friend from Facebook and it was such a pleasure to meet her in person.

Sofia and Sarah are buddies! Sofia is our host Niza's youngest daughter.

The pretty ladies. From left: Farina, Niza (our gracious host) and Rossie. All of us are from Malaysia, except Rossie. She's a Singaporean. 

Our lunch spread. These were so delicious! FYI, I didn't make any of these. I brought steamed caramel pudding, some fruit and rojak sauce which I made with Farina the day before. I totally forgotten to take pictures of them though. 

 Close up of our main dishes

One of my favorite Malay desserts - Kuih Sagu made from pearl sago. It has been years since I've had this.

Some serious discussion is going on here.

Sarah is infatuated with Sofia.

So sweet!

Thank you so much Niza for inviting us over. I had a great time hanging out with you, Farina and Rossie. Looking forward for our next meeting!

B & W

I took this picture last year from the ferry on the way back home. It was our first time to Seattle.

Daniel Plays Jazz

Sept 4 2011

We went to Seattle to watch Daniel perform at Tula's Restaurant and Jazz Club with Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra. They sounded awesome! I love their selection of songs. 

Sunday at Pike Place Market

Going to Pike Place Market today was an impromptu idea. But it's the best! I love the market, despite the price of most things would probably leave a dent in your wallet if you're planning on shopping, you know a tourist trap kinda place. There are a lot of pretty nifty little things to see apart from their famous fish market with their fish tossing to the fresh produce, the flowers, the food, the buskers etc etc etc. We got to sample some Alderwood smoked wild king salmon and man, it's good! The price - $29.99/piece. Each piece is at least a pound. We didn't go beyond sampling :-(.

The boys on the ferry. We took the one from Bainbridge Island, which I think is the closest to our place, probably around 15 minutes drive. It can get really chilly there especially when we chose to go up to the sun deck.

View of Seattle from the ferry. It's not as gloomy as it looked in the picture. It was actually a nice cloudy windy day. It takes approximately 30 minutes to get to Seattle from Bainbridge Island.

 Street view on the way to the market.

We passed the Seattle art museum, and there's no way to miss it with the towering Hammering Man at sight, hammering diligently 4 times a minute from 7am to 10 pm daily.

We're here at the market! But this is not where the fun starts, at least not to me :-).

At Crepe de France to get some coffee. Here Ezzat played with his Legos while waiting.

The fun starts here!

With everything and anything that involves food :-)

See the greenish building that looks like a warehouse on the left side? That's Seattle Aquarium.

Supposedly one of the best restaurants  in Seattle.

Has been here since 1930s

 The other side of the market

Some of the buskers or street performers. The banjo guy is pretty awesome and the boys love the guy on the right. They thought he's a real robot.

And they're going to save their money and come back for this.

And they got pretty stoked with the whimsical magic shop. Farhan ended up using his money to buy one of the magic trick kits.

What is it: A display of some of world's monstrous shoes. Not exactly a real museum, but more of a storefront pedial peep show

How it works: To view the giant shoes, put two quarters into a slot and the curtain will open, and you'll get a glimpse of some biggest footwear

Tried the pressed penny machines. The penny came out super flat with elongated shape with Space Needle picture embossed on it. 

 Cool street light.

I heart this place! The smells - intoxicating :-). The price is pretty reasonable, between $1.00 - $2.50 an oz, better than some major chain stores. For tea aficionados, this place also carries a great selection of teas. How it works here: You go around the store, sniffing all the wonderful aroma from the display jars of spices. For each of the jars, there is a written information  about the specific spice with suggestions on how to use them. While you do this, make sure you have a pencil and pad to write down your order. Both are provided by the store. You then give the order slip to the person at the counter and he or she will fill your order for you. You can choose to either have the spices freshly grounded by the store or you can ground them on your own. During busy days, this could take a while, so you can either leave the store and come back later to pick up the order or you can just wait, which could take somewhere around 10-20 minutes or even more. We chose to stay and that was pretty taxing on the boys. Oh btw, they only take cash or check.

See what I mean?

Ezzat lost his tooth the other night.

More from the market

Where we had our lunch

Luckily we passed this place after we've had our lunch. Otherwise who knows what we would get from here

One last shot before going home