Saturday, 1/22/2011

For a couple years now, Ben and I have been promising to take at least one day a month to go shoot photos.  We take photos of our family all the time, but rarely get out to take non-family photos.  Well, today we finally made it happen!  We went to Seward Park, which is located on a peninsula on the West side of Lake Washington, South of the I-90 bridge.  There is a view of Mount Rainier as you look between Seattle and Mercer Island and over Renton.  Ben got a couple great shots of the mountain while I focused on the park and neighboring community.  Katie was on my back in the ergobaby carrier with the pink camera she got from Uncle Spencer.  Mostly she took photos of my fleece:)

After the sun was done dancing on the clouds, we went to Columbia City to try a new restaurant for us.  We went to Spice Room, a Thai restaurant on Rainier Ave S.   We were a bit hesitant to go in because there was no one else in the restaurant when we first walked by.  But, we decided to be brave as long as they had a booster seat or high chair for Katie.  We are glad that they did, because the food was good.  And, by the time we left, there were many more people seated and happily eating.  When the host brought a booster seat for Katie, he also brought out a bib and kid friendly silverware.  The waitress brought Katie water in a cup with a lid and a straw and asked if she wanted to color.  Katie was immediately satisfied with our choice:)

For dinner, I had to try their Crispy Garlic Chicken to see how it compared to our West Seattle Thai favorite, Buddha Ruksa.  It was darn good.  The chicken was tender and the flavor was bold and delicious.  Ben thought it had a kind of fishy flavor to it that he didn't like, but I didn't notice it at all.  When I looked back at the menu, I saw that it is stir fried in a mix of soy and oyster sauce.  Perhaps that was the source of the fishy flavor. Anyway, Spice Room's Crispy Garlic Chicken reminded us of how Buddha Ruksa's used to be.  Lately, the chicken at Buddha Ruksa has been dry.  So, comparing the current chicken preparation from both restaurants, Spice Room wins on this dish. 

Ben ordered Swimming Rama.  It was a plate of spinach leaves, topped with sliced chicken breast and covered with warm peanut sauce.  The sauce and chicken were great, but neither of us was a fan of the warmed spinach.  I could only eat one bite of it.  Something about the warmed texture wasn't appealing.  For Katie, we ordered chicken satay (skewers) with peanut sauce.  She ate one bite of chicken and then munched on rice the rest of the meal.  The chicken satay was good, but I think one of the skewers wasn't cooked all the way through.  The lights were dim, so it was hard to know for sure, but I did stop eating that one.  

All in all, I think it is a restaurant worth going to again.  There were several other dishes that looked really good that we would want to try.