Theatres in Seattle

This weekend was pretty enjoyable and this may end up being a bit longer post than my normal ones. So I wanted to break out my story in a few sections, please feel free to bounce around as you like (the links are clickable). I want to take the opportunity to share something fun you can do in Seattle, briefly talk about my upcoming trip to Cabo, my update on being healthier, and then just a general summary of the weekend. As usual, I hope you all get something from this post. If not, tomorrow is Coffee Monday, where I’ll be sharing a fun place to enjoy coffee/tea in Seattle (other than Starbucks).

• Cafe Nordo
• Off to Cabo
• Losing Weight and Body Image
• Summary of the Weekend

Cafe Nordo

Do you enjoy dinner theatre? I do, I mean now I do. I’ve never been so I didn’t really know what to expect. It was really fun! The show at Cafe Nordo was a spin on Twin Peaks, called Lost Falls. Before I go into my review, I’d like to share the ingenious food that was served…and yes, I really do mean ingenious. From what I understand of Cafe Nordo, they are in love with breakfast food. So the five courses that were served all appeared to be foods you’d eat for breakfast. The theatre part was performed by some wonderfully, funny actors and the courses were served in between each scene. When you enter you are given a dossier, it is SUPER tiny and adorable.

The first course was supposed to resemble an egg on toast, but in actuality, the toast was a buttered oatmeal bread from Repast Bakery. The egg white was housemade ricotta, and the “yolk” was made from tomato, peppers, and saffron that were pureed together then some weird molecular gastronomy was done to it to create the shape and texture. As you can see in the picture below, the yoke did ooze.

The second course was donuts and coffee. The donut was made of mashed potato and chive and the coffee was an espangole sauce that was “spiked” with coffee. This…was amazing. The donut was a bit dense, of course, it was made from packed potato, then fried. What blew me away was the incredible espangole sauce (which I now have to make) that actually smelled like coffee. It didn’t taste strongly of coffee, you could definitely pick up those notes, but the smell…I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never had anything like this in my life. The combination of the two was great, but you definitely need to soak that “donut” a bit, because it really is quite dry.

The third course was oatmeal. Their version of oatmeal was to use oatmeal and cook it like you would risotto. I know it’s a bit hard to tell, but you can see little spring peas popping out of the sides, and on top of those spring peas (underneath the oatmeal) is some amazing, tender, poached chicken. The swirl that is meant to resemble honey or cinnamon swirl is a roasted shallot puree. The combination of everything in one bite was magnificent. I don’t know who this chef is, but she is incredible.

The fourth course was a yogurt parfait. The layers were as follows from bottom up, short rib borscht, whipped horseradish sour cream, golden beets borscht, whipped horseradish sour cream topped with crispy, crumbled bacon. I alway feel a little wary when horseradish is used because people tend to overuse it. This sour cream sauce though was perfect and balanced. You got the kick of the horseradish but it wasn’t overwhelming and went so well with the borscht. I just wish there had been more bacon…but I always wish there had been more bacon.

The fifth and final course was scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. The eggs were nitro-frozen vanilla custard and the hashbrowns was shredded apple and parsnip. The messy red on top, which is supposed to be ketchup, is a strawberry-rhubarb coulis. And yes, it was a giant pain to get that out of the bottle, just like real ketchup out of a glass bottle is.

Vibe:	Like most PNW (Pacific Northwest) venues, the dress code is casual, the environment feels really relaxed and chill. Doors open at 7, the show starts at 8, so if you go, get there early for good seats. While you wait, this amazing jazz band will play for you…and you get to hear them in between scenes as well, and of course, some background music as the play is being performed.
Cleanliness:	I didn’t check out the bathrooms (I REALLY need to start doing this), but it was clean at my table.
Service:	The waitstaff is also those that perform in the play and they were very delightful. They come by and replace your water jug frequently. They are also kind and explain every component of the dishes as they serve it.
Flavor:	Uh…you saw the pictures, the food was amazing.
Is it worth it:	YES…if you are in town for a weekend, or you live here, buy tickets ahead of time, they DO sell out. Also, be a dear and bring some cash to tip the actors. They are also your delightful waitstaff.
Website:	Cafe Nordo
Location:

Off to Cabo

This section is pretty brief, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this yet, but I am off to Cabo on Thursday and I will be there until July 4. I am super excited! I’ve never been, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m staying at a resort that has a private beach and I plan to spend most of my time working on my book and eating tacos on the beach. Yeah…tacos. I really like tacos.

And of course, I’m really excited to wear my sundresses that I haven’t worn since Hawaii. I know…it seems weird, but Seattle is a weird place to wear tropical sundresses.

Losing Weight and Body Image

Quick update, more of an update on Wednesday, but I wanted to share that I’ve lost another 3.25″. It may seem weird that I measure by inches, but as I mentioned in my first post I gain muscle like it’s going out of style, so the first month my weight either increases or stays the same and it’s so disheartening for me to weigh myself. That’s why measuring is much more important. This means in the past two weeks, I have lost a total of 6.25″ all around.

Body image is tricky…another good reason to measure yourself is that the changes are so small that you can’t see it until a couple of months sometimes…and honestly, for me, even then I can’t tell. I actually need the numbers to keep myself sane. You know how some girls are anorexic and see themselves as fat even when they are insanely skinny? I’m like that when I lose weight, I can’t see it…if I don’t measure myself I still see my body, not for what it is, but what I perceive it to be. Unfortunately, my perception of my body is that it’s larger than it actually is. That might sound crazy, but I actually didn’t know this until my friend pointed out to me how ill fitting my clothes were, they were all too big…but I always thought they weren’t. So I have to do a lot of resetting in my head with how I see myself and that is the biggest struggle for me in this journey and it always has been. As I’ve been getting older, I’ve been smarter and able to realize what’s going wrong and why my view on my body is sabotaging my progress.

If you’ve ever felt this way or see yourself this way, you can understand, and maybe you have suggestions on how you got through it. If so, I’d love to hear.

Summary of the Weekend

All in all, it was an excellent weekend. I have a ton of personal life projects that I’m working on:

• I work full-time for a software company
• I’m trying to make sure I’m working out everyday and doing meal prep
• I’m working on my novel (yes, my first, so it’s a lot of work, it’s a historical fiction)
• I’ve come up with an app idea so I’ve been doing some UX design for it before I start development
• I’m on a board for the Emerald City Writer’s Conference, which is happening in October
• And last but not least, still, working on my Kanji. My progress has slowed since I left Japan since I’m not surrounded by it anymore, but I’m still trudging along

This weekend was great though, I went to brunch with a friend, made a dessert I’ve been wanting to make for awhile, saw bits of the Pride parade, had a BBQ where I made some awesome potato salad (recipe to come), and…I am prepping for Cabo. I would say, this was a great weeked! I hope your weekend was as fun as mine!