rockdoggydog

Another refugee from 'Behind the Orange Curtain' chimes in... > The thing I miss most, though, is mexican "plate food": combination plates of enchiladas and rellenos covered in chile sauce, alongside tacos and other stuff... 2 items for 7.99, 3 for 8.99, plus rice and fijoles. The closest I've seen 'round here is Rosita's in Greenwood, but even theirs is a pale imitation of El Conejo, Don Jose, and their ilk. FWIW, I missed plate food even when I lived in SF, but at least there I could get a good burrito to console myself. I also miss the so-cal pie-and-burger diners, like Pie 'n' Burger in Pasadena, Polly's Pies in Orange (and elsewhere), and pre-chainification Marie Callender's. ~Anita Villa Park HS class of (mumble) Oh yeah the Mexican combo plates, I miss Avila's El Ranchito combo plates, so much goodness. I totally forgot about Polly's until you mentioned it but yeah I loved their chicken dinner and then lemon meringue pie, oh man! I'm sorry to hear about the Yoshinoya's that horrible news as I am a Tustin High alum, I wrote off El Pollo Loco a long time ago, they were so good when they opened, it was like getting the grilled chicken you'd find at road side stands in Baja without having to take a road trip, and then they diversified, stupid expanded menus. Oh I almost forgot one, dim sum at Seafood Palace in Garden Grove/Costa Mesa everything there was great but the best part was the turnip and taro cakes that they would grill table side on the dim dum trolley, that's the way to do dim sum. rocky

The wines are a great idea, the other nice thing also is you can get half bottles sometimes and further increase the range of items you can include. rocky

Why not put together your own basket of goodies from the area instead of trying to find that one thing. Go through the Market and pickup a few small things like teas from Market Spice, jams, honey, and then get a small box of say four truffles from Fran's? rocky

I grew up in Southern California, specifically Orange County and I really really miss In N' Out, there is nothing on earth like a Double Double with everything and a strawberry shake, especially in the summer when many of the In N' Outs sourced produce from local farms. Orange County is very strange in that it is a densely populated suburbia dotted with farms all over the place. I also miss Green Burrito when it was just one shack not the chain blandness that it is now. Here's a kicker though, there is one chain that I miss, Yoshinoya - Beef Bowl, it's actually a chain from Japan but well, they had the most wonderful dish that consisted of paper thin sliced beef sauteed with onions with their seasonings mixed served over rice and pickled ginger on the side, man I miss that. I also miss Diedrich's Coffee, my first exposure to espresso, there was one on my way to school and thsi was the location where they roasted the beans for all of the locations extant at the time, about five locations. Walk in in the morning and breath in the aroma of roasting beans ahhh heaven. The last thign I really miss is proper Shoyu Ramen, I can't find it here for all that we have a sizable Japanese population, it's just non-existent. I think that's everything that I actually miss. rocky

Bucking the trend of Indian buffets here, I am kind of partial to the buffet at Cocina y Cantina on Broadway, really good roasted chicken and guacamole, everything else is pretty standard. Also the China Star buffet in Ballard is my idea of bad chinese food heaven, because in addition to the good bad chinese food, they also serve real items like ears, trip, and pig intestines. Sorry, I have a soft spot for offal meats, except liver. rocky

Head up to Red Mountain outside Yakima, there's a nice cluster of wineries up there that are top notch. In fact I would recommend Yakima over Walla Walla in general. Walla Walla gets most ofthe press nationally but I think that they're starting to believe the hype and just don't turn out as many spectacular wines as they used to. Try out the Tri-Cities area also, there are quite a few wineries clustered there that are worth trying. Stop by the Washington Wine Commission site at www.washingtonwine.org they have some trip planning tips on the site as well as maps that show the clusters of wineries. Have fun!

Ditto on the delivery but also a 24/7 beignet place with chicory coffee. mmmmmm

Amen Sister! rocky

The room at the Capitol Club is actually free, you just have to leave a deposit against a minimum tab. I went to birthday party there a last year and it was great, pretty decent hors d'ouvres too. Rocky

Often Central Market will have some fresh wasabi root. Try some of the smaller asian markets around the International District, some of them have it in the spring. Rocky

The Owl and Thistle downtown has some great fish and chips as well, and usually really good soups. Rocky