Schielke

Katie and I had valentines day lunch at Le Pichet. I had their version of Raclette, which was very very good. Katie had the onion soup and was quite happy with it. good ol le pichet!

Jebus!

Anybody have a rec for a decent Venice hotel room for under 170 euros a night? I am still searching the various Websites, but would love recs based on personal experiences. Thanks!!! Ben FYI, I have reserved an apartment in Florence for 5 days. It is a couple blocks from the Duomo and looks pretty sweet.

FG what kind of equipment are you using? From all that I can gather, equipment makes a huge difference in how your espresso turns out. It is quite the investment to say the least. Ben

Another nameless thread

Thanks Pan! If you have any suggestions for Florence that you think might miss the guidebooks, please do tell.

Which Terre is best? We were thinking this place might be fun!

Ok, Tickets have been purchased! Here is what we plan to do (roughly) 4/18-- I am arriving in Venice on April 18th around noon. 4/19-- Venice 4/20-- Leave Venice during the day sometime by train to Florence. Spend night in Florence. 4/21-- Florence 4/22-- Florence 4/23-- Florence 4/24-- Florence- Pick up rental car either this day or the next 4/25-- Tuscany- Not sure where to go on this day, but the coast might be nice. Find a place to stay on the fly. 4/26-- Tuscany/Villa Min.- Head to Villa Minnozo that afternoon 4/27-- Villa Min 4/28-- Tuscany or somewhere between there and Milan 4/29-- Drive into Milan and drop off car. Stay in Milan 4/30-- Milan 5/1-- Head home at the ass-crack of dawn. At this point, I think I am at the stage of filling out the things to do in places when I am there. I am certainly open to recs of places to stay or see when tooling around tuscany. Again, thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate all of your comments. Ben

I want some white truffle flavored doritos.

Are you a cop?

Snipes Mt makes a pilsner that I remember enjoying.

Damn fine Mole tacos at a little taco truck just off of 405 at 124th Ave in Kirkland. It is in the Shell Gas station parking lot right next to Taco Time and across the street from the old burger king. Ben

Jitters man......Jitters

Blacklisted!

Cool, so has anybody ever distilled beer?

Any suggestions for reputable beef producers in the NW?

Wow, sounds great! Question: When does beer stop being beer and start being a form of wine or spirit? Ben

Seattle- Beer or Salmon

I dropped the ball on the pics, hopefully I will have enough time tonight. Ben

When we arrived, I noticed that Matt and Laurie had a little buddy with them who will soon be my cartoon buddy. She was sleeping in this pic, but woke up during our meal to say hi and get a gulp of the spicy hot pot. She was disapointed with the lack of beef honeycomb though and went back to sleep. We ordered both kinds of dumplings and later in the meal were informed by our server that we had unlimited dumplings on the house!!! Jackpot! Tofu! Quite nice, it soaked up the hot pot-y flava' Beef! There were piles and piles of raw beef floating around. Pork! Quite good, we also had Lamb and fish, which were fantastic. The Pot! The Pot later in the evening, it was getting very tassty at this stage. We had fun biting sichuan peppercorns and numbing the tips of our tongues. We should do it again! Ben

Had a fun time last night with my first hot pot. Quite tasty and interactive. Pics to come. Ben

See yall in an hour! Bring cash!

Strangely I poached some eggs for the first time this morning before reading your class. My mistake was boiling water. Doh! If I have some time tonight, I will try and do some more and take pics. Ben

Another option to try various beers is to go to the Taphouse in Downtown Bellevue where they have over 140 beers on tap at any given time. Many of these are local. Ben

Me Too, Mary McCranks sounds interesting. I am disapointed that the Web site menu link does not work though. Ben