May 2019 – Page 2 – The Jellybeans Edit

Morning Sweets from Top Pot Doughnuts, Bothell

This morning, bro decided to rush over to the Bothell branch of Top Pot Doughnuts for our breakfast.

Top Pot Doughnuts is one of Seattle’s homegrown coffee and doughnut shops. It came about in a small brick storefront in north Capitol Hill, and now boasts of several branches in Washington and Texas.

The store’s interiors blend the vintage aesthetic with a cozy feel, a nice and quiet place to enjoy your morning sweets.

If, however, you feel like munching on your doughnuts while enjoying the brisk morning air and the beginnings of the day’s sunshine, head on outdoors.

Today, however, bro had the doughnuts to-go, so a dozen of these freshly-made treats were waiting for us when we came down for breakfast.

The ones I was able to taste include:

Raspberry Bismark Filled Doughnut. A decadent doughnut plump and heavy because it’s filled to bursting with raspberry filling.

Salted Caramel Old-Fashioned Doughnut. One of Top Pot Doughnuts most popular variants, this doughnut is crumbly on the outside and moist on the inside, which sets off its salted caramel topping quite nicely.

Pink Icing Feather Boa Doughnut. One of the store’s signature cake doughnuts, this has the exotic combination of sweet pink icing and coconut shavings.

These lovely treats were a sweet start to the day!

And here’s a cute bit of trivia for you: Top Pot got its name from an old, rusty vintage neon sign that the owners bought from a boarded-up Chinese restaurant named “Topspot.” After years in storage before being repaired, the “S” fell off, leaving the words “Top Pot.” They decided to adopt this name, as a way of blending the old with the new.

This Top Pot Doughnuts branch is located at 18001 Bothell Everett Highway, Bothell, WA 98012, open weekdays from 6am to 6pm and weekends from 7am to 6pm. For inquiries, call 206-631-2061.

Other branches are located at:

609 Summit Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102 (Tel: 206-323-7841)
2124 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121 (Tel: 206-728-1966)
6855 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115 (Tel: 206-525-1966)
325 West Galer, Seattle, WA 98119 (Tel: 206-631-2120)
10600 NE 9th Place, Bellevue, WA 98004 (Tel: 425-457-7440)
1235 Maple Street, Issaquah, WA 98027 (Tel: 425-270-6161)
720 Third Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 (Tel: 206-454-3694)
1416 NW 46th Street, Seattle, WA 98107 (Tel: 206-454-3767)
590 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109 (Tel: 206-995-8296)
16095 Cleveland St, Redmond, WA 98052 (Tel: 425-497-8002)
815 N 10th Street #F, Renton, WA 98057 (Tel: 425-291-7483)
1206 Madison Street, Seattle, WA 98104 (Tel: 206-708-7244)
888 Western Avenue Suite E, Seattle, WA 98104 (Tel: 206-466-1729)
11701 97th Lane NE, Kirkland, WA 98034 (Tel: 425-307-1540)
2758 Alki Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116 (Tel: 206-466-6839)
101 Stewart Street, Seattle, WA 98101 (Tel: 206-269-5066)
2724 N Proctor Street, Tacoma, WA 98407 (Tel: 253-433-3852)
150 Sunset Ave S, Edmonds, WA 98020 (Tel: 425-582-2579)

For more details, visit www.toppotdoughnuts.com.

Check out the other restos I’ve tried in the Washington state area:

Ramen dinner at Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, Bellevue

I’ve been going through my #RamenPhase for several years now and it shows no sign of abating.

And why should it?

Slurping on some tasty, steaming-hot ramen is one of the most comforting things to do, specially on a chilly spring evening in the first week of my family’s visit to the Pacific Northwest.

That night, we ventured out to the beautiful city of Bellevue for dinner after a round of malling. From the mall, we walked across the Bellevue Downtown Park to the local branch of Hokkaido Ramen Santouka to enjoy the crisp spring air and to work up our appetites.

This ramen restaurant is quite familiar to us as it has several outlets in the Metro Manila. It has become one of go-to ramen places because of its tasty ramen and katsu dishes that fave become family favorites.

The restaurant was founded in Asahikawa, Hokkaido in Japan by Hitoshi Hatanaka when he produced the tonkotsu (pork bone) soup, the flavorful base of the restaurant’s ramen dishes. The soup is made by hand in all of the chain’s outlets in Japan and abroad; the process involves simmering the pork bones for twenty hours, then adding in vegetables, dried fish, kelp and other savory ingredients as well as seasonings, resulting in a mild but tasty broth. Hokkaido Ramen Santouka’s bowls are also specially made, with a specific thickness that slows the cooling down of the broth, allowing diners to enjoy their ramen in steaming-hot soup for as long as possible.

Upon arriving, we entered our name in the tablet provided so that we can be part of the wait list, one of the innovations that we haven’t yet encountered back home.

The place was cozy and frenetic with activity, from new customers being ushered in and the orders and requests being called out.

For tonight’s meal, our group got for ourselves several orders of our favorites:

Shio Ramen. The restaurant’s signature dish featuring a milky white salt-based broth, firm hand-pulled noodles, slices of marinated chashu pork belly and more.

Neginanban Ramen. The resto’s spiciest ramen variant topped with chashu, fried onions, onions and jalapenos.

Karamiso Ramen. A miso-based ramen with bit of red chilis to spice it up.

Tonkatsu. Deep-fried pork cutlet covered in crispy panko breadcrumbs and served with a tangy katsu sauce.

With our ramen and katsu orders, we also availed of sides such as the aji-tama (soft-boiled egg marinated in a soy-based sauce) and gyoza (pan-fried dumplings filled with minced pork).

With our dinner at Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, the fam was able to enjoy some of the flavors we love back home right here in Bellevue.

This Hokkaido Ramen Santouka branch is located at 103 Bellevue Way, NE, Suite 3, Bellevue, WA 98004, open daily from 11am to 9pm. For inquiries or reservations, call +1 425 4620141.

For more details, visit www.santouka-usa.com.

Check out the other restos I’ve tried in the Washington State area:

Ice Cream Time at Diamond Knot, Mukilteo

One afternoon, after sightseeing at the Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, my bro treated the fam to ice cream at the nearby Diamond Knot Brewery and Alehouse.

Diamond Knot first made a name for itself for its craft beers made by the company founders Bob Maphet and Brian Sollenberger. It was named after the cargo ship the Diamond Knot which was wrecked in 1947 and is now a renowned dive sites in the Pacific Northwest. The company serves as a tribute by the founders – both of whom are avid divers – to the salvage crew of the original Diamond Knot, for their perseverance; they aimed to replicate the tenacity of salvage crew in their own struggles in educating the local market about craft beer.

For our late afternoon sweet treat, the focus was on the hand-scooped ice cream that can be ordered to-go through one of the restaurant’s windows, which include:

Huckleberry. Smooth and creamy ice cream that features the sweet and tart taste of local huckleberries.

Chocolate Chip Mint. The rich sweetness of chocolate chips mixed into a fresh minty ice cream.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. A yummy ice cream mixed with chocolate chips and bits of cookie dough.

These yummy frozen treats are priced USD3 for single scoop and USD5.5 for double scoops, with additional USD0.5 for a sugar cone and USD1 for a waffle cone.

These frozen goodies were just the right treats for the fam to enjoy on that beautiful sunny afternoon.

Diamond Knot Brewery and Alehouse is located at 621 Front Street, Mukilteo, WA 98275, open weekdays from 10am to 1am and weekends from 8am to 1am. For inquiries, call (425) 5128080.

For more details, visit www.diamondknot.com.

Check out the other restos I’ve tried in the Washington State area:

Breakfast Takeout at 85C Bakery Cafe, Lynnwood

Yesterday, the second day of our family in the Evergreen State, my brother took us to his favorite pastry shop, 85C Bakery Cafe.

85C got its name from its belief that coffee holds its flavor best at a steady temperature of 85 degrees Celsius. Its name is a statement of the cafe’s commitment to serving handcrafted coffee of the highest quality.

Each 85C store has its own in-shop bakery with a wide variety of pastries baked fresh every hour.

These pastries were the reason for our visit yesterday afternoon: the plan was to buy some of the store’s freshly baked goods for our breakfast the next day. Our loot included:

Milk Toast (USD3.00). A loaf with a fresh and natural milk taste.

Taro Puff Pastry (USD2.50). This puff pastry is light, flaky, and layered with delicious taro filling inside.

Milk Pudding (USD2.00). A traditional Japanese style soft bread with vanilla custard inside.

Garlic Cheese (USD2.00). A soft textured bread topped with our signature garlic spread, mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Cheese Dog (USD2.20). Soft bread wrapped around a hot dog, with cheddar & mozzarella cheese. Baked with ketchup, light mayo, black pepper and dry parsley.

Marble Taro (USD3.00). A sweet bread made with mixed grains and filled with signature taro filling.

This morning, I had the Milk Pudding and Taro Puff Pastry for my meal while I was enjoying the crisp morning air.

While it would be optimal to consume the pastries as soon as bought but they still tasted great with my morning coffee this morning.

This 85C Bakery Cafe outlet is located at 18700A 33rd Avenue W Lynnwood, WA 98037. For inquiries, call (425) 6722885.

Another outlet may be found at 501 S Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104.

For more details, visit www.85cbakerycafe.com.

Dimsum time at Jade Garden, International District, Seattle

Touchdown Seattle!

After three years, I’m back in the Evergreen State for a much-needed and well-deserved (if I do say so myself) vacay! And even better, I’ve got the whole fam with me in this US adventure.

And being Jellybeans (see what I did there?), the family’s vacay will not be complete without some food trips here there.

So which Seattle establishment did the brood try on our first few hours in the city?

Well, my bro treated us to one of his favorite Chinese dimsum haunts: Jade Garden in the International District.

Having stepped out of the airport quite late last night, we were lucky that this restaurant was still open. It’s a small casual dining Chinese restaurant where, for a relatively large party such as ours, the food is served on the lazy susan on the lazy susan on top of the table. Hot tea was also provided while we waited for our orders.

Our meal consisted of:

Minced Beef Soup Westlake Style. Traditionally, soup is served last during a Chinese meal but we requested that it be served first. This soup is made of tofu, minced beef, thinly slice shiitake mushrooms and coriander in a steaming hot starchy broth. Quite a wonderful way to warm our tummies this chilly spring evening!

Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice. A flavorful rice dish that complemented the viands we ordered. Did you know that the earliest record of fried rice appeared in the Sui dynasty? Stir-frying rice in garlic and soy sauce with meat and vegetables was thought to be a way to re-use leftovers from previous meals into a new hot dish.

Mongolian Beef. Strips of tender beef sauteed in a mildly spicy (as we requested) sauce of onions and chilis.

Fish Fillet with Roast Pork Hot Pot. One of the resto’s off-menu daily specials, it has quite a lot of everything: fish, pork, tofu, mushroom and veggies.

Deep-fried Stuffed Shrimp Tofu. A variation of Hubby’s favorite crispy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside battered tofu dish, this one has a plump piece of shrimp that adds to the flavor and texture of the dish.

Steamed Pork Siumai, Steamed Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings and Steamed Pork Buns. These steamed dimsum fare are quite familiar to us since they have counterparts back home.

The food was served promptly by friendly and helpful wait staff. The servings are quite large and we had some leftovers which we heated up for an unusual yet still tasty breakfast the next day.

All in all, it was a nice welcoming meal for the fam!

Jade Garden is located at 424 7th Avenue South, International District, Seattle 98104, open Mondays to Thursdays from 9am to 2.30am, Fridays to Saturdays from 9am to 3.30am and Sundays from 9am to 1am. For inquiries and reservations, call +1 206 6228181.

For more details, visit www.jadegardenseattle.com.