When you say Switzerland, I bet the first thing that comes to your mind is fondue.

Here's just a quick run down of the food we tried in Switzerland.



While we were walking along the streets of Lucerne we bumped into a few well-dressed young crowd whom were assuming is out to go clubbing or partying. The city is very clean and even if it's dark out already we feel very safe walking out in the street (as opposed to Paris where you have to always watch out for gypsies).

view from the restaurant

...and here's a very crappy photo of my mt titlis ID pass with the cable cars in the background

for a complete Switzerland travel blog go to: http://autumntuesday.blogspot.com/2014/09/i-wanna-be-swiss-miss.html 

It was Memorial Day weekend and we were enjoying our dinner at a revolving restaurant called Chart House on top of the Tower of Americas in San Antonio, Texas when we decided we want to go try the restaurant at the Space Needle too. Yes, in Seattle.

So we booked our flights for the July 4th weekend.


1st day.
Our flight was (PHL) 3:54pm - (SEA) 6:48pm. Duration, 5 hours and 54 minutes. We drove to Smart Park (hubby's favorite airport parking) around past noon.


Most of the restaurants are closed and we ended up having dinner at a French Brasserie called Cafe Campagne. I ordered their Duck Confit and the hubby ordered Coq Au Vin. We both enjoyed our dinner.

Duck Confit photo from their Cafe Campagne's website

2nd Day.

outdoor dining place

dry blood anyone?

Woke up early to have my Jollibee breakfast. I ordered beef tapa and hubby had his chicken joy and spaghetti, his favorite combination.
Then we head back to downtown Seattle to buy a ticket for the  Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.  We got there 5 minutes late for the noon tour so we had to wait another hour for the 1pm tour. We just spent the next 45 minutes in an outdoor resto called Delicatus.

Hubby ordered wine while I ordered diet coke, which they don't have and they gave me (what they claim is like a diet coke)  Dry Blood Orange Soda, instead. I just drank half of it and gave the rest to the hubby. It tastes like flavored club soda.









Then we headed to the Pike Place Market  next, just because I really want to go to the First Starbucks store (yeah, yeah, jologs alert, I don't care, lol).

piroshky bakery

I'm not really a die-hard Starbucks fan, but I want to see it for bragging rights, lol. So we went to Pike Place Market first. There are lots of artworks and some weird stuff being sold there and of course fresh fish, veggies and fruits. We really didn't stay there too long and was just passing by.

While we were on our way to Starbucks we saw this long line at Piroshky and we got curious. So hubby and I decided to divide and conquer, lol. I went in line at the Piroshky while the hubby proceeded to Starbucks. One of Piroshky's best sellers is Beef and Cheese so I ordered that and most people in line were ordering Potato and Cheese so I ordered that too.


We like the Beef and Cheese very much but not so much with the Potato and Cheese. It doesn't taste bad but I guess it was just overshadowed by the Beef and Cheese because we tasted that first. The line at the Piroshky moved fast so even if it has a long line there's really not too much waiting compared with Starbucks line that the hubby swears never moved. We made it though and we bought the famous First Starbucks Store mug and I also decided to get their vintage-design tumbler.

inside the first starbucks store

The highlight of our day 2 was our dinner inside the Space Needle. This structure has been around since December 1961. There's a revolving restaurant at the very top called Sky City, which we made sure we book in advance. Tip: try to dress nice (no jeans, no shorts) when you go there for your reservation. This would give you higher chances of getting a good table, yes, the window seat.

space needle: it's old but it never gets old

cheers

Our hotel is very close to the Monorail, so we took a monorail ($2.25 fare, one way) to the Space Needle. When we got to the Space Needle, there is a separate elevator for the restaurant. From the Monorail walk towards the Space Needle and walk to you right until you find another entrance door that has the SkyCity sign. Go to the receiving area and inform them of your reservation. They would then give you those lighting/vibrating thingie that would tell you if your table is ready. Before we went up the elevator the receptionist told us that even if our reservation is not until 30 minutes (we got there early) after we reached the view deck (it's the first stop) she suggested that we go one floor down (where the restaurant is) to request for a window seat. We were with some other Sky City diners who were dressed in capris and shorts and jeans in the elevator but they weren't given instructions like we had. So as instructed, after everyone got off the elevator to the viewing deck, the hubby and I went one flight down to the restaurant's reception area. I let the hubby do the talking and we were amused when the receptionist immediately said: "we actually have one available right now!". Which means we didn't have to wait for that vibrating thingie to vibrate/light-up, they just walk us straight to our table by the window.

Awesome.

view of downtown Seattle from the revolving restaurant

The awesome-ness of the night didn't stop there. The food is exceptionally good too. I ordered the Carlton Farms Pork chop and the hubby ordered the Wild King Salmon and a bottle of Beringer (my brand) White Zinfandel that the hubby and I shared. We finished our meal with a dessert called Lunar Orbiter (see video). We're supposed to just order one and share but the hubby pressed the 'stop recording' button while I was giving him the camera that we weren't able to catch the dessert "show" on video, so the hubby ordered another one, haha. Labo eh no, haha. But it's good so it's still not a waste of money.



LunarOrbiter from bluemarlinfish on Vimeo.

Oh, and they give you a complimentary professional photo at the restaurant too. There's a lady photographer going around and asking if you want your picture taken (of course we said yes!), took our photos and gave us a card that we need to scan to get our pictures. We got ours during sunset and it turned great. After dinner we just scanned the picture card at their viewing deck (one floor up from the restaurant). They would just give you an option to send it to you via email. Sorry, no prints.

After dinner we were contemplating on going to a bar and get some drinks (we want to check out a particular bar we saw in the magazine but the name slips me at the moment) but we decided to just skip it. It would be an early day for us the next day because we'll be driving to Portland and Mt. St. Helens. We called it a day at 11:30pm.


3rd Day.


Voodoo.

A few years ago I have chanced upon this show on the Food Network about a certain doughnut house in Portland and I remember writing it on my white board at my old apartment so I would remember it.

That place is Voodoo Doughnuts.

left: maple bacon right: voodoo doll doughnut

notice the pink box (click image to see the whole photo)

We decided to go to the farthest destination first, which is Portland, where the Voodoo Doughnuts is, before going to Mt. St. Helens. I figured if we do Voodoo Doughnuts last, we might get so tired from the Mt. St. Helens tour and get tempted to skip going to Portland because it's farther. I'm sure glad we did this first.
We left Seattle at 6:45 am and we got to Portland around 9:30 am but the line is long already! We had to wait for almost an hour for our turn but it's worth it. I was looking online what we should order that we can eat right there and we narrowed it down to maple bacon and voodoo doll. I'm not really expecting too much on the maple bacon, I just want to order it for, yep, the bragging rights, lol, but I was surprised that it's actually good! The hubby isn't really thrill about his voodoo doll doughnut either, the raspberry filling is turning him off, but he was surprised too when he took a bite. The raspberry filling and the chocolate frosting on doughnuts go well together.

the signature voodoo doughnut

voodoo doughnuts waiting to be frosted

We also ordered a dozen assorted to take home with us back to Philly.  We just asked them to give us two voodoo dolls and the rest can be anything.  By the way, if you plan to bring home a box bring a bag with a wide base to make it easier to carry the box. Try to order 2 half a dozen so the box would be smaller and it would be easier to find a bag (ie: recyclable grocery bag) that you can put the boxes to. Also, it would be better if you have a cooler to store the boxes of doughnuts at least until you're flight back home. Ours got melted and the voodoo donuts looked like it has been massacred, lol.

it already melted when we came back from portland but it didn't change the taste (2 voodoo dolls & captain crunch not in photo)

Another tip, even if the doughnut name/flavor sounds weird (like cock and balls, dirt doughnut, tex ass, just to name a few) or the doughnut itself looks funny/disgusting you can't go wrong with any doughnuts that has chocolate, maple or cream frosting. Take the bacon maple for example, the maple frosting is sooo good and the bacon, oddly enough, added more taste to it. Reminds me of champurado and daeng (sweet and salty combination). Anyway, their frostings are really good, you're in good hands. I like the Toasted coconut and Marshall matters too. Click me for more flavors.

all photos and videos by yours truly, please do not use without permission.

I've always heard about how pretty San Antonio is. How it's the Venice of United States. Well, finally I got to see it.

Valencia Riverwalk Hotel

sunset view at The Chart House revolving restaurant

We didn't want to go straight to bed after dinner so we walked along the riverwalk. Most of the places were closed already but it was still an interesting walk.

riverwalk at night

Day 2 (May 25): 
We went to Natural Bridge Cavern for our day two activity which is only a 30-minute drive from downtown San Antonio (it's $19.99/person). I also tried their ziplining
 activity which I enjoyed thoroughly ($17.99/person for two zip lines).

We then went to see Austin, Texas.
We just visited the Capitol building and the famous 6th street. Then we had lunch at Salt Lick at RoundRock for some real Texan food. The hubby like their brisket very much. I like my meal too, and the sauce, O-M-G! There's regular and hot, both are good! The bread they serve is good too. I used that to make my pulled pork sandwich, too yummy!

inside texas capitol building

my meal: combo plate - bbq ribs, pulled pork, beans, potatoes, coleslaw

Day 3(May 26): 

We wanted to try this hole in the wall Mexican place for breakfast called Grumpy's. We learned about that place while overhearing a conversation from one of the visitors at the Natural Bridge Cavern. We wanted to go there for lunch after the caving but it was already closed when we got there (they close at 2:00pm and opens at 8:00am). So we went back there the next day on our way back to San Antonio from Austin.


I love my fried chicken steak but it's just too big. I think I only got to eat just 1/8 of it. The hubby liked his order very much too, it's called huevos rancheros con carne guisada w/ beans, hashbrowns and tortillas. He specially liked it with their hot sauce.

riverwalk cruise tour

Since now we have the whole day free, we decided to finally do our river cruise tour ($8.25 per person, available from 9am til 9pm). The hubby kept oohing-aahing. It's obvious he likes San Antonio very much. He thinks it's better than Paris, I don't. I mean, I like San Antonio too, and wouldn't mind coming back but no, it doesn't compare to Paris. When I pointed this out to him he then explained that he's compairing our River Sienne cruise with this riverwalk cruise tour. I think I kinda get what he meant. You won't see restaurants and shops along the river Sienne. In San Antonio, on the other hand, are rows and rows of restaurants and shops and the river even goes through a mall. I still like Paris better though, no offense San Antonio fans.

By the time we're done it's past lunch so we headed back to the riverwalk to find a restaurant. I have just one requirement though, a restaurant that serves those HUGE margarita, lol. A friend of mine suggested it and I thought that would be cool to try and so we did.

our margarita after 15min (it was actually filled to the brim)

all photos by yours truly, please do not use without permission.

this blog is a shorter version of the original san antonio blog: http://autumntuesday.blogspot.com/2013/05/san-antonio-trip.html