F is for Leaf Burritos

M: We went to Fu Kun Wu, the bar at Thaiku Thai restaurant in Ballard. The place has a really cool atmosphere, but the food... kind of strange. The fried tofu was good but plain, the giow tawt (deep fried crab and cream cheese won ton) was excellent and we ended up getting two plates of it. But the memorable thing was the mieng kahm, described by them as "toasted coconut, lime wedges, peanuts, ginger, red onion, Thai chili, bai cha plu leaves, and palm sugar sauce, served on an antique teakwood platter. Make your own wraps" and described by me as "make your own weird, kinda gross leaf burrito thingies". Everything on that plate tasted very strong, nothing tasted particularly good, and when wrapped together in a big leaf, it was just weird and vaguely unpleasant to eat.

I don't remember the exact drinks we had, only that they were definitely not the standard sort of things you'd see on a happy hour menu. I believe they were described as "herbal elixirs", and claimed to have various strange health benefits. One apparently has a mild hallucinogen in it, which we did not order- my brain is exciting enough as it is, thank you very much.

The plates were small and we were still hungry afterwards. Luckily this restaurant is within walking distance of Cupcake Royale, so we all ran over and got cupcakes. Yay!

J: The weird leaf wrappy things were gross, there wasn't enough on the tray to make a decent wrap of any sort and they were small. Yes, it is happy hour so nothing is expected to be big, but it should be big enough to eat, and not be boring. Eating a leaf with peanuts and a sauce is boring. Crab and cream cheese fried in a ball is delicous, so that was good. Someday I will take notes about what we eat and what we drink, because the website doesn't list drinks. I also went on a date to this place one and whatever I ate (I think it was the Pahd Kee Mao) and it was good (the food, not so much the date). So it is good for happy hour and dinner! Score!

Fu Kun Wu website:
http://www.fukunwu.com/

Thaiku website:
http://www.thaiku.com/

Cupcake Royale:
http://www.cupcakeroyale.com/

H is for Ballard

M: We actually left downtown!!! D: We will perish. Here be dragons.

Went to a nice little place called Hattie's Hat in Ballard. The atmosphere was cool. Dark, wooden bar, weird glowing pictures of statues, giant framed crab. We went for the cheap well drinks, I got the usual rum and coke, J got vodka and cranberry. For food, we ordered quesadillas (a salmon one and a chicken one), and the sweet potato fries.

The fries were weird! Big flat circular things instead of sticks, too much blue cheese, jalapenos that just kinda sat on top. The quesadillas were good... except that we accidentally switched them and ate half of each other's before realizing it. I'm a fishatarian. Whoops. Oh well, I didn't die. And the salmon quesadilla was really good!

Afterwards, we went and got cupcakes from http://www.cupcakeroyale.com/. Brilliant idea from J!

J: Not much more to add, it was a good choice, a little bit of a maze to get to the bar, but you can make it. I liked out bartender, she was funny and talking about having one of her frineds bring her sushi because she needed a change of pace, which is totally legit. It was a good place to chill for a drink and some good food. Quality quesadilla's, although I feel super bad about the mix up with chicken and fish with M, but she didn't die, so it's ok.

Hattie's Hat website:
http://www.hattieshat.com/