better than prozac.

ma raison d'etre

while i am not sleeping much in london, i am encouraged to know that i am countering the effects of sleep deprivation, by drinking my fair dosage of red wine.

according to the new york times, scientists have unveiled a study  that proves that an incredient found in red wine extended the lives of mice fed a high-fat diet, and kept their glucose down and livers small.

it's the best news i have heard all day.

give me weight gain, or give me death

most of you will find this hard to believe, but i basically eliminated diet coke, and all diet soda, from my life. after basically living on the stuff for years (an average of 3 cans/day), i kicked my coke habit after reading a few disturbing studies on the effects of nutrasweet on the human body, including cancer and depression/mood swings.

for the past 4 months or so,i have been drinking regular coke (although not at the rate i was drinking the poisonous stuff) but i was horrified to learn today that drinking one can per day of pop containing sugar can cause weight gain of more than a pound per month.

From the press release about the study,conducted by children's hospital boston:

"Ebbeling calculates that a single 12-oz sugar-sweetened beverage per day translates to about 1 pound of weight gain over 3 to 4 weeks. 'Sugary beverages have no nutritional value and seem to make a huge contribution to weight gain,' she says."

so, give me weight gain, or give me death? happy early fourth of july...

smash-ing debut

mel and i ventured out to wallingford on friday night. in case you didn't know, wallingford is actually becoming cool. case in point: smash, a new wine bar and bistro. we loved the wine list, the thoughtful (and reasonable) flights of wine. their sommelier is very high-touch, very knowledgeable and very committed to making sure the customer is happy with their selection. in fact, he constructed me a rose flight (since i was in the mood and anticipating roasted pork, but there was no rose flight on the menu), and he replaced a wine from mel's  very festive "rainbow white" flight, when she turned up her nose at one of the selections.

so, we ended up drinking a lot of wine.

they also have wonderful food and an interesting, eclectic and locally-grown/organic menu.  it's a small plates format, which is my favorite way to eat (other than the henry viii-like chef's menu at le gourmand). i ate a delicate roasted pork over a polenta with spring peas and pea vines that was delicious and the perfect size. my only complaint is they charge for a basket of artisan bread, but the prices were so reasonable across the board that i didn't really mind at all.

i think i have a new hangout.

after smash, we headed out to wonderbar. i still am freaked out that this place used to be a seattle's best coffee shop, and now it's transformed into a plush, hip lounge with gilded accents and fabulous crystal chandeliers. after discussing what cinco de mayo is all about with a host of hopeful suitors, and drinking fabulous cocktails (wine before liquor, never sicker), we called it a night.

oh, and another pick-up tactic for the hopeless in seattle dating file: one guy showed me a picture of his porsche (completely unsolicited) on his treo. i don't know what's sadder: that this is all he thinks he's got going for him, or that this actually impresses people.

i'm so glad i am not dating.

eat at rays, get bored.

part of our touristy weekend activities involved a dinner of compromise. you know what i mean: when you have a large-ish group of people and you have to find something to please everyone. unfortunately, one of the people involved held the trump card: she's pregnant, so held more sway than any member of the group.

so we ended up at ray's boathouse. there are things i love about ray's. one is its breathtaking view. situated on the puget sound, ray's looks over the water, where you can watch the sunset over the olympics. they also have an incredible selection of beers on draft, including not one, but both of my favorites, which are each rare to find: strongbow and lindemans framboise. these ingedients make ray's my favorite place to go for a drink after work on a lovely day.

depite all it has going for it, its food is boring. the seafood is of good quality, but the variety is slim (typical northwest staples: salmon, halibut, rockfish, etc.), and the preparations are dull. i ordered a cajun style rockfish, which was fine, but it was served with a mushy, bland cornmeal polenta and julienned peppers, carrots and i think, green beans, all overcooked and overwhelmed by the cajun sauce (which was not that great). the desserts were so uninspiring that i wasn't even tempted.  around the table, people seemed to enjoy their food, but no one raved about it.  jason had fish and chips that he reported was good, but not anywhere close to the best; others had salmon with mashed potatoes and asparagus, (zzzzzzzz) there was one seafood salad ordered.

in summary: drink, do not eat, at ray's. go for the view, have a seafood dinner somewhere else, like etta's, dahlia lounge, cascadia, place pigalle, or flying fish. if yo want fish and chips, you can't beat lock spot. it's damn good at the red door and the george and dragon, too.

there's always next time.

pair-adise

i have a new obsession, and it is called pair. it's been months since my friend martin recommended it, and i don't know why it has taken me so long to go - oh, i know, it's waaay off the beaten path, in ravenna, and it's been months since i've been taken out to dinner...but no matter.

let me tell you about pair. its warm, wooden and welcoming interior reminds me of the much-missed boat street cafe, if your french grandma had stopped by to decorate it, and its organic and sustainably-farmed, small-plates menu and well-chosen wine list evoke lark, another obsession, but without the pretension of being howard schultz's (a.k.a. daddy starbucks) favorite restaurant or getting glowing  write ups in the new york times and food and wine. no, this is a neighborhood place, where you can bring yourself however you want to show up, bring the kids (mac n cheese is on the menu) and eat these divine creations. it was a girl's nite, so my appetite was adjusted to make sure my hottie outfit was still comfortable and flattering.  I ate an incredible roasted leg of lamb with a potato-leek gratin, so delicately flavored it was precious, and washed the whole lot down with a sangiovese whose name fails me, but which i will need to hunt down because it was a lovely, reasonably-priced wine. mel, my dinner companion, who is, sadly for her, lactose intolerant (i would kill myself or suffer the consequences - life without cheese is not worth living), ordered a classic, perfect cassoulet paired with the best brussel sprouts i have ever tried, chopped up and sauteed with pancetta and pinenuts. i will be replicating this recipe tomorrow (accompanied by halibut, which intend to cook in a reduction of the left-over bits of sprouts and pancetta and white wine--i know you were wondering, but i digress). tremendous. we did not have dessert, but i will have some next time (which will be very soon!), as the menu was creatively balanced with traditional favorites and unexpected seasonal treasures.

tuesday night's alright for imbibing

it's officially a tradition:  weekly pub quiz night at the george and dragon a great English pub in town. it's a pretty authentic place,  where they have lots of english ales on tap (including my beloved, but hard-to-find strongbow) and you can regularly catch a football match (the european kind, where they actually use their feet to play football).  my team did not win, but we seem to be improving week over week.  i have the group that could win - if i could only get everyone's asses off their sofas and onto a barstool, we could do some damage! oh, and i also need to look at a map every once and a while - this former geography bee champ is waaay rusty.

there's  a quiz night wednesdays i'd like to check out at another favorite haunt, the kangaroo and kiwi, an aussie  bar in my hood where you can watch rugby, my favorite sport, and hang out with rugby players, another sport, but that's another topic altogether. for various reasons, it would seem the george and dragon is the better option...