There were two coffee shops that we tried in the neighborhood where we were staying, Beacon Hill, and the longer you spend in Seattle the more you probably get to know the characters of different coffee shops and the types of people who are loyal to each. One of them felt almost corporate, probably at least a local chain, and they had bakery-quality lemon apricot muffins, green tea and mung bean muffins, and meat pies with pastry dough. They played interesting music I had not heard before, loud enough that you couldn’t hear the neighbors’ conversations, and there were a lot of people doting on their dogs or small children. A second coffee shop around the corner was inside a converted house with a backyard patio. It was a small and dark space, the coffee wasn’t as strong, and the pastries felt at least a day old, but you ended up meeting everyone and their conversations became yours.
After we spent most of the day hiking, I had a hot dog with tomato and watermelon relish at the lodge on Mount Rainier. In Seattle later that night, we went to a pub where I decided to try the falafel waffle. Surely it’s ill-advised to create an entire menu item based on wordplay alone — and both the waffle and the tomato salad were well prepared, but there is really no way to make falafels and belgian waffles complementary. They might have done better if they had tried making a waffle out of pita bread.
(Photo: Mount Rainier, Washington State.)
365 Days of Food 