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With so many food options in Seattle, it’s not often where we make a point to eat in the suburbs. But there we were in Issaquah on a random Tuesday night with a group of friends, in the land of chain restaurants and big-box stores to dine at one of the best Thai places we have in Western Washington.
This would be Noodle Boat, a family-run operation nestled inside a strip mall. Dismiss the nondescript decor and the far-flung location and focus instead on the cuisine, which ports traditional Thai dishes in a family-style setting – with a few surprises.
Chicken Soaked With Rum, Set Ablaze
As you can see, the menu includes a flaming chicken dish called the “Volcano Gem Hen”, soaked with Bacardi 151 and lit afire. You must be 21+ to get the full alcohol-soaked blaze. We asked the server the point of the pyrotechnics and she said, “It’s cool.” Well, there you go.
Showy display aside, the chicken itself was delicious, the meat so tender it fell off the bone while the skin was deep-fried and crispy. Lisa gave up fork and chopsticks and went after it with both hands.
We also ordered a dish I had our first visit, the Talay Hot Plate, which is a sizzling platter of shrimp, squid, scallops and vegetables. Given our group size (eight people), the goal was to create a smorgasbord of varying options, allowing us to graze over the different plates.
You can hear the sizzle
Some other standouts were the Ka-Pao-Rad-Khow (stir-fried ground pork with chili, bell pepper and Holy hot basil); a spicy Koa Soi (egg noodle curry); and the “Queen of Banana”, which according to the menu is “steamed banana blossom, shrimp, chicken mix chili paste, lime leaves, coconut milk, roast coconut, lemon grass, mint, onion and cilantro put in a banana leaf.” Yowza.
What also makes this place worth a visit is the friendliness of the staff. It’s a family of about a dozen, with members of all ages doing the cooking and serving. They close the entire restaurant for 6 weeks every year to go home to Thailand to acquire ingredients and visit family. One of our servers told us wistfully about her excitement at getting to go home in just a few short weeks (this year it’s April and the first half of May, so get to Noodle Boat soon or face a long wait!)
In Seattle, you hear stories of these types of places all the time, the hidden find beyond the beaten path. Someone will ask if you’ve checked out the Indian restaurant out on the Eastside in BFE (rather, Factoria). Or if you’ve discovered the Mongolian BBQ place in Mill Creek (a place my UW coworkers RAVE about). One thing we love about Twitter is how viral a new restaurant/find can become. One recommendation leads to a caravan of foodies hightailing it over the 520 Bridge in search of a new meal.
A laden table, just the way we like it
All evidence why quality dining in Puget Sound is not limited to just the 206, or the celebrity chefs now flexing their muscles in Bellevue. Better yet, hidden finds such as Noodle Boat come cheap. Our group split a ton of dishes and had several drinks, and each of us left $24 lighter in the wallet, including tip.
I love the drive across the Columbia River into Oregon, when the factories segue into city buildings and Portland’s skyline comes into view. We had sped down I-5, eager to spend a night outside Seattle and eat ourselves silly in the Rose City. Portland – a city brimming with creative ideas and concepts when it comes to food – was the perfect option for a weekend trip. Yet, every time we come to Portland, it becomes harder and harder to leave. Each trip gives us a new restaurant to discover and a different neighborhood to explore.
Welcome to Oregon
Armed with a list of recommendations from friends, coworkers and the Internet, Lisa and I were determined to squeeze in at least three quality meals during our short time in Oregon. After decamping in Irvington (where LK’s cousins live) we made our way to Laurelhurst Market, a restaurant/butcher that’s a pantheon for carnivores in the Pacific Northwest. Inside the dark and intimate confines, we were whisked to the bar where I sipped a local Pinot Noir while Lisa studied the menu. Everything came farm-to-table, so fresh/sustainable the bartender joked the meat was “grass fed, oat-finished and constantly massaged throughout.”
Meat dominates at Laurelhurst Market, to the point that vegans and vegetarians are straight-up discouraged from even trying, and cooking the steaks well-done is “not recommended.” We glanced only briefly at the mussels and non-beef dishes on the menu before selecting the flank steak (made from Wagyu beef) with chimichurri and a steak with arugula salad. We also ordered an appetizer of sweetbreads (yes, glands) and a side of brussels sprouts.
As blog readers know, we are big fans of sweetbreads. Laurelhurst’s version were by far the best we’ve ever had. Crispy on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth insides, with a slight briny flavor. They also came with a slice of baguette topped with something called “bone marrow butter.” Your heart hurts just thinking about it, right? This might have been the best dish we’ve eaten in months.
The steaks were seared to perfection, and as we dined we chatted with our bartender (a transplant from D.C.) about the culinary renaissance Portland has undergone in recent years.
The Grilled Cheese Grill
Our favorite aspects of PDX are not limited to restaurants, but also include the pods of food carts stationed throughout the city. Endless options are available, ranging from grilled cheese on Alberta St., to poutine and frites inside the cart confluence on 12th and Hawthorne. Not limited by bureaucratic red tape and boosted by low start-up costs, food carts are now woven into the food experience in Portland. There’s too many to list, but our new favorites include the two mentioned above, particularly the poutine with its irresistible blend of gravy and cheese curds. Oh, did I mention we (cough) took a weekend off from Paleo dining on this trip. No sense in limiting yourself with so many options around, especially while on vacation. This is the reason we decided the coup de grace should be a dulce de leche milkshake, delicately balanced with sea salt, from the Patisserie cart.
One final memorable snack was at Random Order Coffeehouse and Bakery in Northeast, where we sampled the Meyer lemon pie and coconut cream pie, washed down with (what else) a French Press of Stumptown coffee. Both pies were rich without being too sweet, with flaky, delicate crusts.
Shaker lemon pie from Random Order
We packed a lot into 24 hours, and that isn’t even going into the time spent at Powell’s or the sports bar Claudia’s on Hawthorne in Southeast, where we joined a raucous crowd to watch the gold-medal hockey game between the USA and Canada, all huddled around pitchers of IPA and bottles of Session beer – Oregon’s finest.
Lisa
Jeremy
