Not even two weeks after coming back from France I’m about to fly the other way around to the Midwest: first a few days in Chicago and then 2 weeks in Waterloo. A long hotel stay ahead, probably a lot of swimming but very little cooking unless I hack my friends and colleagues kitchen in Waterloo, which I might indeed!!! I love hacking friends kitchen and cook for them!!! So probably very few posts about cooking in the next two weeks, a bit about nice places we will visit and local food but probably not too many. Have a nice summer, a nice holidays for the lucky one!!!
Back to the basics
After a whole week in Seattle, it’s good to be back home. Though the city has numerous farmers markets, with very attractive food, the hotel life allows only for limited purchases and preparation. There are also a lot of food trucks but honestly the idea of having lunch standing or seated like punks in the street is not very attractive, though the food looks good. As for restaurants, food was ok, fresh but I didn’t find anything outstanding. The best we had was surely grilled salmon or grilled halibut with asparagus. There might be some nice places serving local food (not limited to seafood, which is not what I like best) but we couldn’t find them… It’s really a pity because driving around Seattle one can find again tones of organic farms selling their products, fruits, veggies, delicious yogurts…
So being back home it is time to go back to the kitchen and improvise some summer recipes with fresh food and light enough to beat the jetlag and the heat. So we’re back to the basics: quinoa and bulgur as a base, baby leaf salad, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, yellow zucchini, ocra, and to finish pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and white chia seeds. Back on the tracks!!
Bye bye Tokyo… Welcome Seattle!
I am travelling to Seattle for work for a whole week so you won’t hear much from me for a few days. I hope to find the time to try some nice places over there and come back with new ideas and favorite items. I already know I’ll be packing on some things that are only found in the US and hope to find the earnest cereal bars I found In Boston last month!
If you have any good recommendation of things to do, places to check-out in Seattle and around, let me know!!!
In the mean time Prunellia is taking over, but with a slower pace (she’s busy with other projects) . I’ll be back Monday, June 1st, but you can catch up with me on Instagram and maybe FB… Bye bye!
Hotel life: my American favorites
When traveling it’s always hectic with food for me, I don’t like eating out 3 times a day. Most portions are way too big and I get quickly bored with the amount of mix tastes that surpasses my imagination. As you may know now, I like simple delicious things. So when in the US I really enjoy organic groceries that can be found pretty easily in main cities and sometimes opened round the clock (even better for jetlag and busy working days). It seems particularly true in Boston. There, you can buy things I didn’t even imagine exist, almond milk yogurt with coconut taste, super delicious cereal bars, fresh cut fruits, natural cheese, teas (i usually pack on Chai), tons of different types of flours (well I’m not baking in my hotel room…) and my favorite drink, non organic though but from sustaible harvested ingredients: the Naked fruit smoothies, just perfect for middle-of-the-night-breakfast!
During this short stay in Boston I tried the new to me (haven’t been to the US for 2 years!) pineapple-mango-coconut water Naked, and just loved it, not as thick as the regular mango one! And I found super delicious bars from Earnest eats, my favorite is the almond trail mix. The taste of almond is really strong but it’s really good and just not too sweet. That and a bowl of fresh raspberries was my post-swimming breakfast.
Because, yes! I always pick hotels with a swimming pool. I love to swim early in the morning to recover from jetlag. Doing laps before starting a long business day, after a long trip is just making me feel really good. How do you do to keep a good balance when traveling?