Seattle: Capitol Hill: Dino's Tomato Pie

Hello again, my dear blog and any readers who may have found their way here! I know, it's been an age and a half since I'd last written, and for that, I'm truly very sorry. It's been a wild ride here at 710 Headquarters, AKA my life, and I've been dashing all around with hardly any time left to plop my butt down and get to writing. On the upside, I certainly have ample new material to share with everyone! All this roaming in Seattle (and various areas nearby) has afforded me a rapid familiarity with the area, and some incredible sights along the way. Did you know there's a park here with a giant pair of cowboy boots? Apparently! It's especially surprising to spot from your peripheral as you wind your way through unfamiliar streets for the first time. This post, however, is about another location, one in Capitol Hill that we found ourselves standing in front of on a cold, hungry night. It's a little grungy, a little divey, with brilliant buzzing fluorescent red lights beaming through the night, guiding you like a moth to the warmth. 

I tend to spend a fair amount of time in and around Capitol Hill, whether I'm taking in the farmer's market on Broadway, drooling over the restaurants (and often bookmarking ones like Top Pot Doughnuts, Momiji, The Wandering Goose, Dao Tai House, or Bakery Nouveau), there's generally a buzz of activity and lots to see and do. Naturally, parking can be a bit difficult, which is why we tend to favor finding a spot we can leave our vehicle and go about our adventures walking, biking, or using ride-share. On this particular outing, we'd gone all the way down to MoPOP to take in their limited run Marvel exhibition while it was still going on, and then walked our way back up and then along much of Denny Hill. It was during this uphill slog that we happened upon Dino's Tomato Pie, a dimly lit bar and restaurant slinging up round or square pies in a variety of different topping arrangements. Our tummies grumbling in hunger, and our glutes barking, we opted to take a brief load off and refuel. Our timing was fortuitous, as it was happy hour and we were able to grab a couple of cold brews and some garlic knots along with our slices at a reasonable price. Costs in Capitol Hill haven't exactly remained low over the years, so it's always nice to know there's a place to grab a good meal without breaking the bank. If you want to hop in a time machine, I highly recommend checking out their website, which is a shrine to a bygone era in internet aesthetics. So many blinking items and all the scrolling text! The gifs! It's a site to behold, friends. 

You'll have to go up to the bar and flag the attention of one of the employees to place your order, but there's a handy sign to guide you in the darkness. The food was delicious, and we totally enjoyed the dive bar vibe. The crew seemed to have a good banter going, and their menu was pretty extensive, with a lot of different choices for everyone. We kept it simple with our happy hour brewskies, but they had a pretty impressive cocktail menu with some creative offerings if that's more your thing. 

Seoul: Fry dog

Ah, yes, look at that glistening testament to the powers of innovation and deep frying! 

What, exactly, are we looking at here? Let me break it down for you- similar to how a corn dog is a wiener on a stick coated in golden-brown fry batter that is cooked in oil until steaming hot and cooked through, this beast takes it a step further and adds wavy-cut french fries to the mix for an external barrier with immense crunchy-carby glory. All those crunchy, crispy edges from the fries crackle as you bite in, but the steaming hot interior is all fresh-hot potatoes and batter, the glue holding the fries to the dog. The batter to sausage ratio is definitely leaning towards the carb-heavy side of things, so don't expect a spectacularly meaty bite- but maybe this is just the particular vendor I got mine from, and other's will have a better ratio. I cannot say. As delicious as this treat was, it was definitely more of a novelty than something I could eat on a consistent basis. Even with all that pretty red ketchup drizzled over top for color, this is pretty much void of any beneficial health value. It was fun to mow down on the side of the road as floods of tourist and local traffic streamed by, but I definitely felt it like a brick in my gut as I got up to walk around and explore further. 

Overall, I'm gonna say try it at least once if this sort of thing is your bag, baby. Life is short and no one lives forever. I enjoyed it, and next time I'm in Korea I'm sure I'll try another vendor's variation on the theme, because why not? There are so many delicious options to be found throughout Seoul, for any preference and palate, that you shouldn't limit yourself. Food is also pretty affordable throughout the area, from my experience, so be brave and try all the things!

Until next time dolls~

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Vegas: Tony's Pizza in Boulder City

After all the driving, the hiking, the climbing, and the outdoors, we were ready for some food. Some hot food. We had initially planned on going to the Coffee Cup, a place we'd visited in the past after an overnight outing not far from Boulder City, but by the time we arrived we found that they were nearing their closing time for the day and there was a sizeable church group already waiting at their doors to enter and order. 2pm, people, that's when they shut their doors! So ideally you'd want to be there by 1pm at the latest, as no one should ever want to be those last minute jerks who rush in right as a restaurant is preparing to close for the day... trust me, I've worked in restaurants and seen how the cooks react to being made to unpack the food and re-open the line after shutting down and closing for the day. It's not pretty.  Spare yourself the potential digestive disturbance and the cooks the misery and take your hungry party somewhere still open for another couple hours. In this instance we decided to go just up the street and grab some slices at Tony's Pizza, an institution I've been dining at since sometime in middle school when my dad hauled us out to Boulder City for the remainder of my middle and high school career. It's a small town, so small there's only two real stop-lights,  so there weren't many options when it came to food... during my highschool years there were two Chinese restaurants, two sit down Mexican restaurants,  a local coffee shop that eventually got bought out by Starbucks, a Port of Subs and Subway, KFC, A&W and a Taco Bell. No Wal-Marts. No Casinos. There's actually no gaming in the city limits of Boulder City, which is why you'll find the Railroad Pass on the outskirts as you head in from Vegas. Last I checked there was even a cap on building growth, limiting the amount of homes or residential buildings created every year.  Given as much, it's really no surprise that Tony's Pizza is almost exactly as I remember it, down to the people working. Things don't change as fast in Boulder City, and that's okay if that's what you're into. It is kind of nice in a nostalgic way. The food was tasty and hot, fresh out of the fryer when it came to our fried zucchini, chicken tenders and fries. We were satisfied with our meal and pleased when we hopped back into the van for our trip back into the city. 

Until next time!

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Vegas: the Springs Preserve Sustainability Gallery

Have I made it clear yet how much I love the Springs Preserve? Whether we're talking about their seasonally-limited but wonderful butterfly exhibit, their live animal exhibits, the Nevada State Museum, seeing where the city and our water came/comes from in Boomtown & Waterworks, hiking the trails along the expansive grounds, wandering the gardens in summer or late fall, getting spooky during the Haunted Harvest event for Halloween, or scoping out one of their limited exhibits like the Space Exhibit in the OriGen museum last September we always have a blast when we visit the Preserve! Antho and I are both members and have been since shortly after our very first visit. It's been well worth it- even though the cost of admission is quite reasonable, we've gone so many times that the memberships have more than paid for themselves. 

During this visit it was a cool, crisp December day and the Springs had gotten themselves gussied up for the winter Holidays. There were very few other visitors on this day, probably because it was pretty chilly out. We found our way to the Sustainability gallery, which we had walked by several times but never ventured into- a shame because we had a lot of fun! It was a wonderful surprise and we enjoyed exploring the exhibits. Upon exiting the Sustainability Gallery we found our way to the actual food gardens where we were pleased to find tomatillos, peppers and broccoli all going strong- though the broccoli was covered in aphids. Creepy little buggers...we didn't realize they were even bugs until we got closer and inspected the broccoli, at which point we were both a bit skeeved out. Antho went in for more photos trying to capture a good close-up of the little crawlies, though! I kept a safe distance and looked at the other plants while he did that... it's not that I'm terrible with bugs, if need be I can catch a spider, I would just rather not interact with them unless I really have to. I've handled tarantulas and various roaches in museums and biology classes, things of that nature, but I'm good with that being the end of it. Luckily there were plenty of other plants to enjoy! 

Yuck!

More photos below!