Things that are delicious.

Hi there everyone! I'm so sorry about the lack of blog posts, but it's been really hard to keep up with blogging and school going on at the same time. Butttttt, the one thing I do have time for is eating. Here are a few things I've eaten over the past two weeks complete with location and price for your epicurean convenience!

Sausage/Ham/Cheese Soondubu from BCD Tofu House (Lynnwood, WA) $8.00

If eating twice a week didn't give me so much heartburn, I think I would eat it every day for the rest my life. Soondubu is, in essence, a spicy tofu stew along with any type of meat or vegetable that your heart desires. BCD has 20 different combinations. Twenty. For some reason though I always wind up going back to this one no matter how many other combinations I try. Along with your soondubu you get 5 different banchan or side dishes with your meal. All orders come with a mackerel (a whole fish just for you!), kimchee, and different types of pickled vegetables that vary each week. This time I received bean sprouts, spicy cucumbers, and spicy radishes. Oh and don't forget the stone pot purple rice! For $8 including tax and tip, you can't go wrong. 

Poké Bowl from Uwajimaya (Beaverton, OR) $7.99

Holy moly macaroni are my eyes deceiving me!? Do poké bowls actually exist up in the northwest? Apparently they do now! I loooooove poké and always make it a point to eat as much as I can when I go back home to Hawaii. Now for $7.99 (no sales tax in Oregon!) this poké bowl was decent. Was the fish absolutely amazing? No, but it was pretty darn close. They give you A LOT and the chunks of poké are bigger than some other poké bowls I've had, Hawaii included. You can choose what types of poké you want as well so I settled on shoyu ahi and spicy ahi. 

Mini Cream Puffs from Beard Papa's (Beaverton, OR) $4.95 for 5 puffs

When I have a sweet tooth I want something that's light and delicious. I know that's vague but it's not like I'm craving a giant cupcake or anything like that. Anyhow I LOVE cream puffs because they're an incredible light dessert, if made properly. Usually the regular size puffs are a bit messy to eat and all the cream filling goes everywhere and it can get messy. But not these mini puffs! For $4.95 you receive a cup of 5 puffs and you can mix and match to your heart's content! I got 3 vanilla and 2 dulce de leche puffs. I would say that eating all 5 is like eating 2 regular sized puffs so I feel like you get more value out of these. Also they fit in your car's cup holder for easy snacking!

What are good foods to eat in your area? Feel free to comment below and don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin!

The Melting Pot: I love me some fondue.

This past weekend up in Everett my boyfriend and I had an early Valentine's Day at The Melting Pot in Bellevue, WA.  This was in the middle of the huge Snowpacalypse that decided to unleash some white wonderland snowflake fury on the Pacific Northwest.  You can read more about the Snowpacalypse by clicking here. The Melting Pot is pretty much the perfect place to have a date night if you don't mind slightly small portions, and slightly high prices.  There are a lot of options and I definitely left feeling full, but it's not some place that you can frequent on a weekly basis.  Here are some pictures below of the delicious experience!  All food descriptions and more information for The Melting Pot can be found here.

No full length shot, but I have no shame in saying that we both looked pretty cute!

1st course: Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue (Gruyère and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, white wine, garlic, nutmeg, lemon and Kirschwasser) alongside baguettes, assorted meats, granny smith apples, and vegetables)

2nd course: The California Salad, perfectly proportioned.  (Mixed baby salad greens, Roma tomatoes, candied pecans and Gorgonzola cheese with Raspberry Black Walnut Vinaigrette)

3rd course: Our entrees!  We opted for the Mojo cooking broth (Caribbean-seasoned bouillon with a distinctive fresh-garlic flavor and a citrus flair) and ordered The French Quarter (Premium filet mignon, all-natural breast of chicken, and Pacific white shrimp seasoned with Cajun spices and accompanied by flavorful Andouille sausage) and Steak Lovers (Premium filet mignon, teriyaki-marinated sirloin, and seasoned choice Angus sirloin).  These are also accompanied by 5 sauces: Curry, Gorgonzola Port, Green Goddess, Ginger Plum, and Teriyaki Glaze, and a bowl of assorted vegetables.

4th course: Dessert!  Holy moly this was delicious.  We selected the Chocolate S'mores for our dessert fondue (milk chocolate with marshmallow cream, flambéed and topped with bits of graham crackers).  All dessert fondues come with an assortment of strawberries, bananas, red velvet and brownie bites, rice krispies treats, marshmallows, and a cheesecake.

Watch our dessert fondue being made in action!

Cost: ~$50/person

Quality: 4 out of 5

Service: 4 out of 5

Would I go again: Yes!  But only for something VERY special...don't want to break the bank.

They also bring you back seconds for the cheese fondue and the dessert fondue so don't worry about rationing everything out!

Have you ever had fondue before?  Have you ever made your own fondue?  I think that'll be my next adventure!  Don't forget that you can follow me on Bloglovin` by clicking the Eiffel Tower to your right!

Snowpacalypse 2014.

Hi everyone, it's been a minute!  Forgive my lack of blog posts but I blame Snowpacalypse 2014.  I can now say that I've driven through a snow storm!  That's something I thought I would never have to do - considering I live near Portland where it never snows!  And if it does snow, it never snows enough to stick to the ground.

Anyhow to make a very long story short, I was on my way up to Longview, WA for an internship interview when it started to snow.  Hard.  It was actually sticking to the ground and it wasn't stopping at all.  My interview was rescheduled to a later date but even though I was so close to the border between Oregon and Washington, I couldn't turn around due to a 27+ car pile up on the I-5 South!  Going home was out of the question.  I decided to keep pressing onwards and learned that it wasn't snowing further up north (weird), and since I had planned to visit my boyfriend to have an early Valentine's Day dinner, it made more sense to keep moving rather than staying in one place, or waiting in a LONG line of cars to get back home.  (I found out later as I kept driving north that they actually shut down the I-5 completely!)

On Sunday we woke up to find Washington covered in a blanket of snow!  It reminded me of a gingerbread house smothered in icing!  We were going to walk over to a little park area to play in it, but realized that the snow was pretty slippery and we didn't have waterproof snow gear.  Instead we used the snow that had collected on top of my car and managed to make a decent snowman and a snow bunny!  I drove back to Oregon to find my apartment still blanketed in more snow and looking like it was something out of a Christmas greeting card!

I would never wish driving through a snow storm on anyone!  It's incredibly difficult and scary and I'm incredibly thankful that I wasn't involved in any major accident.  

Even though it is childish, I would blame the groundhog for seeing his shadow and causing 6 more weeks of winter.  Here's to warmer days and cozy nights!  Don't forget that you can follow me on Bloglovin` by clicking the Eiffel Tower to your right!

Firsts: Bella Luna Korean Spa & Sauna, a co-ed jjimjilbang.

From now on, every time I try something new - whether it's a new store, new food, or new experience - it's going to go under the title of "Firsts."

This Saturday marked my first experience going to a co-ed jjimjilbang.  A jjimjilbang is a traditional Korean sauna.  You might have seen one if you're a fan of k-dramas, or if you've seen Psy's Gangnam Style music video.

From kpopnews.org

A jjimjilbang typically has several dry sauna rooms, several wet sauna rooms, a bunch of pools and a bunch of pools you can go into.  I've always wanted to try going to a jjimjilbang but unfortunately Oregon only has one, and it's a bit out of my way.  My boyfriend however lives up in Washington near Lynnwood - a city that hosts a bunch of Korean eateries, supermarkets, and hair salons.  I figured if there was any place to look for a jjimjilbang in the Pacific Northwest, it would be Lynnwood.

Thanks to the power of Yelp, I learned of Bella Luna Korean Spa and Sauna.  Most jjimjilbang that I've seen are same-sex only, but surprisingly Bella Luna is co-ed!  Since my boyfriend is half-Korean I asked if he wanted to have a day or relaxation with me and he happily agreed.

*Note: Forgive my lack of pictures but I didn't like the idea of bringing my phone into 150 degree rooms just to snag a few photos.  Sorrrrrrry!

Bella Luna charges $25 for all-day use of their facilities.  If you want to get a massage or scrub, it's some additional $$.  Since I wasn't in the mood for a scrub and since my boyfriend and I planned on getting a couples massage later at a different location, we just wanted to use the sauna.  After paying, the girl at the front gave my boyfriend and I each a key to our locker, a pair of pants, a shirt, a body towel, and a face towel.  I also got a little bath cap.  We were instructed to take off our shoes and place them in a little cubby.  The floor is heated! We were then shown the gender-specific locker areas.  In the locker areas there are same-sex only sauna rooms, and a bunch of pools.

I met my boyfriend out in the co-ed lobby area and we set out to find the different rooms.  Each room has some mineral in it that's supposed to remove impurities from your skin and basically detoxify your whole body.  Our first stop was the clay room - which I didn't realize until after was the hottest room ever.  No wonder they had a note that said to only stay in it for 15 minutes!  After the clay room we found the salt room which is basically a room in which you can lie on a bed of salt.  That was at a much more comfier temperature thankfully!  Bella Luna also has a snow room which is a room with a bunch of freezer coils all along the walls, which allows you to cool off in between.  There are also ridiculously comfy couches in the lobby area complete with magazines and foot massagers!

After the snow room we went to the jade room which is probably my favorite.  This room is COVERED in jade and a bunch of other different rocks.  It was at a temperature in between the salt and clay room, so it was pretty warm but still comfy.  We migrated later to the charcoal room which was my boyfriend's favorite since it was only 108 degrees.  I think he fell asleep at some point!

We took a break to have some lunch at Cafe Robins, which is a restaurant inside Bella Luna that's run by an ahjussi and ahjumma.  We ordered the bulgogi plate, and some spicy ramyun alonside an ice coffe and green tea.  The ahjumma gave us little cookies on the side and lots of delicious banchan (side dishes).  I was debating about getting my phone to take a picture of everything but my boyfriend told me to relax and not worry about Instagraming everything.

After our meal we relaxed on the couch in the lobby before returning to the salt room.  I wanted to check out the Elvan stone room in the women's area so I bid my boyfriend goodbye for a bit.  The Elvan stone room was comfortable and set at a lower temperature.  Surprisingly there was a girl in there using her phone and eventually she fell asleep.  I don't know if her phone made it or not.  After the Elvan stone room I found my boyfriend sleeping in the jade room.  We basically cycled through all of the rooms again and finally near the end I said I wanted to go in the pools.  The boyfriend wanted to take a shower so he said he'd meet me back out in the lobby so we could grab some dessert from Cafe Robins before leaving.

Let me tell you about the pools.

First of all, you have to be comfortable getting naked in front of people.  There are signs all over the pool entrance that no swimsuits are allowed and your bath cap must be worn at all times.  There were lots of naked old ladies and women my age walking around not really caring at all.  It was slightly intimidating, but I found out you get over it really quickly.  The shower area also has shampoo, conditioner, and body wash so if you brought your own body loofa then I'm sure you could take a shower after you were done with everything.  Also within the pool area are scrubbing areas, and two additional wet saunas - an infrared room and a steamed jade room.  There are 3 different pools: 1 hot-tub like one, 1 mid-temperature large one, and 1 small freezing ice pool with a waterfall.  Surprisingly the ice pool felt amaaaazing to sink in to at the end of my time in all three pools.

I met my boyfriend in the lobby after changing and found out that there were no other men in his locker room so he got to test out the pools all by himself!  We went to Cafe Robins and ordered a yogurt berry patbingsu or shave/shaved ice.  This is the ONE picture that I took of the entire time at Bella Luna, but it was so delicious!

Nom, nom, nom!

Homemade ice cream atop a giant layer of red bean, followed by fresh raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries smothered in condensed milk, on top of a bed of freshly shaved ice and berry yogurt on the bottom!

Needless to say we gobbled it up in less than five minutes!

Overall my first time at a jjimjilbang was awesome!  I would definitely go again - especially if it's only $25 for the whole day and this place opens at 9 AM and closes at midnight (whaaaat??)!  I'd definitely recommend it to you if you're ever in the Lynnwood, WA area.

What about you?  Have you ever been to a jjimjilbang?  Comment below and don't forget to follow me on bloglovin by clicking the Eiffel Tower!