479° Popcorn

I'm always on a popcorn kick. 

It all started when I visited my parents one summer, and attended the local farmer's market with my mom.  The market was tiny compared to the Ferry Building farmer's market that I'm used to in San Francisco, but, it still left a strong impression.  The produce was fine, but nothing spectacular.  Overall, it seemed pretty forgettable.  And then my mom mentioned that she needed to get her "treat": a lemonade and a bag of popcorn.  She led me to a stand where they were making fresh kettle corn.  It smelt great, but it was just popcorn, how exciting would it really be?  While we waited for her lemonade to be freshly squeezed, I idly took a handful of the fresh popcorn.  It was salty.  It was sweet.  It was totally and completely addicting.  I couldn't stop eating it.

I haven't found kettle corn as good as that stuff anywhere else.  I've tried tons of popcorns, from packaged ones, to microwave ones, to fancy ones sold at the farmer's markets in SF.  None even come close to that popcorn.  The good news is, it freezes wonderfully.  I think I might even prefer it frozen, as it gets a little crunchier.  I may or may not have filled every remaining space in my luggage on my last return trip with popcorn.  And I may have mocked my mom when she overnight mailed me a giant bag of it as a surprise, telling her how ridiculous it was to spend that much money on shipping popcorn.  But secretly, I was thrilled.  If you are wondering, that is Howl'n Good Speciality Popcorn, and you can only find it in the Lebanon, NH area.

Anyway, this review isn't about that popcorn.  This is about 479°, a San Francisco based gourmet popcorn maker.  They are local, but sell it packaged in regular retail locations.  They have some savory and some sweet varieties, with fairly interesting flavors.

I almost liked all of their popcorns, but at the end of the day, they all leave me wanting something more.  Specifically, the popcorn from that tiny farmer's market in New Hampshire ...

Chipotle Caramel + Almonds.

“Rich, dark caramel spiked with chipotle chili + toasted almonds”.

This was sweet and ok, but not all that standout.  My notes said, "Just kinda there. Sweet, slightly spicy aftertaste, but really nothing special.  I really don’t get the chipotle spice at all.  Just kinda sweet popcorn, slight caramel flavor on finish.  There was only one almond in the entire bag.  Eh.  **+.

Vanilla Bean Caramel.

"Light, crunchy caramel popcorn infused with Madagascar vanilla. An indulgent snack with only 110 calories! Gluten Free, Non-GMO, Whole Grain, always air-popped, never fried."

On a recent flight with Virgin America, I saw 479° popcorn offered, skimmed it, and kept on reading my other options as I hadn't loved the 479° popcorn I'd tried before.  But then I backtracked.  Wait, it said "Vanilla Bean Caramel".  That was not the Sea Salt Caramel flavor I had before.  Do they make a second caramel corn now?

The answer?  Yes, they do, but it is an exclusive flavor to Virgin America.  Well, now I had to try it!

It was better than the sea salt caramel.  I could taste the vanilla bean clearly, which added a bit of oomph to the flavor.  The caramel was still very sweet, which I know is what you want with caramel corn, but without the salt to balance it, the result was even sweeter than the Sea Salt Caramel flavor.

The kernels were well coated, and the popcorn light and fresh enough, but overall, it didn't wow me.  Of course, like most popcorn, I immediately wondered how it would be frozen ... ***.

[ Others ]

• Fluer de Sel Caramel: "Sweet, crunchy caramel sprinkled with delicate flakes of sea salt".  Tasting notes:  Almost too sweet?  Not quite awesome.  Not quite a caramel corn, salt not really there enough. [ Way too sweet ]  [ Not actually good, but almost good, so you keep eating it trying to make it be good.  Almost too sweet, too much caramel.]  [ Really too sweet, I want to like this more than I do. ] **+.
• White Cheddar and Black Truffle: "Aged white cheddar drizzled with aromatic black truffle oil."  Tasting notes: Truffle is very subtle, don't really taste it.  Mostly just standard white cheddar popcorn with a bit of earthiness.  Not very good, cheddar very mild, meh. [ Update review: Cheddar too mild, not much truffle, meh ]. **+.
• Ginger Sesame Caramel:  "Ginger-infused crunchy caramel tossed with toasted black sesame seeds".  Tasting notes: sweet and ok, but not all that interesting.  Just like the fleur de sel, almost good but not really.  Lots of caramel, but not very good ginger or sesame flavors.  **+.
• Pimentòn de La Vera: "Smoky Spanish paprika with bursts of ripe organic tomato + onion." Tasting notes: Nice and spicy, liked.  Unique and flavorful.  ***+.
• Vietnamesse Cinnamon Sugar: "Vietnamese cinnamon dusted with crunchy light sugar".  Tasting notes:  flavor too subtle, not very cinnamony or sugary. **+.

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Westernco Donut

Another work trip to the Seattle area, another chance to indulge in local donuts (er, I mean, another great business opportunity to bond with my co-workers ...).  Last time, we had well known Top Pot donuts for our large event.  This time, I had a few other places at the top of my list to try, but alas, none delivered to our office, nor were near enough where the locals lived to stop to pick them up.  One of said locals went to a place they'd never been before either, Westernco Donut.

"Westernco Donut has been in the business of making the finest donuts for over 30 years and counting. We make our donuts the old-fashioned way. We don't try to offer the largest variety of donuts nor do we try to keep up with the latest trends from around the world. Instead, we focus on quality."

Some donut shops are all about their toppings, their innovative wacky flavor combinations, their  accolades.  Westernco Donut is definitely not that.  No bougie donuts here.  Just, simple donuts, done well.   And for the most part, they won me over.  I wouldn't go out of my way for these donuts, but, I enjoyed them.

Assorted Dozen.

Our first box was a lovely assortment of donuts, all fairly interesting, no plain or even simple glazed here.  There was puffy twists and bear claws, very glazed old fashioned (chocolate or vanilla), a filled raised circle (which turned out to have lemon filling), two cake donuts with icing and toppings (white with cocolate, chocolate with sprinkles), and my usual favorites, the apple fritter and cinnamon roll.  Normally, my first grab would be said fritter or cinnamon roll, but the top left two, the stuffed buttermilk bars, drew me in instantly.  They were oozing so much goodness!

Stuffed Glazed Buttermilk Bars. $2.50.

I immediately took half of each of them, one with jelly, one with pudding.  I was thrilled to find that they tasted as good as they looked.  Nicely crispy outside, moist inside, great crunch to the exterior.  Good base flavor.  Plenty of glaze.  The jelly one was goo style jelly, but that totally works in a jelly donut, and it was sweet, fruity, and enjoyable. ****.

The pudding filled buttermilk bar was the same excellent donut base, with vanilla pudding coming out.  Definitely "Snack Pack" style pudding, not a fresh custard, but, again, that works here, just like in a Boston Cream.  You don't need fancy custard. ****.

Vanilla and Chocolate Frosted Old Fashioned. $1.75.

Of course I also tried the ring shaped old fashioneds, after the success of the bar style, both the vanilla and chocolate varieties.  Again, good donut base, lots of glaze.  The chocolate was deep and rich. Both above average, although the coatings were so substantial it made these pretty sweet.  ***+.

The also make these in plain, chocolate based, and maple frosted varieties.

Assorted (baker's) dozen.

Our next box was nearly as interesting.  Here we had maple glazed raised bars, rasied glazed, vanilla sprinkled, and peanut coated rings, a chocolate covered circle one that I assume was filled, and some repeats: another twist and bear claw, another each of the glazed old fashioned (vanilla and chocolate), and another fritter.  This box also had two non-donuts, a chocolate croissant, and, hiding under the top right donut, was some kind of supersized palmier.

I tried a few from here too, once the others had gotten their picks, and many still remained.

They also make french crullers, regular cake or chocolate cake donuts with a variety of toppings, and donut holes, but our assortment didn't have any of those.

Apple Fritter. $2.50.

This was a fine fritter.  Good glaze, nice crags, moist inside, light cinnamon spicing, small bits of apple.  Fairly average, but good average.  ***.

Chocolate croissant. $3.
The chocolate croissant looked a bit lackluster, which I think is why it remained after everyone had their fill, so I gave it a try. It was much better than it looked, fairly flaky, and loaded with really nice chocolate. ***+.

Giant Palmier-thing.

I really don't know what this one was.  Their website doesn't mention anything like it, nor do any reviews I saw.  And I failed to get a close up photo of it.  But it looked much like a palmier, just, huge, in all dimensions, and drizzled with icing.  

It was the only real dud of the bunch.  It was dry, it was messy, and the pastry didn't have any buttery nor redeeming qualities to it.  Just, boring all around and not very fresh tasting.  I gave up on it quickly.  It could perhaps be layered with some cream like a napoleon successfully, but, the others were so much better, and we had so many left over, it wasn't worth the effort to "save" this. **.

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Kiwami Sushi Bar & Sake House

During my recent business trip to the Seattle area, I found myself browsing random places on Door Dash, and one kept catching my eye.  Kiwami Sushi Bar & Sake house, a sushi restaurant, obviously, and one with good ratings.  It wasn't actually the sushi that drew me in however, it was one of their appetizers.  It sounded like a dish from my long ago favorite sushi place in San Francisco (sushi zone), and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

So one night, when I didn't feel like going out, I just got delivery from there.  I only actually ended up ordering one type of nigiri, and otherwise got hot appetizers, as I wasn't really craving sushi itself.  I haven't visited the business myself in person, so I can't comment on that.  They are known for their sake selection, which wasn't available for delivery, so I wasn't able to partake of that either.

In addition to a slew of regular sushi items (rolls, nigiri, sashimi, etc), Kiwami has an extensive cooked food menu, with items like chicken, salmon, or tofu teriyaki, pork or chicken katsu, and ribs for mains.  They also offer udon, poke bowls, yakisoba noodles, and other bowl style dishes.  It was the appetizers though that drew me in, with classics like agadashi tofu, chicken karaage, panko or tempura shrimp, tempura veggies, gyoza, edamame, blistered shisitos,  takoyaki, and more.

I ordered delivery on DoorDash, and had no issues with the delivery.  The food was completely hit or miss however, and I don't think I'd return.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Sautéed Mushroom. $15.60.

"Shiitake, enoki, oyster mushroom, asparagus sautéed in butter & shoyu. With green leaf lettuce, arugula, ponzu, wonton chips."

Ok, now this is an odd dish, and an odd order on my part (who orders from a sushi restaurant and gets the veggie side?), but, it was actually really good, and the highlight of my meal.

The mushrooms were very well cooked, and a nice mix of "exotic" mushrooms.  Tender, not mushy, no woodsy stems.  Very well prepared.  Flavorful.  The asparagus was also good, but was a pretty minimal element.  The veggies were all cooked in a shoyu and butter sauce, which definitely infused them with all sorts of extra flavor.  Simply put, I'd be happy with just a side of the sauteed veggies, but this dish had a bit more going on.

It was all served over fresh crisp lettuce, sorta like a salad, although the veggies were lightly warm.  There was a lemon slice to drizzle over and add a hit of acidity, and I guess ponzu in the mix too.  It was enjoyable as a salad, or just as a scoop of warm veggies as a side.  It came with 2 wonton chips that were sadly fairly soggy by the time it reached me, due to being packaged with the rest of the dish, so they basically got steamed.  I love wonton chips, and I think these nice big ones would be great to scoop up the mushroom mix, but, alas, delivery definitely detracted here. I did try to add a note to package them separately, but they didn't accept any custom notes.

Overall still a very tasty dish, unexpected, and I'm glad I randomly tossed on to my order.  I nearly didn't order this because it was fairly pricey at $15.60, but, I'd get it again with no hesitation.  ****.

Baked Mussels. $14.40.

"5-piece mussels topped with mayo, garlic, tobiko. Baked, green onion."

Ok, these baked mussels pretty much broke my heart.  I wanted them to be like the ones from Sushi Zone (in SF) that I adored, and I was so so happy to see baked mussels on the menu that sounded similar, but, alas, these were nothing like them.

To start, the mussels themselves just weren't very good.  One had a substantial amount of grit in it.  Two were very, very chewy.  Several had a pretty pungent taste, which made me wonder how fresh they were.  One had a very chipped shell. So, the base mussels, not very impressive.

The topping also wasn't great.  A little creamy, but not much flavor.  The Sushi Zone ones have spicy mayo, and this was just regular mayo and garlic, which I knew, but even so, the mayo somehow didn't really improve these.

Uh, the shredded cabbage they were on was fine?  I really didn't enjoy these at all, and they were pretty pricey for what seemed like not the freshest mussels.  *.

Unagi. $9.60.

"Freshwater Eel."

I opted for just one kind of nigiri, unagi, because I was sorta craving it, and wanted to have some kind of hedge against the mussels, and some decent protein.  It was reasonable unagi, not particularly good nor bad.  Generous size pieces.  Slathered in a bit too much sweet sauce.  The sushi rice held together fine, wasn't dried out.

It came with ginger and wasabi, and soy sauce packets on the side.

Absolutely fine, but nothing special.  Price was reasonable.  ***.

Spicy Mayo, Sweet Sauce. $0.30 each.

I also added a few sauces to my order, just because I could.  They offered a huge lineup of sauces for a totally reasonable $0.30!

The sweet soy was thick, sweet, and pretty standard for sweet soy sauce.  Not needed for the stuff I ordered, but I drizzled it over a crispy shrimp cake the next day and enjoyed it.  ***.

The spicy mayo wasn't particularly spicy, but was creamy, and nice to have for other leftovers as well.  ***.

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The Club, SEA (Concourse A)

What do you do when you are delayed at the Seattle airport?  Particularly if you don't have any status with an airline to get nice lounge access, and are just flying domestic?  If you are me, first you mope around a little, lament your life choices, and then eventually, suck it up and figure out how to pass the time.

If you have Priority Pass, you are in luck, as they have one lounge accessible, dubbed "The Club", in Concourse A, which just happened to be where my flight would eventually take off from.

"The Club SEA lounge offers alive with warm, natural lighting, soft flowing interior lines, inviting social spaces and a range of food and drinks."  

Access is $50 per visit if you don't have Priority Pass or access some other way, and I can't imagine paying that.  Let's just say, this is a pretty lackluster lounge.  The space is drab, the bathrooms were less clean than those in the main terminal, and everyone inside was as grumpy as myself.  That said, it at least entertained me for a few minutes.

Uninspired Seating.

The description of the space refers to "warm, natural lighting" and "inviting social spaces", but what I actually found was a narrow, fairly dark, and very drab space.  It was considerably less pleasant to spend time in than the main terminal actually, and felt rather depressing.  It reminded me more of a doctor's office waiting room than an airport lounge.

There were no power outlets anywhere near the seats.

Lackluster Soda.

The non-water drink options were a coffee maker that actually made decent coffee, and a cooler with Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite.  Very minimal line up.  On the counter was a dispenser with regular water.

I wanted sparkling water, which I could get from the bar "club soda", but the bar was not self service, and was never actually attended by a staff member.  They had a buzzer you could ring to get service, which was ignored more often than not, and it generally took at least 5 minutes just to get someone to fetch me a club soda from behind the bar area.  I believe they also had a few wines and beer, and maybe even spirits, but, again, never attended, and they certainly were not encouraging you to order beverages from them.

Salad Bar. 

The main section of the buffet is a salad bar of sorts.  It had the basics: not very fresh lettuce, mealy tomatoes, broccoli, black olives from a can, minced red onion and peppers, way over dressed cous cous salad (Italian dressing), and additional ranch and Italian dressing and cheese.  I was fairly underwhelmed with all of it.

What I really had my eyes on, and honestly, why I was excited to visit the lounge, was the macaroni salad, which I knew would be on offer.  I adore macaroni salad, cheap deli kinds are often my favorites.  This one certainly looked the part: very dressed, little to no seasoning, not really much to it other than a few small bits of red pepper and maybe some celery.  

I made a base of wilty, limp, and somewhat brown romaine, topped it with the macaroni salad and tomatoes (which I quickly discarded), and sat down to enjoy.  Oh, I added copious amounts of black pepper first, which they did have in packets.  It was ... fine.  Honestly, it didn't taste like much, but at least the pasta wasn't too mushy.

** for most of the lineup, **+ macaroni salad. 

Veggies Re-Stocked.

The big gaping hole in the salad bar turned out to be for veggie sticks, carrots, celery, and bell peppers, which was restocked a bit later. The veggies were fine.  I appreciated having some carrot sticks to munch on later as a healthier alternative to more standard offerings like chips (in fact, they had no chips or pretzels or anything like that).  *** veggie sticks.

Meatballs.

The hot item of the day (and, according to my research, most days) was meatballs.  There were small Hawaiian rolls on the side to make sliders if you wished.

These seemed to be very polarizing for people.  I saw many plates with discarded meatballs on them, but I saw just as many people going back for second servings of them.  I didn't have any, but I suspect you could make a decent little bite with a Hawaiian roll, meatball and sauce, and cheese from the salad bar. 

Lobster Bisque. 

The soup of the day (and again, according to my research, most days) was lobster bisque.  It was relatively warm, and had a sorta seafood-like flavor to it, but was fairly cloying and heavy.  Also woefully under seasoned.  Meh. **. 

Chips, Pita, Salsa, Queso.

Far off on the side, not with the rest of the buffet, was a tortilla chip, salsa, and queso station, with warm cheese sauce, fairly fresh salsa, and pita chips as well.   I added some of the salsa to my salad as a replacement for fresh tomatoes, and drizzled a little queso on top, but kind of wished I hadn't, as I didn't care for the queso.  If you did like it, I suspect it would go nicely on the meatballs too?  **.

Wasabi Peas.

The only real snack item, for those who just wanted to nibble on something salty and crunchy, was wasabi peas.  They were decent, had a bit of kick to them.  Probably my favorite thing in the buffet.  ***.

Desserts.

And finally, desserts.   I was surprised to see it wasn't just cookies, but rather, brownies and carrot cake.  

The carrot cake I actually enjoyed.  The cake was light and fluffy, a bit boring as the carrot shreds were minimal and it didn't have any: pineapple for moisture, raisins for sweetness, nuts for crunch, but, the base was fine.  The frosting was sweet and reasonably cream-cheesy, very creamy.  Not a carrot cake I'd go out of my way for, but it was good enough.  ***.

The brownies were ok.  I liked the big chocolate chunks on them.  Not too dry.  But not particularly deep rich fudgey taste.  Average really.  ***.

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