Gastro Monkey // 美食家

I love these events that the SPCA has. Sometimes they're "Yappy Hour" but this time it was "A Dog's Night Out!" It's a partnership between local breweries and the SPCA. They bring some dogs (and like Wednesday night, sometimes they bring a feline friend) who are looking for homes. The problem with these events for me is that I can't adopt a dog right now (maybe if I could work from home?) because I wouldn't be able to give him the time I think he deserves, but seeing them there makes me want to take them all home. Honestly, if I could, I would just have a farm filled with stray cats and dogs. Special preference for unwanted chows. Back to Wednesday Night! I actually had never heard of Big Stump before. It's pretty fantastic that so many breweries are popping up over town. Even better when they have good beer and awesome brewmasters. The beer menu is posted outside, but it is also posted next to the register and taps. The space has high c...

One of my favorite breweries in the Seattle area is Black Raven. Located in a warehouse area of Redmond (like a few other breweries like Mac & Jacks - another favorite), it seems out of the way. Parking can be difficult on the weekends or sunny days. They have indoor and outdoor seating. If you have your puppies with you, they have bowls to keep your buddies hydrated. They don't serve food, but they have food menus so you can have pizza and whatnot delivered. On the weekends, they have food trucks.  Coco Jones  and a  Trickster IPA - both are delicious and both are award winners! Go and try and see which you like best! I like the Trickster IPA for its crisp hoppy taste and its name. Taps Address: 14679 NE 95th St  Redmond, WA 98052  Website

[Link to Part II ] I love going to new places. I am super thrilled that we ended up going to Sapporo and not doing the same ol' thing that everyone else does. Everything about Sapporo just seemed perfect for all of us. We all love seafood (Hokkaido is known for their crabs, scallops, and uni), we all love ice cream (Hokkaido is known for their cows/beef, milk, cream, and butter), at least two of us love beer (Sapporo is the oldest brewery in Japan), and it's Japan! What's not to love?  Upon much research based on price and location, I went with the Hotel Monterey Sapporo (ホテル モントレ 札幌) . It's a short walk from the Sapporo JR station and was reasonably priced, which would have been nicer if it hadn't snowed so much during our trip. Normally in Sapporo, the snow doesn't fall until later on in the winter season. We were there early December, so it should have been either sunny or rainy. Instead, we were treated to full on winter weather. I was actually pretty...

Every time we head up to Seattle, we try to find some new place that we haven't been to. During this trip, it was The Brooklyn Seafood, Steak, and Oyster House. It looked awesome. Beer and oyster flights? Sign me up! They have other flights to choose from, but I went for the beer and oyster flight. The options change daily depending on what's on draft and which oysters are freshest.  We grabbed a seat at the bar in front of the oyster display and main signage. Service was surprisingly slow for a restaurant that wasn't busy yet (we were there at 4PM on a Sunday because we had a flight back home afterwards). I was also not the only one to be a bit disappointed by the beer and oysters. There was some bits of shell in my oyster, so a little sad that they didn't clean the knife between shucks. With flights, I like trusting that someone took the time to taste the beer or wine and the food item so that they pair nicely. I feel like in this situation, it wasn't well pa...

If you are a craft beer aficionado, then you are in the know. Pliny the Younger is one of the most famous craft beers out there. It's only been twelve years since its inception, but it has grown in popularity exponentially. The first time I went to try this magical beer, the wait was about two hours. I was still getting my feet wet with all of the amazing craft beers in the country. I thought it was strange that we arrived at Russian River Brewing at 9am on a Saturday morning to wait for beer. We were maybe 30th in line. Soon, we discovered that we were surrounded by people who came from far and wide for this beer. One group was from Minnesota, another from Sydney Australia. Die hard beer fans! It says on the wall that their capacity is 135 people. When we got in, there were still plenty of places to grab a seat. We sat at the bar so it would be easier to order. That day (Feb. 2, 2013 - thanks Foursquare for keeping track for me!), there were no restrictions on how many glasse...