Dim Sum in the Danger Zone

Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is also well known for the unique way it is served in some restaurants, wherein fully cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are carted around the restaurant for customers to choose their orders while seated at their tables.

Top Gun Restaurant in Factoria, WA is  a Chinese restaurant that has an extensive dinner  menu and specializes in Dim Sum lunches.

Since I had a medical appointment in the area, my wife and I decided to try lunch there. From the outside, the place does not inspire confidence. There are auto body shops and boarded up businesses in the neighborhood and the restaurant is a dingy yellow.

Inside is fairly nice, however., with large tanks of fish and lobster staring at you as if pleading not to be your entree.

Handicapped accessibility was fair. The parking was not well marked but getting in and out wasn't too difficult.

Service was prompt and attentive. Despite being busy, we were seated quickly and in a location convenient for my wheelchair.

The food was not great, but good. Most of the dishes served were shrimp-based. Everything was hot and well-seasoned. my biggest complaint is not knowing how much you're spending. Color-coded pricing would be welcome. We ended up spending a bit more than we wanted, and likely wouldn't repeat the experience.

   

Shouldn't have turned the crank

The wife and I were heading back from a doctor appointment and we were hungry and lacking a lot of disposable income. The line at Starbucks was too long and I didn't want to risk McDonalds. So we decided to go in and sit down to eat a quick brunch. 

Regular readers may be suprised by my choice in  eating establishments. However, it was lte morning, we were in a bit of a hurry and Jack was close and serving breakfast.

I ordered a jumbo breakfast platter with sausage. Instead of xoffee, I aked for a snall diet DR Pepper. That confused the order-taker. Since my wife wanted hot tea, I sa22 it on the menu and aswked forthat.

:No hot tea, only iced" So I asked for decaf coffee. "No, don't know how."

Eventually she got her burger and a water. I got my platter with limp, cold bacon drapped over everythinge

Normally I don't send food back. I made an exception twice this time. I watched as the cook picked the bacon up with her fingers, touching all my food. I told her that I wanted a fresh platter and for her to wash her hands / wear glove between handling cash and food.

Finally getting my food, I wheeled over to my boot. Imagine my surprise when I found it was a handicapped accessible table - installed BACKWARDS to make it inaccessible.

Finally the food:  The eggs were overcooked, the pancakes cold and the sausage undercooked. But the hash browns were nice and crisp

It's not the worst fast food out there, but it isn't the best, either

Pretentious and Pricey Deli

Gilberts on Main in Old Bellevue, WA is a somewhat quirky deli. After a lengthy bout of illness from a stomach virus, I'd had a serious craving for a bowl of Matzoh Ball Soup. After church today, I asked Skyvi (Android equivalent of Siri) where the best matzoh ball soup was in Bellevue. It suggested Gilberts on Main.

One of the first things I look at is accessibility, especially in regards to parking and getting to the restaurant. Being in a wheelchair presents unique problems in navigating curbs and doorways. Many times these factors are beyond the control of the restaurant owners, but they do contribute to my enjoyment of the experience. In this case there was no handicapped parking nearby and the doorway was hard to negotiate in a wheelchair.

The interior was cramped and getting to a table would have been impossible if it hadn't been for the helpful staff.

The menu would best be described as pretentious deli. There were the items you would expect to find - hot pastrami sandwich, etc - along with fancier fare.

I looked over the menu briefly and ordered a deluxe bagel and lox platter and a cup of matzoh soup with a can of soda. $28.44! The platter consisted of two halves of a bagel, cream cheese a decent amount of good quality lox, onions, capers, tomatoes, cucumber slices and pickles. It was good, but the bagel tasted more like regular bread than a bagel. Certainly not $15 worth.

The soup was very good but also very overpriced at almost $10.00 a cup.

While I'd like to try other items on the menu, the price and accessibility will keep that from happening

The Y's an open door...

The Y’s an open door
Since 1844
With guidance over youth
For character and truth

 If you've ever heard or chanted that chant, odds are you've been to a YMCA camp or maybe a YMCA.

 The Coal Creek YMCA is MY YMCA. I don't go there as often as I should, but I always feel better when I do.

I used to go there to walk in the warm pool. Depending on the time of day, this could involve dodging dozens of children or having the pool to yourself. Alas, since going on Peritoneal Dialysis, the risk of infection from my catheter exit site is too great.

My workout now consists of a wonderful Precor weight machine. I don't know what it's called but it has cable pulleys with adjustable heights and switchable handles. Sitting 9n my chair, I can do over a dozen distinct exercises. And, thanks to the wonderful staff, I learn new exercises every time!

I certainly appreciate the family dressing rooms with the handicapped accessible showers. I'm sure my friends and family appreciate my more frequent showers

A Roses by any other name

My Mother was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She would tell my brother and me stories of the magical delicatessens that city had to offer. She would get misty-eyed describing "real" pastrami. 

One day, she read a review for Roses Delicatessen & Bakery in Portland, OR. The very next weekend, she decided it had been too long since the family had been to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, so we packed up the '68 VW Bug and made a weekend of it. We ate at Roses twice that weekend.

We had dinner there our first night. Mom ordered for us all, something very unusual for our family. She got us all Matzoh ball soup. I was not thrilled by this. I'd tasted the stuff sold in the glass jars and had been unimpressed. What arrived at the table bore as much resemblance to jar soup as prime rib does to boiled shoe leather. I was young, but I had enough manners not to lick my bowl - barely. 

The main course was something called the Nosher's Delight. This massive platter had fresh bagels, different kinds of rye bread, cream cheeses, lox, "real" deli meats, spreads...more food than a family of four should (bit, of course, would) eat. Even my brother, who's idea of culinary adventure was Swiss cheese on his burger, enjoyed it.

We returned the next day for lunch. This began my long love-affair with the Roses Reuben. As I remember it, it was on grilled rye with mounds of corned beef, pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and maybe French dressing. I think I might have eaten half of it. Our waitress was an older lady with a Brooklyn accent thick enough to use as a schmear. She boxed up our leftovers and included a "little something" from the bakery next door - a Cinnamon nut-roll as big as my head. 

"I wouldn't want you should get hungry on your drive home," she said. "You bring these handsome boys back here in a few years - I have wives for them!"

I don't know if that or the pinch on the cheek scared me worse at the time.

It seems we found excuses to make the ~200 mile trip to Portland almost every month. I think we got a membership at OMSI and the staff at Powell's Books knew us by name.

Around 40 years later, my wife and I decided to take an anniversary trip to Portland. We brought our dog with us and booked a room at The Benson Hotel, a pet-friendly hotel in downtown Portland. It was a bit on the pricey side, but it was a fun experience. 

But I was most excited to take my wife to Roses. Even though they had moved from their old location, I was sure the food would be the same. 

Oy, was I wrong. 

There were many items on the menu that were familiar to me and a lot that seemed sport's bar inspired. I decided to revisit my childhood and order some Matzoh ball soup and a Reuben. 

The soup was lukewarm and tasted a lot like it had come from a can...or  jar. The Matzoh balls were so dense I had to cut them with my knife. 

I was equally disappointed in my sandwich. The bread was obviously store-bought and had been toasted about 10 seconds too long. There was twice as much sauerkraut as there was meat and the meat itself was very dry. One thing was similar to my childhood memories. I couldn't finish this sandwich either. But I didn't eat the leftovers, my dog did. 

Service was terrible as well. It took a long time to get menus, an even longer time to get our cold food and never got our drinks refilled. 

Alert readers will notice that I did not include a link to Roses website. If you're desperate for mediocre deli food, I suggest your local Safeway   

All you can eat...but more than you should

When we want to take the kids and grandkids out to eat but don't want to spend a week's salary, we usually end up taking them to an all-you-can eat restaurant. This way, everyone gets what they want and I don't have to worry about a hypoglycemic kid taking a bite out of a waiter.

Old Country Buffet is located close to our house. That's probably the best thing I can say about it. Actually, the salad-bar isn't bad and that area is seldom as crowded as the meat-carving station is.

Years ago when I was in the Navy and stationed in California, my best friend was an Army sergeant named Rick. Every payday, Rick, his family and I would seek out some buffet. Rick wouldn't eat the day before, wanting to save room  for his feast. Upon arrival, he would survey the offerings and determine what the most expensive item there was. Then he would load his plate up with whatever it was...again and again. Rick was all about getting his money's worth. He would look over whatever the rest of us had on our plates and tell us how much each item cost per serving and we we should all try for more expensive items.

Rick would not appreciate Old Country Buffet. Even their higher-end items (roast beef, etc.) are of fairly low quality. But where else can a kid color-coordinate their plate? 

"Look, papa. I've got all orange foods: Jello, mac&cheese, carrots and orange soda!"

The Main Chinese Buffet (as opposed to the Auxiliary Chinese Buffet) in Lacey, Washington is probably my favorite buffet. not only do they have a Mongolian grill and a great selection of fresh sushi and sashimi, but they also frequently have Dungeness crab and local oysters on the half-shell.

The food all tastes fresh and most of it seems at least moderately low-sodium.  Prices are fair, under $15 per person

Accessible Apartments? HAH!!!

My house and I have a few things in common: Neither of us are in good physical shape - the wiring is bad, the pipes need repair, it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. And the house is in even worse shape than me :D

Over the summer, the wife and I had decided to look into someplace newer and more handicapped  accessible. We had just refinanced the house and were pretty sure we could rent it out for (most of) the mortgage payments.

Armed with naive optimism and the results of several Internet searches, we went apartment hunting.

The first thing we found out? Just because a place advertises "handicapped accessible", "barrier free", or "wheelchair friendly" doesn't mean they have any apartments that remotely match those descriptions. 

None of the apartments we looked at had a roll-in shower. They all had bath tubs. That's pretty much a deal-breaker for me. I'm not nearly steady enough on my feet to get in and out of a tub. Last time I tried I fell and would have had to call an ambulance if my weight-lifter son hadn't been there.

The closest we saw was one apartment with several grab-bars, wide doorways and...very plush thick carpet! I really wanted to rap on someones forehead and say "Thick carpet, really? Think, McFly, think! How is a wheelchair supposed to navigate that?" ADA Apartment guidelines state: Carpet or carpet tile shall be securely attached and shall have a firm cushion, pad, or backing or no cushion or pad. Carpet or carpet tile shall have a level loop, textured loop, level cut pile, or level cut/uncut pile texture. Pile height shall be 1/2 inch (13 mm) maximum. This stuff looked twice that length.

None of the rest of the buildings we looked at had anything resembling an accessible apartment. One complex "offered" to allow us to make the necessary modifications - at our own expense, using their contractors and setting aside a deposit to cover reversing the changes.

Eventually we decided to stay in the old money pit and make repairs and modifications.