Our real destination was the Crab Pot at Miner’s Landing. This restaurant offers free appetizer coupons at the concierge of most downtown Seattle hotels.

To prepare ourselves for the huge meal ahead of us, we noshed on the crab artichoke dip.  It was thick and creamy, perfect to go along with our super sugary cocktails.

Trying to be like Adam Richman of Man vs. Food, we ordered a Seafood Feast for Two. Armed with a wooden mallet, we tackled a cauldron of seafood poured directly right onto our table. Our smorgasbord had crab legs, salmon and haddock kebobs, mussels, clams, and prawns mixed with corn on the cob, andouille sausage, and russet  baby potatoes. With plastic bibs on, we pawed through the meal with our hands.

This feast inspired the most outrageous hotel meal ever. My parents visited a friend in Olympia who gave them two giant Dungeness crabs. These big fellows were alive and squirming and had to be boiled in our hotel suite!  Crab Cooking 101: In a pot of boiling salt water, you put the crab in there for 13-15 minutes. Then, immediately cooking, ice it immediately. This makes it easier to crack the shell later to get the meat. And…voila. Scrumptious success.

We ate these crabs with local Chinese food…thank goodness the Northwest has amazing garden vegetables. Our dishes included chicken with Asian silk cucumber, beef with bitter melon, and shrimp with baby mushrooms.

-Seattle, WA

I think Black&Tan’s (half-Guiness and half-Harp) is one of the only ones I can handle Guiness…which just may be too dark for me. That or drinking Guiness as part of an Irish car bomb.

I did give Guiness one more try when I ordered their fish and chips. Their Alaskan Pollock fillet is deep-fried in a Guiness beer-batter and served with their famous fries. Look at how dark that batter is!

Also, all the walls at the pub are covered with $1 bills. Stick a dollar on the wall and sing a song on the bar (I somehow ended up just repeating the lines “Hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell” over and over), and you become part of the O’Doherty family! Your first drink from now on will always be half off.  Later that evening, we ended up at a place called Irv’s, a curious dive bar that has Karaoke on Wednesdays. However, the crowd is one where mullet-mohawk’s are acceptable. And where it is acceptable to pick Puff, the Magic Dragon as your karaoke song of choice. Very strange indeed.

-Spokane, Washington

The Seared Ahi Tuna Salad was one of the freshest I’ve ever had. The thick tuna steak was coated with black sesame seeds, and the combination of cooked and raw tuna was amazing. Served with a spinach salad, pickled ginger, fresh cucumbers, and champagne vinaigrette and sesame oil dressing.

-Spokane, WA

Ingredients:
-    1 fresh salmon filet
-    10 fresh scallops
-    ½ pound of fresh, peeled shrimp
-    Fresh basil leaves (one cluster at the market will do)
-    2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
-    Can of diced tomatoes (preferably one soaked in basil and garlic)
-    Tablespoon of minced garlic
-    Your choice of pasta (enough for 4)
-    Two tablespoons of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1.    Begin boiling pasta in a large pot
2.    In a separate pan, begin sautéing garlic in olive oil.
3.    Chop scallops and cut salmon into bite-sized pieces
4.    Add scallops, then salmon, and shrimp with garlic.
5.    Add fresh and canned tomatoes.
6.    Mix in basil.
7.    Mix cooked pasta with sauce. Toss.
8.    Garnish with more fresh basil.

The tomatoes, plus juices from the seafood, olive oil, and basil, will create a nice sauce that coats the pasta. Yum!

My friend tried the sizzling mushroom fajita. Incredibly juicy, portabello mushrooms are a great, satisfying alternative to meat.

I tried the braised carnitas. The slow-roasted shoulder pork almost melted in my mouth. There was a  slightly sweet taste of orange and cinnamon, and I loved combining each bite with the spicy Spanish rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo.

-Boise, Idaho

For our meals, we each ordered an entrée featuring different meats. I had the Arroz Con Pato, a gourmet pan-seared duck breast with drumstick over slow-cooked cilantro-infused rice. The rice was heavenly. There was the fragrant cilantro flavor combined with the sweetness of carrots, and the spice of red peppers.

Also on the table was a lamb shank cooked in traditional Peruvian style with cilantro, black beer, onions, garlic and Amarillo. It sat on top of a bean stew and salsa.

My co-worker ordered the venison special (medium-rare), and it came out artistically arranged with mashed beans and mountain berries on the side to sweeten each bite.  The menu also had a lot of quinoa (a super-grain) options including a quinoa pilaf. However, the best use of quinoa was probably in the cannolis. They studded the cannolis with crisp quinoa, and then stuffed them with a passionfruit mousse and served mango-lemongrass sorbet on the side. It was light, airy, and absolutely delightful.

-Portland, OR

I love frozen yogurt! And Portland is home to the one and only Yo Cream, a company that distributes frozen yogurt flavors around the country. Lucky for us, they have a company store where they test out their unique flavors. Almost every day, they’ll change the flavors. We’ve tried blueberry, Luscious Lemon, Irish Mint, and a variety of other flavors. They have fresh fruit toppings as well as a variety of sweet toppings (waffle cones, brownie bits, cheesecake, nerds, Teddy Grahams, etc).  I am a huge fan of the original tart swirled with Mountain Berry or Raspberry. However, my friend who is an absolute sweet tooth loves the Alpine Vanilla and Cookies and Cream. One day they even had a caramel apple flavor, which tasted like lollipop!

Comparing to the popular coastal Pinkberry chain and its similar counterpart, Red Mango, I still like the classic flavors best. Pinkberry and Red Mango offer more fruit toppings, and their tart flavor is unbeatable (I love the slightly sour yogurt taste). However, Yo Cream is the best “pay-by-the-ounce” fro-yo place I’ve been to (including New York’s Sixteen Handles), because their flavors cater to every kind of dessert lover. We have been to Yo Cream almost every day we have been in Portland, and are already counting down the days until we’re back.

My favorite combination so far has been: wildberry and original tart swirled yogurt with chocolate chips, raspberries, strawberries, and cheesecake. Mmm. What is your favorite fro-yo topping combo?

-Portland, OR

In downtown Portland, near the Pioneer Courthouse Square, is Habibi, a Lebanese café. I’ve been craving za’taar (a spice mixture with thyme) since I left Dubai (where there are a lot of Lebanese restaurants, and the popular late-night Za’taar W Zeit).

They had a za’taar wrap with halloumi cheese, tahini sauce, lettuce, cucumber, and tomato. It’s a light, healthy choice for vegetarians…and the thyme packs enough flavor, zest, and crunch.

They even had cucumber water (and a little slice of cucumber in ice cold water is even more refreshing than a water with lemon!).

-Portland, OR

As featured on the Food Network, Voodoo Donuts is an amazingly eclectic donut shop in the Old Town area of Portland. We heard it was a must-do in Portland, so we headed there one night to sample their variety of fried sweets.

They have donuts topped with favorite childhood cereals, donuts in novelty shapes (like the inappropriate cock-n-balls), and oversized donuts the size of cakes. The donuts are cheap, but the line is usually long. Aim to go on a weekday night to avoid the crowds.

We ordered the bacon donut (a pastry with maple frosting and crisp bacon on top). It tastes like a pancake breakfast.

Then, we also had a Voodoo Doll donut (a doll-shaped jelly donut with a pretzel pin) as well as donut topped with rice krispies, peanut butter, and chocolate. For dessert lovers, this is definitely an after-hours place to go, especially since its open 24 hours! It’s also good to go with several people so you can try as many donuts as possible.
-Portland, OR

The first entrée was the Idaho brook trout, which was stuffed with fava beans and pancetta (also known as Italian Bacon, its a salted and spiced pork belly). The trout was cooked with olive oil and topped with cherry tomatoes and a fresh herb salad (mostly parsley)…it definitely has a fuller flavor than our other entree.

We also ordered the lighter grilled escolar (a fish similar to tuna), which was in a green curry sweetened with almond milk. In the curry were small clams, sugar snap peas, and turnips. The peas and the turnips gave the dish a crunch that went in the curry. The flavor was reminiscent of Thai cuisine, so the whole dish had an Asian-fusion taste to it.  Looking at the menu’s other options, we also found the Gilt Club is also a good place to go to sample wines and cocktails while tasting various cheeses.

-Portland, OR