Koots Green Tea rocks

This is a shot of my favorite beverage place of the moment. Koots Green Tea is all over Japan and this location in Lincoln Square mall in Bellevue, WA is its first North American store. Another location is set to open soon at the north end of downtown Seattle near South Lake Union. I can't wait!

Right now, I have to trek about 12 miles from my house to the Lincoln Square spot each weekend. Yes, it's that good. :-) The new one will be about 10 miles away, but only a mile from my job, so that will be super easy.I checked again this weekend and they say the opening of the new location has been delayed again.

So I finally had to bite the bullet and get four days worth of Koots' Hojicha latte (extra hot, no foam, with 2% milk). It's a low or no caffeine tea mixed with milk. That way I don't have to worry about a caffeine crash or withdrawal effeccts when I can't get there for a taste. I reheated one this morning and it was delish. I'll have another couple during the week and freeze one to see how it fares after being frozen, thawed and reheated. Results later!

Snowy West Vancouver

Here's a shot of the bridge to West Vancouver as seen from Stanley Park.








Here's the same bridge as we crossed over. It was pretty cold the entire trip. Although the rain washed away most of the snow that hit Seattle last week, there was still snow lining the streets in Vancouver and making the side streets dicey. Temperatures hovered in the mid-30s all day.

Sticker shock

So the Westin was Jason's pick since I'd sorta snacked @ home before we left and wasn't super hungry. But when he indicated where we were headed, I was not jazzed. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I knew this was not going to be a meal we loved. I seemed to remember an uninspiring or not-worth-the price brunch here a couple years ago when they were in the throes of remodeling.

So I voiced my reservations, which Jason nodded at as his stomach rumbled, but then shut my pie hole as we headed to our seat: in for a dime, in for a dollar, right? My resolve to enjoy the view and sip hot water evaporated when Jason returned with the first of two stacked plates: scrambled eggs, bacon, smoked salmon and oysters, peel & eat shrimp, hash browns, and sausage. Well, one small plate couldn't hurt, could it? ;-) Oh but it could, I'd soon discover.

"Do you know how much brunch is?" I asked Jason, as I got up to hit the buffet tables. "No," he mumbled through a mouthful of sausage and seafood as he reached for his mimosa. Oh well. I snagged a plate and loaded up myself: bacon, smoked salmon & oysters, three kinds of melon, rice salad with raisins and curry flavoring of some sort, mozzarella and sliced tomatoes, and shrimp. As J. looked on derisively ("You ragged on this place all the way in!" "I changed my mind."), I grudgingly acknowledged it was pretty tasty and better than the last time. Not quite full from my serving of crow, I munched away as we lingered over our plates, reading the paper and e-mail.

Finally, the servers discretely placed our bill on the table. Okay, let's see, two brunches and a mimosa comes to... $83.37 cdn?! J. blinked and called the server over. "Uh, how much is brunch?" "$34.95?" he answered in that statement-with-question-inflection common to Canadians. Add the $8 mimosa and tax and there you have it: $83.97, plus tip to come. Aaaaargh. "Look at it this way," I said to J. after doing currency conversion on my Treo. "It's only $73.35 USD. " :-) He looked only mildly amused.

"And that's the regular price?" J. asked. "Oh sure," said the server. "They don't really jack it up until the holidays? You know: Christmas day, New Year's Day, Mother's Day? That's when it's $69 or $79 per person?" Oh. Well of course.

As we walked back to the car (quick walk with so much less money weighing us down!), J. admitted, "Well now we know why you had that weird feeling when we walked in." Yeah, and now I knew what it was: a feeling that somehow we were about to be screwed. Oh Canada. :-P

Dining room

The Westin Bayshore dining room.

Westin Bayshore Vancouver

We just came up to Vancouver, BC for the day and J decided he wants brunch. So we pulled into the Westin Bayshore Vancouver where the staff seated us @ this wonderful corner table in the dining room with a view of the pool and the snow-dusted mountains in the background. Very relaxing.