Interviews with BIG Food Stars – Part One: Nathan Myhrvold Shocks And Amazes Me

I suppose I should tell you right off the bat that it wasn’t MY interviews that I'm reporting on, but I did watch hours of them over the weekend and they were wonderful.

Some big names in the food television and cooking world took part in The New York Times “Times Talk” series. This event was in collaboration with the The New York City Wine And Food Festival, which benefited the Food Bank of New York City and Share Our Strength. Tickets were available for sale and the interviews were also streamed on Livestream. (Whew! That’s a lot of organizations to name in one paragraph!)

Actually, I’m not sure if it was because I’m a subscriber to the NY Times that I could see them or if anyone could. Click on this link - http://new.livestream.com/nytimes/NathanMyhrvold - and tell me what happens.

If you see a bearded guy who looks like a crazy scientist talking to food writer Jeff Gordinier, then you’ve got it! This was the first of four conversations on Saturday with chefs or food personalities with short breaks in between.

The guy with the beard is Nathan Myhrvold, author of Modernist Cuisine. He attempted to explain molecular gastronomy in a very down to earth way and, largely, he succeeded. We saw pictures of his “kitchen”, which is actually a huge laboratory with equipment that would make a rocket scientist happy.

Myhrvold is famous for having been Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer, where he took a break to go to cooking school. Then he left Microsoft to pursue many other interests including cooking, inventing and lots of other things that I don’t really understand.

This conversation was about food, and afterwards I felt as if I had been to Food University. If you’re able to, listen to it. I’m not enough of a genius to report on all that they talked about, but here is some of what was covered:

Nathan: “Science is always in the kitchen, I’m just taking the ignorance out.” He explained that cooking by sous vide or centrifuging are methods of “informed cooking” and that they actually bring out the best of the ingredients. He talked about “respecting peas as an ingredient” when they are put in the centrifuge. It really coaxes out the essence of their flavor.

When asked about organic food, Nathan said it was the hypocrisy of many elements in the organic movement that bothered him. Starting out, there were only 10 non-organic additives or ingredients that were allowed to be added to food that was considered organic. Through heavy lobbying and pressure from food producers (and probably anyone with a stake in the profits), there are now TWO HUNDRED items, which are clearly not organic, but are allowed to be added to “organic food”. He thinks we should be informed on the label that some organic foods include these ingredients. I definitely agree.

Myhrvold also said that Genetically Modified Food (GMO’s) can’t be considered all bad. He gave corn as a perfect example of a food that has become sensibly modified (genetically) over the ages. On another point, “healthy” food chains claim that their bacon is nitrate free. It’s actually cured with celery juice, which is full of, guess what?, nitrates. There didn’t seem to be an area in the entire food world in which he wasn’t conversant.

Gordinier asked if Modernist Cuisine makes us lose out on the wonderful aromas of different foods, like roast chicken, for example. Nathan’s answer was startling to me as a longtime cook: “If your kitchen smells good, your food lost something. You’ve taken something out of your food.”

Gosh, that is an interesting thought. “I feel like the Grinch just stole Christmas,” said Gordinier.

Actually, that entire idea really blows my mind. I can’t stop thinking about what a world without food smells (good ones) would be like. It does make sense that wonderful smells leeching out of food means that part of the flavor is going with it too.

But eating is about so much more than taste. I’m not sure that getting the most intense flavor you can out of a single item can make up for it having NO SMELL as it’s cooking. Isn’t the inviting aroma of roast chicken or sautéed onions part of the pleasurable experience of eating? I’m really conflicted about this aspect of Modernist Cuisine.

What will I do with all this new found knowledge? Truthfully, probably not much. Modernist Cuisine requires quite a bit in the way of new equipment, but, more importantly, it totally turns on its head so much of what I thought I knew. I would love to investigate it further.

One thing I WILL definitely do is to seek out some of these temples of molecular gastronomy. I have a new appreciation for what they’re trying to accomplish, which is actually the task of every dedicated cook – to make the best things they can out of the best ingredients they have.  

Next time – a dynamic duo is joining forces in the kitchen and out.

Many Tastes Of DC

It was great being in Annapolis the same weekend as the Taste Of DC food fair. And I was lucky to be able to go with someone like S(on), who has no funny eating restrictions or strange requirements. He's just someone who revels in and relishes food like I do!

There are two good ways to taste lots of food. The first is to be with lots of people and order many different things OR the second way is to be with just one YOUNG MAN. Gosh, they can eat a lot. You can order tons of things, taste just a little and have him finish the rest, which is exactly what I did.

Each place was required to have “a tasting plate” for $3 or less, as well as more robust offerings at higher prices. S warned me in advance that he wanted to get one thing from EACH place and that I should be prepared with plenty of one dollar bills. 

The admission was $8.99 online. (It would have been $10 on the day) and there were around SEVENTY food purveyors and also 30 beer and wine stands or stations. The admission was much less than other food events I've been to, but here you had to pay for each dish. 

Can you guess how many separate food items we actually got? We had a couple of things on our own, but mostly we would order something, I would have a bite and he would finish it. So how many food stations did we visit - out of 70? One more piece of information – these were not TASTES; they were small servings. There were 3 meatballs on a plate, for example, or one filled tortilla or a quarter of a sub type of thing. Also, and this turned out to be good, the alcohol sales were a complete mess.

I know there are restrictions on selling alcohol, but it was all arranged in such a dumb way. First you had to get a wristband after your ID was checked, which was fine, but they were out of them at the first booth we got to. Then the line was ridiculously long at the next place. And THEN the alcohol-desiring public had to stand in another REALLY huge line (can you say over a hundred people?) to buy VOUCHERS, with which to purchase the wine and beer. 

Does that mean that you had to know in advance exactly how much wine or beer you would be tasting? How annoying is that! The food situation - mixed between stands and actual food trucks - was beautifully organized. The booze? NO! As a result, we had a dry day, which probably meant we could eat more, but no fancy beer or wine, no hard cider and no sangria. >:-O  

(You’re still supposed to be thinking about how much we ordered. I’ll get to that in a sec.)

We did one really smart thing. We got there at ten to 12, which I wouldn’t have thought was that early. Apparently, DC’ers are not early risers. We were literally the first people there, except for the actually workers. We just walked in, no one looked at our tickets and we surveyed food truck after food truck and stand after stand of glorious food with NO ONE else there. Our first 5 stops were in the first 12 minutes. There were no lines (because there were no people) and we could pick and choose easily. You may notice that we ordered an (over)abundance of pork. I didn't realize it at the time, but I guess that's what looked the best.

This is what we had and the order in which we had it:

Ben’s Chili Bowl

Half Smoke with Chili Sauce, Mustard and Chopped Onions

Half Smoke with Chili Sauce

Lemongrass Vietnamese Cuisine 

Lemongrass Chicken Taco. The lemongrass made this taco taste so fresh and light.     

Lemongrass Chicken 

Logan’s Sausage Mexican Chorizo with tomato and onion. OMG, this was my favorite thing of the whole day. The chorizo was spicy and robust with a crisp roll that held all its greasy goodness. It was so good that we each had one, so I'm counting this as two things. 

Mexican Chorizo

Sorry, I didn't get the name of this next place:

But the Grilled Lemongrass Pork Sandwich was sensational. It could have used a splash of something though. 

Grilled Lemongrass Pork Sandwich

The Pork Carnitas from Chupacabra of tender marinated pork topped with onions and cilantro were SO good. The taco itself was good too and there were TWO of them!

 

Pork Carnitas

 Carnivore BBQ

This Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cole Slaw done in a North Carolina, vinegar based style was not our favorite. We thought the cole slaw tasted (and looked) weird. But maybe we were getting porked-out. 

Pulled Pork Sandwich

 

Shake Shack

Maple Bacon Banan-za Frozen Custard

I tasted NO bacon. I guess the banana was too strong. But it's Shake Shack, so it was awesome!

Maple Bacon Banan-za Frozen Custard

     Station 4

Charred Octopus with Potato Confit

This may have been the best cooked item of the day. The octopus was plenty done, but it didn't have an ounce of rubberiness about it. It was absoluteness sensational. These folks at Station 4 can cook!

Charred Octopus with Potato Confit

Belga Café

Waffle with…chicken? This was disappointing. Good waffle, but whatever was on top was overcooked and bland.

Waffle with…Chicken?

Cupcakes Lounge

Oreo Cheesecake Parfait
This was pure deliciousness in a plastic rectangular cup. It was just the right size. The Oreos were a perfect foil for the smooth and luxurious cheesecake. A winner.

Oreo Cheesecake Parfait

Trattoria Nicola’s

Mini Meatballs
See what I mean about these servings being more than "tastes"??! This was a BIG portion. Excellent traditional meatballs.

Mini Meatballs

Chez Billy

Mini Poutine  
Sorry, poutinesquers, I just don’t get the appeal, but S liked them. Let's not forget that S likes everything, though.

Mini Poutine

Captain Cookie & the Milkman

Ginger Molasses Cookie on the top and Chocolate Chip Cookie on the bottom, sandwiching Vanilla and Pumpkin Ice Cream. 

Captain Cookie, I love you! What could be more fun than building your own ice cream sandwich? The cookies were big and chewy and the ice cream was excellent. It's lucky I live nowhere near the Captain.

Build Your Own Ice Cream Sandwich

 

Sprinkles 
Red Velvet Cupcake 
Red Velvet ain’t my thang, but it looked cute. S liked it.

Red Velvet Cupcake 

You have one more chance to guess. What do you think? 

The complete tally is...fifteen items (if you count the chorizo twice). That sounds a little pathetic, doesn't it? Between the two of us, we only managed to eat 15 little plates of wonderfulness. 

I have no defense. We had what we wanted and that was it. Maybe it's not bad if you consider that the servings were way larger than tastes. And mostly everything we had was awfully good. 

It was a perfect end to a perfect couple of days. Next time maybe we'll try to crack the big two-oh.            

Annapolis Rocks With Great Food And Scenery

I had the greatest couple of days last week. It started at lunch with two of the most marvelous aunts around plus a pretty great cousin thrown in for extra fun.

We had lunch at a beautiful scenic spot right on the water on the eastern shore of Maryland, The Narrows. 

If you’re at all familiar with the Eastern Shore, you’ll know that it means one thing – crab!!! So first I had it in the creamiest soup of the century and then in a plate of mini crab cakes. I didn’t need any bun or other things. It was pure and simple CRAB in mini cake form. Pretty great.

The soup tasted as rich as the recipe (at the end of the post) indicates. It WAS a small(ish) portion, thankfully. 

The little crab cakes were pure deliciousness. 

Look at this Iceberg Wedge Salad - 

SO GOOD! I was glad I was only tasting it and not required to eat every last crispy, salty, cheesy, yummy morsel. 

The Crème Brulée was pretty and good. 

After more family visiting, I conquered my fear of bridges (you didn’t know that about me, did you?) and drove over a fairly frightening one – The Bay Bridge. Reading this did not help me:

The view from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is always spectacular.  You will see lots of sail boats and other pleasure boats on the Bay during nice summer days.  Note:  Only passengers should be looking at the scenery - the bridges do not have full road shoulders and, therefore, do not offer motorists the same maneuvering space found on other roadways to avoid accidents, therefore it's important for drivers to keep their eyes on the road.

Look! 

See? I wasn’t kidding…Yikes! I just kept trying to remember to breathe as I crossed it. 

I made it! And a wonderful visit to Annapolis awaited me with kid #2, S(on).

Here’s what we did and, most importantly, WHERE we ate A LOT of crab:

Severn Inn, which, not surprisingly, is on the Severn River, overlooked the Naval Academy and was the best meal we had. IT was as comfortable as a plush yacht (I would guess) with friendly service and great food. 

I had an excellent and very cold Cosmo. 

We started with the Asian Tapas Plate.

 

The Crab Spring Roll was the best – so hot and crunchy and bursting with fresh crab flavor. The Fried Calamari were done well and the Tuna Sashimi  and Spicy Tuna Roll were good too. (I like bringing in different flavors and cooking styles to traditional restaurants. Hence my love of Fusion Cuisine, which is so common now that it's hard to find a restaurant that doesn't include a mixing of cuisines in at least some of its dishes.)

My scallop entrée was perfectly cooked and served with something a little unusual - Beef Short Rib Ravioli and a wild mushroom ragout! It was almost like eating two different dishes on the same plate, but, at the time, each was so good that I didn’t think about the incongruence. 

The Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Ganache was worth at least at bite. Luckily, I had a young man with a hollow leg to finish everything.

The next morning we went on a tour of the incredibly impressive Naval Academy. 

If I saw a Naval (or Marine) midship-person (they say midshipmen) now, I would throw my arms around him or her and say YOU are really amazing and thank you for everything you do! 

The high point of the tour was watching “Formation”, which happens every day at noon. The entire student body of 4000 midshipman comes together and marches in “formation” with music and shouted orders and even some swords thrown in. It was grand and striking and stirring.

 

Lunch awaited us at another waterfront restaurant, Carrol’s Creek, directly across a drawbridge from the Annapolis Yacht Club. 

 

S started with Blue Point Oysters, which he liked enough to eat in seconds. 

The main courses were okay, but the shrimp in my salad were overcooked. 

The view and brilliant blue skies made up for it though. 

 

S enjoyed his crab cake and I also thought it was good.

In the afternoon we went to the hugely popular Annapolis Boat Show. I was thrilled because I had great memories of going to the New York Boat Show every year as a kid. 

I remember walking away with bags full of free loot and going aboard all the huge yachts inside the convention center. This was outside, which was a bit different and it was for sail boats. (The yachts were the next weekend.) 

 

There were enormous lines to get ON the boats, so we just walked around while I looked for free stuff. It WAS a beautiful day and the boats were incredible, but I had told S that we would be getting a lot of really cool sailing paraphernalia. At the end of the afternoon, THIS was all the loot we scored – 3 (not terribly well-made) tote bags, 5 pens (3 from the same stand) and one buoy-like key chain. It was a bit of a bust haul-wise. Oh well.

Dinner that night was right alongside the docks where all the boat show action was happening - at Pusser’s Caribbean Grille. I had heard great things about this place and that it was always packed. 

It WAS really packed, but it had a this-is-where-the-tourists-go type of atmosphere, plus the tables were sticky. But the food was better than it needed to be. I liked my Peach Sangria. 



The Coconut Rum Shrimp starter was crisp and hot. I could have used the rum on the side, though, since I tasted none in the dish. (I guess my hands were too sticky to take a picture.)

For entrees, my scallops were big and juicy and cooked well and the curried coconut sauce was a great addition. 

S liked his steak, but I hated the spice that was in his accompanying crabcake. (Dunno what it was – tons of Old Bay?) 

As good as all the food was and as beautiful as the boats and scenery were, it was the company that was the best part of this short trip. 

First my lovely aunts and then S were completely easy and fun to be with. If you’re dealing with difficult young children or babies at the moment, or if you’re going through the inevitably challenging teenage years, have some patience and know that your kids will turn into delightful people who are wonderful to spend time with.

Next time, I’ll tell you about another highlight of our trip – a visit to The Taste Of DC food, beer and wine fair.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Here is the promised recipe:

      

The Narrows’ Cream of Crab Soup (serves 4 to 6)

1 pound jumbo lump crab meat

1 small carrot, grated

2 cups half and half

2 cups heavy cream

1 tbl. dry sherry

1 tbl. chicken base

½ tsp. white pepper

1/2 tsp. old bay

2 tbls. unsalted butter

3 tbls. all purpose flour 

Remove any cartilage from the crabmeat.

In a thick pot, warm crab meat, carrot, cream, sherry, chicken base and seasoning to slow simmer ---

In a separate pan, toast the roux (flour and butter) for the few minutes until it smells of tasted nuts (do not burn) ---

Add roux to cream – bring back to a simmer – whisk until smooth.

Serve garnished with the chopped parsley and pass a cruet of sherry.

House Hunters Meets Seattle Food Bloggers

This is soooo exciting. Two of my favorite things came together as one last night. House Hunters had FOOD BLOGGERS on! I thought it would be fun to follow the show blow by blow – the way I do with cooking shows.

I’m pretty qualified to be commenting on all of this. If the number of hours I’ve watched House Hunters counted as real estate training, I would probably be licensed in just about every state…and abroad too.

So, who do we have on this episode? Mark and Ashley, The Seattle Cooks. Actually their blog is The Seattle Cook (singular). That’s a bit inconvenient for my sentence, but anyway, here we go…

Mark and Ashley love living near Pike’s Place Market in Seattle. We see them there tasting things. Mark wants to continue to live downtown near his office, but Ashley wants to live with more space farther out. The great thing is that Ashley is a real estate agent. That’s so convenient. Why can’t she just pretend there’s nothing good to show Mark in the downtown area?

They love sailing and barbecuing oysters and drinking champagne. Do they do ALL of that ON a sailboat? It seems like it. That’s adventurous.

Back to Pike’s Peak, we see some fish-throwing! This is when they tell us they write a food blog together. Mark says the blog was a challenge they gave each other…”Can we blog for at least 100 days?” and then they kept it going.  We learn they love living downtown (for the moment anyway).

They love their “classic historic” 1300 square foot loft, but they want more separation between the living areas. Ashley acknowledges that Mark wants a downtown condo and she wants to look at single family homes, because she says there’s value in the land. He admits he’d love to live within 3 blocks of work.

Their number one requirement is a nice kitchen. “All the best parties – after the age of 28 – happen in the kitchen.” They have to have a gas stove, and an island would be nice and decent counter space.

Hey Mark, I’ve watched enough of these shows to know that there are ways around high-priced, beautifully finished kitchens. The Property Brothers (don’t they remind you of the Bee Gees?) would have a few down and out properties to show you that could be converted to gorgeous spaces, I bet. Oops, wrong show.

The couple has a dining table that they can’t quite agree on the length of, but it has to fit wherever they buy. Ashley would also love to have outdoor space for gardening.

Mark adds, “Windows are key.” I would think so. Oh, he actually means that with so many rainy days, they need as much natural light as they can get.

They also have to consider their cat, Jack. I wouldn’t think there would be too many places that WOULDN’T suit a cat. Maybe only living next to a dog kennel or something…OH, they’re talking about having a more discreet place for his litter box than the living room. Agreed!

Their budget is $425,000 up to $475,000. Mark wants to see absolutely everything out there, but Ashley says they have to be realistic. She seems awfully sweet. I guess they haven’t been married long enough for her to be using her power for her own selfish purposes. I still say show him ONLY what SHE wants him to see.

Ashley is obviously not listening to me, because the first place they go is a high rise, Escala, which is 1½ blocks from Mark’s office. The listing broker, Olga, tells them (and us) that Escala is “affordable opulence” and is in the best part of Seattle. They look at an 18th floor model with gorgeous views.

Oh, kids, please don’t get taken in by a model apartment! They probably shoot pheromones in the walls to make it even more attractive than the upgraded extras make it look. 

It’s $449,000. That’s not even including the monthly maintenance. Don’t do it!  Luckily, Ashley gets it. She says she wants to keep the price in the lower 4’s because they have to consider the HOA dues. Good girl.

It IS attractive, but it’s only 1100 square feet.  The kitchen is beautiful with “Italian finish cabinetry”, whatever that means. Maybe an Italian guy named Joe came in to finish the cabinets by putting the handles on.

Actually, there are no handles and the cabinet doors lift UP instead of swinging open. I’ve never seen that in solid wood cupboards, only those frosted glass types. I can’t tell whether that would be annoying or awesome.

The countertops are granite with the same granite running along the wall like molding or a short back splash. The rest of the wall is painted. It does look very elegant.

There’s fantastic under-counter lighting running the entire length of the countertops. That’s a good thing, because there are no other counters, so at least they’re lit well.

The dining table is where an island should be, which again means there’s very little counter space. The sink faces a cabinet-ed wall, so there's no view as you’re doing the dishes. That’s a shame. The views ARE spectacular, but Olga makes the point later that the lower the floor, the lower the price, even if the views suffer as you go down.

Mark says the living room area “feels slightly small”. It IS small. Olga is a bit snippy when she says, “I hate to break it to you, but this is big for condos.” BE nice. You’re kind of a witch for a realtor. He was only just saying…

They see a great balcony and the master bedroom with a not terribly big bed. It has huge windows, which is the architect’s trick for making the room seem bigger. Olga shows them an absolutely-no-bigger-than-standard-sized-sliding-door closet, saying, “You have really a quite large amount of closet space.“ Luckily, they seem not to notice or mind.

The bathroom has double sinks and a bathtub. And Ashley, for some reason, tells us (ALL OF US) that SHE likes to take showers, but MARK likes baths. “How embarrassing that she said that,” Mark comments. At least Olga only shrugs her shoulders and doesn't say anything.

We see a fitness center, a theater room and a wine cave with wine storage. Ashley likes it okay. Mark loves the location, but admits it feels small. They can’t figure out a place for Jack’s litter box either.

Next Ashley gets smart and shows them a place SHE wants to see in Queen Anne, which is apparently a suburb 25 minutes from downtown, but near where they dock their sailboat.

It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1900 square foot house, listed at $485,000. Mark says he feels like he’s in exile. There are high ceilings, hardwood floors and a nice slate fireplace with a great view of the water in this Arts and Crafts style house. There’s also plenty of space for their table.

Mark says he “can see a life here”, but he doesn't know if he’s ready for it. Wow, that’s a big admission. It IS a big deal to move out of the city into the burbs. It’s a whole other ball of wax, that’s for sure. I’m thinking they shouldn't give up their urban vibe, especially if the only under-age member of their household can fit on the window sill.

The more I think about it, the more I don’t think they should do it. I don’t want them to get sucked into the whole having more space thing. Once they fall for that, they can never go back to a cool place in the city. Closets become the be-all and end-all of one’s existence.

They continue through the house. The rooms are smallish, but they have beautiful white painted woodwork and the windows are large and let in a lot of light. The kitchen is galley style but okay and, even though there is an electric stove, there’s gas on the property and Ashley says they could switch out the stove.

They go outside and Mark says he can BREATHE out there. Mmm. Is there a change happening? There’s a 2 car carport, which Mark immediately says they should turn into a nightclub or a lounge. How cute is he! He sounds like such fun! I’m beginning to change my mind. Maybe they CAN be happy here!

The master bed and bath on the ground level has a wood-paneled bathroom, which is a bit odd. There are MANY hooks on the back of the door and Mark says all his friends can have towels there too. Funny. There’s an interesting stairway from which you can touch the pot rack in the kitchen. Mark says he can grab a pot as he’s coming down the stairs. The house is kind of kooky...just like him. (In a good way, I mean.)

There is a full bath upstairs and Mark himself mentions the bathtub, I guess before ANYONE else does! French doors lead to one of the two upstairs bedrooms and it has another gorgeous view. It could be a great office. And the other room could be a guest room.

Ashley likes it. She says there’s a bus line close by. Mark says he actually loves it. One reason is because Jack can have the upstairs and Mark can be downstairs and they can each have their own part of the house. Wow, that was easy for Ashley! She may just get what she wants without having had to resort to trickery and deception. (What would THAT feel that?)

I’m so conflicted though. I don’t want them to be stuck in the 'burbs when they have such a great urban lifestyle. But this house is totally winning me over. I can see them there.  I can see them having great parties in their newly constructed “lounge” and having room for people to stay over. Oy, they're not making this easy for ME to decide…much less them.

They look at one more condo after we see them hitting golf balls at a driving range. This one is a mile walk to Mark’s office. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1191 square feet for $369,000. It looks like an office building. There’s a bathroom immediately upon entering. (Isn’t that bad feng shui? Won’t all their good fortune go down the drain?)

They enter the living dining/space. You have to be kidding me! It’s TINY. REALLY. There ARE a lot of big windows, but with tinny-looking blinds. There IS an island with countertop seating, but it’s small. Mark likes the concrete countertops. And there’s a pretty big balcony.

The second bedroom has a Murphy bed, which Ashley pulls down to show Mark. He says it’s cool, but he’s not sure he would ever sleep on something like that, but their guests can. Ashley says he just MIGHT have to sleep on it. Good one!

THEN Ashley shows Mark the desk that can be folded down when you’re not using it as a bed. THAT IS TRULY NEAT! Mark likes it.

The master bedroom is completely surrounded by windows. That’s weird. They like it, but Mark is actually bothered by the fact that it isn’t 3 blocks from the office. Ashley has one more piece of important info. It’s a short sale. OF COURSE, IT IS!

That’s the House Hunters equivalent of taking away an hour of cooking time on Top Chef or making you partner with the worst person in the bunch on The Next Food Network Star. In other words, it throws a complete wrench in the works.

Ashley says it could take up to 6 months to get an offer accepted and there’s no guarantee it will be. Of course, this being House Hunters and the fact that they've most likely already BOUGHT the house, we don’t have to worry that Mark and Ashley will be homeless. However, I will still mull over each option with great seriousness and the impact it will have, most importantly, on their lifestyle. It’s NOT an easy choice.

The last condo was TOO small. It was ridiculous. The first one was nice, but still lacking in space. The house gives them ample room AND the ability to show that they can still be cool and live in the suburbs.

Mark seemed to IMAGINE himself there. Okay, that’s my choice. They’re going with the house. All my hours spent watching House Hunters tells me this is the one they are definitely going with. Let’s see.

And they pick…OMG, they picked Escala, the first condo. They got a lower floored unit, which was listed at 409,000 and they got it down to $404,000.

They love it! (Are they just saying that? I had already imagined them in that cute house. I wanted to see his plans for a lounge under the carport and her herb garden.)

They did furnish the condo nicely with lots of bohemian-type furniture and their table wasn’t as long as they made it seem, so it fits fine in the kitchen area. And they can store their wine in the wine cave downstairs. BUT the cat’s box is still in the living room. 

Wow, was I wrong!!! I suppose they actually knew better than I did what they were going for. Imagine that! All the great things that Seattle offers were just too hard to give up, I guess. (Here’s a little blurb on Mark and Ashley’s blog about House Hunters.)

One last thing…Whatever you do, please don’t talk to me about how House Hunters is fake and that what we see isn’t what’s really happening. I don’t care! I choose to deal with the information that’s given and the reactions (real OR fake) of the folks on the show. It’s much more fun that way.