Seattle, WA: Joule

Joule is an Asian fusion restaurant with Korean elements on its menu.
It is a chic and trendy restaurant, with excellent fancy food and great service.

The kids really wanted us to try the bone marrow appetizer on the menu. If you have never had bone marrow before, this will be quite an experience. It was served as a spread on toasted bread, and it was definitely different!

On their favorite list is the Kalbi burger with horseradish and giardiniera. We ate family-style in order to sample more, so the burgers were quartered and shared by the entire party. The burgers were very juicy and tasty.

Spicy rice cake with chorizo was the next favorite item on the menu. It has a nice kick and just the right amount of spiciness.

The prime bravette steak with truffled pine nut and artichoke was excellent. The meat was tender and well marinaded.

The vegetable side dishes, which included Chinese broccoli and roasted cauliflower, were very fancy and delicate.

The portions were small but very share-able. The food was delicious, and different from the usual Asian fares that we are used to. We can see why Robo and Ric Ric held this restaurant high on their list of Seattle restaurants.

Joule
3506 Stone Way North
Seattle, WA

Dallas, TX: Creamistry Ice Cream

Creamistry makes your ice cream on the spot using liquid nitrogen.

You might say this is a gimmick, but the ice cream is so creamy and smooth, and their flavors are amazing.

It was so good that we returned a few more times to try out different flavors.

We tried: Quantum Coffee and Mangonada (both shown below),  Party Animal, Sea Salt Caramel Crunch, and Speculoos Overload.

All the flavors were amazing! You could not go wrong.

Dallas, TX: Wabi House (Ramen)

Wabi House was pretty crowded and the wait was quite long, but the food was worth the wait.

Spicy Miso was spicy just right and super tasty.

 Tsukemen is dry ramen noodles with a side of dipping broth.

Both were delicious.

Richmond, VA: ZZQ

ZZQ was written up highly in Texas Monthly, and it is only a two-hour drive from the DC area, so if you can't make it to Texas, this is definitely a nice day trip for excellent Texas BBQ!
Go on Saturday for their beef ribs!

They open at 11am on Saturday, and when we arrive at 10:30am, we were the first in line.

We ordered the beef ribs, moist brisket, and jalapeno sausage.

They were all excellent choices.

Final assessment: ZZQ, being within driving distance and no line, is an excellent substitute for Franklin.

Austin, TX: Franklin BBQ

Franklin BBQ was recently rated #1 BBQ in the nation by Texas Monthly.
If you are in Austin, you should definitely plan to wait in line for their beef ribs, served only on Saturdays.

Plan to arrive early to wait in line, as they will run out of meat early.
We are in line at 9am for 11am opening time, and there were about 100 people in front of us.

Lucky for us, by the time we arrive to the front of the line around 1pm, there were still a few beef ribs left.
We bought beef ribs, brisket, pork ribs and one sausage link.

It was a lot of food for two people, but after waiting in line for 4 hours, we wanted to make sure we could try all the meat we wanted to try.
No worries, the next day's leftovers were still really good.

Final assessment: best BBQ we have ever had!

Midtown, NYC: Best Bagel & Coffee

The best bagels can be found at the appropriately named Best Bagel & Coffee shop.
This bagel shop was just across the street from our hotel, so we were quite surprised to find a long line in this frigid December morning.

The line moved fairly quickly, but once inside the warm shop, we realized, just like in Disney World, the line continued and snaked all around.

We ordered the smoked salmon on plain bagel, with scallion cream cheese, onion tomatoes and capers, and a bacon egg and cheese bagel.

The smoked salmon bagel was amazing, but so filling that we never got to the bacon egg and cheese bagel until much later in the day.

There are many great bagel shops in NYC, but we agreed that this one is one of the top ranking ones.

If you are in the area, and you see a line, jump in. You won't regret it.

Best Bagel & Coffee
225 W 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
http://www.bestbagelandcoffee.com/

Upper West Side, NYC: Levain Bakery

Levain Bakery boasted nearly 6,000 reviews on Yelp with 4.5 stars, where reviewers raved about the "best chocolate chip cookies ever"...

As if to prove a point, we found a long line outside the bakery on a cold blustery December day in NYC.

Once out of the cold, the inside of the bakery was tiny, with room for just a few stools.

They offer four kinds of chocolate chip cookies: Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Oatmeat Raisin, and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookies at $4 a piece.
The cookies looked like a muffin top, very thick and large.

Our cookie was served warm, with a crispy outside and a soft gooey center, and the chocolate chips were melting.

The cookies were delicious, although among the four of us, it was not a unanimous vote on "best chocolate chip cookies ever".

You should try if you are in the area, and decide for yourself.

Levain Bakery
167 W 74th St
New York, NY 10023
https://www.levainbakery.com/

Upper West Side, NYC: The Halal Guys

The Halal Guys started as a NYC hot dog cart, and grew to a world-renowned international restaurant chain.

They have a very simple menu, but the fresh ingredients make their dishes simply delicious.

 A platter consisted of grilled chicken and/or gyro meat over yellow rice, with lettuce tomato onion, and their special white and spicy sauce.

This was a great way to have a fast-food meal.

If you look them up, you can find them at a food truck, or a sit-down fast-food restaurant.
Either way, you will have a great meal.

We had our first Halal meal in NYC, but no worries!
The Halal Guys are coming to Wintergreen Plaza in Rockville very soon!

The Halal Guys
720 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10025
https://thehalalguys.com/

Philadelphia, PA: Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House

If you ever need to be at the Philadelphia Convention Center for a volleyball tournament (or any other business), Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House is a short walk from the convention center, and serves the freshest hand pulled noodles and the best spicy pigs ears.

If you have never tried spicy pigs ears, you should ignore your instincts to be grossed out by the thought of eating pigs ears, and instead open your mind to trying something new. You might be really surprised at how much you enjoy this spicy dish.

At Nan Zhou, the pigs ears were sliced perfectly thin, and served over pickled radish and carrots julienne-style.

The next appetizer, the scallion pancakes were crispy to perfection.

Finally, their specialty is their hand drawn noodles, so any noodle dish would be amazing.

We ordered the simple but delicious noodles with pork soy sauce. This was one of the favorites on yelp.

We also tried the seafood fried noodles dish, and the mapo tofu over noodles. Both were excellent.

We did not order any dumpling on this day, but they were excellent as well.

Nan Zhou Noodle House
1022 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA
http://nanzhounoodlehouse.com/index.html

Annapolis, MD: Cantler's Riverside Inn

Maryland's blue crabs are the best crabs. When in season, their meat is heavy and sweet, wonderfully tasty when steamed in Old Bay Seasoning.

Crab season starts in the summer and runs through December.

If you don't want to buy live crabs and steam them at home, then go to the best crab house, Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis, MD.

Their peel-and-eat shrimps are great too, and their fried calamari tasted super fresh.

Cantler's Riverside Inn
458 Forest Beach Road
Annapolis MD 21409

Recipe for Bacon Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

I have leftover thick cut bacon from making the Quiche Lorraine, so today I decided to try Bacon Balsamic Brussels Sprouts.

This was a very easy recipe to follow.

Ingredients:
Bag of brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
3 slices of thick cut bacon, uncooked, cut in half-inch strips
minced garlic
sea salt
ground black pepper
olive oil
balsamic glaze
honey or maple syrup

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. On a large baking sheet, season brussels sprouts, bacon, and garlic with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until combined
3. Bake until brussels are tender and charred, about 30 minutes
4. Drizzle roasted brussels sprouts with glazed balsamic and a hint of honey (or maple syrup) and serve

This makes a delicious side dish!
If you didn't think you liked brussels sprouts, give this recipe a try and you may change your mind!