Marc Kevin "mkhall" H.'s Profile

Bagels and Company is on Biscayne Boulevard, sharing a parking lot with a gun shop. This has lead to it getting the unfortunate nickname of "Buns and Ammo" among my friends. Nonetheless, it's an excellent old fashioned deli of the variety slowly becoming extinct in South Florida. You'll find excellent examples of the expected selections: bagels, knishes, lox, ruggalach, pastrami, corned beef, matzo ball soup, and so on. For me, though, nothing beats a breakfast of their amazing banana walnut pancakes. The light and fluffy batter holds together thick slices of sweet, fresh bananas, and the walnuts add a great crunch and counterpart to the soft sweetness. Slather a triple stack -- three plate-sized cakes -- with melting butter and drizzle on a little maple syrup... my doctor might not approve but my taste buds certainly do.

Behind a Walgreen's on 163rd Street you'll find  Heelsha my favorite Indian restaurant. There's a strong Bangladeshi influence in the dishes, so look the menu over carefully, but my personal favorites are the spinach and cheese naan, a soft, flavorful fresh bread which is practically a meal itself; the malagathooni soup, rich and flavorful without being overwhelming; and the marchi style chicken biryani, the meat slow-cooked in aromatic basmati rice with plenty of chili and ginger. However, there are two small caveats with my recommendation. First, the service tends to be very slow, as each dish is clearly prepared from scratch; plan accordingly (i.e., have a few Kingfishers) and you'll be fine. Second, and most important: they can be a little erratic on the spices. I like spicy food, but I would never, ever order anything more than medium. On my first visit I ordered "hot" and had a religious experience. (Maybe "near death experience" is more accurate.) However, don't let this scare you away from an outstanding meal.

If you want fish, then  Captain Jim's Seafood is a place you'll want to visit. It's another tiny place in a strip mall with Formica tables and fluorescent lights, but for incredibly fresh fish prepared simply and unpretentiously it's the best. The combination is your best deal: your choice of grouper, snapper, or dolphin, plus shrimp and/or cracked conch, prepared grilled, fried, or blackened, for about ten bucks. There's a decent beer selection, too, or so my beer-drinking friends tell me. And if you are a cook yourself, you can buy the same fresh seafood off the ice, prepped as you like it. The portions are generous, the service is prompt and friendly, and the taste is great. It isn't a candlelit table by the water, but it isn't trying to be all that, either.

In a strip mall a stone's throw from the local IKEA, you will find the finest Cajun restaurant outside of New Orleans: Creolina's Dixie Takeout. Fried green tomatoes, firecracker shrimp, gumbo, shrimp and grits, crawfish etouffee, jambalaya, oh my my. It's the kind of tiny, unpretentious place that surprises you with the quality of its food. The chef takes his work very seriously, too, to the point of refusing to offer ersatz po'boys because "You can't get the right bread here." If you go, be sure to say hello to City Link Hall of Fame "Best Waitress" Rosie.

I visited Gas Works Park on my first trip to Seattle, many mango seasons ago. It was the dead of winter: the remnants of grass were sparse, brown, and frost-covered; it was as cold and desolate as a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I loved it immediately.

On my recent return trip one of the few places on my "must-see" list was GWP. Our intrepid band walked therefrom Fremont (a bit of a trek, but safe enough on a Sunday afternoon), and enjoyed the spectacle of cardboard tube combat against the backdrop of corroded industrial machinery. But this time (early May) the grass was lush and green, there was a brilliant and clear sky, and the breeze was enough to keep the kites flying. It was marvelous!

There is that small matter of the peeling and corroded warning sign near the park entrance, the one suggesting that you wash your hands thoroughly after touching the soil or grass, and that you not let your dogs (or children) dig in the soil. It did give me some concern about coming back next time with a blanket and picnic basket. but hey! What are a few non-beneficial mutations among friends?

I look forward to going back during my next visit.

On my arrival in Seattle my lovely companion and I spent a good while trying to find this place. Oh, it isn't really hard to locate; she just couldn't remember the name or address, just that it was on the water with a nice view.

Having now eaten there I can understand. My fish and chips weren't at all bad, just unremarkable. She was a little more enthusiastic for her fish tacos, but in the end neither of us was gushing with emotion. Okay, perhaps there was a bit of emotion, because by the time she had called her husband to help us figure out the name of the place she was starving.

The view is nice enough, as well, if you are coming from some completely land-locked environment. Otherwise, it's -- well, an industrial harbor. Ooh, look! Masts! And concrete warehouse rooftops!

But again, the servers were nice, and did not seem to be out of work wannabe supermodels like I get all the time in Miami.

I was warned before going in that the place might be a little "douchey," and was not disappointed in that regard. They do seem to have been using up more than their quota of the local self-important and pretentious jackasses (and I'm coming from Miami Beach, where self-importance and jackassery is High Art).

Fortunately, the servers were efficient and pleasant, and the food quite good, so the overall effect was positive. On the recommendation of one of my lovely and talented dining companions I had an After School Special, a hamburger with the usual trimmings -- tomato, onion, pickles -- plus peanut butter and bacon. Wipe that horrified look right off your face! It was delicious, if a bit overdone for my carnivorous nature.

But to be fair, my opinion may have been somewhat clouded by the two Dark and Storm cocktails I imbibed, a delightful concoction of various rums and ginger beer. They were oh-so-tasty, and reasonably priced. Why, if I'd had a few more of those I might have even gotten along with some of the other patrons.

Hah! No, they weren't *that* strong.

Black curtains. Comfortable chairs. Shelves filled with tomes of esoteric lore from Time-Life books. A DVD player running documentaries and spooky films. Plaster casts of Bigfoot prints. Tarot cards, Ouija boards, and ESP tests. Bruce Lee & Kurt Cobain memorabilia. A smattering of history. A theremin. An oxygen bar?!

Okay, I don't have a theremin or an oxygen bar, but I do have cats running around. That puts my living room on roughly equal footing with the Museum of the Mysteries, and I don't charge $2 for entry.

I don't want to be too negative, though. The staff was pleasant, and it seems to function as a kind of Mystic Brotherhood Reading Room. Perhaps I am just spoiled by Miami, where every block you can find a bustling botanica.

I liked the look of this place right from the start -- funky, eclectic, bordering on eccentric. It's filled with antique bric-a-brac like any number of similar places, but there's a greater feeling of cohesion, like someone really thought about the decor instead of just buying any old crap at garage sales.

My food was pretty good, too, not that it is too easy to screw up a patty melt. The fries were crisp, and the portions were ample without being overwhelming. The mint milkshake, however, was divine.

And there are some seriously fun and cute waitresses, too. I got to meet the now legendary Suzie, who is so far beyond adorable it's hard to imagine without seeing her in person. There's a friendly and personable atmosphere to the place that would make me want to be a regular, if the commute from Miami wasn't so far.

The sacrilegious atmosphere at this place was pretty good, and the bartender not only failed to flinch when I ordered a caipirinha, actually made it well. The music wasn't too loud, either, but then I was there before the hours when it would really get thumping. It was comfortable, too, and seemed to have a pretty good mix of people. I would go back the next time I was in town (or that part of it, anyway).