Will Drive for Food! *Warning: Don't read while hungry*

August 10, 2017…...Oregon City, Oregon. Some people would say “You’re crazy” or “Why?”. I always say, ‘I will drive anywhere for good food!’. Today was that day. @rabeccaann and I drove the nearly three hours north toward Seattle, Washington for food! We like each other enough to actually be enclosed in a car for that long. Now that is love….and trust! But why would we drive so long just for food? All I need to say is 2 words - Filipino Food!

Sure...there are Filipino restaurants in the Portland metro and Salem area, but we went to two specific places that aren’t in close proximity to where we live. I grew up in the Bay Area in California. That’s a HUGE melting pot for different nationalities. People from different countries seem to migrate to the three major cities in California - San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. There is a really big Filipino population in all three areas. That calls for a plethora of Asian restaurants. The Filipino restaurants I would go to as a kid were “Goldilocks”, “Max’s Chicken”, “Bario Fiesta”, and other mom and pop shops. The ones we went to today were late comers after my childhood, but still have great food. I guess it’s kinda like fast food but I don’t judge.

Today, we went to the SouthCenter mall in Tukwila, Washington which is close to Seattle. In that mall, they have a Seafood Market which is flanked by 3 Filipino restaurants/bakeries:Jollibee, Red Ribbon, and ChowKing. Jollibee is well known for their Chickenjoy and Filipino spaghetti. Chickenjoy is just fried chicken. It’s got the perfect name because it’s always a joy to eat their chicken. They serve their chicken with gravy on the side so you can dip the chicken into it. Oh man….my mouth is watering again just thinking about it. I got the two piece Chickenjoy with mashed potatoes and gravy. Now, some of my Filipino friends would probably give me a hard time for getting the mashed potatoes and gravy and not the rice. I’m sorry guys! It really was a tough decision. I was just craving it. I also got a dessert drink called Halo Halo. For those that don’t know what that is, it’s shaved ice with some mung beans and chick peas. It has some condensed milk, gelatin, leche flan, and a scoop of ice cream to make it “special”. Every time I have a Halo Halo, I always think of this YouTube video. You can thank me later! singing Do the halo halo, do the halo halo…..shave ice, shave ice.

Becky and I were surprisingly very full at this point. We came here to eat and eat we will do! We drove 20 minutes north to Seattle to check out Starbucks World Headquarters at the Starbucks Center building. We were a little disappointed that the store was under renovation but they had a temporary #StarbucksTruck outside to accommodate everyone. It was really neat to be honest with you. I can’t wait to come back up to see what the renovation looks like. However, we went up to the 8th floor of the building where the actual Starbucks HQ is and found a small company store that sold Starbucks related clothing and swag. For you Starbucks lovers (No...that is not what Taylor Swift said in her song), I totally recommend you visit the store.

Okay, we are both getting hungry again and it’s starting to get dark out. We still have a 3 hour drive back down to Oregon City. We made our way back to South Center mall for our last meal of the day. It is now time to go to ChowKing. We got lucky and got to park in the first spot of the same row we parked at this morning. I say lucky because man….I really needed to pee! After about 5 minutes trying to find a restroom, we finally found one and without a second to spare. Maybe even milliseconds. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It was easy to find ChowKing since it was directly in front of Jollibee. They had a great selection of meals. Becky got the Sweet and Sour pork for her entree and it looked REALLY good. Of course, I had to get the Chinese style fried chicken (not sure what makes it Chinese style though) so I can compare Jollibee fried chicken to ChowKing’s. I know it’s not an apples to apples comparison, but it was close enough. We got stuffed eating all of this food. I mean come on! Have you been looking at the pictures in this blog? Becky loved the Sweet and Sour pork and we both devoured our desert - Buchi (fried Sesame balls) and of course another Halo Halo!

All in all, we had a great time getting out of the house, eating yummy food and spending quality time with each other. We wish the kids would have been able to come with us, but it only gives us another reason to come back again! And we plan on doing so! We would have to drive quite a few more hours south to get some more Jollibee or ChowKing. I guess it would be worth it since we’d be able to see the family again.

If you’re in the Seattle area, I totally recommend both places. Each has their own taste even though ChowKing is owned by Jollibee. The prices are fair and you get a lot of food for what you pay for. After eating, walk around the mall to burn off the calories. Watch out for the pushy Kiosk sales people though. And guess what? The mall also has a Bitcoin ATM next to the Currency Exchange kiosk. SCORE!