Lisa Bosques

Today marked the much-anticipated(at least from what I gathered from Facebook) opening of Seafood City at Westfield Shoppingtown Southcenter. I've been hearing about this for a few weeks now, but until going there today I couldn't really picture a grocery store inside a shopping mall. It's common in other parts of the world, but I've never seen it done here.

Today was the first day of the soft open, grand opening is on 7/22. The parking lot was full; I had to park all the way in the very far corner of the mall. When I went in I was amazed to see so many people everywhere.

Here in the south end of the greater Seattle area we have many Asian supermarkets. Some have mainly a Japanese focus, some sell mostly Korean goods, and others focus on Chinese, Southeast Asian or Indian foods. This is the first Philipino market I've ever seen, and so far it is being very enthusiastically recieved.

You'll know why they call it Seafood City right when you walk in from the outside entrance - they have an enormous fresh fish section with coolers full of whole fish, packaged fish and other meats.

Of course, I went there to check out the tea section. I felt it was...meh. Mostly tea bags and teas at low price points. But they had quite a nice selection of canned and PET-bottled teas.

They've also got many different types of tapioca, gelatin and agar-agar for desserts and bubble teas.

The spices look great and are very reasonably priced. In fact, most items here are.

They have loads of lumpia, an entire aisle freezer full.

There were rows and rows of chicharrones too...if my cat Fluffy were alive he would be licking his lips at the sight...

They had a nice gift/sundries section too, with very cute yet inexpensive items like jewelry...

and fun, summery bags. They also had a rather large selection of hospital scrubs, oddly enough.

Excuse me?

What did you just call me?!

(I know that Tagalog has many Spanish words incorporated into the language. I wonder if they have the same meaning?)

Anyway, there's also an ample produce section with all sorts of vegetables one would find in an Asian market; and a restaurant serving Philipino food. That place was very popular tonight, there was a line that snaked all the way out into the mall. Speaking of which, there will be more eateries opening up right outside of the mall entrance to Seafood City. There's lots of buzz about Jollibee, a burger place that people seem to be fond of; Tokyo Tokyo; Chowking; Red Ribbon Bakeshop and Valerio's Bakeshop.

I am so very pleased that we have this new business in our community. I am still amazed that I will now be able to go to the mall and not only get mall shopping done, but will also be able to go grocery shoppinng at Seafood City. We eat a mostly Asian diet so this is great for our family. It was nice to see all of the buzz and excitement going on in there tonight, I can tell this business model will be successful.

I also can't wait for the bakery to open so that I can get a fresh Taro(Ube) Cake!!

Recently there has been quite an increase of people using their land to grow food for their families. People usually choose to do this either out of economic necessity or for sustainability reasons; eating your home-grown vegetables saves the transportation and energy costs associated with buying your food at the grocery store.

An article in the Seattle Times yesterday(6/6/10) gives us a glimpse into a recently revisited form of urban farming - the for-profit farm.

According to the article:

"Commercial urban farming "makes the most of underused urban natural resources, and provides fresh food to people right where they can see it growing from seed to harvest," Nicole Jain Capizzi, former director of a for-profit urban farm in Milwaukee, wrote on the Seattle-based website UrbanFarmHub.org."

Homeowners who choose to have their land developed into garden space receive vegetables weekly, as well as the opportunity to have a productive space in place of a lawn.

Also, did you know that you can grow or sell food here in Seattle without a business license as long as your plot is 4,000 square feet or less?

Hmm...would any of our vacant land listings be a good candidate for a project such as this?

Read the article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012049158_urbanfarms07m.html

Burien residents: Would you like to learn more about sustainability in your community? Sustainable Burien meets twice a month at the new Burien Library, and their website is packed with great information. http://www.sustainableburien.org/

About the picture: My son picking rocks out of our raised bed. Note: We've found out since that treated wood should not be used in a raised bed. Oops! There's so much to learn when planting your own garden!

My family and I decided to take a little day trip up north on Saturday. We chose Whatcom County because we haven't been there for a while, and there are plenty of spots that we haven't checked out yet.

So I've been searching online for about an hour, trying to figure out which places would be best given the limited time frame that we have since we're only going for one day.

We have no interest in doing anything adventurous(or expensive). We don't want to ski Mount Baker or climb Mount Shuksan. We're not interested in water skiing in Bellingham Bay. All we want to do is explore some towns, see some sights and learn some history about the area.

After some fruitless searching it finally dawned on me to check Active Rain, where area specialists abound, and where I would be sure to see some good photos.

I found just the blog I was looking for but didn't know I was looking for it...Michael Eisenberg's Bellingham Blog.

He is 75 posts into his series, "365 Things To Do In Bellingham". What a great idea, and kudos to him for making it to #75. I can't wait to see his 290 future posts(not to put any pressure on you, Michael!). I quickly logged in and subscribed to his blog so I wouldn't miss any of his posts.

Now, when we visit Whatcom County we'll know exactly where to go and what to do. Thanks Michael!

I was just turned on to this inspiring website called The Prudent Homemaker while reading one of my favorite couponing blogs. The author of Prudent Homemaker is the mother of six children under the age of eight, and the wife of a Realtor. The "About Us" page chronicles the last two years of having a limited to no income, and how having a stockpile of food, a garden, and applied cooking skills helped this mom put healthy food on the table during those tough times where there was no money for groceries. She rarely sets foot in a store, even for groceries.

I think that anyone can appreciate this story of how this family flourished and radiated gratitude during some incredibly stressful times. She doesn't have a blog, but posts recipe and other article updates regularly. It's a testament to just how resilient we can be as human beings. For her, it has also been a gateway to a new way of life, one that she vows to continue even if their financial situation changes.

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/default.aspx

She's got some great ideas and recipes, and again, her story is inspirational. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance!

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"Unique" is the operative word here. For this is the famous "Amityville Horror" home, the home that was the site of a horrific multiple homicide in the 70's. It is believed to be haunted, and it was the subject of the movie "The Amityville Horror", which was probably the scariest movie I saw when I was a kid, to the point where basements still creep me out to this day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10154402.stm

For 1.15 million it can be yours. Looks like a nice property, and, referring back to the movie here, wasn't it waterfront? I don't know the Long Island market, but it doesn't seem like a bad price for waterfront, if indeed it is. Apparently it has been renovated as well. Perhaps someone will give an allegedly haunted house a chance.