I got the chance to have lunch today at the Beachhouse Grill in Kirkland after an invitation to a Taste and Tweet event. The idea is that as various dishes are brought out for us to taste, we would tweet our thoughts. Anyway, here is a little bit more expanded review with all the pics I took in one place…

First up: Mimosas

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never actually had a mimosa before today. My only previous experience with champagne at a wedding left me with a bad taste and the belief that I didn’t like champagne. Well, whether that was just bad champagne at the wedding or adding orange juice to it that makes the difference, I can now say I do like champagne, at least when it’s in a mimosa. GRADE: B

Appetizers:

Wild Spicy Prawns -

Wow, this was one of my favorite dishes of the day, wild prawns in a spicy cream sauce with grilled bread. The amount of heat was just right, spicy enough to add to the flavor without overpowering everything else. It was also the kind of smokey heat that I really like, think the taste of chipotle versus a straight jalapeno pepper. Spread over the bread it makes a great start to a meal. GRADE: A

Tenderloin Skewers -

I was pretty excited for these because it’s hard to go wrong with meat on a stick. There really isn’t much you can mess up with that. Chef Ricky does a pretty good job here doing an overnight marinade and the flavor is excellent. However, of the two pieces I had, one was melt in your mouth tender and one was old shoe leather tough. So that was a little hit and miss. GRADE: B-

Crab Cakes -

Let me preface this bit by saying that crab just isn’t my thing. I’ve always thought it tastes rather bland and boring. These crab cakes were no exception. The mango salsa and chili sauce were fine but not good enough to rescue it in my mind. GRADE: C+

Main Courses:

Beachhouse Burger -

If I could only have burgers from one restaurant for the rest of my life I think my search might be over. This was easily one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. And if you know me and how much I love to grill and experiment with overnight marinades and buffalo meat, you know I have pretty high standards for burgers. Excellent complementary flavors from the sweet caramelized onions, special sauce, melted boursin cheese, and soft fresh roll that serves as the bun. Highly, highly recommend and I will definitely be heading back for a full burger one of these days. GRADE: A+

Beer Battered Halibut Tacos -

I don’t know if it was the fact the burgers were just such a tough act to follow but this dish was a little bit of a let down. I like fish and I like tacos, but these were just a little bland. I think I’d rather just have straight fish and chips. That said, the sweet potato fries served on the side were absolutely wonderful. Such a fun new taste and take on a pretty standard side dish. The avocado salsa was also a nice change of pace from typical guacamole. GRADE: B on the tacos; B+ on the fries

Dessert:

Smores -

I don’t think I’ve ever had smores in a restaurant. All I can say this… why hasn’t anyone done this before? Chef Ricky mentioned he did get the idea first from a restaurant in Hawaii he once visited but seriously, every restaurant should do this. It was an awesome way to end a meal like little kids around the campfire blowing out our burning marshmallows before putting the chocolate and graham crackers together. And bonus points too for doing it right and using Hersey’s rather than some fancy brand of Swiss chocolate. Smores might just be smores, but big points for presentation and execution! GRADE: A-

Conclusion:

So that about does it. I had a great time and was glad to meet some new friends while sharing a fantastic meal. I’m glad this place is only a few blocks from Northwest University because I definitely can see myself going back here for lunch or an early dinner. I forgot to even mention the restaurant itself. It’s a cool old place that has been more refreshed than remodeled as the Beachhouse Grill but it has a fantastic location right on the water. We got a copy of the takeout menu and a couple of the dishes are a tiny bit pricey if you want to be picky but not by more than a dollar or two and they more than make up for it in the quality. All in all, I’d highly recommend the Beachhouse Grill for anyone looking for a casual dining experience on the east side. Thanks Chef Ricky and Taste and Tweet for a great event!

Ok, I’ll try to keep this list as updated as possible and it definitely will grow longer as I add more restaurants, coffee shops, and wineries. Hopefully you find this useful though!

Seattle Foodies on Twitter:

Foodies:
Seattle Food Tours – @seattlefoodtour
Michael Alexander – @seattle_food
Traca Savadogo – @SeattleTallPopp
Seattle Food Geek – @SeattleFoodGeek
Matthew Amster-Burton – @mamster
Kathleen Flinn – @katflinn

Writers/Authors/Bloggers:
Denise Sakaki – @WasabiPrime
Allison Austin Scheff – @allisonsheff
Rebekah Denn – @RebekahDenn
Alice – @Savorysweetlife
Shauna James Ahern – @glutenfreegirl
Maggie Dutton – @wineoffensive
Whitney Ricketts – @whitneyricketts
Seattle Bon Vivant – @bonnevivante
Surly Gourmand – @surlygourmand *nsfw?*
Lorna Yee – @lornayee
CakeSpy – @cakespy
Tea Austen – @tea_austen
Lorraine Goldberg – @voraciousgirl
Hsiao-Ching Chow – @hsiaoching
Jon Kauffman – @jonkauffman
Nancy Leson – @nancyleson
Kim O’Donnel – @kimodonnel
Ashley Rodriguez – @AshleyRodriguez
Ron Zimmerman – @herbguy
Jay Friedman – @jayfriendman
Julien Perry – @tastebud1
Edible Seattle – @edibleseattle
Kate Hopkins – @AccidentalKate

Chefs:
Karen Rosenzweig – @incrediblechef
Dana Cree – @deensie
Becky Selengut – @ChefReinvented
Kathy Casey – @KathyCaseyChef
Mariah Hines – @mariahines

Markets:
Pike Place Market – @pike_place

Restaurants/Restaurateurs/Cafe’s:
Trophy Cupcakes – @trophycupcakes
Cafe Campagne – @Cafe_Campagne
Brasserie Margaux – @SeattleMargaux
Chow Foods – @chowfoods
Pagliacci Pizza – @pagliaccipizza
Bruce Pinkerton – @urbanwindecafe
Brian Canlis – @bcanlis
Parfait Ice Cream – @parfaiticecream
Marination Mobile – @curb_cuisine
Renee Erickson – @boatstreet
Maximus-Minimus – @somepigseattle
Tidbit Bistro – @tidbitbistro

Coffee/Cafe’s:
Caffe Vita – @caffevita
Fuel Coffee – @fuelhigh5
Camano Island Coffee Roasters – @cicr
Starbucks – @starbucks

Wineries:
DeLILLE CELLARS – @DeLILLECELLERS
Jon Rowley – @oysterwine

So I know that Yahoo! Pipes isn’t anything new, but I was struck with the realization at lunch that while lots of people tweet about their morning and evening commute over Hwy 17 (from Santa Cruz to San Jose or vise versa), there wasn’t anyone really aggregating those tweets into a real time feed. So I registered the screen name @hwy17traffic and when I got home from work I sat down to figure out the best way to pull the data together. Yahoo! Pipes is basically a wysiwig editor that lets you input feeds or data from around the web, manipulate it (or filter it  in my case), and then export it as an RSS feed. With no prior knowledge, I only had to watch the short intro video and do a quick Google search to fill in the blanks and within 30 minutes I had a working data feed. Then using a service like tweetbots I was able to post that feed to the twitter account. So within about 5 minutes or so of someone posting about their commute over Hwy 17, my new account with “retweet” what they said. Ideally, this would let you see almost real time updates of the traffic conditions there.  The next stage will be to see about how I can get information off of the CHP and Caltrans websites to add even more data to the stream. Fun times!

I’m a sell out. I think. But I’m not the only one. I think we all are. I think geek culture is dying and I think it’s our fault.

Maybe I should start from the beginning. I’m a 26 year old comic book reading, Josh Whedon adoring, podcast listening, Twitter addicted, iPhone carrying, computer building, photography nerd. These last couple years have been fantastic, the golden age of geekdom if you will. Comic book movies have ruled Hollywood, Dr. Horrible was a huge success, podcasts have risen from weekend projects to full content producing Internet tv channels (ie Rev3), photography has exploded in popularity, and Twitter has connected people in ways not previously possible. In the mainstream media shows like Numb3rs, Chuck, Bones, The Big Bang Theory, and The OC have all highlighted geek as cool. Even in fashion, big plastic rimmed glasses, nerdy t-shirts, jeans, and the messenger bag have become the uniform de jure of the nerdy and hip. It’s been fantastic to see the general public turn from jokes about computer nerds to accepting an understanding of file systems and operating systems as valuable knowledge to be sought out. I think the high water mark of geekdom was when Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose of Diggnation went on the Jimmy Fallon show to drink beer and talk Twitter. We’ve gone from the margins of the lunch room to the cool kids table. And it feels fantastic.

But this all came at a price, and I don’t think we realized it.

When Ashton Kutcher became the first person with one million followers on Twitter and then Oprah joined and gained hundreds of thousands of followers without even tweeting anything, Twitter went from being about connecting people to being a high school popularity contest all over again. Geek culture, like all sub-cultures, used to be about “cred.” Could you prove you belonged. The “real” world was full of people who didn’t get it or didn’t understand. People who didn’t realize what they were missing out on when we played Lego Star Wars and quoted every missing line in proper voice without subtitles. Didn’t understand why WarGames is one of the greatest movies of all time. People who didn’t stay up until 2am playing text based RPG’s over a modem connection to a local BBS. People who don’t know what a BBS is. It was this cool niche that was small but it was ours. Then one day a couple of the cool kids got kinda interested in what we were up to and instead of playing it close to our chest, we threw open the floodgates and let out a torrent of years of pent up longing to be cool. Spiderman and X-Men made reading comic books cool. We got to wear those things as badges of honor. We were here first and finally someone cared about it.

But then we lost control of it.

Money in Hollywood dictated that shows like Firefly didn’t have high enough ratings and were canceled. Ashton Kutcher turned Twitter into his own personal ego boost. Internet communities which used to be about connecting with like minded people have become replaced with people pushing their personal brand. Everyone wants followers, page views, click-throughs. With page views comes money. With followers comes power. Just look at the explosion of SEO and social media experts, not just on Twitter, on the Internet. They are everywhere! People offering to sell you their sure-fire secret for how to drive traffic to your page so you can make money on Google Ad-Sense. It’s not about us anymore, it’s about money. Our little private beach paradise had become the over crowded tourist spot.

But it’s not all bad.

There has been some good come out of this all. I’ve definitely met really cool people through Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook that I never would have met otherwise. I’m addicted being connected 24/7. I love that I can put a photo on Flickr and almost instantly get feedback on the quality of my work. I love that I can also share those photos with friends and family who live thousands of miles away. And I will continue using many of these sites and technologies in the future. I’m just a little sad that @aplusk drove a bulldozer through the wall of our private garden sanctuary and invited a million frat guys over for a kegger.

Got the chance to hang out with some really cool people again today. Here’s some photos from our little shindig.

Honestly, I haven’t forgotten about my blog. I’ve just had the worst writers block for weeks now. Every time I sit down and try to write, I can’t think of anything interesting to say. I’ve been having much better luck on twitter (follow me!), flickr, and tumblr (jonassink.tumblr.com). Hopefully one of these days I’ll get back in the swing of things…

Just testing the link between WordPress and Twitter using Twitter Tools.

So even though I have much, much better things to be working on, I’ve spent the better part of the evening setting up new accounts at various “web 2.0″ social networking sites.  I opened up new accounts at twitter (twitter.com/assinkj) and Jaiku (jonassink.jaiku.com) even though they are basically the same thing, because I’m curious how they work.  I then linked them to each other, and my flickr account, and this wordpress blog, and the last.fm account I don’t ever use, and I synced my twitter with my facebook through their new app.  The really funny thing is that I get such a low level of traffic that it isn’t like I actually connect with anyone over these various networks.  Traffic to this blog has definitely picked up since I switched over from Blogspot but I still only average about 10 hits per day (though my high was 29) and that’s peanuts compared to most of the web.  I guess the one cool thing is that I randomly end up meeting people from all over the world.  The first person to add me as a friend on twitter is some random girl in Japan, which is very cool.  But what usually ends up happening is that I spend hours a day hitting F5, waiting for the page to refresh, to see if any of my contacts have posted something new or to see if my photos have been viewed one more time.  Anyway, I actually need to still make ice cream tonight so I should get on that before I need to get to bed.  Oh, but do check out my flickr.  I’ve got new pictures of surfers down at Lighthouse Point that came out really well.  Later!