Monthly Archives: May 2006

Ethnic Restaurants and Pan Africa Market

The Seattle Metropolitan Magazine (which someone on the stranger forums describes as a ‘A little predictable and upper-wad stuffiness.’) just published a list of the best ethnic restaurants in the Seattle metro area. The list itself, and the inclusion of places like Udupi Palace in it, has been the topic of discussion in many a mailing list.

   

All of that aside, D & I – being the foodies that we are – decided to make it a point to visit each one of the restaurants in their list over the next few summer months. We started at the top, with the Afghan restaurant Bamiyan, but were unable to find it in spite of the fact that it’s somewhere in (the only) shopping area in Issaquah. Next on the list was the African restaurant ‘Pan Africa’. Given our plans of attending the Bollywood party at Baltic room on Saturday night, we decided to make it a downtown evening and head out to the Pan African Market in Pike Place.

   

So here’s my review:

   

Name: Pan Africa Market

   

Location: 1521 First Ave. Seattle, WA

   

Our Order: Beef Tibs, Chicken Yassa, Veggie Combo.

Pros:

1. Great Ethiopian Food – the beef & veggie combos were both excellent.

2. Warm, Cozy Ambience and a great location right on Pike & 1st.

3. Reasonably priced.

   

Cons:

1. The Chicken Yassa was… er…interesting. It wasn’t spicy like the regular African fare. It had more of a Mediterranean taste. We didn’t expect that.

2. The place was rather small – we were lucky to get there late enough to get seating, but I’d imagine that the place is packed on a regular evening.

   

We weren’t adventurous enough to try the Senegalese chicken dishes or the fish stews from Madagascar, but overall, the food was great and reasonably priced, the ambience was warm and cozy and you’re right on Pike. Definitely an ‘A’, will visit again.

  

No wireless. Worse controller than a Wii. $500. Lame !

So, I don't want my place in prognostication history like CmdrTaco did with
his famous predicament, but I still
get the feeling that the PS3 isn't all it's hyped up to be. Or maybe the
trouble is something else… it tries to be too many things to too many
people and this has sent the cost soaring through the roof.

Next-gen console +
WiFi +
BluRay player +
HDMI output +
Accelerometric-cum-gyroscopic controller +
60 GB hard drive +
On-line gaming +
Marketplace =
———————
$600.00 + tax + games + subscription

Hmmm… guess where I won't be the night of November 17th…Best Buy,
Bellevue
.

More coverage at http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/08/sony-playstation-3-launch-details

Early ‘Computers’

Fosfor gadgets has a short but interesting article that compares gadgets from the ’70s & ’80s to today’s versions.

While they talk about mobile phones, stereos and storage devices, they’ve missed out on comparing yesterday’s computers to today’s.

So, here’s a 2006 Macbook Pro:

Compare that to the NACA human computers at work from 1949!

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/People/Small/E49-0053.jpg