The Girl Who Ate Bellingham

I went to Bellingham, Washington for two reasons:  Iman and food.

While I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and good eats are plentiful, there’s something about the food up in Bellingham that makes me crave it so bad you’d think I was pregnant.  Maybe it’s the fact that I’m always chowing down with my BFF.  Yup, that must be it.

Mount Bakery

Iman’s order:  Sun dried tomato, onion, mushroom, and basil quiche.  This was amazing. I can’t wait to try making my own.

via Iman’s phone

My order:  Fresh fruit crepe. Uh, yum.  After eating this I decided that everything tastes better with chocolate.

Pel’meni

Don’t let the look of this innocent serving of Russian potato dumplings fool you. These are really, really good. Especially with a dollop of sour cream.  They’re cheap, totally filling, and so tasty.  Definitely a favorite among the locals, which I am now starting to consider myself as.  The restaurant literally only serves two items; potato dumplings or meat dumplings.  When you can stay in business with just two items on your menu, you know you’re doing something right.

La Fiamma

This is one of the first places I tried when I first visited Bellingham over 6 years ago.  I love a well made pizza and La Fiamma doesn’t disappoint.  I love any of the vegetarian options (I’m a sucker for veggies) but we went with the Margherita Supermo. Yes, that is vegetarian, but not as loaded with toppings as I would have liked. *I’m not complaining Iman. I loved it! After all, it was my fault I took an hour in the fabric shop while you stayed in the car with 5 whining, crying, hungry, bored, tired kids.*  They also have great salads.  When I first saw my salad with pumpkin seeds six years ago, I thought Bellingham was so high on the hippy scale it couldn’t even be measured. Now I absolutely adore seeds in my salads.

Fiamma Burger

The cousin of La Fiamma, this burger place is amazing.  The burgers are super filling and loaded with flavor.  However, it’s the chili cheese fries and frozen lemonade slushy that hold a special place in my heart (and stomach).  I really don’t care how cold it was up there in B’ham, a frozen lemonade was a must. I think the sweetness of the drink and the saltiness of the food played off of each other really well. If anyone knows the spice that’s used in every chili cheese fries recipe, I am begging of you to please disclose it.  For the life of me, I just can’t figure it out.  I happened to have this on my birthday.  A perfect birthday meal indeed.

Woods Coffee

Seriously. Every time we went out.  Good thing I tried the pumpkin scone on my way to the airport, otherwise I would have been ordering it every single time. So good and pumpkin-y.  How do you order your blended drink?  I just can’t get past white mochas with raspberry.

Avenue Bread

I love, love, love a good sandwich.  Using fresh, quality ingredients can elevate this simple meal to a foodie’s dream come true.  Avenue Bread makes awesome sandwiches.  I could eat them everyday.  I ordered the Turkey Pesto with a cup of the lentil tomato soup.  I tried recreating that soup here.

Haggen

Yes, this is a grocery store.  A grocery store that sells the best grocery store cupcakes that don’t even taste like grocery store cupcakes.  The ladies behind the counter over in that bakery department know what they’re doing.  I just can’t explain it, they are just so good.  The vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting are my fave. If left unsupervised, I can eat an entire pack on my own. 

Iman picked up some other additional snacks for our movie night. 

Peach Snapple for me, Lemon for Iman.  My oldest sister Amena makes lemon iced tea that tastes exactly like Snapple’s, if not better.  It’s so good. Aww, I miss Amena.  She has her own good eats out there in Jerusalem that I totally love and miss.  Hmmm, I think a Jerusalem food post is in order when I get the chance to visit again. 

D’Anna’s Cafe Italiano

I’m not a steak person.  This place unleashes my inner carnivore.  And their butternut squash ravioli? Fuggedaboutit.  The spinach gnocci? Fuggedaboutit. The whole meal including the cheese bread and salad? Something I hardly ever fuggedabout.

Busara

The new kid on the block.  Quickly became the Jordan of the bunch.  (Cmon, where my NKOTB fans?) Iman has told me about this place but I vaguely remember paying attention to her describing their salad to me.  Let me just tell you, I’m all ears now.  She ordered things for which I can’t remember the names, but their flavors are forever carved into my taste buds.  I had one prior experience with Thai food that made me shun that category all together. I’m now a believer. This place was so great, we ordered twice in two weeks. I loved the noodle dish. I loved the chicken and cabbage dumplings. I could have drank the dipping sauce with a straw.  The star of the meal was the Thai crispy brown rice salad.  It has so many flavorful things in it.  Ginger, red onion, crispy brown rice, cilantro, and lime leaf (I don’t even know what that is, but I think I loved it).   It’s got the right stuff.

Mallard

Ever since I had pistachio and hazelnut ice cream in Jerusalem, I’ve been on the hunt to find some here in the States.  In B’ham, Sirena Gelato Cafe serves those exact flavors and they are to die for.  This place was definitely on my list. (Yes, I had a list.  A mental one.) Unfortunately they were closed the day we went, so we went to another local favorite.  Mallard’s has really amazing, quality ice cream.  This is something that you just can’t get from any store bought brand.  No pistachio or hazelnut, so I got coconut almond chocolate crunch, Iman got coffee (such an addict), and the kids got chocolate and strawberry.  They print that cutest labels for their ice cream containers.

image source



The following two aren’t in Bellingham, but in Canada.  Anyone that lives in Bellingham is close enough to try these places out. Granted they have a passport.  And don’t mind a 40 minute drive.

Nando’s

Love, love this place.  Iman ordered us the lemon-herb chicken, salad (look more seeds!), and the regular fries.  Skipped the famous Peri-peri fries because of Maysoon, but I think that little monster would have been able to handle a bit of spice.

Happy Sushi

California rolls, tempura rolls, and I can’t remember the other one, but they were all yummy. I enjoyed mine with a splash of soy sauce on each.  Also an order of deep fried scallops.