[Tasty Questions] Z' Tejas Dinner Reveiw

Z Teja’s

535 Bellevue Square
8th & Bellevue Way
Bellevue, WA 98004

The northern-most restaurant in a chain opened by Jack Gilmore, their founding corporate chef, offers a southwest twist on American fusion cuisine. The spice and smoke heavy menu draws extensively on seafood and pork with the occasional Asian curveball with steak and chicken as usual mainstays. Choosing to dine alone on a Monday night allowed for a laid-back and conversational wait staff and general atmosphere, though a weekend is much busier. For dinner the cast-iron skillet dumplings, which the menu describes as “a sizzling skillet of shrimp-and-pork dumplings, served with a red-chili ginger dipping sauce,” were served as described, piping hot and created a spectrum of texture as the wrappers were both softly boiled and fried crispy; inside the savory flavor of the ground smoked pork supports the softer flavors of the shrimp. The dipping sauce offsets the deep taste of the meat with a sweet start and a zip that lingers. Following the dumplings, a swing was taken at one of the Asian curveballs; the miso salmon, “a filet with miso glaze, served with pan-seared mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans and carrots” arrived well arranged and equally hot as the dumplings. Once slightly cooler, the medium-rare fish was an excellent blend of flavor with the salty miso. The mashed potatoes, while well presented, were flabby and lacked substance. They would have been better with a cream flavor such as yogurt or sour cream to offset the salt and spice of the fish and sauce. The green beans were well flavored unfortunately the carrots were julienned so thin, it arrived overcooked and soggy. With the highest priced item on the menu at just under twenty-five dollars, a full service bar and a selection of equally inventive desserts, Z Teja’s makes a good stop for a night out when a big budget is not in order, such as a movie night or casual date.

A Man's House is His Castle...

(Mirrored post from "The Start of an Epic," which is intended to be my personal blog, while this will remain my commentary blog)

Got my place rearranged... and clean, REALLY CLEAN. Its almost scary

The living room is really bare with only the one couch. Dunno what I am going to do about that...
Really puts a kink in trying to have people over and stuff.

Tried to suprise Janie last night and wisk her off on a date when she got off work, bt apparently she hadn't been feeling well the entire day and needed to go home and rest. Bummer. We're going to do something tomorrow night.

Thinking of having a theology discussion at my place on Sunday nights for folks from Illuminate (the church service I have been going too). Had the idea when I found the course notes from Dr. Thoennes Theology Seminar. Would be good to add a bit of hard core doctrinal discussion to the mix I think... Totally informal, just like pizza and Gruden.

Thats about it for now.

God has a sense of humor too...

From "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg:

"Gods great, holy joke about the Messiah Complex is this: Every human being who has ever lived has suffered from it - except one.
...and He was the Messiah."

[International Questions] The Fall of the Eastern wall...

The vast majority of my readers know about "The Fall of the West," a coming event predicted by a noted professor at Biola, Dr. John Mark Reynolds.

However for those that don't know, his theory (in broad strokes) is that the lack of intellectual fortitude, characterized by current attitudes of relativism and subjectivism that currently pervade "The West," (that is the countries typically considered to have a dominantly "western" culture i.e. western Europe, Britain, U.S.A. , S. Korea, etc), will continue to lose ground to an eastern culture that has something to believe (i.e. Islam) because "you cannot compete against something with nothing." Reynolds theorized that the world was arriving at a "tipping point,” a point that the market saturation of secularism and relativism does not become the leading ideology, but effects enough people directly and muddles other ideologies enough that it will rapidly become a leading world view. Once this point has arrived church attendance and other indicators of a predominately Christian society will fall drastically. The degradation of a Judeo-Christian world view that reached a tipping point and then fell is easily observable in Britain where in the space for forty years, church attendance declined slowly from nearly ninety percent to nearly seventy percent and then in twenty years dropped to less than twenty five. It is from this ideologically weakened state that one is vulnerable to an ideological onslaught.

Such an onslaught has begun in the streets of Paris and continued for eight days. The New York Times published a story about the riots today, essentially attributing the cause to a widening gap between "the haves and have-nots"... what they fail to mention and the AINA (Assyrian International News Association) of all groups points out, is that while the majority of the rioters are poor immigrant youths, they are also all Muslim, virtually no other religious group is participating in the destruction.

They go on to describe a culture of immigrant enclave's...

"... so far from playing down the differences between ethnic groups, they
have instead stood by approvingly while immigrants formed non-assimilated
Islamic enclaves within Europe. Indeed, as Bat Ye'or demonstrates, they have
assured the Arab League in multiple agreements that they would aid in the
creation and maintenance of such enclaves. Ignorance of the jihad ideology among
European officials has allowed that ideology to spread in those enclaves,
unchecked until relatively recently."

Is there a possibility that such enclaves could form in idealogically depressed US? Should a cultural group be forced to assimilate? Has a fourth wave of Religious Idealogy crested the eastern wall of the west?

More to come...

What were you doing Aug. 12th?

... a day which happens to be my Birthday coincidentally.

My sister was kind enough to supply pictures. The big guy and the beautiful gal are the two lovely people who brought me into this world.

Thanks Guys!

Moved to Seattle, actually the east side... Bellevue specifically

So Bellevue....

Think rich... very rich (I live literally across the street from the Microsoft HQ)... I work right across the hall from a Tiffany's... I regularly have customers that drop 5-600 dollars on clothes without batting an eye. I had an art client buy nearly 10 grand in art from me just cause the walls of his new 1.4 mil. house were bare and didn't look right.

Yeah Money... definitely the root of all kinds of evil. I am getting the feeling that there is a good reason why Seattle and the Northwest are the richest area and also the "none" zone. (The most frequent answer put on census survey documents under religious preference for NW residence is "none") I regularly have individuals who wich to purchase items (art or apperal) for their "partners." Definetly an experience Ihave to get used too.

Lord, grant me the grace and peace to not be consumed by greed. Remind me that money is a tool that is supplied and will pass away as all things will. Teach me to be fiscally responsible Lord.

By the way... Rain is all well and good... but if you could give us some sun every now and then.. it would be appreciated.

Yo.. Yo... Yo...

Yo Yo Yo your boat gently down the stream....

Ok everybody...

Here goes nothing..
-Moved to Seattle, actually the east side... Bellevue specifically
- WOrking at Eddie Bauer and Kenneth Behm Art Galleries
-Living in a one bedroom apt.
-Going to Overlake Christian Church

Then I...
-Quite at the art gallery
-am attempting to get a job at another spot... probably at the mall or downtown.

Thats the recent.. I will expand on each of the points in turn