Is there anything more lovely than the pristine surface of a newly-opened jar of peanut butter? I feel sorry for jars of natural peanut butter, which can never offer the world such beauty.

Yesterday I had a meeting at [All City Coffee](http://www.allcitycoffee.com/) in Pioneer Square, and it’s jumped immediately onto my list of my favorite coffeehouses.

While I was enjoying my cappuccino, I realized two things. First, I seem to have a weakness for mezzanines. Two of my other favorites, Joe Bar and Top Pot downtown, have mezzanine levels, and so does All City.

Second, All City’s pricing follows a trend that every coffeehouse should adopt. As it says on the menu, prices include two shots and tax. All your basic espresso drinks taste better with a double shot, but if I have to specifically order a double and pay the extra fifty cents, I’ll hesitate. If the price is rolled in, I won’t give it a second thought.

This is one of the most powerful principles in retail: pretend to give people free stuff. At [Vij’s](http://www.vijs.ca/), the great Indian restaurant in Vancouver, you get free chai, pooris, and other snacks while you wait for a table. It’s not really free, of course: you pay for it as part of the menu prices, just like you’re paying Vij’s rent. Just imagine, though, if Vij were to lower the menu prices by a quarter and start charging for the snacks. Personally, I would cry foul. Probably I would just cry.

Oh, one more nice thing about All City Coffee. As one guy wrote:

> i haven’t heard any natalie merchant or blue note jazz yet, and in my book that’s refreshing

Takohachi is one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle, a non-sushi Japanese lunch spot specializing in stuff like ramen, tonkatsu, and bento boxes. Their saba shioyaki (broiled mackerel) and bacon fried rice are legendary.

I had lunch at Takohachi today and noticed something amusing. On the wall was a certificate presented by International Community Health Services to Takohachi, “for its outstanding efforts and commitment to creating a healthy living environment.” (Specifically, this was for being a smoke-free restaurant, before the smoking ban took effect.)

Meanwhile, everyone there was digging into their plates of greasy fried rice, fried chicken, fried pork cutlet, and broiled mackerel. Maybe mackerel counts as health food because of those omega-3s, but this mackerel has your RDA of sodium several times over.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the place. I just don’t love it for its commitment to a healthy living environment.

**Takohachi**
610 S. Jackson St.
Seattle WA 98104
(206) 682-1828

Mon-Fri: 11:30am-1:30pm, 5:30pm-8:30pm
Sat: 5:30pm-8:30pm
Sun: Closed

I was having lunch at Noodle Zone today and was delighted to see that the latest addition to the Westlake food court is a place called [Bobachine](http://www.bobachine.com/). Delighted, because Bobachine specializes in bubble tea and banh mi sandwiches.

It always buoys my spirits to see a weird trend like bubble tea go mainstream. It’s a reminder that globalization goes both ways: sure, people all over the world eat at McDonald’s, but when some kids in Taiwan go wild for tea with squishy tapioca balls, it can end up in the food court in a matter of a few years.

The other thing about Bobachine that made me smile was the name. Around the time we first moved to Seattle there was a restaurant called ObaChine, an outpost of a Wolfgang Puck chain. If anyone remembers it today, it’s for the painting that hung in the lobby, a portrait of a Chinese man that ignited a small controversy when some people said it was a racist caricature. I can only assume that the Bobachine is an homage to ObaChine, which closed years ago. (“Boba” refers to the bubbles in the tea. According to Wikipedia, “The literal meaning is a slang for ‘big breast / nipple’ as the tapioca balls resemble a mothers nipple.”)

I didn’t try Bobachine today, but I’ll make it a point to do so soon.

I’m delighted to announce that the post Back to the Zak will be featured in Best Food Writing 2006. The book won’t ship until September, but you can preorder it now from Amazon. It makes a great holiday gift.

Without getting too sappy about it, thanks to you, readers, for supporting me thus far. I assure you that I will not stop until R&G receives the Nobel Prize for Literature and Iris and I blow the entire prize on morels and sticky buns.