Sayonara, Seattle

For the past few weeks I've been skittering around getting paper stapled into my passport and putting pants into suitcases, then taking them out and replacing them with different pants. This Wednesday, all my careful planning and panicked packing pay off in the start of a grand adventure. I can't tell you where I'm going, but let me give you a hint:

For four months.

I'm excited to meet new people and see new things and eat my weight in sashimi, but I'm going to miss a lot of things about Seattle. Specifically, the food. Tokyo's got some great eats, but there are some things I know I won't be having for a while:

Bahn Mi Ga from the Saigon Deli

All that is good in this world on a flaky baguette. Two dollars. My obsession.

Seattle Dogs

Slather cream cheese on a toasted bun, wrap it around a Polish sausage, and top it off with some carmelized onions for a regrettably tasty gut bomb.The ones from cart outside the Comet Tavern are best, but pace yourself or you'll be grease-drunk all afternoon.

Dick's

Speaking of grease, I already miss the animal stink of cooking fat that wafts up Broadway on still summer evenings. A bag of fries and a two-dollar milkshake snarfed while sitting on the hood of a car have bookended every good night in this town since the dawn of time:

Fancy-pants Ice Cream

Yeah, yeah, designer ice cream is bourgeois, but so's blogging, and blogging doesn't taste nearly as good as a scoop of Bacon Maple or Scout Mint from Molly Moon's, or the chocolate-beet flavor from Bluebird, or the Thai Tea at Full Tilt.

Off-Brand Gummy Candy That Tastes Like Food Coloring and Cough Syrup

The Japanese have plenty of sketchy snackfood, but I'm still going to miss ours

I might miss some people, too. My party crew. My parents. That tall thing skulking around in the basement, claiming to be my brother. The people at The Stranger. The homeless Santa Claus who lives in a doorway on Pike. A dude or two.

You jerks better Skype me, or I'm not bringing you back any pickled plum.