Off the Forkin' Path: A Food and Travel Blog

Mark and Tina in the rain in Iceland

Welcome! Mark and I are so happy you found your way to Off the Forkin' Path, our food and travel blog. While we know that video clips are in vogue, we felt that an "old fashioned" blog was the most effective medium to share our (mis)adventures, our stories, and whatever helpful tips you take away from them.
We started Off the Forkin' Path for the same reason most people start talking to strangers at a dinner party, we had experiences about food and travel that we wanted to share. Between the two of us, we've eaten our way through a fair number of countries, ruined a few kitchen appliances, and somehow ended up married to someone who agrees that a good trip needs a good meal to anchor it. This is where we write it all down.
We have organized our blog into:

  • Eat & Drink where you will find posts about our dine (wine) out experiences.
  • Travel where you will find posts about our adventures both locally in the Pacific Northwest, as well as further abroad.
  • Cook where you will find posts about what we are cooking. With time, we suspect an indexed recipe list will be added.
  • Projects where you will find posts about "projects" we have done related to the other categories. Our first post talks about the discovery of Dunwell Presentation Binders and how it has personally revolutionized how I store paper mementos, including my collection of menus.
  • About where you will find more about us.

New posts happen whenever we cook something, eat something, drink something, or get lost trying to find any of the above.

Recent Posts

Sushi at Feast

I Threw My Back Out at Feast Buffet (and Still Went Back for Sushi)

A trip to Feast Buffet in Renton came with salt & pepper shrimp, amazing sushi, and a back injury I’d rather not explain to my doctor. Here’s how it happened, plus what you need to know before you go ...
Two Icelandic chocolate bars: a Freyja dark chocolate with caramel crunch and sea salt, and an Omnom Lakkrís + Sea Salt white chocolate bar.

Sweet Seat Swap

This is not one of those seat-swapping horror stories. On our flight home from Iceland, a little chocolate went a long way ...
Napkin at OX

Ending Iceland with a Bang: Dinner at ÓX

We ended our Iceland trip at ÓX, a one Michelin star restaurant in Reykjavík. A lion's head doorbell, grandma's living room, and 20 courses later, we took the elevator straight up to our room ...
Wunjo pendant

Skip the Magnet

Fridge magnets are everywhere. Handmade souvenirs are getting harder to find. Here's how a little rock from Iceland and a cord from an airport bench became my favorite travel souvenir ...
Cabin 7103 View

How We Got on a “Sold-Out” Iceland Eclipse Cruise (and Why Our Cabin Won)

The cruise looked sold out, and our cabin wasn't one we would have picked. Somehow, it turned out to be the best seat on the ship for the total solar eclipse ...
Ruffles

Ruffled by Ruffles

Mark only eats the "dippers," which leaves me with innumerable open bags of Ruffles in my pantry. I found a recipe that might be a partial answer ...
Le Petit Chef menus

Confessions of a Le Petit Chef Repeat Offender

We assumed Le Petit Chef would be gimmicky. We were so wrong, and we've been going back ever since ...
Salt & Pepper Shrimp plate shattered

Salt & Pepper Shrimp, or A Recipe for Disaster

I tried to make Salt & Pepper Shrimp. The floor got most of it ...
Dunwell Presentation Binders

Unstuck: Taming Memories

Self-adhesive photo albums nearly shredded years of paper mementos, until pulling one loose meant a hair dryer and a little prayer. Here's what replaced them ...
Mom waiting to board

Meet Me at the Gate

Did you know a handful of airports will let you walk someone straight to the gate again, no boarding pass required? I found out just in time for breakfast with my mom ...