Please stop snowing, please!

We're still stuck in Portland. No idea when we'll be able to leave. The pics speak for themselves.









Please please please let me be home for Christmas...

Finally made it to Tanuki!

At long last, we made it to Tanuki. The first time we went, the building's power was out and we were thwarted from having our noodle night. On this second attempt, we were successful! The little restaurant was bustling with other customers, but we were able to snag two seats at the counter. 

The entire menu looks delicious. It's filled with Asian-inspired dishes, meant to be eaten izakaya-style (that is, small plates with beer).  Some examples:

- Onigiri: rice ball stuffed with spicy tuna and hamachi

- Hotate: broiled diver scallops marinated in shiso and mirin

- Tamago furui: '1000 year' preserved duck egg with citrus-garlic sauce

- Asari maifun: sake steamed clams with thin rice noodle & kimchi

- Longganisa: pinoy style sausages with onion, pepper, sweet potato & black rice

- Ebi nikkei: wild caught shrimp with cinnamon slow poached cauliflower and yuchoi

- Bar special noodles: fresh wheat udon noodles in rich duck broth w/egg, cabbage, scallion & roast pork

- Sandos: Grilled chinese sausage or Filipino sausage on a fresh An Xuyen bahn mi roll with pickled veg, sliced jalapeno, homemade sandwich spread & fresh herbs

It was so hard to choose what to order! In the end, J & I each got an order of the noodle special, plus the onigiri and the clam dish. 

And it was ALL soooo good. The onigiri was served warm, with large pieces of marinated fish. 

The clams were incredibly sweet. I've never had sweet clams like this before. Is it just the sake infusion? The noodles with the clams hadn't been soaked long enough and were much too hard, but otherwise, the dish was perfect. 

And the noodle special? Oh my. What a decadent, RICH broth. Never had anything like it. Each spoon held a mouthful of ducky goodness. The noodles were also appropriately thick with a mild chew. J & I happily slurped up our noodles that night. 

"Last" dinner in Portland!

Last Thursday, in anticipation of driving back to SF on Saturday, J & I headed to Clyde Common. I've been wanting to try this restaurant for a while now, because of its funky, eclectic menu. I wasn't disappointed! It was tough deciding what to order because there were so many things on the menu that intrigued me (beef tongue hash? olive oil poached squid? pork belly with black eyed peas and chorizo?). In the end, the waitress helped narrow it down for me. 

We each started off with mixed drinks and a starter -- bacon, potato and cabbage soup for J, razor clams a la plancha for me. My dish was excellent, but could've been served a bit hotter (you know how I love 

my food steaming hot!).

For entrees, we each chose a pasta. J got the tagliatelle with lamb sugo, mint, and pecorino that was lovely and meaty, just like it should be. I ordered the ravioli filled with caramelized onions and deviled offals. There's no other way to describe it than "beefy" in that good but really heady way that only innards can produce. The light broth it came with was a perfect balance to the heavy ravioli.

And to finish: meyer lemon-buttermilk pudding cake with huckleberry sorbet and pistachio anglaise. The cake was a little mushy, but I loved the taste combo of the lemon/huckleberry and pistachios.

Final verdict: Two thumbs up! However, this place is for adventurous eaters only.

Winter snow update

An update on the snow situation for Monday evening, 12/15/08:

- It is freaking cold here. The snow storm has stopped, but now everything is iced over, which makes the sidewalks and roads even more dangerous. Wonderful.

- Despite all the news channels and government authorities urging everyone to stay put today, the VAMC was open and we were told by our bosses to report to work at 7:30am sharp.

- J and I froze our butts off waiting for the #64 Trimet bus this morning, which was ~15 minutes late. It was ~26degrees outside, but with windchill it was <20.

- We each saw a total of 2 pts at work. It was so incredibly, irritatingly slow. Plus, the power went out for 2 straight hours, and we had to do exams in the dark, without a working slit lamp or access to the patient's files. I lucked out and got an 81 year old glaucoma patient for that exam.

- The sloped driveway to our apartment complex was roped off when we came home this evening. Two cars had skidded on it. As such, there is currently no (known) way to drive out. Lovely.

- But even if we were able to drive out, our cars can't make it up that driveway anyway. We don't have snow chains. Between the two of us, we must've called 12 different stores to see what was available. Guess what -- NONE had chains in stock for our cars.

- Another snow storm is coming this Wed! (Stay tuned for whether we get lucky enough to have a snow day from work.)

- J and I were planning to drive back to SF this weekend, but we need snow chains and well, we'll see if we get any before the week is over. If we aren't able to buy any by Thursday, we head to Plan B: K will buy chains in SF for us, and bring them onto the plane with him when he flies up on Fri. Isn't that sweet?

- The major downside is that it's our last week here in Portland, and we're stuck at home, unable to hit all the remaining places on our to-do list. Major, major bummer.

- The upside: being stuck at home means we get caught up on a LOT of tv watching. I finished Season 1 and am halfway through Season 2 of Battlestar Galatica. It's a fracking good show!!

Donuts! Or doughnuts!

W keeps telling me its my turn to post. Happy now?!

There's a famous doughnut shop in Portland called Voodoo Doughnuts that has some creative offerings with wacky names. Examples:
Grape Ape (raised doughnut with vanilla frosting and grape powder)
Arnold Palmer (cake doughnut covered with lemon and tea powder)
Cock-n-Balls (triple cream filled, with your favorite saying written right on it)
Its open 24 hours and their slogan is "the magic is in the hole." You can even buy underwear with those very words. They also offer weddings - both real and fake!
W had tried to go there a few weeks ago but failed to find parking. Then last week when T and S were visiting we tried again, but the parking gods were still against us.

So finally last Sunday I made it there with T and we made it in. Since then I've been back two more times! Here is their revolving case full of delectable doughnuts.
Interesting decor.W making her purchase.My blood-filled Voodoo Doughnut with 2 pins in its eyes! Actually, he's raspberry jelly-filled with pretzels in his eyes. He's quite tasty! Each one is unique!

It's SNOWING!!!

J and I woke up this morning and shrieked, because it's SNOWING!! Like, a LOT! I looked out the window and literally jumped out of bed because it's so white and pretty!



The weather forecast for this weekend was cold with snow-showers, but Saturday was ok. Cold, but just light rain and definitely no snow. Today however, is a completely different story. Right now, it's 26 degrees F but with windchill it's down to the teens. All of the freeways are requiring snow chains. And it's supposed to be worse tomorrow -- the lows should be in the teens. Neither of us have snow chains and the road up to the VA is superwindy. Uh oh. We may have to take a "snow day" from work -- my first ever!

For fun, we made snowballs!

Our apartment complex...kinda looks like cabins in Tahoe or something!

Visitor Weekend 3, Part 3: Pok Pok!

Who wants a side of frozen feet with Thai food? We do!

Our evening destination last Saturday with S & T was The Oregonian's Restaurant of the Year 2007: Pok Pok. I was so excited! J and I have been wanting to go here since our first week in town. Pok Pok started out as a take-out hut but quickly morphed into a tiny restaurant after it got rave reviews for its authentic Thai dishes.

Did I mention that Pok Pok is tiny? So tiny in fact that it's kinda ridiculous. There are maybe six 4-tops altogether on the patio, and only a few more seats inside. We got there at 8pm and were told it was a half-hour wait, so we went across the street to Matchbox Lounge for drinks.

Here we are, waiting for our drinks...

The bartender was soooo slow that we ended up not even getting our drinks before Pok Pok called over to tell us our seats were ready.

Unfortunately, the seats were outside. And it was COLD. Like, 40 degrees cold. It was so cold that I was thankful to have the warmth from the person who sat in my seat before me. The puny little heater by our table barely helped (and it kept sputtering out all night)

So. The food. We started out with drinks -- J & I got stuff with Japanese drinking vinegars (apparently, a very big thing in Japan and now also in Portland).
My apple drinking vinegar with gin(?) Can't recall the name of the drink of what's in it, but I liked it.

We ordered 5 dishes and all in all, it was good. The boar collar meat was deliciously spicy. The marinated catfish over vermicelli was a nice mix of lime/cilantro/fish sauce. The curry chicken soup with noodles was tasty, but served lukewarm(!). The rest of the meal was ok: the fish sauce wings (named one of Food and Wine Mag's Top 10 Restaurant Dishes of 2007) was much too salty and a bit burnt. And the special Northern salad (Yam Samun Phrai, made of a whole lot of herbs) was just plain and bland.

Fish Sauce Wings: Fresh natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce and palm sugar, deep fried, tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic and served with Vietnamese table salad.

Muu Paa Kham Waan (Boar collar meat rubbed with garlic, coriander root and black pepper, glazed with soy and sugar, grilled over charcoal and served with chilled mustard greens and a spicy chili-lime-garlic sauce.)

Cha Ca La Vong (Catfish marinated in turmeric and sour sticky rice, fried in turmeric oil with scallions and dill, served on rice vermicelli with peanuts, mint and nouc cham.)


Final verdict? Pok Pok is good, but inconsistent. Perhaps my expectations were set to high. And the cold weather certainly didn't help my mood -- my feet were totally frozen by the time we left (stupid me didn't wear socks). In any case, Lotus of Siam is still my favorite Thai restaurant.