Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Estar de vacaciones, aka It would suck to be a homeless person in Seaside, OR


Seriously. I was awakened early monday morning by the pounding of wind and rain on the window of my fourth story hotel room. It was so loud that i actually got up and went over to make sure the window wan't going to break. Straight up swirling typhoon of rain and wind. The daytime weather was not quite so intense, luckily, a steady stream of rain. We ate at a funny bar for lunch, the town's "fancy" seafood place for dinner, watched the grammys. Had the pool area ( with hot tub and sauna, oh ya) to ourselves the whole time, probably made five trips. That was the point of the whole thing but still, i am amazed sometimes at how large my capacity to relax really is, when i try.

Second vacation this week- Peter! Came down tuesday afternoon, we visited savoy, had dinner at a place called Toro Bravo, one of portland's finest. It's a kind of small plate, Spanish restaurant, we had things the likes of marinated sheep cheese, squid ink noodles, sweet breads, and fried anchovies. Pretty fantastic. The show we were going to was in a venue right next door, coincidently, and we made it just in time. The band we were going to see, called the builders and the butchers, was technically an opening band, there was one before them and one after. Their show was amazing, i could have done with a few more songs off the album that i knew and loved the most but no one asked me. Strange venue, the wonder ballroom, big, with a nice patio, but set up on stage like an elementary school play kind of. And dark and filled with all the young portlanders who had turned up on a tuesday night to see a rock show. I kicked myself immediately for the 10+ outfit changes that had gone into my attire for the evening- i could have worn my pajamas. Seriously. Pete and I had brunch at broder and then it was back to workweek for me. Oh, weekends...

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Little Bird

Oh, food in Portland. It's hard to even begin explaining how good we have it here in pdx. The food is so good, so creative and well rounded, so care takingly local and natural, well priced, well served, available anytime, anywhere, lovely. The more of it I get, the more I wonder how I ever lived without it. I have been noticing that food has been taking up more and more of my stories but it's true- I have succumbed to eating out here, after a year and a half, and am loving it. So, more food stories....

This last weekend ( sun-tues for me) brought a giant, vacation sized number of adventures. On Sunday, I got up laaate, then headed to edgefield with Ben. We got there in time for the happy hour food menu at the fancy restaurant they have, a fantastic surprise, I was expecting to eat at the pub/restaurant where i've eaten every other time. We got things, salad, skewers, shrimp thingys, pot roast. Drank beer and picked the whole meal apart, bit by bit. It was fantastic. That evening we went to a short story reading at a record store on belmont, the fancy street near where I live. Some of the stories were depressing- one in particular, a few were entertaining, two were funny as hell. Back to Ben's, he made us pork chops with sauteed kale and sweet potato fries.

In trapeze on tues, we were practicing a move called front balance, it's kind of like superman looking pose, with the bar under your hips and your arms and legs out straight. I lost my balance at one point, catching it again by bring down one of my legs, causing the bar to slip above my hip into my belly- on one side- hard, with a downward force. I tell you what, I am working on the most hard core belly bruise you could even imagine! I bruise easily anyway, this one is going to be a doozy. Anyway....

Little Bird- This started as a conversation about where ben's friend travis went after he left broder and ended up as fancy french food for dinner. We had this conversation while at the goodwill, he was looking for a mixer and some sort of small drawer thing, I needed spoons and small bowls to eat yogurt out of. I got what I was looking for ( and more!) and we parted ways with dinner plans. Little bird is downtown, not my go to destination, but also not too far. After circling through the one ways and train lanes, I found a parking place that turned out to be right in front. Packed, at with a night full of reservations by the look of the host book, we requested our table and were sitting within 15. It was a small plate dinner, just the way I like it, and with someone as willing as myself to try anything, it turned out pretty interesting. We got their pork terrine- good, solid, lovely assortment of picked things- fried beef tongue- came with potatoes and sauce, a flat piece, panko battered and fried, it was good but seriously could have been any beef part, not distictly tounge, but then, what is distinctly tongue?- a room temp ( cold?) white bean and ham salad- light mayo ish dressing, chopped parsley, wonderful, one of my favorite parts of the meal- the special marrow bones- veal bones with onion and balsamic, oh my goodness, the most wonderful thing ever- bacon raclette potatoes- forgettable, but lovely the next morning with fried eggs on top.....- and a salad- soft boiled egg, frisee, mustard ish dressing, pork belly, lovely, I cannot describe to you how much better eating a salad of this sort is than eating a normal salad. I will just leave you to your imaginations.

And there's so much more to say, but my goodness- it's two thirty, I should go to bed!