A Lack of Jack

Is it me or are there less jack-o-lanterns out this year?!.. actually, let me correct myself. There are NO jack-o-lanterns out this year!!! Granted, I haven't celebrated Halloween in Portland in over five years, but I could have sworn people use to put out more jack-o-lanterns on their front porch! It's the day before Halloween and as I drive around town, I don't see any orange faces staring back at me. SO SAD! Does that mean less houses for kids to trick-o-treat at?! I really hope this isn't a sign of a slow death of my favorite holiday... or indicate the demise of future holidays to come. Recession sucks.

OMSI

The Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) is popular for kids interested in natural sciences, human development, lifestyle issues, and technology. There's even a submarine that's actually submerged in the Willamette River! But I wonder if many know about OMSI After Dark (an event held after hours on the last Wednesday of every month) for adults only?! Folks over 21 can leave the kids at home, get drunk and explore the exhibits themselves!

So after Ping last night, Michael and I ventured over to OMSI (he's never been!!!) and spent the evening solving puzzles, learning about wind & water, played in the physics lab, experienced an earthquake (in their Earthquake House), built a bridge, and played Connect Four with robotic arms (yes, Michael's a NERD!!! not me though :) haha

There were tons of labs and games, with various Portland vendors in between giving away samples of beer, vodka, juice, chocolate, etc. Their feature exhibit Scream! was on the science of fear... and we experimented with common fears - fear of falling, fear of animals, fear of shock, etc. which examines why our knees shake, our body sweats, and heart races when we're scared and how society affects our fears! It was pretty cool!... especially since I love being scared :D And so appropriate before Halloween!
The exhibit goes on until January - you guys should check it out!

Ping

Is it me or do all restaurants these days get an award for anything!?

Ping was named "Rising Star of 2009" in The Oregonian's Diner Guide. So Michael took me there for date night last night. oOohhh, aren't we adventurous ?! <--- like our blog title?! LOL Date night on a Wednesday! Date night is usually on a Friday, but with this steady stream of (now involuntary) time off, it seems as though we can afford some spontaneous shifts in our schedule :)

I'm too lazy to write a full on review about this place, but I did like it. Cool spot in a shoddy (but up and coming) area, Old Town / Chinatown. For those of you who don't know, Portland's Chinatown is about two blocks long and two blocks wide (barely) and Chinese people don't actually live here, nor are there that many Chinese restaurants here... maybe because it's (again) two blocks long and two blocks wide. I like the Japanese take on (is it) Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai street food (????) Personally, the decor made me miss and wish it was one of those pure play ramen restaurants you'd be lucky to run into on the streets of New York :: sigh ::

Baby Octopus Skewer - marinated in lime, chilies, garlic, fish sauce and cilantro

Red Potato Skewer - salt roasted and grilled, served with spicy mayo sauce

Wild-caught Gulf Prawn Skewer - served with Vietnamese sea-salt , black pepper and lime

Spicy Mama Ramen - instant Thai ramen noodles in house-made pork bone broth (tamarind, fish sauce and chilies) with pork balls, prawns, yu choy and poached egg

Pok Pok

You know how you have friends you don't speak to very often, either because they live far away or because your lives are just so hectic?... but yet, when you do speak to them, you can just pick up where you left off? Well, I am extremely blessed to have a few of those friends. Friends that don't blame you for not calling for 6 months; friends that may have taken different paths in their lives and may be at a different point in their life than you, but are always happy to see when they do or gladly talk to you when you make the time? One of those friends is an old friend of mine from high school named Thao aka "Shortie" (yes, that's a childhood nickname and yes, we still call her that :)

Thao was actually my very first new (and first Vietnamese) friend in high school. We had to sit next to each other in P.E. (don't ask me why, but we sat in alphabetical order) (surprise surprise to you people on the East Coast, we also both have the same last name :) and while I thought she was mean at first (don't kill me Shortie :) we quickly became friends and as I busted my ass in hockey and dodge ball for an "A," Thao skipped class every other day and got the same grade!!! She literally did not break a sweat the entire year :P

We reminisced about that phenomenon during a long overdue dinner at a restaurant in SE Portland called Pok Pok last night. I had heard about it from a friend, while Thao had seen it featured on the Food Network and when I looked it up, realized it was given the 2007 Oregonian Restaurant of the Year award. Whatever happened in '08 and '09, I have no idea... but we still thought it was worth a try!

Pok Pok features a Southeast Asian street food menu, with special emphasis on dishes from North and Northeast Thailand. Thao and I agreed that we should try their most famous dish, Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings (thank god Michael wasn't with us - I don't know how "fish sauce" in the name of its most famous dish would fly with him) and paired it with the waitress' recommendation of Papaya Pok Pok (papaya salad) and Kuung Op Wun Sen (a claypot with prawns).


The chicken wings were marinated in fish sauce, garlic and sugar, deep fried and tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic. Supposedly, this recipe comes from Pok Pok's daytime grill cook's home in Vietnam... we wondered where Ike is originally from in Vietnam because neither of us had ever had aVietnamese dish like this before! It was a very interesting take on chicken wings and a very good one at that! Meanwhile, the papaya salad was good, but nothing special.

And the prawns baked in a clay pot were a Chinese influence on Thai food, baked over charcoal with pork belly, whiskey, soy, ginger, cilantro root and black pepper.


Overall, if you're looking for authentic Thai food, there are definitely better places in Portland (try the new Thai Fresh on SE Division), but if you're up to trying some new dishes in a cool atmosphere (we sat inside their "Whiskey Soda Lounge," but you can also sit outside under heated lamps and order snacks from their shack), Pok Pok is worth a visit.

As for me and Shortie, she finally revealed to me she did extra credit to get that "A" in P.E. WHAT?! I didn't know that was even an option! Maybe during our next dinner, she'll explain to me how she did extra credit without exerting any physical activity!

GDC: And the Winner Is...

Chi Quan & Derek!
... from Week 7

Good thing they decided to award 1st and 2nd place, because Michael and I got 2nd place. Woohoo! And by 0.03 of a point! ooOOoOoohhh, by a hair!!!

Congrats to Chi Quan and Derek for a job well done!

We held a pot luck gather (Chinese restaurant style) to count the votes. There was SOOO much GOOD food! Ever since we started GDC, casual family get-togethers are no longer the same. Everyone's standards are much higher, with each event requiring RSVP, formal invites, and an agenda of activities! Good times, good times!

Haunted House vs. Corn Maze

Halloween is my favorite holiday!!!

So to get everyone in the spirit, I dragged them to a haunted house and the corn maze. This particular haunted house ("Scream at the Beach") is ranked the #3 Haunted House by AOL (I'm not sure how reputable that is), but personally, I enjoyed the corn maze at Sauvie's Island way more! The haunted house was fun, but because we went in a bigger group, we heard the screams way in advance so by the time they came to scare us, it wasn't as scary. But the corn maze is darker, so it's easier for them to hide behind the corn stalks. You can't tell when they're about to jump out at you and with the possibility of getting lost in the maze, it's much more spooky! SO much fun! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!

Yen's 28th

I was way too pooped after Gourmet Dinner Club to plan anything for my birthday, so this year, I kept it low-key. Lunch with Charlie at Fire on the Mountain (I love my chicken wings)!!!


And dinner with my parents (it's my Mom's birthday too) at Michael's place!

GDC Week 8 (Finale): Michael & Yen

All pictures courtesy of Chi Chau & (the other) Yen

Michael and I had the great pleasure of hosting the last and final Gourmet Dinner Club for 2009.

The advantages of going last?... we could learn from everyone else's mistakes had plenty of time to plan.

The disadvantages of going last?... expectations were higher than ever and we had less ideas to play with.

Not only have Michael and I never hosted large dinner party, but Michael has little experience in cooking for more than two people at a time. And even when he does cook for just us two, there's barely enough for us since he's not big on leftovers! lol

So to make up for the areas we potentially were lacking in, we knew we needed something to differentiate ourselves.

As each week passed, the dinners got more impressive and our (my) confidence shaken! All I knew I wanted was a theme. Something that represented us! Something that we were both passionate in. Something close to our hearts! So we decided to host a

European Taste Tour!
With our move back to Portland, we often found ourselves reminiscing about Europe. This was the perfect occasion to share our experiences abroad with our family! Food and travel was the theme. We wanted to make everyone feel as if they were traveling from country to country with us. So I flipped through my online photo albums and chose some of our most memorable dishes from some of our favorite European countries. If our food and service risked not being as good as the others, let's at least get some brownie points for creativity!

So we started in Turkey, where Michael is a huge fan of hummus and Mediterranean meze. And my love for seafood led me to fall in love with Scotland and Spain. So for appetizers, we served:

Turkish Meze
Hummus, Tomato & Cucumber Salad, & Olives
Scottish Mussels

Spanish Shrimp

And since duck is Michael's favorite poultry, we chose a dish from Italy as a main course.

Papperdelle w/ Duck Ragu

Papperdelle is not easy to find! This dish took nearly 6 hours to make and was definitely made out a labor of love. The duck legs (all 11 of them) sat in a red wine, carrot, celery, and onion marinade overnight. In the morning, the legs were removed from the marinade and quickly seared only to then be tossed back into the marinade - this time, with some spices and tomato paste to braise for 3-4 hours. Once braised, each leg is carefully shredded, piece by piece, leg by leg! Honestly, I felt sorry watching him do it :) Finally, the shredded duck was placed back in the pan and cooked some more, for the marinade reduce to a ragu! Phew!

SO MUCH WORK!!! more on this later.

Since I was the brains behind this project (hahahahah!!!) and he's the talent (but only in this particular case :) my only job in the kitchen on the day of execution was to make dessert. The only problem is, I don't bake. Period. Yet my ambition led to go with two French desserts.

Mini Fruit Tarts with a Homemade Lemon Curd Mousse
&
Cream Puffs (stuffed with coffee ice cream instead of cream)

I used a cupcake pan instead of a tart pan so some of it broke as I dug them out of the pan!

For you non-believers out there, I actually made this lemon curd (mousse) from scratch!

I don't think they tasted that good (I can't stand tasting the food that I actually make - that's why I can never actually cook) but it turned out looking decent, if I might say so myself! hehehe

Now that judging is over, I can tell you a little story about the Cream Puffs :) I did a test run of the puff pastry a few weeks prior and they actually turned out looking great (see pic below)!.But on the day of the dinner (I must have accidentally used a modified recipe), they turned out looking like sweet buns! They tasted like puff pastries, but I made two batches of the batter and neither of them looked right, but I was running out of time (I swear, it was like Iron Chef that day) so I just had a quick meltdown, and decided that if I drenched it under enough chocolate syrup (also homemade btw :) no one would notice! Ha!

We served a variety of beers from Germany, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. I even tried my hand at making (red & white non-alcoholic) Sangria (from Spain)!

To build a little excitement and anticipation during the week leading up to our dinner, I hand-made and snail-mailed everyone invitations (who doesn't like getting things in the mail?!) crafted into U.S. passports highlighting our menu, with a course on each page and a few images of our real passport stamps :: figures crossed :: Like I said, brownie points for creativity!!!!

Special thanks to my dear friend Tram for tracing the passport logo cover on Illustrator. It took her hours! And a special thanks to ME for hand-cutting each page! hahaha! The stupid paper cutter at Kinkos sucked.

And (since I am unemployed) for the ultimate TOURIST experience, I painted an Eiffel Tower backdrop and set up a photo printer for INSTANT pictures! (I got the idea from all the school dances I use to attend :) I then created "Thank You" card picture templates! I am pretty proud of myself (as you can tell) since I'm not artistic at all!

Michael's cousin Kathy cautioned us that prepping and decorating would be a nightmare, but we both waved off her warnings. How hard could it be to put a few plates and wine glasses on a table?! RIGHT???


Though we were happy with the outcome (did you know tulips are from the Netherlands?), we had no idea what was in store for us. Cooking and entertaining 16 people (plus 6 kids) may not sound like a huge deal... but cooking, presenting, and serving 16 people who are actually judging you is a totally different story and utterly exhausting. There was SO much to do, it was beyond ridiculous. And I am (borderline OCD) organized! I had a timeline and check-off sheet of all the things we needed to do, but planning, prepping, cooking, baking, heating, plating, serving is a b*tch! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all the planning and prepping up until 2PM that day, when our guests were due to arrive in three hours.

Service was our hardest obstacle. It is not easy to serve 16 people + 6 kids! How come no one warned me of that?! Everyone made it look so easy!After dinner, all the boys pitched in to do the dishes! Hooray! We had heard nightmarish stories of people taking two days just to clean their kitchen after GDC. So I don't know if it's because they thought after 8 weeks, they'd take over some of the duties, or they just felt sorry for us. Either way, we were so grateful for them! I really wanted to be a gracious hostess and insist they stop washing, but honestly, I did not have the energy to stop them. I hope our scores weren't affected by it!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. I had tons of fun planning and scheming :D The two days of prepping and cooking were worth the returns (although I really think our service could have been more seamless and our food could have been even more refined), but we were aiming for some creativity and meaning in our dinner and I think we accomplished that!

Were we happy to be a part of it all? Absolutely!

Would we do it again? Probably Not! :D

It really allowed me and Michael to step outside of our comfort zone and put our hidden talents to the test! It was also good to put my brain to use after all these months of unemployment ;) And now, cooking dinner for a group of friends is easy peasy!