Noble Rot

Voted Best Wine Bar of 2009 in Sunset Magazine (yes, yet another award... I am contemplating on creating a blog label just for "awards"), Noble Rot is quite the little gem on E. Burnside and from its fourth floor locale (plus it already sits on a hill), has magnificent views of downtown Portland - the only place I know of on this side of the river. If you know of any others, please do tell!

I'd never been to its previous location (on Ankeny St.) but this newer location has a rooftop garden which produces all year round (their seasonal food menu changes depending on whatever is ripe at the moment)! Happy hour is literally just an hour (5-6PM M-F), which is kind of lame for Portland standards, but for a wine bar, their menu is very generous. The place has a smooth, urban, cozy feel to it and the u-shaped booths are perfect for a close group of friends... or better yet, a first date! I really like it!

Zell's Cafe

Being unemployed undoubtedly has its perks. You sleep in, you take naps, and you eat leisurely breakfasts on weekdays. But unfortunately, 12.2% of Oregon is in the same boat as us and they all seemed to be at Pine State Biscuits yesterday morning!

I suppose it didn't help that the place was dinky and it was also Veteran's Day. People were jam packed in there. Usually, I wouldn't mind waiting for a seat (if the place is packed, it must be good right??) but we were starving and it didn't look like we had much hope of getting a seat even before dinner time!

So we whipped out an old issue of Portland Monthly we had in the car, which had a feature on breakfasts and found the next closest restaurant on the list - Zell's Cafe, known for their omelettes and corned beef hash. There was a wait, but not nearly as long. I was disappointed we couldn't eat at Pine State Biscuits, even though I'm not a huge fan of biscuits, but the place had great reviews, so I had mentally prepared myself for it all morning. And when I have my heart set on something, it isn't so easily reconciled with an alternative. But Zell's was a pleasant recourse, making amends with me by serving us complimentary fresh, hot scones as we sat down. I don't even usually like scones, but I like them at Zell's! I wonder if Pine State will make me feel the same way about their biscuits...

Bombay Cricket Club

I heard about this restaurant years ago, but recently, my friend Allison was raving about it. After reading reviews on Citysearch and Yelp however, I wasn't so sure what to expect. It seemed like diners either hated it or loved it, but the reviews were split almost evenly down the middle. Nevertheless, I was craving Indian food and with such limited choices for Indian cuisine in Portland, a few bad reviews weren't about to stop me (so long as there was an incremental or equal amount of good reviews too). If anything, bad reviews have helped managed my expectations so that I'm usually pleasantly surprised afterwards! Plus, I really liked the name of the place :)

So we ordered a greek salad (dunno' what that was doing on the menu, but it was good so who cares), chicken tikka masala, fish vindaloo and jhinga jalfrazi (prawn curry) with garlic naan. It wasn't bad (I think I'm having a hard time straight-up dissing a restaurant since I'm new to the food blogging scene), but if I'm honest, it wasn't great either. Please bear in mind however, my last few Indian food experiences have been in the two most Indian populated cities of the world (outside of India of course), so I have certain expectations. And while I've not been to India (I'm dying to go), I did eat enough of it in the last year to know the difference between masala and marinara <---- yep, that's what the fish curry tasted like. Good thing I was with great company, so I didn't mind the food so much at the time :) So what. They didn't knock my socks off (like Indian food is suppose to), but let's put it this way - if it was horrible, I probably wouldn't bother blogging about it.

Po-po-po-porno

I should be so lucky to have a boyfriend who enjoys spending hours on the internet looking at porn.

FOOD porn!

Sometimes we'll be hanging out at home and I'll look over at Michael, who's staring at his computer screen and smiling. A few minutes later, I'll hear him moan, "(y) uummm..." So I'll dart over to see if I can catch him in the act!

Looking at...

... a picture of a juicy gourmet burger!!! Or something of the like :)

Michael saves on his favorites, a bunch of food blogs which he reads daily. Too bad a lot of the restaurants we want to try are in New York, but it also seems that we've been lucky enough to move home just in time for a very up-and-coming Portland. Well, we knew Portland was cool for ages :P but now it's getting publicity all over the nation!

But even as Portland grows (at a terrifying rate - I know this because there is always traffic on I-84, even on Sundays), it still embraces the best of both worlds - staying true to its smaller, friendly city roots, while demurely adding big city conveniences - one of which is its amazing spread of restaurants.

When we started this blog earlier this year, our agreement was that Michael would blog on food and restaurants, while I would blog on... well, everything else! But since Michael is so busy reading other people's blogs, I have (grudgingly) begun taking over that duty as well :) I'm not as good as writing about food as he is, but I'm learning, so please be patient! With all the time I have on my hands and regretful that I did not give London the same opportunity, I am making it a point to blog more often about Portland's ever expanding variety of fantastic restaurants.

I thought about reviewing them on Yelp or Citysearch, but rather than get lost in the mix of hundreds of other reviews, I figured it was more important to illustrate to our own friends and family (especially those far away) what Portland has to offer.

But before moving forward!!!... there are a few notable mentions that I've tried within the last few months that I don't want to leave out. My most favorite being Screen Door, for its take on Southern comfort brunch. I loved (and will continue to love) their fried oyster benedict, along with their fried chicken & waffles and basically everything else on their brunch (<--- my most favorite meal of the weekend) menu - especially from their griddle! While we're on the topic of breakfast foods, I also very much enjoyed Cricket Cafe (with my newlywedded friend Uyen) and Helser's on Alberta (with my dear dear friend Anthy). I had no idea until this recent return that NE Alberta has developed into such a cool pocket of Portland!

Fried Chicken & Waffle at Screen Door

Moving on. Happy hour in Portland is like no other. While other cities stick to the traditional theme of offering discounts on alcoholic beverages during the slow hours of a weekday, Portland has famously taken it to a whole other level. Not only are the drinks cheap, but restaurants and bars compete with each other on offering a ridiculous array of foods. So much so, people these days go to happy hour in place of dinner! A combination of food, drinks and the friends that accompanied me make a few of these (off the top of my head) favorites: Pambiche - Cuban! Great atmospheric, outdoor seating and the happy hour starts at 2 PM! Go for a late lunch! Gold Dust Meridian - somewhere on SE Hawthorne. For some reason while here, I felt like I was on a boulevard in L.A! The Observatory - finally, a hip, hot spot in the SE 82nd / Stark area. Biwa - Japanase yakitori. I went with my Dad to drink it up when my mom was out of town :) 23 Hoyt- one of the sleekiest joints on 23rd with equally stylish outdoor seating. Owned by the same guys as Saucebox and Blue Hour, so you can't go wrong! The Original - Mr. Te's regular stop after work (when he use to work at the US Bank tower :) Try their daily hot dog specials! I dig their modern diner decor. Salty's - go for the riverview (and margaritas) like Tram and I did! Urban Farmer - all I can say is, "ooOoooHhhh." Candy - so cheap for the amount of food they give you! Tempura green beans - yum! Too bad it'll probably go out of business soon, judging by the club/lounge trend in the Pearl.

Which lead me to bars! I can't even begin with the bars! So I won't ;P

And then of course there are the staples... the ones that have been around since even before I left, but still persevere amongst the ever-changing competition i.e. Saucebox for swanky, pan-asian fare, Esan for Thai food and Portland City Grill, not only for its happy hour and views of the city, but a summer lunch with Kathy and Elaine revealed they had a pretty decent crab sammy! Oh and the sushi!!! It's so good to be surrounded by fresh yet affordable sushi! There's Suburo's monster sushi. And then there's Sinju in the Pearl; Sinju in Bridgeport; and more recently, Sinju in Clackamas. They're all empty as hell - you can't expect people to pay those prices in this economy (though it's still pretty darn good if you're up to go) when you can get a steal at Mio and Sushiland (talk about fast expansion)! But the spot of the moment is Miyomoto on SE Stark. I love fine dining (who doesn't), but I am a bigger fan of hole-in-the-wall dining and Miyomota is just that (thank you Tram & Yen)! It's so teeny (hence, hole-in-the-wall) that we befriended Wes, the sushi chef who promised to make a "YenYen Roll" if (the other) Yen and I became frequent customers :) I'm tempted to delete this recommendation because I'm unsure I want to spread the word about this place and risk it becoming too crowded :p but hey, if you've taken the time to read this long ass blog entry, maybe you deserve to know!

Enjoy!

Halloween 09'

After changing our minds about four times in the span of one week (the week before Halloween), we finally decided to settle on a Sesame Street theme - just in time for its 40th Anniversary! Michael went as Oscar the Grouch (so appropriate :) and a bunch of his friends went as Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie (although Bert and Ernie decided a steak dinner was more important than Halloween and did not show - so lame)!

Have you ever noticed that most of the Sesame Street muppets are male!? There's only three (Rosita, Zoe, and Abby Cadabby) that are female and of course, none of those characters had adult costumes for Halloween, so I had to improvise! I chose to be Abby Cadabby - apparently, she's quite popular with girls these days, but if you haven't watched Sesame Street recently, you wouldn't know who she was (I had to Google her myself) and subsequently, no one knew who I was suppose to be (it's hard to be a muppet when you don't have pink fur)!!! But my costume had LED lights on it, so by the end of the night, I just went as an eclectic fairy (ec-lectic, not electric :) Who cares! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Elmo was the designated driver.