lao-ocean-girl » Portland

Oregon Brewers Festival 2010

lao-ocean-girl — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:43:51 +0000

As always, the Oregon Brewers Festival is held in at the Portland Waterfront on the last full weekend in July. It’s a four day event from Thursday to Sunday and I managed to go taste some craft beers on Thursday and Friday. I stayed away from the IPAs and stuck to the lighter beers, but my favorite of the festival was Maui Brewing Co.’s Coconut Porter. I liked it so much that I picked up a 4-pack at Whole Foods.

Maui Brewing Co. | CoCoNut Porter

just a touch of coconut. not bad.

Oregon Brewers Festival 2010

Brewers Fest 2010 Video

lao-ocean-girl — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:41:57 +0000

It was packed, and this was Friday afternoon, when people were still at work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

EaT: An Oyster Bar

lao-ocean-girl — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:58:09 +0000

You know what they say… baby steps. These are my itty bitty steps as I get back to updating and posting again. This was a recent dinner at EaT: An Oyster Bar, a restaurant specializing in Cajun/Creole food.

Fried okra. After I had okra for the first time in Greece, I vowed never to eat the mushy, slimy vegetable again. Maybe it’s because I’m older, but I’ve been trying it again whenever I can, just to make sure I don’t like it. You know what? It’s not bad. Fried okra or picked okra in a spicy Bloody Mary at Screen Door is actually pretty good.

This is jambalaya, if I can remember correctly. It was a little soupy… is that how it’s supposed to be? It was spicy and I felt the heat was hiding the dish’s lack of flavor.

The Urban Farmer @ The Nines Hotel

lao-ocean-girl — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:49:18 +0000

The Nines is a luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Portland. It houses two restaurants – Departure (modern Asian fare) and The Urban Farmer (a modern steakhouse). As part of Raswan’s last hurrah in Oregon, we had lunch at the Urban Farmer, an atrium restaurant with a seven-story skylight. Check out this link for even more beautiful pictures inside the restaurant. I loved the urban farmhouse feel.

Group photo on the cow couch

Warning: Food porn ahead

grilled summer squach panini, feta, pickled peppers, basil

charcuterie board, house made and artisanal daily selection

house made and artisanal daily selection cheese plate, daily selection of three cheeses, marcona almonds, fig jam

barbeque wagyu brisket, cornbread, caraway onion ring, apple slaw

razaor clam poboy, stewed pepper jam, remoulade, red leaf

local summer cherry salad, goat cream cheese, arugula

fish and chips, pacific halibut, farm fries, remoulade

The Urban Farmer menu can be found here.

Tasty Margarita

Kerry had to touch some Nip/Tuck-esque booty on her way out.

Photos taken during lunch.

It was a great lunch with delicious food and wonderful company. Thanks Ellen!

Brewfest 2009

lao-ocean-girl — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:02:05 +0000

The Oregon Brewers Festival was this past weekend. I attended with my brother and his friends Johnny and Jeolida.

My brother and I. I lurve him! [In one of the Facebook photos of us, he captions: "At least I'm the second best looking person in my family." Awww...]

$1 = 1 token = 1 taste = 1/3 of a plastic mug. $20 package = 1 mug and 14 tokens.

We tried to follow Gandalf through the crowd, hoping he’d lead us to the good beers. Unfortunately, we easily lost him. He is a wizard, afterall.

Cheers!

And God said, “Let there be beer.”

We ran into Asians… Johnny is surprised.

Some of those Asians were weird. We tried not to hold it against her because she’s also Lao and a family friend.

Wait! Is that a token? No… it’s just a dirty bottle cap. No more tokens. See you next year.

In Full Bloom

lao-ocean-girl — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:03:59 +0000

You know what’s great about Flickr? I did a search for pictures tagged with “Portland” “waterfront” and “cherry” within the last three days, so I could see if the cherry blossoms at the waterfront were in full bloom yet. And yes, they are. I went there this afternoon and had a nice stroll along the river while taking some photos. I haven’t gone through them all, but I do want to post one photo from today.

[In the background in the Oregon Convention Center, where the Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show was held.]

Tomorrow’s supposed to be another beautiful and clear day, with a high of 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius). I’ll probably head back tomorrow and expore some more before the rain returns on Thursday.

2009 Portland Yard, Garden, & Patio Show

lao-ocean-girl — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:12:52 +0000

Before I forget, I wanted to post some pictures from my trip to the Portland Yard, Garden, and Patio show. My mom and I made the trip out to the Oregon Convention Center to a busy venue. Inside was everything I would expect from an event like this – seed and plants for sale, landscape and garden displays, landscapers, contractors, authors of garden books, and even “celebrities” of the gardening world.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in gardens and plants. In a science class in elementary school, my classmates and I were given lima beans, a wet paper towel, and a ziplock bag. The seeds were placed inside and for the next couple of days, we were taught about the different parts of a plant. I can remember thinking, “Holy cow, this is amazing! All you have to do is add water to this seed and eventually you’ll get a full sized plant?” Even when we had to grow grass in dixie cups for Easter baskets, I couldn’t believe the other third graders weren’t as amazed by “life” as I was. By no means am I a horticulturist or an avid gardener, but even now, I love plants.

I guess some people are rich enough to have hot tubs in their yards. I’ll just look.

[Above left] One of the good purchases of the day was a Circlehoe, which has received lots of good press nationaly. [Above right] Then there were the Thai straw mats being sold for $70-$80. My mom nearly had a heart attack when she saw the price. We have some at the house now, and they were bought for $20-$30 in L.A.

My mom bought bulbs, seeds, a fig tree, a blueberry bush, pruning shears, and the Circlehoe. She would have bought more, but we came on public transportation – Portland’s light rail system, MAX.

On the ride home, I noticed this poem above us.

Bike Friendly Portland

lao-ocean-girl — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:14:37 +0000

This segment was shown last week on NBC Nightly News, but it’s worth a watch for those that haven’t seen it. It’s about Portland, Oregon, which is widely regarded as the most bike friendly city in America. 6% of workers commute by bike, on over 170 miles of bike lanes.

Actually, Ras’ cousin Jake is in the bike business himself. He and his partner own Daedalus Custom Bamboo Bikes. There is an article about them HERE.

Building a bicycle infrastructure

4th of July pics

lao-ocean-girl — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:21:45 +0000

I’ve uploaded my 4th of July firework pictures to Flickr. The firework show downtown was ok – good but not fantastic. Still, it was nice to get out and be festive with everyone.

The pictures turned out ok for my first attempt at firework pictures. This was despite the fact that I didn’t even have a tripod – couldn’t be bothered to buy one and then bring it back to Korea with me.

Not having a tripod (and a long exposure) has its advantages. I got this cool shot:

It’s titled: “Why the heck is my camera taking so long to snap the picture? Let me take a look at it. …Oh wait, there it goes.”

The ~~Columbia~~ Willamette River runs through Portland.

A Week From Now

lao-ocean-girl — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:03:14 +0000

…will be the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day. Independence from the imperialist oppressor nation of England, who tried to make us spell color with a “u”. Alas, Ben Franklin, historically known for championing spelling reform, helped Americans to be the slackers they are today. Oh yeah, he also flew a kite, or something like that. Back to what I was saying… It’s too bad that this year, the holiday falls right in the middle of the week. Still, you’ve got to make the most of a day off. This year, the Waterfront Blues Festival kicks off on the 4th in downtown Portland, with fireworks at 10:05 pm. I’m not a big fan of the blues, but I’m a big fan of festivals, so I’m hoping to drop by and check it out. It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of nighttime firework shots I can get. I’m not good at nighttime photography – too shaky. Those years of combat in ‘Nam really did a number on me. Plus, I don’t have a tripod, so we’ll see what happens.

For those that are curious, here are some of the headliners. The only name I recognize is the first one.

The Neville Brothers * Koko Taylor * Joan Armatrading * The Blind Boys of Alabama * Pinetop Perkins * Marcia Ball* James Cotton Band with special guest Hubert Sumlin * Mavis Staples * The Dirty Dozen Brass Band * Voice of the Wetlands Allstars (Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone) * Eric Burdon and the Animals * Savoy Brown * Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums * JJ Grey and Mofro * Watermelon Slim … Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks … and much more!

Since its modest beginnings in 1988, the award-winning festival has grown to be the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi, annually attracting more than 120,000 blues fans from throughout the world.

Click here to open up a player and listen to some of the artists that will be performing.