Memorial Day Weekend

We don't do much or go anywhere for Memorial Day Weekends. If the weather is nice Portland seems to empty out, so we usually hang around town and enjoy three uninterrupted days of relaxing getting stuff done. The holiday seem to creep up on us this year and we found ourselves scrambling to balance being productive versus enjoying the extra day off. Here are some photos of the of our weekend.

Our holiday weekend started slowly with a creamed filled VooDoo donut and a nice glass of Oregon Pinot Noir. After running typical weekend errands, we rewarded ourselves with nice bowls of Vietnamese soups. By Saturday afternoon we had tossed out our list of to-dos and went for a long walk around the neighborhood. Springtime in Portland really shouldn't be missed (explaining why we chose not to go anywhere) and with the warm/rainy weather the flowers were popping with color.

We even came across our neighborhood petting zoo! Ok, just one of our neighbors who raise chickens, ducks and goats! GOATS! We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked pass these guys, especially the one napping on the roof!

We picked up a whole Copper River Salmon for later and checked in with our friends at food cart pod Alberta 15 Cooperative, a Japanese street food cart pod opening up this week. We ended the day grilling hand chopped burgers in the thunderstorm that hit that evening.

That was just Saturday, all captured on our iPhones and posted onto our Instagram. Check it out.

We did get in a short hike, some yummy french macaroons, more grilling (this time that whole Copper River Salmon), more long walks around the neighborhood, a trip to the nursery for some veggie starts, and taking care of the massive pile of recycling. All in all a very productive and relaxing faux start to summer. Wow! Can't believe it's almost June! Summer! Can't wait!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Spring Time

Where has the time gone? Spring weather has been typical Pacific Northwest, in other words - beautiful.We had unseasonably cold temperatures one week then record highs another, which made everything bloom early then disappear overnight. We thought we had missed the cherry blossoms but manage to find them everywhere we went.

Tasting East Homecoming

We came home from our San Diego birthday weekend to cards, well wishes and some birthday fun money, which we decided to use for a low-key late afternoon dinner our first night home. We decided to hit up Tasting East's Bar in the Paramount Hotel downtown. Described as "an exploration of Far East street plates" meaning lots of comfort food, full of flavor, filling and for a reasonable price. That's exactly what we got, familiar, comfort food served up with a twist and, of course, a couple of cocktails.

With such reasonable prices in the bar, (hence no happy hour) we ordered way too much food, but finished it all! Everything just hit the spot. The even-smaller-than-shoestring sweet potato fries were crunchy, sweet and salty. The karage chicken was one of our new favorites. The pan fried gyozas' crispy skins went well with the juicy sweet pork filling. The salty spam matched the nori's distinct flavor. Our favorite of the night was the curry hotdog! The clovey curry common in Japan was matched well with little Vienna sausages and really soft dough bread. Tasting East's Bar atmosphere, drinks and menu was a nice way to ease back into reality, post vacation.