Scenes from Birthday Weekend

For the last five years we have traveled somewhere to celebrate my birthday, but this year we decided to celebrate at home in Portland and it was one of the best birthdays in memory. We celebrated for four days with special dinners with family and friends, eating whatever sweets I wanted, a relaxing massage, equally relaxing walks around the city and exploring places we've wanted to check out for awhile. It was a bonus that the weather was nice and sunny. 

The day started with a surprise new camera lens, which I quickly used to document turning a year older. Mike's gift wrapping skills have gotten so good I didn't want to open it!

We started the day with brunch at the always busy Tasty & Alder, John Gorham's modern steakhouse. We've eaten at his other beloved restaurants Toro Bravo and Tasty & Sons, and we were not disappointed. It was an epic brunch with the best house chili infused tequila Bloody Mary; radicchio, bacon lardons, and a six-minute egg (they had me at six minute egg); Korean fried chicken; Wagyu steak frites; and the Carlton Farms pork schnitzel. They even surprised me with a birthday chocolate potato donut.

We then roamed around enjoying the wonderful spring day, admiring the city's architecture and getting used to my new camera lens. We purposely selected high protein brunch items in order to have energy to walk up the street in search of cake and french pastries.

We decided to take advantage of the terrific weather and wandered into the Lan Su Chinese Gardens, a place near and dear to us because it was where we got married. 

Soon it was time to meet up with my parents for dinner at one of our favorite Italian Restaurants, Piazza Italia. After a day wandering around we were ready for a week's worth of carbs and wiped our plates clean. 

The following day we enjoyed another terrific breakfast at the Portland Penny Diner. Opened only Monday-Friday until only 3pm, I decided it would be the perfect place to meet my girlfriends for a birthday lunch, where we were treated to the yummiest birthday lemon bar. And since it was my birthday I decided to treat myself to some delicious locally roasted coffee at Heart Coffee Roasters and it was well worth the somewhat high price. 

Soon it was time to head back downtown to meet friends for our quarter-annual birthday celebration at the amazing Paleo/Gluten-Free/Vegan Asian restaurant Departures. The crispy squid was amazing, so amazing we took one bite and immediately placed another order. 

My birthday weekend continued on with my favorite Abu Shiro ramen at the east side's only Japanese izakaya Yataimura Maru, some time at a garden center surrounded by blooming spring flowers, and my mom's insanely good eggrolls noodle bowls. 

It was such a wonderful birthday that I am already looking forward to getting another year older and celebrating all over again!

Love, Anne

Memorable Meals: Portobello Vegan Trattoria

There aren't many vegan restaurants in Portland that are worthy of celebrations, and due to that fact we have eaten at Portobello Vegan Trattoria numerous times. However this time was different, we were celebrating a wedding!

After the short and sweet morning ceremony, we enjoyed a 4-course tasting menu that had us thinking vegan makes for a great wedding menu. Who can resist beautifully cooked and arranged vegetables? The tasting menu portions were perfect and the flavors were absolutely terrific. Honestly, it had us looking at Portobello in a new light and we look forward to our next visit - who's birthday's next?

The stuffed figs appetizers were amazing.

Starters of Beet and Asparagus Salad & Squash and Carrot Soup.

The pasta and grain course was particularly good and was difficult to decide which dish to have. The Tomato Gnocchi, Artichoke Risotto, Mushroom Cavatelli, or Roast Corn Ravioli? They were all delicious.

We wiped our main course plates clean. Trumpet Mushrooms and Pesto & a Portobello Steak.

The dessert course included many of Portobello's vegan ice creams, including in root beer float form, but we stuck to more adult desserts with the best Strawberry Basil "ice cream" we've ever had, a Berry Tart and a Peach Panna Cotta. All three desserts were terrific.

We don't think it simply was because we were celebrating such a joyous occasion that Portobello, a restaurant we've eaten at many times, was so delicious this time; but it was by far the most memorable meal we've had there so far.Cheers!

Neighborhood Places We're Going To Miss

We have lived in the same home for 8 years, and over those 8 years we have seen the neighborhood change dramatically. We were so lucky to find a home that was smack dab in the middle of numerous evolving neighborhoods with so much to offer. During the recent snow storm, we quickly realized how lucky we have been to be within walking distance to so many terrific restaurants, bars, cafes, bakeries, pubs, grocery stores, shops and galleries. But that's what makes Portland such a great city, there's many many more places we'll be exploring in our new neighborhood.

We wanted to give our current neighborhood a proper send off with an ode to the best sushi/sake bar in town, the most amazing Mexican butcher, the cutest locally owned Japanese grocery store, a tapas bar with the best burger we've ever had, French pastries to die for, the best breakfast joint, a clothing boutique to drool over, and how could we forget our two favorite places of all, or our homes away from home. Thanks for so many great memories.

Others we'll miss include this place, this place, this place, this place, this place, this place (not once but several times), this place, this place, this place, this place...wow, and this place, this place, and this place. Just to name a few. But don't worry we'll be back, we still need to try this place, this place, and this place.

Recently we visited two of our go-to places and we'll miss having them so close, that's for sure. First up is the Radio Room, just minutes from our house with great drinks, eclectic food menu, friendly attentive staff and we really like the owners. Also, home to one of favorite bar burgers and the most addictive green chili poutine!

Another local spot even closer to us is the Grain & Gristle. We've had breakfast, lunch, drinks and dinner at this place. Heavy comfort food at reasonable prices and their 2-fer nightly specials can't be beat!

We're already stalking spots in our new neighborhood, and hope they're as good to us as these have been. And by no means is this list complete...so many more we didn't mention.

Restaurant Review: Nuestra Cocina

Ever since we vacationed in Los Angeles earlier this year, we have been head over heels for the culinary scene from the City of Angels. We are also big fans of Mexican food and have had Nuetra Cocina on our to-dine list for awhile. When we heard the owners are from LA and met while working at a restaurant, we put on our warmest coats, gloves and boots, and headed out to try their take on the flavors of Mexico.

We started with a Margarita De Granada (ginger infused silver tequila, pomegranate & lime - $8.50), the best margarita we've ever had, it was seriously delicious and we had to sit on our hands in order not to drink it in one sip! We also had the house special sangria, which was holiday'd up with cranberries and citrus ($6). We were also welcomed with the cutest and yummy house made tortilla and a smokey housemade salsa.

After hearing about the specials we ordered the two appetizer specials: cactus salad ($6) and the rockfish ceviche ($7). Both were terrific. We mixed everything on the cactus salad up and used the housemade chips that came with the ceviche to scoop it up. The rockfish ceviche was perfectly seasoned and the fish was wonderfully raw.

Nuestra Cocina's menu changes weekly and has an extensive starter menu. We had a hard time not ordering one of everything, but decided to add another appetizer - their housemade queso dip with chorizo. Yummy goeyness, especially with the housemade tortillas! ($7)

We decided to share one main entree, and since most of the items on the Platos section of the menu were things we were familiar with, we ordered something not seen on the typical taqueria menus we usually eat at - a Barbequed Lamb Shoulder Braised in a Banana Leaf with spicy green salsa ($18).

Nuestra Cocina is probably the fanciest Mexican Restaurant we've been to, the food is beautiful, yummy and worthy of a celebration. They also have a large banguet room called the Mole Room, but unfortunately it isn't a room full of mole pots cooking as we had hoped. We're already racking our brains for when the next birthday or celebration is so we can suggest Nuestra Cocina!

Nuestra Cocina
2135 SE Division Street
Portland, Oregon
503.232.2135

Tuesday - Saturday 5pm to 10pm