Balboa Park Easter Part I

We started Easter Sunday with a leisurely brunch at Current Restaurant. We ordered the the Easter Brunch Special lobster benedict, bloody marys and bellinis. A delicious start to a busy Easter.

Our hotel had bicycles we could borrow and the close proximity to Balboa park made for an easy decision to spend the day biking around the beautiful park.

We made our way up to the main part of the park where a performance at the Spreckles Organ was about to start. We were impressed to learn that the organ has no accoustical mechanisms other than compressed air through the massive pipes.

Situated directly behind the Spreckles Organ is the Japanese Friendship Garden within ear shot of the organ music. We decided some tranquil time in the garden was exactly what we needed.

The Japanese Friendship Garden wasn't very impressive, especially compared to Portland's beautiful west hills garden, but we would definitely go back and enjoy a meal at the Asian cafe overlooking the new expanded garden area slated to open next year. The food looked delicious and the people were super friendly, just like the rest of San Diego.

Gaslamp Dinner

Upon check-in at our hotel we were given a detailed map of the Gaslamp District listing out all the bars, restaurants and clubs that make up the party district. We were heading back to the Gaslamp District to check out the Altitude Sky Lounge at the top of the Gaslamp Marriott. We soon realized the Marriott hotel was across the street from Petco Field where a San Diego Padres vs. LA Dodges baseball game just ended and people were pouring into the streets, bars, restaurants and lining up for the elevator to the rooftop bar. We decided a Saturday night post-baseball game was not the night to check out the view. But the night wasn't a total bust, along our leisurely walk to the lounge we passed an Indian restaurant that smelled divine and decided to have a late night dinner there. We didn't realized how glamourous Masala Indian Restaurant was until we were seated inside.
We weren't super hungry so we decided to order 3 appetizers to share and 2 signature cocktails. Unfortunately everything about this meal was flat. Even though we ordered house specialty cocktails they tasted watered down and interesting (not bad, just interesting). We ordered the crispy green beans, tandori chicken lettuce wraps and lamb stuffed naan. The portions were huge and filling within a few bites. The green beans quickly became monotonous to eat after just a few. The tandori chicken lettuce wraps were wet, not smokey tandori chicken we were hoping for. The only item we couldn't comment on is the lamb naan, which we ended up taking with us. The thick bready naan just wasn't appetizing after the other items. We were hoping to snack on it the days that followed, but ended up taking the naan with us as a snack on the plane ride home. We knew the restaurants in the Gaslamp District were touristy, so were weren't too disappointed. The warm night air mixed with the relaxed festival atmosphere of the area was exactly what we were hoping for.

San Diego Old Town

After breakfast we decided to take the trolley to San Diego's cute Old Town. The Old Town area is in a historic park so it wasn't typical of what we would think of a major city's "old town". Historic buildings were restored and gave a historic feel, but was very touristy. We enjoyed the colorful shops and made our way towards the end of the historic area where a mission style church marketed the beginning of all the touristy Mexican restaurants. We couldn't resist the smell of the fresh tortillas being made and decided it was time for a refreshment in the form of a margarita, beer and some chips & salsa. We're glad we decided to spend the afternoon in the Old Town area, a bit touristy and one dimensional, but the margaritas were good.

Sunny San Diego Breakfast

We decided to take advantage of low airfares and a birthday to celebrate and spend a long weekend in sunny San Diego. We were looking forward to a change in scenery, some warmth, great seafood and sun.
We arrived early in the day and checked into the historic Sophia Hotel downtown. We dropped off our bags and headed a few blocks to the Gaslamp District where we heard about a great breakfast restaurant called the Broken Yolk. The Gaslamp District was quiet so early in the morning until we turned the corner to where The Broken Yolk restaurant was with a huge line of people. We did pass several restaurants severing breakfast, but we were on the hunt for some huevos!

We ordered a California Breakfast Burrito and a Beef Chorizo Omelette. The avocados in the breakfast burrito were pass their ripeness and overpowered the burrito, but the beans were fantastic. The beef chorizo was a total treat. Similar to a ragu with shredded beef in a thick red sauce that went well in the omelette and definitely something we can't get back home. It was a sunny and lively start to our mini-vacation.

Greetings From Sunny San Diego!

Best Chinese Restaurant in Portland

CNN recently published their top 50 Chinese Restaurants in the U.S. and two restaurants from Portland made it onto the list. We have seen Shandong on the odd corner where NE Broadway intersects NE Sandy Boulevard a few times, so we decided to try out the Northern Chinese cuisine restaurant's happy hour. And we're happy to say it was a very happy hour indeed!

We ordered all the dumplings listed on their happy hour menu, as well as their Cherry Pork entree.

The crispy potstickers were huge and terrifically crisp rice skin. The pork House wontons were deep fried goodness and especially like the scrumptous Chilean Crab & Shitake Buns. All the dumplings and buns were huge, much larger than what we typically see at dim sum. The flavors were all really nice. The one disappointment was the Cherry Pork, a fancy version of sweet & sour pork, which wasn't as good as the signiture house dumplings.

Shandong's house cocktails were also terrific, making Shandong's Happy Hour one of our new faves in Portland.

Winter's Last Hurrahs

This year's winter has been fairly mild, but nonetheless strange. Snow during spring break, then beautiful sunny weather for 36 hours only and back to the rain. Portland is also gunning for record rainfall for the month of March! By the looks of the clouds right now we'll pass the previous record no problem. So what do we do when the winter weather is so schizophrenic? Why, eat of course. Our weekends have been filled up with many meals out and here's a short countdown of what we've been up to.

Cocktails. Many many many cocktails! Cocktails at Happy Hour, cocktails at dinner, cocktails on a rainy Sunday afternoon and cocktails just because. We recently discovered the wonderful liquor St. Germaine, delicious with anything.

We are still on the hunt for decent Thai food in Portland. Armed with a coupon for a Laos/Thai Bistro we continued on the hunt. While the larb and pumpkin curry were delicious, the pad thai was below our expectations and the thai iced tea had us buzzing the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately the hunt is still on.

But we were successful to finally find superior Mexican food - finally! It may be a bit further out than we hoped, but Tortilla Y Tienda De Leon is worth the drive east for their fantastic tortillas and superior food, like their fluffy chile rellenos.

The winter brought us out for numerous comfort foods such as a good burger and Killer Burger on Sandy Blvd hits the spot everytime!

On very rare occassions will be brave Portland's brunch/breakfast crowds, but with comfort foods like chicken fried steak and fruit & cheese blintzs on the menu we'll gladly meet longtime friends for a leisurely rainy morning meal.

We also managed to make our way down to a new fish market that we heard served delicious fish & chips.

We meant up with friends we haven't seen in a long time for some sultry cheap eats with dark decor to match.

We rediscovered the joys of Baskins & Robbins, enjoyed a private tour of a fancy art gallery in a very unique building, ate a healthy raw organic meal which made us not feel so great and tried to get out on our bikes only to realize they are in need of some special attention in preparation of springtime!