P-Town Props

We thought with the Northwest rain upon us, we would be even more ready to start our travels. But the glorious fall weather has us only feeling lucky to see the autumn in our glorious town. The farmers' markets are in high harvest mode and the variety of great produce available during this time of year makes us anxious to hit the wet markets all over Asia. We continue to be busy with travel research. Not only does Portland have a fantastic library system as seen from above, but p-town public television is also fantastic. To add to our over-anxious excitement to hit the road, OPB is broadcasting a travel series by Rudy Maxa which is really great! His recent show about Bangkok, Thailand made us drool for days. Try and catch his show if you can - the open air market in a little town outside of Bangkok, which refused to move when the government wanted to continue the railway line is worth seeking out his travel show for that alone. I found the "train runs through it segment" on Youtube! Check it out! If you are lucky enough to live in P-land his series airs on Fridays at 6:00pm on OPB. Have a great fall everyone, the crisp autumn air has us longing to rewind and start our summer all over again!

Pop Quiz

Pop Quiz: What is the number one item we've been asked to bring back? Sorry, this items is now closed for requests.

Reminder

Thank you Buddha Bellies, we needed that

Dropping the Buddha Bellies Bomb!

As we sat and ate our take-out dinner; debating if the restaurant seasons their burger patties and if the chicken is pre-breaded or floured and seasoned in-house, we realize who are we kidding? With a name like Buddha Bellies and our friends saying, after they regretfully decline one of our party invites, "oh... but I'll miss all that great food" - it won't come to any surprise we hope to open our own food establishment soon. Thank you all for not shouting out the obvious sooner, though some of you have tried, with copious amounts of alcohol, to get us to slip and tell! The decision to drop the Buddha Bellies Bomb about our new business adventure is due to the fact that I've been wanting to post about this and not have it feel like a food blog.

We've also wanted to post about our plans to explore the food heaven that is SE Asia. We hope to find inspiration and evolve our existing recipes and techniques. Until we leave for our big adventure we have a lot to take care of. One of those things is to eat all the food we've got in the cupboards. We found this to be a good exercise in dealing with food waste and managing food costs. Here is one of our first successful items made purely from left-overs, think daily special some day.

M.I.A

We know, we know - we've been M.I.A for a month! But from our last post we've been soaking up the sun and all that summer has to offer. We've also been busy with mundane life that never seem to inspire any need to post. But we'll recap anyways – 1. We've been watching the developments between Cambodia and Thailand disputing over ancient temples (we are planning to cross between Cambodia and Thailand in January) 2. As well as the developments of an attempt to overthrow the current Thai government in Bangkok. Travel advisories are now in effect for Thailand - Boo 3. We've been cheering on the Jamaican Women's Track and Field Stars at the Olympics. Jamaican Women Rule! 4. Crying ourselves to sleep over missing his show and their show. 5. Entertaining Family. 6.Making rendez-vous plans. 7. Tighting up the travel budget and finalizing arrangments. We've also been monitoring Kenya's disasterous post-election events and hope the country soon resolves the disputes and end the tribal clashes. Our African friends and families are in our hearts and minds. We hope to see you soon. Now, how about you? How's your summer going?

Lambic Lover

Inspired by Pix Patisserie's Lambic Float - now why didn't I think of that???

mmmmmm...summertime

Travel Update: Something New, Something Old

4 months is a long time and a lot of money. So we had to decide between some countries and cities. One country definately never on the list of maybe was JAPAN! But when you decide to travel to one of the most expensive cities/countries in the world, the second most expensive city/country has to wait for another time. So it will be a little something new (Tokyo) and a little something old (Kyoto) and a little Osaka thrown in for good measure. Rooms are booked - let's just hope there's plenty in the budget now for lots of sushi!

Street Fairs

Any place where you can walk around outside with food in your hand and food every few feet AND interesting things to look at - we're there! A couple of weekends ago we rode-on-down to the Mississippi Street Fair and there was everything a good street fair should have.

Interesting food

Lots of great people watching

Lots of good things to buy or just look at, in our case

Of course the Mississippi Street Fair had its Northwest twists

Activities for the kids, Portland-style

Public Art/Protest People really got into the Starbucks bashing, even though it was obviously fake. Check out the hand-made logo and Granding Opening signage - funny stuff But we did discover a cute little Filipino food stand right in our neighborhood!!

Serendipity

I have purchased my first bento box!!! YAY!!! After viewing this fantastic slideshow, I knew my lunches would never be the same.

Introducing my first bento box, complete with travel size salsa bottle -

My first bento lunch, comprised of leftovers from a gluttonous bbq dinner and a home-made mexican feast

Healthy, economical AND the rectangular size is the perfect shape for my bag! And then I read what the lid said...

Oh little fishies - it was meant to be

A to the Z

We had friends and family come visit us and to escape the Arizona heat, so it became our summer vacation too!

Here are some highlights...

The coast

The coast the next week

Seattle

The Gorge

Drinking LOTS of beers

Eating LOTS of great food

Getting re-acquainted

and making new friends

now back to that business plan...