Feeding Umi » oregon

Portland Pounds

umi — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:16:48 +0000

Or this entry should be titled, “how I gained 1 delicious pound per day in Portland.” On let me count the ways. Despite staying in Ryan’s parent’s gigantic house, for most of the time there, my exercise consisted of walking around Powells or going up stairs to get a snuggie to curl up on the couch with. I guess I could have played tennis, but most of the time it was sprinkling or snowing.

Ryan’s mother, Sharon, took us to New Year’s lunch at the Allison. It was a beautiful rustic spa/hotel, with low buildings with solar panels, all wood and very elegant. It was very… Portland, Oregon. I find their architecture so completely distinct. Ryan even claims that Brooklyn is slowly trying to resemble downtown Portland. Still, even the ritzy hotels look very green, down to earth, and woodsy.

They had an amazing drink menu, filled with rare liquors, flights, and tons of wine for tastings, glasses, and bottles. Ryan and I both opted for the white wine flight. The food was pretty. Sharon lunched here previously with her friends and and had a delicious gourmet ham sandwich tasting menu. This time, the consensus was the food was very well prepared (the lamb was cooked to perfection and the crab had the perfect texture), but the taste was bland. The tasting menu was a crab stew, which I thought was hearty and delicious, crab cakes, and a radicchio salad. The desert was decadent and I enjoyed the little cup of hot chocolate the most.

Back with a new cast iron skillet!

umi — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:01:35 +0000

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I was home at my mother’s for Christmas and spent the rest of New Years at Ryan’s folks’ place in Portland, Oregon. Portland is rustic and beautiful, although small. This time around, I spent a majority of the time snuggled in a snuggie watching movies or playing videogames. Dragon Age: Origins, to be exact. Yeah. (Right Image: I keep it classy!)

Before we left for Oregon, we celebrated Ryan being done with his document and lecture recital at Sakagura. It was a semi-anniversary/Christmas/being done celebration. Following that, after Christmas, right before I left for Portland, Sarah and Danny had a fun dinner party at the apartment they were home/dog-sitting for. Ryan’s always said that Sarah was a genius in the kitchen, and I was really looking forward to it. She was twittering for 3 days before hand in preparation.

In Portland, I ate pretty damn well. That coupled with the fact that I didn’t walk much… caused me to GAIN 5 lbs in 6 days. Seriously. I only know that, because I joined NYSC right before Christmas and started going, 3 or so days before going to Portland and I weighed myself. So, it’s been a week after coming back and I went to the gym 4 times. However, no sign of these excess weight budging. Yes yes… I will be gaining muscle, still. Did I seriously gain 5lbs in 6 days? If it was water weight, it should have come off by now, right? I’m eating a little better, although not pristinely. I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be eating as well as I did when I lost a massive amount of weight in undergrad. (That’s a story for another day…) I did come to grips with the fact that if I am going to eat the way I do, then I need to move more. I’m just one of those people that will need to work out, out of my way, for the rest of my life.

Other news: We just got ourselves a cast-iron skillet (deep enough for me to make a pie!) before going to Portland. My mother has an iron frying pan, a little mini one. It’s mighty old and good to use. Otherwise, I’m clueless about its maintenance. So, Ryan’s mother told me all about “seasoning” a pan. From camping, I’ve heard/seen cast iron pots being cleaned right on top of the coals. Otherwise, I had no idea what I was doing in the kitchen. After much googling, I set to work. A friend’s griddle recently exploded in his oven (we can’t figure out why – it definitely wasn’t thermal shock), so I was a bit apprehensive.

I basically used grape seed oil to start. However, apparently you can use other oils that are resistant to burning. We didn’t have any shortening (this is a butter house-hold), so I spread the oil on the insides AND outsides with a paper towel. I placed it upside down on a baking sheet with aluminum foil and popped it in the oven two times for around an hour at 400-500 degrees.

I did stumble upon sites that claimed “seasoning” was unnecessary, and you just need to liberally apply oil everytime you cook in the beginning – the more you use it the more seasoned it becomes. Duh. So, I left it at those two times and set to work making some bacon and eggs for breakfast. The bacon stuck a bit, but with some online instruction via youtube, on frying eggs on cast-iron, the eggs came out beautifully.

Ryan was the one that really pushed for a cast iron skillet, although he had no idea about the maintenance of one. He wanted to “I am Man. I sear MEAT!” or something, you know. I’m just hoping to get some nice tender steaks out of it. Apparently they suggest anemic people to cook with cast-iron, so that they get more iron in their system. (I guess this beats ingesting teflon, eh? I thought teflon was the cat’s meow, but my mother never caught on, so we never used it.)

After using it, the cast-iron isn’t as high maintenance as I originally thought. I need to watch out for thermal shock, though, I suppose, as I am used to just throwing pans in the sink. One thing that I am thankful for is a steel spatula. We had one of those plastic ones before… but the steel spatula is much needed for cleaning and scraping. I also boiled some hot tap water to get most of the crusty things off. Then lightly scrubbed, oiled, and heated. I need to invest in some cute pot holders.

House of Teriyaki

umi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:23:47 +0000

House of Teriyaki
11615 SW Pacific Hwy
Tigard, OR 97223-8629

Right along the highway, this unassuming place is Ryan’s favorite Teriyaki place, probably, in the entire world. Serious stuff. He always swears by the spicy chicken platter with great mounds of rice and mayonnaise cabbage slaw. Solid.

It’s really cute, and you sit and read their variety of magazines while you wait for your food. Lots of people stop by for take out, but we stayed and I enjoyed some trashy “US Weekly” action.

Pok Pok

umi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:31:30 +0000

Pok Pok
3226 SE Division Street
Portland, OR 97202

Pok Pok is a place in Portland that we HAVE to hit. Their wings are to die for. Ryan and I have not found a single other place that does wings better than this place. I also love their drinks. Designated drivers can enjoy a full menu of drinking vinegar (a sweet and tart drink with soda). I love their Apple Gin Ricky, which features their drinking vinegar and gin. SO. GOOD.

One time, one of my first times there, we went there during the winter. All the other tables inside were taken, so they took us to a private room near the roof with three heaters. It was private, really cute, rustic, and one of the more enjoyable drining experiences.

The waiters are incredibly helpful, and they have a variety of vegetarian and vegan stuff that’s full of flavor. They made a vegetarian curry that had a hearty brother without using fish sauce, shrimp paste, or anything else. Coupled with that and various salads, we ordered a salad, cold noodle dish, a curry dish, and two orders of wings. Then we ordered these gigantic prawns with their heads still on. Amazing. They had an incredibly spicy cilantro dipping sauce, which was icing on the cake. I think Ryan found an additional thing he just “has to get,” now. (One time when we came here last summer with his parents, he just ordered a plate of wings… just for himself… and rice. That’s it. That’s how passionate he becomes about it.)