Food Cart Adventure: Nong's Khao Man Gai

Today, I had the most amazing food cart lunch and I had to share it right away.  I have seen a number of my coworkers come back with little white parchment paper bundles full of chicken and rice - and they rave about it!  I didn't have leftovers to bring to work today, so lucky me, I get to enjoy food cart food today!

Nong's Khao Man Gai aka the Chicken and Rice place is simply amazing and the owner is adorable (see below).

Photo courtsey of Nong's Khao Man Gai website

Unlike many of the food carts here in town, Nong's menu only has one dish - Khao Man Gai.  If you desire, Nong is willing to add on chicken liver, extra rice, extra sauce and extra chicken.

My little white bundle of goodness!

Onolicious!

I have to say that the sauce is the secret ingredient - soybean sauce with garlic, ginger and chillies.  It's amazing, I could drink it!  For $6 it's a great deal.  So for all our friends, when you come to town, this is a must try!

Until next time!

Eat & Drink: Clyde Common and Irving Street Kitchen

Portland is a Happy Hour city with two hh almost every day.  Meats, cheeses, specialty cocktails wine and beer, people eat and drink early and often.  We decided to hit up the Clyde Common happy hour (3pm to 6pm).  Clyde Common has some delicious tasting food, and D was especially craving the french fries with harissa and creme fraiche! 

$5 red and white of the day

Yummy french fries!

We took a little break after hh and then met up with B and C for dinner at Irving Street Kitchen.  The decor in the restaurant might be one of D favorites in the city, rustic farm meets elegance.  I know it sounds weird, but they made lights from old milk bottles.  It's so urban, but it captures the farm. 

Wine on tap complete with mason jars!

B's Mint Julep... his first of the night

Bacon wrapped oysters... B and the Hubs fav

Johnston County ham with buttermilk biscuits and red pepper jelly 

Rustic elegance!  

Roasted lamb saddle, toasted cous cous with peas in a tomato-basil marmalade

Hanger steak with roasted grits, kale and a seared egg with bacon madeira sauce

Draper Valley fried chicken with smashed potatoes and collard greens

Nice weather = eating outside on the deck! 

d

Let the Adventure Begin!

Tyler managed to find a seat on the SAME FLIGHT to get both of us back to our new home (together)!

We can't wait to start finding the hidden food spots, the best beer, wine, cheese, and experiences!

Tired but happy on the airplane at 6 something am

First Thursdays in the Pearl

The first Thursday of every month many of the businesses in our neighborhood open their doors to showcase local art and provide food, wine, and beer to everyone walking around. This past Thursday, the 2nd of June.  Our friend, C opened his loft to showcase art made by our friend, Tom. If you have seen the reclaimed wood furniture that is in or house then you have seen Tom's craftsmanship. On the walls this Thursday was his spray paint creations done on vintage windows. Also on hand to keep the crowd from getting thirsty was B, pouring high test beer from Widmer; KGB Russian Imperial Stout, Nelson Imperial IPA, and Pitch Black, their NorthWest IPA. With two pushing 12% alcohol and another over 6% we were kept sufficiently happy. It was a lot of fun and a lot of people came through C's beautifully decorated loft. We know Tom at least sold one piece... to us!

Tom, the artist on the right

Short Little Trip to Pacific City, Oregon

This is a "beach" in Oregon. We love the fog and mist so it's perfect.

We drove about 2 hours to pick up B and Matt after their century bike ride, Reach the Beach and had plenty of time to chow down on some tater skins, and enjoy a beer at Pelican Brewing.

B finishing up 100 miles

The boys enjoying their pints.

The Last Move

We have to back track a little, we are not blogging real time... sorry, we are going to try to do that!  The Hubs found out that he was offered the position that both of us were wanting for him back in the third week of May.  Later that week he drove up one final car load of things that we still had in Orange.  To celebrate the good news and being in Portland together, we treated ourselves out that weekend!  It's a good thing, the city of Portland is big on happy hour! 

My together at last picture, our beers at Deschutes on Thursday!

Early happy hour at Portland City Grill!

Portland City Grill is on the 30th floor of this beautiful cooper colored building in town.  It has the best view of the city and the food is pretty darn good too!  When my momma and Jenn were here in April, mom fell in love with the lavender cosmo there!

Lavender Cosmo and Hendrix Gin Straight Neat

Wasabi Pork Siu Mai

Tuna Tartar(ish) Wonton Stack

Happy hour at 6 at Portland City Grill...Then a movie...Then late night happy hour at "our brewery" Bridgeport Brewery... Portland rocks!

Our City Home!

The apartment is slowly coming together, it's just missing the most important piece... the Hubs!  We looked at 9 condos in two days when we were up here in early December, the moment we saw this place (stop #2), the Hubs wanted to put down a deposit.  The Hubs and I like open floor plans with modern and industrial influences, and this place was our cup of tea.  The only question that lingered, what floor did we want to live on?  After 36 hours of me stressing on what floor I wanted to live on, we decided on floor 15.  The city view is what did it for us, if we are coming here to live in the city, we might as well take advantage of the view!  The main living area is pretty much put together, so by request here are some pictures. 

Our kitchen complete with gas range... we couldn't deal with electric

The living room with the floor to ceiling windows!

Our entertainment center/pantry and the sliding barn door to our bedroom

Our view of the city to the left, say hello to North Portland in the distance

Our neighbors across the way... yup, you can do a lot of people watching

The view to the right and the sunniest day we have had so far

The city lights at night!  Love!

Hopefully the Hubs will be here soon, so the real adventures can start and then we can truly share some stories with you!

Transportation in the City

Portland has an amazing transportation system!  You are probably asking yourself, why am I writing a blog post on transportation?  The Hubs and I used to live in Southern California, a place where a car is very necessary.  One of the things I was most looking forward to in our move to Portland, is not driving to work on a 5 lane highway for 40 plus minutes every day!  You don't really need a car when you live in this city, you can walk or ride your bike (more on this later).  Or you can use the Trimet Transportation system, which includes the Max (kind of like the Bart in San Fran), the Wes, the streetcar or the bus. 

So for those of you who are not familiar with the city, Portland is split into 4 quadrants - the Northwest, the Southwest, the Northeast and the Southeast.  North and South is split by the street, Burnside and East and West is split by the Willamette River. The Hubs and I live in the Northwest and I work a couple streets past Burnside in the Southwest.  We purposely wanted to live within range of the streetcar.  So for all our friends and family, this is how I get to work!  Be jealous :)

One of the Streetcar/Bus stations.  There is a marker that lets people know which direction they are headed and how much time is left until the next streetcar arrives

The streetcar basically does one big loop throughout the Southwest and Northwest.  If you are heading North, then you would look for a sign that says 23rd, if you are headed South then you are looking for S. Waterfront.  Within the main industrial city limits, there is a free zone where everyone can ride for free!  If you look at the map above, the orange line is the streetcar path and the dotted red line identifies the free zone.  We live a few blocks outside of the free zone area, so many of my neighbors walk to Gilsan and 11th which is the first stop within the free zone.

This is the streetcar station on Gilsan and 11th

A shot of the streetcar heading toward the station

A shot of the inside of the streetcar

The shot of the streetcar above is in the morning, when I take the streetcar home at night it is very densely packed.  I take the streetcar to Alder and 11th aka downtown.  From there I walk 3 blocks to work.

The awning in the distance is the pizza parlor below my office

The streetcars come every 10-15 minutes depending on the time of day.  If you fail to pay and you get caught, then they usually give you a warning and kick you off at the next stop.  This almost happened to me before I received my annual trimet pass.  The fine if you get caught I hear is very large, and I am so very glad that I never found out how much that amount really is.  Getting an annual trimet pass is worth every penny.   My company is awesome and they give their employees annual trimet passes, I think they as a business gets a tax deduction for it.  But the majority of my coworkers use some form of public transportation to get to work.  The annual pass is $968, which may seem like a lot, but I used to fill up my car gas tank once a week in Southern California...  Now my car sits in our complex garage and I don't drive it until my Trader Joe run on the weekend.  

If you are thinking of visiting Portland, you can take the Max directly from the airport into the city (station in baggage claim) and you can get a trimet day pass for the rest of your vacation.

I google mapped the distance between my apartment and my office.  My office is .9 miles, so when it is not raining hard then I try to walk to work as my daily exercise.  I have been here for a month and I have only had to ride the streetcar once in the morning to avoid the rain.  I have come to love my peaceful morning walk in this beautiful city!  Until next time!
~D

The view down 11th... one of the streets that I can walk down in the morning