Squirrel seeks chipmunk

We got Sedaris' latest book a week ago. The book is filled with short stories with animal characters instead of people. But they could very well be people you and me interact with everyday.
I like reading one or two to Jose while he does dishes or folds laundry. There are some disturbing stories in there, The motherless bear, The crow and the lamb to name a couple. The illustrations in the book, one or two per story, were effective and in some cases magnifying the gruesomeness of the story.

I read the last story in the book last night, The grieving owl. It was our favorite story of the book. It finishes the book on a funny note. Both of us were sufficiently amused by it. Here's the illustration for "the grieving owl"

almost no-knead cranberry pecan bread

I'm going through a carb craze these days. Jose would catch me munching on buttered toasts even when I am not hungry. After finishing up the last bit of olive bread from Trader Joe's, I decided to make my own over the weekend.

a rising dough

 I picked the easiest recipe I could find in America's Test Kitchen book. It's a no-knead bread. You don't even need a standing mixer for that. I added a handful of white chocolate chips to the dough to give it some sweetness.

Some of the cranberries and chocolate chips on the surface are a bit burnt. But it's got a nice crust, really good texture and flavor

It snowed today in Portland

The news said that schools in Hillsboro and Beaverton, Portland's near southwest suburbs, were closed due to snow condition. Jose decided to work from home instead. For lunch we went out for a walk and caught the heat of the "storm". It was hailing. There's plenty coming down, but nothing would stick on the ground. Weather people are talking about this "record cold" for Portland. Interestingly it's about the same temp in Chicago right now. I know our friends back in Chicago are enjoying the nice warm-up.

Cupcake Jones

I did it. I finally found a cupcake place I liked in Portland. Cupcake Jones
I am a big cupcake fan and have high standards when it comes to these mini packages of goodness. I have been to a couple other cupcake shops since we got here. The overall impression is that they are sweet, overly so, though not as much as the ones we had in Chicago. I just want a cupcake with moist cake and rich icing that doesn't make you want to drink a whole bottle of water after a bite. Cupcake Jones has what I'm looking for.
We ordered one Raspberry truffle cake to share. It's chocolate cake filled with raspberry chocolate ganache, topped with raspberry buttercream icing. It was PERFECT. I wish I didn't have to share it with Jose. We sat on the bench in their tiny store and devoured the cake. I then turned to Jose and said "I don't want to leave here"

The small display case at cupcake Jones

It's only about 8 blocks away from our apartment. They have daily special flavors. I will have to hit the gym on my way there and workout hard to deserve one cupcake a day from cupcake Jones. But it's totally worth it.

Portland food carts

One thing I really love about Portland is the food carts. There are clusters of food carts all over the city, mostly in parking lots. It's the ultimate cheap comfort food. But it's no less gourmet. Here's a photo of the cluster on 5th and Stark. What it doesn't capture is the irresistible aroma of a mix of all the food there.

We were looking forward to trying out "Built to Grill", an Italian food cart serves mostly pasta dishes. It's widely loved by many people in Portland. But we found out it wasn't open today when we got there. So we walked over to Tabor, a Czech food cart a few blocks away. I have eaten at Tabor once before. But we wanted to try a couple different things today.

We got the Schnitzelwich and Bohemian Goulash, and watched the owner prepare the food in his little kitchen.

Schnitzelwich: Breaded pork loin in a Ciabatta roll with lettuce, paprika spread, sautéed onion and horseradish

Bohemian Goulash: pork stew served with traditional dumplings

The Goulash was very aromatic with fennel seeds and fresh herbs. Perfect for a snowy day like today. The horseradish adds a strong kick to the breaded pork loin in schitzelwich. The texture was just perfect.
Everything is under $7 at Tabor.

Pok Pok Thai restaurant

Even before we moved to Portland, I heard of Pok Pok from a Thai friend who said it was the best Thai restaurant in the States. Interestingly it's owned by a white guy who traveled to Thailand years ago and fell in love with local cuisine and decided to bring it home.

We went with a few friend there for dinner. It's crowded. We had to wait for about 20 minutes to get a table on a Monday evening. But the food is worth the wait. Most of the stuff on the menu is spicy. We had to get the famous ike's fish sauce wings. The wings are not spicy, but they're so flavorful with hints of fish sauce.

Each of us order a dish and we shared family style. I thought the best dish was the catfish with rice noodle and turmeric oil. It's not spicy either unless you bite into one of the few chopped green chili pepper pieces scattered on top.

Catfish with herbs on rice vermicelli. It's very refreshing

Lenka order this pork skewer dish. It's pretty good with the peanut sauce on the side

Lo Mai Gai - second try

This time I precooked the rice. I used Korean sweet brown rice. Typically the recipe would call for sticky rice or glutenous rice. Brown rice was all I had on hand. It worked out pretty well though. I kept the chicken raw but marinated overnight with ginger, garlic, soy, a little bit sugar and some wine.
Precooking the rice significantly reduced the steaming time down to 30-40min. It turned out perfect. The rice is sufficiently flavored by chicken juice and chicken is perfectly cooked.

first cherry blossoms

It was cold today here in Portland. High in the 40s. But while exploring Nob Hill area, we saw these cherry blossoms. They put a smile on my face...

Lo mai gai - first try

Lo mai gai is a Chinese dimsum dish. It's basically chicken and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed. All the recipes I found online call for rice and chicken be cooked separately and assembled together. I thought that was a lot of work. I remember this dish from my mom and sister. It's a similar dish. They soaked the rice overnight and steamed the uncooked but soaked rice and marinated raw meat for an hour. And it was delicious. So my first attempt is to see if I can simply the recipe by steaming everything in one step without pre-cooking.

To save you the trouble of scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the page, it didn't work nearly as well as I thought it would. It took 1.5 hours of steaming and the rice was not fully cooked through. Though it didn't stop Jose from eating it all.

So there will be future postings on more trials of this recipe. But here's how I did it the first time, if you're interested.

soaking the store-bought dried lotus leaves in hot water

spread 3 tbsp of soaked rice on the leaf, then top with 3 tbsp of marinated chicken, then top with more rice to cover

Wrapping the leaf so filling's securely packed

arrange the packets in a single layer in the steamer rack

I will have to post some photos of the cooked filling at a later time, before Jose finishes it all =)

Ken's Artisan Bakery

We've heard so much about this place and have been wanting to try it ever since.
It was busy! We almost had to get our stuff to go. A nice couple did finish quickly and gave us their seats.
They make their own breads, the kind that I consider too tough to chew on such as boules and baguettes. But they look nice and rustic.

Ken's also has a small lunch menu, mostly hot sandwiches made with their own breads. We ordered two sandwiches, a croque monsieur and a pear/goat cheese on walnut bread.  They were both very yummy.

Ken's also well know for its croissants. We got one as well. The croissant was much lighter than expected, meaning not the kind you would have to go on a two-week diet regime for. We both thought that we have had better ones.

Ginger people

I've been wanting to make these cookies ever since we got a pair of ginger boy/girl cookie cutters. They are adorable. The recipe is from America's Test Kitchen.

Aren't they cute together? They're holding hands!!!

Three teacup duck legs

I came across this "three teacup chicken" recipe on Serious Eats.
Serious Eats link here.
But when shopping at Fubonn, we saw that they had duck legs and decided to adapt the recipe.

The sauce has equal part of soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar, hence the name.

He ate it with knife and fork, while I ate it with my hands.

Homemade granola mix

I was inspired by crumble toppings on fruit crumble recipes. I was wondering what would happen if I replace the flour with oats and whether that would make granola mix for breakfast.

So I started out with softened butter and old-fashioned oats. Add a little bit sugar, salt and spice powders like cinnamon and nutmeg. You can also add your favorite nuts. I added some sunflower seeds and slivered almonds. Don't be afraid to get dirty here. Just use your hand and work the butter into the oats. Once that's done, you're pretty much done.

Ready to go in the oven

Spread the mix on a baking sheet and toast it in a 350degree oven for 20-25min. Take it out and flip the mixture with a spatula a few times in between to ensure even toasting. You place would smell so good as a result. Once the mixture is cooled, you can add dried cranberries, raisins or even chocolate chips. Get yourself a bowl, a spoon and some milk. Enjoy!

Toasted granola

A few training shots from the new Pen

I've been looking forward to taking photos with creamy background with the pancake lens on my Pen. It doesn't disappoint.

The lilies Jose got me for V day are still looking great

There's always green here in Portland

The trees are sprouting

An eco park new our apartment

Eco park

Not bad at all for a camera package that cost less than $500. I've been playing with mostly manual options. Will have to try the auto settings and see how they turn out.

My new Olympus Pen

I got it, I finally got it, in a shiny package, my new micro 4/3 camera from Olympus. While I'm charging up the battery, here are a few shot of the camera itself...

The camera body. Metal construction feels solid and heavy.

The lens, 17mm fixed zoom pancake lens, f2.8

Assembled!

The electronic viewfinder, external. For taking photos out on a sunny day, this viewfinder would come in handy.

That was easy enough. Now only if the battery gets charged soon. Can't wait to take this one out for a spin!

V day breadpudding

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day celebration. It was two days ago. But I just had time to update some photos of the bread pudding we made for dinner that day. It's our first bread pudding, straight from the recipe in ATK. There's for sure room for improvement. But it ain't bad.