Pre-valentine's day

Valentine's day is in the air, on television, in the media and everywhere you look now. We will be celebrate our first V day in Portland. We want to wish all our friends and family far far away a Happy Valentine's day and let them know that we love them.

We walked into TJ and I asked Jose "hey, would you want to buy me some flowers for Valentine's day?" That's how I have these pretty calla lilies sitting on our dining table. We are totally the romantic kind =)

Breakfast at Helser's on Alberta

We've been looking forward to a trip to Helser's since we saw it on a PBS show about great breakfast all over the States. It's on Alberta street, a very charming major streets running east west in Portland. It's dotted with cute coffee shops and small businesses. It's Sunday morning. We got there before 9am. And it turned out to be a good idea. People started lining up right after we were seated.

We ordered "Pear and Harvati pie" and "Pepper bacon and chedder hash". The hash was perfectly cheesy and bacony with fluffy yukon potatoes and nice crust. All this cheesy goodness is topped with creme fraiche, two poached eggs and chopped scallion.

The Harvati pie came with some fruits. The poached pear halves in the pie had hints of rum. There's also a piece of crumpet on the plate, which was buttery and yummy. It's pretty good overall. But I thought the hash was a much better choice.

The bill came. It was only $18 for two dishes and a cup of coffee with unlimited refill. Good stuff. We will be back again, with friends from out of town for sure.

I didn't even get to punch him...

Jose came home one day with a swollen eye. Over the next few days a dark purple bruise slowly appeared. Now he looks like he's forgotten to put makeup on the other eye. He's been telling people that I hit him. And I say "be careful, or I will make it even on the other side..."

Getting around in Portland

I loved the convenience of the "L" in Chicago. But they took it a step further in Portland. There are streetcars and Max trains and buses. All are accessible from the ground level, like getting on a bus. No stairs to get up or down. Also they are quiet, unlike the "L". Each stop has either a LCD display that tells you current time and when the next train/bus/streetcar is coming or a flat screen TV that displays all upcoming buses schedule. I will post more photos later. Here are the photos I took today.

Streetcar that runs around downtown, pearl district and nob hill area. We live in the Pearl

This Max train actually goes out to where Jose works. He takes it everyday, except when he's driving.

 more is coming...

Oatmeal ginger cookies

A simple and spicy alternative to oatmeal raisin cookies. I use freshly grated ginger as well as candied ginger in place of ginger power. It packs so much more flavor than the dry stuff. Though these needs more sugar even by my standard. That didn't stop Jose from stealing it from the cooling rack.

Deboxing almost complete

Many times than not, people live with boxes for quite sometime after they move into a new place. We still have boxes on the second floor of our apartment. But the first floor is box free. As I looked over and saw a giant wardrobe box sitting near the door. Damn! Okay, almost box free.

We have kitchen and the dining area on the first floor with a guest bathroom and a large storage closet, which we are using to store all the food items that won't fit in the kitchen. There's significantly less storage in this kitchen than our previous one. We got a new lamp for the kitchen area, which is now sitting in the dining corner. But once we get our pendant lamp over the dining table, we would be able to move this floor lamp into the kitchen. It starts to feel like home. 

Korean sweet brown rice

Whenever people mention brown rice, something bland that tastes like tree barks comes to mind for some people. That's because they haven't tried these yummy sweet brown rice. I think they were originally from Korea, since you can find them easily at any Korean grocery stores but not much at other Asian stores. There are a few brands to choose from. We have been eating "DaiPoong" brand brown rice. Here's a picture of the brand in a different product packaging.

A simple stir fry rice with chopped chicken andouille sausage and frozen veggies. It's quick and delicious. The rice has a slight sweetness to it and packs so much flavor. I would choose this rice over jasmine white rice any day.