Oregon...mobile food experiences and bread bigger than three human faces.

Oh Oregon. The land of no sales tax and food trucks, which is a three-hour drive away from Bellevue/Seattle. Needless to say, it is a frequent driving destination for me and the rest of my relatives, who have a similar value system as I do (cheap food, cheap shopping--why not?).

In any case, we had an all-girl expedition (mom, sister, cousins, aunt) to Oregon a few days ago on a very rainy (after all, I do live in the Pacific Northwest) morning, where our first stop were the food carts/trucks.

Food Trucks and Mobilization: Oregon has seen an explosion of food trucks in the last couple of years, which serve a large variety of foods--tacos, sandwiches, crepes, pie, ice cream, pizza, noodles, etc. Pretty much anything you can think of...there’s a corresponding food truck to it, and these guys chronicle all the different food trucks. The thing with food trucks is that you can get quality food for cheaper, since you don’t need to tip and the chefs don’t need to pay a large overhead for their location--given this, most of the things we had were in the $6-8 price range for entrees. Not bad. Your only problem would probably be picking which food trucks to go to, as there is a dizzying array of them. Thankfully, there is always the internet.

Tabor: Wanted to go here because I'd never had Czech food, and I read an article that praised it as one of the top 10 food carts in Portland.

Schnitzelwich in picture...

...and for realz. Schnitzelwich: What the truck is known for, it’s a schnitzel on some ciabatta with some lettuce, red pepper sauce and horseradish. Pretty delicious--schnitzel was tender, and the addition of horseradish gave it a nice kick. While I was eating it, I was reminded of both tonkatsu (panko-breaded pork chops) and wasabi, had the idea of making a Japanese version of this with wasabi instead of horseradish, tonkatsu instead of the schnitzel, and the ketchup-worschershire sauce instead of the red peppers. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

Goulash with Spaetzle: Thought it was delicious, as it was uncharacteristic of all the other goulash I’ve had in the past who had a more tomato-based soup stock; in comparison, this goulash had a very deep flavor, which the Wikipedia article on goulash attributes to the dark beer normally used in Czech goulash. The malty undertones of the beer complemented the beef flavor, giving the stew an rustic/earthy quality which went nicely with the spatzle noodles on it was served with. I thought that the soup was very hearty and satisfying, especially on a cold, rainy day like this one. Pretty heavy dish though--we had plenty for the next day, and the day after that. LOOK ON THE WEBSITE (they have a recipe for this--I think the chefs of this food truck used beer instead of stock).

Chicken Paprikash with flour dumplings: Was very saucy and had a nice smoky flavor from the paprika. At first I thought the flour dumplings were bread at first (but they were not, obviously); they were slightly crumbly yet absorbed the sauce nicely. It was good, but I liked the goulash better.

Built to Grill: Saw this in the second food truck cluster that we went to, and immediately recognized it as the #1 Oregon restaurant on Yelp. While waiting for our food to arrive, my cousin and I stood outside the food truck in the cold Oregon rain, watching the chef prepare his pastas in the tiny kitchen of their truck, which was equipped with only 2 gas burners...and very little counter space. The chef was a pro--he tossed his pastas on the pan itself--not using any other utensils to coat the noodles with delicious sauce.

Linguini alla Vongole: The linguini was delicious--$7 got a pretty large portion of al dente noodles with a flavorful white wine and clam sauce spiced with some red chili flakes. To be honest, it was probably better than a lot of linguini I’ve had in actual sit-down restaurants, and for the price, a lot more worth it. My cousin Mia (she has pretty good taste too) said that this linguini alla vongole was better than one she tried in the a restaurant in the Italian area of New York. That should tell you something.

The mobile food experience: True to the nature of the source of our food (food trucks), we believed that we would "feel" it more if we ate it in the car (no not really, we just couldn't find parking and needed to drive over to the outlets to shop anyway). In any case, eating our food (and passing it around) while in seatbelts...while the car was on the freeway going at about 60 mph in the rain was an experience--and VERY different from eating food on the plane. Fun times.

Lebanese food in Nicholas Restaurant:

After a shopping break, we were pretty tired and wanted to go get dinner. We decided to go to this place because it was in my mom’s “Oregon file” (she has a file of places to eat and addresses since we go there pretty often). Since I also ate Lebanese food in a place called Ye Hala the other time when I drove down (of course, it wasn't actually me driving) with my aunt to get a mattress a few weeks earlier, I was constantly comparing the two restaurants in my head. At this point in writing, I can't really say--both are pretty different. Ye Hala had a more extensive menu, while Nicholas restaurant had faster service and their menu had more Lebanese pizza items.

Pita bread...was delicious and addictive. Jury’s still out on whether this place or Ye Hala had better pita bread. I find that both places have very different approaches to pita bread; while Ye Hala had football-shaped pita bread that was more on the floury/bready side (but was still chewy), Nicholas Restaurant had 2-foot long elliptical shaped flat bread which was more stretchy. They served the pita bread with a za’atar dipping sauce, that was mostly sumac and dried herbs with olive oil and had an herby, slightly sour (because of sumac) flavor. As you can see from this picture, the bread was bigger than three human faces.

Felafel: Didn’t like their felafel as much, because it was more on the crumbly side and a bit bland. Overall "meh reaction" for me.

Tabbouleh/Tabouli: A bit more sour than the one in Ye Hala (which I liked better, because it had a “fresher” flavor), but not bad for what it was.

Hummus: I loved their hummus. Probably one of the best hummus I’ve had--it had a nice earthy flavor and was surprisingly balanced out and mellow in flavor (they didn’t overdo the tahini, which was nice).

Manakish: Was essentially a small Lebanese pizza with za’atar on it, and the “crust” that they used was a bit thicker than the pita bread that they served. To be honest, didn't tast THAT much differently from the pita bread with the dipping sauce, except that the za'atar was dry and therefore a bit stronger in flavor.

Kibbeh: Kibbeh is a dish made of chopped meat (typically beef or lamb) and burgul (chopped wheat)/rice that is shaped into triangles like this one and baked, or made into croquettes and fried. I really liked their kibbeh, because it was juicy and flavorful, with a gritty texture (from the chopped rice/wheat) The rest of the people at my table characterized it as a Lebanese meatloaf, which I thought was an interesting and an accurate description.

Kafta skewer: Mmmm. Kafta/kofta is kind of like a meatball--typically ground beef or lamb mixed with onions and other spices then grilled/fried/steamed/poached/baked/etc (according to the Wikipedia article). In this restaurant, they grilled their kafta, and it was delicious--the charred surface of the meat contrasted with the tender juiciness of the flavorful meat.

The We-Will-Make-You-Jealous Thanksgiving blog. Part 2 - Foodventure Friday!

I mean, you would think that we would've taken a break after all that cooking and eating, but how much better to maximize the time we had together over break than to foodventure it out on Black Friday, especially since everyone's out shopping and such (and not eating, or so we thought).

Our epic foodventure started very, very early that day--at around 2ish in the morning, where this list was drawn up by the foodventurers, who used Google Maps and Yelp--both of which proved to be excellent research resources.

"The List"

Our foodventure started at around 11:30 or 12 that morning, where we all got ourselves out of bed and into the car.

First Stop--90 Miles to Cuba Cafe: My friend recommended this to me and said it was delicious. She's Cuban, so I took her word for it. This was a very tiny restaurant, with merely a counter to order in just a counter of seats in the back to sit on--no actual tables or anything like that. The walls were completely covered with a lot of things--newspaper articles, memorabilia, and the like, making staring at the wall pretty interesting.

Mariquitas (Plantain chips): Loved these--they were delicious, freshly-fried and topped with a garlicky sauce. Yum. Reminded me a bit of the garlic fries that they have in baseball games from Kidd Valley.

Empanadas (one was guava and the other one was chorizo): These were hot and delicious. It was interesting to compare these to all the other empanadas I've had in the Philippines, because these were deep-fried instead of baked, and crisp instead of crumbly/flaky. The chorizo on the inside of one empanada had a nice spice to it, and the guava was more of in jam form--so was sweet and sticky, which went well with the fried crispiness of the outside layer.

Ropa Vieja sandwich: Yum. I guess you could say that this was analogous to having a pulled pork sandwich, except that the sauce for this was more tomato-based rather than barbecue-based. The beef in the sandwich was moist, juicy and flavorful, tasting like it had been stewing in the sauce for a while.
Cubano sandwich: If the Ropa Vieja was similar to a pulled-pork sandwich, this would be more of a ham and cheese sandwich. It was okay, but I thought it was unremarkable (which I guess goes without saying, because how much can you really do with a ham and cheese sandwich?).
Overall...I thought it was good, and a great way to start the foodventure. Cheap and tasty is always a good combination.

Second Stop--Hot Chocolate: Since this place has always been getting rave reviews from people (on Yelp, and otherwise) who claim that they had delicious desserts, we decided to try it out.

Chocolate #1 (chocolate souffle, salted caramel ice cream and salted pretzel): I mean, it was good--the chocolate souffle was bittersweet and slightly dense--which went nicely with the salty-creaminess of the ice cream and the salty-crunchiness of the homemade pretzel...but in the end it was just what it was: a pretzel, a chocolate souffle, and a scoop of caramel ice cream...nothing I haven't seen before (especially with the current trend towards putting salt with chocolate). It was pretty unexciting, so I would say it was definitely overpriced.

Creme Brulee: I was never really a creme brulee person to begin with anyways, and thought this was just okay. Even though I don't like creme brulees, I know I've definitely had better ones that were more custardy/creamy.

Brioche Donuts with Hot Fudge and Caramel Popcorn: Yeah...I can see what these people were trying to do--"dressing up" the concept of donuts with the idea of churros con chocolate. It was good, but it was just so... average.

Overall...It's okay, but it's just nothing I haven't seen before, and it can't justify the high price tags of the desserts at this place. Definitely overpriced. Maybe I should just try their drinks (they have a huge selection) next time.

Third Stop--Bellyshack: Bellyshack is one of two restaurants opened up by Bill Kim (the other one being Urban Belly, which I've also been to before). His main concept when it comes to food is to reimagine local street food and do something different with it. Since he's Korean, most of the things he had were more Asian-inspired, but he mixed a lot of non-traditional Asian ingredients in his reimagining of the dishes, and vice-versa (bringing in Asian influences to typically non-Asian food).

Belly Dog with Kimchi Salsa and Egg Noodle: Probably my favorite among the two things we tried, the belly dog took the idea of a hot dog and made it a bit Asian, with the addition of egg noodles and kimchi salsa on it. Although the hot dog was just a standard hot dog, the egg noodles added a crispiness in texture to it, which was complemented by the crunchy kimchi, which had a nice spicy kick to the belly dog. The Togarashi fries on the side with the curry mayonnaise was good too...and kind of addictive. I thought that this dish would've been a little more interesting if the noodles were slightly crispy, instead of just normal noodles, because the overall crunchiness would've factored in more as a textural component of the dish instead of you eating it and being like..."hmm, I'm eating two kinds of carbs..."

Asian Meatballs with Rice Noodles and Mint: I feel that this was their attempted version of a meatball sub, or a pita pocket, which was hard to split among 5 people, because everything kind of just fell out--what we ended up doing was taking a few bites and passing it on to the next person. I thought it was pretty interesting, but it wasn't totally innovative or something that required that much skill to make. Tastewise, it was okay. I felt like it was just a normal Asian noodle dish (similar to the Vietnamese noodle dishes where you have meat over rice noodles) inside a piece of bread.

Overall...Of course, it was nice to see the combinations that the chef did, which made one realize how much overlap there was among the street foods of the world, but once you had that idea--it's not that difficult to execute these things...they can just be done at home.

Fourth Stop--Crisp: Voted as one of the best fried chicken in America by Yahoo Travel (speaking of which, there's one in the article that's in Seattle that I should look into...), Crisp is run by a guy named Jay, who was working the counter while we were there. He had an interesting story--he used to be a hedge fund manager, who decided to open up this place, where he wanted to bring Korean food to the mainstream American taste, since he believes that there are a lot of Korean dishes that are variations of familiar American foods...like fried chicken.

Seoul Sassy and Crisp BBQ chicken wings: These were delicious, and executed so perfectly. I don't know how the guy did it (aside from saying later on that his wings were a 2-day work in progress), but these wings were not greasy, and the skin was caramelized very flavorfully with the sauce. For some chicken wings, you sometimes get the feeling that the sauce and the wings are two separate entities, but in the case of Crisp, both just went together so well and stayed true to the name--they were perfectly crisp. The sauces that they used were pretty good too--the Seoul Sassy was slightly sweet, while the Crisp BBQ used the ground red pepper sauce normally used for Kimchi (if I'm not mistaken) which added a smokiness and a little bit of heat to the wings.

Overall...Loved it, and would go back (especially since the owner Jay said he'd give me free kimchi next time...yay!)

Fifth Stop--Five Guys: So the five of us went to five guys as our fifth stop, because none of us had gone here and we'd all heard that it was pretty good for burgers and fries.

...they had Free peanuts! (which made Mindy happy, because they were free...not because they were peanuts)

French Fries: So Five Guys is known for having very fluffy and airy fries which are crisp on the outside. Yeah, that was true--their fries were pretty good. Not the best fries I've had though, but good all the same. Supposedly they have Cajun fries too, but we didn't get those. Maybe next time.

Bacon Cheeseburger: By this time, we were pretty full already from the day of eating, so we just split this big burger into smaller portions. Nothing much to say about it to be honest--it was a very normal burger. It was a good normal burger...but a normal burger is a normal burger.

Overall...I was kind of underwhelmed by Five Guys--not that I was expecting a lot either--it was just very average American food done well.

Overall on the Day...Foodventuring was fun, although we were all pretty full after (and during) the course of the day. Also felt the aftereffects of a food coma to some degree. Totally worth it though.

The We-Will-Make-You-Jealous Thanksgiving blog...Part 1:Thanksgiving Thursday, cooked in 2 locations.

So about the title...No, I'm not just a randomly vengeful person who likes making other jealous by taking random food photos and making lengthy descriptions...it's just that my aunts and cousins were having a reunion on the other side of the country, when they could've come to Chicago instead. In any case, they had their Filipino-food Thanksgiving back in Seattle, and we had our delicious one here, and we took a lot of pictures partly to make them a tiny bit jealous (or to make them wish--even just a little bit--that they could've just come here instead).

8.45 in the morning...woke up, even though I slept at around 2:45 in the morning planning Friday foodventuring (more on that later), making a sample batch of scones, and talking about the inside secrets of the restaurant industry.

9ish...started cooking--making cornbread

9.30ish...photoshoot with cooking utensils and aprons with Mindy (selected pictures from a long series of pictures and a video--note my awesome koala slippers).

10ish...cornbread out of the oven! I forgot where I got this recipe from online (it was pretty standard as a cornbread recipe, but it just had a lot of butter). I didn't like it as much as other cornbread I've had, because this cornbread was more on the dry and mealy side rather than on the sweet and bready side--which I guess is a preference thing on my part.

Sometime between 10 to 12.30...dried green apples for Apple-Cheddar Scones, and made them (but didn't bake them yet) too.

12.30...snacktime with Filipino food! We got turkey from Uni-mart (a Filipino store which is not related to the one in the Philippines), so my uncle got some other stuff, like Lechon Kawali, chopped up and fried pork--which was both fattening and delicious, especially since I had not had breakfast.

Turon! Yum. Delicious banana and jackfruit wrapped in eggrolls and fried with caramelized brown sugar syrup on top. Had this two days later, but it was still good. :)

1ish...Jason's Gingersnap Pumpkin Pies in the oven. The one in the bowl was our sample pie, and it was a delicious snack.

Butternut Squash Soup preparation--shredding the squash.

Baumkuchen (German tree cake)-making time!

(many kitchen appliances--mixer, food processor...sink were running at the same time while this was going on)

4ish...people (Mallory, Sebastian, Mark) head over to the satellite kitchen (Mark's recently renovated kitchen) to bake the baumkuchen, which needs an oven of its own (read the Wikipedia page, it will tell you why--hint: lots of layers). While this is ongoing, the oven in the main kitchen gets more action (cooking and reheating everything), garlic mashed potatoes get made, the table gets set, people go and shower/change...

...and we ate, at about 5:45.

Butternut Squash soup: My cousin Mallory's specialty dish (or at least one of them), which is basically butternut squash and green apples blended together with chicken stock and other things. She served these with a sausage garnish and some Sriracha+sour cream on top. It was delicious. I always like how the sour cream+Sriracha adds a bit of a kick to the otherwise-basic squash soup.

Apple and Cheddar scones: I thought these turned out pretty well, even though I had to change the recipe a bit since I made a mistake with the dough. I added a lot more sugar to these scones though, because the sample batch, which I tried the previous day, was too tart and sharp for my taste. They were good warm, and also with cranberry sauce.

Figs with Prosciutto+Asparagus with Chorizo (done before I woke up, which is why I have no pictures of these in progress): Yum. I've always loved figs, and was so glad that my suggestion to use figs was taken seriously. Haha (yeah, I really shouldn't try to take credit for this dish but whatever). In any case, figs+meat is a delicious combination, as it takes into account the sweet and the savory--and there's just a nice mellowness that comes with the interplay between the two, which was complemented by the goat cheese between the prosciutto wrapping and the fig. Part of me wished that the cheese was a bit sharper, and that there was a little bit of a fruity tartness/acidity for the dish--for example (this is just me randomly thinking), if the prosciutto was brushed with some balsamic vinegar (the one on the sweet/syrupy side) so that it would caramelize while cooking, or if there was like a small piece of pear in between the cheese and the prosciutto...but yeah, it was good as it was. Asparagus was delicious too.

Squash stuffed with beef+Garlic mashed potatoes+cornbread: Squash was from Whole Foods--it was pretty good, I think they brushed some maple syrup on it. Mashed potatoes were very garlicky and fluffy--definitely disregarded the recipe at this point and just put a LOT of garlic (some roasted, some pan-fried) in it, which made it a lot better. Props to Mindy for looking up engineer suggestions for perfect mashed potatoes as a general basis (yay!). Cornbread was okay--buttery but slightly dry.

Lechon Turkey: From Uni-Mart, the Filipino grocery store nearby. Lechon is more normally thought of as roasted suckling pig over a fire, but other things can be called lechon. We asked the people working at Uni-Mart why they called the turkey lechon, and they said they used the same seasonings for this turkey as they did for the lechon, and just cooked it the normal way. It was delicious and very moist. It was also delicious as paksiw (stewed with liver sauce, vinegar, peppercorn, garlic, onions and sugar) a few days after.

Chorizo-Cornbread Stuffing (also done before I woke up): I really liked this, because I thought it stayed very moist, was slightly crisp (because of the browned cornbread), and was very flavorful because of the chorizo. Was also good (and not dry) as leftovers for the next few days after.

Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie, topped with ginger-infused whipped cream and ginger syrup (not in recipe): Of course, by this time we were all stuffed, but dessert is a must-have, and this pie was good. I liked how the crust (made from gingersnaps) had a more interesting texture and bite through the addition of the candied ginger to it (made by Jason the night before), and the subtlety of the ginger flavor was brought out even more with the ginger-infused whipped cream and ginger syrup. Normally I don't like gingery things, but it was just nice and subtle, and it just made sense in this pie.

Baumkuchen: When I read the recipe for this (not attached because it's not from online), I was blown away by the amount of butter it required (7 sticks--maybe more, if I'm not mistaken), as well as the large amount of skill+effort+time needed to do this laborious cake. I was in mild shock when I saw how much cake was made (one big ring+one big sheet pan), but the efforts were not in vain. Cake was good, a bit on the dense side though (but then again, I had eaten so much at this point, so that was probably affecting my judgement).

Overall, a successful Thanksgiving with a lot of eating...and can you believe we ate a lot again the next day?

Deep fried everything, the unhealthiest "meal" in my life (ever) and the itis.

Sorry that this is late. I started it the day I did it, but am only finishing it now (midterms+work+lack of sleep explain the long gap in between).

So it was Daylight Savings Time Day.

To celebrate, I suppose, the extra hour of the day, I spent two hours (or one hour, depending on how you look at it) learning all about deep-fried food for a school event (part of the Culinary Club). Suffice to say, it was very enlightening and extremely unhealthy, but there's just something about deep-fried food that both repels you and draws you in at the same time.

Deep-fried broccoli: I think that this cancels out the nutritional value of the vegetables, but the broccoli was surprisingly good--it was cooked all the way inside and was nicely encapsulated in its breaded...sphere.

Deep-fried sweet potatoes: Was a bit like eating sweet potato fries (which we also experimented with), but at first the sweet potatoes were a bit raw on the inside. The second batch of this involved par-boiling the sweet potatoes a bit before dipping them into the batter and frying them, which turned out a lot better.

Fried Chicken: Fried the chicken legs and breast pieces in Crisco (shortening) instead of normal vegetable oil, which we used for everything else. Using Crisco made the chicken skin much more crisp, such that its skin had a crackly texture. Of course, the chicken that we made couldn't compare with the chicken I've had in Southern Kitchen (or for that matter, fast food places like KFC and Jollibee)...but it was still good--and I have to say that it was very juicy on the inside and not dry (which is a common problem for a lot of fried chicken I've had in the past).

Deep-fried Snickers bars: Our "dessert" for that afternoon snack, the candy bars were first frozen (recommendation is to freeze them a day beforehand), then dipped in tempura batter (with a lot of sugar added to it) and deep-fried. These were probably my favorite part of the "meal," because they were so unexpectedly delicious, even though I was fully aware of the large amounts of combined fat and sugar I was putting into my system. The caramel-peanut filling oozed out of the Snickers bars when you bit into them, and the fried chocolate outer layer allowe everything to come together to completion.

...Oh, totally forgot.

The after-effects of eating deep-fried food, are called "the itis,"a general feeling of sluggishness, satisfaction, sleepiness and satiation. It was a lot of (unhealthy) food, and a lot of carbs. The entire experience made me come to appreciate what I had previously thought was a pretty crazy part of the American sub-culture of deep-frying (I mean, I still think it's pretty crazy, but can appreciate it more now).