Portland has Good Food.

These are only some highlights...



Pearl Bakery - Ginger Cookie, Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Parisian Chocolate Macaroon


That Parisian Chocolate Macaroon was heaven in my mouth.

VooDoo Doughnut Burger and amazing Fries @ The Original.

Cannoli @ Mama Mia Trattoria

Apparently, I love desserts. That's no surprise.

Macaroons @ Europane.

Time to fat-UP!

http://lastreetfoodfest.com/

I'll be spending Valentine's Day with the love of my life: FOOD.

i. am. ECSTATIC!

I can cook!

I missed out on eating Kare Kare when I went home for Thanksgiving. Simply because I thought there would for sure be the same dish at one of the 3 other family parties I attended that same day. There wasn't. So after Thanksgiving this year, I had been regretting the moment I refused Kare Kare at that first party.

I decided to host a potluck at my place, and I cooked Kare Kare for the first time. It was a success! It was delicious! And my craving was fulfilled! It's actually not as difficult as I thought. Now I'm gonna go steal my grandma's recipe for another oxtail stew she makes. I can't wait to try that one out!

Umami Burger

Umami Burger has two locations. Near La Brea, and on Hollywood blvd in Los Feliz. I went to their newer location on Hollywood Blvd. Pretty good, I'd say. To make it short and sweet: decent portions, good burger, yummy fries, cute place.


The fries come with a free condiment. I decided on the Roasted Garlic Aioli. I don't think you can ever go wrong with that. At least I haven't come across any bad Aioli. The hand cut fries are triple cooked. I haven't looked it up, or asked... but I imagine boiled, baked, then fried. I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that. But I can tell you that they were delicious.


I decided on the Hatch burger. At first, it looks kinda small. I was thinking, "hmmm, is this enough for me?" It's definitely not a fatass-sized portion, but it is a decent size that doesn't make you feel like you're gonna suffer from a heart attack, and you won't starve afterwards. Anyway, the Hatch burger is supposedly spicy. It has 4 different chilies, of what kinds, I do not know. But it really wasn't spicy at all. The waiter said it was on a spicy level of 6 or 7. I thought it was a spicy level of 3. All in all, I thought this was a pretty good burger. I enjoyed the tinge of spice, but I kind of expected a little more. After all, I do love spicy foods.

Some weird-off things about Umami:
1. They didn't ask how well you wanted your burger cooked.
2. I felt like I needed more Aioli than they gave me.

Would I come back to this place? Sure thing, if I'm in the area. Not bad.

NYC Pizza

This is pizza from ARTICHOKE. It was delicious and creamy. And very filling....


We went to GRIMALDI'S under the Brooklyn Bridge. We waited an hour. We ate ice cream while in line. That could have been a mistake....


But I still enjoyed it. New York Pizza, I love you.

The Fatty-Lazy Aftermath

Weddings are fun, but am I not right when I say that they alcohol makes them infinitely funner than usual?! If and when I get married, good food and open bar are a MUST. Anyway, tequila was the choice of poison. Nancy and I (but also some other folks who came by for random shots) finished a whole bottle. Needless to say, I was buzzing significantly happy happy HAPPY.

But let's talk about the day after. The day after drinking is always interesting. Well, usually. I find myself lazing around for the most part. I don't think I get hangovers much. It's probably only happened a few times in my life, but I must say I know my limits... (for the most part, hah!)

Sunday, September 20th. In San Diego. Football Sundays with Kerin and her roommate, Michelle. Good times. That Sunday was indeed lazy-fatass-Sunday, minus the inevitable drive back to LA later that day.

Let's get to the food though. I had been dreaming of California Burritos and El Cotixan ever since I knew that we were going to go down to San Diego. I didn't get my Cali burrito, but I did get El Cotixan! As pictured above, I had the Cotixan fries. Serious fat-ass worthy right there. Cotixan Fries have the following: fries, guacamole, cheese, carne asada, and sour cream. If you add their hot sauce it is AMAZING. In addition, we also enjoyed some chips and salsa and guac. Seriously, big eyes much?

As if that wasn't fat-ass-y enough, Kerin wanted Pizza from Fat Tony's. We ordered a giant cheese pizza, some fried garlic bread with marinara sauce, and some donut-type things. I don't even like Root Beer, but I had some since it came with the pizza. Tasted amazing in my mouth.

But let's get to the reason why being a fatass after a full day of drinking is great. I think it's to distract your stomach from feeling the hangover-ness. That's my theory, at least. For some reason, greasy fatass food is the best medicine for drinking too much on the previous day. I lazed around on Sunday before Nancy and I had to leave. We ate, we watched Sunday football (even though I have no idea how it really works.. I'm learning!), we sat on the couch, we passed out, we ate a lot, we passed out again, I ate some more, and passed out again. The Fatty-Lazy aftermath is necessary.

* pictures are again via cell phone.