Chinese New Year 2009- cleansing day

When Chinese New Year started, I noted that the Chinese Classical Garden here in Portland was going to have a special event on the last day of Chinese New Year celebration. I got there early enough to see the tai chi demostration, and saw little kids making paper lanterns, coloring pictures of dragons, and writing Chinese characters. I opted for Chinese tea and snacks in the teahouse while listening to the Portland Orchids and Bamboo Chinese Ensemble perform traditional Chinese music. – mooncake (which is only edible with tea) and my favorite, turnip cake!

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Unfortunately, as you can see below, shortly before the floating lantern and dragon came out, it got very grey, and it was a bit soggy and sad for the floating lanterns. However, the little boy next to me getting soaked was soooo cute, though shivering by the end. He was looking a little spacey. Reminds me of my brother. Heeee.

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Earlier when Chinese New Year started, I of course ate noodles, and chicken, and potstickers. I still needed some fish though. I wasn't sure what Chinese restaurants in China Block (it's the Chinatown downtown, but I wouldn't call it a town… sure it has the gates, but it's only like 3 blocks!) were good, so I ended up at Typhoon again. At least I had a steamed fish instead of a deep fried one like last time… though that was tastier deep fried. Well, it was a healthy start to the new year at least! And, I had more tea- my favorite tea is the Toasted Rice Flower tea. It smells great, and has a light taste. Another strikeout with the vegetarian dish though- the eggplants were fine, but the tofu salty as if taste was overcompensated for by salt. Well, the three times I've had meaty dishes I've liked them all.

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And look how pretty those are… as opposed to these veggie dishes at Paradox Cafe, which is 90% or more vegetarian/vegan. I didn't even bother to taste the vegan sloppy joe there in that third photo. I had the Solstice Corn Cakes, which are corncakes with apples and toasted walnuts in the mix (I had them with quite a big pat of butter, and the next day with lots of syrup. The parts with the apples were best, the rest needed help with the dryness. Or maybe I was just adding fat. Let's not be picky) and the half portion of "Biscuits and Gravy HOB version" which is herb and onion bread with almond gravy. The gravy was good. The bread was a bit hard, but had some potential in flavor if it hadn't been overdone- and it definitely still needed that gravy. Other offerings here include a sandwich called a Tree Hugger which you can add tofurky to, Tempeh Reubon, Asparagus Sandwich, and Curried Tempeh Tacos, Tempeh Gyro, and 8 kinds of salads, among many other items.

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Cravings for Asian food

I'm not sure if it's because I know I'm going to Thailand soon (from the 29 of December to January 11), but this week I really had a craving for some Asian food. I didn't try anyplace new- instead, I went back to two places to see if I ordered something else, would I still like the place.

For dinner one evening, I returned to Typhoon and had the "Three Flavor Fish"- a flash-fried halbut with a spicy sweet and sour sauce. Unfortunately when the waiter put it down the stacked fish fell over, but you can see the delicious crispiness all the same. It's quite a bit of fish, and I ate all of that up. Maybe I was straining myself for the last third, but that crispness wouldn't be there if I saved it and took it home. Another thing I like there is there large selection of teas to choose from, so I had a pot all by myself practically. 

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I also went back in Beaverton while running my first Zipcar errand to Petco and Fred Meyer to a dinner at Jin Wah, which I have also blogged about earlier. This time, I remembered to capture the Joy Yee-ness of the place in their photographed food examples, and the largeness of their menu. This time, I somehow noticed the oilyness that I missed the first time- or was willing to overlook because of their drug-like control of me when I have their chinese sausage fried rice. This time, when I tried their noodles, it was a fail. No crispy burnt parts at all! Fail!

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And… Zipcar? What's that? Well, I recently joined Zipcar, which is a membership car coop program in which I pay a small annual fee, but otherwise it's about $10 an hour to rent a car (or $70 a day) and there are several cars nearby in walking distance just sitting in designated rental parking spots (for instance, 8 within half a mile of my house alone). I use my card to just open the car after making a reservation approximating how long I would use it, either doing so online or via phone. I don't pay for insurance, or for gas (there is already an insurance card in the car, and a gas card I can use as well). The use of the car card is pretty cool- it scans it from the windshield, which unlocks or locks the car. The actual key to the ignition is permanently attachedf with a cord in the car. Thieves don't steal the car because unless you activate it with the card, the engine doesn't even work.

I also got a discounted annual fee by buying a coupon book from Whole Foods, and that book has lots of coupons for groceries and restaurants. I've already made the money spent on the book back on savings through my membership savings of not paying an application fee and getting some driving credits, and that's without me using the grocery store coupons in the book. I have often thought of joining ZipCar, but since I know of 3 ZipCars within a 5 minute walk of me (one is only 2 blocks away) and with the addition of that coupon book and the fact that some of the bigger stores like Target, Petco, and such are farther away and would be a pain to go to public transit wise, it just makes sense for me to have a Zipcar.

So I own a car now! Sorta.

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Some basics of me living Portland

Portland, OR was founded by two people, one from Portland, Maine and one from Boston, Massachusetts. Both wanted to name this new city in Oregon after their hometown, and it was a flip of a coin that coined Portland, Oregon. I previously talked a little bit about things being in the northwest or southwest, and I wanted to explain that a little like Chicago, Portland is on a grid system. Fortunately, their grid system is easier to figure out than using the city block coordinate numbers like Chicago. Here, they actually just use literally the letters NW, NE, SW, SE in front of the street names to denote where in the grid you are.

Also useful is that they bring the numbers more to the forefront. While in Chicago you had to always look at the numbers underneath the street names that were words, here in Portland all the streets that run north/south all use numbers that radiate from the meeting point (Burnside divides north and south and the Willamette river divides west and east). 

 

So now when I say I live in SW Portland, you know what I actually mean. I don't live that far south of Burnside though- close enough in fact that although by the grid system I live in the SW, by the neighborhood I basically live in, the Goose Hollow neighborhood, I am still considered to be living in a northwest Portland area. The main things I have to characterize where I live when I describe it to people is

1) the Goose Hollow Inn, which is this neighborhood bar/restaurant which I have been told has an excellent reuben sandwich. You know you're in Portland because not only is there a meat version but also a vegetarian version. The founder of this pub used to hear about people's woes and worries so much that the story goes that he decided to do something about it and ran for Mayor– and was the mayor for 8 years. The family still runs the place.

2) This is also close to PGE Park. This would be like living by Wrigley Field, except Portland doesn't really have any major sports teams or say, even any known sports teams outside the local area (ok, the University of Oregon Ducks being the recent latest exception). Not only that, but it's a park that not only hosts football (Portland State Vikings), but also minor league baseball (the Beavers) and soccer (Timbers), and are available for various other high school and college level teams as well. So, it's an all-purpose stadium. So, it's not at all like the kind of atmosphere you would find at Wrigley, though it does have similar age occupants and housing options in the neighborhood compared to Lakeview.

3) The Tri-met Max (light rail- they run on the roads here alongside the cars) stop here and then start going through a several mile run through tunnels of the West Hills. In other words, I'm living just where the big hills start. I literally can look up and see steeply sloping streets going up the Hills and houses built on what looks like foresty cliffs.

When I go to work in Beaverton, I have to go west, past the hills, and into the suburb of Beaverton where I then walk through a campus almost like a college campus to my building. Door to door, it's about 45 minutes- 6 minutes to walk to the Max stop, and then another 6 minutes from that Max stop to the doors of my building. I usually don't have to wait long for a train. One thing I've noticed is that every stop actually has a map with times all day so you can see how long until the next Max train (or bus), and it has been mostly correct (maybe 1-2 minutes off) so far. Besides the schedule, I also like how every train station has an automated machine where you can purchase your ticket for one ride, multiple rides, or a monthly pass using your credit card.

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The only weird thing is that no one really checks your ticket on the Max when you get on. Once in a while someone will walk down the car asking to see your ticket and if you are not able to produce a valid ticket, you can be written a ticket for $115. But otherwise no one sees your ticket when you ride the Max. On the bus you show your ticket to the bus driver like you would on any other bus, but they don't have an automated reader or touch pass- they still use paper punched ticket when you pay in cash if you don't have a pass from a machine.

Well, that's enough about Portland for now. What have I been eating? I've been mostly making swiss cheese or peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and dinner. I attended a Chi-foo meeting (an association for those in my career line) on Wednesday and ate dinner at Nature's Harvest with other team members who were attending the same meeting. Nature's Harvest is similar to a Whole Foods, but their food court section is not quite up to par to what I've seen in LA yet.

I also tried two outposts of Thai restaurant chains that are famous in Portland. On Friday, I took my immediate team of interaction designers to Typhoon. This reminded me a lot like Vong's in Chicago, but with much better food because although it had been modernized to tastes here, it still tasted good and had recognizable good Thai taste. Can't say that about Vong's fusion food, in my opinion. Also, Typhoon has an extensive tea selection, which I really liked. Thanks to that lunch, I'll get to do my first expense report next week. I ordered a chef special, which was battered tilapia in a sticky sweet but spicy sauce with basil and bacon and chili fried rice. All it needed some ability to spritz  lime and it would have really been excellent.

Yesterday I also signed the lease to my apartment on the actual triplicate form at the office, and then went to an outpost of Thai Orchid, another chain based on Thai food here in Portland. I thought it was just ok- everything has a sweet taste to it rather then the complex taste it should have had combining more salt, sour, and spiciness. It just couldn't compare to Typhoon, which at least still brings those flavor profiles to the table, literally. I definitely want to try Typhoon again.

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Last night I also went with F to walk along Hawthorne. We walked all the way there, and Hawthorne is on the Southeast area. We walked up to basically 37th street in the SE grid and we started out at 16th street in the SW grid. Unfortunately we stopped at the first pub we came across, Roots, for a little taste of their beer. The Oregon Beavers were playing USC, so we watched the first quarter. I had a walking map of the street, and I also reviewed that and circled places I wanted to stop. When we started walking though, I naturally with my baby bladder had to stop at Safeway to go to the bathroom. Then, when we finally got to where the interesting things were (the walking map describes this neighborhood as similar to San Francisco's Haight district, but I have no comparison), everything closed at 6pm. So, we ended up killing time at the Bagdad Theater and Pub, where we caught a showing of Wall-E (yes, my 3rd time seeing it) for just $3 a ticket. I like the Bagdad because they have a little bar table in front of each row of theater seats for your beer (or wine) that you can enjoy during the movie. On the 2nd floor, they actually have a more loungey atmosphere with cushioned couches, loveseats, and chairs.

Despite not being able to see as much as I wanted on Hawthorne street, it was a fun walk (hopefully next time we will be a bit more efficient on time and also not walk all the way there). On our walk there, we crossed the Hawthorne bridge over the Willamette, which is a cool vertical lift bridge. The panoramic photo is not mine, it's from Wikipedia

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I also passed on Hawthorne some houses that cracked me up. The first one… I guess they really value their privacy, thus the bamboo forest in front. The other ones didn't even seem real- they look like playhouses to me.

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