About Me

Originally from Chicago, IL and now living in Portland, OR as a user experience designer and enjoying deliciousness wherever and whenever I can. This blog chronicles adventures in eating – dining out and cooking and imbibing with appreciation for local Portland deliciousness or wherever travels may lead me.

If interested in contacting me please email me at: pechluck(at)gmail(dot)com

A Little About Me:

I come from a Thai-American background, and was a Chicago girl until I moved to Portland in September 2008. My family loves dining out on deliciousness too, and. that includes my parents who came from Thailand to raise a family in Chicago, myself in Portland (I am the eldest child), a brother in Los Angeles who also blogs at Sunpech.blog on his personal interests and about food at FoodIsHappiness, a sister in Boston, and my youngest sister also in LA. I am married and refer to my vegetarian husband as “F” in the blog. No I am not vegetarian. And, I have a critical weakness and major love for cheese. And truffles. And European seedy bread. I eat rice and sauteed mushrooms and spinach a lot. Sometimes I think F and I are like Jack Sprat and his wife.

I have a Masters degree in Human Computer Interaction, which means I took art classes to understand design aesthetic tools, as well as very basic programming to understand logic and analyzing problems, and also customer research and psychology and sociology to understand people’s expectations and mental models and how they want to experience something- whether it be software or real life like the layout of the additions to your coffee, or logistics of a party or store. My career as a user experience architect is to craft experiences based on customer needs/desires and client goals/constraints… and essentially that way of looking at an experience bleeds into my normal life too, such as dining out or going to food events!

This blog is a hobby for me because I enjoy eating. Some of the contents of a review may also be posted on Zomato and Tripadvisor (I am a Top Contributor) as I like to plan travel based on eating and want to help others with my same goal! I am also a Google City Expert so I also may excerpt relevant information into Google Reviews which show up in the Google results. I also often share photos to Foursquare and Foodspotting (acquired and integrated with OpenTable).

                  

I do Sponsored Posts!

I often do restaurant reviews, but also will cover events, such as my series on Feast Portland during 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 that included promoting before the event and also recaps afterward. Other example food festival coverage includes the food cart festival Eat Mobile or Portland Monthly’s Country Brunch. I have also recapped special dinners such as Salt Fire Water with Jacobsen Salt Co. and Ivan Ramen + Lang Baan. I will sometimes do a series, such as one where I had all the Lardo Chefwiches in one of their sandwich series, or several restaurants for June Portland Dining Month.

I may cover product reviews, books, and theater productions. Please feel free to contact me at pechluck (at) gmail (dot) com for more information.

Previous Example Coverage
Examples of how I have covered food events before

• Portland Feast
• Portland Monthly’s Country Brunch 2016 and Portland Monthly’s Country Brunch 2015 and 2014 and 2013
• Eat Mobile 2013 (also see Eat Mobile 2012, Eat Mobile 2011, Eat Mobile 2010!)
• Review of Pike’s Chocofest 2013 and Pike Chocofest 2014

And here are examples of special event dinners with pairings blogposts I have covered previously

• Mae PDX
• DaNet, a Russian Dinner Party Popup
• Salt Fire Water with Jacobsen Salt Co. and Ivan Ramen + Lang Baan
• Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner
• Whole Foods Hopworks Dinner
• Ruchikala Winter Pop-up
• TeSóAria Wine Brunch
• A Grand Feast of Oregon, by Hawks View Cellars and Irving St Kitchen
• Saraveza and Block 15 Winter Dinner
• Portland Food Adventure at Tasty n Alder
• Breakside Brewer’s Dinner at Wildwood

Food Tours Recaps

• Pike Place Market Food Tour in Seattle
• Forktown Food Cart Tours – special tours in conjunction with Eat Mobile and Willamette Weekly. The Friday tour covered Crystal Gardens pod, North Station, and then Mississippi Marketplace. The Saturday tour covered Cartopia, and made our way to 3 other cart pods of D-Street Noshery, A La Carts, and Good Food Here
• Forktown NW Alphabet District Tour
• Beer tours via Brewvana, such as such as this one I took to Corvallis and another (sponsored by Google+) that stayed in Portland

Book Reviews examples

• Review of Rejection Proof
• Review of Twenty Dinners
• Review of Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking
• Book Club: Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture

Theater Reviews examples

• Cyrano at Portland Center Stage
• Portland Center Stage Show The Last Five Years Musical
• Portland Center Stage Show: Lizzie Musical

Travel Posts: see Travel Posts Index

I have been blogging for several years, but it was only when I made it my 2013 New Year’s resolution to grow my blog beyond a personal journal that things have changed. This year I started Tweeting, Instagramming, and am trying to get the hang of Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+. It’s been amazing meeting new people and learning about the passion and work behind the scenes and perspectives. That’s  definitely my favorite thing about blogging, is the being able to learn and share these stories!
                      
This blog is for personal use, and the opinions expressed here represent only my personal views at the moment of the blog post (and over time may change based on subsequent thinking or experience). The information provided here is “as is” and will not be liable for any errors or omissions or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.  I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are purely and entirely my own. I do not claim to be nor make an effort to be an expert on a certain topic, product or service.  I will only endorse companies, products and services that I believe, based on my own experiences, are worthy of endorsement.  All product or service claims should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

Unless otherwise noted (in some cases some content may have been used via Creative Commons licensing), I am the copyright holder of the material on this blog and it may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.