So we've finally made it to the end of the week. My bestie Brandon came down for the Handful show the night before along with his charming friends from Bellingham. Brandon and I took the train down to Oregon to enjoy the scenic route. Turns out we met some great Canadians and had a ball. To sum the train ride down, an elderly woman stopped us as we were leaving the train and said, "Whatever it is that you are doing...rock on!" She later told us she was 83. AWESOME.
So the first night we just sort of hung out and wandered around. Here are some notable foods:
Macaroni and cheese with pesto! Got this at
Paddy's. We sat in the patio on the street for some GREAT people watching. Didn't get any traditional irish food, but I am pretty sure this mac and cheese was amazing.
These onion rings though...were AMAZING. BEST ONION RINGS EVER. We stopped by
Rialto's to shoot some pool and hang out and I smelled these when I walked in. I wanted some. You know how when you have onion rings and you bite into it, the onion part pulls out of the breading and it's all stringy and stuff? Well these onion rings were so well breaded, when you took a bite, the onion part actually stayed inside the breading. I'd be really interested to know how they did that. And by the way these were HUGE. The onion rings were basically the size of my palm. But they were SOOOOO AMAZING.
The next morning we had breakfast at
Bijou Cafe. A moderate sized french breakfast place. They serve very strong mimosas, not sure if there was any orange juice at all. I got a french omlette with smoked cheese, bacon and green onions. It came with a baguette and greens. Of course everything was organic, and the place sort of lived up to the Portlandia stereotype. Our server reminded me of the one in
this hilarious clip. In fact there were a few stereotypical things I observed in Portland. Including my friend Kai, who lives in Portland and came out with us. He was wearing a shirt with a bird on it. And the bird was designed with little birds on the inside. So hilarious. Again, if you want to see what I mean,
watch this.
After breakfast we digested while exploring
Powells for a couple hours. Love that place. Then we finally made it over to the Bite of Oregon. The following series of pictures are compliments of my friend Jordan, who basically was my food photographer for the day. Thanks Jordan!
First up, fresh salad rolls. Always a good idea.
So I lie. I totally forgot to tell you the first thing I actually got was a commemorative wine glass that came with a holder for your neck. that way you can eat with both hands! So genius. I loved it. (you can see it in the picture with the shrimp below and when I am holding my pie and ice cream)
Next up, mac and cheese. Which wasn't very good. It tasted like better quality noodles but with velveeta.
Then came the Kaluha Pork. This is quite possibly my favorite thing I got there. The pork was incredibly tender and juicy. It came with rice and macaroni salad.
I shared some of Christina's grilled shrimp with a tequila lime marinade. It was actually a little dissapointing. It was tasty but serve with a sweet chili sauce and I felt like it overpowered the shrimp. I couldn't really taste any lime or tequila on those things.
Then I took a break, but ran into our canadian friends who bought ribs to share so I had that, plus coleslaw and hush puppies...
Finally...I stopped with dessert. White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice Cream...and then I topped it with a miniature marionberry pie...definite major food coma/baby.
The whole gang with some wine. Brandon, Christina, Carrla, Alan, Me, and Jordan. Overall I found the Bite of Oregon extremely delightful. I've stopped going to the Bite of Seattle because I feel like you're limited to two foods there. Everything is huge portions and expensive. At Oregon's bite everything is smaller and I feel like I definitely got to taste quite a bit! The best part about the event is that the entire area is a beer garden. Meaning all you had to do was get a wristband showing you were of age and you could bring your drinks anywhere. Being limited to a space for beer gardens has always been frustrating. I find them rather boring. But in Oregon you can bring your drinks with you and explore the music and food!
One more before we bring this to a close. During our last day we stopped by the Saturday Market (even though it's open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). I got some phad see ew for brunch. :) It was a little dissapointing. Kind of dry and flavorless. Brandon had this amazing falafel though. Mmmm...
So all and all...successful trip. I would highly recommend going to the Bite of Oregon. :)
That brings my birthday week to a close....time to exercise everyday for the next month.
Then we enjoyed a little parade through the center.
These girls are so cute. One of my favorites from the trip. 
Crazy tambourine guy! 
Then we waited for the grape stomping competition. Basically pro stompers come and press as many grapes as they can by feet and win! It looked like so much fun I told Giovanni I wanted to do it. But apparently you have to be super special. It looked like hard word! They mustve been pressing for 20 minutes or something. 
In the evening while Giovanni and Lisa went to their fancy tasting again, Giovanni's friends and I spent some good quality time together. We went to another tasting that Corrado got us tickets for. It was in a beautiful stone building.
I sampled the red wine with some salami platter. 
The others tried the dessert wine. And if I had known it was going to be presented so fancy, I would've ordered that too!
Apparently the flower inside was soaked in some sort of sweetness. I guessed simple syrup, and they were encouraged to eat the flower...apparently wasn't that bad...Our server was delightful and even brought us some extra tasty treats. Italian people are just so amazing. I love the body language and the use of hands. I've noticed I use my hands a lot more when I'm talking here. 
So on into the night we adventured. My new friends Roberto and Stefania had some great times laughing and teaching each other the other language. Even though we couldn't understand eachother half the time it was still hilarious. I loved their sense of humor. They kept teaching me all the slang/bad words in italian. It was hilarious.
The opener, Bandabardo, go the crowd moving. This great video shows how crazy the place was. The headliner tonight (A band called Rio) was alright...some songs I liked, others I really didn't like at all. And then what was most strangely ironic is that after the concert was over, the background music was "That's amore"...I laughed so hard because that was the last song I expected to hear in Italy. It was just so stereotypical Italy! The second part that was entertaining was a very drunk girl came up to Giovanni and I singing "That's Amore!" very loudly and was pushing us together. I cracked up. Last topper of the night was what I think was a bachelorette party moving through the crowd. Note the phalic balloon near the stage: 
The best part of the night I didn't even photograph....blame my inability to do any night time photography. We all came back to the house around 3 a.m. and since the music was still going, we just grabbed some bottles of wine that were left over from the fancy tasting Giovanni and Lisa were at and grabbed chairs and sat on the patio. The sky was crystal clear and you could see stars forever stretching over the valley. It was quite the sight. We even managed to scrounge up some energy for random patio dancing. My favorite memory from the trip. That's all I need. Good people and beautiful scenery.
