Multnomah Falls - Oregon

Did I ever tell you that I'm the worse tour guide ever? As much as I am always always telling my friends and family to come and visit Oregon, I seriously don't know what to do, but eat! My cousin and her husband flew up here back in April from Southern California, and when they asked what is there to do, of course I replied, "eat!" We ad mid-afternoon happy hour, late night happy hour, Seattle's Best coffee in between. Even though we did much eating, there were still some places that where left out (voodoo donuts for their maple bacon donuts, stumptown coffee, or even the salt and pepper squid dish we portlanders tend to rave about). Anyways, back to my point, I'm a bad tour guide, which would mean, I take bad pictures... But I wanted to share them with you anyway =)

We had a few hours before their departure, my cousin's genious husband decided to take a trip out to Troutdale to visit the waterfalls (if you ever came up here, you know I would never have thought to go here) anyway, it was a nice refreshing, and free tourist trap. I should take more people out here if I'm on a budget =P

This is a picture of the area were were standing at, you know with the picture of the nice couple's heads.

I was tricked into walking up the big mountain, and I was tired! So me being the genious that I am when it comes to being lazy, I started snapping pictures. Here is my cousin and her husband walking a long distance from me.

I took a picture of this mossy piece of wood so I could catch my breath.

We got pretty high up, but there was still more walking! so I snapped another picture just so I could stop and take a breath.

We went to another waterfall near by, called Horsetail Falls. My cousin decided to gallop away since galloping seemed to fit the theme.
the end! thanks for visiting!

It's a boy!

The first time I heard "cats are like potato chips, you can't have just one" I didn't believe it. I was able to live without one for the first 24 years of my life, and now, I wonder to myself, what would I do without one? or two... or three!
Our new little baby is named Moo. That was his name when we adopted him, and decided to keep it since it seemed to fit him so well. Anyway, he's the newest addition to the family, and definitely the last! I almost felt overwhelmed having two new kitties within a month, but now I feel so complete and full of love with Moo.

Welcome aboard MooMoo Kitty.... can you see his handsome chesthair?
He has a short stubby body, compared to G and B, theirs is long and skinny... well B at least.

The brothers bonded so well after 2 days!ok, so it's rude to take pictures of kitties going to the bathroom, but I couldn't help it, G was having a hiss-y fit with the new one, she wouldn't stay in the same room as him. So as soon as I caught them within a foot of each other, I just had to take a picture. P.S. don't make fun of my bathroom.
G wasn't very happy that there's another male in the home, but after one week, she finally accepted him (she really doesn't have a choice, does she!) Every once in awhile she will hiss at him, but its probably because she forgets she has another brother!

We bought this three-story cat condo when we only had G and B, and joked all the time that we needed a third head to fill the condo. Now that we have a third head, G won't stay in her hole! That's ok.... maybe in the future.

my, how time flies...

Many many apologies for not being up to date! I'm still eating, still cooking, just haven't been taking pictures! We finally fixed the laptop, and I finally found my camera... so hopefully I will be able to post up more pictures in the future! Until then, I leave you with pictures of my kids. The pictures are a bit old (maybe a month old!) the babies are a little bigger, but they are still just as cute and cuddley! Until then, enjoy!

Their nap time is my favorite time of the day... we nap together!

"The boy" likes to cuddle... he just can'd thelp it. If he can't cuddle with us, he can surely turn to "the girl", which takes up all her space!"the girl" after her bath. can you tell how mad she is??

Simple ol' hot dog

My hot dog isn't as over-whelming as you think. I love layers of flavors, so eating a hot dog with plain ketchup wouldn't do me justice. Try it, you'll see.

Mr. G loves the way I cook a hotdog. There's nothing fancy, just an extra step. First I boil them then pan grill it with olive oil. I love the way the skin on a sausage or hot dog snaps when you take that first bite, as well as the moist juiciness from a boiled dog. I also like to toast my bun, or at least keep it warm so that the cheese melts. Could you imagine how complicated I must be when I eat out? I'm really not, I swear.


toppings of choice: American cheese, relish, ketchup, dijon mustard, and rooster sauce.
This is just a snack for me =)

Udon

The same week that we came back, it started to hail, but I say it's snowing cuzz I'm not used to being around snow, so it sounds cool to me when I say "it's snowing". So being one of those cold nights where we didn't feel like going out, I was forced to throw together something for dinner andI didn't feel like cooking up a storm. Do you ever have those days where you carelessly throw things together and it turns out pretty good, while other days you want dinner to be so perfect, it just ends up being a big disaster? I hate that, so I learned to throw things together and just pray it turns out ok.

It hailed pretty hard while we were trekking around Hillsboro, so we pulled over to take a picture as if we were tourists or something.
Delicious, warm, yum.

In-N-Out

When In-N-Out was down the street from my parent's house I loved making midnight trips for animal style fries and grilled cheeses. I especially loved ordering things not listed on the menu, just because I made me feel like I had a personal relationship with the burger joint. You know, it's like someone telling you a secret about themselves, and I makes you feel that much more important to them. However, I didn't think In-N-Out would be something I missed while living in Beaverton, since there's Burgerville, a local Pacific Northwest burger chain that many have sworn by, but I think it's because they've never had In-N-Out =)

Grilled cheese with extra cheese and onions.
Cheeseburger, animal style, w/o fresh cut onions
Fresh, hand cut fried potatoes. I love this because my genius brother ordered them "fries light" meaning they are taken out of the fryer earlier than normal, making them soft and squishy and delicious. Except that one over cooked fry... he's a stow-away fry that I had to punish first.
In-N-Out Burger
3001 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, California 95054

From The Bay to...

Beaverton, Oregon?

We made plans to fly down to the South Bay and take a nice 12-hour drive back up to Beaverton, Oregon. Normally I dread long drives. It's long, it's boring, and I get tired of staring at the slow driver in the left lane who really should be on the right but for some reason many road trippers don't understand the rules of the road. So I planned out this long trip to keep me occupied in order to make time fly... with food of course.

One thing I miss about my childhood was the big family vacations we used to take. I don't know how my family was able to take so many trips with the amount of people in my family, since I have a hard time planning trips with my two bestest. It seemed like we were always taking family trip, consisting for at least four cars full of people, some cars even having the kids sit on other parents laps. Ok maybe it was just my parents car that ended up having to "lap it" but that was the fun part. Anyway, before starting our car trips anywhere (including trips to Sacramento) we always always made a pit stop to a Vietnamese Sandwich shop on 4th street in Downtown San Jose. I don't remember the name of the place, since it closed down, the only thing I could tell you is that it is located next to a tuoc bac (Chinese Medicine) shop which I dreaded smelling as a child, but have grown to accept as an adult. I keep going off track, but my point is that we would order at least ten sandwiches, per car. So that's about forty sandwiches total, hey we're hungry people. Ok maybe the parents ended up ordering more, maybe they ordered less, but all I could say was, those sandwiches made the car trips that much better.

So me being the genius that I am, every time I made a trip out to Los Angeles (it's a six hour drive for those who don't have a clue how big California is) I would make a pit stop to Huong Lan in San Jose, CA. My plan was to buy ten sandwiches for our long 12-hour road trip, but for some reason I didn't want Mr. G to judge me, so I settled for five sandwiches. The 25-minute detour South to Huong Lan was well worth every mile, because their sandwiches are so gosh darn delicious, I really can't explain. I cherished each and every single one of those sandwiches, and I miss them dearly.

I've tried four Vietnamese sandwich shops in Portland/Beaverton, yet none had ever hit the spot for me... I've been left sad and unsatisfied.

How could you compare this big hunk of San Jose love... (this one is banh mi thit nguoi or #1)


to this Portland thing they call a sandwich? The coke filled me up more than that sandwich did.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy living in Beaverton, I really do. Living up here has taught me to appreciate what I left back in San Jose, and I left A LOT, which includes family, friends, childhood memories, and of course... food!

Anyway, besides my five Vietnamese sandwiches and two cafe sua da (Vietnamese coffee) I wanted more road snacks, so I grabbed whatever was next to the register, Vietnamese-style beef jerky. Buying jerky worked out well because Mr. G wouldn't judge me and tell me I'm buying too much food (although we were grateful we had an extra sandwich to enjoy by the time we got home). Vietnamese jerky is my absolute favorite jerky. It's slightly spicy, slightly sweet, slightly savory. Mr G admits the jerky is addicting, actually he feels it's very addicting. The poor guy has been deprived from delicious food, good thing he found me so I could show him the way to eating.
There wasn't much excitement with the road trip, besides stopping by the casino and walking out with an extra $15, stopping by the border to smell the fresh crisp clean air, and having a talking fest with Mr. G. I figured since he drove the whole way, I should sit and entertain him with great conversations and singing horribly just to keep him awake.. plus I had two Vietnamese coffees, I was shaking like a leaf, i had to let out my jitters some how!

Right when we got on to I-5, somewhere in Lathrop, CA I saw this truck, and I admire it... it's ART.
Of course we also had to stop by Weed, CA to take a picture and fill up my own gas (it's illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon)


The drive wasn't so bad, it was actually quite scenic. Welcome back to Oregon, my readers.

Chavez Taqueria - Sunnyvale, California

If you're not familiar with Fair Oaks Avenue, or if you've never been to this taqueria, you probably won't find it. Why? Because it's located inside Chavez Supermarket. As you enter the market you smell baked goods to your left, while the smell of fresh raw meat mixed with a taqueria smell lingers throughout the market. When I step into the market I make a beeline past the registers, through the fruit and vegetable section, finding myself staring at the refrigerated section while waiting to make my order. I apologize for not taking pictures of the menu, I rarely look at the menu since I already know what I want.

From fresh carne asada to chivo (goat) to caramones (shrimp) they also offer menudo on the weekends.
I haven't found a taqueria where I could watch the artistic burrito assemblers assemble my burrito, kind of like subway, but for burritos.

They chop your meat in front of you, if any chopping is neccessary.
I request for extras and omit what I don't like (which is pretty much nothing)
I always order the carne asada super burrito, super because guacamole and cheese is necessary when consuming a cow while my other orders a chile verde (stewed pork) regular burrito (minus the guacamole and cheese). Since I'm on a "diet" I asked my Lambchops to share half the carne asada super burrito with me (plus it wouldn't be lady-like for me to eat a whole burrito on my own). Actually, at one point of my relationship with Mr. G, we couldn't share a burrito, because it is that good. Those burritos have caught up with me throughout the years, it's time I went back to sharing.


I think the guy knew I was a food paparazzi, who else would recieve their burrito in this special bag?
I had the burrito artist cut my burrito in half. Could you share something this disgustingly good?
I couldn't, but I had to.

A giant steamed flour tortilla filled with rice, lots of meat, pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, onions and cilantro.

his chile verde burrito
Chavez Supermarket

666 N Fairoaks Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

(408) 736-3793
www.chavezsuper.com