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.