I have heard and am experiencing first hand the food/restaurant utopia of Portland. Friday night Liz and I headed to Montage a place that has come highly recommended by my Macaroni and Cheese expert SEF and some others. The place was packed....we enjoyed some great cocktails in the lounge before getting our table which was a place on a long...community-style setting where you are eating elbow to elbow with a complete stranger. Then, after stuffing my face with mac and cheese...this willowy gal with dread locks (my guess is her former life was a dancer at a Dead show) swept in to take my leftovers and returned with a aluminum-foiled scorpion (Liz got a crab). Only in Portlandia! We then headed back towards my house and I found a great bar called Circa 33, where they had an exceptional bourbon list and fantastic garlic fries!
Saturday night after a long day of unpacking, an IKEA stop (aka a trip to Hell), a 3 mile run and a Zuzana workout....Liz and I headed to PokPok. A once food cart turned into restaurant...tent style. Only in Portlandia! The thing about Portland is, I feel like there is some sort of code that I haven't learned yet, it takes me back to a mindset similar to how I constantly felt in junior high/high school where you never want to be perceived as not knowing what to do. Our initial encounter with PokPok brought up that anxiety...it could have also been the Hangries I was experiencing at the time BUT it goes like this: you go in an check in with the hostess at PokPok...then you cross the street over to the Whiskey Soda Lounge where you give your server your piece of paper. Now you are free to order drinks and appetizers...when your table is ready at PokPok...they "communicate" with the WSL people and you walk back across the street to eat. Thankfully some kind Portlandians directed us...which relieved a small portion of my social anxiety, Only in Portlandia! Then we sat down to eat... we soon discovered that PokPok is not your run-of-the-mill Thai place (read: no phad thai, drunken noodles, etc...), finding ourselves looking around at our neighbor's food (again, close quarters)... when a very friendly young lady asks "have you ever eaten here?"..."no" we replied, "but hear it's amazing". She then proceeded to get the entire table involved in giving us suggestions of what to order. After Liz and I looked at each other saying silently, "why is she talking to us? is this for real?! are people really that nice here?" Only in Portlandia! Now I was feeling confident and ordered for Liz and I, they have some of the best chicken wings I've ever put in my mouth and an incredible curry soup. When our neighbors got up to leave, we felt obligated to 'gain closure' and eagerly, waved goodbye to our young friends...so much to learn, and such a far cry from Seattle.
All in all it was a great weekend. I will admit to a few moments of being extremely overwhelmed and wanting to lie down on the floor when Liz was gently forcing me to unpack the rest of my boxes and to get organized. This is not one of my strengths and I am well aware of this...although I am fine helping others organize their stuff, but that's pretty common right? A lot of dialogue from the weekend went like this:
Liz: "Wha, What is this?"
Me: "What? Oh...that's one my box of letters that I've received over the years"
Liz: "Do you go back and read them"
Me: "No, but that's not the point, I heart letters and cannot throw them out"
Liz: "K, there is just a lot of stuff here, are you sure you want to keep them? Seriously?"
Me: sweaty palmed and tachycardiac, "YES, they are important to me! ga gow!!!"
Liz: shaking her head..."ooookaaay".
I heart your face LP!!!
Entering my first full week of seeing patients...as many of my friends say, "try not to shit yourself Haws!"...one day at a time.
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