Dining out, NW-style. installment 1.

In rare form, this series of posts will actually be about dining out. It's something I RARELY do in LA, mainly because I'm cheap and think I cook better than restaurants do. But it's vacation, I'm with my girls, and dammit, we're splurging.

First stop: Ashland, OR. Can we say CUTE town? Home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and boutiques filled with greeting cards, kitchen trinkets, handmade jewelry, organic clothing.

On our stroll down the main boulevard, we came across The Enchanted Florist . They had this gorgeous batch of "drinking chocolate" just whirlpooling around in the window.
So, naturally, we had to go inside. m of mno ordered a 4 oz. of tasting of their drinking chocolate.

I may or may not have had a quick taste as well, but the consensus was: freakin' amazingly awesome. So awesome, in fact, that when we went to a bookstore down the street, we semi-joked to the bookkeeper that she could have the rest as we were tossing it (4 oz. of drinking chocolate is just way too rich). She wistfully looked at the cup of chocolate in the trash and really had wished we had told her what it was before tossing it so that she could have the rest. Emphasis: wistfully.

Then it was off to dinner at tease. It's supposed to be all about small plates, but these small plates were quite hefty servings. We had: 1) humbolt fog goat cheese with fig jam, 2) fennel tomato salad (with jalapeno honeyed foccacia), 3) duck confit, and 4) a lamb slider. It was more like two apps and two small entrees. We were stuffed. Oh, and m had a pinot gris (nice and light) and I had a tempranillo from Abacela, a winery we would visit the very next day!

Breakfast the next morning was light and healthy. NOT. (that was my quick ode to Borat) We ate right next to our hotel at highly acclaimed morning glory . Over our morning tea and coffee...

we chose the following menu items: a salmon/potato/dill/cream scramble (emphasis on the cream) with a side of white chedder polenta cakes...


and a bacon waffle. yes, bacon waffle. with the applewood smoked bacon built into the waffle. with walnut butter.



needless to say, breakfast was extremely tasty, but extremely heavy. if you choose to order these items, share amongst a football team and eat only fruit and veggies the rest of the day.

more to come. during next dissertation break. :)

Friend or pho?

I love pho. That broth. That rare sliced beef that cooks ever so gently and tenderly. The fresh basil. The bean sprouts that you put in ASAP so they soften to perfection. The lime. The extra lime, and can I use yours too, actually.

My hands down favorite pho joint on the westside is Le Saigon. I go there when I'm sick, when I'm well, when I'm cold, when I'm warm, when I've just finished a major climbing session, and when I've been sitting in front of my TV for way too long. It's really my go-to meal.

I usually order #3, pho tai. And this place, because it's awesome, has DIY rolls where they give you the rice wrap, sliced meat, veggies, and sauce, and you, well, DIY. It's perfect for the chef in all of us. That's #17, I believe. And they run your order out to your car in the back alley so you don't have to try to park on SM Blvd. And their service is unparalleled by any other Asian restaurant.

The fact that I heart Le Saigon, however, really makes me dislike other pho joints. I shall not name them for fear of taking away even more business in a down economy, but the pho experience elsewhere just does not compare. So when it's Monday and Le Saigon is on hiatus and I've been sitting at the bus stop way too long in my too-thin sweater for 6:30pm and I really just want that steaming hot bowl of pho tai, I begin to curse Le Saigon for making me even consider going to another place.

Damn you and your sriracha too.