Aaron and I took a trip back to Portland for a very special wedding and important re-relocation fact finding. What’s funny is that when we lived in Portland 6 years ago we were flat broke, living in a trailer on 82nd Avenue and eating Hamburger Helper like it was a delicacy so whenever we return for a visit we immediately return to a cash poor mindset. I wonder if I’ll ever have the courage to really pay homage to all the awesome PDX restaurants that I read about? For now I am content to keep it cheap and simple while dreaming of the CSA boxes in my near future.

First stop, the food carts.  We went looking for the Perogie Lady who is a cornerstone and landmark of my first impoverished summer with Aaron.  Where is she?!?  We settled on the highly regarded “Tabor” cart. I spent several months is Prague several years ago and I never saw a ciabatta “snitzelwich”. This was great, will eat again.

 Aaron and I have an unspoken deal, when we travel together I will tag along with him to countless thrift stores if he will accompany me when I visit a locally run coffee shop.  We spent several hours combing through various stores and Aaron finally found a second hand goretex jacket, later that morning I finally found a bread pudding muffin. 

The wedding was lovely. Aaron’s mother was beautiful and happy, mission accomplished. The cake looked great, but I didn’t try any. . .I have no idea why.  The morning after the wedding we headed to Seaside, a sleepy beach town where James Beard spent is summers as a child. I was thrilled to see this place and even more thrilled to experience a staple of Aaron’s summers in Seaside, the Pig and Pancake Diner. 

We took the afternoon to walk off the breakfast and wedding stress on the beach.

I met Aaron’s Aunt Peggy on our last night in town.  We drove to her house outside of Portland and I discovered that Aaron did not, in fact, sprout full grown out from the muddy banks of the Columbia River.  He has RELATIVES y’all. Living, breathing, kin’ folk!  Aunt Peggy has a calendar for Sunday suppers.  Everyone knows when they will happen and everyone shows up. There is a large television in the living room, a fridge filled with soda, and Uncle Doug’s wolf prowls the backyard. There are a ton of similarities between what I’ve come to know as Southern “country cooking” and what Aunt Peggy calls NorthWestern “farm cooking”. Both are hearty, feature seasonal and local produce, and involve dairy and pork the majority of the time.  Aunt Peggy placed four huge pats of margarine on the fresh green beans. Ha. Not only in the South.

Cafe Car on the way to D.C. to see Aaron’s family. I love traveling by train. For $6.00 we purchased the GoPicnic snack box. Organic ingredients, allergy sensitive selections and a little red checkered napkin for effect.  Aaron and I abstain from fast food on the principle that it is mass produced for over comsumption.  Also, I don’t like to eat from boxes but we made an exception for this picnic box and gleefully riped through the contents like a 5 year old with a Hapy Meal. Fun times.

Cinnamon pita chips, a jar of no sugar added blackberry jam, lavash, soy nut butter, baby food mango applesause, an ounce of Swiss cheese and an EmergenC. Not bad for $6.00 and two hours of snacking food.

I also enjoyed seeing. . .

Two beautiful items at the USDA farmer’s market, these apples were impressive and a welcome sight after ascending from the Smithsonian Metro stop.

A **glaring** ginseng culture at the Museum of Natural History.  This was located in the Korean culture exhibit. 30 square feet of inspiring Korean carpentry and folk art. I only wish the exhibit were larger.

I took this picture for my Mom!

My kindred soldiers who are busy bickering in the Hirshhorne sculpture garden for all eternity. LOVE THEM!

NEXT UP: Watching Anna throw pizza!

Last night I bolted out of bed at 4:00 AM after having a night-terror that my boyfriend of 6 years was cheating on me with two of his coworkers. I don’t think that this strange idea has any basis in reality, but just in case here are some more pictures from the trip Aaron and I took to San Francisco.  I’d rather post them all before the anvil falls then annoy my faithful readers with nostalgic tales after the fact.  I suppose that in this case if I were to post these “after the fact” I would say something like, “Can you believe that creep and I had such a great time in San Fran?  Just look at all the great food I experienced with that jerk! Who wants to read my 500th post about Evan Williams whiskey?!”

No really.  Aaron and I had an amazing time in San Francisco. . .

 Hog Island Oyster Company is located in the Ferry Building Market Place.  This is the same building that transforms in to a crucial Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning.  Aaron and I walked to this place from Union Square in a feeble attempt to satiate my need for oysters.  We had to wait a while for a table because it was 5 o’clock on a Friday but Aaron and I are very patient people so we put our secret reservation name on a water-stained piece of notebook paper and spent the next  25 minutes making fun of all the people who are infinitely less patient then us!

I ordered the Oyster Bar Mix.  A dozen raw lovelies, two from each place on the menu. I also ordered a excellent glass of KAVA, but I don’t remember what kind because I am an unorganized food blogger and until very recently I wrote dining notes on the backs of business cards!

The bread basket was spot on.  The plate was warm the bread was slightly chewy but not too much.

Hog Island Oyster Heaven!

I really enjoyed the Hog Island Sweetwaters and later this same week I drank a beer brewed with them. Amazing!

Aaron ordered the clam chowder and a beer because he is a simple man with very refined tastes (ahem, frugal) AND he is pretty much obsessed with any kind of chowder.

This was a great choice.  As you can see in the first picture we were seated at the bar directly in front of the oyster shuker, he was very fast! To the right of the shucking station was a small gas stove and the cook started with the cream base, let it bubble until it almost escaped the pan and then threw in the clams.  Yum.

This dinner was great.  We were both slightly sun burned from walking around the city and I just remember looking at Aaron’s happy red face and feeling really loved, and well fed.