Yay for Yelp!

Yay for Yelp! Xang and I are celebrating his birthday in Hood River this weekend. We took our time heading over here, and moseyed our way through the town. There’s not a lot to do when you have a toddler, but it’s a nice, relaxing place that’s not too far to drive for an overnight. I decided to consult Yelp for dinner recommendations and came across Hood River Taqueria. The reviews were mostly favorable, so we decided to give it a try.

It’s your pretty basic hole in the wall joint. But I figured it was a good sign that most of the menu was in Spanish first, then translated into English. After looking at the standard burritos, enchiladas, etc., I opted for the Shrimp with Garlic sauce (that was actually in Spanish, but I can’t remember what it was). And wow oh wow.



The plate arrived and I have to confess that I don’t really think that Mexican food rates all that high when it comes to presentation. But I also readily admit that looks can be deceiving. And - in this case – they can be very, very deceiving. I was pleasantly surprised to see about a dozen medium-sized shrimp floating around in the garlic sauce with some onions (I say pleasantly surprised because often times when I order shrimp plates like these, they arrive with 5-6 shrimp and lots of other filler stuff.). Refried beans and Mexican rice finished off the plate.

Anxious to taste how garlicky the garlic sauce was, I took a taste. I’m not kidding when I say that stuff *exploded* on my taste buds. San Francisco’s The Stinking Rose immediately came to mind. I sighed in delight, then promptly apologized in advance to my family for smelling up the car on the ride home. This was *seriously*good* garlic sauce. And we all know that means it will be emitting from your pores for a couple days. This is not garlic sauce for the weak.

(And as a side note, I was super happy to see my shrimp-loving Sydney eat a couple sauce-covered shrimp. That’s my garlic girl!)

I’m not sure what Mexican dining etiquette calls for, but I used my tortillas to sop up as much garlic sauce as I could. I.could.not.let.any.of.it.go.to.waste. Xang even took the onions I wasn’t eating and mixed them up with some leftover shredded beef from Sydney’s flautas and was super happy.

A great dining experience recommended by Yelp. I said it once and I’ll say it again – yay for Yelp!

Amy's Cheese Pizza

How to eat an Amy's Cheese Pizza:

First, eat all the cheese off your slice...



Then, eat the crust.


This is one nice pizza. It's Emi-chan's, and mine, favorite frozen pizza. It doesn't tast frozen at all. The crust bakes up nice and crisp, but the inside is nice and chewy. They don't pour on overly sweet sauce on the crust. Too bad the company only makes vegetarian and vegan products. I guess you can pile on pepperoni and stuff on your own.

Chocolate Covered Bacon

On Sunday we went to the Oregon Coast. Seaside is a cute little resort town with lots of boutiques and shops near the beach. Like a lot of coastal towns, there are more flavors of salt water taffy than you knew existed and fun candy stores with vintage goodies to reminisce. One particular store also had some "adventurous" items to check out, too. Deep fried Oreos, Deep fried Twinkies, and chocolate covered bacon. Yes, that's right. Chocolate covered bacon. In the mindset of a Food Tourist, I actually tried one. It was...interesting, to say the least. The saltiness of the bacon balanced out the sweetness of the chocolate. But after the chocolate was gone, you were left with some chewy bacon. I'm not sure that I'd try it again, but am glad that I did. My curiosity was definitely satisfied! Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the bacon =(

There’s not much more of a Portland original than Voo Doo Doughnuts. The mural across the street said it all: Keep Portland Weird. I stood in line for a half hour with every walk of Portland life: teens texting on their cell phones, Leave it to Beaver-type families talking about the Doughnut Nazi, and a couple of homeless people trying to earn money by selling their cardboard sign (well, they weren’t actually in line for doughnuts, but they were hanging out in the doorway of the night club next door) waiting for my turn to try a Bacon Maple Bar, Voo Doo’s famous doughnut.



When I finally made it inside the door, I was surprised at how small the counter and waiting area was. Walking into the bakery, the huge doughnut with pink frosting and sprinkles worthy of Homer Simpson nearly overwhelms the voo doo decorations. Luckily (?) there is a wall of obituaries of famous people to take your mind off the number of carbs that are probably in said doughnut. It wasn’t clear if the people died from eating so many doughnuts though…

Chalk-written signs above the counter list the donuts Voo Doo is famous for: Grape Ape, Mango Tango, Dirt Doughnut, doughnuts made with Devil’s Food Cake with various frostings (like Neopolitan, Butterfinger, and Dirty Snowball), and a few others not appropriate for this family-friendly blog. Another sign lists their Vegan Doughnuts, right next to the display of Voo Doo Doughnuts Underwear you can buy.

When I reached the counter, I was told the glass case displayed the doughnuts they actually had available. I was pretty bummed to learn they were out of the Bacon Maple Bars – the doughnut that made them famous. But I quickly got over it and had the girl behind the counter start a box for me. I had strict instructions from hubby to order a lot. After all, I was waiting all this time, right? With the pressure of the 30 some-odd people in line behind me and my growling stomach, I started pointing my finger and ordering doughnuts like a drug addict at a free tasting party: that one with the Fruit Loops on top, that one with the Butterfinger on top, what’s that one that looks like a foot with red sprinkles? I’ll take it, and that one over there with the chocolate and peanut butter and Rice Krispies on top. What else should I not miss? The Blueberry Muffin one? ‘k. And I’ll take the one with the Oreo Cookies and peanut butter on top. Phew! In the end, I’m not even sure how many I brought home, but it was definitely enough to satisfy everyone’s curiosity, and then some.





And the verdict? Wow. While I don’t think I could say these are the best quality doughnuts I’ve ever had (although, I’m not sure that I am such a doughnut connoisseur that I would know what that was?), I can say they didn’t leave the top of my mouth with that tell-tale greasy feeling (which I despise). And I can say those were some of the most unique combinations I’ve ever had. I was surprised at how much I liked the Tangfantastic – plain cake doughnut with Tang-flavored frosting (yup, the stuff the astronauts drank) and the Blueberry Muffin Doughnut (recommended by the girl behind the counter) did not disappoint.


A few of the doughnuts we brought home. What you see really is what it is: Oreo cookies, peanut butter, Rice Krispies, and marshmallows.

Was it worth the half hour wait? Yes, I would say so. It was fun to try all the different flavors and my curiosity has been piqued to try the others I didn’t get to try, especially the Bacon Maple Bar. I do think Voo Doo Doughnuts is a taste of Portland that is truly unique (no pun intended) and an interesting place to bring friends and family. Because really, where else can you find a Marshall Mathews doughnut? Good thing they’re open 24 hours so I can go find out what it is.

Sweet Breams

I don't know how, but I forgot to post about my little trip to Sweet Breams in San Mateo right before Christmas. It's a cute little shop that makes and serves chibi (mini) taiyaki (fish-shaped pancake). Although I think it's a little over priced, it's one of my favorite shops. The taiyaki are so tiny and cute. The store is tiny and cute. The boxes they pack the chibi tai are tiny and cute.

Cute little box with a warning

A single taiyaki

A school of taiyaki

What makes the taiyaki special, not only because they are tiny and cute, they're filled with different flavors. They have the standard azuki (red bean), plus nutella, vanilla, and chocolate custard, plus flavors of the week. When I went, the special was cranberry oatmeal. It was okay. I'm a traditionalist, so I really enjoyed the azuki. The chocolate and vanilla were really good, too. Unfortunately, the chibi taiyaki were soggy by the time I got home.

What is this world coming to!?

Saw this at the grocery store the other day. I know that by contributing to this blog, it implies that the writers have an adventurous spirit in relation to food, but, really. Seriously?



For those having a hard time figuring out what this is, it's a chocolate and strawberry tofu-like soy product. I didn't have the guts to buy/try it, so I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I know that we're supposed to be eating healthy and all, but...seriously?

Curry House

After a trip to the Tech museum, some friends suggested we go to Curry House in Cupertino. they serve Japanese-style curry, which is very different from Indian or Thai curries.

We didn't know what to expect, but our friends raved about the food and loved the fact it was very family friendly, so we said, "Okay!" Plus, I LOVE curry so it was a real treat.


I had their curry rice set, which had corn potage, rice, green salad, deep fried shrimp, and chicken curry. It wasn't as spicy as I would like it, but the set was still yummy and very filling.


Rick had the seafood gratin with curry rice. This was really good. I'm not a seafood person, but this was awesome.

We ordered a kid's meal for Emi-chan, but she refused to eat it. Too bad, because it was a very nice spaghetti dinner. What was really nice is that all the children received a little toy. that was a very nice touch.