Epic Birthday Food Crawl with the Educator GF's - First Stop, 85c!

The hat says it all....

Even though my birthday was over two weeks ago, ha ha! That didn't stop me from stretching out the weekends in April to be fun filled culinary adventures....

My very dear friends, the Educator GF's (D, KD and TORC) told me they would be taking me on a food crawl. I assumed it would be in San Diego, but was told Friday afternoon to be ready to leave my house at 8 am! Wut?

Day 3 - On our way to Astoria

Did you think I forgot my Oregon posts?

Of course I didn't. I don't forget anything! Especially grudges, but I digress.

April was a busy month with my birfday and all...hyuk hyuk

I'll be doing those posts as well as these here Oregon posts until they're oozing out of my pores like pus from a gangrenous sore.

With that lovely image in mind, let's hit the road Jack and onto the Fremont Bridge!

El Ranchero Dulceria and return to Teresita's

I'm glad that CAB didn't mind my meandering driving skills that day. The sun decided to hide behind the clouds. Since we walked away empty handed from Northgate, I thought we could go to the sweet shop in the Palm Plaza strip mall.

The dulceria is also owned by El Ranchero, a taco shop known for their birria and barbacoa (one of three locations)....

The search for jamoncillo...plus Kababayan and Oasis!

Update - Kababayan Market closed as of 1/2014 and relocated to Spring Valley

Our next stop was Northgate Market on Coronado Avenue. This is beneath the shadow of The Wing, a South Bay Landmark....

There was some sort of event happening with food being grilled outside and a booth where you could kick  soccer ball to get a prize...

Well, let's see if they had what I wanted...

Pozoleria Dona Maria

Immediately after our first taste at Asi es Jalisco, we drove down Broadway to another nondescript strip mall for this...


Pozole....

25 Forty Bistro and yes, Big Joy again!

[Update - 24 Forty Bistro closed as of June 2013]

Since we were childfree today courtesy of TC's friend who was hosting a bday party slash sleepover, we decided to  make it a dinner date later on as well!

It was time to pay 25Forty Bistro another visit! Plus, I had my good old paper friend, the coupon!

Harvest Ranch Market

Before we headed upstairs, we thought we'd kill some time (we had two hours of free parking and had about 45 minutes left)....

Not to be a hater but lots of overpriced shops here I tell you, but what do you expect, it's on the ritzier side of town. We were able to walk off some of our calories before heading back to pick out a dessert or two...

Del Mar Rendezvous

This past weekend was a rare TC-less lunch date with Bert...

Since my birthday celebration has been practically stretched out over every weekend, I figured, why not not advantage of this offer...

We are hardly ever in this area so we wanted to check it out...

Aqui es...no....Asi es...

This past weekend, I met up with a few SD foodbloggers, C of CAB Cooks, Dennis of Radiused Corner, and the duo known as Kirbie and her FH of Kirbie's Cravings.  We wanted to do a mini foodcrawl of Chula Vista.

Our first stop was Aqui es Texcoco. I wanted to try lamb for the first time without gagging.

Well, that will have to wait for another visit because the restaurant was packed  and it wasn't even 11 am yet. What kind of sucked was no one was checking the "list" where you write your name and # of your party. So....

ABC Humpday Music Videos 2.0 - "P" is for

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot about this week's post!

I was getting too excited slamming out my Day 2 Oregon trip posts.

Well, once again, another song and another band from my favorite decade.

Here's a clue:

Cartopia

All that hiking at Mount Tabor and horsing around on the monkey bars and see saws made us hungry.

No, we did not go to Burgerville (this is the Hawthorne location) although we did go here three years ago.

Back in 2009, I vaguely remember seeing the Potato Champion cart. It was the only one (or maybe one of two or three) that was there. It stood out to me because it had trees, mountains, and a squirrel painted on it.

I thought this flyer was funny, the "Geek Olympathon"! That should be interesting. Seeing all of these wooden telephone poles plastered with flyers reminded me of a sketch in "Portlandia" where unseen people are angrily stapling over each other's flyers.

That episode was called "Flyer Wars"...

Cartlandia

The other night when we were with KDB, we passed by this food pod, located on SE 82nd.  We made a mental note to check it out...

It was a Sunday and we learned that most food carts and food pods aren't really open, but we wanted to try our luck...

Mt. Tabor Park

After reading about this city park and knowing that Mount Tabor was once an extinct cinder cone volcano within city limits (there are only two other places like this in the U.S. and the other location was also in Oregon). We knew we had to go here...

We parked at the Yamhill entrance. There are several ways to get up to the park.

Ooh, look at that address! The number of the Beast (with an extra 6)...Cue the music from "Carmina Burana" here!

An Xuyen Bakery

Our day was going by pretty quickly. After enjoying our awesome Vietnamese soups at Ha &VL and then jamming our asses over to catch the earliest show of "The Hunger Games", we decided to get a quick snack before going to a local park...

I read about this place prior to our trip so I wanted to make sure we made a quick stop...

A movie and signs from the SE

It was cool watching "The Hunger Games" during it's first weekend (it would remain the #1 movie for four straight weeks)...

We saw it a few blocks away, also on SE 82nd at the Century Eastport Mall.

I won't get into a full on movie review here, but we all felt the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book. Great costumes in the Capitol. Lenny Kravitz in gold eyeliner. Interviewer Caesar Flickerman and so on.  The violence of course, was toned down. This was a PG-13 movie after all. I still think they could have made Peeta's unrequited love for Katniss more convincing. Because of that, their chemistry was lacking. I wasn't too keen on the hand held camera work.  It was too shaky for my tastes and too "Blair Witch". Bring some dramamine. About the movie previews, I can't wait to see the film version of the book I'm trying to finish, "Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter"! It looks so bad ass! Plus it's produced (not directed though) by Tim Burton! Bert of course, was salivating over the upcoming "The Avengers" and TC found the trailer for "ParaNorman" quite funny (can't wait to see that as well)!

Team Katniss!

Day 2 - Ha & VL

Aah, our second day in PDX and we were greeted with the gray skies and drizzle.

We made sure to get up early to we could get some soup before they ran out...

Nordstrom Habits Chocolates

Last week, the Sexy Nurse (SN) gave me a box of these chocolates from Nordstrom.

Ooh, I liked the presentation. It had an elastic band with a tortoiseshell button...

Return to Red Robin

Last weekend, I used my "free birthday burger" deal from Red Robin.

I haven't been here since last year...

Prior to this,we watched "The Wrath of the Titans" (the sequel to the equally bad "Clash of the Titans")at the same mall.  OMG, talk about a complete and utter bore! I literally fell asleep during the movie. Thank goodness we used a free ticket and didn't actually pay for this abomination. Well, Bert and TC liked the movie, but I ended up taking a nap during the flick...

Tani's and Fred Meyer

KDB wasn't sure if we wanted to have dinner downtown but I nixed that idea because I wasn't too keen on being where all the tourists were. We'd already been there and done that three years ago. Instead, I asked him if he would recommend a place near him...

After haggling over different types of cuisines, we settled on Japanese so he recommended this place, just a few blocks from where he lives in the Woodstock neighborhood in SE Portland.

World's Tallest Totem Pole

Did you know that Poker Pete's supplied the pizza to the Twilight film crew when they first filmed the movie back in early Spring 2008?

Well, they did...Man, this is reallya small town...

As mentioned earlier, the town was named after John Kalama, a native born Hawaiian who set out for the Pacific Northwest for a very different life from the islands.  Before we went to our next destination, we thought we'd stop by City Hall and ask for directions...

Birthday treats at Big Joy...

It just occured to me that I should finish my bday dinner post...

Happy Happy Joy Joy Big Joy Family Bakery was our dessert stop for the night...

Kalama HS (aka Forks HS in "Twilight")

After our unhealthy snacks at Pop Culture and our little foray at Fort Vancouver, we made a stop in the little town ofKalama (named after Hawaiian born John Kalama; read more about him here)...

I felt compelled to check it out since we were conveniently "in the area"...

ABC Humpday Music Videos 2.0 - "O" is for

Have I gone mental?

Could this post really be...

about a boy band?

I must live in a cave, but apprently the tweens really like this group. I hesitate to say "band" since they don't really play any instruments. I don't even think they write their own music. I don't think any musical group should be a "band" unless they can do both of those things...Grrr!

My nephews have made fun of this group with an unsavoury joke that I won't repeat here.

Let's cut to the chase now, shall we?

Restaurant at the Pearl

After my somewhat lackluster lunch at Valentino's (albeit with good company), we headed out to Point Loma for my birthday dinner at a swankified older hotel turned retro boutique chic...

Despite the heavy downpour on our way there, we managed to find a parking spot close by. It also helped that we went waaay early. They don't take reservations here unless you have a party of six or more. It was just us three that evening...

Return to Valentino's

A few days ago the co-workers and I went to Valentino's Lounge...

MFH was also there to join us...

Return to Benihana's

One year later...we're back!

Insert gong sound here...

Return to Daphne's

Waka waka waka....

Or shall I say, "Pac Man Fever" (horrible song that was)?

Birthday Cake 2012

My birthday celebration with my family wouldn't be complete unless I had a cake by my favorite baker and local SD Foodblogger, the wonderful and talented Jenny of Jenny Wenny Cakes...

I wanted something different this year...

Happy Birthday Mixtape from the vaults...

While looking for my "Stand by Me" dvd in our media cabinet (I ended up not finding it), I came across a mixtape that N made for my birthday. Well now...would you take a look at that relic!

This tape was made...

...in 1988!

Before we see the playlist, let's cut first to a rollicking number from the animated version of the Ramones (via a 'Simpsons' episode)! Just substitute the name "Mr. Burns" with "Canine Cologne"!

"Have the Rolling Stones killed!"

Jersey Joe's Pizzeria

Last week Bert, TC and I had the honor of having dinner with the Dynamic Duo.,..

Otherwise known as Darlene and Paul!

Dinner was at North Park's Jersey Joe's Pizzeria...

ABC Humpday Music Videos 2.0 - "N" is for...

Taking a cue from my previous "N" post...I chose on of my "runner ups":

Of course, this song is from my favorite decade...

Pop Culture

Sorry to say it, but Fort Vancouver was a bit unexciting.

We needed a shot of something less staid...

Something more attuned to the geeky masses...

Return to the Strawberry Fields

Has it been nearly a year since the fields were in business?

Why yes it has...
 
If you are so inclined, drive your asses over to south Chula Vista for some awesome strawberries while they're still in season!

April Skies

I love the month of April...

Spring is in the air, our tree in our front yard is starting to blossom, I can start wearing my sleeveless blouses and shirts again and get rid of my pasty farmer tan (just kidding, I don't have one of those). Oh, and it's my birthday month too! Well, yippy ki-yay cowboys and cowgals.

N was kind enough to send me something from NYC...

In case you're wondering, it wasn't a purse. It was brightly colored striped notepads and a book bag from the Strand bookstore (kinda of like Powell's but way bigger and for RPattz trivia, it's the bookstore he works at in the movie, "Remember Me". Yes, I'm Robsessed.).

I also got my free birthday gift from Sephora (below on the left), plus $15 off from Banana Republic, Ann Taylor and free birthday meals from Rubio's, Daphne's, the Pearl restaurant, Red Robin, and Benihana. Yes, I did some pre-birthday retail therapy. May as well take advantage if I have all these discounts right? 

How am I going to fit in all these restaurants visits? So many places, so little time.

I can't wait to open the black bow topped gift and the pink box (from Darlene), but I'll wait until it's my real bday to open it up...

Haha, when I see the "sugar kisses" on that box, I'm reminded of Echo and the Bunnymen's song, "Lips Like Sugar". Wonder if they got that idea from that?

Well, time to live it up this month right? You can only be, uh, 29 for so long! Har!

Nordstrom Cafe

Last week I had the pleasure of having lunch with Kirbie. I wanted to give her a tube of macarons I picked up at Pix Patisserie (the N. Williams street  location)...
 
I hadn't been downtown in ages...

I remember when this mall was new in 1985. Downtown wasn't as gentrified then and you still had lots of tittie bars, strip joints, Adult bookstores, and such. The Gaslamp wasn't all nice and shiny and tourist friendly back then...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

This year, Bert and TC did the decorating honors...

They had fun using string and rubber bands...

Seafood Friday - Week 7, Part 2 - Mariscos Hector's (West Chula Vista location)

Bert drove down too far on Industrial so we had to double back up Broadway...

If you see the Goodwill sign, then you are in the right place...