Welcome to the Goondocks!

After enjoying the sights of the toppermost of the poppermost point of town, we ended up eating our homepacked lunch in the glamorous confines of our rental car...

We also made paid a visit to the very cool Oregon Film Museum and spent some quality time there before heading back out to make a pop culture pilgrimage to one of Astoria's most famous homes...

The Goonies Jail, I mean, Oregon Film Museum

After our time spent at the Astoria Column, we made our way to the former Clatsop County Jail, now known as the Oregon Film Museum...

But first, we passed by this, the Flavel House, which is seen in one of the opening scenes of "The Goonies". It's the museum where Mikey and Bran's father (Mr. Walsh) works...

I took my obligatory shot of the home but our attention was more focused on this:

Let's go inside, shall we?

The Astoria Column

I'm all over the place, aren't I?

Epic Birthday food crawl, South Bay Food Crawl, and back to Oregon...

We finally reached Astoria by 9:30 am...

I'm glad we left early. Lots of time to see and do lots of things. As we sped off on Marine Drive which hugs the Astoria shore, we knew we were headed in the right direction by the looks of these signs...

Djerdan Burek, Do Hwa

I'm posting this and the other posts below on Saturday 9/20. The food for this post was last Monday 9/15, the day before I returned to San Diego. For lunch, I wanted to try this place that served Balkan cuisine. I had to look up Balkan. It refers to Southeastern Europe but is considered a bit of an outdated term. Anyways, it's across the street from the Brazilian bakery, the Chocolate Spoon. I wanted to try the Burek which I've had before at the International Food Festival from Balboa Park (courtesy of the House of Turkey, but they called it 'borek').

This was a pretty big slice of burek. I chose the meat version, which is ground beef with spices.

Really loved the flakiness of the pastry. I should have bought another one! It was that good! Actually, two pieces would be too much for me. This was quite a large piece.

Here are some other items on their menu. Unfortunately I don't know the exact country of origin of these dishes but it all sounds delicious to me!

I spent most of the day inside because it was so damn hot! I ended up watching "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (yes, it's not out on DVD yet, but my friend's husband had it on his DVR). Oh my God - British comedian Russell Brand is HILARIOUS! He is so vulgar and funny! Even though the movie kind of dragged, it was funny to see all of the Judd Apatow regulars, including the star, Jason Segel, make appearances in this movie (Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, Carla Gallo). Russell Brand is the reason to see this movie folks, as Aldous Snow, lead singer of the band Infant Sorrow!!! He steals every scene that he's in.

I also ended up watching "Penelope" on the DVR. Why? Two words - James. McAvoy.

The movie itself was kind of lame. It was like a fairy tale, but I couldn't really get into it. Oh yeah, and Russell Brand is also in this movie, as the jazz club owner. And if I didn't already watch a lot of TV, I watched the second half of the cinematic masterpiece and Oscar worthy contender that is known as "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay". Yes, folks I watched that flick! Put it this way, Neil Patrick Harris rules!

And lastly, back to food. For dinner, they had reservations at this Korean place near my friend's work. Her building by the way, houses this hair salon (below). Who is that? It's Nick Arrojo's salon, the guy who does the hair makeovers on TLC's "What Not to Wear". I peeked through the windows, he wasn't there. It probably costs about $300 for a cut there! Yikes!

Dinner was at Do Hwa, a Korean restaurant which seemed fairly new.

This is what we had:

I didn't use my flash here - kind of dark.

Watercress salad with sesame soy dressing. I didn't take a photo of the Chap Chae noodles.

This was really good - the seasfood scallion pepper pancake. It was crispy and light!

The soup - not so much. It was a salty miso based soup with mushrooms, tofu and zucchini.

The greens for our meat - Shiso (or Perilla) leaves and red leaf lettuce:

Their version of Bibimbop. No raw egg. The waitress mixed up the greens and sashimi pieces with some sort of chili sauce.

The braised yellow snapper, which I liked, but I only had a little bit because I really wanted to eat the meat. My friend doesn't eat beef or pork so the fish was mostly for her.

The panchan (cut off) was standard. I prefer the variety at Buga a lot better.

The meat was pork (left) and rib eye. There were no leftovers that night!

Dessert was an artfully sliced orange. By that time, I was too full to even eat the orange. In all, a great meal. It was fun to be out of San Diego for just a few days, although it was a bit lonely at times because I'm so used to having Bert and TC around. I got to hang out with my friends, check out some cool neighborhoods and eat some really fantastic food.

Chocolate Spoon, Kampuchea, Il Laboratorio del Gelato

For breakfast, my friend and I walked over to the Chocolate Spoon bakery in the neighborhood. It's a Brazilian place, believe it or not. She wanted to get Brazilian cheese break to eat with her coffee. I ended up getting a fresh-out-of-the-oven ham and cheese pastry.

Here's the cheese bread. It looks like a lumpy biscuit.

But inside, there is a white cheese that just melts away in your mouth. Quite tasty!Not sure what kind of cheese it is though. Bad foodie.

This time, N and I went out to the city while L stayed home with their dogs. We passed by the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy (it's a week long).

Since I didn't really have an agenda, we just walked around. Since we were in Little Italy, N wanted to buy some pecorino cheese at this place, Di Palo's.

Once you step in, you take a number. Hers was 93. They were on 78, but the lind seemed to be moving quickly. I believe this place was on some program about NYC on the Food Network because it seemed familiar to me. There are all kinds of dried/cured meats hanging from the ceiling. Ham, sausage...you name it. The shop is quite small and it was very crowded. I looked up this place on yahoo later that night and found out that DiPalo's is family run and owned and is known for their excellent customer service. Even if the line is out the door, the employees treat you like you are the only one in the store. They really do pay attention to you and you alone.

My friend wanted to get some pecorino cheese. The guy brought out two different types and explained, in great detail, the difference between the cheeses. He also gave her some samples as well as for me too. I was hanging out behind her trying to be inconspicuous, but I was impressed that he offered me some cheese as well. The first cheese we tried was really good - but the second cheese was even better. He explained that there was a grainy texture because the curds are chopped up during the cheese making process. My friend bought a little of both. Sold!

We were on our way to the Lower East Side but had to pass through a section of Chinatown, where we saw this Durian stand.

The vendor was cutting a piece out for a customer. I wasn't close enough to smell it. I still have bad memories of the time I tasted a durian popsicle ($1.99 for a box of 4 at Ranch 99). I wanted to scrape my tongue with sandpaper after that briefly horrific taste. Mind you, the durian popsicle flavor probably was a watered down version of what it really tasted like too. To me, it tasted like rotten onions. Shudder.

After some wandering in the Lower East Side, we chanced upon this place...

Kampuchea is a fairly new Cambodian restaurant. The decor was bar height dark wooden tables with tall square stools.

The menu was very short, sweet, and to the point. They serve small plates style here.

My friend ordered the Cambodian Savory Crepe. The filling was catfish, ground peppercorn, ground sesame seed and tofu. It came with a side of lettuce and cilantro along with a dipping sauce with peanuts reminiscent of nuoc cham.

I, on the other hand, ordered the Chilled Flat Noodle which was served with seared chili tiger shrimp, crispy pork belly (there's that pork again), chives, cucumber, lettuce hearts, mint, sliced red onions, and hoisin sauce. The sauce was pooled on the sides (you can see it at the bottom) of the bowl. The toppings covered the medium width rice noodles. It reminded me of bun but without the chopped vegetables on the bottom of the bowl. This was a refreshing dish, especially since it was a super hot day (heatwave!). We shared our dishes. I really liked how my shrimp was seasoned and my friend's catfish wasn't so bad either. I'm not really a big fan of catfish but this time, it didn't taste like mud! The portions were also just right. Not so overwhelming but not insubstantial either.

I was determined to go to at least one place on my list of "must eat" places. I was kind of bummed the other day when Lombardi's was too crowded, but my disappointment was short lived because of that awesome street pizza. So...we headed over to Il Laboratorio del Gelato which is on Orchard Street, and also, right next to a museum dedicated to the history of the tenements of this particular neighborhood. Okay, this gelato place had a long ass line. In fact, we waited 30 minutes in this line! Lotus recommended this place in one of her blog posts and Robyn from "The Girl Who Ate Everything" blog raves about this place...

Former tenements across the street from Il Lab...

There really is a lab in there. It's a tiny store front but there is some serious gelato making in the back! With this place, you can't really see the list of flavors until you get right up to the window. I think it would be better if there was a posted list outside so people could make up their minds ahead of time what flavor they want.

Sucky picture...but here's the gelato and sorbet bins beckoning me:

My friend had the Espresso and Green Tea. One cone with two flavors $3.25.

My cone was Blackberry and Pear. All four flavors were awesome! Especially my pear! You could see and taste real pear flecks in it. Although it was so damn hot and the wait seemed interminable, it was worth it!!!

Tierras Colombianas & Omonia Bakery

My flight to NY was, thankfully, uneventful despite some slight turbulence due to thunderstorms. I was kinda worried while in the lavatory and it was rocking! Ha ha. It was already raining upon my arrival here. I took a taxi by myself for the first time. The driver must have had an earpiece on or something. He was talking to someone in his native tongue for the entire trip. A bit unnerving. But I was dropped off safely at my friends' place in Astoria. My friend N is on her way back to NY after being in China for nearly a week for work.

For dinner, her husband and I went to Tierras Colombianas, which is a Colombian restaurant in their neighborhood. It was just a few blocks away.

Both of us had apple soda - the brand was called 'Postobon' and each can contains 44 grams of sugar! Whoa. The apple soda was pink too. The one brand they sell in San Diego (it's a Mexican brand, forgot the name) is yellowish brown. Not very appetizing looking.

My friend L had the Milanesa, the Breaded Beef Steak. His plate had the meat with rice and beans, plantains. The rice and beans were served on a separate oval plate while the main entree was placed on top of salad (iceberg lettuce). As mentioned earlier, I didn't finish my food so I may just be eating it for breakfast tomorrow. Healthy.

I ordered the Bandeja Campesina (the Country Plate). Actually, I wanted the Bandeja Montanera (the Mountain Plate) initially, but the waiter thought I would like steak instead of chopped beef. Like a sucker, I upgraded my plate. I wasn't planning to eat all the food anyways. The Country Plate consisted of Carne Asada (not the Mexican style), Chicharron (this was a thick ass slice of fried pork with the crunchy skin, the fat and the meat attached), arroz, frijoles, maduros (plantains), arepa (a corn cake), huevo (one over easy egg), and aguacate (avocado). Yes! That's a lot of food!

The beef steak was sliced really thin and it looked and tasted really good. However, I only had 2 bites because I really wanted to eat the chicharron!!! It reminded me a little of lechon kawali. Good stuff! I barely made a dent in the rice and beans though. The arepa was too hard and dry. Not very tasty. I didn't know I was going to get an over easy egg which lay uneaten. The avocado was not of the Haas variety. It was a quite a large slice and had thin green outer skin. That pork though...Fkn' A!

After dinner, L suggested a nearby bakery just down the street - Omonia Bakery (it's Greek).

Desserts...

I bought two slices of cake - Both were chocolate but one slice had layers with chocolate and Grand Marnier while the other was all chocolate mousse. Super sweet. I think I only had a few bites of my slice. The fridge is now their home.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be a little better. Just scattered showers but it will still be humid. Not sure what the plans are for tomorrow. Maybe Lombardi's (the first pizza place in NYC) or Cendrillon (Filipino fusion place in SoHo) or ???

Gotta get some rest.