Beaumont Village

Beaumont Village holds a special place in my heart and definitely one of those places where I have lots of memories from in Portland.  Located in the heart of NE Portland and located on Fremont Street, Beaumont Village is a cozy neighborhood and one of the few places left where everyone knows everybody in the neighborhood.  This area is special because I use to work in the area for a good three years, in that time I met a lot of good people and friends. Though Beaumont Village isn't as big or as well developed as other neighborhoods like Alberta or Hawthorne, the village still has some awesome places to offer to you if you happen to be in the area. 

Here are some of my favorite places in Beaumont Village:
Red Fig - I use to go eat here 4 times a week, the teriyaki burger with peanut sauce is so good.
Amalfi's - their owner Kiauna is very nice.  The pizza here is one of the best in Portland.
Bumblekiss - the bacon tacos and swiss burger are awesome
Jim & Patty's Coffee (The original Coffee People) - yes people, still wanting Coffee People, just go here. 
Alameda Cafe - great breakfast and lunch cafe
Ristretto Roasters - this is their original location.  Their coffee is awesome.
Tuk Tuk - very good thai food here and portions are big.  The pad kee mao and lemongrass chicken is a must
Alameda Brewhouse - my favorite here is the seven barrel burger
Stanich's - you ever want to try giant burgers, then go here. The "special" and "glady's" are my favorites.
Eclectic Kitchen - they have good breakfast food here, my favorite is the country burrito.

Bumblekiss

Red Fig

Italian Festival

Later after hitting up a food cart pod at the Alder location, we stopped by Pioneer Square where they were having the Italian Festival.  The last time I was the festival, it was 11:30 at night and there were hundreds of people dancing to classic Italian live music.  So we got here this time before the madness broke out.  At this time before the main events took place, people just gathered in the square to eat good traditional dishes and desserts.  

Alder Food Cart Pod

My wife and I had a chance to go visit the Alder Food Cart Pod in downtown Portland with a good friend.  It's a Friday night and the weather is warm, not too hot and there is a light breeze.  When we got there, we were starving so everything looked good.  The bad thing was this pod is one of the biggest community of food carts in Portland, so picking a place was hectic.  

 My friend Cath got this Hong Kong style chicken with rice.

My wife got this pad thai for $5 and the portion was huge.  Plus it was really spicy also which I like very much.

At that time I was craving Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food so I got this beef gyro which was ok.  I've had better and bigger gyros for the same price.

As I was eating my gyro, I looked up and saw El Rodeo starring at me. Whoa.

After we finished our food, we got bubble tea from Easy Day.  They were pretty good.

While waiting for our bubble tea drinks to come out, I saw this kid eating like a true Portlander, right under a tree on the street. Nice.

I had to take a picture of this sign.  It's awesome.

Dim Sum for Breakfast

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I had a rare weekday chance to go eat dim sum for breakfast. We met up with my sister and mother to go eat at this fairly new place called HK Cafe. You know a dim sum place is good when the restaurant is packed with people, and not just any people, these were old chinese folks and on a weekday. Usually dim sum places are only packed on a weekend.  After the initial first bites of the usual dishes I usually eat, the shomai above and the ha gau below, I knew this place was awesome.  I recommend this place if you haven't tried it. It's very comparable to the dim sum in Wong's King.

The durian filled cream puff was pretty good. Don't try it if you don't like durian.

Mississippi Flea

Here we are at the first ever Mississippi flea market. I had this picture in my head that the flea market would be awesome because Mississippi is such an awesome area, but in reality it wasn't like what I imagined.  My first impression was, did everyone just came from Urban Outfitters?  Seriously, all the people in this flea were all hipsters.  Anyways, these are my thoughts on the market, first it took only about 5 minutes to go through all the vendors, second, the reason we stayed about 20 minutes in the market was because we were waiting for tacos. At least they were good. I'm not here to bash on the market and it wasn't a total failure either. I will give props though to whoever started this because I see the potential for this flea to grow and really be a stable event in years to come.  There were some items that were pretty cool like the typewriter below.

The tacos were pretty good. Very fresh.

Nice.

Most of the items are good alternative and more affordable pieces compared to Urban Outfitters.

Tasty n Sons

So far this summer, one of the coolest new restaurants I tried is called Tasty n Sons.  They are located in the Lincoln Building complex on Williams Ave in North Portland.  We went here for brunch because that is what they're know for and I knew it would be an awesome experience because wait time as of 10am when we got there was an hour and a half; but worth the wait.

What made this place really cool was definitely the decor and look of the place.  I love their wooden tables and seating, the walls was concrete with a huge bicycle painting on one side of the restaurant, and the garage door front that was opened.  Just an awesome combination of creating a cozy atmosphere.

My wife and sister ordered the Fried Egg & Cheddar Biscuit with fried chicken or smoked guanciale or sausage.  The fried chicken was really good.

I ordered the House Bacon Burger with beecher's cheddar or smoked bleu cheese which was pure awesomeness.  We ended up ordering two of this burger.

My dad ordered the Boudin Blanc Omelette with fava bean tapenade, truffle cheese & white sausage which was ok.

My mom ordered the Cast Iron Frittata with asparagus, snap peas, confit green beans, english peas, asparagus, caramelized onions, mint & feta which was really good.

Overall, I'm really happy with the food though their portions was a bit small but great if you're on a strict diet. The place and service were awesome and the whole experience was great. I would come back here.

Williams Ave Ops

A while ago my family and I had a chance to check out a part of Portland that we've never been to.  Initially, my sister suggested we try a new restaurant in the area and I thought what a great opportunity to explore the area also.   The Williams avenue area is located in North Portland in the Boise Neighborhood.  I never even knew such a inter-urban development took place in a place like Williams ave.  The area I'm talking about is a good two and a half block stretch of restaurants, stores and coffee shops. 

Me and the woman in some cool looking brick wall.

I like the random red double-triangles shapes in this building front.

This place is called Eat: An Oyster Bar.  They have a pretty good size crowd in the weekends, I plan to try Eat pretty soon.  Below is another view of the restaurant.

A cool lighting display at Ink&Peat. There were many decor pieces that I really like at this store.

Pix Patisserie is an awesome dessert hang out place.  They are one of my favorite places to go to in Portland.  This is their second location, their original location is on Division.

Blues Festival

One of Portland's most exciting annual events is the Portland Blues Festival.  Every year, thousands of people gather in the open grass area or in their boats in the Waterfront area in downtown Portland.  You can hear the blues and jazz music fill the air when you walk in the city and you're automatically attracted to the event.  I came to the event after work and walked along the Hawthorne bridge from the east side of the river towards the Waterfront.  These were some of the interesting things I took pictures of as I walked on the bridge.

I thought food carts is the trend in Portland but I was wrong, now it's food boats.  This dude was selling weenies on the water, ice cream also.  I wonder if he could throw food up to me and I'll chuck some quarters to him.  Maybe I'll try next year. 

This is one of the few times where many boats gather out in the Willamette River.

Ohhh, good dog.  Enjoying the music.