I had a sushi dinner on Tuesday night at this place called Mio Sushi. I always pass it on the way home- it's the next stop on the Max line, and I have also seen it in the Pearl, and haven't had sushi in a long time. I ordered the Dynamite- a baked scallop, octopus, giant clam, mushroom, green onion, onion and masago in a special mayo sauce and sweet sauce dish, as well as two rolls and one premium sushi. I didn't even bother photographing the Dynamite because as soon as I saw it, I realized it was a mess. It was more onion then any seafood, and it was just drowned in sauce. I love that sauce, and it was even way too much for me in sickly sweetness. The rolls were ok- the salmon on the Oregon roll (which also had asparagus and crab) was so much better then the roll I would peel it off just to eat it plain sashimi style. The crunchy roll was ok but would have been better if served immediately to show off the crunch. In the back, the premium sushi of eel with special salmon was pretty good, but only two pieces.

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My Sammies lunch at 50 Plates fortunately made up for the disappointment. I had a pretty simple lunch ordering off of their Sammies list with fries. The Lil Kahuna Burger of Kobe beef, Canadian bacon, pineapple, and a teriyaki glaze was really good- I saved it for my last bite. I had high hopes for my other sammie of Roscoes, but the crispy fried chicken on a waffle with coffee maple drizzle wasn't crispy at all. The drizzle was more of a glaze and was definitely tasty, but the waffle and chicken needed that crispness of texture. The fries and homemade ketchup were fine sides for the sammies. I finished off with oatmeal creams, hoping for warm soft cookies with the goey marshmellow creme middle... and only the middle was true. The cookies themselves had good taste but were hard.

Still, I'll go again- there were several other things on the menu I wanted to try, including a chicken and fennel mac and cheese, a miami special sandwich with mojo pork and gruyere, and turducken salad. Taste-wise and presentation wise everything was great- though execution was a bit lacking, at least at this lunchtime visit. Maybe it would be different on another visit- I'm willing to give them that chance.

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Just compare to the photos from previous posts... he's still working now as I type this on the wall that's on the sidewalk level now.

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Recent deliciousness in my life, which has been few because of the inside and outside work on the house. I hope to amend that soon now that that days are colder and darker- need something to keep me happy through the winter!

Casa Del Matador's Braised Carnitas plate offers a huge big enough for two slow-cooked pork shoulder with orange, allspice, cinnamon and bay leaves- it is just as tender and juicy but with a subtle twist as it sounds. Served with rice, black beans, and your choice of corn or flour tortillas and the usual side fixings of sour cream, guac, tomato salsa... seriously though, you really only need the meat and rice. And maybe some sort of tequila beverage

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More photos at wulfspirit server

But just compare the last two photos of the last post with these:

Who would plant a poor tree in a post of a wall- stupid! Not the tree's fault, but it had to go. Also there was a wisteria tree- pretty, but planted to start like a tree and then trained to wrap around electrical cables on the side of the house so it would eventually ruin the house instead of on trellis or arches that we wouldn't be screwed if it decided to break- so the wisteria too had to go, a pity. Never even got to see it in bloom. I guess the intent was to have to growing as an arch by the kitchen door, or maybe go around the porch- but why steel cables specifically for this purpose weren't put in is a mystery. Of course, this is the same house that put the washer/dryer in the basement and expected the water to go uphill and then drain down... We had plumbers in this week to put in pipes so it would be upstairs off the master bedroom instead, but there's still the task of moving the washer/dryer to tackle next weekend perhaps.

In the front of the house, the rhododendrons were cut back. I'm sure the whole thing looked beautiful in the spring, but the amount of growth was unwieldy. 

Also finally revealed! After much ivy and blackberry pulling, the stairs in the back of the house that lead to two mini decks (which are in total disrepair: there used to be a gazebo, bench swing) can now be seen:

View from up there:

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Before

After the first dumpster was filled... and then after the second dumpster was filled this weekend...

Dumpster 1: clearing the ramp to the stairs and revealing the front porch

Dumpster 2: revealing the area below the front porch by cleaning back the "front yard" 

I take no credit, all I did was do clean-up assistance and sweep and poke at a "katamari ball" of vines and weeds down the stairs towards the dumpster once it was already pulled. Both dumpsters were filled! And we'll need the dumpster again... and nothing has really been done to the "back yard" yet.

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So in the past few days, I have gotten married, and we have purchased our first house and will be moving into it together after our honeymoon. We have 2 weeks (well, 1.5 weeks now) until our cruise honeymoon to Alaska, and then 3 weeks until we move into our home.

Our house which we just closed on Monday was a listing F found on Craig's List, which is different since all the houses we have seen so far are from the mailing list of a Prudential listing agent- she sends several a week with quick descriptions and then a webpage with some photos. This particular house stood out though because of the area: F can continue to walk downtown to work, and I can head to the Max station to get out to Beaverton. This particular broker also deals with bank-owned homes. This particular home is a short-sale.

F also took some videos of

-Going up from the bottom of the street up to the front door (obviously the plants have overgrown):

-The first floor floor of the house which includes a kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a guest bathroom as well as a large dining and living room area (and fireplace)

-The little back deck that you can access the 2nd floor master bed/bath from going upstairs

-The master bedroom and bathroom

Although it is an older home- actually built in 1910, the previous few owners have put in a lot of initial work already to bring it up to more modern standards. Looking on the internet for a bit of research, the asking price is below the last purchase price of the home, and most of the homes around it are equal or quite a bit more than this house, so it would be a great investment.

We also snuck a look at another home on the market on the other side of this house's neighbor, and our handyman friend loved it as well but it was way too much for a first time homeowner to tackle. We even met our neighbor and he talked a bit about the work the previous owner, a doctor, had sunk in and the guy also talked a lot about what he did for his house... which now is registered as a historic home. The home we had snuck into was actually the architect's home itself! We know that the neighbor on our other side that we hadn't met (who actually has a garage, neither of the 3 homes I have just talked about does) also has a home in great shape and also part of the Jacobberger home row if we make an assumption based on the fact the gate to his home says Jacobberger on it. So that makes two of the houses on one side and the house on the other side all Joseph Jacobberger homes.

It's a little unnerving how excited F is about the house: he has been researching the landscaping around it for more than a week! He never likes planning ahead this much, but after being exhausted by the wedding project I managed, I'm glad to let him be the project manager of the house project. We just got the keys yesterday, and he already cut some of the weeds, checked out the roof, and set up the garbage, water, and electricity.

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The brownie was served hot and gooey with a generous scoop of vanilla and some artful drizzle... at the Mc Menamins Market Street Pub's just a handful of blocks away. Service as always was slow and very laid back, but as long as you go in there with that in mind, they have a good happy hour with the prices on their food.

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Next time, I'll have to order a loaf of bread because although the vast amount of cheese was wonderful (even though often the cheese would not necessarily marry best with the beer), we really needed a palate cleanser besides a glass of water.

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The lineup included

• A jumpstart on the alcoholism (if you hadn't already ordered a beer while waiting for it to start as seating was at 5 and the tasting was at 6) with a special tasting of Rogue Spirit's Dead Guy Whiskey. A pretty smooth whiskey.
  
• Full Sail Ltd 03 Lager with Fern's Edge Fresh Chevre. Great chevre, just so light and airy
• Eugene City Brewery Honey Orange Wheat with Willamette Valley Gouda. Great summer beer, very flavorful gouda- but that didn't in my opinion go well together as the gouda overwhelmed the subtle honey orange
• Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar with Alsea Feta. I already knew I liked the beer, but the feta was surprisingly not too salty. And, I got lots of it because the table didn't particularly care for it. I forgot to take a picture of this one as I was getting greedy with the feta.

• Rogue Dead Guy Ale with Monteillet Mejean. This was the smelliest cheese, but since it didn't smell like foot fungus and certainly didn't even worsen upon breathing out after taking a taste of it, it is not the worst cheese I have ever had. It is pretty barnyard-y though. I see the humor in pairing it with a beer called "Dead Guy" because of this, but seriously this needed a much stronger beer.. maybe even a merlot with some tannin to balance it
  
• Rogue Mocha Porter with Rogue Creamery Chocolate Stout Cheddar. Thank goodness this safe combination cleared our palates. Would be a great combination for fondue I think.
• Deschutes Twilight Ale with Bravo Cheddar Special Reserve. I kept this cheese as an "emergency cheese" in case as we got to stronger beers another Mejean appeared in the lineup. Who knew what Humblodt Fog or Oregonzola would actually turn out to be like...

• Terminal Gravity India Pale Ale with Cypress Grove Humblodt Fog. Turns out this was my favorite cheese, and maybe a bit of it was that finally, there was some bread to cleanse our palates too: all we have had is what I showed pictured and a glass of water (and perhaps a leftover pint from while we were squatting our booth before the tasting started). At the end the waitress was kind enough to bring some of the leftovers the kitchen had from the tasting, including 5 of these which I could not stop eating when I tried to snack on just one.
• Issaquah Brewery Menage a Frog with Rogue Creamery Chipotle Cheddar. I totally forgot to take a picture of this one. I was disappointed they did not pair this with Rogue's own chipotle ale or smoke ale.
• Hair of the Dog Fred Strong Ale with Rogue Creamery Oregonzola
• Rogue Imperial Stout with Maytag Blue of Iowa. Maytag is already my go-to bleu cheese, and I was happy to rack up all the leftover blue cheese from the rest of the table that I put on some potatoes the next day. Great combo since the potatoes didn't need anything but me mashing them and spreading the cheese around (I always eat the skin at home because I wash them and know they are clean).

At $25 (member cost for the event, prepaid) for all this tasting, it was a lot more beer and cheese than I had experienced at other tastings. 10 beers and cheeses and a taste of whiskey! Still, I think next time I'll make sure we have crackers or nuts or something as it got really overwhelming for me at the end.

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It just shipped via UPS yesterday and will be here on the 30th supposedly! Finally! I will be in the 21st century. I'm going to have a smartphone! I am getting a red MyTouch from TMobile. It uses a Google Android OS and has a 3.2-inch  320×480 pixel display, 3.5G support, Wifi, GPS and 3M pixel camera with autofocus

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Last week, Pearl District had a small festival in celebration of Bastille Day in Jamison Square Park. I did not stay to watch the Waiter's Race though. I did find room to enjoy some frites and watch a chef work on the creation below...

Somehow, we still found room to enjoy some Mediterranean food after the frites (which I literally finished right outside the door) at Madena of the Pearl, and this Saturday we went back for more. The falafal there is fantastic, as is the dolmeh and baba ganooj. The hummus is serviceable, and the labne dip is not bad. so this past Saturday having the hummus combined with the tender chicken schawarma, and the owner was serving several tables with one arm (and a baby on the other!). I think we will be back again.

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