Marcine takes some of the best food photos that I have ever had the pleasure of seeing and in turn, I can’t help but imagine myself devouring every last morsel. I believe these were all shot on film, and they are a real delight- total picnic goodness! I picked up a really nice, heavy glass pitcher at an estate sale last weekend and I want to fill it up with ginger limeade, strawberry lemonade, mojitos, iced tea and everything delicious. I really want to host a garden party before summer ends and make all kinds of cool treats for fancy ladies.

Striped top: thrifted J. Crew
Crystal gemstone necklace: thrifted
40′s style denim shorts: bought from Anna’s yard sale blog, they’re handmade! She has another shop for her handmade items, they’re so beautiful and mellow. Definitely take a peek!
Moccasins: Minnetonka (aka the only shoes that fit with my ankle brace, not pictured)

This is what I wore for an afternoon pie & cocktail date with some friends at Random Order Cafe earlier this week. Summer is really here, guys! FINALLY. We had a really nice bike ride that afternoon, and I definitely enjoyed my coconut cream pie and ginger/basil/rum/tea cocktail. I think that ginger-lime and coconut cream are going to be my ultimate summer food jams, along with French bakery style brie/baguette/veggie sandwiches.

I love my bike. It’s an 80′s Nishiki, I bought it from my friend Jade for $100 (a steal!!) because it was a bit too big for her. I’ve had it for maybe 3-4 years now, and I love that when I ride it it feels like it wants to go FAST! It’s so good to have a bike that you like to ride, a trusty important travel companion. Now that the weather is so nice I’m thinking about biking to Blue Moon to drop off my film instead of suffering on the extra long bus ride. It’s 10 miles each way, but I think I can manage! If you live in Portland, use ByCycle to figure out your bike routes. Also be sure to read Calivintage’s Cycle Chic section on her blog for more bike action.

Over the weekend I was in Vancouver, BC! I grew up in BC, lived in Vancouver for a while, and most of my oldest friends live in Victoria and Vancouver. Many of them were around this weekend, and what a glorious weekend it was. These photos were all taken by Rachel, I’m stealing her photos since I mostly shot film and won’t have those for a little while.

Enjoying awesome rice noodles that were steamed in a crazy metal chest of drawers (with mini shrimpies and green onion, plus added sesame/soy sauce & sesame seeds) at the night market. It was my first time!

To the left, two members of the Scotch Club, (“An exclusive apres work society in which important business executives come together and imbibe the finest scotch”), and on the right, the fairly new Acme Cafe, where my friend is currently working. It has a cool old diner vibe. I enjoyed some coffee, mac & cheese and coconut creme pie at this place.

Scotch Club.

The Clifton Hotel and the egg waffle makers at the night market.

Maya, April and I with every buddy in the park behind our friends’ apartment building. That night they had a fun housewarming party!

Cooling off in the babbling brook. Watched a lot of pedigree dogs and their owners prance around. An old drunk dude told us he would charge us fifty cents for being “all fucked up”.”

Do you guys know about my girls facing nature tumblr??

Friends club. The whole day was a golden hour.

Well, it’s still raining. 2010 is the year of the never-ending spring! I’m trying to keep cool about it, and a nice way to do that is to share some photos that I’ve taken over the past couple months. GET READY TO BE APPRECIATED, SPRING! I’ll start with film & end with digital photos. Above, my cat (shot with minolta) and some pansies in Eugene, Oregon (lomo) outside the coffee shop that we hung out at, waiting for the first show of Conan’s tour to get started.

Lauren & Jillian about to taste their first morel mushrooms, on pizza at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty (lomo) and Jillian at the Sandy River, as seen through some blu-blockers on my Minolta. My camera has never looked cooler.

The coastline up past Fort Stevens, actually taken back in February (minolta) and dalas & the cat taking a lil’ nap.

Ducks!!!! I miss these dudes! (minolta)

Me in our Fort Stevens yurt, and a leftover yellow rose from last season up at the Grotto. (minolta)

Next, digital photos!

These were all taken on cinco de mayo, we did a bunch of cooking at Lauren & Jillian’s and marveled at the perfect light that was happening.

Lemon tart from Petite Provence on Alberta. I ate a veggie croissant sandwich, it satisfying. I am a big fan of all lemon baked goods.

A double birthday dinner at Screen Door. I always order the Screen Door Plate with fried catfish, cornbread and two of the rotating seasonal veggie sides… and I always have a huge box of leftovers to bring home.

Finally, something very recent! Emily‘s “Lost on the Midway” opening at Land. She had a cotton candy machine and everything! It’s always nice to see Emily & Josiah, and I’d say the show was a pretty big success. I think there might still be a few originals available for purchase right over here.

It’s no secret that I love food, so I was really glad that the food in New Orleans was so great! It was definitely more expensive than Portland (food here, including fancy dinners, is weirdly cheap compared to other cities) but I didn’t mind since I was really only spending money on food/drink. Rachel did a beautiful job of researching restaurants and compiling lists, and we were lucky to be in a neighborhood that had tons of amazing places within walking distance. We had a fancy lunch at Lilette one day, it was pretty great. We shared steamed mussels (with onions, carrots, leeks, and a coconut Thai herb sauce), great freshly-baked buns, tasty scallops, drinks and quenelles of goats cheese crème fraiche with poached pears, pistachios and lavender honey. Maybe something else too? I can’t remember, but it was all delicious. We also had good cocktails.

Baru is another great place that was really close to our apartment, we went there for some late-night tapas dinner. They had really great ceviche, some roasted corn thing, shrimp dishes… it was also BYOB, but we had no B to B. One small mistake.

After our drinks at the carousel bar we ended up at the Acme Oyster House, where we ate fresh and grilled oysters, crawfish (pictured above), etouffe and I drank way too much Abita Amber and accidentally got trashed (no water all day + beignets for lunch + strong drinks + seafood/beer = danger). This was the night of most of my injuries.

If you go to Acme, sit at the bar and you will be broadcasted live to the world via their webcam!! You can see us and our amazing oyster-shucking, beer-cup-refilling, secret master barber server friend, MAGIC! Check out his business card- he told us a lot of funny things. Quotes are being saved for our trip comic.

Next up, a sandwich that has a very special place in my heart: the po’boy.

I’ve eaten a lot of different po’boys recently, both in Portland and New Orleans, and let me tell you this: the best you will find are made at Mahoney’s on Magazine St (again, very very close to our apartment). We ate there twice and I would eat there a million more times. The bread was especially amazing, and I enjoyed both the fried green tomato & remoulade and the fried catfish (fully dressed, with pickles/lettuce/tomato) po’boys very very much.

They also made the best onion rings I have ever tasted, they were super thin like the fried onions you’d put on a green bean casserole, except fresh! Just amazing. Also the view down the porches at Mahoney’s was pretty great. No deck is complete without a rocking chair.

If you have ever been to Canada, you will know that booze is really expensive. So, whenever my Canadian friends are in America I love seeing how amazed they are at all our cheap drinks, especially wine! We designated the “Menage a Trois” wine to be our signature drink, honoring a trio of friends with platonic but magical properties. We drank it on our galerie (porch) with take-out Mahoney’s. Honestly, writing this while the rain is STILL pouring down in Portland makes me want to be back there more than ever…

On our last night in the city we ate at Patois, which was totally amazing. When we were watching Treme I told Rachel that I wished the restaurant in it was real, and she discovered that it is! Patois is where they film the restaurant scenes (at least, the dining interior, not sure about the kitchen), but the lady chef character is based off of an actual lady chef that runs a different restaurant. It was so cool seeing the exact entree that I ordered on the screen, as well as the table we sat at!

We ate:
-Potato Gnocchi with local edamame, la crawfish & marscapone cheese
-Cheese Plate with mixed olives, apple-currant compote, and an assortment of housemade crackers
-Almond Crusted Gulf Fish with roasted potato galettes, buttered green beans, and a citrus menieure
-Gulf Shrimp and Housemade Fettucine with vidaliam onions, local fava beans & piquillo peppers
-Rabbit saltimbocca marscapone anson mills polenta, asparagus & a marsala lemon jus
-some little truffles that we were given as a dessert, we didn’t even order it!
-awesome Oregon wine

The food was pricey but oh so delicious and worth it for our last night. It reminded me a lot of Farm in Portland, only a Southern version. They also had some really cute waiters, ha!

Cheers, y’all! Just wait until you see the creole cookin’ I did at our cabin on the bayou.

On our first full day in New Orleans we went on a quest into the French Quarter to visit Café du Monde, a 24-hr cafe that was established in 1862 and is famous for their café au lait (New Orleans style, with chicory) and beignets, a French-style donut that was introduced by the Acadians. As a trio of British Columbia-rasied food lovers, we realized that the beignets are basically the same as bannock, only a super sweet dessert version, covered in powdered sugar. The cafe is open 24 hours a day, and was very busy… it was Sunday and Mother’s Day, so a lot of families were out in the city. Although Café du Monde is a huge tourist spot, it also has plenty of loyal local regulars, according to our little food guide that was in our apartment. There is a to-go window and a covered seating area, the floor of which is covered in powdered sugar. Since it was so busy we took our food to-go and snacked in Jackson Square, near the St. Louis Cathedral, watching birds and families wander around. I also want to mention that Rachel took approx 90% of the digital photos from our trip, she was in charge of the digital captures while I mostly shot film. I’m so happy with all the pictures she took!!

Let’s be honest: if I was being forced by some kind of future-controlling entity to choose between having nice clothing for the rest of my life OR eating amazing food for the rest of my life, I’d choose the grub y’all. Especially if it could be anything as delicious as the edibles that Portland provides for me on a daily basis. How could you even think to choose otherwise? If you’re not convinced by the bourbon-soaked baked brie with candied hazelnuts, fruit & bread above from Caldera, then see below:

Benny and potato cake from Veritable Quandary, Rachel’s breakfast from her visit.

Cornmeal johnny cakes with creme fraiche and rhubarb. It’s rhubarb season right now you guys, get on it! Also from Veritable Quandary.

Incredible morel mushroom pizza with farm egg from Lovely’s Fifty Fifty. I plan on eating this again real soon. It was so fucking good I can’t even tell you. We even had salted caramel ice cream for dessert.

The best ginger kombucha I have tasted so far, purchased in Austin.

Some kind of Asian-inspired prawn coleslaw salad thingy with bread, from the place at the Portland airport, aka “Portland airport food is somehow still better than most restaurant food in other cities.”

Ridic challah bread french toast with some kind of booze-candy bananas, walnuts, vanilla creme or something and powdered sugar from The Country Cat, a fairly new place in Portland that does really incredible brunch and apparently other meals too! We went there at around 10:30 on a Sunday and were seated within 10 minutes. Portlanders, don’t wait on this one- go before it gets crazy busy like Screen Door always is.

I don’t think any food makes me as mental as a morel mushroom. I am obsessed with them. If I could drive (damn you, instruction permit!) alone I would be in the park/woods right now looking for these delicious, sneaky, mysterious little glorious jerks. This is the single most amazing tasting mushroom in my universe, and you can only get them for a short period of time each year. They are unpredictable, fairly hard to find, and way too expensive to purchase. Fresh is the only way to go, and I’m going crazy every second that I’m not out there looking for them. We found this one over the weekend and ate it battered & fried in butter. OMG.

It sure ain’t natural, but you can’t really beat a bucket of tots.

Another hit from the Country Cat, this is the Campfire Breakfast. Amazing cornbread with honey butter, over-easy eggs, sweet and delicious baked beans, and under all that there’s a mass of collards cooked in some really quality, thick lil’ bacon pieces. I don’t eat much meat at all, but this dish was worth it.

Homemade mushroom pastry thing for our Easter brunch, made by me! It may not be as gloriously pretty as the other meals, but dang it was good. From the old timey Moosewood cookbook. I think they called it a mushroom strudel.

Last but not least, NUTZ, in all their sweet, spicy and salty glory.

Man, it is way long past time for breakfast.

It is not recommended that you read this post on an empty stomach, cause it’s gonna make you feel hungry!

I’ve been enjoying a lot of really delicious food lately! The copious amounts of creative gourmet food in Portland never cease to amaze me. Pictured above, some white wine & truffle oil fondue with fruit, bread, and some spicy roasted and candied nuts on the side, from Slow Bar. My friends and I are starting a bit of a Friday happy hour tradition, so far it has been pretty great. Since Lauren is off work at 4:30 we can sneak in just in time for cool discounts, when places are nice and mellow and fairly empty. No waiting for a cool booth or anything at that time!

Last Friday we went to Caldera, which is in an old 1910 pharmacy building- one of the only quality places that I can actually walk to from my house. For some reason our neighborhood is more into sports bars, but luckily we’re pretty close to the other zones that have great food. I didn’t bring my camera (it was raining and I walked there, didn’t feel like worrying about keeping my camera dry) so I drew a pic! Anyway, at Caldera we shared some really delicious bourbon-soaked brie with apples, hazelnuts and bread. The bourbon sauce was so neat, it had a really dark and rich flavor that reminded me a lot of molasses, kind of like a super fancy balsamic syrup that you would put on ice cream. My cocktail was a ginger old fashioned, which had fresh muddled ginger, bourbon, bitters, muddled cherry and orange. Muddle it up! I’m a big fan of ginger or other herbal-y drinks, like anything with chartreuse! I still can’t stop thinking about this cocktail I had on my birthday, it was like a mojito but instead of mint they used sage (and maybe a sage simple syrup). It was so interesting!

Last night dalas and I met up with Adam (you should listen to this podcast, You Look Nice Today that he records with a few friends, it’s so funny and good) while he’s in town, along with his other Portland friends. We went to Navarre, an amazing place that is mostly like tapas, but you can also get big plates of their dishes too. Both times that I’ve been there it has been with a larger group, so we always do this cool thing called “we choose”, where the Navarre crew chooses all your dishes for you and just keeps bringing tons and tons of plates to your table. You can specify any dietary restrictions or preferences and they will customize their choices for you. It’s always SO GREAT, but so hard to not stuff your face on the first few plates that come out. It’s always a surprise when the cool dishes just keep coming & coming. I love it! Highly recommended.

And finally, in a less fancy but still totally awesome category, yesterday morning we enjoyed some great waffles from the FlavourSpot cart! The thing I always get is a big giant waffle with sweet maple spread and veggie sausage wrapped up inside. Never fails to satisfy.

Dress, cardigan, belt, striped J. Crew shirt: all thrifted
T-strap boots: ebay (from one of those South Korean sellers with all the shoes!)
Tights: Hue

This was my Valentine’s Day brunch outfit, I wanted to wear something really comfy since I knew I’d be doing a lot of moving around in the kitchen and then stuffing my belly with great food (expandable belt, ha!). The dress is that soft, kinda stretchy thick cotton, so it was perfect. As soon as I walked in the door and was greeted by Lauren I yelled, “GIRL, just you wait till I take off this coat!” She was wearing an almost identical striped shirt and a red skirt, so we were Valentine’s twins. Here she is mixing up the leek/mushroom concoction for the mini-quiches-

I’m really glad the sun popped out for a minute in the afternoon, it gave me a chance to take my first outfit photos with the new camera, as Rachel and I have been calling “Lil’ Snappy-chan”. I think this camera might be my Valentine… Well, it’s between the camera and these delicious little guys:

I made these by rolling out my excess pastry dough (this is the recipe that I always use) into a long shape, spreading a bit of butter out onto the dough, then Jillian had the amazing idea to add some caramel sauce, followed by some chopped-up roasted cashews and obviously cinnamon. We also poured a bit of creamy coconut milk on top before popping them in the oven. They were GREAT! Not too sweet, just right.

And, the mini-quiches! I wanted to cut out little heart shapes for the top, but I was in a hurry to leave the house and couldn’t find the cutter. By the time I got to cooking, I was ready to start eatin’ so I wasn’t about to delicately slice little hearts out of the dough with a knife. I actually made these same quiches with star cut-outs for American Thanksgiving last year. They are so good, and easy to make.

Ok, I changed my mind again- this amazing portrait of Burt Reynolds is my true Valentine. He is just too sassy up there above the fireplace, beckoning all those who catch his eye to come and cozy up with him.

Well, it’s President’s Day now and that means I have a LOT of thrifting to do. Sales all around! Wish me thifting luck!

Oh, I had to come back and edit this post to add the video that I made yesterday! Just a few snippets from my time with friends yesterday- I think it represents the brunch time quite well.

Valentine’s Brunch from anja verdugo on Vimeo.

I spent the last few days with one of my best friends, Laura! We’ve known each other since grade ten and share many mutual longtime besties. Since I moved away from home in 2003 I don’t think that Laura and I have lived in the same city at the same time, but our friendship is awesome enough that it is still solid & fun. The last time she was in Portland was three years ago, but I’ve seen her a bunch of times up in Canada since then. She is a cool buddy, also a master of anything corny-but-sincere (illustrated above- she is very good at poses). So glad to have a few days with her, and the weather was totally beautiful the whole time. No coats!!

On the first day we became very American and watched the Superbowl, made dollar bets, ate a lot of candy/pizza/junkfood, drank beers, and contemplated our traditional superBOWLING session afterwards but ended up staying home. I wasn’t really rooting for a specific team, but I was glad that it got a little more exciting during the second half. Not enough shocking moments! The second day we made ourselves a nice breakfast at home and headed downtown in search of some trusty cheap flats for Laura to replace her old, dead ones. Also, sunglasses, since she was heading to Mexico right after leaving Portland. We both bought some cheapo sunglasses at Forever 21 and I also got a leopard blouse. I was trying to hold out for a cool thrifted one, but I’ve been looking hard and haven’t seen the right one so I figured that $8 for a new one wasn’t so bad. We drank many coffees.

Photos above from Stumptown coffee (downtown, next to the Ace Hotel) and the Grotto!

I wanted to meet up with friends that night, but that was when I messed up my back so I spent the rest of the night as an invalid, lying around in awkward positions and trying to self-medicate in as many ways as I could. What a disappointment. It might have been a secret blessing that we had to stay in, because we got to blow Laura’s mind with the Bachelor, followed by an episode of CSI: Miami that took place IN SPACE. Ha ha. I can’t help but love bad tv, the stoner in me can’t resist it.

Photos: Stumptown plants, Laura at the Grotto (we called this photo the Caruso hair-halo filter, after all the ridic lens flares & lit up hair in CSI Miami in SPACE)

The third day was the nicest day, we didn’t even wear coats! We had a nice breakfast at Jam on Hawthorne (french toast made with challah bread, big bowl of hash browns with veggie sausage gravy & cheese, hazelnut coffee breakfast cocktail), hung out in my backyard with the chickens, adventured to the Grotto for some nature exploration and enjoyed a beer together before Laura had to catch her train. Luckily, my back doesn’t hurt too much when I’m walking around, it’s sitting and bending over that really suck- it’s unfortunate that my work day involves so much sitting. Definitely can’t bike to the post office like this! Anyway, back issues aside, I had such a great time chilling with my friend. Hoping for many visits in the coming months.