dining – thosecoolkims

KimTrippin’: Pacific NorthWest — Day 5 (Portland)

There can only be one word to describe today’s adventures: EPIC.

To kick off the day, there were two things to check off our mandatory Portland list — coffee and doughnuts. Ruby got to try her first Voodoo Doughnut and Ed + I got properly caffeinated thanks to Stumptown Roasters. (Ruby enjoyed a cup of milk ;))

Ed did some research before we got to Portland and found out we could rent bikes — and an awesome bike trailer seat for Ruby! — from Waterfront Bicycles. He made us a reservation so we could get our sedentary butts moving and take advantage of one of the country’s best bike cities. Admittedly, I was intimidated at first, but it ended up being the best day ever! Ruby loved being on a bike ride and said several times during the trip, “I’m so happy doing this!” We thought it was a great way to see Portland, and definitely made for an authentic experience.

This was a general overview of our route:

Biking over Hawthorne Bridge

Carrie’s lovely Linus bike (want!!!)

The bike shop even had some pretty sweet helmets for us to borrow.

It was 90+ degrees in Portland today and we thought all of our biking across town justified a stop at one of Carries favorite ice cream shops on earth — Salt & Straw. Salt & Straw opened a location in L.A. this year and we’ve been several times, but we’ve never visited where it all began in Portland. As usual, they had some very interesting flavors — including a street food flavor called “Kimchi & Rice“! (Seriously, click that link for the ice cream description — INCREDIBLY creative!!!). Salt & Straw is generous with the samples before buying and we usually aren’t afraid to taste anything concocted by their geniusness, but I guess we just weren’t as adventurous today. Doesn’t mean we don’t still have a ton of love + respect!

We rode those bikes from 10:00 am when the shop opened until about 4:30pm when Ruby completely crashed out. We got our money’s worth.

After heading back to the hotel for a little downtime and a quick dip in the pool (it’s HOT), we topped the evening off with our favorite meal of the trip so far at an Indian Street food joint called Bollywood Theater. The food was so good, we didn’t even get any pictures of it.

Tomorrow we’ll get out of the city for a bit and explore Multanomah Falls and the Gorge. Looking forward to some hiking!

KimTrippin’: Pacific NorthWest — Day 1 (Santa Rosa and Russian River Brewery)

After talking about it for months and months, our three-week road trip through the Pacific Northwest began today. Our goal was to make a beeline out of California as quickly as we could, so we’d have enough time to get as far north as we wanted (Vancouver, Canada) without feeling rushed. However, because Day 1 of the trip also coincided with Father’s Day, we figured we’d make an exception and stop in Santa Rosa to hit up Russian River Brewing Company — home of Pliny the Elder (AKA Ed’s favorite beer on the planet).

Our path up the 5 was pretty uneventful — we were basically just trying to get to Santa Rosa before the dinner crowd arrived at Russian River. We stopped for lunch and to stretch our legs in Stockton, and we pulled in to Santa Rosa around 3:30.

Russian River was epic. Ed was planning on ordering a flight — until he found out that it was a 19 item sampler! I said I’d drive and told him to go for it — it was Father’s Day! Each sample was 2 oz., making it 38 oz. total. Combined with his newly acquired Pliny t-shirt, we had one happy daddy on our hands.

Russian River makes some great pizza. We each ordered individual pies and they even had a vegan cheeseless pizza for me! Red bell pepper, spinach, artichoke hearts and olives … it was perfect!

We’ll be headed to Ashland in the morning and Ed + I are really looking forward to spending some time in Oregon. Can’t wait to see some green and the great outdoors!

Fathers Day 2013

We had a great time celebrating the best dad in the world this weekend! Ed woke up and got to enjoy his very favorite Weisswurst sausages for breakfast — with sweet mustard, of course — straight from Bavaria, thanks to Andreas, who is visiting us from Germany. Ed couldn’t have been happier.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Concours d’Elegance in Beverly Hills. Each year, they close down Rodeo Drive, line it with expensive, unusual and exotic cars, and allow for some serious oohing and ahhhing for those of us not in the 1%! It was a blast.

Since we were right around the corner, we decided we had to take an ice cream break, and headed over to Ice Cream Lab. They make the ice cream right there in front of you. Since we couldn’t decide on one flavor, the four of us shared four different kinds. It was perfect!

Afterwards, we decided to head over to Amoeba to get a little record shopping in, and since Andreas mentioned he still hadn’t had an American burger yet on his visit (we’ve been filling him with Mexican food!), we decided he had to experience Umami Burger. As you’d expect, it went over very well!

Ed said it was a great day, so we consider our celebration of the world’s greatest dad a huge success!

Road Trippin’, Day 4 – SF and Petaluma

A little late, but Day 4 consisted of a few more hours of just Ed + Carrie time in San Francisco before we headed back to Petaluma. Of course, we had to get an amazing breakfast, and we sure found it at Town’s End! Ed had a fantastic eggs benedict, and I tried my 1st Swedish Oatmeal Pancake with pears + almonds. The pancake was ok, but it was nothing stacked up against the cobb scramble I had on the side. Just like it sounds — it had avocado, green onions, tomatoes, and applewood smoked turkey. So yum.

After checking out of our hotel, we made one last stop at the Ferry Building. I geeked out over all the adorable deliciousness at Miette, and picked up some caramels and cookies to thank my sis-in-law for watching Ruby! Oh man, that Lavender shortbread…

We took our time and took in a little more of that awesome city. I think I love it more each time I visit. One day, if only we could live in one of those unmistakable SF apartments with the big windows that seem to hang out over the sidewalks …

Once we headed back to Petaluma, Shannon and Mani had the great idea of taking us to the Lagunitas Brewing Company. Ed was so happy! It was a great afternoon in the sun with our family!

Petaluma is such a great little town and we had a blast with Mani and Shannon! Can’t wait for more good times with them soon!

Shannon took some really great pics while we were away:

Birthday in Vegas!

For my birthday this year, we bucked our Palm Springs tradition and headed to Vegas. We found a groupon we just couldn’t refuse and decided to jump on it. We stayed downtown a few years ago, and loved the old-school vibe, so we were looking forward to going back. Admittedly, this post makes it sound like we did nothing but eat, but what can we say — there’s a lot happening with food in Vegas!

As we drove into town, we headed straight for eat., which is a new breakfast and lunch joint in downtown Las Vegas. It’s a low key place with a super cool vibe, and features fresh, seasonal comfort food. I had the most delicious asparagus + arugula salad, while Ed had an incredible shrimp and grits dish.

After lunch we got settled in to our room at the Golden Nugget, and cruised around Fremont Street awhile. Then we headed out towards The Strip to fulfill a longtime dream of mine: We saw an Elvis impersonator live in Las Vegas! We went to Trent Carlini’s “The King” at the Las Vegas Hotel. I wish I could say the show was better, but at least now I can say I’ve been. The King did oblige me with a pic after the show, but too bad we were in Vegas about a week too early – we could’ve seen CeeLo Green in Loberace, a Liberace tribute show. Dang!

After The King it was late night dinner time! We were headed to José Andrés’ place, China Poblano at The Cosmopolitan. WHOA. The Cosmopolitan is absolutely amazing. A super hip vibe, great design throughout and so much style in everything there! It feels young and expensive all at the same time. We were in awe. China Poblano was an amazing marriage of Mexican + Chinese food. At one point during the meal, I had a lobster taco and a steamed BBQ Pork bun on my plate at the same time. It was so good!

Also in the Cosmopolitan was an amazing Chandelier Bar (click this link for pics that do it much better justice than any of my dumb pics) and Holstein’s where the menu looked super fun — Korean BBQ Hot Dog and Boozy S’mores milkshake, anyone?

The next day, after enjoying a morning where we could actually sleep in, we decided to explore and find a few places in Vegas outside of the usual tourist stuff. We got a great recommendation for a good coffee shop downtown called The Beat Coffeehouse. The vibe is very Seattle – music, vinyl, strong coffee and low-brow art galleries. We dug it and enjoyed the coffee ’cause we’re not afraid to admit we’re too old for morning booze. We skipped the buffet to save room for lunch!

We played a few slots at The D’s “Vintage Vegas” slot room, where you can actually pull the lever on the slot machines and real money spits out (instead of vouchers)! After working up an appetite, we left Downtown and The Strip for Vegas’ Chinatown and enjoyed some super tasty ramen. They say there’s a ramen revolution happening in Vegas, and it’s legit! His + Hers ramen bowls at Monta Ramen:

Also on our food tour of Vegas, we had dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s BURGR on the Strip at Planet Hollywood. Gordon doesn’t mess around — Ed says his burger was one of the top 5 burgers he’s ever had. I can’t argue, mine was incredible as well. Bonus points for his ridiculous mug on the inside of each menu:

After being extremely full, we headed back to our downtown home base for some real fun. I never tire of all the old school glitz of the neon signage downtown. It’s gorgeous.

Things got epic when we spent some time late night at the El Cortez — seriously old school, somewhat seedy and SUPER cheap! Ed and I even played the Blackjack tables and won, thanks to a very friendly and patient Ukranian dealer named Elena and Ed’s former co-worker Jim, who happened to be in Vegas too and met up with us. We hung at the El Cortez until after 2am, and then ended up at The D for an AUTHENTIC American Coney, a real piece of Detroit in Las Vegas! (Don’t worry, we haven’t turned, we still love Lafayette more than American!)

Last stop before heading out was Beijing No. 9 – a stunningly beautiful noodle house in Caesar’s Palace. I’m a sucker for the white + red!

We had a great time, but we sure were ready to get home to our little Bean. It’s always fun to have time together, but we sure missed that little daughter of ours!