The average person, when thinking about Oregon seafood, or Pacific Northwest seafood, may think about Dungeness crab, wild chinook salmon, oysters, perhaps the Oregon coast stops as you drive down the Pacific Coast Highway 101 and see signs for clam chowder and fish and chips. Make no mistake though, Oregon Albacore Tuna is an important catch of the Oregon’s fishing industry, and if you are making a checklist of all the bounty of the Oregon Coast, you should be specifically seeking out Oregon albacore in your food goals of tasting what our west coast has to offer. In doing so you will also be ..read more

We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a multi-course progressive tasting menu with wine pairings at ōkta. The timing was with the ōkta Peak Summer Menu Mid-August – Mid-September, part of the Farm Seasion (July-October) where the tasting menu highlights their hearth mimicking the summer sun and its impact on flavor. I had the regular tasting ōkta menu while F had the vegan version – you can see some examples of the slight differences, it was fun discussing what flavors we had in our versions – most of them were very close. We had the same wine pairings every course. Friendship Chrysanthe ..read more

Living in such a great food city such as Portland and enjoying the richness of food and drink experiences available here, it may be hard to fathom that as we debate where to eat next on our wishlist, also here in the Portland metropolitan area there are children and families who go hungry. Many schools in the East Multnomah county have students living below the poverty line. 1 in 5 Oregonians live with food insecurity. Not so long ago Oregon even ranked #1 in childhood hunger in the United States. The just released Upcycled Ice Cream Series by Salt and Straw is the theme for June 2023 of their ..read more

Feeling like a little bit of a taste of England after seeing all the coronation photos and gossip this past weekend? Check out Winston’s British Fish N Chips, the first food truck of many to come – they are looking to open more in the US. The truck and fish and chips are named for Winston the Royal Corgi of Chef Darren McGrady’s YouTube channel. Chef McGrady prepared fish and British chips as Personal Chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, Princes William and Harry, and others at Buckingham Palace including five US Presidents and now brings these recipes to US, and serving them through m ..read more

In July of 2022, I took a trip to one of the top of my Oregon wishlist destinations – Crater Lake. I had always wanted to visit since I moved to Oregon 13 years ago, but I also specifically wanted to stay inside the park at the only lodging with views of the lake, Crater Lake Lodge. In this first post of my series, let me walk you through some logistics of planning in case it will help you plan your Crater Lake adventure. In particular, I will highlight the route from Portland using Highway (Hwy) 58 to Crater Lake. Lodging My desire to stay inside the park was to make watching sunrise and sun ..read more

Recently I hosted a Finders Seekers Mystery night for six people at my house. Finders Seekers is a monthly subscription box (though you can skip boxes anytime which I do) where each month the mystery takes place in a different travel destination in the world. This box was for Barcelona. I decided to make a vegan paella for our little party. With each box Finders Seekers provides some suggested immersive experience ideas for the travel destination in the form of a music playlist on Spotify and food and drink recipes. We used their playlist from their Barcelona immersion ideas, but the recipes ..read more

On Monday – Wednesday you can find creative Mexican plates and glasses of intriguing wines from Clandestino PDX, a pop-up now in residence at Lil Dame by Dame Collective (in the old Beast/Ripe Cooperative space). If you haven’t had an opportunity to visit, make a date for these weekdays to treat yourself to a cozy dinner and a food and wine mini adventure. Clandestino joined the collective to start serving up Mexican inspired dishes in December to rave review by tastemaker and written word wrangler Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly who called Clandestino Portland’s Best New Mexican Restaurant ..read more

Starting Monday March 20 Water Avenue Coffee and Smith Teamaker have collaborated to bring you some incredible spring seasonal drinks! I love the concept of bringing these two local businesses coming together to bring their quality products into my mug. Here’s a look at the five Water Avenue Coffee and Smith Tea Collaboration drinks available. The beverage are available hot or cold but they are shown all as hot drinks here. Water Avenue Coffee and Smith Tea share a history in both being based in Portland and were founded in 2009, both founded by veterans of their Coffee or Tea industry. Both ..read more

I am a supporter of all things delicious – including craft beer, with special appreciation for those female brewers out there who make it in what is a male dominated field. Being a woman in engineering, I have to support and applaud their resilience, naturally. Whitney Burnside has been an award-winning Portland brewmaster that I have followed for many years and now she recently founded along with the other half of power-couple duo husband chef Doug Adams, the brewpub Grand Fir Brewing. Recently they launched a collaboration beer with longtime friend Ben Edmunds of Breakside Brewery a new coll ..read more

During the colder dreary months of winter, you may be inclined to think you should escape to sunny beaches in Florida or Hawaii or Mexico for your vacation. But, I would argue that this is the time to head to California, particularly Monterey Bay. Besides the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, these months are also the best time for viewing the Monarch Butterflies in Monterey Bay. November to February is the monarch butterfly migration season as they migrate from places that freeze and rest in coastal groves. It’s a very unique experience along Central Coast California as they migrate between Canad ..read more