Echigo Goes Camping

(September 1st-2nd) I always enjoy going on a few camping trips every summer. With all of my work this past summer, though, I was woefully behind on my quota. So, to make up for it, Kim and I spent labor day up in the Northern corner of the Jemez. Of note, this was Echigo's first camping trip!

Kim with Echigo.

Soju perplexed by free-ranging cattle!

The view from our campsite as night was setting in. Echigo gave us quite a scare that night! As we were setting up camp, we had both Echigo and Soju tied off around trees by the area that we had designated for the fire circle, probably 40 yards away from where we were making camp. After we were almost done, I looked out from the tent and saw Echigo standing there. She was so frightened of being left alone that she chewed through her leash and came to find us. We were both scared witless though because the thought of 'what if she didn't come find us' floated through our heads. There's no way that we would have ever found her again! Yikes.

But, all's well that ends well. Here's Soju and Echigo plopped down to sleep after a long hike (4 miles or so for them).

The corner of the Jemez that we camped in is usually deserted. Very few people go this far North in the Jemez, so it was a lush wonderland of unspoiled nature for us to enjoy.

And, needless to say, the dogs thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to roll in new dirt and types of scat that they'd never smelled before. Here's Echigo on her island. As we hiked out, we came across a bow hunter who had just bagged his elk for the season. He was in the middle of field dressing the elk and carrying it out to his car, so Soju was absolutely head over heels in love with the smell of his clothes.

Next up, Matt's European Odyssey, 2013.

Elizabeth's 40th!

(August 23rd-24th) After Pascal returned to Stuttgart, my sister came up for the weekend. So, to celebrate her birthday in style, we had a brother-sister camping trip out into the Pecos wilderness. The trip up to the Pecos was a bit of a comedy of errors. Elizabeth arrived in Albuquerque fairly late, so we were a bit pressed for time to begin with. As we drove up into the Pecos, the first place that I had planned on us setting in turned out to be unreachable in my little old Geo. So, we turned around and headed for plan B...which turned out to be closed. Well, after two strikes, I decided to go with an old, reliable solution, and set us in near the Iron Gate. We had to hike quickly to get the several miles in that we were hoping for before making camp, as you can tell by the darkness of the photos from just after we reached a spot for base camp:

Despite my fears of having to set up camp in the dark, we somehow made it to a good camp site just in time to be able to set up and cook dinner with just barely enough light to see by.

Soju accompanied us on our excursion as well, and he was bushed by the time we settled in.

However, come the middle of the night, and morning, he made a full recovery, with this being the sight to which I woke up. Frighteningly cute.

Base camp, with Soju standing guard over our tents.

The view from our campsite, once we came out of the trees. After waking up, we set out to climb Round Mountain before heading back to Santa Fe...

Pecos Baldy.

The view from atop Round Mountain.

Elizabeth enjoying a meadow at the top of Round Mountain.

This exemplifies one of my favorite things about Albuquerque. Within an hour or two are all of these lush wildernesses to explore and to virtually have all to yourselves. Magical.

Pascal in Albuquerque

(August 18th-30th) As Pascal was such a gracious host during my trip to Stuttgart, I was determined to show him true New Mexican hospitality during his visit to the land of enchantment. During his two weeks here, we set out to do the typical New Mexican things:

We toured Santa Fe and the local breweries...

We took in an opera at the open air opera house just North of Santa Fe...

We enjoyed minor league baseball at it's finest. True story: the Albuquerque Isotopes, a AAA affiliate of the Dodgers, used to be called the Dukes (Albuquerque is the Duke city after all). After the Simpsons featured an episode in which Mr. Burns moved the Springfield Isotopes to Albuquerque, the management thought it was appropriate to change the name of the real Albuquerque baseball team to the Isotopes as well. I can't make stuff like that up!

We traveled to the top of the Sandias, and enjoyed drinks at the bar there while waiting for sunset...

And, of course, we provided Pascal with some serious, American steaks at Vernon's, when we weren't enjoying New Mexican cuisine, or other types of typical American food.

As always, it was too short of a visit, but we managed to get some work done together in preparation of my visit to Stuttgart a few weeks later...

Matt's Portland Food Blog, Part 2 of Many...

(August 10th and 11th, 2013) Funny how moving, teaching, and being overloaded at work can cause this blog to go on hiatus so abruptly, but we already knew that to be the case from last year! There're still four more restaurants in Portland from my trip that I'd like to mention. First, I'll start with Pok Pok's sister restaurant, Sen Yai. As you may remember how much I love Pok Pok, Sen Yai did not fail to deliver a great meal.

After a morning of hiking up and down Multnomah Falls, the Suki Haeng, pictured above, hit the spot. "Like sukiyaki, minus the soup, and fried instead. A clever Thai derivation of a derivation of the classic Japanese hot pot dish." The sauce was very interesting...slightly sweet but spicey at the same time.

This dish was pretty interesting, it was water spinach, which came as these hollow-tubed greens that you see. Before being served, they were lit on fire, which gave the already nice green flavor of the water spinach a nice, smokey compliment.

Kim ordered the Tom Yan, lemongrass in a coconut broth. Overall, superb! Savory, coconuty, and the seafood blended in well.

The next day, after visiting the Rose Garden and the Chinese Gardens, Kim and I took a walking tour of the Pearl district. After a while, as we still had some time to kill before dinner, we stepped into the Streetcar Bistro and Taproom. While we did have something to eat, our main objective was to sample more of the area beers...

First up: Two Towns' Rhubarbarian (a cider), Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial on Nitro, Magic Hat #9's Pale Ale, and the Grapefruit Lager by 10 Barrel Swill. These were five of about fifty beers that they had on tap...

Round two, because one is never enough, Black Bear Stout, New Belgium's Feijoa, the Pin Up Porter, the Proletariat Red, and the Whistling Pig.

The consensus after we finished all ten of those, Kim's favorite was the Grapefruit Lager by 10 Barrel Swill. This was almost like a cider in nature (probably why Kim loved it so much). My thoughts: well, if this was in Albuquerque, I'd be there every time I needed to go out to a bar. Fantastic experience overall. My favorite from these was the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial on Nitro. Something about serving a porter/stout on nitro just makes it that much better!

As we stumbled out of Streetcar, we were fortunate that we only had a few block to go until we reached dinner: Yama Sushi and Sake Bar. This is how sushi should be. As a preview, the daily specials:

Judging from all of the photos below, I think we had most of them...note the "live" entries above...

First up, the salmon sampler. You always have choices at good sushi restaurants as to what cut of fish you'd like. This extremely fresh dish let us try three different varieties at once. King, Fatty, and Wild. All were fantastic as I love Salmon as much as a bear during spawning season...

Next, fried razor clams. Clams are good, razor clams are so incredibly better. They were seasoned just right and, before I knew it, Kim and I had devoured the entire plate. Too good to savor that is.

The tuna tower is one of their signature dishes. It was worth trying, but about the only thing here that I wouldn't recommend (it was good, don't get me wrong, but there was so much more to try!). It starts off all pretty like you see it above, but then, you get to pretend you're Stitch after building San Francisco - you destroy the tower, blend it all up, and eat however you can with chopsticks. If it looks big in the picture above, it's at least twice as large as you think it is. Very deceptively large and filling - a meal in and of itself (thus why I don't recommend it, unless you're very hungry!).

And now the exotic part of the menu. Kim loves sea urchin (uni). So, having it live was something that we couldn't pass up. For those of you that haven't had sea urchin, here's my impression from the very first time I ate some. Remember the first time you had a fresh oyster? How it was slimey and you just kinda slurped it down? Okay, good. Keep that thought. Sea urchin isn't slimey per se, but it's got an unexpectedly interesting texture that you kinda just suck down once you get it to your mouth. Good, but, just like oysters, it takes a bit of getting used to.

Okay, the sea urchin was clearly not adventurous enough, so next up was live abalone. I'm always surprised by how tough it is, but it was delicious nonetheless.

A bit of a respite. This was the White Tiger Roll, which was wrapped in soy instead of seaweed. By far, my favorite dish: soybean sheet, tamago, eel, avocado, masago, and soft shell crab with unagi sauce. In case you don't know, I love eel (unagi)!
 

Next, the Yama Roll - essentially fried lobster. This was exquisite...after all, they named it after the restaurant.

Last up, live scallop. Oh so good. Yama is how sushi should be. It makes me miss Yoda's in Albuquerque...

Our final culinary stop of the trip was Tasty n Alder. This has quickly become my favorite brunch place in Portland!

We sat right next to the kitchen, which let us take a few notes for how everything was made. It's endlessly fascinating for me to watch chefs at work...

To wet our appetites, we started off with a chocolate potato doughnut. This reminded me of something from Culpeper...I can't put my finger on what though, but, despite the appearance, it wasn't too sweet. Just enough to warm us up for our meals...

To share, we had the potatoes bravas. The sauce was tomatoes, sriracha, possibly molasses (it was a little sweet). The potatoes were deep fried, then tossed in the sauce and served with an egg over easy. So good, and the sauce made the dish.

My main course was the beast of a sandwich shown above...the Steakhouse Sandwich. It was big, messy, and delicious. Just the way a sandwich should be. No condiments were needed as the flavors of the sandwich went perfectly together with the shoestring onions on top.

Kim's main course was the Duck Duck Steak. A duck egg, and a steak cooked in duck fat. This managed to infuse the flavor of the duck into the steak. A very unique and neat taste that's surprisingly hard to reproduce at home. I must not be using enough duck fat!

Well, that's all that I have for the Portland edition of my blog for now. Next up, Pascal visits New Mexico!