SeaPort 2013: Day 6 - Portland

It was the first full day in Portland and the sun was shining. Jeremy and I walked down a couple blocks to the pre-researched bike rental location called Western Bike Works. They have "cruisers" for day rentals, or you can do a 3-day deal for $50/bike. This worked out wonderfully as we needed them for the next 3 days. After getting all set with helmets, locks, and bike tune-ups, we were on our way. Applauding Jeremy's directional skills as well as his experience in city riding, I felt that I was in good hands. We knew we wanted to hit up Tasty N Sons for brunch in the Northeast, and lucky for us they serve brunch every day of the week. As expected, we enjoyed a very delicious brunch. We started with the sweet biscuits with homemade whipped cream and blueberry compote and an iced coffee. They provide quite the serving of coffee I'd like to add. A full glass plus an additional carafe to refill. We then moved onto The Bambino Plate which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, and a savory biscuit with honey butter. Lastly, we shared a delicious rendition of shakshuka. Now Jeremy has never had shakshuka, and I have had it several times homemade in Israel, homemade myself, and in other middle eastern restaurants. I love shakshuka and this was a wonderful dish. There were plenty of peppers and onions cooked down and the tomato base was the perfect amount of spicy (enough for a kick, but not too much that you can't taste anything else). There were 2 baked eggs sunnyside up on top that made it easy for splitting, and it was accompanied by unlimited toast. So, for $25 this was not only reasonable, but probably our best breakfast/brunch on the trip.

After brunch, we set off to tour the city by bike. We found a little farmer's market downtown at Shemanski Park and checked out some of its offerings. Since it was a gorgeous 70 degrees and sunny, we strolled around and lounged in the sun for a bit. We then took a ride down to the Waterfront Park. It was a pretty good ride down there and all around the west and east side parks, but there is a great trail to follow and it was a perfect day for it. 

After our big ride, we came back to the hotel to rest and hang on the rooftop. We then got picked up by my cousin and his girlfriend and went to Andy Ricker's Pok Pok for dinner. We had read all about this Thai place, especially now that there is one in Brooklyn, but we haven't made it there yet. We didn't originally have it on our list because it is not very close to the hotel, but this worked out superbly. We enjoyed many dishes at Pok Pok: 2 orders of Vietnamese fish sauce wings (one spicy, one mild), Pet Pha Lo- stewed duck, Kaeng Hung Leh- Thai sweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry, and Muu Sateh- pork loin skewers marinated in coconut milk with peanut sauce and bread to make a sandwich. We enjoyed a few unique cocktails as well: Jeremy had the Whiskey Sour and I had the Vodka Collins with salted plum. Overall, we enjoyed the meal very much. The cocktails were well balanced and went well with the meal. The spicy wings were not too spicy, which was preferred. These "wings" were also quite large, each one was both the drum and the flat. The meat on the pork belly and duck were both so tender they fell right off the bone. In fact, they don't even give you a knife because you don't need it. Both of those dishes were served in a flavorful broth and you need to order rice on the side to pair with it. We had 2 orders of jasmine rice. The pork sateh was fine, but more of an appetizer. It actually looked like chicken, and was a little dried out. The peanut sauce was yummy though. We opted out of dessert since we all were stuffed and concluded our evening by getting dropped back off at the hotel. All in all, a successful day one!