Portland: Day 3 - Pok Pok and Pix Patisserie

To cap off our long ass day, we had dinner at Pok Pok with my Knitting Diva's brother, who lives in the area which is in Southeast Portland. He is going to nursing school here and will graduate this June. Other than seeing him in my friend's photo albums and seeing him once at her wedding, I didn't really meet him until today. His suggestions on places to see and visit were quite helpful. It was also nice meeting someone whom we had a tiny bit of a connection with in Portland. See the Yelp reviews here. Pok Pok was also a suggestion from Kirk (thanks!) and a place I really wanted to try based on local Portland foodblogs.

The view as you approach the the patio...

Menu (click to enlarge)

We ordered about five items here. But first, here's the drinks...TC's coconut juice with strips of young coconut meat:

Bert's beer, Beerlao:

Here's my lychee drink. Refreshing!

One of the side orders was a small bowl of shrimp chips ($2):

[note - the descriptions of the food are lifted straight from their menu]

Kaeng Hung Leh ($12) -
Classic Northern Thai sweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry with ginger, palm sugar, tamarind, turmeric, Burmese curry powder and pickled garlic.

I believe this was KD's brother's choice. We all thought it tasted like a Thai version of pork adobo. This was one of the best dishes we had that night.

Papaya Pok Pok ($8) -

Green papaya salad with tomatoes, long beans, Thai chili, lime juice, tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, palm sugar, dried shrimp and peanuts made to order in the pok pok (mortar and pestle). Our namesake. Add Salted Black Crab $2.50

I added the salted black crab but didn't realize that the crabs would be so tiny. I think they are more for flavor rather than the meat. I liked the papaya salad - the sauce wasn't overwhelming either since I'm not into pungent. Maybe for purists it would have been the pussified version of papaya salad. We got it kind of tame since TC would be eating it too.

Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings ($12) -

Fresh natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce, garlic and sugar, deep fried, tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic and served with Vietnamese table salad. Our daytime grill cook Ich Truong’s recipe from his home in Vietnam.

Wow! These were awesome! They were very sticky and sweet and delicious! I could have eaten the whole plate, but this was really for TC...

Muu Paa Kham Waan ($12) -

Boar collar meat rubbed with garlic, coriander root and black pepper, glazed with soy and sugar, grilled over charcoal and served with chilled mustard greens and a spicy chili-lime-garlic sauce. Northern Thai drinking food.

This was my choice - I'd never had "boar" before so why not? The meat wasn't as "gamey" as I thought it would be, although there were one or two "tough" pieces in there. Everyone, except Bert tried this. I forgot to say that Bert had given up meat for Lent so his choices were restricted to non-meat items.

Here are the baby mustard greens on ice - I really liked the "bite" of the leafy greens. The ice was a nice touch.

Kuung Op Wun Sen ($14)

Wild caught gulf prawns baked in a clay pot over charcoal with pork belly, whiskey, soy, ginger, cilantro root, black pepper, Chinese celery and bean thread noodles. Chinese influence on Thai food in full evidence.

This was Bert's choice - since it was technically not a "meat" dish, but rather a noodle dish with seafood. You know, after reading the description, I just realized there was pork belly in here. Maybe he didn't eat those pieces or something. Anyhow, this was pretty good - I love the texture of glass noodles too.

We also ordered a side of sticky rice ($2) - Can't have Thai food without some sticky rice my friends!

View of the crowd as we left Pok Pok-

Glad we went here! None of that pad thai shit or panang curry!

Taco truckAfter dinner, we walked a few steps down to a nearby dessert place, Pix Patisserie. Reviews on yelp here.

There weren't too many people when we got there. Maybe it was still too early in the vening. The interior was clean with a few quirky wall hangings here and there...

KD's brother kept hearing about this place's beer float so he finally decided to try it out. Bert got the same one - this is Rogue's Ale (which is a chocolate flavored ale made in Portland) with chocolate ice cream. It tasted pretty good - and that's saying a lot for me since I am not a beer fan. There was bitterness from the beer and yes, it had a chocolate taste to it (not counting the ice cream scoop)!I ordered five different types of macarons. I forget the exact flavors but I believe the purple one was "cassis", the green was "pistachio", the pink was "raspberry", the yellow was "calamansi" (I was so excited when I saw that because, if you don't know it, "calamansi" is a Philippine citrus fruit!) and the brown was either hazelnut or mocha. Every city that we visit, if I happen to see macarons at a dessert place, I feel compelled to order it. I love how macarons look and taste. I love how they crackle ever so gently when you bite into them. OMG, I want one of these NOW!

Here's some retro looking artwork of saucer eyed children:

Sad to say, but I inhaled their macarons...I ended up buying a tube of them for my sis in law's belated bday gift.

One thing I have to say is the people we've met so far have been so friendly. Really. For example, the owners of the Velveteria, Carl Baldwin and his girlfriend, Caren Anderson - super knowledgable! And the two people we met while waiting for the Red Tri Met streetcar - an elderly man from Jordan who only needed to go up one block (he ended up walking) and a cheerful woman from Iran who had a picnic basket laden with goodies. She was on her way to a local park to meet some friends to usher in the Persian New Year.

It's meeting people like those folks that make visiting a new city so much more memorable. Turns out one of the streetcards had an accident, so it was quite late. Normally the wait isn't more than 10 minutes. It was about 30 before another car was sent over to replace the messed up one. I'm already thinking about where to go and what to see and most importantly, what to eat tomorrow!