dindin with the ladies

we (angie, alisa, shellie and rachel) ventured out last night to a new restaurant called piebird.

recently opened and a neat idea.

the pimento cheese empanadas were fantastic and messy.

the five of us devoured them.

most of us got their hand pies which are small round savory pies with different ingredients.

2 of us, myself included, ordered the vegetarian black bean pie as one of our choices.

the first one was delicious.  the 2nd one turned out to be lamb.

i HATE lamb.

oh well... they were nice about it and brought us out new black bean ones.  apparently they had lamb pies the day before and they look identical.  the place is new and there is always a learning curve.

catch up

flew to the east coast last saturday (april 16) to see my peeps, attend carrie's wedding reception/party and see my sweet dog, elliot.

he lives with my parent's as he is technically the family dog but i claim him as mine.  more on him later...

cashed in more frequent flier points (haller-loo-yuh) and flew first class.

hot damn.

i think the sky even looks better from first class.

too bad i'm out of points....  back to the cattle car from now on...

hot towels, booze, hot nuts, lunch and warm cookies were served on the first flight.

lunch was a steak quesadilla, rice, salad, pita chips and cheese dip.  and more booze.

arrived in dallas and luckily made my layover.

back on the plane to head to raleigh.

dinner served.

cheese pasta, salad and some cheesecake.  and more booze.  what?!

reunited at last....

landed in a tornado devastated raleigh.  i missed the storm by a few hours...

horribly sad...

trees were down and debris was everywhere.

and this is just what i saw near downtown raleigh.  much worse everywhere else.

cuban heaven

last weekend i randomly picked this cuban restaurant out on yelp for lee and i to go to.

best.  pick.  ever.

it's called pambiche and you should run, not walk, there.

we were starving before we got there and happened to sit next to some nice people.

only in portland would the people at the next table insist that you try their food.

where else does that happen?!

my sister took this photo of me drinking my cuban bev.  hate the photo of myself but it's the only pic with the restaurant in the background.

and we were so hungry by the time the food arrived so this is all i got....  empty plates.

and then we had to take it over the top and get gelato.

deliciousness

first, let me start out by saying that i've been a slackie mcslackerton as far as blogging has gone.  sorry!  i'll try to do better.

second, i don't recommend trying a restaurant the same week that they are featured in portland monthly magazine.

lee wanted to venture out for pizza last night after reading the pizza article yesterday.  as we are heading out, she reads that our top 2 choices recommend lining up by 4:30pm if you want to get in.

um, it was already 4:45pm at this point.  shitballs.

so we decided on ken's artisan pizza and knew we'd have to wait.

as we drove down the block, we realized it was the place with the enormous line of people wrapped around the building.

patience.......................  i have none.

i dropped lee off to go wait in line and i searched for parking.

i think i forgot to mention it was below freezing last night....and we had to wait in line...outside.

we finally made it inside the door just in time for the entire restaurant to be sat which meant we had to wait for second seating.

dammit!

we were ushered to the back to wait.  they had stools (yay!) and a server to bring us drinks and bread (double yay!).

it was torture waiting 1.5 hours for a table and having to see the delicious food pass us by.  but somehow we made it.

the pizza was incredible with the wood-fired charred edges that i love.

i skipped taking photos of the food as we were too hungry to wait.

it was great and definitely comparable to my other fave place, lovely's fifty fifty.

next time, we'll be there at 4:25pm.

****************

if that deliciousness wasn't enough, we ended up at voodoo doughnuts in the NE section of town.

i think that sent us over the edge.

lee's choice with oreo's and peanut butter on top.

my new favorite place

uwajimaya.

it's my new fave store.

it's all things japanese and it makes me happy.  i can't believe i haven't been in there before.  i could spend HOURS in there and probably will next time i go.  it totally felt like i was back in japan and i wanted to stay.

but...the place wasn't perfect.

my worst nightmare as i think mayonnaise is the spawn of the devil.

they also had grapefruits the size of my head.

they were seriously enormous.

i would totally work there if it didn't smell like fish.

saturday

last saturday lee and i ventured out to try a new restaurant called isabel pearl for brunch.

one word:  yum.

we then attempted to walk around.  and by attempted i mean, lee hobbled with her leg cast on...

but we were more obsessed with the dog tied up outside than the neighborhood.

because let's be honest, i probably like dogs more than people a lot of the time.

it was a nice day though so we walked a few blocks.

then we went on an excursion to the beave to get froyo (lee's fave).

nothing like seeing this sign flipper.

once again, the sky was beautiful...

here comes the sun

the sun came out this morning.

and luckily stayed out the entire day!

insert happy face here.

lee (sister) and i went to get lunch after she was on call at the hospital all night.

i took her to the people's sandwich of portland.

she's a people's sandwich virgin and luckily she loved it.

ps.  people's sandwich is now offering:

lee insisted on her usual post call froyo but this time we decided to keep it in the downtown area.

she wasn't loving it so we ended up at pudding on the rice where, you guessed it, they serve rice pudding.

lee loved it and sampled everything.  every single one of them.

i had tart froyo which was equally yum.

now back to the sunshine...

we walked around a little bit.  i mean, when the weather is nice you have to grab it by the balls.

and random dude sleeping on the bench.  his tag said "security".  hmmm...

after getting home later, there was the hottest hot pink sunset ever.   i couldn't get my camera till it was almost gone...

i think i must be dreaming...

sun, is that you?

it's been so long since i've seen you that i think i must be dreaming.

whatever the case, i was glad to see you.  too bad you didn't stick around through today.

nope, you just couldn't do it, could you?  nothing but clouds today.  but i'm so not complaining because it did not rain today!

the clouds did not stop us today.  lee and i ventured up to the farmer's market in the neighborhood.

lee enjoyed a bagel with pumpkin, pesto and cream cheese.

and because of this, i couldn't stop staring at the booth that was selling local meat.

it was enormous and it kept looking at me.