What I've been eating while staying in hotels...and the reason I need a kitchen. FAST!

Yes the food is delicious. But dear god I cannot wait until I have a kitchen. It's so hard to eat out 3 meals a day AND find healthy options. That being said, I love me some comfort food. :)

A lunch: as we were wandering around looking for furniture options, we decided to get a burger. We've seen Five Guys Burgers around and thought, hey - let's pop in there. Seriously good cheeseburger, my friends! They have a great philosophy of all fresh ingredients - they don't even have freezers. The meat is delivered every day, and the potatoes are in huge sacks in the dining area (and there's even a chalkboard to tell you where the potatoes from - not just the state, but the FARM). Great atmosphere and seriously good food. I ordered my burger & fries, and keith did the same. The lovely girl at the register said "are you sure you each want fries? They generally can serve 2 people." Now I don't like to be challenged - even when somewhere inside of me I know the person "challenging" me has more information and is likely just trying to help. Yet my immediate response was "no, I want my own." Glutton. :) So the food arrives (or rather the energetic guy behind the counter yells "Guest Number 18" over the noise and keith retrieved our food) - and when you're unsure about what protocol is proper in a new place, just look around. Everyone had pulled their hamburgers out from the brown paper sacks, and then ripped open the sack to devour the fries inside. I did the same. Delicious. Fattening. Delicious.

A dinner: we are staying in between no-where and no-place right now (best option for dog friendly hotels on a budget). We've driven past Buster's Texas Style Barbecue plenty of times in the last few days, so I thought we'd give it a try. Tonight is the big night - the last HARRY POTTER movie at midnight, so we needed something to fortify ourselves for the amazing, magical and heart-wrenching journey we're about to take (I know, I know...I can't help myself). The restaurant is set up cafeteria-style, which is actually a lot of fun. I got baby back ribs & chicken with mashed potatoes, bbq beans and a beer. Probably 4 days worth of calories in one meal. But yummy in my tummy indeed! There's a "fixin's" bar with all kinds of things you can add on (including making your own salad for free) - and there are tubs of their homemade bbq sauce. I opted for mild, keith went with sweet. Probably a combination of the two would have been even better. Very nice food - don't forget the wet-nap at the fixin's bar. And I can also definitely say one more thing - food service guys in Oregon are damn hot. :)

Beaverton Farmers Market

We move into our new apartment on Saturday. We'll be living in Beaverton, Oregon. One of the ways I love to get a feel for a new area is by taking self-guided walking tours. I found a great book with 50 walking tours of Portland (and all the surrounding areas). So in anticipation of making Beaverton our home (we're on the outskirts of the city, but still...), we did the Beaverton walking tour. It started in the center of the town at a big park near the library where I learned something fantastic about Beaverton - there's a HUGE Beaverton Farmer's Market on Saturday's! I mean HUGE - something like 15,000 people come through on Saturday. I cannot wait to try it out!! More to come, I'm sure!

the hotel "kitchen"

Finally I could stand it no longer - despite the meager kitchen set-up, I raided Safeway for some fresh produce. I was craving fresh food - but more specifically food that had only been touched/handled/prepared by ME (another control issue, but I prefer knowing everything that is in my food at times). This was the best I could do given the situation - the shallow & small dishes forced me to cook vegetables & chicken separately. I had to buy pre-crushed black pepper (GASP)! :) Thankfully the meal turned out great, and was exactly what I needed. Nothing too special, just a BUNCH of vegetables* sauteed in some olive oil, salt & pepper - the chicken I cooked in a little garlic-infused olive oil. Then I just piled everything together on a plate!

*I went visual with the vegetables - some bright peppers, a big carrot, some baby bok choy. But my favorite addition was the Walla Walla sweet onion. Where I grew up, we had Vidalia sweet onions. That's very typical in the east (they're brought in from the Vidalia region down south). But out west we have the Walla Walla sweet, from Walla Walla, Washington. Delicious! I would be hard pressed to say which is better, but I do love the Walla Walla!

Cocktails are a necessity

We've been in hotel limbo for weeks now, and it's truly starting to get to me. I've gained weight because I can't cook for myself (and I have limited will power when I go out to eat). I haven't exercised (have you SEEN some of the hotel exercise facilities), and I'm seriously going crazy without my own kitchen. We move in on Saturday, so hopefully I'll be able to gain some sanity again (not to mention the 24 hour work out facility AND the pool...those will help tremendously!). So how have we been surviving thus far? Simple:

Cocktails, and more cocktails. :) Over the weekend we met a new friend (previously a digital/email friend), Kevin. We had some fantastic Gin & Tonics - the gin is from a local distillery and I may need to get that info from Kevin again. I haven't had a good gin & tonic in a while, and I want some more. After drinks, I took keith to a steakhouse for dinner (sorry Kevin, I know you're a vegetarian and it felt kind of wrong going from you to steak...but I go where my stomach demands). The food was great, but more to the point it was my first Scotch since St. Louis (and the incomparable Holly!). So I enjoyed my scotch & soda while keith imbibed on a cucumber martini. Delicious!

BJ's with friends & the first corn on the cob

As we continued our trek across this vast country, we made a stop in Denver. The plan was to visit Kate & Deb - who have lived in Denver for YEARS and we've yet to make it out there. So this was the perfect opportunity. The surprise was that we didn't tell Deb we were coming - and her reaction when we popped out in front of her door was fantastic! So what to do when we pop into Denver? Find some place to eat, of course.

Kate & Deb took us to Lala's for lunch and had some fantastic Italian deviled eggs, grilled artichokes and a really nice sliced steak salad (not pictured, unfortunately). The food was really nice, the wine was fantastic, and the company was perfection.

The next day we went into Boulder for some window shopping. We stopped in at a chain called BJ's for lunch (thus the title of this post). keith and I got a flight of 8 different beers - yummy! Kate's daughter, Beth, convinced me that getting one massive and massively stuffed baked potato was an ideal lunch. And it was. No pics of the food, but here are the fantastic gals we spent lunch with. The beer was ranged - based on taste. I'd go for the red again, or maybe even the stout. Delicious!

Kate & Deb

keith, Chris & Beth

Sunday night we had a cookout at Kate's house. Her husband George was grill-master, but took my advice about the corn on the cob he picked up early in the day: husk ON!! So we soaked them a bit in water, and then onto the top level of the grill for 30-40 minutes and the corn was perfect. It was my first of the season, and I couldn't stop congratulating George on a job well done. There's nothing that saps the flavor out of a great cob of corn like boiling it - which is what my family has always done! So if you don't have a grill, leave the husk on and pop the cobs into a 350 degree oven (on a baking sheet) for about 30 minutes. Peel back the husk and use as a handle, and the corn hair comes right off the top. The husk adds amazing flavor - don't neglect it! I hate it when I see people at the grocery store or farmers market husking their corn before taking it home. Such a waste!

Me after enjoying my first corn of the cob of the summer!

On a final note, we've made it to Portland. Tonight I couldn't resist and managed to cook something in the tiny hotel kitchen (chicken, walla walla sweet onions, red peppers, garlic, spinach, parmesan cheese, and farfalle pasta)!

Holly - Niche - St. Louis - cigars & scotch

The first leg of our journey west was nothing all that special (I'm talking food here - obviously seeing our families was a highlight!). And then we arrived in St. Louis, MO. Having emailed back and forth with Holly for months, we decided it was the ideal opportunity for us all to meet and for her to show off her city! Side note about Holly - we met because of the blogs. She and I have had some fantastic and lengthy email exchanges, and covered a ton of various topics. However it always comes back to food. So I knew she would take us somewhere amazing. She showed up at the hotel with gift bags (for ALL - including Max), filled with local goodies (and in true Holly fashion, the gift bags were specialized - mine was much more savory, keith's was deliciously sweet).

We started with a quick walk over to Union Station for some Grey Goose martinis (with olives, mine dirty) before heading to dinner. Holly had mentioned the restaurant Niche, and I was sold from her description. She had been wanting to give it a try, and this was a perfect opportunity to share our love of great food. The restaurant had a great feeling as soon as we walked in - the atmosphere was inviting and relaxed. After ooo-ing and aah-ing over the menu for a few minutes, we decided that - as a table - we could not resist the Chef's Tasting Menu.

First course: Maple Custard. The custard was gently piled into the bottom of an egg shell. There were delicious morsels of roasted mushrooms on top, and the entire thing was topped with a generous pile of bonito caviar. Fantastic explosions of flavor throughout this tiny little dish. From the salty pop of the caviar to the creamy sweetness of the custard - these were definitely flavors I would never have been brave enough to put together on my own. Which is why I love experiencing the creativity of an excellent chef.

Second course: Lobster. The lobster was cooked perfectly, and all of the components of the dish meshed fantastically. However I have to give total props to the brown butter hollandaise. It was creamy and delicious and gave you the butter flavor you wanted for the lobster as well as the creamy texture that complimented the dish as a whole.

Third course: Pig Head Fagottini. This was one of the dishes that made us really excited about the menu - I was sold when the waitress said it was actually pig jowl meat. YES - bring it on! And I should say at this point that Holly and I have some fun things in common - one of which is how vocal we are when we eat. Not necessarily talking - but non-verbal appreciation of the food we're enjoying. Lots of moaning and sighing. Amazing food is definitely orally orgasmic. :) Back to the pig jowl - unfortunately it was the weakest part of the meal. The strawberry juice was hard to find in the flavor of the dish, and the meat was certainly not the star. The big flavor of the dish was the pasta cups - and unfortunately pasta just isn't a strong enough flavor to carry a dish. Instead it just created a bit of a bland note. However by the third bite I was tasting more of the components, and perhaps that was the chef's plan.

Fourth course: Sorbet. The sorbet was lemon & basil and was one of the most fantastic things I've put in my mouth in a while. Cold, tangy, herbacious and amazingly fragrant. The basil flavor was wonderfully strong and delicious, and the sorbet did exactly what it was supposed to do - it cleansed our taste buds to prepare us for what was to come.

Fifth course: Beef. This was, in my opinion, the best course of the meal. The tenderloin was cooked perfectly, and the mixture of fava beans, peas and mint was outstanding. Yet the stand out had to be the ramp hollandaise - I could have licked the plate clean (and nearly did).

Sixth course: Rhubarb Napoleon. Perfect and light ending to a gorgeous meal. The rhubarb was as it should be - tart and not too sweet. And while we did not follow the wine suggestions for the menu (we started with a bottle of Illumination - Sauvignon Blanc, and ended with a delicious Chardonnay), I don't think we needed them. This was an outstanding meal, and we got to share it with one of the most fantastic people in all of St. Louis. But the evening didn't end there!

Holly had one more surprise up her sleeve - the address of a cigar bar. SWOON! We hopped in a taxi and shuttled off to Charles P. Stanley. We piled right into the cigar room - keith and I both took suggestions and bought some cigars, while Holly went for something that could be inhaled. :) And with cigars & torch in hand, I finished the package with a glass of Macallan 12 year old scotch. We sat and talked about everything from friends to kids to relationships to sex. An amazing evening in St. Louis, all thanks to the amazing Holly. Thank you for such a fantastic evening - I can't wait to show you around my food favorites in Portland!

Tin foil bag of meat

Before I talk about the amazing time we had in St. Louis with Holly, I have to show you the mysterious tin foil bag of meat that we received today. After walking around the Arch in St. Louis, and then driving all day in the heat (it got up to 106 today), we hit our hotel and decided to be lazy - and to order something in. The hotel highly recommended a local pizza place - The Big Cheese - so we gave it a try. I desperately needed something fresh so I ordered the chef salad. And along with the salad and the pizza, this sack of greasy meat arrived. I have no idea if it was supposed to be for the salad, or the pizza. But I couldn't bring myself to try it - instead I just snapped a photo and tossed it out. But I'm still curious - what is the bag of meat for, and how did it become something that the restaurant includes separately?  There must be a story there...

What to do in Salina, Kansas

Thanks to Holly, we found a halfway point between St. Louis and Denver - Salina, Kansas. Unfortunately it's in Kansas. So - again - thanks to Holly, we've managed to make the evening a wonderful success. It simply took the gift of a bottle of Pomegranate Vodka (seriously, I will be hunting this down once we're settled, it's delicious!), cranberry juice, and lime - all of which were part of our "welcome to St. Louis gift bags" from the more than fabulous Holly! You showed us an amazing time in St. Louis (more to come) and you saved us in Salina!!