Dreaming of lime gerbils in a cheese sauce

I made a quick weekend trip to Portland, catching the 07:30 train down there Saturday morning (almost missed it because the bus took a re-route that got me to the station well after they'd started loading - I was the last passenger to board). I met up with two friends (Poni and Z) and we went to Flavor Spot for lunch.

NUMMY! Waffles as sandwich. I don't think I'd make a special trip just to get them but if I were in the neighborhood I'd certainly drop in.

We went to the Japanese Garden and I took several hundred photos. It's a very well done garden with lots of winding paths that make it look much larger than it is. Some of my pictures even came out, I think.

After the garden we went to Joel Palmer house for dinner. This time we splurged and had their Mushroom Madness tasting menu.

Oh dear. It was expensive but oh so worth it.

- Started with a mushroom risotto with truffle oil
- next was a tomato & mushroom soup
- then half a portabello stuffed with locally made Gouda cheese and drizzled with a red pepper sauce ... then the chef owner came by and dropped about $10 worth of Oregon black truffle on our three plates.
- then a mushroom tart
- then a halibut on rice with a ginger & soy & chantrel sauce
- then a pork stew with papardelli noodles and more sliced truffles
- and then a 3-item dessert dish with black truffle ice cream (and more sliced truffle), a very light cheesecake (more of a ricotta pie) and a chocolate torte type thing.

After dinner we returned to Portland. Z headed home but Poni and I stayed up chatting for an hour or so and then fell asleep.

This morning Poni and I went to brunch at a Scandinavian place where we met up with another friend of mine (met over 10? 11? 12? years ago at a Usenix conference) and his wife. Brunch was great. We waited about an hour for a table but I think it was worth it.

After brunch Poni and I headed over to the Chinese Garden and I took another 100 or so pictures then we went over to Voodoo donuts where I picked up 4 different donuts (they were all out of buckets of day-old, darn it) and then back to the train station for the trip home (stopping at a Dim Sum place to pick up some Bao for me to eat on the train).

My train luck was better than it has ever been. We arrived at Seattle's King Street station such that I got to the bus stop about 1 second before the bus that takes me home pulled up. The trip home took just over 4.5 hours from when Poni dropped me at the station to when I opened the door to my house.

A good, but exhausting, weekend. I'm really glad I got to see people and wander around Portland. It was a bit sunny both days, I think I got a bit of a burn even, but the weather was otherwise very nice.