angry chicken

the oregon coast

These photos are from our beach trip right after Christmas. The tide was so far in there wasn't much beach for walking. There were my favorite fish tacos from Local Ocean Seafoods however, which has the best seafood in Newport, in my opinion.

That trips feels far away, but also close, because we are in the middle of another weather episode here in Portland so things are shutting down again, which always feels like a beach trip to me. Everything slows down and is stuck in molasses. Or, I guess stuck in snow. We have food and power, so that's all good. And I can walk to the store. Having one child in school and two homeschooled makes "snow days" interesting. We have already had a few and probably will have one tomorrow.

• I have been trolling the amazing embroidery work over at ant sally on instagram. I am going to stitch something similar soon—they are so beautiful.

• Sadie and I watched The Fundamentals of Caring on instant Netflix and she liked it a whole lot. I saw it over the summer. Lots of swearing and older teen issues, and very well done.

• I'm between books so that means I pick up what we having lying around which is a lot of YA horror and paranormal. That's the trend over here right now. So, I am almost done with Frozen Charlotte and enjoying it quite a bit. Who doesn't love creepy little dolls that can eat flesh? The middle-school-aged V.C. Andrews fan in me is very excited by this book.

 

Kaua'i

Aloha!

We just got back from an amazing 8 days on Kaua'i. Pete and I went for our honeymoon 18 years ago and it's changed, but not that much. At that time, I never would have thought I'd be back 18 years later with 3 girls, all old enough to snorkel and boogie board. Pretty amazing. We stayed in a lovely condo at Nihi Kai Villas, which had a great kitchen—I cooked up a storm, buying fresh food from the farmer's markets and fell in love with the okinawan sweet potato in a big way. It's perfect to cook with, doesn't get mushy and has the best flavor. Delicious. It's hard to be back, the weather was amazing, we had perfect timing, because I'm told March can be very wet there. Here's a short list of some of our favorites-

Activities:

• Kipu Ranch Tour. Stupid fun. We both drove, it was the girls' favorite activity.
• snorkeling and boogie boarding at Poipu beach, which we could walk to from the condo
• Allerton Garden (kind of a yawn for the girls, but we loved it)

Food:

• Puka Dog
• Bubba's
• fish tacos from Savage Shrimp
• All the fresh fruit, fish and veggies at the local farmers markets

Other great random stuff:

• Fabric shopping at the Kapaia Stitchery
• Seeing Donny Osmond at our Budget car rental. He got a convertible red corvette. For real.
• The photo app my middle child told me about which I played with for 6 hours on the plane on the way home and I made the collages with —Mirror Collage.
• Finding out later that my two younger daughters made a movie during the plane ride there, and we didn't even know they were making it.

not a fish taco, but worth posting

This not a fish taco but it worth posting about because it was from Koi Fusion, which serves Koren tacos and it was from a location they have at the mall, which is a big deal. The food court at the the mall (Washington Square) has only typical foodcourt-mall-food, but they now have a Koi Fusion, which is so great. This one I ordered with kimchi. Delicious.

Unrelated:

2 podcasts I have enjoyed recently:

• A Conversation with Pema Chödrön and k.d. lang . You need to give them your e-mail (where is says register) to listen to this, and you don't get to hear k.d. lang sing, but it's very good and Pema is funnier than I have ever heard her before. I loved what k.d. lang had to say, and I was laughing at how funny and dry Tammi Simon is, who moderated the talk.

• This interview with Chery Strayed on Longform. I loved hearing her talk about writing her books, the difference between Tiny Beautiful Things and Wild, and about her process and how it all came down with the timing of everything. I had a ticket to hear her locally and I wasn't able to go, and I realized I had never heard her voice. Listening to this interview made be feel less sad about missing her lecture.

fish tacos from Azul Tequila

These delicious grilled fish tacos are from Azul Tequila, which is a cart at SE 28th and Division in  Tidbit Food Farm and Garden.

They were found by accident. My 12 year-old and I were walking by and stopped at waffle cart and then she was distracted by the double-decker bus that was actually a vintage clothing shop, and I found myself  in a trailer which was a lovely apothecary shop. On the way out (after hearing live improv clarinet music) we walked by this cart which sold, among other good looking items, fish tacos.

Here's how I know they were amazing. I loved them so much even though I wasn't even hungry. I would go back in a heartbeat. And they were cheap! Especially for the amount of fish. The fact that the fish was grilled, served with corn tortillas, and so simply prepared and fresh tasting make them a top fish taco experience for me.

fish tacos from the oregon coast

LOS Fish Taco: Grilled local catch, chili-garlic marinade, fennel slaw, avocado salsa verde, rice cake.

These fish tacos were from Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport, Oregon. They were absolutely delicious. They were also better than normal because I ate them alone.  Fish tacos are not date food, they really are messy. They also get cold so fast, I sort of scarf them. I can't really linger and chat while eating fish tacos. This place is so small and so popular eating alone at the bar was the way to go, otherwise I would have had a long wait. These were made with rock fish. Everything on this menu looks amazing. I need to go back. The fried rice cake on the side was a great touch.

"fish" tacos & fish tacos

Tres “Fish” Tacos  9.95
Crispy “fish”, green cabbage, original Baja sauce, cilantro,
fresh limes, with mashed avocado + tomato salad

This "fish" taco is from Veggie Grill. It's a vegan restaurant and the idea of having a fake fish taco was too awesome to pass up. This was not a destination-fish-taco event, but more of a fish-taco-opportunity. It found me. In general, I try to avoid fake meat products. There is quite a bit of delicious food here that features no fake meat, but for research, I had to order these. They were good! I also was starving. I did go back and ordered them again about a month later when I wasn't as hungry and they were not as impressive. The salsa was great. That was my overall take-away. That, and just being delighted I could add "fish" tacos to this category.


Grilled Fish Taco-
seasonal fresh fish, flour tortilla, shaved cabbage, jack cheese, pico de gallo, lime crema 6.50/9.95/14.95

This very sad photo of fish tacos from Chez Jose. The low light really hurts here. You can order these ala cart or with sides. The sides make the whole entree filling, but sort of punishing. Pete and I used to eat here a ton in high school and just remembered it this year. It's still there! These fish are good, but I have to be in the right mood (better for fall/winter eating) and have to NOT eat the chips for 15 minutes straight before the food comes.

3 fish tacos of varying quality

This is a fish taco from my kitchen. I used fish fillets (from a box in the freezer) and then greens, my daikon/carrot pickle, a sriracha-crema drizzle, and salsa. They were delicious. I'm not above using fish sticks. Especially the fish fillet ones. I heated the corn tortilla (wrapped in a wet paper towel in the microwave) before making these. Over the years it took me awhile to figure out how the make the corn tortillas hot/moist enough and this works great.

These fish tacos are from Uno Mas. "Mojo de Ajo | Fresh Rockfish with
Garlic Lime Marinade". This description was taken from their menu. These are some of my favorite fish tacos in Portland. They are a bit more than their regular tacos ($3.75 instead of $2) and very tiny. I ate these a little too fast and was talking to a friend at the time so I can't remember just how good they were right now, but I know I liked them.

These are my favorite fish tacos at the moment, but the worst to eat. It's a favorite in concept only. They are the "street style" fish tacos from our neighborhood Safeway. It writes itself. You can get 4 tacos for about $5.50 or so. There are two different kinds here—the fish and the chicken. The fish taco used fish sticks (not a good kind) and had so much mango salsa it was hard to taste anything else. The chicken tacos were fine, but I wonder now if that was only contrast to the fish. Pete said they were good, but he was starving. I was thrilled to be living on the edge by ordering these. Nothing bad happened.

fish taco from an airport

This came from the Anthony's at Sea-Tac airport on my way home from Santa Fe. I think this falls under the category of impromptu fish taco. It was grilled Alaskan rockfish with mango salsa, on a flour tortilla. It was very good, if a little overpriced. The idea of a fish taco from an airport seemed both funny and ill advised, but this was very good. I was pretty hungry when I ordered it. Then I had some fun at the Butter London nail salon while drinking a delicious Caffe Vita Coffee americano. The Seattle airport is pretty great!

fish tacos in Bend, Oregon

These blackened cod fish tacos were from the Sunriver Brewing Company. They were very good, a bit soupy, but that's often the case with fish tacos, it's not a complaint. They offered these with flour/corn blended tortillas, just corn, or no tortillas, which I thought was funny. A fish taco without a taco shell. I went for the corn. From the menu:

"pan seared blackened cod, shredded cabbage, chipotle aioli, pico de gallo."

I was really hungry when I ate these which means they were delicious. It was just Pete and I and we talked about the Murakami books we are both reading right now and got all weirded out discussing them.

These fish tacos were from Worthy Brewing Company in Bend and made with delicious blackened steelhead. They were made with flour tortillas which bummed me out. Again, I forgot to ask if they could use corn. I was quite pleased each taco had their own lime wedge. I love lime and never have enough. These were hard to eat with being gross, but the awkwardness of the avocado was well worth it. Fish tacos are not date food. The mango salsa was good. There were a lot of TVs in this place.

the Fish Taco Project

I love fish tacos. I sometimes forget this and then when I remember I get excited because they are so easy to find. They remind me of pizza—there is much variety and quality in this one dish. Fancy, fusion, good, bad, bad in a good way, so-so, and gross. They pop-up in unlikely places, which makes them even more exciting and at times questionable. Recently, I had 3 different fish tacos three days in a row (I only thought to photograph these two) and I felt the need to start this ridiculous yet delicious project.

These aren't really reviews of fish tacos exactly, more like descriptions. I can't really give them stars. That would be too difficult to figure out. I try to avoid any that are terrible, but when it comes to fish tacos, I'm not very picky. I find my enjoyment of a fish taco is directly proportional to how hungry I am when I'm eating them. I love how small they usually are, so I can grab one as a snack. I've had so many around town I thought I'd start to list them and take photos for fun because it's a blog so, you know, I can write about fish tacos.

Now, when I am out and about if I can find a fish taco nearby (especially if it's new to me) I feel I have completed a special mission. My family is patient and supportive. As I eat my fish tacos, I will add them to my new fish taco category. These are all in Portland unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to add your favorites in the comments.

These salmon fish tacos are from Fishbox, which is a cart on Belmont. They were delicious, spicy and very good. I do like corn tortillas better than flour, that's my only quibble. Maybe they can make them with corn tortillas, I didn't ask. I think this was grilled or blackened salmon. And I did say spicy, didn't I? These are a fusion type thing—I think some wasabi was in there. I liked them a whole lot, but the spiciness of the sauce kind of overpowered the salmon taste. Pete got the salmon sandwich which he said was amazing. 8/2014

These Baja fish tacos came from Salvador Molly's and they were very filling and tasty. They were so filling I couldn't eat the rice and beans. They have battered fish with a garlic-lime aioli crema and picked onions. They were very good, but heavy. I felt a little sad later, but I think that's because I don't do well with fried food in general, no matter how often I try to deny it. 8/2014