Kitchen_Kaiju

June 2025

5-Spice Chicken Lunches 6/30

Easiest Lunch!~ Okay, seriously, it was easy for me! Justin made the marinade and the rice here. Only thing I can take credit for is making it look pretty. And adding veggies.

This is a recipe Justin got from a friend. I will have to feature it in my YouTube video next time I make it.

The veggies are a mix of cabbage, carrot, and onion I chopped up and some frozen broccoli. I cooked it in a bit of olive oil and some salt, pepper, and fresh ginger and fresh garlic. It turned out to be an awesome side dish to the flavorful chicken!

Garden Update + Visiting the Beach Too

6/28-6/29

This is the weekend I tortured myself by driving to Lincoln city, by way of Salem on Saturday, and to Astoria on Sunday.
My garden's doing well. Its the end of June and my carrots are growing a lot. So are the tomatoes!
I planted evertything you see here from seed. I feel pretty proud~ especially of the red lettuce!!
The lily plants were a surprise... I thought they were lost and so I planted as if they weren't there! Whoops.

Its great to catch up with friends. Doing so on the beach on a sunny day is the BEST. We went to Fogarty Beach just south of Lincoln City. It happened to be really sunny and just a tad windy.

Sunday, we visited Astoria. We traveled to Youngs River Falls Park. Then found our way to Bowpicker(best fish and chips around!). We walked up the Astoria Column. 164 steps to the top! If you aren't careful, vertigo will claim you!!
We had a half-pint of the Churro Cavatica at Fort George Brewery, then went to see the shipwreck at Fort Stevens. It was a ton of fun, and a very long day. We stayed until sunset (my first coast sunset for almost a decade!).

It was worth it.

Lunch w/a friend 6/27

My good friend Max and I gathered to have lunch at some food carts. Enjoying our time talking about Jason Statham movies - among other things! - we could not agree on the film The Beekeeper. I thought it was great! Knowing its kinda cheesy, I felt it worked well. Not to mention, the action scenes! Yes, it was over-the-top, but I thought it was fun.
She found it unbelievable and a little too off the wall~ To each their own! As an adult, I have found it is valuable to have friends that have different opinions on things. Even if it's just regarding Jason Statham films. LOL

I enjoyed some food at the food carts. This was the Mild Chicken at Soul Korean Fusion Hillsboro. It was delicious! Def Recommend.

Dinner @ Boke Bowl 6/26

This restaurant is one we visit AT LEAST every other month. It's a bit of a drive to get into Portland for us - especially if its peak traffic time! On bad days, it takes us 45 minutes from our house to get here. But - the food is WORTH IT!

Boke Bowl is a restaurant dedicated to making in-house fusion food. The asian offerings are an easy starting place for people not familiar with ramen or asian flavors. Their menu has rice bowls, ramen, steamed buns, salads, and more!

They also feature a "Boke Bird" on their menu only on Thursdays. Its a whole(or half) bird cooked Korean style. Comes with rice and house made pickles. It's a feast you take your friends to because its a lot of food! :)

They were also featuring "Portland Nacho Week" this week. The description for the nachos reads: "Grilled lemongrass pork with Serrano chile and lime leaf queso served over our house fried crispy Asian wonton chips. Meat & Vegetarian Option with smoked tofu!" (Pictured below)

Dinner 6/24

Starting with the cod, I grabbed two frozen 4 ounce packs from the freezer and thawed them out. I then dried them and put them in a small frying pan with a tbsp of butter. I seasoned with a bit of Lawry's Garlic Salt (the green cap!) and some RED MORTAR Louisiana Hot cajun seasoning. I cooked it well on both sides.
The pasta is wheat spaghetti noodles - cooked al delte - and I threw it with some frozen peas and carrots I peeled into thin strips. The pesto sauce was a mix of store bought and homemade and from the freezer. It was a leftover kale pesto I made in my "healthy spaghetti" episode on my youtube channel. Check it out HERE!

In the end it took me about 30 minutes to get this plate made. I hope this inspires you~

After eating dinner I watched Disney's live action Aladdin, for only the second time. It was cheesy - I'll admit. But I love the soundtrack. Will Smith did an awesome job. And the director - Guy Ritche - Who thought he'd go from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to Aladdin!? The guy is phenomenally talented. I will continue to catch his movies when I can.

~ Until next meal!

Pesto Spaghetti + Pan Fried Cod

The Slide Inn - Eating in Portland, OR

If you ever get a chance to eat brunch in Portland may I recommend The Slide Inn? It's around the corner from (AND WAY BETTER THAN) the famous "Screen Door" off Burnside St. We've been many times and always enjoy the experience and the food. I could write a whole page on the eccentricity of the place and the delicious food. Please go if you get a chance.

This particular morning I had the Eggs Benedict. The owner, Eugen, is the sole chef and waiter. (Most items are completely made from scratch in his kitchen including the mustard!!) It has homemade bread, topped with a small slice of ham and beautifully cooked kale with a poached egg and homemade hollandaise sauce. It was $18 and Worth. Every. Penny!
The homemade rye bread is also to-die-for.

Left/Above: Photos of Interior at The Slide Inn ; Below: Homemade Hollandaise Sauce on Eggs Benedict

Trip to Seattle - June 2025

We went on a food tasting trip to Seattle, Washington.

One of our favorite things we did was try a dairy free ice cream shop called Frankie & Jo's in Capitol Hill. It was walkable from our hotel. Here's the link to their website! https://frankieandjos.com/

They have a flavor called Salty Caramel Ash. Straight from their site: "A luxurious, imaginative salted caramel ice cream blended with activated coconut charcoal and sea salt." IT TRULY IS LUXURIOUS.
Thank you Frankie & Jo's for making our evening (2 nights in a row!).

One other highlight in our trip is a restaurant we visited called Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen. Justin had yet to try African food before our trip and I had only had an Injera dish with lentils and various curries on it-once.

Gold Coast specialized in Liberian and Ghanaian cuisine. From our hotel, we walked straight uphill for about 7-8 blocks. It was difficult! But when we got there, the staff were great and very helpful. I had heard of Fufu before but never tried it. For those of you who do not know what it is, it is a cassava flour bread. Its extremely moist and the texture is very sticky and like doughy mashed potatoes. Its hard to describe!
We ordered a vegan peanut soup with shimeji mushrooms and ordered fufu on the side, and a dish of cassava leaves with shredded chicken, dried crayfish, and smoked fish. The entire meal was delicious! See image of the fufu and peanut soup below.

Miso Mashed Potatoes ; Broccoli and Kamaboko ; Soy Sauce Flavored Canned Mackerel Dinner 6/19

Okay~ so my driving force in this dish is related to this can of mackerel we got at Uwajimaya. They sell soy sauce flavored mackerel in a can. "How cool is that?" I thought.

Turns out: that can still includes the bones attached to the mackerel. Not ideal. I had no idea when I bought it because the entire can is labled in Japanese!
Still, I pulled the spine bone out of the pieces of fish in the can and I tried to pull out some of the small bones, but they started disentagrating as I touched them! Scrap that - lets just mash the whole thing on the stove as I heat it up and hope it disentagrates the rest. XD
Thankfully, it turned out in the end and I couldn't taste any bones when I went to eat it. Extra protein for the win?

The mashed potatoes are 4 small purple potatoes boiled with two red potatoes. Then I added some water and some unsalted butter and mashed it with a tablespoon of shiro miso. In the end I added some chopped green onion.

The broccoli (surprisingly!) was the take away dish here. It tasted the most plain- but Justin called it the best part of the dish - by far.
Kamaboko (Imitation Crab) with frozen broccoli and I added a tiny amount of mushroom flavored dark soy sauce.

I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Home

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse