St Honoré Boulangerie

Posted on September 16, 2012 by beckyajohnson

Since we’re finally settled into our new apartment, we ventured out this morning in search of second breakfast at St Honoré Boulangerie in northwest Portland. Named for the patron saint of baking, St Honoré is a classic French bakery with two locations in the metro Portland area — one in Lake Oswego and the one we visited at NW Thurman & NW 23rd  in Portland’s Nob Hill neighborhood.

We visited the bakery at 9:30 AM on a Sunday, and although it was fairly crowded, we were able to order our food within 5 minutes of waiting in line. Fortunately, we were also able to score a table on their patio so we could enjoy the beautiful late summer weather.

They have any extensive selection of traditional French breads such as couronne and pain de campagne, croissants, fruit tarts and other pastries, soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts.

Both the tarte citron and opera cake looked tempting, but I opted for the seasonal grillé aux pommes, which featured locally grown apples from Kiyokawa Family Orchard in the Hood River Valley. The pastry had a light, buttery flavor and texture similar to a croissant, and the carmelized apple filling was not overly sweet. While it was tasty, it was served at room temperature and would have been better served slightly warm.

The husband chose the tarte aux pommes fines and a traditional pain au chocolat to save for later. Apparently these apple pastries will be available through November.

The apple pastries were reasonably priced at $3.90 per slice and the pain au chocolat was $2.50 — comparable to what I used to find at bakeries in Switzerland. If I come here again, I’ll definitely have to try the bread and the opera cake.

St. Honoré Boulangerie on Urbanspoon

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A New Path

Posted on September 14, 2012 by beckyajohnson

Earlier this week my husband and I made the 2-day trek from our former home in Las Vegas, Nevada to our new home in Hillsboro, Oregon. When planning our journey, we decided to take the road less traveled between these two cities — a route neither of us had been on before — to symbolize the new road that this move will lead us down in life.

Day one we drove the US-93 from Las Vegas to Twin Falls, Idaho. Most of the day was spent driving through the Nevada desert. Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge — about 90 minutes north of Las Vegas and just south of the town of Alamo, Nevada — was one of the most scenic sites of the day.

Much of the scenery in Nevada looks like this:

We stopped for a quick lunch at the Hotel Nevada coffee shop in Ely, Nevada. We’d previously stayed at this hotel during our road trip to Great Basin National Park a few years ago.

This vegetarian mediterranean wrap with sweet potato fries satisfied my taste buds while the husband dined on prime rib.

We got delayed a bit by an afternoon thunderstorm and road work about an hour north of Ely.

While driving through the state of Nevada, there’s typically about 2 hours in between towns. Many of these towns only have a few thousand residents. Most have at least one casino, like this casino in Wells, Nevada. While we didn’t gamble, the adjacent convenience store made for an excellent rest stop.

We spent the night just north of Twin Falls, Idaho. The Snake River Canyon was about 2 miles from our hotel. I’d love to go back and explore it someday. I’d only been to Idaho once before, and that was in transit back from Yellowstone National Park when I was 9 years old.

On Day 2, we hopped on the I-84 just north of Twin Falls and took it all the way in to Portland. About hour into our journey, we stopped at AJ’s Restaurant in Mountain Home, Idaho for a quick breakfast.

I ate most of this enormous veggie omelet with hash browns and sourdough toast. No wonder I gained about 5 pounds during our week on the road. Thankfully, I am doing a detox diet this weekend.

The I-84 nearly parallels the old Oregon Trail. As a child of the 80s, I geeked out along the way, reminiscing about my favorite childhood computer game. They had Oregon Trail info kiosks at most rest areas. I was thankful I got to make the journey in a car, rather than travel over Deadman’s Pass via covered wagon and cross The Dalles with a raft.

Just after crossing The Dalles, we made our final rest stop just east of the town of Hood River. This stretch of the I-84 parallels the Columbia River on the north and Mount Hood on the south and is a National Scenic Byway. This was our scenery for much of the way.

We love our new apartment and neighborhood in Hillsboro, but are still unpacking and getting settled, so we haven’t had much time to explore the area yet. I’m looking forward to many new adventures to come.

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Karate Beach Training

Posted on September 10, 2012 by beckyajohnson

As one last hurrah before our big move, my husband and I drove down to Solana Beach — near San Diego — for my Las Vegas dojo’s annual beach training.

James and I arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, so we headed to an early dinner at Parioli’s Italian Bistro. It’s conveniently located between the Marriott and Holiday Inn hotels on Highway 101.

We split a bottle of the Borsao Granaja wine and I indulged in the pappardelle pasta with lobster & sea scallops. The pasta was thick housemade spinach noodles and the sauce was a heavy rose sauce, but lighter than an alfredo. It was actually heavier on the seafood than the pasta.

For dessert, this Frangelico Chocolate Mousse hit the spot.

Breakfasts on both Saturday and Sunday were enjoyed at Beach Grass Cafe, also off of Highway 101 in Solana Beach. My dojo loves this place, and we eat here every year.

I recommend their housemade granola with Greek yogurt and homemade blackberry preserves…

…and the baked eggs. They have a similar consistency to hard-boiled eggs with a light layer of parmesan cheese. The grilled baguette was an excellent addition.

Of course, the highlight of the weekend was actually training on the beach.

We practiced our sparring techniques in the Pacific Ocean…

…and I tested for my blue belt, since I will already be in Oregon when our dojo’s belt test takes place next weekend.

Saturday afternoon we went for a hike at Torrey Pines State Reserve.

The hike back up from the beach was a bit daunting after 2 hours of karate earlier in the day, but the views were well worth it.

We were also able to witness the wedding of two other members of my dojo on Saturday evening. Such a beautiful setting…

Now the weekend fun is over and we’re mid-transit to Oregon.

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The Poet of Baghdad Book Review

Posted on September 4, 2012 by beckyajohnson

The Poet of Baghdad: A True Story of Love and Defiance tells the epic story of the Yasin family — beginning in 1954 (before the Ba’ath Party began its near-half-century reign in Iraq) up until 2004, when Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime had been overthrown at the hands of the U.S.-led occupation. Central to the story is the family’s third-born son, Nabeel, a poet who had been labelled an ‘Enemy of the State’ by the Ba’athist government and who had been living in exile in Europe with his wife and children since 1980.

In an attempt to clarify some confusion, it appears the book was originally published as Nabeel’s Song: A Family Story of Survival in Iraq. I am not sure why the title was changed, and unfortunately I could not find a large enough image of either book to share in this post.

Like many recent works of narrative non-fiction written by a third-party, the author, Jo Tatchell, has completely removed herself from the story. The book reads like a novel, and although recounting real life events, the author has done an excellent job of creating likeable characters, building tension and developing the plot. As in my reading of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, I was left wondering about the author’s research methods in creating this book, and whether it was 100 percent factual or fell prey to occasional artistic license to move the story along.

Nabeel Yasin grew up in a family that valued education for all its children, regardless of gender. Both of his older brothers were politically active against the Ba’ath Government, with one of them frequently imprisoned for being a Communist. With his family already noted as being political dissidents, while in his early 20s, Nabeel himself was captured and brutally beaten by the Ba’ath Party’s Secret Police after a public reading of his politically-charged poem The Poets Satirize the Kings. One of his sisters goes on to become a doctor, and despite being one of the top students in her medical school class, is frequently discriminated against in her profession based on her family ties. A younger brother, Tariq, is conscripted into the army during the war with Iran, and given an assignment in the Scout Advance Party because of his family’s defiance — he is to walk on the front lines to detonate any landmines that may pose a danger to Iraqi soldiers.

The book is approximately 80% the story of the Yasin family through the decades, their defiance of Saddam Hussein’s (aka His Excellency the President the Leader God Placed Him) treacherous rule, their struggles to survive despite their growing dissidence, the emotional toll they face as some children are forced into exile without the ability to effectively communicate with family members in a war-torn Iraq. The other 20% delves into the background of Iraq’s totalitarian government, its Secret Police, the wars with Iran and the United States and the suppression of art and culture. In this 80-20 balance, I think the author was fairly successful at keeping me entertained as well as educating me about Iraq’s recent history and the impact on its people.

Throughout my reading of The Poet of Baghdad, I was frequently reminded of the resemblance between Iraq and the totalitarian government of North Korea, and the book’s similarities to other recent narrative non-fiction works such as The Bookseller of Kabul and Reading Lolita in Tehran. Now it comes as no surprise to me that one of the first things that oppressive governments censor is literature, and some of the people they demonize the most as criminals are authors and those who promote literary works.

But as Nabeel’s mother Sabria tells her son, “Whatever you may think of the world, little Nabeel, you cannot spend your life at odds with it. Think about those things you want to change, then speak” (page 73).

A special thanks to blog reader Amber for sending me a copy of this book!

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10 Things I’ll Miss About Las Vegas

Posted on August 28, 2012 by beckyajohnson

My husband and I will move out of our Las Vegas apartment one week from tomorrow, and shortly thereafter we’ll be heading up to our new home in Oregon. While there are many things I won’t miss about Las Vegas, there are also many things that I will miss. Here’s a list of my top 10, in no particular order:

Friends & Family: I grew up in Las Vegas, and my parents still live here, along with my aunt, a few cousins and their families, and my husband’s mom and step-dad. While I haven’t kept in touch with any friends from my childhood here, I’ve managed to make a few friends in the 6 years I’ve been back in Vegas since living overseas. I hope my friends and family know they’ll have a place to stay when visiting Oregon, and I can’t wait to be living so close to my sister again.

My Dojo: A little over a year ago, I took up karate and started training at Las Vegas Shotokan Karate. Not only has it improved my self-confidence, mental focus, agility and self-defense skills, but I’ve also lost about 10 pounds in the process and feel much stronger than I ever have. My dojo has a great group of volunteer instructors who’ve been training in karate for over 20 years, and although there’s over 50 students with new students enrolling all the time, everyone knows everyone else’s names. The last activity I’ll be doing before our move is attending the dojo’s annual beach training, and I am already making plans to come back next spring for the Ozawa Cup. If you’re look for a traditional karate school in Las Vegas, I highly recommend it.

My Book Clubs: This year I joined two local book clubs — the Destinations Book & Dinner Club and the Las Vegas Non-Fiction Book Group (recently re-named the Las Vegas Learn Something Book Group). Through these groups, I’ve met some great people, tried new restaurants in town and been exposed to a few great books that I might not have previously read on my own.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District: While Las Vegas might not be renowned for its library system, we certainly have a great one here. There are 14 local branches (5 of which are within 15 minutes of my apartment) and 11 rural, outlying branches. Despite budget cutbacks, they’ve managed to stay open 7 days a week with reduced hours. They have a great system of inter-library loans and a host of free events throughout the year.

Elements Kitchen & Martini Bar: This is my husband and my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas, and it’s even where he had the launch party for his first book earlier this year. Chefs/owners Catherine and Jose Luis Pawelek always make us feel at home, and I’ve never had an item on their menu that I didn’t like (and between my husband and I, I think we’ve tried everything on the menu). I highly recommend the Castle martini, portobello mushrom ravioli, duo of crème brûlée and Andes mint cheesecake.

The Accessibility of Alcohol: Last time I lived in Oregon, I was in shock every Friday night I went to to the grocery store. “They don’t sell liquor in the grocery store?” I would ask my graduate school friends. When living in Wisconsin, I was stunned you couldn’t purchase alcohol in grocery stores after 8 pm, and on a recent trip to Seattle, I kept having to remind myself that I couldn’t carry an open container of alcohol while walking down the street. It’s probably a good thing my husband and I are moving away from a city where there’s a Lee’s Discount Liquor on every corner. To the land of family-run wineries and craft breweries we come!

Desert Breeze Park:  One of the reasons my husband and I chose our current apartment complex in Las Vegas is that it’s practically next door to Desert Breeze Park. We’ve spent countless early mornings walking the perimeter of the park, and even indulged in an occasional seasonal swim pass for the Olympic-sized pool at their community center. While I haven’t been to our new place in Oregon yet, Google maps shows a park right across the street, and I am keeping my fingers crossed it will be a good place for walking.

The Proximity to Friends in Southern California: My husband is originally from Riverside, California, and every few months we drive down there to visit friends. (We actually have way more friends in Riverside than in Vegas, and my husband visits on his own as often as possible). We’ll make one more trip down there before the big move, although by no means will it be a farewell tour.

Bingo as Cheap Entertainment: While I definitely won’t miss living in a culture of casinos, we’ve occasionally enjoyed playing bingo at a few of them. Granted I am frequently one of the youngest participants in the bingo hall, for around $7 you get an hour’s worth of entertainment plus two free drinks. Dorks that we are, my husband and I even went to a New Year’s Eve Bingo Party last year, which was way better than spending $300 a pop to party with the Kardashians on the Strip. Our favorite place to play is the Red Rock Casino.

The Rainbow of Desert Colors: Many people think of the desert as being the uniform color of dirt, but it’s actually quite beautiful. Before they became overrun with tourists, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Valley of Fire State Park used to be two of my favorite places to go as a kid, and during our early morning walks, we can frequently view sandstone mountains in the distance. The picture below is from Cathedral Gorge State Park in Lincoln County, Nevada.

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