Hoi-Sin Chicken II

The family, T.R., and Mustafa in the "gorgeous Gorge"

      This week, we have two visitors, one from Najaf, the other from New Orleans.  Both cities' names begin with Ns, but the similarities end there.  Najaf, if your wondering, is a city of about 500,000 in Central Iraq, and is the hometown of Mustafa our Iraqi exchange student.  Our other visitor is our uncle T.R.  Today we hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls with Zizu (from Iraq) and Lydia (from Louisville, Kentucky) who are staying with another local family.  While hiking up the falls I was amazed by all the languages I heard.  There was English, (And the dialects of English were enough to turn your head in and of themselves), Japanese, German (the two most common languages for tourists in Oregon), Spanish (also fairly common), as well as Hindi, Italian, Russian, we also think we heard Farsi, Portuguese, and Hebrew; and of course we heard Mustafa and Zizu conversing in their native Arabic.  After the hike we went to McMenamins Edgefield for lunch, and then came home to roast in the late afternoon heat.  Luckily, Cyrus isn't roasting anything tonight, instead he's grilling, grilling Hoi-sin chicken in fact.  If you don't remember, it was just over a year ago that Cyrus first made Hoi-sin chicken.  when he first made it, it was easily the best Sunday Dinner we had had.  It still is the best.  Now there's a hobo pack on the grill, and plates of veggies waiting for their turn on the grill.  Cyrus is drying lettuce for a salad.  I hope it's like the salad we had with Hoi-sin chicken a year ago.

     The chicken is on the grill, and the patio has been hosed off to keep it cool, and we should be ready to eat soon.  We didn't eat soon, the grilled veggies took forever, but they are just coming off now.  The last bit before we eat.  

Editor's Note: ??????????????

     The chicken was good, though not as good as a year ago.  Our salad was not as exotic as last year, and the hobo pack was quite good, despite being a little under cooked.  For dessert Cyrus is making strawberry milkshakes out of last nights ice cream.  He suggested using a Gerbil to speed the process along (Editor's Note: ????????).  It's a good dinner, even if not as magnificent as last year.  

Mirror, Mirror

I'm in the near, front portion of the raft, we got soaked!

Ziplining was pretty awesome too

Ohh, Dude!

      If you haven't noticed yet, Portland is WEIRD.  So weird in fact, that we have a acting troop that performs episodes from the original Star Trek Tv show in parks during the summer.  We had hoped to go to one of their performances, but it never happened.  But this weekend, we had decided we would finally go.  Mid-July, a picnic, what could go wrong?  Then we woke up this morning to pouring rain.  Good day for a picnic.  I insisted on making the sandwich regardless of the weather, and Mom wanted to completely skip Trek in the Park, but we eventually reached a compromise, we would eat at home, but still go to Trek in the Park.  For tonight's stay at home picnic, we'll be having a sandwich with roasted red bell peppers, olives, garlic, prosciutto, tomatoes, and basil it promises to be a very tasty Dagwood Sandwich.

      That was one delicious sandwich.  the Prosciutto was excellent, salty and chock full of flavor.  The bell peppers added an oily sweetness and every ingredient fell into it's place, easily a sandwich to rival the bacon and cheese sandwich I had at Cafe Flanders in Barcelona.  We got some good pictures that friends took in Costa Rica, and Trek in the Park's performance of Mirror, Mirror is sure to be good.

Pacific Northwesterners

     Last night Mom and Dad had their Barbecued pulled pork and bourbon party, and I thought Cy would be serving us some creatively cooked leftovers.  I was wrong.  While I was wandering the neighbor with my friends; a German exchange student (are you a berliner?); and one of my friend's cousins from Utah, Cy was earning twenty bucks playing his trumpet on a street corner and started making burgers.  By the time I got back, the burgers were moments from coming off the grill and I was hungry.

    In addition to the burgers, we had a salad, hobo pack potatoes, fizzinis, and for dessert, grilled fruit.  Nice and quick, tonight's burgers kept the cooking outside on a day that had us Pacific Northwesterners searching for cooler, wetter climes.  (We're kind of like worms, if you leave us in the Sun too long we dry up and die).  Pacific Northwesterners are strange people.

Desayuno Para Cena

My families house in Tuis, Cartago, Costa Rica

     En mis dos semanas en Costa Rica, yo aprendo uno cosa: mi cena tipico de Costa Rica (un mez antes hoy), no es muy tipico.  El plato más tipico es "gallo pinto", para desayuno, gallo pinto es como panqueques en los Estados Unidos y es arroz y frijoles con huevos.  Tomar tenemos "refresco", un extrano tipo de lima.  Tenemos tambien muchas frutas y tortillas con huevos.  Leen esté pagina en íngles, aquí, está un enlace a Translador Google.  (To read this page in English (or any other language) click on aquí to open Google Translate.)

    Now that the cooking is actually under way, I'll write in English.  Right now, the refresco, limeade, is filled to the brim with ice cubes in the fridge, it took about half an hour to get the right lime-to-sugar ratio.  Dad started the rice. We've got two cups of rice on the stove, which worries me, because I don't think Dad realizes how much rice you will actually eat, when it is the main dish, not just a piece of the main dish, but the main dish.  We also only have two 15 Oz. cans of bean, which worries me as well (though not as much) and for the exact same reason.
     I've got more rice on and Dad is absolutely appalled.  I've also added the beans to the first set of rice, and I'm glad I got the rest of the rice on because in the first dish the rice is an afterthought to the beans and red bell peppers.
     I've finished up with the eggs, some are in cakes to go with the tortillas, and while they look good they aren't so perfectly round like those of my host-mom (though mine were getting rounder with each batch), others are scrambled to be mixed in with the rice and beans.

     The gallo pinto felt very authentic.  While it wasn't at all what Dad expected, it felt like the real thing.  And we've got a ton of leftovers, which will be good because true gallo pinto is leftovers.  The eggs and tortillas also felt like the real thing.  All in all an excellent breakfast for dinner.