Pambiche Cuban Restaurant

Barbara and I took our bikes out of the garage for our annual summer ride down to Pambiche Cuban Restaurant this weekend. It is an easy downhill ride to the restaurant, but a little harder ride home full of great food. We started the eating fest with maduros, fried ripe plantains that taste great with a little banana sauce. There are two kinds, we prefer the mushy maduros over the tostones which are more like french fries. We also got an empanada, a crisp pie filled with rellenos, the bridie of Cuba.

There are a lot of great entrees to choose from, my favorites are the Plato Cubano, a typical Cuban plate of marinated pork, served with Cuban beans & rice. Ropa Vieja or "old clothes," garlicky shredded beef with yellow onions and green peppers, and of course Cuban beans & rice. And finally Vaca Frita or "fried cow," citrus marinated shredded beef with garlic and onions, and you guessed it Cuban beans & rice. Pambiche serves brunch until 2 PM on weekends, so if you want one of he above mentioned entrees, you need to eat a little later. They have a full bar, great Cuban soft drinks and tropical ice tea, and a good selection of deserts. The outside seating is great as long as you can stay in the shade.

Pambiche Cuban Restaurant

2811 NE Glisan St

Portland, OR 97232-2433

(503) 233-0511

Dog on the Bus

On Tuesday a dog got on the bus at SE Belmont and 30th. At first I thought it was a service dog, but then the driver realised it wasn't and tried to shoo him off. When he got off, he ran into the road and almost got hit by a car, so someone ran out and pulled him back on the bus. The bus driver said he was going to call the dispatcher and have them call someone to help, so we kept the dog on the bus all the way to downtown. He was a really good looking dog, but he did not have a collar on. As I was about to get off I heard the bus driver say that the dispatcher had told him to take the dog back to where he found him. All day I was stressed out that he just let him off the bus and something bad happened to him. I wish I had done more to help the dog and not been so worried about getting to work.

Bay 13 Restaurant

We had a goodbye dinner for one of my workmates at Bay 13 last night and I have to say it served the purpose. It was a beautiful summer night, so ideally we would have sat outside, but we didn't make a reservation in time, so we sat in the dinning room. They also have two long "community" tables, but we weren't up for sitting next to people we didn't know. We started with a selection of their sushi rolls, which were good, but not great. It was fine as an appetizer, but does not stand up to other restaurants in town. If there was a stand out it is the Ahi "Poke." We then worked our way through several other appetizers: the crab legs, clams, snap peas and shitake mushrooms and the gnocchi which were all great. Of the group, the crab legs were the star. To finish, we had one each of the deserts. Again, all very nice, but the warm brownie sundae killed. They also have a nice full bar. I would recommend this place if you have a large group. The outside seating is great. I have heard it can be a bit of a meat market on weekend nights.

Bay 13 Restaurant

701 NW 13TH AVE

Portland, OR 97209

503.227.1133

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

For some reason the first Warren Zevon record I bought was Bad Luck Steak in Dancing School. I don't know why I bought this record, but I really liked it and it led me to check out some of his older records. Luckily I got hold of his 1978 release Excitable Boy before too long and wore it out. Most of the songs on this record are on the seemingly endless greatest hits records that have come out: "Johnny Strikes Up The Band," "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner,"Excitable Boy" and his biggest radio hit, "Werewolves Of London." Zevon lived a pretty hard life (he battled demons as they like to say) with two extended bouts with alcoholism. Bad Luck Steak was actually the first record back on his first sober stint in 1980. Although he always garnered critical success, sales did not follow, which led to him falling off the wagon and a few lost years. Unfortunately Zevon's hard living seems to have caught up with him. In 2002 he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He decided to record one more record with a bunch of his famous friends called The Wind. I have included this record in this review in case you flake out and buy a greatest hits record. You should buy this for no other reason than to hear him sing Bob Dylan's "Knocking On Heaven's Door;" this song is a lot more powerful when you hear it from a person that knows he only has a couple of months to live.

What do you think about on the bus?

I ride the bus to and from work almost every day. This morning I saw a sign on the bus that said, "Tell us what you think about on the bus." They were offering free bus passes as rewards and had examples like, "I shouldn't be ease dropping" and "What am I going to eat for dinner."

Here is what I think about on the bus:

What is that smell?
Is that guy going to throw up on me?
Is she crazy or just high?
Why is this person touching me?
Is it better to get off and walk the rest of the way to work or hope this guy gets off soon?
Why is he yelling at his cell phone?
How many cans one person fit on the bus?

I'll let you know if I win a free pass.

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 3 Melt

Peter Gabriel is a difficult person to wrap your arms around. He was clearly the best musician in Genesis. When he left the band the music became insipid pop songs, but they exploded and had huge commercial success. Rumour has it that he was super jealous. Worse yet, Genesis drummer Phil Collins becomes a big solo star and sells more records than Gabriel. Still the best music wins in the end. Phil Collins and the Genesis of the 80's are forgotten and Peter Gabriel lives on as one of the best of his generation. And the best of several great records is Melt. You may love So because it had more hits, but Melt has stood the test of time better. There is no better song than "Biko."

Oregon Brewers Festival

Barbara's favorite event of the year is the Oregon Brewer's Fest. Celebrating their 21st year this is one of the premier beer fests in the world. This year there were 72 craft breweries serving beer from 18 different states. Admission is free, but you have to buy a mug for $5 and tokens cost $1 each. One token gets you a taste of the beer and four tokens get you a full glass. A good strategy is to try a few different brews before you commit to a full glass.

All the beers are from mico-brewers, so no big guys like Miller or Bud. The breadth of choice is pretty amazing with everything from light summer pilsners to watermelon flavored beer to hoppy ales and dark stouts.

One of the keys is to get to the event early as it gets really crowded as the day goes on. This year there were already a few thousand people there when we arrived at 2:00 PM on Friday. It also gets a little rowdy as the night goes on, although there are a lot of "alcohol monitors" and they close at 9:00 PM.

We were missing a few regulars this year. For the last dozen years Barbara has met Mark Ebsen and Jeff Foster there on Friday afternoon, but they were both absent this year (this is like the Lakers missing the playoffs, we were pretty shocked). These two are both beer affectionados and home brewers, so we called Ebsen a couple of times to taunt him.

While beer is the main attraction, there is also food and live music at the festival as well as home brewing info, etc. The best part however is the crowd. The brew fest attracts some pretty interesting people. If you are into utility kilts you will have plenty of company here. There are also a lot of great t-shirts: "Beer, helping ugly people have sex since 1862." Instead of "I (heart) beer" they had "I (beer can) Beer." Barbara wants to design a shirt for some of the bigger guys that says, "Beer Baby."