Pok Pok. The morning after.

For our last evening in Portland we ventured for a group dinner at a Thai restaurant that came highly recommended by friends, strangers, and food magazines alike...Pok Pok. Pok Pok was originally a mobile food cart in the Portland area until owner and head chef Andy Ricker decided to take the plunge and open up a part open air/part indoor seating restaurant in the front of his house. The dishes are still inexpensive (ranging from $5-11) and pack huge flavor but now can be enjoyed seated.

Cara was so thoughtful and arranged a reservation for our group of 10 at 8:45 our last night in Portland. After being seated we were treated to water flavored with Pandanus leaf which gave it a grassy flavor. We all ordered one round of beverages that ranged from a mango infused vodka speciality drink (mango infused vodka, lime juice, simple syrup, pressed coconut milk), to a Tamarind Whiskey Sour, to a Salted Plum creation.

Our server was very helpful and guided us through out meal with ease...3 dishes are usually enough for 2 people, he'll bring us some rice that goes well with our meal, we'll eat with our hands and a spoon and there will be no pad thai ordered. Got it.

Well, we managed to obey most of his instructions except for the abundance amount of food we ordered. The highlights are:

Kai Yaang: A small game hen that is stuffed with lemongrass, garlic, cilantro and pepper-- served with 2 dipping sauces. This hen was so tender and so flavorful that it melted in my mouth. I tore that bird apart in seconds.

Muu Paa Kham Waan: BOAR collar meat, rubbed with coriander root, garlic, and black pepper. Glazed with soy and sugar and grilled-- served with a chili-lime-garlic sauce and with a plate of frozen mustard greens to cleanse the pallet. I'll let Harbin's words sum up the experience with this dish: "That boar is so good I want to hit someone" Our server responds with: "Where are you guys from?" Us: "NASHVILLE BIOTCH". Ok, we didn't actually say the "biotch" part but that sure would have be hilarious.

Kaeng Hung Leh: Pork belly and pork shoulder that they stew in this pot of ginger, sugar, tamarind, turmeric, Burmese curry powder, and pickled garlic. I swear....this was like eating the best tasting comfort food on the planet. The meat was phenomenally tender...I mean, it couldn't have been more tender and stayed together. A definite table favorite.

Other dishes worth noting: some crazy spicy fish sauce wings, a poultry salad of sorts, a lovely prawn dish and a vermicelli noodle dish that was understated but still appreciated.

No better way to spend our last night than with an amazing dinner that didn't cost us an arm and a leg, great service and even better company.

Now...It's 7AM and my stomach is still recovering from the heat, bold flavors and the over indulgence but I'll deal with the after effect for a meal like that almost any day.

Don't know how you do the voodoo that you do...

Voodoo Donuts.....another Portland, Oregon staple. With donut names like the Maple Blazer Blunt, Marshall Matters, and Cock and Balls you know when entering such an establishment only the finest behavior is to be displayed. Nine of my rowdiest friends and I made a trip to Voodoo's original location in downtown Ptown to see the line snaking around the building...and then quickly made a trip across the river to Voodoo Donuts Too where the parking was ample and the donuts ready to eat!

We each ordered 2 donuts from the spinning case (the donuts currently available), found a place to park our haunches and got down to business. I ordered the original glazed, in my opinion a donut in its best form, and Chocolate Coconut. Both were delicious! My friend Harbin ordered the Blueberry Cake donut which was spectacular; very moist, flavorful, and tasted fresh!

I must have tasted over 10 donuts and they all were super yummy! Being from the south we have a couple of Krispy Kreme's in most cities (based in Winston-Salem, NC) and Voodoo definitely rivaled the KK but I'll take a hot glazed KK over any other donut, any day.

Biscuits. In Oregon.....eeeehhhh?

Every year a group of friends and I go on a vacation. We call it Annual Holiday. I'm writing this on the last night of our Sixth Annual, Annual Holiday or AHV6 as we like to call it. My location? Portland, Oregon. You see...we switch it up international and domestic and last year we visited Costa Rica so this year we picked a spot not nearly as hot as our home of Nashville, TN and a place where none of us had spent a considerable amount of time. During these holiday's we pretty regularly do two things: eat and drink. The first restaurant I'm going to cover is Pine State Biscuits.

Pine State can be found in North East Portland and boasts yummy biscuits and biscuit accoutrement like eggs, bacon, gravy, etc. Being from the south I question the PNW's ability to really comprehend the importance of the biscuit and exactly how to make the perfect biscuit. My questioning is for good reason.

We busted up (all ten of us) at Pine State on Thursday morning after a day of whitewater rafting and a night of wine and liquor beverages. I perused the menu online prior to our jaunt (we stayed in Lake Oswego) downtown and knew I was going to have the Moneyball.

A biscuit topped with sausage gravy and an over easy egg. (if you like it then you should have put an egg on it). The Moneyball was NOT bad but it did have 2 things pointing it in the wrong direction: 1. The biscuits are too dense. Not nearly fluffy enough. Probably not made with buttermilk. And definitely not made by my granny. 2. The sausage gravy was a bit too sweet.

Neither of these completely flawed the dish but I'm not ready to give Pine State Biscuits a crown.

Side Note: The do have a dish their called The Reggie Deluxe that consists of: Biscuit with fried chicken, fried egg, bacon, cheese and gravy...it's like whoa.

Side Note #2: The Collard Greens were actually "slap yo momma" good.

When I say "Chiddy" , You Say "Bang"

Music. One of the enjoyments that makes the world go round. It's right in there with water, food, dancing, laughing, loving, children, and MUSIC.

That being said...there's this new group I've been digging to and they call themselves Chiddy Bang. It's a 2 man show...the lyricist and head dude who goes by the name of Chiddy (first name actually Chidera), and the beat maker/drummer/producer who goes by Xaphoon Jones (real name Noah). For the remainder of this blog I will go by my DJ name, Whooty.

As a loyal Twitter follower of @realchiddy, I realize that of all places they are coming to Nashville and convince 2 of my best friends, Lacey (DJ AT-AT) and Cara to join me. We start the evening with dinner at Virago and then head to the new La Paz location for a margarita or 3. La Paz is now right down the road from Exit In...one of my favorite music venues in town.

The show is all-ages which I appreciate until we arrive and realize not only are we the oldest people there but we are fucking ancient compared to all the kiddos. Nevertheless we grab a brew and head to the back where we can take in the show, stay out of the childrens' way, and have plenty of room to bust a move ourselves.

Upon our arrival Donnis and his DJ are still up on stage doing their "thing" for the crowd and within seconds they have me moving to the beat. Next up...Chiddy. Noah sits down at the drum set and it's on. They do a short set that includes their current hit "Opposites of Adults" that has a killer MGMT sample from "Kids". The children in the crowd go nuts. Hold on....who is that??

A MC pops up on stage and turns out it's XV, a dude that was placed earlier on the bill that we missed. HE IS SICK. He's spitting so clearly that it reminds me of a young Q-Tip...killed it and made me wish I had passed on the margaritas and headed to the show a little sooner.

It wasn't a packed house but the crowd was hype. Props to the guys for putting on a good show for a small crowd-- and they played it like it was full-- that takes a bit of maturity. That being said, I heard their show the night before in Birmingham was less than stellar. Apparently Chiddy was blazed off his mind and the small crowd was less than impressed. Consistency. It's important.

These guys will be back. We'll hear them on the radio. Girls will love them. What I appreciate more than anything is young hip hoppers that are performing interesting music, talking about interesting topics, and not taking themselves too seriously.

DJ Whooty Out.

Miller Union. Um....yes please.

Every time I spend evenings in Atlanta I try to find a new culinary delight and this trip I made a call to my godfather, Coke, and Decatur, GA native, for some advice. He suggested two eateries, the first; Floataway Cafe in the Highlands and the 2nd, Miller Union close to my midtown hotel. I went with the close choice and grabbed one of my besties, Kristen Lovett, to join me.

I called Miller Union around 6:00 to see if they had any reservations available for the 7:00 time frame and unfortunately they didn't but did say I could be seated on the patio....it's only August in Atlanta so I agreed. Upon our arrival (30 minutes prior to our reservation) we were seated immediately on the patio with a few other brave guests and it was actually very lovely. They have tomato plants and herbs growing and the ceiling fans and comfortable chairs made for a perfect seat.

Side Note: Miller Union is a the west part of Midtown which is rather industrial as we had semi trucks pulling into a parking lot next to us all night....fine by me-- just adds ambiance.

We were immediately greeted by our server who came with chilled filtered tap water and took our drink order of a Miller Thyme-- a gin beverage that incorporates gin, lemon juice and thyme. It was perfect for the warm evening.

We were presented with nice fresh baked sourdough and phenomenal butter to start and then ordered the Farm Egg baked in Celery Cream with Rustic Bread. I'm not sure if I've been clear about my obsession with eggs but I eat at least a dozen a week and love, love, love them. This dish was good. Clean flavors that let the egg be the star. The Celery Cream was much more of a texture additive than flavor and I was OK with that as it really allowed the egg to be featured.

Next on our list was the main course. I ordered the Pan Seared Duck Breast with a Sweet Corn and Butter Bean Succotash and Kristen had the Shrimp & Grits. The sear on the duck was perfect and the skin provided just enough savory flavors to combat the sweet corn to make it a meal in perfect balance. The flavors were clean and clear which is always hard to come by. Kristen's Shrimp & Grits was bursting with flavor and seemed to sit in a tomato, garlic and shrimp broth. The grits had a very nice texture and were not too mushy like they can get sometimes. The shrimp were cooked to perfection, and like the egg in the aforementioned meal, were really the star of the dish.

I couldn't leave without trying a dessert so we opted for Key Lime Semifreddo with a fresh blueberry mixture topping. The semifreddo (which we'll just call ice cream for our purposes) was smooth, tart and packed huge key lime flavor but mixed with the blueberries sang a sweet harmonious song in my mouth. Yup...just wrote that.

Upon leaving I was not stuffed but felt perfectly satisfied and that I had just really treated myself to a lovingly prepared dinner.

Chef Steven Satterfield has found a perfect balance of clean, crisp southern inspired food that doesn't leave you feeling like you need to spend the day on the farm bailing hay to work off the calories.

You can follow them on Twitter: @millerunion or on the web at: www.millerunion.com.

Signing off from the A.

E.

That Pig Don't Fly.

I recently had a craptastic experience at Blind Pig No. 55-- a restaurant spawned from the folks at Watermark and Miro District in the old Mirror Restaurant space. And when I say spawned I mean it in every negative way as I've had consistent great experiences at Watermark and like Miro fine but the mark has been missed with this new endeavor.

The night that Bryn, Lacey, and I dined at the Pig we had planned to eat at Burger Up but the wait was over an hour so we walked down the road and were seating immediately at the Pig. Upon walking in I was saddened by the decor and ambiance of what used to be one of my favorite spots in Nashville, Mirror. It was very casual with condiments on the table, paper napkins, and dressed down servers.

I had a water to drink while Bryn ordered a Vodka tonic and Lacey ordered a Maker's and Coke. Our drinks came out in a reasonable amount of time and we ordered the guacamole (yes, this is BBQ place) for an appetizer. The guacamole itself was fine but the chips were WAY over salted and too oily. App Score: C

For our entrees I had the pulled chicken sandwich with a side of mashed potatoes, Lacey had a pulled pork sandwich with fries and Bryn ordered a slew of sides that included green beans, mac & cheese and something that was so unmemorable that I actually don't remember. WOW.

My chicken was rubbery, tough and lacked a bold taste; my mashed potatoes were dry and lacked seasoning. Bryn's Mac & Cheese dish was possible the worst Mac & Cheese I've ever had in my life. She enjoyed the green beans but I thought they were NASTY. yuk.

Lacey's pork sandwich was fine but she was very put off by the use of sweet pickles on the sandwich....Now, I don't eat pickles at all so I can't comment on this catastrophe of pickle-ness but her and Bryn were appalled. Entree Score: C-

Needless to say we didn't eat dessert and my night concluded with the worst heartburn I've had in years. So....overall grade: C-