Portland Lunch Eats 2017

After our time in Lincoln City, we travelled back to Portland before making our way up North. After driving hours from the coast back inland, we were famished for lunch! We stopped by the store location of Nong's Khao Man Gai to get our fix of chicken and rice!

Nong's Khao Man Gai

609 SE Ankeny Street, Suite C

Chicken and Rice (Big size, mixed dark and white meat $14.75)- Poached, organic kosher raise chickens with jasmine rice simmered in chicken stock and Thai herbs, served with sauce of fermented soybeans, ginger, garlic, thai chilies, vinegar, house made syrup and soy sauce. Garnished with cucumbers and cilantro, and accompanied by a light soup

W and I shared the large size chicken and rice and it came with an ample amount of rice and de-boned meat. At no extra cost, I asked for a side of the chicken livers too XD I am A-ok with eating offal so it was a cool accompaniment to the rice. It was yummy dipped in their special house-made sauce!

Just like their food cart, the store was a no-frills, no gimmicks kind of place. Their dishes and utensils evoked an era from the past which lends itself to a kind of authenticity. For a more comfortable place to sit down and eat khao man gai, the store location is the place to be.

 Spam Musubi ($3) - Seared marinated spam over rice, wrapped in nori (seaweed)

The next day, we stopped by the downtown food trucks for lunch. While W and I browsed all the selections, we bought a spam musubi from 808 Grinds. They pan fry the spam and hand-wrap the musubi after ordering so you know it's freshly made every time!

After walking many rounds and lots of hemming and hawing, we ended up with an order of mac and cheese from the aptly-named Mac & Cheese Bar.

 Mac & Trees ($8) - Classic mac 'n cheese with broccoli, parmesan and breadcrumbs

Lemon Shake-up ($2.50)- Fresh pressed lemonade

I chose the Mac & Trees which had their classic mac and cheese added with some broccoli florets. It made the decadent pasta a little less guilty haha... I also got their freshly-squeezed lemonade to wash down the gooey and heavy pasta.

W chose to try the buttermilk fried chicken from Just Chicken.

2 piece buttermilk fried chicken with 2 sides ($9) - wing and drum stick, kale salad, and a bag of potato chips

This combo came with a drumstick and a wing, as well as 2 sides of our choice. W left the choosing to me again so I went with the kale salad, for a bit of healthy punch, and a bag of chips (which totally negates the benefits of the salad LOL...). The chicken was pretty good. The skin was nice and crunchy while the meat was still soft and juicy. Not bad for a simple lunch.

The Portland food scene is always something that attracts us to go back time and time again. Can't wait to head back there again!

Mo's Annex Newport - Mo's Seafood & Chowder

657 SW Bay Blvd.
Newport, OR

My family's annual road trip destination for 2017 was the Oregon Coast. We rented a beautiful ocean-front home in Lincoln City for a couple days and spent one of those days driving and sight-seeing along the coast.

We stopped by Newport for lunch and decided to try out Mo's Annex. There was actually another Mo's diagonally across the street, the Original Mo's at Newport! But seeing that the menu at Original Mo's consisted of mostly deep fried seafood, we leaned towards the seafood served at Mo's Annex more.

Mo’s Clam Chowder (Family size $16.95) - New England Style with Bacon

We started off with the family-sized clam chowder. It was a pretty large portion, being able to fill up around 6 bowls of soup. The chowder was thick and creamy with lots of meaty clam pieces. This was delicious and perfect for a cool, windy day by the sea!

Hot Crab & Shrimp Artichoke Dip ($14.95) - Served with sour dough bread

In order to try the most amount of food as possible, we ordered a few items for sharing between all of us. After the chowder, the crab, shrimp and artichoke dip came next. There were pieces of sour dough bread to slather the creamy dip on.

 Steamer Clams ($10.95) - Pound of steamer clams sautéed in garlic butter and

white wine served with melted butter

Toasted sour dough bread also accompanied the bowl of steamer clams. It was a joy to soak up the briny and savoury clam broth with the bread! The clams were yummy too but some of them still had a bit of sand in the meat.

Best Of The Bay ($15.95) - Shrimp skewers, oyster shooter, shrimp cocktail and steamed clams. Serves 2-4

This appetizer platter originally came with a couple raw oyster shooters but the server told us that they ran out of fresh oysters that day >___<  An extra skewer of shrimp replaced the oysters but we were still disappointed. The steamed clams were the same as the Steamer Clams and the shrimp cocktail was a dish of tiny bay shrimps topped with cocktail sauce. Overall, this platter was just ok.

Seafood Cioppino ($17.95) - Yaquina Bay Oysters, Pink Shrimp, Wild Alaskan Salmon, Alaskan Cod and Steamer Clams and Crab Legs simmered in a rich italian sauce topped with parmesan cheese and served with garlic cheese bread

Our last shared dish was the Seafood Cioppino. With 6 different kinds of seafood bathing in a tangy and cheesy tomato sauce, we thought this was the best deal of the meal! 

With this seafood lunch costing just over $100 for the 9 of us, Mo's Annex was one of the highlights of this trip! No wonder it's popular amongst the locals and tourists!