Lily Market (or... SCOOOOOOORE! And the Death of the Widow)

I've driven past a dozen times, always thought it was just a little hole in the wall convenience store. Until one night the urge for chocolate was too strong and I caved to the siren song of Baskin- Robbins. I'm weak, I know. But it was good, so bite me.

Anyway, back on track. I pulled into the parking lot and was stunned to realize that the "hole in the wall" Lily Market took up the entire building!

I could see the shelves of cooking pots and 50# bags filled with rice. I made a mental note to return and check it out. Sometime when I didn't have my take out dinner rapidly cooking in the passenger seat.

(I ate the ice cream. Cherries jubilee and chocolate fudge. And it was wonderful!)

The next day I stopped in after work. KNOWING that such a trip would be detrimental for RedneckWidow's respiratory system. Wide eyed and wondering I wandered. Aisle by aisle, smiling and taking it all in. Too much good stuff, too many things I didn't know, but would soon be Googling. (there's that verb again!)

Dried Betel leaves are apparently for addictive fun times*  (*Author's note- NOT FOR CHILDREN!!!)

You burn it and it smells pretty.

The shiny pots are very light weight aluminum and the cast iron pans with the divots is for  Takoyaki but it looks like it could be used for Aebelskiver.  

Stylized Tiffin Carriers super pretty.

Farther back into the actual grocery I found aisles of dried noodles on one side and gorgeous metal tea pots on the other.

And then there were the fun finds in the grocery itself. 

Chinese Chicken sausages with edible collagen casing, BellaBabe friendly. Though too sweet for Apocalypse.Mom who described them as more of a breakfast sausage.

These bags of Pho noodles are bigger than my head! I mean fresh noodles are awesome, but how many people do I  need to be serving in order to justify buying this???

This case contains the Durian and durian products. 

8.5 POUNDS of Sambal Oelek. I am afraid.

And in the very very far back (IE the side I could see from the opposite street)... The deli case! Filled with freshly made Thai dishes that made my toes curl! I've been back 5 times in 8 days! They are starting to recognize me. But the steamed buns haunt my dreams.

Today when I went in for more pictures (whatever!) I almost wept because the woman in front of me ordered the last two steam buns. But that's fine, I'm mature. I only pouted a little. But I will be back, oh yes I will be back. Likely on Friday when they roast young coconuts packed with sweet rice. Mmmm yes, I will be back.

** A brief moment of humor. After that first trip I got home and was greeted by RedneckWidow and Apocalypse.Mom who wanted to know where I had been and when I was going to take them. So of course we went back that same night! And I warned RedneckWidow about the spices, don't let her claim I didn't! 

 ***Secondary note. I just checked out their website... There are apartments over the market!! If they allowed pets I would kill to live there!!

Lily Market… Or “Oh god, my eyes my eyes!!!”

There are very few places in this world that ward off the evil that is the Redneck Widow with any real effectiveness. While Thai food places and Fubonn or other Asian places strive to set my allergies off, none of them are places I can’t actually go into.

Lily Market wins!!!!

As I parked the car in the small parking lot, my nose plugged up and my eyes began to water. I got out of the car and looked at the restaurant and my eyes began to burn and itch; before I even got into the store itself. Going into the store I began to sound like I had a cold, then like I was in danger of losing my voice. The slight tickle in the back of the throat started less than five minutes in. By ten minutes in I could no longer breathe, was starting to hack and cough, and my hands were starting to tingle.

I gave up. The store had defeated me. I retreated to the clean (ish) confines of my car, which ironically is named Lily Rex. And even there I had to re park the car to a place not in direct wind path of the front doors. Then use my inhaler and hope SleepyGinger and Apocalypse.Mom didn’t take too long exploring their new find.

So, I recommend Lily Market to anyone who likes authentic Asian markets… It was a great place for the ten minutes I was there. Also, It is right next door to the Baskin and Robbins that sells the soy free chocolate ice cream. (Another awesome find for SleepyGinger)

The evil that shall not be eaten

So, the large family we have all decided to take a day out and go to the beach for Labor day weekend.  And so far I am the only one brave enough to blog about our horror. One the way home, we decided to just stop in at some out of the way place we found along the way… while sometimes this is fun and adventurous. This is not always the case.

As we pulled into The Logger… somewhere along highway 30… and that is as close to a location as I feel safe giving you as we hope and pray our readers are not inflicted with such culinary horrors. Do you see how much we love you, our dear readers?

As per usual, I tried the Chicken Fried Steak.  I do have to say, I have never had a chicken fried steak that was sweet and tangy. I am not sure how to make country gravy sweet. I swear it tasted just a little like lemon. The fries were ok though… the ones that didn’t have gravy on them. Sleepy Ginger got a hamburger steak… at least that is what the menu called it. It came with packet gravy, mushy onions and rice pilaf the consistency of baby food.  And Apocalypse Mom had a seafood platter. Half of which was burned beyond edibility and the other half has been referred to as “deep fried death from the sea.” The kidlets got a variety of burgers. But the biggest testament to the horror that is The Logger… Not one of use escaped this particular dining experience without some type of digestive problem that haunted our next few days.

So, if you are driving the length of Highway 30, dear readers, and you see the small restaurant at the blinking caution light in the middle of nowhere… keep driving… I promise there is better food choices on your path. 

Cartlandia...

First, I only had one goal for this day…. Known in my brain as that Saturday we all went out to shop and ended up eating out of street carts.  It is a widely known fact, I absolutely dislike food carts. I had a bad experience… (BTW do not eat Tacos de Ojos. They pop when you bite into them and if you are the friend sitting next to the guy eating them, you can hear them pop…) in Mexico.  So, my goal was to see “Snow White and the Huntsman”. I had been attempting to make time to see that movie since opening weekend. (And yes, I finally saw it… Last weekend… at home.) So, when we drove past the Cartlandia and we all agreed to stop, I was already not caring… so long as we got to the movie on time… I was good.

Second, It isn’t really that food carts turn my stomach, or that I think they are unclean or anything like that. It is very simply that my food tastes run rather simple and most of the time, in my experience, food carts screw up the whole burgers and fries thing. After all, there is a reason that I am named the REDNECK widow… So, all of that being said… I really enjoyed my lunch there.

I followed the girls through most of the area until my body just wouldn’t do it any longer. It wasn’t too long though as my arthritis got the better of me and I needed shade and seating. Which lead me to the seating area. It was nicely shaded with a pop-up… ten by twenty if I’m not mistaken. Under it was a lovely set of table chairs and a picnic tables already taken by a nice family.

I decided that the all-beef hotdogs and fries sounded right up my alley, so I headed over to Relish Gourmet Hotdogs. So for around five dollars, I purchased a giant (and delicious) hotdog with as many of the fixings as possible. With it came a huge basket of fries, so much so that I couldn’t finish them alone. In fact, even with the help of BellaBabe, PainterLady and SleepyGinger, we still couldn’t finish them.  We ended up donating them to Kanegermin.

So, all in all I loved Cartlandia (Don’t tell SleepyGinger… I’ll never hear the end of it.) And I actually look forward to going there again. I sincerely wish the lovely couple at Relish Gourmet Hotdogs the best of best wishes in their upcoming nuptials and suggest everyone I know go to Cartlandia and tip them well. Weddings are expensive! 

Fubonn... or How NOT to act in public...

SleepyGinger convinces us to go to the large Asian market in town, so off we go. First of all, you probably shouldn’t have the overly excited one drive, especially when the other two are hyper paranoid of cars. J Secondly, I think it is only fair that there be some kind of Asian food with no soy, onion or peppers.  

Allergies suck!

So, SleepyGinger had been to Fubonn before and in her experience she told us we should eat before shopping because shopping hungry makes you buy stuff you may not need. So first we looked at the grill place. But while having food cooked at our table might be nifty, due to the combined food issues of Apocalypse.Mom and myself (suddenly we sound like super heroes “With our issues combined…”) it wasn’t actually possible to eat there. So, to the other side of the mall we went.

There we had a great dinner, Apocalypse.Mom had something with fish and I had the rice with meat… because that is what I am able to have at Asian restaurants… Beef or Chicken with Rice. The plainer the better. Depressing right? But the food was great and the service was awesome. The overall experience was welcoming and I would return often if given the options.

Now, food was out of the way and the store wandering began. There were movies, books, clothes, and of course the main market. The main market was amazing! Everything a girl could ask for…. Soy filled poisonous death…. Which, by the way, gets you glared at a lot if you shout it in the middle of the store. Again, I apologize to the small boy with his grandmother. I am sure the ENTIRE store is not filled with soy covered poison.  There were also some lovely fresh fruits and vegetables.

The highlight for me was the non-food items… for obvious reasons. But they had some really great things in there and the only reason I haven’t been back is because I will spend way too much money on things I have no room for.  So, officially, Fubonn market: Great… The rest of the trip is just a giant allergy trap… but still ok. 

Cartlandia (Food cart pre-crawl)

Saturday was a day of grand plans, a little bit of compromise. But everything turned out well. Redneck Widow and myself were to be picked up by PainterLady and BellaBabe for a day of picking over the bones of a dying clothing store chain. Sad for the chain, good for us. I did the math and over 5 trips to the stores (spread out over a 3 week period) I acquired some $1,500 retail value of clothes for roughly $175. Completely revamped my wardrobe and without breaking the bank. Very, very, happy girl here. But you're not here to read about my shopping finesse.

We met up at about lunch time and after a fortifying stop at Dutch Brothers for caffeine (all hail the Dutch) we were on our way. Our goals were the Clackamas location, Eastport Plaza location, and then MAYBE the Cascade Station location if there was time before returning the Gresham Wunderland for a cheap seats showing of Snow White and the Huntsman and then dinner at the Olive Garden for their endless pasta bowl…Mmmm Pasta.

That was our goal. That was not what happened. The Clackamas location was LOOOOONG gone. The storefront empty, most of the signage removed. So on our way to the Eastport Plaza location we swung into Cartlandia, despite Redneck Widow’s misgivings. One thing Cartlandia has up on other food cart pods I’ve been to is the available parking, very nice.

BellaBabe and I led the charge, up and around the carts, investigating menus, what sounds best, what sounded good… Samples? Sure!

After walking the entire loop and inspecting every menu we settled on splitting a margherita pizza eith white sauce from Krust Artisanal Pizza and a couple of pasties (one Traditional and one Cheese and Onion) from the London Pasty Company while PainterLady and RedneckWidow had hotdogs and fries from Relish Gourmet Hotdogs.

BellaBabe and I ordered the pizza first and then headed across the way to the Pasty cart. The owner of the London Pasty Company was very helpful and understanding about our questions involving the ingredients (allergy issues) and very cheerful with a mesmerizing accent. Which is always fun. Also very emphatic about liking them on Facebook, which in this modern social media age I suppose I understand.

PainterLady and RedneckWidow found a shady table near Relish where they could listen for their orders to be completed. Both were telling us about the sweet couple who owned the cart saving up for a wedding and how very nice they were. Our pizza was delivered to the table and we took the requisite (now apparently gone) photos before digging in.

The pizza had a cracker style crust that seemed to have been pre-cooked and warm sauce ladled on (a bit heavy for our tastes) and then the sliced mozzerella was allowed to "melt" in the residual warmth from the sauce. The tomatoes were cold. BellaBabe and I thought back to Pyro Pizza's crispy crust, hunks of artisinal mozzerella and heat toasted basil... This was not what we wanted. On to the pasties!

Sad, so sad. The "Traditional" was as dry and flavorless as saw dust and left us begging for water. We were hoping for a moist filling with thickened gravy, no such luck. It didn't even appear that gravy had ever been involved in the equation. The Onion and Cheese was.. Well is was overly cheesy mashed potatoes stuffed into a pastry shell. It was a baked pierogie. It was... bland.

So while I know it doesn't excuse the tardiness of this post, remembering this experience was sad.

The highlight of the trip was PainterLady's garlic cheese fries, so good. But I'll let RedneckWidow share her portion of the journey.

Until next time, be tasty!