dyson vacuum cleaner for brunnhilde

Brunnhilde and I took a month long road trip from Portland to Louisiana in the spring. It is the longest road trip Brunnhilde has ever taken.

minced pork stuffed bitter melon

Unlike common western palate most Asians prefer vegetable with dark green and less than tender leaves. Most of these have a hint of bitterness and typically more chewy, or more fibrous. For vegetable that is bitter, bitter melon has to be one that is most unpalatable to those unaccustomed to Asian vegetable. To be honest I have not eaten bitter melon that many times. Bitter melon is believed to be one of the most healthy vegetable (ok, it is really a gourd) and some believes it deters or retards cancer growth.

this and that - oregon july 2014

I have a late start in sailboarding this year. I didn't start until the July 1st. I should have started in June as there were many good days here. Often is just my personal inertia and having very old and tired gears contributes to my late start.

roasting coffee at home

Sometimes I feel like Robinson Crusoe in that I try to do everything myself. When I started to get serious about preparing good cups of coffee I didn't think that I would ever bother to roast my own coffee. I invested in semi-commercial espresso machine and grinder. I was buying craft roasted coffee typically for between $12.50 to $16.00 a pound a few years ago. Out of curiosity I order one half pound of green coffee together with my usually supply of espresso roast. The bag of green coffee was left on the shelf for a long time.

an dong market 安東超市 - part 2

While I have written and mentioned my favorite Asian grocery store before I didn't have the photos I want to use in the blog posts. I really like this store and I would hope with my posts would help the exposure of this wonderful and yet under-recognized Asian grocery store on the East side of Portland, Oregon.