Random items

The long delayed Cool Moon Ice Cream is open. Located across from one of Portland's great summer kid magnets, Jamison Square, it is too bad they opened at the beginning of winter. They serve the standard flavors but also things like "Unusual flavors could include avocado, candied ginger, Black cherry with chocolate and pine nuts, Campari grapefruit sorbet, and many others. Possibilities are only limited by imagination!" While there weren't that many off the wall flavors available when I walked it, there were enough to make the choice a challenge.

I tried butter pistachio and lemon ginger, which would have been better apart then together. The butter pistachio is an improvement over baseline butter pecan, as the pistachios deliver more flavor. The butter flavor unfortunately overpowered the ginger in the lemon ginger ice cream. The lemon ginger was quite tasty and is probably best had alone to savor the shift from tart to sweet.

The shop serves a wide range of sundaes and sodas as well. The staff is friendly and the shop itself is cheery. This is a good addition to Portland.

I saw the Jicks last night at the Doug Fir. If a band you like is playing the Doug Fir, go. The sound is great, the venue is small, there is a full bar in back and the tickets are inexpensive. The Jicks sounded great and continued in their jammy vein they have been exploring. This means the default indie dance mode of a barely perceptible head nod is giving way to a mode of dancing last seen on the HORDE tour.

Speaking of Portland and music, Carrie Brownstein is now blogging about music and other topics on NPR. Her pieces are thoughtful and well-written, have a look.

Akashic books 10th Anniversary Event at Powells

On October 7 at 7:30, Akashic Books, the mission of which is the "reverse-gentrification" of the literary world, is sending three authors to Powells to celebrate it's tenth anniversary. Chris Abani, author of Song for Night (which I reviewed here, ) Joe Meno, author of the re-released Tender as Hellfire and Felicia Luna Lemus , author of Like Son. Abani's reading should be riveting, as his prose slips from beautiful image of home or the outdoors to the horrific realities of war.

With three readings in one, you are bound to hear something you like, between a youth soldier lost in war-torn Nigeria, a coming of age in New York story a trans-gender tale a daughter who fulfills the family destiny as a son.

Ice cream news

It looks like Cool Moon ice cream won't open until October. It looks like it is worth waiting. Even sooner, we should see the fabled Roses's return to the North East. The old location was at 45th and Fremont, where you will now find Fife. I never went, but is much loved by long term residents.

For Richmonders, take a look at this list of ice cream and gelato purveyors in the capital of the Old Dominion. Sadly, I have not visited any of these.

Portland vs. Seattle

This weekend we have friends from DC visiting. They are trying to decide whether to move to Portland or Seattle. Trip Advisor has a few debates on the issue. For me, it's about family friendly livability. Portland has good (if imperiled) schools, is low (violent) crime and it doesn't cost too much to live close into the city. Added bonuses are better access to the beach (half as long to get there). And Powells. And Max.

Puget Sound totally beats the Williamette/Columbia combo I must admit. Boating is much more interesting on big water than on a river. Of course Mt. Hood doesn't threaten the metro with the mudslide of doom like Mt. Rainier does.

Oh the guilt

Portland Food and Drink has a lengthy roundup of Portland doughnut offerings. The author finds Voodoo doughnut to be mostly buzz talk and Krispy Kreme to be too clean and coroporate looking. Coming from the southland I associate K Kreme with slighly shady shops that have really really good glazed donuts. As she notes the non-glazed are a bad idea. She is a little hard on Voodoo I think. If you go to Voodoo , you have to go as over the top as possible. This means you are going to climb the sugar escalation ladder. I like the mango tango, which has "mango" jelly inside, white frosting on the outside and a thick dusting of orange tang. It also has the caloric punch (and nutritional value) of a visit to McDonalds.

And that is my general problem with all donuts. They aren't that good, especially when you consider how many calories they have. Not unlike reading a really trashy book, I think afterwards, now why did I do that? I make an exception for the Bismark/Boston creme donut, which I do in fact love for all of its custardy gooey wonder. Back east these goes by Boston creme while out here in Portland, they tend to be called Bismark. See here to learn about the debate on whether to make the Boston creme the official donut of Massachusetts, as well as other doughnut trivia. This review of PDX doughnut shops reveals the secret of Dunkin Donut's success in the last line of the article.

Sadly, the custard joy of the Bismark is the only custard love in our house. I once made a cherry clafouti, which my wife declared to be one of her least favorite desserts ever. This is too bad as the clafouti is awesome and you should make one right now.

Taking the mountain through strategy

The bike culture is pretty serious here in Portland, including moving by bicycle. I saw one of these the other day, it was quite something. I still submit DC was a better place for cycling for exercise as it has a much more extensive rails to trails system. Commuting into DC on the other hand is a dangerous idea while it is fairly easy in Portland. The PDX bike culture can be a little over the top. For example, this article cites a "bike-punk band" and then imagines a car free city. Sounds interesting, but like all other potentially interesting ideas, it will hurt as many people as it helps. Ok, that's not true, some people will be hurt and others will helped. Both right and left in the USA tend to dislike people telling them what to do. So if you want better bike access or fewer cars, then you need to construct a system of positive and negative incentives to get it. Takes more work, but will be more effective in the long run.