Travels in Israel and a New Perspective on Life

I got back from my conference Saturday night and although I'm woefully jet-lagged (a condition not helped by my crazily affectionate cat), I feel refreshed and renewed. It's funny that I used to think of myself as someone who didn't much care for traveling. This changed in 2010, because I had to do so much of it, and somewhere along the way I realized that I was loving it - the adventure of being in new places, experiencing different cultures and sights and smells. I've decided that going to new places is something I want to keep doing, even if it's just new places in the US and even if it's just by myself. This was the first time that I ever visited a place alone and it was not scary and it was also not lonely. Granted, I was only actually alone for the first and last segments of my trip (and almost everyone in Israel speaks at least a little English, plus the country is quite safe for women) but I think this is something I can do. And I'd rather do it alone than not at all. So I think I will try to plan one trip a year at least and save my pennies for this. Owning a house of my own used to be my major financial goal, but I think traveling might top that now. From this trip too, I found out that I am more of an outdoors person than I thought. I loved hiking in the desert canyon and eating around a fire and running my hands over rough and smooth rocks and scrambling through streams. It makes me wonder what else I might like.

I've also decided to treat the place I'm living (currently Portland) as a city I'm visiting. Because when I live somewhere, I tend not to be terribly adventurous once I find some places I like. I tend to stick to those places and not venture to look at the rest. When I'm visiting a city though, I explore and roam and sample as much as I can and that is something I should be doing here. When I leave Portland, I should know it like the back of my hand. In Tel Aviv, I went to the art museum and had a really grand time. (Actually, my visit coincided with some kind of Israeli art event so I got some free wine and strawberries dipped in yogurt. I may also have wound up in the background of some kind of show, because there was a camera crew wandering around and many trendy arty looking people). I used to go to museums and galleries when I lived in New York, and for some reason I never did this when I lived in Philly. It's ridiculous that it took going to another country to remind me that this is something I enjoy. But now I remember and so next weekend I will take myself to the art museum here for a leisurely afternoon. And once a month I will try a new restaurant. And when it gets warm here again, I will go on hikes, because I am now a person who likes to go on hikes.

I'm not going to do a detailed post of my travels because that will just be too much and too boring, although I kept a diary of sorts for myself. Above are representative images of the three places I visited: Jerusalem, Ein Gedi and Tel Aviv. They were each remarkable in their own ways and I wish I had had more time. Each place had a strong sense of history but to generalize: Tel Aviv was modern, Jerusalem was religion and Ein Gedi was nature. Tel Aviv was a city after my own heart, jumbly and energetic, with a lovely beach and markets and shops. It was a very walkable city and I spent my day walking everywhere.

Portland Snow

The people in Portland are really funny about the snow. Once snow is predicted for the area it's all anyone can talk about. It would make sense if this was Boston, but the "snow" we get here is mostly the non-sticking variety and the little that manages to stick is hardly enough to inconvenience a rabbit. But for days people will mull over whether to come in to work or not, whether to drive or not and the public transportation system will start posting alerts on alternative routes etc. Having lived on the East Coast for a number of years this all amuses me, but since I really enjoy talking about the weather with other people I'm an active participant in all of this discussion. It makes me happy and has generated lots of elevator exchanges with random folk, I like that. Above you can see what it looked like this morning from my house; while there is still snow coming down, that thin layer has melted already.

(Note: my only worry is that the MAX rail will be frozen to the tracks again tomorrow morning. This happened the last time I had to go to the airport and created tremendous amounts of stress. I'll be leaving preemptively early but I really hope it doesn't happen!)

Best Baguette

A couple of weeks ago when I was on my quest for oxtails, I took myself off via #9 bus to Fubonn Market. It's about a 40 minute trip but the time passed by quickly as I daydreamed about this and that and talked to the voices in my head. I'm not sure if I would have had the dedication to go to Fubonn if I hadn't also wanted to go to Best Baguette to try their banh mi sandwiches. I read about Best Baguette in the nytimes and it sounded both cheap and delicious. And notably, when I mentioned the words "banh mi" to my labmates in Portland they usually returned with "Best Baguette mmm" so I knew I was on the right track. Fubonn was a delight of a store; much more eclectic than other Asian supermarkets I've visited in the past, which tend to be predominantly Chinese or Japanese. I sensibly restricted myself to what I could carry, mostly by repeating this mantra: I will come back, I will come back.

After 1+ hour of wandering around in Fubonn and picking up a couple of pineapple buns at a nearby bakery (I do not recommend this place), I finally got myself a banh mi. I chose the grilled pork and got some fresh sugar cane juice too. The beverage actually cost more than the sandwich. And, having had sugar cane juice in Singapore and Taiwan (I watched muscular ladies squeeze the juice out of the canes for me) I have to say that Best Baguette's was disappointing and tasted weird, like they thinned it out with oj or something. Their banh mi sandwich though, was very tasty. The bread in particular was wonderful: crispy paper thin crust and a soft but flavorful middle. I will most certainly continue to plan my Fubonn trips in conjunction with banh mi sandwiches in the future so I can try all the other tasty looking ones from the menu.

Taking Care of Pets

The sun was out this weekend and since this is not something you can take for granted in winter Portland I made excuses to be outside to take full advantage.  My first task was to drop things off at the goodwill.  I had a whole foods paper bag occupying space in my living room for months now and I had been gradually adding things in or pulling things out.  Things finally reached some kind of equilibrium so yesterday was the perfect day to drop it off.  Goodwill was a lot of fun overall because things were sort of hapharzardly thrown on the shelves and it was amusing to poke through the different items and dream up possible uses for the stuff.  In the end, I only came away with a perfect little bowl ($2) for Tony's food.

I'm not sure how Tony feels about it yet, but I for one, am totally sold.  I also saw a little pet shop and decided to pop in on a whim to see if they had any fish things.  Over the last few weeks, the difference in size between Manuelo and Javier has grown even more marked and I wasn't sure how I could help Manuelo get a little bigger.  I ended up getting him a bottle of new food and something to condition his water, in case the Brita filtered water wasn't good enough.  And I've started setting him by the window sometimes so he can have a bit of sun.

And then I popped into Fred Meyers for the first time and was impressed by the vastness of the store.  I'm not sure it'll be my regular grocery store since it's a tad far, but it might be a nice excuse to go on a walk from time to time.  I picked up a bag of oranges and some strawberries.  Winter strawberries make me feel guilty but they smelled like the meadow and were on sale so I had to get a box.  I also got a bag of potting mix so I can start planting seeds when I return from Israel.  I'm a little concerned that the fruit flies might mess with my seedlings though so not quite sure what to do about that...

Vietnamese Pho with Oxtails

I first stumbled onto this recipe back in my temping days, during college.  This was quite some time ago, back when investment banking was still lucrative and they could afford to hire people like me to format their powerpoint presentations and documents.  I usually worked from 4pm to 2am or noon to midnight and since I never remembered to bring food and also was too cheap at the time to order in, I was usually manically starved by the end of my shift.  There was usually a lot of downtime too, so I would browse recipe sites and email recipes to myself.  This was also when I was first starting to cook for myself and everything seemed incredibly possible.  Since then I've made this soup many times, always to soul warming results.  A weakness for noodle soups dovetailed nicely with my second weakness for chili garlic sauce.  Last weekend I made a batch and found that my current soup pot wasn't quite enough to accomodate the volume of water.  I ended up overcompensating a bit a the end so the flavor of the soup wasn't as deep as usual, but it was still thoroughly enjoyed.

Vietnamese Pho

5 tbs peanut oil (I eyeball this and use vegetable oil)

3 1/4 pound oxtails, dry

2 large onions, chopped roughly

1-2 carrots, chopped

3 stalks lemongrass, chopped (I've actually never found this so never added it, I should try it sometime)

2/3 cup slice ginger

8 garlic cloves, chopped

7 whole star anise (extremely necessary!  do not omit!)

1 tbs black peppercorns

12 cups water

7 cups beef broth (I use about 4 cans)

3 tbs fish sauce

Sprinkle salt and pepper on oxtails and brown in oil in batches.  Transfer oxtails to a bowl and add onions and next 6 ingredients to pot and stir about until vegetables are tender.  Return the oxtails and add liquids and fish sauce.  Simmer until oxtails are tender, about 3-4 hours.

When cooled, remove the oxtails and strain the broth.  Keep in fridge overnight and skim the fat off the top the next day.  To serve, I use Japanese somen noodles, bean sprouts, and whatever chopped herbs I have on hand.  Usually cilantro, scallions and mint.  Squeeze lime wedges generously over each bowl; chili garlic sauce is a must for me.