New post about the relationship between brown bear and man.
Vindalho
Fine dinner at Vindalho last night. Service was great and Emily, my waitress, knew the menu backwards and forwards. When I sat down they brought crisp flatbread with tamarind date chutney. The heat on this was mild and the dates and tamarind flavors came through well. The appetizer was lamb kofta with 4 large lamb meat balls and a very flavorful slightly hotter sauce. I tried two entrees. First, fall vegetable korma with romanesco broccoli, carrots, pepper, onion. sweet potatoes,and greens cooked in a cream curry. The heat was a bit more on this one but was on the front end and the other flavors came through as it subsided. By now I was ready for the coup de gras, pork shoulder vindalho. This had some real punch but by now I was ready for it. The vinegar on the front end pushed the heat back for a few seconds as it built gradually. I had garlic nan and cucumber mint raita with the vindalho which cooled things down a bit. The restuarant space is great with 20 foot ceilings and large windows. I had tea but noticed that draft beer was $5 on the menu, which seems a bit much for Portland. All in all a top notch Indian restaurant in a great Portland neighborhood. http://vindalho.com/
Anthem
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in—Leonard Cohen
Bupkis for Bikes
Cash for clunkers, jets for junkets,BUPKIS FOR BIKES?? http://bit.ly/v82xF While reading this article I wondered how many new bike commuters would be created if the government offered to pay $4500 in exchange for a promise to ride to work? Would that save more gas per dollar of handout money than scrapping clunkers (many of which might not even be on the road before scrapping). The problem of course is that putting people on bikes makes healthier, friendlier neighborhoods and cities but does not scale up the GDP like cars and jets and roads and airports. This is what happens when the wrong measure of value is chosen.
