Portland: Sen Yai

It's pretty apt that Wild Flag just started playing because I want to write about Portland for a few days.  I was really lucky enough to travel there early last month but things have been busy enough that I haven't spent time on it like it deserves.  I've written about it before but I've only found more to love about the city.

I arrived in the afternoon after a very long flight.  I had to transfer in Minneapolis and I forgot that there was an hour difference from the East Coast.  I was stressing needlessly for a very long time about making my connecting flight when it was never really an issue.  I finally asked my seatmate as we were landing in Minneapolis who confirmed that we were in a different time zone.

I planned my food a few weeks before actually arriving in the city because this actually makes me really happy.  I knew that Andy Ricker just opened a new Thai restaurant called Sen Yai and I had eaten at Pok Pok in Brooklyn and really loved it.  I had high hopes here for my first meal.

This was a moment when I really wish Brig was eating with me so I could order loads from the menu and try a little bit of everything.  I knew that wasn't going to happen so I ended up ordering phat kaphrao kai khai dao which is what I ate almost everyday I was in Thailand because it is my comfort food.

It was really good but it wasn't the best dish I've had of this kind in the USA.  That honor goes to Osha Thai in San Francisco which I pray is still as good as when I ate there in 2001.