• Kicksology.net
  • About
  • Menu

Kicksology.net



By Ernest Kim
  • Kicksology.net
  • About

Beautiful street art in Rio

September 22, 2014 in Life

I had an opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro earlier this month and was captivated by the beauty and expressiveness of the street art. Here’s just a small sampling of the work I encountered...

Along the Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz In the Rocinha neighborhood In the Rocinha neighborhood Along the Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz In Ipanema, a few blocks from the beach
Tags: Art, Travel
Prev / Next

Instagrams

Jo & I tried a relatively new Korean restaurant this past weekend that’s somewhat off the beaten track. It’s called One Korean Restaurant and it’s in Beaverton, but not in amongst the Canyon Road cluster. Instead, it’s farther to the Southwest—at the junction of Murray & Allen Blvds. • The dreary weather on Sunday had us in the mood for soup, so we ordered their dduk guk (aka Korean rice cake soup) & a dish called samgyetang that I was surprised and happy to see on their menu. • Samgyetang is a Korean-style chicken soup that’s strongly flavored with ginseng. Growing up, my Mom would often make this if one of us kids was sick. As such, I think of it as a comforting fall/winter dish. But, surprisingly—given that it’s served scorching hot (as you can see in the video)—in Korea, it’s a summer dish that’s particularly popular during the hottest days of the year (apparently, it’s a fight-fire-with-fire sort of idea). Go figure!💁🏻‍♂️ • In any case, it’s not a dish that I often see on menus in the States, so I was excited to give it a try. I’m happy to report that both the samgyetang & dduk guk were excellent! The flavors were deep and, in the case of the samgyetang, the ginseng flavor was at the forefront, as I think it should be. • You can’t tell from the photo, but the bowl of samgyetang includes a whole Cornish hen, which lends the dish tons of flavor. Plus, the hen is filled with a rice stuffing that soaks up the fat & flavor from the bird & broth, leaving you with a luscious treat at the end of your meal.🤤 • As you can see in the photo, we also ordered their Korean fried chicken with sweet & spicy sauce, aka yangneyom chicken. They serve it boneless, which makes it convenient to eat, but that invariably leads to a compromise in flavor and texture. I’d say it was good, but not great. The small starters, aka banchan, were the only wholly disappointing aspect of our meal. • Given the quality of their soups, we absolutely plan to go back to One to try some of the other items on their menu. • #OneKoreanRestaurant #Samgyetang #삼계탕 #DdukGuk #떡국 #YangneyomChicken #양념치킨 #FoodFinds #Beaverton #Portland
We took our girl for a walk out to the park this past weekend!🐈 • As you can see, she enjoyed the slide, but the swing—not so much.😸 • In case you’re interested, we purchased our @SnoozerPets pet carrier backpack at a wonderful cat-focused store in the Alberta neighborhood called @Roar.Cats. We’ve had it for nearly two years now & couldn’t be happier with it. It’s encouraged us to take our cats out more often & they seem to mind it less than our more traditional carriers. • Thanks to @johannahkim for the photos & video!🙏🏼 • #Catstagram #CatPark #CatsOfInstagram #Tortie #CatsOnASlide #SnoozerPetProducts #RoarPortland #Portland
If you find yourself anywhere near downtown Portland this weekend, I’d strongly recommend a side trip over to @CourierCoffeeRoasters to indulge in the fantastic kakigōri (aka Japanese-style shaved ice) hand-crafted by @ssshavedice. • Pictured here is his Peach & Ricotta Cream flavor, but we subbed in coconut cream (in place of the standard combo of condensed milk & ricotta cream) to make it vegan, and he subbed in heirloom apple slices because he was all out of peaches. • I can’t partake of sweets, but Jo, my niece (who’s vegan, thus the sub to 🥥) & my Mom all really enjoyed it—so much so that the bowl was licked clean by the end.😜 • A couple of pro tips for anyone who’s interested: Follow @ssshavedice to find out if & when he’s going to be at Courier, and make sure you’re not in a rush when you go. Because he makes each dish to order & is fantastically meticulous about the entire process, orders quickly stack up. I think we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes—fortunately, we were expecting a wait & Courier offers fantastic coffees & teas, making it a perfect spot to chill for a while (pun entirely intended 🥶). • He’s probably only going to offer kakigori for 2 - 3 more weekends, so partake of this extra-special icy goodness while you can! • #CourierCoffee #Kakigori #かき氷 #ShavedIce #JapaneseShavedIce #Handmade #Vegan #VeganDessert #FoodFinds #Portland
No restaurant in Portland consistently surprises & delights us as much as Wa Kitchen Kuu. One recent example: The Hiyashi Buta Shabu Noodle dish shown in the first photo. • It’s a fusion of Japanese & Korean home cooking the likes of which I’ve never tasted anywhere else, and it’s just so damn delicious!🤤💯 • It was part of their summer noodle specials menu, so it may no longer be available.😔 But, sad as that may be, I can’t wait to try the new specials they’re cooking up for the fall. According to an IG post, one of them includes natto & I’m all in for that! • Speaking of which, I know I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but Jo & I order Kuu’s natto dashi omelette every time we visit and, rather than making us tired of the dish, I’d say that familiarity has made us appreciate it even more. So much so that, if I had to pick one favorite dish out of all the amazing restaurant meals we’ve enjoyed in Portland, it would be Kuu’s natto dashi omelette. It’s just everything I love on one plate.🙌🏼🙇🏻‍♂️❤️I’d strongly recommend giving it a try if you have an opportunity to visit Kuu. • Please bear in mind that, because they prepare almost everything to order, the service at Kuu can be slow—particularly at peak meal times. But I think the trade-off in time is more than made up for by the beauty, flavor & overall care put into all of their dishes. Just make sure you don’t walk in already famished! • @wa_kitchen_kuu #WaKitchenKuu #JapaneseHomeCooking #Umami #うまみ #Oishi #おいしい #Natto #なっとう #FoodFinds #Portland
I was really sad to learn that our neighborhood Garden Home Marketplace—which has been in operation for over four decades—will be closing next month (apparently, all of the Portland-area Bale’s/Lamb’s grocery stores will be closing as of October).😢 • We’ve only been in the neighborhood for a few months now, but the Garden Home Marketplace has become a staple for us—in large part because it’s the one grocery store in the area that we can walk to. • On that point, when the Marketplace closes, I believe Garden Home will fall under the USDA’s definition of a food desert, as most residents will live more than one mile from a supermarket. That crazy! • Coming on the heels of the closure of Jin Wah, this is pretty depressing. I know that change is inevitable, but these were both area institutions.😔 • @judiaann Had you heard about this? Know anyone we could petition to try to get a new grocery in to replace the Lamb’s? • #GardenHome #LambsMarketplace #GardenHomeMarketplace
I can barely believe it, but our home remodel is finally nearly done! We’re 99% complete & should be fully done by this coming Tuesday. At that point, it’ll be 7 months & 2 days late, but, hey, who’s counting (we are 🤬, but c’est la vie). • With the work by the contractors now all but finished, we’ve started putting our own fingerprints on the space. My first project was getting these prints hung in the living room. • I wanted to align them to the same height, but I’ve always been terrible at hanging things (I could never properly account for the play in the hanging wire), so I was dreading this. After doing some research online, though, I found the device shown in the second photo. • It’s made in the US by a company called Hillman—they call it a “Mirror, Picture & Canvas Hanger,” but my understanding is that the generic term for the device is a French cleat. It’s basically two metal brackets designed to interlock—you screw one into your wall & the other into your picture frame such that, instead of hanging by a wire, your frame hangs by the brackets. With none of the play you’d get with a wire, you can hang frames really precisely. The wall bracket even comes with a built-in level—it’s all really well thought through. I’d highly recommend this if you need to hang something with precision or just have something really big that you need to hang securely. I bought it on Amazon. • In case anyone is interested, the print of the wolf & hare is by an artist named Megan Perra, the striking print with the pelican is by Lisa Ericson (we purchased this via the wonderful @AntlerPDX gallery) & the colorful print at the far right is by @Coudal. Perra & Ericson are both Portland-based artists, while Coudal is from Chicago. • @Feral5CreativeCo #MeganPerra @AquaLisa #LisaEricson #Coudal #FrenchCleat #HangingTips #PocketTable #NelsonDayBed @bludot #bludotToro @STUAdesign #SolapaTable @DesignWithinReach #PalaniRug #HomeRemodel #HomeRenovation

 

 

Site Topics

  • Updates (1)
  • Events (2)
  • Tech (7)
  • Design (8)
  • Business (9)
  • Sneakers (12)
  • Life (15)
  • Reviews (19)