Recalling Fondly Old Town Pizza in Portland, OR 4

If you get the chance to visit Portland Oregon, be sure to visit Old Town Pizza.

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Nestled on a side street in Portland's old town, you will find Old Town Pizza in a unassuming building with obviously aging architecture. As you walk inside - there is an air of bygone days.
You can almost feel the presence of the once vibrant inhabitants that walked under the old growth timber beams framing it's 2nd floor, or hear an echo of their footsteps and distant laughter from the working men who threw back a couple - drinking their modest ales on their retreat homeward.

As history has unfolded, a slightly more wicked slew of personal accounts from the early 1900's surrounds these grounds where Old Town Pizza sits. The tales are numerous, Apparently many a sailer was hijacked, while consuming their beverages or a warm meal, or talking up a pretty painted lady , seated above the tunnels in pubs--- all at once a trap door (a.k.a "Deadfall") would open up in the floor and a random sailer would fall , into the hands of awaiting anxious men, to be taken deep into the catacombs, and scurried through the eerie tunnels ^w, which lead to the basements of other buildings , where the men would be held captive in holding cells, to be bought and sold to ship captains in a lucrative human trafficking ring. The name "shanghai" came about because most of these ships were bound to The Orient. On Halloween this period in the Portland, Oregon history is a favorite among local Portland residents, and sometimes at various times of the year a Shanghai Tunnel tour can be had.

Old Town Pizza has been in Business since 1974, once you walk into the place, you are transported to another time period. All the furniture is antique from the 1900 - 1930's period. The walls are also decorated with antique souvenirs from bygone days. Try wandering up stairs and you will find little enclaves of cozy furniture such as old couches and smoking chairs, positioned around coffee tables so you can set your pizza and pitcher of favorite beer and gather for a feast. These great seating areas evoke fun conversation. And are lighted by the warm glow of old period lamps - which creates a wonderful ambiance.

The pizza is great, with a light crispy crust outside and soft insides, it is fired in a brick oven. You may want to find parking elsewhere and walk a few blocks to get there, because open street parking spots are far and few between.

I have found going there a great experience, and there is a special area that you can find once you walk inside and make a left - toward the right far corner, and it is a little room, where you can be seated in booth style around a table - that at one time housed a freight elevator shaft. It was converted and there isn't a ceiling - if you look upwards you can see several windows that seem to reach for the sky - and you at once will feel dwarfed by the towering buildings that flank the room.










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Poetry: Entertaining Glances 1

Soft muted colors
make impromptu kaleidoscope
in my pint glass.

Slip past the warm blooded,
flush faced regulars,
the fretting malcontent hands,
fingering empty pitchers.
Salivating mouths,
shout their ill satisfaction.

I catch your stray glances-
a haphazard tapestry of fate,
spilled out through hazy cigarette smoke.

What intentions?
Foamy realizations leave their mark.
As I sip to the tunes,
watching sharks get sharked -
in pool hall glory.

We , full of promise and alcoholic malice.
Closing time paints a weary picture.
Will phone numbers call themselves?

-- Amber © 2002. All Rights Reserved

baking 101 0

baking 101
Originally uploaded by abstract2concrete.
So now I am alive with pure joy, knowing I will be pursuing a degree I love.
And I have always thought that there was such a realness to all the people I have met in the Culinary industry.

I remember classes from 5 years ago {for my chef certification}I was 18 years old. - on one such occasion in the hot summer, all the windows open and the oven going.

Fellow students - Chad and someone else were making flat breads or was it rolls? Hmm.

Well on with the story. They were teasing me about being a "newbie" in the culinary class. Chad at one point exclaimed "You have much to learn, grasshopper" with a snicker.

Eventually I was taken into the normal routines of kitchen life, and I earned the respected role of old timer, to other new culinary students.

Well now I feel as though I am a grasshopper again. Today was rather laid back. Not much was expected of me -- being a new student. When I wasn't observing, I scaled out 2 croissant master recipes for tomorrow morning. Later my peers and I watched the ingredients for the dough forming and congealing as it was whisked back and forth with the dough hook, in the Hobart. I love the smell of bread dough.

collectives, medical hell and the pursuit of happiness! 0

Image credit dennis.tang

囍 is composed of 2 characters of 喜 (xi), which translates to happiness or joy, therefore, 囍 (shuangxi) literally means double happiness.

I think about all the times in my past that were happy, and it is all related to the people I met along the way, who were creatively inclined. Jam sessions and pen & ink fights these were good times. I used to be so passionate about my writing and culinary arts. That all fell through when I got involved in the medical field. There is no room for creativity. Precision, Protocol, regulatory practices. My creativity had been condensed into obligatory matter.


Until now! I will untangled my creativity from the suffocating tentacles of conventional medicine practices -- and emerge a free spirit!