I just had to write about our dining experience at Pok Pok, a Portland Thai restaurant.  Shua and I were looking for something good and cheap and so we figured Thai.  We found this place on the web and decided to check it out.  We had to wait about an hour to get in and so I was really hoping it was worth it and the many top reviews it received from Urban Spoon and Yelp.  Of course, my kids wanted to eat Pad Thai and it wasn’t on the menu.  What Thai restaurant doesn’t have Pad Thai, so we thought?  Well, it turned out that Pok Pok was a Northern Thai restaurant that served different Thai fare.  We also learned this Thai restaurant was quite authentic.  In fact, that group of people you see behind us were Thai.  They were literally the first Thai customers I have ever seen at any Thai restaurant I have ever visited.

So what did we eat?  Here are the dishes:

Muu Paa Kham Waan – First time we had ever eaten boar.
Boar Collar meat rubbed with garlic, coriander root and black pepper glazed with soy and sugar.

Kung Phao – These prawns had the heads and shells.  Don’t usually eat prawns with the heads.
Gulf prawns, grilled over whole charcoal and served with naam jim thaleh, a spicy lime/garlic/cilantro/chile dipping sauce.

Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings – This dish was named one of the 10 best restaurant dishes in America by Food and Wine Magazine.  They were really good.  Definitely the best dish we had.
Fresh natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce, palm sugar, deep fried, tossed in caramelized Phu Quou fish sauce and garlic served with Vietnamese table salad.

Khanom Jiim Naam Ngiew
Northern Thai thin rice vermicelli topped with a brothy “Curry” of pork ribs, minced beef, tomatoes, bean sprouts, dried dawk ngiew and house-pickled mustard greens, spiced with dried Thai chillies, herbs and aromatics.

Yam Mahkheua Yao – Probably the worst dish we had
Smoky charcoal grilled long eggplant salad with spicy dressing of Thai chillies, lime, fish sauce and palm sugar.

Pok Pok was ok ok.  Not terrible, not great.  But definitely not worth an hour wait.  The lesson I learned from Pok Pok?  If a Thai restaurant doesn’t serve Pad Thai, it’s better to look for one that does.

Shua and I are trying to encourage Charisa in her art.  We’re thinking about getting her a webcam so that she could install it in her head like this guy.  After all, you need to have this camera in your head to have good art, don’t you?

If you plan on giving gifts, I would refrain from giving gifts like the Hand Underpants (the only person who might actually enjoy this gift might be the woman who idolizes her hands).

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(HT: Dane Ortlund)

1. Losing a parent
2. Going blind
3. Academic retainment
4. Welling in class
5. Parental fights
6. Caught in theft
7. Suspected of lying
8. Poor report card
9. Sent to principal
10. Having an operation
11. Getting lost
12. Ridiculed in class
13. Moving to a new school
14. Scary dream
15. Not making 100 on a test
16. Picked last on a team
17. Losing in a game
18. Giving a class report
19. Going to a dentist
20. New baby

To see more pics…

1. What does the Constitution do?
2. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
3. Name one branch or part of the government.
4. We elect a U.S. representative for how many years?
5. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
6. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?
7. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?
8. There were 13 original states. Name three.
9. Who was president during World War I?
10. Name one U.S. territory.

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ANSWERS BELOW:

1. Sets up the government, Defines the government, Protects basic rights of Americans
2. Bill of Rights
3. Legislative, Executive, Judicial, Congress, the President, the courts
4. 2 years
5. 9
6. 18
7. April 15
8. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam