Chino Bandido
Look people, when I tell you what kinda food this is, you're not gonna believe me that it’s the food equivalent of an Arnold Palmer. We all know how good those two things are together.
To give you a little background of why we even went there was because we watch this show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and my wife LOVES the off the beaten path type places to eat. She saw it, looked it up, and was like, we have to try it out.
Now, I know by this time you're at the edge of your seat in anticipation for what could possibly get my taste buds doing the chicken noodle soup dance. People, it's CHINESE AND MEXICAN. Together. BOOM! That just happened.
I can not even hope to explain to you how good this food is. I love Mexican food (of course I grew up 1 block from a Filibertos (carne asada w/rice). Man, let me tell you, if you have a chance to go there -- look, they let you try out the stuff. I was sold on the black beans and, yes, they are the musical fruit.
All gas aside, the place goes down on my list as all time best. If I wasn’t on a semi sorta strict diet, I would definitely eat there every day hands down. Here's a link if you live in PHX and haven’t tried it. http://www.chinobandido.com/
I'll say this is more exciting than going to the Grand Canyon and you'll be full when you leave. So check it out. More reviews to come.
Summer Venues and Steak Sandwiches
I know it's summer and I've been out and about but now that the weather is set to be nice in Portland for the next few months, I want to know your opinions about the best places to eat outdoors.
Plus, I have a challenge for Portland restaurants: I have now had THE best steak sandwich from Rip City Grille and I want to know if anyone thinks they have one that can compete. I could eat this sandwich every single day and be totally happy with it. Anyone got something better?
Deliver Dish
Man, where would I be without this service? I would be literally 110 lbs of skin and bones.
Deliver Dish from the first night I stayed in Portland has been my savior for all my food needs. I can honestly say I order from there more than I go to restaurants. This is gonna be a quick blog post because I feel like if you have never tried d-dish.com -- I just gave you the website -- try it out and let me know how you like it.
Sorry that I haven't been writing a lot of stuff. I've taken a break from it but I have a lot of great videos and blogs to show y'all soon. Thanks for visiting my site.
Change Portland?
Someone asked me a question about if I could change 1 thing about Portland what would it be. I'm not gonna tell you my answer; I want to see what fellow Oregonians think.
What would you do to help make PO better?
Just ask me.
Well, hey everyone. I know it's been a while since I've written something deep. But, hey, that’s how life is sometimes. One thing I have to say is thanks again to everyone who supports me and the C. Frye Foundation. I love reading everyone's emails because, yes, I do read them all.
Well, since I prefaced this whole story, already I received an email from a fan who had a great question. I was asked a few weeks ago about the Sam Adams “controversy." For everyone who doesn’t know, Sam Adams was the Mayor of Portland and resigned due to an issue with his “supposed” underage gentlemen. He is gay; he was actually the 1st gay mayor of a top 30 state in America. Well, anyway, they asked me about the whole situation and my answer was “ewwww.” Of course, me being who I am, I didn’t think of how that was going to come across because they didn’t preface it that Sam Adams is a 47-year old man and that was the reason I said eww. It had nothing to do with him being gay. I couldn't care less -- gay, straight, bi, whatever -- he could be a dang king of the L.A.R.P.ing community; if he is doing what he needs to do for the city of Portland and the state of Oregon, I'm cool with it.
I am not a homophobe. Live and let live. But that brings me to my subject of this whole little blog entry. I appreciate the person who sent me that email asking to clarify what he read because in today's age, things get lost in translation and I open the public up to ask me whatever they want. Of course, I'm gonna not answer a lot of questions having to do with either my personal life or my teammates' personal lives, but I really want this to be a forum for people to be able to get closer and to have a deeper insight on not only how we think or live as professional athletes, but a better way that we can continue this great relationship between the athletes of Portland and the fans.
Ticket Winners – A Tie
Thanks to everyone who participated in the pancake eating challenge at Stepping Stone. Although some came close and gave it a commendable try, it turned out to be a tie between these two who each managed to scarf down three huge pancakes. That is a heck of an impressive feat. Check out their videos and see for yourself.
For their efforts, they each won two tickets to a Blazers home game. Congrats and enjoy.
Oliver:
Danny:
Off the hook good food
On my quest to reach the best restaurants in Portland, I've found two gigantic contenders for some of the best food I've ever had. I'm even writing about these separately from my Favs page.
With everyone talking about this Mediterranean restaurant called Toro Bravo and me having two Spanish teammates, I thought it essential that I check out the authenticity of this place.
I was blown away by how good their tapas were. I don't know what tapas is or means, but the way they cook it is awesome. If this is what all Spanish food tastes like, please book me two tickets to Spain after June 30. People were all having a good time eating and drinking wine. There seemed to be no problems with anyone anywhere in this place.
I give it 5 patatas with extra mole sauce because it was legit.
The second contender is Pok Pok. Okay, what's a sign of a place being freaking off-the-chain good..? Maybe a line in 35-degree weather waiting for a table OUTSIDE. Yes, I waited. I've heard many, many things so I chose this Friday to venture east and go see what's up. I can only imagine how sweet this place is during the summer.
The table heaters and the water with a huge branch thingy in it are just two things that caught my eye when I first sat down. I then had the pork skewers and the world famous wings... Someone call the
police because I did a serious 187 (murder) on it. I sat there almost in awe of how good everything was, no lie. I even tried to lick my plate. Bad manners, I know, but it's worth it. Every dish that we had was so fresh I wanted to slap its mamma. I mean, it's hard to find a place where everything is organic and fresh and you can taste the difference.
Where have we been, Portland, that this place isn't nationally nominated for best Restaurant of the World? I have a new favorite. If you like great food, this is the spot. I'm gonna keep looking around though to see if anyone can dethrone Pok Pok. If it's possible, I'll find it.
Oh, and thank you to our friends The Sanfords for telling us to go there.
Want to win 2 tickets?
I was eating at Stepping Stone Cafe and the pancakes there are huge.
So, here's my new challenge: send in preferably a video, but at least a photo, with the food server who will vouch for you of you eating as many pancakes as you can. You can send them to info@channingfrye.com if you don't have your own link available. The person who eats the most pancakes in one sitting will get two tickets to any home game (not a playoff game).
The deadline is March 1, 2009.
Who’s up for kickball?
With all the traveling we've been doing, I've had plenty of time to think about what I'm gonna do this summer for a charity game in Portland and through it all I came up with a kickball game.
I don't know where it's gonna be yet and don't know what month, but I feel like it will be the best idea and way for kids and parents and everyone in the community to get out and have a great day for a good cause in Portland.
So let me know how you feel about it, where I should have it, and if you had to have one thing there (food, beer, roller coaster, etc.) let me know. I want my kickball day to be the best day in Portland every year.
Places I Should Check Out
Okay, so I get all these suggestions throughout different posts on places I should go, so I'm making this THE spot to pump your place. I'll go and give my opinion on all of them. I'm sure I'll think most of them are great, but I want to check them out for myself anyway.
Is there some place you think is the bomb? List it here with the name and address.