Another top favorite experience in Portland was an early dinner at Toro Bravo. This required a cab ride to an off-the-beaten-track industrial neighborhood, and we went early to avoid the long waits often required to get into this popular tapas joint. We got there right before the place began to fill up and were seated at the bar where our busy bartender nevertheless took the time to shower us with attention.
Here we enjoyed everything we’ve come to expect at one of Portland’s hottest dining spots: a hip vibe, an enthusiastic bartender (photo top), a creative cocktail list, and fun, delicious food at reasonable prices.
We started off with glasses of Cava and 2 French Kisses: brandy soaked prunes stuffed with foie gras (photo third from top). Next we had charred bread with fromage blanc and nettles (photo fourth from top, left), perhaps my favorite bite of the evening. (I have a running conversation with ET, who thinks nettles sound cool but are actually boring to eat, sort of like spinach. I don’t completely disagree, but I love ordering something so fleetingly seasonal and at least you don’t see nettles from Argentina being sold in the supermarket in February! In any case, this nettle preparation was the best I’ve ever tasted- vibrant with flavor.) We also ordered a generously sized salad of “Singing Pig” greens with hazelnuts and grilled asparagus (in the photo behind the charred bread with nettles) plus another top fave, a plate of squid ink pasta with hazelnuts (yep, Oregon is hazelnut country!), anchovy syrup, and an egg yolk (bottom photo). I can honestly say I only wish we had had enough room in our stomachs and time in our schedule (we were due to cab it back downtown for the IACP opening reception) to have tried ten more menu items! This is another Portland spot not to be missed!
April 28th, 2010 | No Comments »
The first time I made dinner it was one of our family favorites, creamed tuna on biscuits. I must have been ten, and making dinner was the natural progression of putting away the dishes as my first chore, then setting and clearing the table as I got older.
My parents weren’t great cooks at the time, although over the years my dad has gotten to be quite good at it. As a parent of my own eight year old (he’s unloading the dishwasher as I write this), it finally dawns on me that figuring out the age old question “what’s for dinner?” gets to be harder and harder to answer as time goes on.
No wonder my folks relied on Sunset magazine as their culinary inspiration (hello Northwest taco salad). Creamed tuna on biscuits really isn’t as gross as it sounds. Think tuna noodle casserole or biscuits and gravy.
I’m not quite sure what happened, why there was no oversight or quality control. I’m pretty sure that my first attempt at dinner didn’t look as pretty as this picture, and it tasted awful. The biscuits were great, but in the white sauce (straigh outta The Joy of Cooking ) somehow I mistook the teaspoon abbreviation for a tablespoon. It was like a fishy saltlick.
Given my current profession, my family likes to retell this story frequently.
(Editor’s note: this is the 10th and final entry in our staff contest: “The First Thing I Learned to Cook.”
April 28th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Last Wednesday’s lunch at Pok Pok was one of the highlights of our Portland adventure. The place was jamming, so our pleasant server invited us to sit in the outdoor covered dining area. We were seated near the take out window (photo second from top) at a wooden picnic table with its own heat lamp where we were perfectly comfortable. Bamboo, sheets of corrugated metal, strings of twinkly lights, and pitchers filled with cold water and strips of Asian palm leaves set the stage for a casual, exotic, and festive atmosphere.
First we ordered drinks. There’s a whole list of “drinking vinegars, ” some housemade, some not, which are diluted with soda water. A tall glass of grapefruit drinking vinegar with soda was my favorite- so refreshing and delicious! We also tried the tamarind drinking vinegar (bottom photo), and honey drinking vinegar with tequila and lime. In the interests of research, we ordered a cocktail of coconut milk, vodka, and lime which was served in a cold, stainless steel martini glass. Then our food arrived.
First up was Kung Yak Phao, a plate of giant prawns (photo third from top), brined and charcoal grilled and served with a delicious “burn yer lips” lime-garlic-cilantro and roast chile sauce. The aroma coming off those prawns was divine! Next we tried Phat Siew Muu, a plate of fresh wide rice noodles with pork, Chinese broccoli, and egg. Soft noodly succulence!
We didn’t have enough time or appetite to try more food as we’d been eating all day long and had to grab a cab back downtown for the IACP conference, but I’m definitely heading straight to Pok Pok on my next trip to Portland.
April 27th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
After our fried chicken biscuit and fresh orange juice at Pine State Biscuit, we headed down SE Belmont to the beating, caffeinated heart of Portland, Stumptown Coffee, for our coffee fix. Delicious, aromatic coffee and scrumptious pastries (from Nurvei Pastries) and, of course, a super hip vibe.
April 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
The Invitees:
a small collection of red wine guzzling close friends
The Menu:
marcona almonds and castelvetrano olives
crostini with balsamic caramelized onions and melty blue cheese
butter lettuce with chive and Dijon citronette, brown butter sage croutons
roasted Yukon potatoes with rosemary, broccoli with sea salt, and fresh lemon
seared flat iron steak, butter shallot-Merlot sauce
chocolate cake with mocha frosting
The End Result:
full and happy friends, a kitchen that looks like it’s been hit by a tornado (twice), good sleep
The Story:
I cook for a living. I’m a professional cook by trade. So after creating this simple dinner menu and collecting everything I would need in order to make it a reality, I gave myself a time frame…. start at this time, do this then and that later, shower, finish the cake, throw this in the oven, blah blah blah. I thought it wouild only take two, MAYBE two and a half hours to complete everything with enough time to shower and be a relaxed hostess. And then I started playing with the cat. Watched a couple episodes of 30 Rock. Had a one woman dance party. Then looked at the clock and realized it was exactly three hours until my friends were to arrive.
I walked into the kitchen and realized I was starting to cook in a messy kitchen. After frantically doing a couple sinks worth of dishes (by hand), I started baking cake layers. I’ve made this cake a dozen times, and this time I decided to use the cake pans that belonged to my great grandmother, noticing that they were a little bit shallower than most other cake pans, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to put the pans on to one big sheet pan so that if/when the cake baked over, it wouldn’t spill over onto the floor of the oven: a good plan on my part- I ended up with two (totally delicious) layers drowning in a sea of moist baked cake overflowing onto the sheet pan.
I did all the choppy business: cutting croutons, crostini, broccoli, potatoes, shallots. Toasted the croutons and the crostini and thought I was totally ahead of the game. Onions were cooking slowly on the stove, cake frosting eventually finished whipping, buttery crostini were breaking apart in my mouth, music was blasting from the speakers. I was realizing just how much I neeed to get done before 8:30, and while I thought I’d only been in the kitchen for about an hour, I’d turned to look at the clock to watch the numbers change to read 7:45. Truthfully, I felt bad for the cat, watching me run around, busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, cursing and throwing dishes in the sink. Everything got done just in time for the arrival of the guests. I don’t know how, but it all got done. Read the rest of this entry »
April 27th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
All the vegetable seeds I planted are coming up now: arugula, various lettuces, radicchio, purple pak choy, and peas. (I think the purple pak choy has a 100% germination rate; I have been thinning like crazy.) I also planted some onion starts.
It’s time to talk about our veggie gardens! Send me your photos and I’ll post them.
April 27th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
On our first morning in Portland (where we attended a few days of the IACP conference) we took a cab to Southeast Portland for breakfast in this sweet little space, Pine State Biscuits. What a simple, delightful concept: just biscuits, biscuit sandwiches, and a few sides and extras. You order at the counter (right behind the counter you can see a cook rolling out biscuit dough and cutting biscuits, photo bottom), find a spot to sit (if you’re lucky), then bus your dishes when you’re done. Knowing we were in for a few days of constant eating we kept it relatively light- just the fried chicken biscuit sandwich (photo top left). (Doesn’t sound light to you? Well we didn’t get cheese, gravy, or fried green tomatoes!) Really good biscuits with a light texture and that baking powder tang. The fried chicken was tasty (though I lusted after the fried egg with braised greens and hot sauce biscuit sandwich at the next table) especially after we drizzled some honey over the top (Robyn had to ask for the honey, though it seems a natural addition.) Photo top right is a neighboring diner’s plate of the Pine State Fried Club which means trio of fried grits cakes topped with fried chicken, pimento cheese and fried green tomato, and country ham and white cheddar. Everything we could see on everyone else’s plates looked good, and there was the steady buzz of a good natured, relaxed crowd.
April 26th, 2010 | No Comments »
So, two weeks ago, Robyn Wolfe (Marketing) had this fabulous idea:”Let’s do a ‘Day in the Life’ blog! We can start with you- from cracking eggs to plating up a plin.”
Great! We started planning the ‘shoots.’ How many shots… could we do it in one day or plan for several, shorter? …. Then I thought: “I have a video camera in this fancy new ipod I bought! We could do a video! And that would give me something to do at these sessions I bought…”
Then last Tuesday, Katie O (Tom’s assistant) calls: “Tom needs you to be able to do a filming on Thursday. He wants to do a pasta from beginning to end, grinding the filling, rolling the long sheet- finally, making them.”
Okey-dokey then. Then I realize they stole our idea. Oh well, less work for us, but I call Shelley (blog mistress- who loved Robyn’s idea) and Robyn and ask: “Do we really want to do this same thing…?”
So King 5 TV and Jesse Jones come- they film, I do my whole schtick. I call my friends and family: “I’m going to be famous!”
Then the thing airs (you can watch the video linked to this post) and much of it was about a spray to make your apron stain resistant. I don’t think I’m even in it for 1.5 seconds. Never mind. Uh, Robyn, Shelley…….?
April 20th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
One could well call Edmonds “Little Italy.” Driving into town along Edmonds Way, you first pass Pagliacci Pizza, then FIVE Bistro with its pizza and Italian snacks, then Romio’s Pizza & Pasta. Farther on, as the road curves into downtown, there is still Girardi’s Osteria with its water-spitting Bacchus out front and contemporary Olives dishing out fine Italian and Mediterranean fare. Brand new Epulo Bistro joins the festa with a series of its own pizzas in addition to other homey favorites. And in the middle of all this, tucked between Petosa’s Family Grocer and the stalwart Pancake Haus on Fifth Avenue, is La Galleria.
A corner table and a glowing red candleholder on a lazy night set the mood for a relaxing dinner. We sipped an Italian Pinot Grigio and had it alongside fresh, fluffy bread baked on site. Our waiter gave us lots of love, not just because we were his only table, but also due to his being the owner, Joshua Colberg: a sharp wine guy with a passion for the food and a manner both small town smiles and starched-apron professional. He even brought out a lovely vase of colorful cut flowers from a wedding reception they hosted the day before. “You liked the candle so much, I thought you’d like the flowers too,” he said.
We shared a seared tuna appetizer (photo second from top) in a light tomato sauce (with more bread magically appearing for mopping the plate clean). Organic green salads and a crack of black pepper preceded the entrees: properly airy gnocchi in a gorgonzola cream sauce, a vibrant-but-not-too-spicy pasta puttanesca, and my own fettuccini with prawns (photo bottom left) in a restrained, more classic Alfredo sauce lightly coating the pasta rather than drowning it in a puddle of cream. Desserts are also their own, and the lemon torte with ice cream, lemon zest, and a honey drizzle (photo bottom right) brought our night in Little Italy to a refreshing conclusion.
Next time it’s brunch. Or the hidden, wine-colored lounge in back for cocktails and nibbles. The place can roar on weekends, so call ahead. And if you’re going to Edmonds, best brush up on your Italian. Ciao!
April 20th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Some old family friends were recently in town doing college tours with their youngest daughter. We decided it would be nice to meet up as I hadn’t seen them in at least a decade, and we settled on going to Crush on Capitol Hill for dinner on a sunny Tuesday night. I had never been to Crush, but I’d heard great things, so naturally I was thrilled not just at the idea of seeing old friends, but more so at the idea that I would be dining with fellow food enthusiasts.
The setting was beautiful. It seemed the restaurant was designed with minimalism in mind, with a simple white and cream color scheme, very clean lines, and accented with funky chairs and intricate modern decor. The setting sun filtered through the blinds to light up the space, creating a warm glow. I loved the simplicity, and all I could hope for was a complex, delicious, and colorful meal to create a full and well rounded experience. All my expectations were blown out the door, as what I was about to indulge in was far superior to what I imagined.
I wish I could write about what all of us had, but a lot of plates hit that table, and so, for now, I’ll just discuss what I was lucky enough to eat. We started with a cheese plate with four different French cheeses (photo top left), each paired with a particular garnish to enhance the natural flavors of the cheese (extra virgin olive oil, kumquat marmalade, nuts) and all served with crispy crostini. We each had an appetizer, all of which were delicious. I chose the crispy sauteed sweetbreads in bourbon sauce with grain mustard cabbage and apple slaw (photo top right), a dish whose balance of flavor made for an incredible experience. The hard sear on the supple sweetbreads, the crunch of the apple, and the acidity of the mustard all combined with the sticky-sweet bourbon sauce. Oooooh, the bourbon sauce.
We were served a small scoop of Meyer lemon sorbet (photo middle) to cleanse our palates- the cold tartness immediately banishing the flavors of our first courses, and we were ready for more. Our lovely waitress, who was the perfect blend of attentive (but not clingy), honest (but not brash), and extraordinarily knowledgeable recommended the Painted Hills boneless beef short ribs on Yukon potato puree with carrots and truffle oil (photo bottom left), and I was happy to oblige. She said “beef”- I was sold, especially after spending the previous hour drinking wine and getting whiffs of truffle every few minutes. I was very happy with my decision. The potatoes were rich and creamy, not gummy, and the sauce on the beef was thick and sticky, without overpowering the flavor of the beef. One of my dining cohorts ordered the rabbit wrapped in prosciutto, which was salty, crispy, and moist, and I considered, only for a second, pouring my glass of wine on him so I could finish his dish while he was in the bathroom cleaning up. But I didn’t want to do that to him and deprive him of such a delightful dish. And I didn’t want to waste the wine.
We all ordered dessert. I had the chocolate coulant cake with a slightly molten center served alongside a creamy caramel brown sugary ice cream (photo bottom right). Needless to say, I made mine all gone. After a four hour meal, the Murray family and I were sitting contentedly, behind a table of empty, almost licked clean plates. I wasn’t stuffed, I didn’t have to unbuckle my pants, and I didn’t feel like a garbage disposal, which was surprising because the meal I had just consumed was NOT light and calorie free. I was content, satisfied, pleased. It is clear how much thought went into the planning of this menu: rich components paired alongside complementing acidic and fresh flavors in appropriate portion sizes. This is not food that was meant just to be eaten; this is food that is meant to be smelled, examined, tasted, savored, eaten, and then admired.
I was lucky enough to have been able to enjoy a delicious, rich, and indulgent meal with people that I love (and don’t see enough). This experience made me bow down to the incomparable power of food and its ability to bring people together. We would have had a nice time no matter where we’d chosen to dine that night, but the meal that we all shared together in this one moment made for a truly unforgettable evening.
April 19th, 2010 | No Comments »
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