Reviews

Restaurant Review: Woodsman Tavern

May 23, 2013February 5, 2017

Jonah and I had been wanting to go to the Woodsman Tavern for a while. When my dad and Darla came to town about a month ago, I was looking for places to eat, and saw that Woodsman Tavern has brunch. It’s a little out of town (east of 39th on about 50th and SE Division), so I figured it’d be a little less crazy than, say, Screen Door or Tasty n Sons. And it was. We still had to wait for a little bit, but there was no crazy line out the door or hour and a half wait. And the little wait there was was well worth it.

First, let me tell you about the decor. The whole restaurant is a beautiful dark wood, and the tables and chairs have a kind of industrial feel to them. The walls are covered with landscape paintings (many of them depicting the beautiful Mt. Hood). There are big windows along two walls, so the light was really natural and bright for brunch. It immediately felt homey but also chic.

The staff were all extremely friendly. Jonah and I waited at the bar, where we chatted with the bartender about their amazing vintage bitters bottles, our weekend thus far, and this cute puppy sitting outside. Our waitress was very sweet, and I was only mildly envious at how effortlessly she pulled off her white blond hair and bright red lipstick. She handled my dad’s sarcasm and schmoozing very well.

I decided to start the morning by indulging a bit and getting a mimosa, which the Woodsman does with grapefruit juice and some vanilla. It was a really nice simple twist on a classic. Dad and Jonah got the oven pancake with apricot preserves, ricotta, and pistachios. These pancakes were absolutely beautiful when they came to the table, big and light. And really tasty.

Darla and I both ordered with the potted egg with creamed greens, country ham (really more like prosciutto, which is my favorite), and a biscuit with apple butter. The egg and greens came in a little jar, with the biscuit and ham on the side. The egg was cooked perfectly atop the creamed greens (chard) and was all just really nice – it somehow was both light and comfort-food-esque at the same time. The biscuit was amazing: really flaky and crispy, and the apple butter was a lovely touch.

After brunch, we went to the little market they have next door. More of a specialty spot, they have a little produce cart outside, as well as some nice meats and cheeses inside (their breakfast sausage is really wonderful). The walls are covered with fancy oils, vinegars, sardines, salts… the list goes on and on. And in their little freezer they have containers of various stocks for sale as well as a small selection of Salt & Straw ice cream. The folks behind the counter were extremely nice and gave us tastes of various cheeses before we made our selection (to be used later for a midday snack). It was, overall, a lovely way to spend the morning.

Restaurant Review: Double Dragon

May 8, 2013February 5, 2017

A few weeks ago, my co-worker Kelly (who is also a big foodie) told me about this restaurant by our office, the Double Dragon. He said they had awesome bahn mi sandwiches for lunch. So the following week, Jonah and I went to get lunch there with our co-worker Sarah. I had the pork belly bahn mi, which was delicious. Now, let me say that I am not usually a sandwich person. There is usually just too much bread and all the fillings squeeze out as you eat it and it can just be a big mess. I’m a fan of silverware. But this bread was so good – like a baguette but really light and the crust was more crispy than crusty. I don’t know what they did to it, but it was awesome. The pork belly was wonderfully cooked and just melted in my mouth, and the whole thing was topped with aioli, jalapeno, and pickled carrot and daikon. It was awesome.

So when Little Green Pickle invited me to the celebration at Double Dragon to welcome their new expanded menu (after 5 pm) and cocktails (yum), I was more than happy to show up, eat some food, and drink some drinks. The party was open to the public, so I was happy to bring Jonah and our roommate Mac along. It was a beautiful day in Portland, and the picnic tables outside were packed. Here’s what we ate (and drank):

While Mac and Jonah both got the IPA on tap, I decided to try the Run Castro Run, a cocktail with tequila, pineapple, jalapeno agave, egg white, and angostura bitters. It was creamy (thanks egg white) and light, and perfect for a sunny day. We also were gifted an unclaimed cocktail, Double Dragon’s punch, which consisted of gin, lemongrass, ginger, and champagne. It was also really light and refreshing, perfect for a sunny day.

We had a little basket of the miso disco fries, Double Dragon’s take on the every popular poutine. Crispy, perfectly cooked fries, drenched in a miso sausage gravy, and topped with melty queso fresco. These were a really good start, and a more unique version of poutine (which you’ll find on a lot of happy hour menus in Portland) than I’ve had before.

Probably my favorite thing we ate was the rice cakes and Chinese sausage. I don’t know what they did to this dish, but it was awesome. I am a really big fan of this kind of rice cake, and I haven’t found it a lot in Portland. But rather than just being a little chewy, they must have pan fried these, so the edges got a little crispy, which was awesome. And the combination of that with the sliced sausage (which also seemed pan fried and had nice crispy edges) made for a really delicious dish. More bar snack than entree, it’s definitely something I’ll be returning for.

Overall, the food was really good, and the cocktails were really refreshing and light. I will definitely be hitting this place up for a post-work drink and bite. I recommend you do the same.

NOLA Trip & Reviews

April 23, 2013February 5, 2017

At the end of March, Jonah and I went on vacation. A while back, Jonah’s cousin Dylan had asked us if we wanted to go to New Orleans (NOLA) with him. He has some lovely friends who live there and were willing to host all of us. How can you turn down an opportunity like that?

Upon our arrival, we learned that not only were these people amazingly friendly and funny, but that they, too, are foodies. Could I have been any happier? Probably not. Emily and Barry (whose house we were staying at) were a wealth of information of where to eat (and where not to eat) and Urooj was just as enthusiastic about eating delicious food as we were. And eat delicious food we did. Here are some pictures and brief statements on what (and where) we ate.

Let’s start with breakfast, shall we? Our first day we ate an amazing brunch at Ruby Slipper, which has two locations in the city, I believe. I had the delicious quiche you see below and Jonah had some amazing crawfish and grits. The shrimp and grits were also delicious, as were the pancakes, which had some combination of spiced rum and pecans, I believe.

Later on in the trip, after hearing Emily and her brother Josh rave about it for days, we went to Gracious Bakery. These pastries were lovely – my particular favorites were the strawberry danish and the cruffin of the day (croissant pastry baked in a muffin tin), which was full of artichoke and cheese. Emily picked up a boule at Gracious (a round loaf of simple bread) and it was perhaps the most wonderful dense, buttery bread I’ve had in a long time. If you’re hunting for pastries in NOLA, I definitely recommend this place.

Now onto snacks: Emily’s brother Josh and his partner Brett took us to Dat Dog, where there are all kinds of creative sausages and toppings, resulting in some delicious and gigantic hot dogs. Below you’ll see my guinness dog with catsup, mustard, and something else, which I can no longer remember…

After walking with the gang through the Garden District (do it, seriously – the place is beautifully breathtaking), we strolled down Magazine Street to a nice little bar called Bouligny Tavern. Sipping kir royales and munching on these gouda beignets and fried gnocchi with truffle oil was not a bad way to spend an afternoon. The decor in this place was very 1960s, and the little food I ate was really REALLY delicious. Next time I’m in NOLA, I hope to go back.

Earlier we had stopped for an afternoon sweet tooth snack at Sucré. Jonah and I kept it simple with 2 flavors of gelato: lemon curd and basil + coconut. Both were incredible and have inspired some ice cream flavor brainstorming for my summer. Emily and Dylan, however, went for it and got a salted caramel chocolate cupcake and a profiterole-type dessert, made with an eclair, 3 scoops of gelato, and as you can see, plenty of chocolate sauce.

Emily, our wonderful hostess, works at a little sweet shop called Brocato’s, so of course we had to visit. Almond macarons and custard gelato were the highlight here. As well as her co-worker Pam.

I won’t talk too much about drinking (I know, I know), but I will say that if you’re going to visit NOLA, I would highly recommend at least walking by Lafitte’s Blacksmith shop, if not going in and having a drink. Reputed as the oldest bar in the U.S. (built in 1730 or something like that…), the building is super cool. When Jonah and I went, we were lucky enough to happen upon a wonderful singer playing the piano in the back of the bar. She knew every cover the audience threw at her, and had this great raspy voice. And the piano was covered in candles, and surrounded by people on stools. The whole scene was pretty neat.

For our big meal out, we decided to go to Root, a new-ish restaurant in the warehouse district. Root’s menu felt like one you could find in Portland, except for very South-influenced. We started with face bacon (it’s exactly what it sounds like) and a ballotine, accompanied by mustards and house pickled onions, strawberries, etc. Next? Grilled duck heart salad, smoked scallops with cauliflower served in an old cigar box, and pork belly served with poached lobster. But my favorite part was probably dessert: The Yorkie. A housemade peppermint pattie and mint chocolate chip ice cream scooped on top of the most delicious homemade coco puffs, with mint infused milk poured over the whole thing. Just like eating cereal for dessert. But really fancy delicious cereal.

And of course, how could we go to NOLA and not go to Cafe Du Monde to eat some beignets (and some beignet mix for our roommate, who was kind enough to recreate the dessert for us about a week after we got back).

Tamar Adler’s “An Everlasting Meal”

April 13, 2013February 5, 2017

I have come across a book that has changed the way I think about food and cooking, and I want to tell you all about it. I’m not sure how I came across it, but somehow I did, and when Jonah and I went to Powell’s with a friend, I made sure to pick it up. It’s called An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler.

Tamar Adler seems to be the perfect combination of writer and cook. She was an editor at Harper’s Bazaar, and still occasionally writes for them. But she also worked at Prune and Chez Panisse, so clearly has some foodie chops. Unlike most of the other food books I’ve written about, Adler’s book isn’t her life story, the tale of the opening of her own restaurant, or even a cookbook. This book is full of tips and ideas on how to use the ingredients you’ve got to your fullest advantage and make delicious food. (One of my favorite tips on roasting vegetables and vegetables in general: “If you need vegetables to share a roasting pan, choose ones that have grown in similar ways. This rule helps when you want to know which vegetables can stand in for which in recipes as well.”)

After having fallen in love with this book, I have read more of Tamar Adler’s articles. I recently read a conversation between her and Kurt Michael Friese. Their philosophies about getting people to stop being afraid of cooking, to realize how simple (and inexpensive) it can be, and how food really brings people together are very aligned with my own. These philosophies are a large part of what led me to create this blog. I want everyone to know that it’s not that hard to roast asparagus with olive oil and salt, or to bake some trout in parchment paper. Anyone can do that.

Heavily inspired by M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf, An Everlasting Meal is split into chapters with titles like “How to teach an egg to fly,” “How to build a ship,” and “How to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.” (On Adler’s website, you can find cute little videos to accompany some of the chapters, as well as links to more of her writing.) Subjects like how eggs can be a substantial part of any meal, using bread as a central part of the meal instead of as an appetizer, and entertaining are side by side with recipe ideas and recipes themselves, which are peppered throughout. But her recipes aren’t do or die… they’re more like gentle guidelines or suggestions. Some are written in normal recipe format, and some are in paragraph form amongst the text.

My copy of the book is marked up and dog-eared, with ideas circled and recipes starred on many pages. Jonah is reading it now, and I’ve told so many friends about it who have asked if they can borrow the book when he’s done. I am inclined to say yes, but then I think about how much I’ve used this book since owning it. I’ve used specific recipes as well as referencing sections for ideas and finding favorite quotes for inspiration when I’m feeling too tired to make dinner. And it always revives me, reminding me that all I have to do for a good meal is boil some potatoes and whip up some aioli and eat them with sauteed kale.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from An Everlasting Meal:

“All ingredients need salt. The noodle or tender spring pea would be narcissistic to imagine it already contained within its cell walls all the perfection it would ever need. We seem, too, to fear that we are failures at being tender or springy if we need to be seasoned. It’s not so: it doesn’t reflect badly on pea or person that either needs help to be most itself.”

Talking about making an omelette: “Beat two or three eggs in a bowl, adding a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of heavy cream if you want. This is not a trick, but and expresion of the fact that things taste good with cream added.”

And two of my favorites on entertaining:

“We’re anxious about serving, but the simple, blessed fact is that no one ever comes to dinner for what you’re cooking. We are all hungry and thirsty and happy that someone’s predicted we would be and made arrangements for dealing with it. We come for the opportunity to look up from our plates and say ‘thank you.’ It is for recognition of our common hungers that we come when we are asked.”

“I like to serve food family style. It’s pleasurable to spoon a potato onto a fellow diner’s plate. It binds you to her, for the duration of the dinner at least, in a way that makes conversation easy and the atmosphere good.”

She writes a lot about the importance buying locally grown, good ingredients, and most of what she cooks with is good produce. Even though I know it’s a huge part of cooking, I am still in awe of what good fresh ingredients can do. Which is one of the reasons I’m so excited that the farmers market has started again here in Portland. Here are my spoils from today.