The West End

Tis a new year and already I have been neglectful of the blog. Since we last spoke, Mao and I celebrated Christmas, an anniversary and New Year’s. We spent the 31st dining at Masu in the West End. One of the many reasons I love this city is that just as I become convinced I know Portland like the back of my hand, someone introduces me to a new restaurant, a new shop, a new part of town. The someones in this case would be our friends Matt and Jess who took us to this great sushi place to ring in the new year. The sushi was fresh, with some classic choices and other more creative options, but thankfully none containing cream cheese and other bastardized ingredients. The menu also held an impressive list of Japanese dishes, including udon, yaki soda, and ramen. We ordered a feast for the table – udon soup and a roll consisting of Dungeness crab and seared tuna with cajun spices for me; seared scallops and braised kuro buta on a kambocha and pear puree for Mao; and a dizzying array of rolls and nigiri for Matt and Jess. The beer and sake flowed and every last bite was consumed. We left Masu blissfully content, ready for 2010 and many more evenings spent in the West End.

I have long adored this part of town, defined somewhat obscurely as the blocks south of Burnside, between Stark and Alder, between 10th and 13th Avenues. Some of the best shops and restaurants west of the Willamette are all situated in a radius of only a few blocks. Clyde Common, a modern take on a tavern serving some of the most creative food in the city, is here, nestled near a Stumptown, the Ace Hotel and Kenny & Zuke’s, perhaps the best New York style deli outside of the burroughs. Also in this part of town – Covet, Frances May, Odessa, and the English Department – tiny clothing shops whose entire contents I lust after. And of course there’s Canoe, my absolute favorite, favorite store in all of Portland, all of the U.S., maybe even all the world. And one cannot forget Cacao for divine drinking chocolate, Martinotti’s for specialty Italian groceries, and now Masu for some of the city’s best sushi.

Here’s to a great year and many, many more spent in PDX.

Two Tarts – the perfect breakfast companion

It is a long standing tradition in my family to have a breakfast Christmas morning consisting of many, many cups of coffee and heaps of cookies. Normally I bake various sweets for days, the kitchen becoming a swarm of flour and butter and sugar. But, with the lovely Two Tarts bakery a few blocks away, there was another option. And thus I settled for the latter, purchasing a baker’s dozen of miniaturized pastries. Hopefully they will last until the 25th, but one never knows with Mao, that sneaky glutton.

My Christmas list

1. Truffle honey to slather over hard cheeses

2. Crunchy, smoky fried peppers.

3. This sign for the office. As well as everything else at Three Potato Four.

4. A visit to Humphry Slocombe to sample any of the ice cream flavors.

5. McClure’s Pickles, either garlic dill or spicy.

6. Dinner at Biwa or Castagna or Le Pigeon or Clarklewis . All in Portland. All on the east side.

7. A box of jewel toned macarons from Pix Patisserie.

8. Mini cocotte stoneware from Le Creuset. Or larger pieces in a shocking color.

9. A ridiculously expensive salt sampler.

10. A meal of takoyaki at Kurata Sushi in Lake Oswego.

Twenty-Third Avenue Market

An ode to inspired soft drinks

For one who does not drink soda in the national brand sense, I have a weakness for skillfully crafted interpretations of slightly sweetened, carbonated beverages. Like chocolate, beer, donuts and countless other food stuffs, Portland excels in artisan sodas. I first sipped such a concoction at the orange hued food cart Give Pizza A Chance. The pizza was wonderful, but what really lured me in was the list of all natural soft drinks, made to order. The offerings, which change seasonally, include black cherry, ginger ale, and some more unique pairings, like the basil cucumber I sampled. It was divine, a hint of sweetness counteracted by intense herbal flavor.

Sahagun, tucked into the first floor of an apartment building near NW 16th and Burnside, is loved throughout the city for its chocolate, found in the forms of beverages, truffles and various barks. I too adore the cacao treats, but have come to rely heavily on their sodas. Chili limon is my preferred choice, a spicy citrus drink that tricks the mind to thinking one must sip more to quench the heat from the beverage, when in fact that intensifies the problem. Blackberry rose is a more mild mannered option, light and fruity. The espresso soda is so intensely caffeinated, one will be awake for days just looking at it.

Sodas can be found in bottled form throughout the city, from Hot Lips Pizza which sells countless fruit flavored varieties to Kenny and Zuke’s and Apizza Scholl’s, both featuring lengthy lists of all natural, sugar cane sweetened old fashioned brands, from cola to root beer to orange cream. With the endless rain of winter, I will have to wait until summer to sample more artisan soda. In the meantime I will expand my knowledge of artisan hot chocolate in the hopes of combating the eternal gray skies of November.

Who do? Voodoo.

Nothing is quite as iconically Portland as a pink box from Voodoo containing a baker’s dozen of assorted donuts. Carrying such a box always elicits stares of jealousy and the occasional audacious passerby who will inquire if one such a donut could be spared.

Reasons behind this ridiculous picture

Several things I caused me to react with such excitement:

A breakfast of cannelles and coffee.

Discovering that a Turkish food cart has opened at SW 10th and Alder.

Melinda is visiting this weekend.

Pistachio and pumpkin macaroons from Ken’s.

Halloween is only in a few days and we’ll celebrate by proudly not wearing costumes, but rather by watching pumpkin carving at the farmers’ market, seeing trick or treaters skip around the neighborhood and perhaps meander down 21st to observe the hoards of bar hoppers. Oh and we will eat candy, lots of candy.

A dinner tonight of slow roasted romesco and broccoli. Which may be tomorrow’s dinner plans if I can successfully convince Mao that Tuesdays are ideal for forays into Southeast for pizza.

Future plans to dine at the following establishments: Besaw’s, Ken’s, Cacao, Sahagun and Pine State.

Another great week in Portland. And another odd face from me.

Candied orange macaroon

A homecoming of sorts

Much of my time and money while residing in Anchorage was spent at New Sagaya’s City Market. It was dangerously located on my route from work to home and I visited nearly every night. I would purchase summer rolls or forage the impressive salad bar or stock up on expensive cheeses and crusty Italian bread. I walked the few blocks from the hotel to the grocery store Wednesday night. It was very bizarre to be back in a place I relied so heavily on. The cheese selection was still divine, but everything seemed less stellar than I remembered. The fish counter smelled overwhelming fishy, less like the deep sea than I recalled. The produce looked sad and wilted, most shipped in from Washington. The bread seemed more like that I would find in Publix in Columbia. Portland has spoiled me. I have become so reliant on sustainable, local ingredients at my disposal. Anchorage does not maintain the same culinary aesthetic that is so prevalent in Portland, but when I lived in Alaska it seemed so refreshing compared to life in South Carolina. Though the city does boast some impressive and varied restaurants, the markets lack in content except for those few summer months when the bounty of the Mat-Su Valley is plentiful. Though a large part of me aches for Alaska, I am so thankful to be living in Portland, a city I am so in love with and I believe so much in.