ExtraMSG

I'm interested in hearing people's theories on what types of restaurants should be in what kind of locations. eg, what are the best locations for breakfast restaurants? Retirement community? Hotel district? Business district? And why you think such would be interesting as well.

Well, the Times article uses a similar analogy, the zoo one, but I don't know that that backs him up. It's just the same faulty logic in his post that I missed the first time I read the Times's article. The proposal is much closer to counting condors being hatched in an incubator and released into the wild or orphaned animals that get nursed until they can be released into the wild. The wild elk fed during the winters in Wyoming are closer to animals living in a zoo than hatchery fish that are released when they're still fingerlings that will only reproduce if they can survive years in the same conditions that true wild fish will.

Like I've said, I think you emphasize local ingredients preparing them in a way that projects the culture and you've created NW cuisine. It's a restaurant/gourmet cuisine. It's more about a style that speaks of the NW than it is about dishes, imo.

I think I see where you're going Irwin and I don't want to get in the way except to add that indigenous ingredients is a pretty weak determinent of a cusine. Imagine: * Italian without tomatoes * Mexican without pork, cheese, or cilantro * Irish without potatoes * European desserts without chocolate * Thai without chiles And a bazillion others.

Too bad you got the law all mangled. It's not farm-raised fish, but rather hatchery-raised fish that would be counted. That's a huge difference. Hatchery fish are released into the wild, make their way to the ocean, and then return up the rivers, often after several years at sea. Farm-raised fish hang out in pens their whole life getting fed pellets. I imagine all or most of the Copper River salmon you love is actually hatchery fish, not true wild. In stores and restaurants there is never any difference noted between hatchery and true wild fish. Any anglers, especially fly-fishers, out there like myself who've caught the two will probably claim to know the difference, besides just the inability to keep true wild fish usually. But I don't think most people, even seasoned salmon munchers, can tell the difference between the two. The issue is still open for debate as to whether hatchery fish should be counted, but it's for entirely different reasons from the ones you state. Your entire argument goes poof and the analogies fail miserably once the facts are corrected.

Just to be a little technical here, but Idaho never touches the Pacific. Even though it is often included in the PNW, culturally and geographically, it's probably more appropriate to put it in the mountain west along with Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Native American foods will only do so much for you. They were never truly adopted like the Mexican/Indian foods were in the SW. eg, did Pioneers ever eat whale as a major part of their diet? Did they cook with the fat of whales and salmon? Did they cook using river rocks, rather than just pots over fire, etc? I'm sure they used the natural bounty, and brought a lot with them, but I don't remember ever reading that the pioneers ever assimilated much. I imagine they had no problem using their European methods in Oregon, Washington, N. California, and BC. Personally, I'm not sure what you're looking for. Defining such things is dicey. In general, the best way is just to eat it or immerse yourself in it.

So much of taste is based in familiarity and culture, though. A friend told me a story about going to Portugal and his Portuguese roommate having never seen cold cereal. My friend showed him how we eat it and the next day the roommate was putting Tang on his cereal. Disgusting to us, but the guy insisted it was better. He had no cultural/traditional reference. The tongue and nose play a big role and we largely share that physical context. But the brain plays a very big role as well.

Thanks, eem. I've been meaning to try creme fraiche, but it's hard to find good stuff around. That's what Gand uses in hers and the truffles I had at Tru were some of the best I've ever tried. Interestingly, though, a friend who is a major chocoholic tried Gand's recipe and even emailed the restaurant to make sure the recipe he had was right, even finding out the exact type of chocolate they use, and he could never get the truffles to come out quite as good. So I'll just assume that there's actually skill involved and that when someone like yourself makes such things, the results are greater than the sum of their parts (ie, better than I could do). (My friend actually emailed, pissed-off at Gand after several mediocre results, accusing them of leaving out something in the recipes.)

Steve, I think think it's more about style than method. Braises are very common here in Portland, especially in winter, of course. But even braised greens and vegetables. Think rustic and unpretentious, with simple presentations and simple but complimentary combinations of flavor. A classic is the salad you see commonly with greens, blue or goat cheese, a dried fruit, and nuts. I reiterate: look at what Alice Water's has done. Her recipes are very similar in style to what I think of as NW cuisine. There are just some slight variations here and there. I can't imagine a person from the SW or another country could really tell the difference, just like someone from the NE or France would have a hard time telling the difference between Arizona-Mexican food and Tex-Mex. They're part of a continuum. And cuisines are dynamic things anyways. I disagree. A cuisine emergences when it is identifiable and nameable. When you can distinguish it from something else, it is. Clearly the way people on the west coast cook and many of the ingredients we use and the way our dishes are presented are different from the SW, the midwest, the NE, etc. It feels and looks and tastes different and so it has been named. NW and California cuisine is primarily a restaurant cuisine and gourmet cuisine, but it exists nonetheless, just like broader categories like Nouvelle French or Nuevo Latino or even the very broad "haute cuisine". It might be historically analogous to something like the royal cuisines of other countries. Not peasant food. Not homecooking. But generally distinguishible. It's the way of most American cuisines anyway. They're not things people really make much anymore. What people make is the general American food of fast food and food from a box. (Except gourmets and people cooks in restaurants, that is.)

$25 fixed price meal at Wildwood is hard to pass up. Here's the complete menu: My wife and I went there tonight. She ordered the fixed the menu: salad, quail, tart. The salad was simple and typical for the NW. She got it with chevre. But it was quite balanced with lots of filberts and dried currants. The quail was my favorite dish that we ate. The spatzle was delicate, not at all gummy, and accented with truffle oil, I think. The quail's skin was nicely seasoned and the basting was delicious, adding tartness/tanginess. I deboned the quail for my wife and tore the extra bits off for her. I got to eat the skin, too, and spent several minutes licking all the yumminess from my hands before I dug into my food. The dish also came with a bed of greens and some grilled scallions. A very balanced, tasty dish. The tart also came with a rhubarb compote not mentioned on the menu. This was a surprisingly good dessert. Normally I'm not too interested in these sorts of things, but the flavors all went together quite well. The lemon filling itself had a sour-tartness, while the rhubarb had a sweet tartness. Then you had a very good crust and the ability to soften the flavors with whipped cream. I didn't order an appetizer, although the pizza of fennel salami, dried tomato, green garlic, rapini, and soft pecorino was really calling my name. For my entree I ordered the mushroom and corn bread stuffed pork loin on braised Savoy cabbage with red wine butter sauce ($21). It came with a stack of matchstick-like french fries on top that were fabulously addictive. If McDonald's sold them, I'd have a hard time ever doing low-carb. They were salty and crispy. The loin itself was nicely seasoned (a big problem in even nice restaurants is under seasoning the outside of meats, poultry, and fish, but Wildwood always does this well) and cross-hatched with grill marks. The inside was tender and juicy, not overcooked at all. The stuffing was okay. The cornbread mostly added texture, while the mushrooms created the brown color and earthy flavor. I thought it needed something more, maybe chunks of bacon or seasoned mushrooms or even corn kernels or dried fruit. The cabbage was fine and the sauce was fine, neither especially great, but certainly nothing to complain about. For dessert I ordered the banana and chocolate puff pastry with dagoba chocolate malt ice cream and oregon walnuts ($6.50). This looked great and sounded good and was recommended by the waiter. But I was disappointed. It was okay, but the bananas were fairly starchy, almost like really ripe plantains. I would have preferred them to be caramelized or maybe grilled and tossed in honey or something like that. With the starchiness of the puff pastry, the starchy bananas just didn't create a balanced flavor. The ice cream was excellent. And I'm not pre-disposed to like chocolate ice creams. The walnuts were roasted and good enough, but their bitterness, with the rather unsweetened chocolate sauce and the starchy banana pastry just furthered the problems I mentioned above. Candied walnuts might have been better. People who don't really like sweets might have liked this more than me. But I wished I'd ordered the panna cotta with dried cherry compote, candied almonds, and vanilla lace cookie. We sat at the kitchen counter, btw, which is especially fun at Wildwood. The cooks will often interact with you. I overheard one of the servers say that, "He said the quail is lacking a dimension." "Who?" asked one of the line cooks. "Cory." "He's eating here tonight? Why didn't someone tell me?" Cory, of course, is Cory Schreiber, owner and executive chef. I spoke up and blurted that, "Cory is wrong!" I thought the quail was very well balanced and didn't need anything more. (I did say the stuffing could have used something more, however.) You can see over the counter pretty easily and the do most everything there in front of you. On the right is the wood oven and they'll hand stretch pizzas before you and fire mussels. On the left is the grill, typical ovens, and burners. The clay oven is pretty much in the center along with the pastry fixins. The best looking dish of the night which I wished I had ordered was the Painted Hills flatiron steak with herb-parmesan dumplings, bacon braised greens and balsamic butter ($25). It also came topped with a morel and onion, I think, sautee and what looked like a beef/veal reduction possibly with wine. If the morels had been listed on the menu I would have gotten it. I cursed the customers who ordered it as I heard, "steak mid-well". Medium-well. Why not just order a hamburger you vile, vile people. Anyway, great dinner as usual from Wildwood. Sit at the counter. Make use of 25 for $25 (er...19 for $25).

http://www.dinearoundpdx.com/ They're calling it "Dine Around Portland" and it's running the month of May Sunday through Thursday. It's not 25 for $25 because there aren't 25 restaurants, but there are some good ones. Alba Osteria & Enoteca Assaggio Caprial's Bistro Carafe Castagna Fife Hudson's Bar Grill Lucy's Table Navarre Oba! Paley's Place Red Star Tavern and Roast House Restaurant Fratelli 750 ML SouthPark Seafood Grill Tabla Taqueria Nueve Tuscany Grill Wildwood

I thought the dishes in this episode looked the least appealing of all the episodes. Morimoto was hurt by insisting on not cooking nearly any of the lobster. Gotta know your tasters.

I'm hoping they don't try to do a weekly series so much as a maybe a set of specials every couple months. Make it more intriguing. Don't want them to turn it into Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Also, I wonder how much time people like Batali and Puck can devote to such a thing. And if it was less regular, it might be easier to get some of the most respected chefs, though I'm not sure if anyone like Trotter or Keller would ever be willing to do something like that. What do they have to prove? It can only hurt them. Whereas when Flay did ICJ, it could only help him. And Siegel was still up and coming. It might be cool to see one of Trotter's chefs or one of Keller's chefs compete, though, like you always had in ICJ. Although, the best battle I ever saw was the one with -- what was his name? Kandagawa? -- in the runup to the Flay battle where he shaved his head, did the fish headchop move, and cried when he won. That was absolutely fantastic. That guy lost so many times through his surrogates. If a Trotter, or a Keller, or a Ripert brought in one of their chefs and cheered them on, they'd get the publicity and praise, without the chance of personally being defeated. And their chef would get publicity, too. A friend suggested that they have a cook off among chefs, sort of like an NCAA tournament, where you pair off a bunch of professional chefs and they go up against each other and the winners take on the iron chefs.

I think these features are common in NW cuisine: 1) Simple and rustic preparations and presentations 2) Rustic French, Italian, and Mediterranean leanings 3) Local ingredients with an emphasis on: -----seafood: shellfish, crab, salmon, halibut -----game: venison, elk -----poultry: duck, pheasant, quail -----pork, bacon, and ham -----nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts -----berries and stone fruit -----apples and pears -----cheeses: chevre and blue -----squash -----greens -----root vegetables -----rustic Italian and French breads -----coffee and beer -----local wine varieties I think even though she's not truly PacificNW, in large measure you can think of Alice Waters's food with a more Washington/Oregon emphasis on ingredients. But I think it's very similar. So her books and menus with our ingredients (though we share a lot of ingredients with northern California and borrow a lot of ingredients from California, like oranges. I think the simple and rustic idea is very important, though -- braises in the winter, grilled game, sauces that aren't too refined, presentations that don't tower to the ceiling, desserts that don't look like modern art sculptures, etc. Also the occasional Asian or even Latin American fusion. The best exemplar I've seen so far is Cory Schreiber's Wildwood. Here's a copy of his book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai.../egulletcom-20/ Here are some recipes from that (their website also has their menus which always make me hungry: http://www.wildwoodrestaurant.com ): SEAFOOD * Wood-roasted clams with saffron, tomato, garlic, and grilled bread * Apple cider cured smoked salmon * Golden potato, leek, and oyster hash cakes * Salad of field greens, crispy fried oysters, aioli, and smoky bacon on an herbed crepe * Cedar-planked salmon * Poached salmon with warm clam and bacon vinaigrette * Olympia oyster, fennel, and bacon chowder * Warm scallop and endive salad with orange, walnuts, and pomegranates * Crab cakes with orange, fennel, and watercress salad * Creamed crab on brioche with wild mushrooms and thyme VEGETABLES * Leek and English pea soup with asparagus and curly pasta * Pan braised spring fennel with olive oil, honey, and orange * Red lentil and fennel ragout with bacon, carrots, and thyme * Wilted young spinach salad with hazelnuts, smoked trout, and oregon blue cheese * Sweet onion sandwich * Asparagus with spring onion-lemon vinaigrette, sorrel, and goat cheese * Baked stuffed chard leaves with spring garlic, potatoes, goat cheese, and black olive vinaigrette * Fresh herb pizza * Corn soup with red mustard greens and red potatoes * Roasted beets with fennel seeds, oranges, and goat cheese * Potato dumplings with pumpkin, hazelnuts, bacon, and brown butter * Acorn squash and cider soup MUSHROOMS * Sauteed chanterelles with shallots and fines herbes * Chanterelle soup with dried apples, hazelnuts, and apple brandy * Warm chanterelle salad with onions, summer berries, and white cheddar toast * Mushroom bread pudding * Creamed morels with aple brandy, thyme, and roasted garlic * Roasted porcini on garlic mashed potatoes * Whole roasted portobello with soft polenta and wilted spinach WINE * Braised should of lamb with pinot noir, raisins, and carrot puree * Chicken legs braised in pinot noir and blackberries with fennel puree * Roasted pork loin with Gewurztraminer-Apricot compote and vegetable barley GAME AND FOWL * Duck breast with mushroom spaetzle and red wine braised cabbage * Red wine braised duck legs with sour cherries, parsnip puree, and balsamic roasted pears * Quail with grilled Walla Walla onions, cherries, and wilted arugala * Roasted partridge withcreamed brussels sprouts, walnuts, and bacon * Leg of venison with cider-baked apples, red chard, and cranberry sauce BERRIES * Strawberry-buttermilk ice cream * Blueberry-lemon buckle with whipped cream * Currant-hazelnut cookies FRUIT * Clover honey baked apples with raisins and cinnamon * Peaches wrapped in filo dough with walnuts, cheese, and cherry sauce * Peach and hazelnut cinnamon rolls * Brown butter and cherry clafoutis * Pear and dried cherry turnovers

I just went through and read all chefsteban's stuff. I get the sense he has a thing against celebrity chefs, but other than that, most of the posts have been typical and not at all trying to pick a fight. So this may be an actual honest opinion from a guy who may be a titch arrogant and offput by celebrities. I think there are more than a few people on these boards like that, so no reason to gang up on chefsteban. Or at least don't just call him a troll. Actually consider the opinion honest. (Even though I personally disagree with it strongly.)

Thanks for the nice report, duckduck. I have a question, however: You're a jeans and t-shirt kind of gal, aren't you? How was the vibe? The place always seemed like it might be a little too LA.

I swear, in the last 6 months the number of taquerias has more than doubled along Fourth Plain in Vancouver between I-5 and 205. This is becoming a great stretch. Several of the places make a point of offering freshly made tortillas. One of the newest is Taqueria Colima, which I tried for the first time tonight. I had a taco de asada and a taco de birria. Both carnes were flavorful and cooked nicely. The tortillas were made fresh. They had a red and a green salsa, both good enough. Other meats included adovada, lengua, and pollo. Notably, no carnitas or al pastor, which I actually respect, since too often al pastor is just adovada and carnitas is just roast pork. If they're not going to do it right, they shouldn't do it at all. Stopped by Poncho's al Pastor and talked with the lady there. They do indeed have the spit turning with the pineapple on top every day. Plus they use an entire pineapple in making the marinade. They grill up the pastor with onions which get nice and caramelly. Their asada is quite good as well. You pay an extra 25 cents for fresh tortillas and you do have to ask for them. The older lady here is very nice and happy to answer any questions and accomodate any requests. She'll make fresh quesadillas Mexico style if you ask, for example. That makes four really good taqueria options within a mile or so along Fourth Plain: La Michoacana, de Leon, Poncho's, and Colima. There's a new place that just opened that I haven't tried, too. Plus there are at least 4 mediocre options along here.

Low BBQ also has a stand at 6th and Hawthorne that's open weekdays for lunch. I don't think they're doing the lamb ribs then, though. (But obviously you could get more info from chefrodrigo.) Maybe a stuffed porker for your mascot, like the dog on Scrubs. I hope you know it's all constructive criticism levied in order to make sure you guys are successful so we can have your good Q years from now.

What night are you doing it? Taking up 2/3 of a restaurant on a Tue or Wed might not be much of a big deal if you tell them ahead. Lots of people like guaranteed business as long as they don't have to hold the tables too long. Another smallish place is Nuestra Cocina. The prices there aren't too bad.

Are you guys at Reed? Make him spend the big bucks and go to Caprial's. They have the $25 menu going right now. There's a decent Thai place on Woodstock. The name escapes me right now. Vegans and true vegetarians often have a hard time with Thai, though, because of fish sauce. Surabaya, maybe? I still haven't been there, but I tried some of their stuff at the Taste of the Nation and some was decent and some was good. I'm not sure how many people they can accomodate, however. They look at least as big as Hoda's. Maybe some of the Italian places in Westmoreland or 3 Doors Down in Hawthorne?

I was trying for "smashed truffles". It was mostly a joke. btw, what do you use in the ganache? It had a really nice texture. Definitely better than the ones I've done at home. Nick

I call them palets after "les palet d'or" the gold-flecked coin-like confection filled with ganache and coated with tempered chocolate. Some people do still call them truffles as they call ganache cut into squares truffles but this no longer makes sense, since chocolate truffles were named truffles because of what they resembled, namely a black truffle (fungus) which as you know is irregularly spherical. So contentwise, palets are the same as truffles but with a squat cylindrical form. I have a little diagram posted at my booth as well as on my flavor cards describing my chocolates as palets to minimize the confusion. (I apparently forgot to give you one.) P.S. Thanks for coming by and trying them!! This is probably poor French, but how about: truffles écrasée It may not have the connotations you're looking for, however. Nick

Maybe a big "jars" of freshly made ice tea and lemonade like you see aguas frescas on carts in Mexico. I bet that itself would bring in customers and would help the profits, especially as summer heats up. Toss some fat on the wood, too, and get some yummy smelling smoke rolling out into the crowd. Maybe take some pictures of the food and print them out on 11x17 in full coor at Kinko's and put them on cardboard stands to entice people. Not sure. I recognize that it's a pain because they have limits that some others don't. But they need to make the booth look more active. I used to go to guerilla marketing schools for political campaigning and we learned all kinds of tricks to get people to stop at booths. Basically, all of them involve actively or passively intercepting potential customers. Some things are as subtle as putting your booth out farther than the others so that people have to walk around it. Some might be gimmicky, the equivalent of the having people place stamps on a piece of paper to send in their free Columbia House selections. Maybe you get all those dog owners to your table by offering free bones with orders. Etc. I'm just brainstorming. One thing they definitely need is signage. Speaking of dogs and gimmicky things. The market had this "survey" where you placed dots on your answer. At the end you could leave comments. There was an ongoing feud about what the market needed. In big bold letters somone wrote "NO DOGS!". Below that a few comments someone had written: "MORE DOGS, LESS PEOPLE!". I just wrote "Aarf!". There were lots of coments about the dogs, though, so I don't think you're alone. Worse, though, are dogs and the honkin' huge baby strollers on the Max. Ugh!

Here's an update: http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?name=N...e=article&sid=8 This was probably the most disappointing stop on the trip. I was really looking forward to it. Both Chowhounders and eGers praise it so much. But I found it mediocre at best. Didn't get a chance to search out Pleasure Point, but Pizza My Heart, Taqueria Vallarta, and Gelatomania were all near each other. Of the three, Gelatomania is a true winner in its genre. But Pizza My Heart and Vallarta make their cuisines admirably as well. I appreciate a chain as big as My Heart that actually still hand tosses every crust. I would have liked to taste it at its peak.

I was very disappointed in Mr. Taco. It's not bad, but rather mediocre, imo. I guess if you're just looking for an easy stop along the interstate it's okay, but certainly not worth going out of the way for. You can read my pleasant experiences on N. Ca. Mexican food at these two links: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...30entry592987 http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?name=N...e=article&sid=8