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It's a shame since the flights between islands really are pretty inexpensive, especially for locals. You can even get those books of flights. But I know what you mean. My aunt and uncle live on the north shore of Oahu and just going to Honolulu is some sort of "trip" for them. Here, that 30-45 minute drive is a common commute. On Oahu, the best plate lunches I found always seemed to be some shack or roach coach by the ocean with really fresh fish. I remember one out towards Hanauma Bay that my wife and I stopped at that had some fantastic mahi mahi. Personally, I can't stand macaroni salad, so I hope a trend towards providing alternatives occurs. My next trip to Hawaii, probably next year, will be to the big island to see the volcanoes, and I'm looking forward to finding some great plate lunch there, too.

I have an uncle who's Samoan and has lived in Hawaiian with his family for a long time. I can remember him getting a huge tub of mayo for Christmas before. That's actually what he wanted. As many know, Polys love mayo, allegedly because of it's similar consistency to coconut cream. They put it on everything. Macaroni salad is just noodles covered in mayo, really, so I'd guess it has something to do with that. Best plate lunch I've ever had (and I've had a lot for a howlie) was at Mark's Place in Kauai. It's just a caterer with a to-go kitchen in an industrial part of town. Fabulous stuff. Everything was very fresh with excellent cooking technique and refined sauces. A big step above the average plate lunch with no step up in price. I think L&L can be decent, depending on the outpost. But it's really just B-grade plate lunch. It's usually easy to find a place that's significantly better just by asking around. Whenever I'm in Hawaii I eat a lot of plate lunch. Probably 75% of what I eat. I usually get teriyaki something or chicken katsu unless a fish looks especially fresh. If they've got fresh caught tuna, ono, or mahi, I'm all over that. Depending on what the loco moco meat is, I'll go for that if I don't plan on swimming anytime soon. Don't want to sink to the bottom. You don't need a diving belt if you eat loco moco first.

I've been to Hamura's and it was fabulous. Good shave ice, too, though I think it was some people just renting out space in Hamura's doing the shave ice. They even had some pie there, if I remember correctly, that was tasty. Almost no one but locals since it's in the heart of a non-tourist town. Great stuff, and I'm not even a big fan of noodle soups.

Anyone know if the pre-Hispanic Latin American natives used any marine sources of fat? Whales and other sea mammals have lots of fat that could have been rendered, I imagine. I don't know if they had hunted them, even, though.

Finally went. Pretty tasty. They're not elaborate dishes, but like Buckman, they put a lot of flavor into relatively small, simple dishes. And the value is good. My wife and I paid less than $40 for the both of us for our six courses. I don't think any of the options were over $20. It's a bit noisy and they cram a lot of tables into their small dining room, but if it keeps the prices down, I guess it's worth it. Very good sauces, and just the right amount of them. Their desserts seemed the weakest of the courses, but they still had flavor.

Powell's just hosted Alton Brown *very* successfully. Lines around the block. They seem to actually be increasing their hosting (Diana Kennedy will be there next week), so I hope you guys get in touch and tell them that us Portlanders want you there.

I did read it and I plan on buying the book. Looks like another good one. I don't think you guys have put out a dud yet. I own three of your books currently. My issue is more with chefs feeling they have to "dress up" traditional recipes even when this "dressing up" hurts the dish. Stewed pork shoulder may not justify a $15 price tag even if it's prepared wonderfully so some pork tenderloin is tossed on top even if it detracts from the dish. Maybe that's what the market, unfortunately, requires. Here in Portland the trend is away from this, I think. We don't have haute cuisine here really anymore, but even without it the trend is towards a simplifying of dishes, I think. See this okay article on the subject, if you wish: Next Wave of Chefs in Portland Also, this egullet topic: Egullet on Next Wave in Portland I'm for good food whether it's traditional or not. Maybe my real problem is with customers who force bad choices by chefs. In that case, I hope more people educate themselves by reading books like your own and adventurously eating out. (btw, the comment in the excerpt about culinary school students not having eaten enough good food was very on target. I was just arguing this to a friend the other day after I watched the entire season of the Food Network's Cooking School Stories. I am a better chef in many ways -- as an amateur -- than them after a couple years of culinary school if only because I've eaten at many top restaurants and know what it means to make a great dish.)

As long as dishes don't start saying "Hollandaise Sauce brought to you by FedEx" and "Budweiser's Portland Bistro", I guess I can live with it. Nick

It seems that menus have a lot of celebrity ingredients these days. Niman Ranch seems to be the one I see *everywhere*, on both coasts. With Chez Panisse, The Mansion at Turtle Creek, and Charlie Trotter's all serving Niman Ranch beef (plus hundreds of other restaurants), doesn't it kind of increase the chance that whatever quality it had that made people go to it in the first place, can't be maintained. At some point these celebrity ingredients must be mass produced just like other generic ingredients. And certainly, the idea of regionality is lost all-together if every top restaurant in the country is getting their beef from the same source. Think we'll ever get menus that just say "flank steak" and not "Niman Ranch flank steak" again? Seems like a cow that's devouring itself.

Saw that you'd be in Seattle. Hope you make a trip through Portland.

Culinary Artistry truly is a great book. I have one suggestion for you, however, on new editions: cut page edges. My friend actually took his in to Kinko's and had the pages evened out. In a book where you so often want to use it as a reference, it's rather annoying to not be able to flip through.

I've been to both Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. I like the menus, but question the execution. I don't want to get into whether the flavors are good, great, mediocre, or whatever. Rather, reading your excerpt I can't help but think that Bayless actually doesn't always respect the Mexican tradition. eg, I had his pozole verde at Frontera on a trip there. The pozole itself was fantastic, easily the best of the dishes at the table. It had some braised chunks of pork throughout that were good, too. But then he plops down some slices of pork tenderloin that just seemed totally out of place. Several of the other dishes at Frontera and Topolo suffered from the same problem. My guess is that it's an effort to "prove" that the dishes deserve the prices they charge and to show that it's upscale, not just "Mexican", whatever that would mean. Seems like a folly by an experienced restauranteur similar to the ones that you describe by novices in your excerpt -- an unfortunate casing of pushing the bounds of the tradition for the wrong reasons. (Just as an aside, I prefer Cafe Azul here in Portland partly because I think Archibald truly respects the tradition she's trying to work in and thus succeeds with the dishes consistently.)

Like I said, I'm a taco person. I'm truly judging these places on their value as taquerias and as cooks of authentic Mexican street food, which burritos aren't. Bonita also has good pozole in addtion to good tacos and tamales. Someone with broad experience should probably go through and separately rate places for best burritos. I'm sure the results would be quite different. Some of these places, like Ochoa and Salvador's, do burritos as an afterthought, I think, to placate American tastes. You don't see many Latinos order burritos, in my experience. It's tacos, soups, and tortas for them. I'm not loco for tortas, but I gotta agree with them on tacos.

This is actually very common in bbq places in Texas, even some chains. That's fine. As long as it keeps the prices low, I guess.

I got in an argument recently on the Texas Chowhound site about Salt Lick. People were trying to say it was bad. It might not be their favorite or great bbq to their palate, but bad is ridiculous. Some of the best pork ribs I've ever had (they have a very good sauce, too, and I normally shy away from sauce). I'm a pork ribs person. I don't much eat the sides, either. But if they come with it, I might as well try them. My wife usually eats my sides while I eat her Q. Part of the good thing about being a ribs person is that the extra fattiness cuts down on the inconsistency, but bbq, in general, is inconsistent even at the best of places. Maybe sometime when I go to Campbell's they'll actually have everything.

Yeah, I usually do the same -- Becerra's (actually, I usually just use my tortilla masa harina because it's hard to use up the stuff). I think all of them that I've been to have it. Since Woodburn is so far for me, I've never really looked through their cold section too much, just noted that they have things like fresh crema. They have a butcher in their restaurant and produce as well. It'd surprise me if they didn't have at least frozen masa para tamales. However, no one that I can find consistently has squash blossoms or huitlacoche in the can (at least I've found fresh squash blossoms this summer lots of places, including the farmers markets). There's a tortilleria in town where no English is spoken. It's just a couple blocks or less northwest of Salvador's. They sell their masa harina there. I just get hot tortillas there (very good). But you could ask them if they sell fresh masa. I was thinking about getting a 7.5 quart oval or 7 qt round Le Creuset pot there off their "seconds" rack. What's your experience been?

I've got Austin in my travelocity fare watcher. As soon as it drops low enough, I'm off to meet a friend and do the famous Luling/Lockhart bbq. However, I've eaten some well-regarded Q in Texas and other places and Portland's can hold its own. I recently went to most of the places in Portland. The first I ever went to was Buster's and I was unimpressed. That was a while ago. Today I hit them again now that I've tried most of the others, and my impression is much the same. Here's a rundown: Yam Yam's: NE Portland on MLK. The best. And they have a Sunday buffet. They even have very good sides. Good balance of flavor, tenderness, and moisture. I could go for a little more smokiness, but it's good. Cannon's: NE Portland. This is probably my second pick, though I should try them more (and more, and more, and more). Good ribs that are smoky and tender and moist. A little fatty, maybe, but moist. Campbell's: SE Portland near 82nd. Not as tender and juicy as I would like, but a good strong smoky flavor. Also a decent enough sit-down restaurant that can get quite a line. They always seem to be out of something when I go, too. Reo's: Beaverton/Hillsboro. A bit inconsistent. Some pieces on a rack were excellent, falling off the bone tender with good flavor and moisture, but some were dry Tennessee Reds: SE Portland. Not helped, imo, by being in a smoky bar, but on my one visit here I got it to go anyway. The flavor was off here. They're more tender and juicy than Campbell's, but the flavor is off. The sides, btw, were probably worse here than anywhere else. Buster's Texas BBQ: A couple locations, though some have closed. The first times I had gone it was in Vancouver and off Sandy. Both of those have been closed, so maybe they weren't the best. Recently I went to the one in Gresham which was better. However, it's still not *good* bbq, just adequate. The flavor is lacking and their meats tend to be a little dry. The prices are decent, though, and they supply a decent sit-down atmosphere. But they might be my last choice still. Any others I should try? Is Clay's any good? The Delta?

I think I've put this out on Chowhound before, but never on egullet, so I might as well, since I tried a new one today. Not sure of the name. Too much crap on the walls. It might be called Antojitos Mexicanos, or they might just be telling you what they have. Anyway, it's out in Gresham just west of the Burnside/Division interesection. It was okay. They had tacos, burritos, sopes, quesadillas, and huaraches (though I didn't notice that until after I ordered, otherwise I would have gotten one). They also had pozole and some other miscellaneous dishes. I got two tacos, one carnitas (my favorite, and so my standard test) and one birria de chivo. Both were actually decent. Not great, but B+ quality. The carnitas weren't crispy at all and rather fatty, but the flavor was excellent. Seasoned just right and obviously cooked in lard. The birria was decent as well. Nice and tender, just like a good pot roast meat. They had a couple salsas which were quite firery and had decent flavor. They made my teeth hurt, though. Anyway, here is my short list of taquerias in Portland. These are the best and the only ones I consider deserving of an A grade: Ochoa: Out in Hillsboro. They have good meats, including real carnitas by the pound. They have a huge menu that goes way beyond tacos, including antojitos like huaraches, one of my favs. They have lots of other combination plates, too, that are very much what you'd see in Mexico. They also have chips and salsa here, though I don't think it's free. Salvador's: In Woodburn. They have an outlet in Tigard, but it's a mere shadow of the real thing. The best of the bunch is in downtown Woodburn, has a tienda connected to it with tons of very good pan dulces. I love going with my wife to the factory outlets in Woodburn because it means a trip to Salvador's. I've tried most of the taqurias in Woodburn (downtown Woodburn is essentially a little Mexico), and Salvador's is the best. They make their corn tortillas for the tacos and such fresh for each order. They have recently added huaraches, though they're not as good as Ochoas'. They also go beyond supplying just taqueria food, adding full dinners and pozole, menudo, etc. Their prices are quite good. They have a great selection of salsas, too. Weekends are awesome here. There is lots of activity, families and such, and the selection of meats and dishes increases. La Iguana Feliz: Near the airport. One of my long-time favorites. I found it early on in my taco search and I'm amazed how well it has held up. They still have two of the best table salsas I've ever had. Now they give you free chips, too, and have added a third salsa that's decent. They still supply the free radishes, though, thank goodness. They have some of the best quality meats prepared well I've ever had at a taqueria. They do make you pay a little more, though, charging as much as $1.75 for a taco depending on the filling. The carnitas here is probably braised and so less greasy than some, but still very tender and juicy and a higher quality of meat than most places. Always seasoned well, too. The asada here is the best I've had. Only once (and I've been here a million times) was it not excellent. It's usually small pieces charred and seasoned very nicely on the outside like it should be. Carne asada should *not* be fajita meat and this isn't. I love the birria here, too, and they almost always have it. I had the pozole recently, which was very good. Tortilleria y Tienda de Leon: Gresham. Not really a taqueria, but a store with a deli counter in back where some of the best Mexican food in town is served up. They have a glass case with several items sitting in warmers. You'll see things like nopales and beef in sauce or pork in sauce or ribs in sauce. You make an order of whatever you want and they give you a bunch with tortillas. The tortillas are made fresh there (though not for each order specifically; they're a tortilleria). They also have excellent, true Michoacan carnitas by the pound. You can see the vat of lard in the back bubbling away. They do have some tables to sit at. They have a lot of salsas, but some of them actually are pretty bad so taste test first. Honorable mentions: Uruapan: SE 82nd. Might not make the A grade but they have an excellent selection of salsas, usually. I think they might even rotate them a little. The meats are decent, but I think the salsas raise these guys up. La Bonita: NE Alberta. Better than Sirenita next door. I think they're just consistently a little better. Plus, they make very good tamales. Vancouver taco trucks: Vancouver, of course. There're these three taco trucks with different names but run by the same people in Vancouver. I know two of their locations. One is just east of the intersection of 503/500 and 4th Plain. Another is near the intersection of 28th or Burton and Andresen. Very good and very cheap. They have great cabeza and good carne asada. No carnitas, but decent al pastor. Huge burritos that are very cheap, but I'm a taco person. El Grillo: Probably not as good as the rest of these, but hey, it's the best downtown has to offer. When I worked downtown, I probably tried every taco truck there was. El Grillo was better. It's not great, but it's good. And if you drink enough beverages and have to pee, you can't be held accountable if you see some boobies at the adjoining strip club that shares its bathroom with El Grillo. Actually, I just think it's fun watching the businessmen who come in for lunch acting like the guys from Porky's getting a free peep. Anyway, that's my list. If anyone has a suggestion, I'm always willing to try it. I may have already tried it. I try a new one just about every time I see one. I may have tried 50 by now. At one time I had them all written down, but I figured who cares about the mediocre ones. It's enough effort just describing the good ones.

I've never looked at Sidewalk.com, but my experience is that sites like Citysearch, eg, are *very* unreliable. You get a lot of people who've never even gone to a place tearing it apart. Chowhound.com and egullet I've found to be much better resources. You can get to know those doing the recommendations much better, for one thing. And they're focused on food, so you don't get 13 year old losers just trying to cause problems very often. If I were to recommend a restaurant in Portland for someone with just one night, I'd probably recommend Wildwood or Caprial's. They're meaningfully different in their approaches, yet both represent Portland rather uniquely, I think. And both come up with interesting dishes and execute them well. I think Wildwood represents the "Northwest" cuisine probably better than anywhere else in Portland, though. A lot of people will say Higgins, but I strongly disagree. I think they're very inconsistent and underwhelming. Wildwood has never disappointed, though a little more pastry effort would be appreciated. I still haven't been to Tina's, but I'd still push you away from Palmer's. My first visit to Palmer was excellent. But my subsequent two visits were progressively worse with some dishes I really found rather bad, like their mushroom "tart" (more like a torte or cheesecake made of mushroom). I also got pretty spotty service on the subsequent visits. They use a lot of high schoolers, I think, who just do stupid things (like asking "Where do you put all that bread?" and screwing up orders). And then they include a service charge so you have no way of showing your appreciation or lack of appreciation with a proper tip. Palmer's does sometimes do some great things with mushrooms and the restaurant itself is gorgeous. But it's too inconsistent. If you do go, get the mushroom soup, it's excellent.

I have a friend who has family there. Their favorite low cost places are Ken's House of Pancakes (I think it's in Hilo, though) and Bubba Gump's. Pick up an Ultimate Big Island Guidebook: Big Island Revealed on Amazon I've used their guidebooks for Oahu and Kauai and they're excellent. Much, much, much better than a Fodor's or Frommer's guide. You get the sense that they are truly locals and anything listed as Ono is usually very good. They'll tell you about total hole in the wall places, even. On Kauai, two of the best places we went to were totally out of tourist areas, Hamura's Saimin and Mark's Place. The latter was actually a caterer that also did to-go orders in an industrial area. Some of the best plate lunch food I've *ever* had. Really great stuff. Never would have found it without that guide. And the guide is just as good for the sights and lodging. I gave the Big Island guide to my friend and he loved it. He really liked how it separated the items that were things tourists are just expected to do from the real gems, as they call them.

I went yesterday, a Monday. I was unimpressed. I don't drink, so this totally has to do with the food. I had the cherry tomato and sheep's milk cheese special, the braised greens, and the braised pork. The tomatoes were probably the best of the lot, but nothing special. Rather flat, really. They probably needed an acid to wake them up a little. The cheese was a very plain sheep's milk cheese that really was more a salt for the dish than anything. The braised greens weren't any better (and actually worse) than I've had at many bbq places. They were probably short on both salt and fat, but it would have been nice to have some flavor. If not a meat like bacon or sausage, then maybe something in the liquid to give it some kind of flavor. A lot of butter would have been something, at least. As it was, I don't know that I would much rather have had those braised greens then some frozen spinach cooked in the microwave. The braised pork was rather chewy. The sauce needed more intensity, but wasn't bad. But the meat was rubbery. Normally when you get something braised, the point is tenderness. If I wanted something with tooth, I'd have gotten the flank steak. Just nothing that good. The big test for me is whether me, as an amateur cook, would have done something better or worse. With those dishes at Navarre last night, I *know* I would have done better. I do better every night for my wife. And I almost never use a recipe or buy expensive ingredients. In fact, when I came home I brought leftover tomatoes and greens. My wife was hungry having only eaten a snack and just having gone to the gym. So I took the lefovers and came up with a quick dish for her using them. I tossed the tomatoes and cheese in one ramekin and the greens in another ramekin. On top I placed a raw egg into each. On top of that I sprinkled some seasoning and cheese. Then I took some puff pastry from the freezer, cut out rings, and formed them as lids to the ramekins. I baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes. The tops were crisp (I had buttered and salted them near the end) and inside was a runny yolk with cheese as sauce for the two different dishes. Simple, cheap, and good. I'm not saying that Navarre has to do this sort of thing. It would have totally transformed the dishes. But I think I would have gotten much better at most other decent restaurants. And based on last night, I'd feel pretty comfortable challening them in Iron Chef stadium or whatever. It's only one visit, though. I just would not be inclined to go back and try. I'd rather give Tabla another try, just down the road. Or, even better, I'd love to go to Buckman again. Their dishes had flavor and good execution. I still haven't tried Noble Rot, either.

I just meant relative to other places in Portland. My experience is that they try to come across a little more formal. I don't know that I've ever had truly great service in Portland. But it's rare that service isn't at least decent, even at mediocre restaurants with low price-points. I don't think many Portlanders accept rudeness and we're still very much Americans in that we prefer to eat relatively quickly and get out, rather than do the European thing and hang out or whatever. As opposed to, eg, San Francisco where my experiences were that even the most expensive places took their time and treated the customer rather shabbily. I've been to Paley's maybe 5 times or more. I used to work in that part of town. I don't think I ever had to wait for my table more than a minute or two, I never got treated shabbily, and never remember waiting for my food or getting anything incorrectly or anything like that. I even had a 25 for $25 dinner there, which to some extent must seem like a coupon customer coming in. I also never witnessed anything like someone yelling at a customer, which definitely would have stood out. I'm not saying these things don't happen, I just don't want people getting the impression that it's the norm and avoiding them because of it.

I was just looking at Diana Kennedy's new book on techniques and ingredients and it had an *excellent* section on anotjitos, including gorditas, tlacoyas, and quesadillas. Best I've seen on the subject.

So the pastry chef at Park Kitchen is the previous pastry chef from Higgins? I'm not much of a Higgins believer *except* the pastries from the previous pastry chef. I had this awesome baked apple filled with huckleberries served with, I think, a sabayon sauce last summer. It was grand. It so upstaged everything else we ate there (and everything I've eaten there). The only better desserts I had had in Portland were from Lucere, but the've lost their pastry chef as well.

I should have put BeWon in my list of options by type of cuisine. BeWon, an upscale Korean restaurant, may be my favorite Asian restaurant in all of Portland metro.