Jim Dixon

Here’s what you get for $25 at Cafe Azul. choice of four appetizers: salad, fava bean soup, smoked tuna/avocado/bean ceviche-type thing, or chips w/assortment of salsas ditto for 4 entrees: flank steak with lime and garlic, halibut with poblano, chile relleno w/potato, jack cheese, mushrooms, pork tamale w.salsa verde and 1 of 3 desserts, which I didn’t write down My descriptions probably don’t do justice to the items offered. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, Azul is awesome. Claire Archibald was nominated again this year for a regional best chef Beard award. I'll get Paley's next. edited to add this: I called and they don't have the menu worked out yet. They'll probably post it by the 30th on their citysearch site I'm tempted by Lucere, too, altho' chef Pascal Sauton recently left after a dispute with management. I don't think it will mean a big change until they get a new exec chef...Pascal's sous chef is temporarily in charge. Jim

wingding... thanks for the explanation...I don't add any sugar when I make the quince paste, and it is still pretty sweet, but not cloying...must be the wine. I planted a pineapple quince last year just so I'd have a ready suppply. It's blooming now, so I'm hoping for a decent crop. Jim

Probably Zefiro (Monique Siu was original pastry chef, now owner of Castagna, altho' rumor is it's on the block), corner of NW 21st and Glisan. Zefiro is widely credited with launnching Portland's more forward-thinking restaurant wave. Bruce Cary was one of the partners, and his newish (3 yrs old) place Bluehour raised the bar again. ...would be Steve McCarthy atClear Creek Distillery. He's using pot stills to make various eau de vies from local fruit, including a pear-in-the-bottle poire william. Here's what stefanyb had to say about the stuff: over on the booze boards Jim

I'm down for that...my choices from the list would be either Cafe Azul, Paley's Place, Castagna, Laslow's Northwest, Serratto, or Southpark Seafood Grill. Probably Azul or Paley's first choices. I'll volunteer to get the menus from them. Jim

Paley's is very good, and I'd recommend it in a minute. Chef Vitaly is a Russian concert pianist, Kimberly a classical dancer who works the front...they fell in love, married, decided to open a restaurant in Portland. Soltner ate at Paley's when he was in town a couple of weeks ago. Bistro Montage...still popular for late nighters, but it's lost a little luster over the past few years. Original owner John died last year and, from what I hear, the food's not quite like it used to be. edited to include this: Claudine is working at Ken's Artisan Bakery during the evening wine bar/bistro hours. Betrothed Rollie Weisen, formerly of Rainbow Room and other NY joints, is contemplating new place but nothing open yet. Jim

Aquitaine, I'm not sure how much flavor it adds, but mine is less sweet, a little thicker, and more intensely colored than the Spanish canned stuff available here, which is all I can compare it to. The cugna was brought back by a chef friend who frequently visits winemakers in Piemonte, so it might have come from one of them. But it was spoonable, like apple butter, as Craig said...maybe even a little runnier. It was in a simple jar with a printed label, but the label art and type were hand-drawn. Jim

While Fife is pretty good, I wouldn't recommend it for a one-nighter for an out-of-towmer (Tommy: one-night out-of-towner...maybe new sig line there). The original Jakes (aka Jake's Famous Crawfish downtown on 12th) would be my choice. It's got great Portland (old-school Portland, that is) atmosphere and serves a lot of local seafood. The turnover is high so you know the fish is fresh. It's also one of the only places where you can consistently get sturgeon, the other iconic northwest fish and a damn tasy one at that. My other choice would be Navarre (and not just because they're all friends and they buy olive oil from me). It's called a wine bar, but is really more like a strange little restaurant with a quirky approach to food and wine. It's casual, inexpensive, and very good. I've also heard good things about dinner at The Daily, but haven't been. And I'll second Trillium's idea of hooking up with Portland eGulletarians. A four top is as easy to get a single. Jim ps...Fife pastry chef Steve Smith ups the ante with stuff like carrot sorbet, candied serrano chiles, and apple-cheddar fritters

I also like to save a cup or so of the pasta cooking water. You can use it to thin the sauce if it's too thick or to make it more "saucy." We eat a lot pasta tossed with onions or garlic (or shallots or leeks or all four..quatro gigli) and maybe some other vegetables, and it's good add a little of the water. Jim

A chef friend brought back a jar of cugna from somewhere in Peimonte and it was just like Bill described...dark and only slightly sweet. We ate it with pecorino. I've made my own quince paste a few times. Usually quarter the quince and cook in wine (I've used white table wine and dessert wine, both worked well but the batches were too far apart to note much difference). Then run through the mouli, cook down a little more, spread onto oiled pan, and leave in gas oven to let pilot light heat speed the drying. Nigella has a recipe called mostarda del something in her How to Eat. It's more like a quince jam and you add mustard powder for heat. Also very good with cheese. Jim

Rachel, The door switch (safety device that turns off oven when door opens) broke on ours (we couldn't microwave with door open, which might've been cool...it just quit working), so I'd check that, too. When we looked into repairing vs buying a new one, the repair guy said keep the old one because it has more power.It's more than 13 years old and still nuking daily. Jim

I read Shaw's menu-pilfering article online (linked from saute wednesday) and had to smile. I've lifted many menus in the course of a review, and the big, bound, multi-page monsters are a nightmare. Like Shaw, I've slipped the printed pages out and handed the empty binder back to the server, but never been confronted about it. My standard practice is to make Judith do it. She's got the purse, after all. Jim

Trattoria Due Torre (Dorsoduro, 3408, tel 523 8126) It was our last day in Venice, and we wanted to eat a big lunch to hold us for the train ride to Tuscany. We headed back to Dorsoduro and poked into a few places around the big Campo Santa Margherita, looking at menus and checking out the cicheti. When we opened the door to this unassuming trattoria, we knew we'd found the spot. The room was packed with working men, dressed in bright orange dirty coveralls and rubber boots, all eating big bowls of pasta and slurping wine. Judith was the only women in the place and everybody stopped eating for a second to check her out (we later learned that 12-1 is traditionally the workers' lunch break and everyone else eats after 1). There were a couple of stools at the bar, so we drank prosecco and ate the sweetest crab I've ever tasted, big boiled legs called cheli di granchio, while we waited for a table. We had plenty of time to check out the cicheti, and we ate a platter of boiled tiny shrimp and picked crab meat. It was so good that when we got a table we ordered another, followed by penne bolognese and sardines in saor. We finished with a chunk of grana padano. Jim

Bacon and cabbage also seem made for each other. I will cook some cubes of bacon, add coarsely chopped cabbage (and maybe an onion...and I like to use plain green cabbage because I'm so cheap), let it cook long enough to wilt, then stir in a healthy dollop of creme fraiche and finish it in the oven. I made this other night without the bacon but added some chopped chestnuts (from my post-xmas wm-sonoma score at $2/jar)...mmmmm Jim

We've booked both hotels and an apartment in Venice through Guest in Italy. I'd recommend an apartment. It gives you more room, a kitchen, and many are located in the sestiere away from San Marcos, so you get a less tourist-centric taste of the city. My post above somewhere has a link to my site with a few places we liked. But wander the back streets and look for crowds of students or old men. We'd spot these and inevitably they'd be gathered in front of a bacaro (wine bar) serving traditional cechetti, the tapas-like small plates of fish, polenta, vegetables, etc. My friend Robert Reynolds (former chef-owner of Le Trou in SF) is leading a one-week tour of Venice in May. His partner is Venetian and they plan to spend one day in each of the sestiere exploring the little hidden spots, local hangouts, and other food-related stuff. I'm not sure of the dates, but I do know he has some openings. If you're interested send me an email or PM and I'll put you in touch with him. Jim

My favorite stupid microwave trick... Ours has the typical numerical touchpad, so to cook something you touch 'time cook" then enter a value. But it always bugged me that entering 1-0-0 for a minute only gave you 60 seconds. You end up wasting that third touch. So, in the interest of classic time and motion saving techniques, I always enter the time in repetitions of the same numeral. If something needs a minute, enter 66. A bit longer, 99 222, 333, 444 etc. Jim

I've been making polenta lately using half coarse cornmeal (I buy it in the bulk section) and half Moretti with buckwheat (Moretti comes in vacuum bricks...plain, white, or with buckwheat called, I think, taragna)..and cooking in milk instead of water. The results are creamier (duh) and I like the texture better than just using one or the other. Jim

We have a relatively ancient unit without a turntable (a repairman told us to keep it, though, because the newer models aren't nearly as powerful). So I have to spin the little cart it sits on instead. Jim

Rustichella del'Abruzzo is nearly ubiquitous here in Portland. It's a more traditional dried pasta..brass or bronze dies, slow air-drying, etc. These pastas really do taste better, hold the sauce, and have a noticeably different taste and texture. They are more expensive, typically $4/lb or more. I imported some pasta made for Don Alfonso that was similar, but I didn't really want to expand my little business beyond olive oil. The most interesting was a shape called candele lunghe (I think that's the right spelling...means long candles). These were tubes about 3/8 inch dia and 18 inches long, very dramatic looking. When I asked Ernesto Iaccarino how they cooked them at the restaurant, he said they broke them up. The biggest problem with these artisinal pastas is that it's hard to go back the industrial stuff. Jim

This is the same one I have...couldn't remember the name. Another newer book with simple recipes and wonderful stories is Anna Tosca Lanza's most recent book on Sicilian cooking. Jim

This article provides lots of details about Robert and a dinner he's doing in Seattle. I first met him at the IACP conference when it was here in '96 and we've come to be friends. He's an amazing chef and teacher with a wealth of stories. The dinners he does here are very good and a bargain at $30. Jim

I don't notice any serious heat coming from the thing when I'm cooking...at any rate, it's a lot less than my stove, a '40s vintage Wedgewood gas range. Jim

While I always get a raft of shit for saying it, I'll repeat my stand on the appliance we love to hate: you can cook serious food in the microwave. I adapted Barbara Kafka's techniques and make polenta and risotto in mine all the time. Don't bother to tell me that cooking them this way can't compare with the traditional stovetop technique. I've cooked and eaten both, and I've served the microwave versions to knowledgeable chefs. You can't tell the difference if you do it right. I also cook squash for use in other dishes, an occasional piece of fish, and the obvious things like potatoes. The microwave is like any other kitchen tool. If you understand its limitations and strengths, you can use it to make good food. Jim

I like Gastronomy of Italy right now...Marcella's Classics, of course...and a Bugialli book on island cooking. Jim

I have a DeLonghi and it's pretty tight inside. I'm not sure a whole chicken would even fit. But I do like it for cooking small gratins and similar things. I've also cooked cut-up chicken, fish (steaks or filets), and pork tenderloins, and they do fine. When the food sizzles and splatters much, the oven gets pretty messy. I also have an old stove and prefer not to heat up the whole kitchen in the summer. I suspect the DeLonghi is more energy efficient, too. The convection feature is also fast for reheating things that suffer in the microwave, like fried foods and breads. There's a dehydrator kit you can get as an option that looks interesting, but I may just try drying a few things on the regular rack. Jim

You're actually supposed to turn it over a few times during cooking, but I've forgotten to do it more than once and haven't noticed any difference. I do like the concept of 'milk-line' though. Jim