Ling

^You're right. Thanks for correcting me.

^We did eat a few bites of everything when it came hot out of the kitchen. We just couldn't finish it. We wouldn't have wanted to taste it for the first time after it's been sitting in a box for a few hours. That would've been a grave disservice to the food.

^Actually, our native-born Texan neighbour emailed me the next day. He's been living in Seattle for 2 years and has searched around the city for Texan BBQ, to no avail. This is what he had to say about Podnah's: "THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! For the BBQ!!!! And YES!!! I APPROVE of that place you went to!!! That was some real Texas BBQ!!!! Did they have cornbread or fried okra? Just wondering if they have the whole Texas dinner plate down?" I believe they have cornbread at Podnah's. The brisket was amazing. The smoked prime rib was super tasty too, but the brisket was unreal!

^Oops, sorry. I swear I say Stumptown out loud all the time! I don't know why I kept typing it incorrectly. I think Stumptown is really good. I'm no coffee expert, but I like Stumptown more than Caffe Vita but not as much as Zoka or Vivace.

They sell a truffle with a slab of blue cheese, too. ← Argh...I totally was going to get that, but I forgot when I started taking pictures. Have you had it? Do you like it?

Don't you think photographing your food is dorky enough as it is?!! We're not writing off Pok Pok based on three items we had at lunch. We'd be happy to get the less common dishes with a group of Portlanders next time we're down!

The cylinders are actually piped chocolate meringue. Pierre Herme has a Concorde cake in his chocolate desserts book, and Ganache Patisserie in Vancouver (BC) also does a version with raspberry, IIRC.

After lunch, we wandered over to one of the Pix Patisserie locations. Pix is another one of those places that have been high on my Portland list forever. I've heard that sometimes their pastries aren't quite fresh, but this was not the case on Saturday. I thought this was pretty unique...you can get one of their pastries with a slice of triple cream brie on top. Henry got the strawberry sorbet with Moscato d'Asti. What a great idea for an adult float! I got the Amelié, a winner at the Patis France chocolate competition. Orange vanilla creme brulee on top of chocolate mousse, candied hazelnuts, praline crisp, and Cointreau genoise. The cake was very fresh and moist. This was very good. (My only minor quibble would be that the candied hazelnuts were really sticky from the moisture in the mousse, and were kind of hard to eat.)

Feel free to recommend anything. I have the feeling after reading your posts in the other thread that we have similar tastes. That was a particularly good ham and cheese.

That's really interesting. Jason said that the bread they get at the restaurant is inconsistent (sometimes burnt) although I have read online that Ken's breads are much darker than most bakeries, and this is a plus in my eyes! I'll have to get bread directly from the bakery next time. What is this contraband butter that you speak of...? I have no idea... I don't think the server said anything special about the butter.

Jim, the olive oil was very good. I used that for the bread exclusively after tasting it. Jason did tell us about Nostrana, and also that Nancy Silverton ate there recently. We must eat there on our next trip!

At lunch on Saturdays, Ken's Place in Portland (a beloved upscale diner in its own right) becomes home to Kenny and Zuke's, a NY-style deli famous for their pastrami. They've just signed their lease for a new space opening up in the Ace Hotel in Portland, and from then on, you'll get Kenny and Zuke's pastrami, corned beef, pickled tongue, chopped liver, and a bunch of other goodies all the time. We got there after an after-brunch nap (I digest while I sleep) around 1:30pm and they were slammed. There's Nick working the floor. I checked out the menu and decided on the Ken's Special, which is pastrami and chopped liver. I love chopped liver. I told Nick what I wanted and he said to get the Reuben instead. So we got the Reuben. (With a lovely side of chopped liver!) amuse bouche (apricot rugelach, their most popular flavour) Egg cream made with Dagoba chocolate sauce. This was our first egg cream ever! Water in mason jars. These guys thought of everything! The main event...we loved the Reuben. Henry said it was the best Reuben he's ever had. I don't eat Reubens often enough to make that sort of statement, so I'll just say that was a damn tasty sandwich. I wish the pastrami had more fat, but Nick said we got slices off the last pastrami, which was the leanest piece. The potato salad on the side was very good too. They definitely put some effort into their sides, which was awesome to see. Yum yum chopped liver... Full sour and half sour What a fantastic lunch. I'm sure they'll do really well in their new location, which I believe opens in late summer/early fall.

The bread was very good. The crust was a little chewier than I expected to be, but it was still crisp. It could've softened a bit because of the humidity in the kitchen, though. Jason made the mozzarella that day. It was really creamy and delicious. I've had some less than tasty housemade fresh cheeses in the past, and I'm happy to say this was very good. My favourite as well. The ravioli skin was thinner than anything I've had in the past. Jason asked us the next morning about all the things we DIDN'T enjoy about the meal. This was one of the dishes I mentioned. I said I was expecting the Milanese-style risotto (the creamy style?) and Jason agreed that they should've made that distinction on the menu so rubes like us don't get confused about why the risotto is so dry. The ribs themselves were my least favourite of the night. We asked Jason how long they braise them for, and he said 4-5 hours, which surprised me because they were still quite tough and chewy. I liked the lemon cake. I think it was like a lemon steamed pudding. It was very moist and light, and topped with lemon curd and whipped cream. There's candied lemon peel on the side. Simple and tasty. I didn't care for the chocolate ganache cake. On top is fresh mint ice-cream. I didn't like the chocolate they used in the cake. All in all, I say the meal at Clarklewis was pretty good. The room is really industrial-looking. Loved it. Portlanders seem to dine out quite early. The restaurant was packed when we arrived for our 8:30pm reservation, and almost deserted by 10pm. (We finished dinner around 11-ish).

I tend to agree, Abra. I usually only order items that I can't make at home, or sounds interesting to me (hence the quinoa breaded chicken.) We got the fried yuca because Nick said it was one of his favourites on the menu. No, it's not adventurous, but it tasted good, and I'm glad we ordered it. However, as interesting as the quinoa breaded chicken might be, it still didn't taste very good (it was underseasoned, and the quinoa was kind of flabby instead of crispy on the chicken.) I get more pleasure from eating fresh, milky mozzarella on grilled bread even though it's "safe". Reading something like the quinoa chicken on the menu would get me thinking about how I might incorporate that idea in dishes I make at home in the future, but I'm not into creative food for the sake of creativity, unless it's executed well. (Not that quinoa-breading is remarkably creative compared to the things other chefs are doing around the country, but you get my drift.)

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See below, forgot to log out.

I think Nick explained the name to us while we were eating, but I was too busy stuffing my face with pizza to pay much attention. Maybe he'll chime in. (more pictures to come tomorrow!)

I'll let Henry do the Clarklewis pictures since it was his friend who did most of the cooking for us, and I'll skip ahead to brunch on Saturday morning at Le Pigeon. We had brunch with Henry's friend Jason, who cooked our meal at CL the night before. He used to work at Mistral up here in Seattle. The ever-classy Jason started off with what our waitress billed as the "East Burnside Mimosa"--essentially orange juice, Miller High Life and Mad Dog 22. Le Pigeon is a really popular local spot that does a good brunch. Their food is pretty simple, Frenchified stuff and it's modestly priced. I can see why it's so popular. We got there at 9:30am and waited half an hour for a table. Jason had the steak and eggs and I'm guessing that's hollandaise. I had a bite and it was good. Henry got the duck confit hash. It was pretty tasty. No surprises here. I got a dessert-like item--apricot cornbread with maple ice-cream and bacon. The maple ice-cream wasn't very sweet at all, but it was a little icy. The cornbread had a nice crust on it. Tasty, and this works. Can't say I was blown away by the food, but I guess I don't expect to be blown away at brunch, especially at these prices. I think most of the items on the menu were around $10. It was an enjoyable meal. The restaurant is small and definitely has character.

I've been wanting to go to Ken's Artisan Bakery ever since FoodTV ran a profile on the bakery when it first opened years ago. We walked there (well, Henry walked, I kind of ran ahead in excitement) after lunch. macaroons canneles cinnamon rolls various pastries Some of their tarts are very large. I think tart molds this size is usually used for small quiches! I got the almond croissant and it was very flaky and delicious. Henry got the ham and cheese, but was too wussy/full to finish it, even though he said it was excellent. Oh well, more for me! I liked this a lot. The sauce had a nice amount of herbs. The opera cake (v. dense almond cake layers, coffee buttercream, ganache) was excellent as well. I inhaled this. Henry kept saying: "I thought you said you weren't that hungry at lunch!" as he watched with a mixture of horror and fascination at the speed at which I consumed these pastries. We didn't get any of Ken's bread because we knew we would have some at Clarklewis at dinner. At this point, we waddled around the Pearl district some more and checked out Powell's again, which had such gems as this book:

Have you had a Voodoo donut before? Apparently, they're quite popular. The guy in front of me at the coffee shop was raving about them. I couldn't get a really clear shot from outside the plastic dome. Anyway, I had more Stumpton coffee from... Stumpton coffee is everywhere! Not that that's a bad thing. I like the coffee quite a bit. Cool space. But we didn't have time to sit because we had to get to... (BTW, I apologize for all the cheesy pics of me. We were on vacation, and didn't really think to take pics of restaurant signs without one of us popping up in them.) wall of bread Oohhh...samples. I tried their hot cross bun and an Italian bread similar to panettone, which was quite good. Pam recommended this last night when we were talking about Pearl bakery, but it didn't look fattening enough...so I passed. I wanted to take a picture of the sandwiches too, but I was scared about pissing off the customers in line so we just ordered. Henry got the asiago/apple pastry. I got the almond croissant (my default breakfast pastry at any bakery). We also got a small baguette. I gotta say I was really disappointed with our choices that morning. The pastries were over-proofed and underbaked for me. The baguette was fine, but no better or worse than most of the baguettes found in Seattle bakeries. Nick told us afterwards that Pearl does the Italian breads better than the French stuff. So perhaps we just ordered wrong. These were the only items we ordered and didn't finish eating on this trip. They photographed beautifully, though. We'll go back on our next trip and try the olive ciabatta.

BTW, by now I've tried all the other Valrhona bars. My favourite of the group is the Palmira. The Ampamakia is also is pretty acidic with red fruit flavours and reminds me a bit of the Manjari bar. The Gran Couva is really sweet for a 64% bar, and I taste a lot of hazelnuts. In fact, if someone told me it was a hazelnut chocolate bar, I'd believe them. It kind of has a cheap candy smell/taste and is my least favourite. I like the Chuao. Anyway, the original plan was to go to Pix after dinner, but we got some suggestions to try the desserts at Carlyle instead. This is the lemon ricotta cheesecake. 2/5 diners chose this as their favourite, one of them being Nick (Extra MSG). I said I liked the grapefruit/strawberry mousse dessert better, and Nick informed me that I was wrong. Here's the grapefruit/strawberry mousse dessert. It reminded me of Asian-style mousse cakes. It was definitely the least sweet of the desserts. Some people found the grapefruit in this dessert a touch too bitter. 3/5 diners chose this as the best of the bunch. chocolate chip cookies and a little milkshake This is the baked apple dessert, and it was my second favourite of the bunch even though it was the sweetest one. (I tend to prefer less sugar than most people like in desserts.) I thought the fruits were very nice, and I liked the textural contrast with the puff pastry twist on the top. Here's the chestnut souffle with nutmeg cream and persimmon. I love the flavours in this dessert, but it needed something crunchy or crispy. The desserts were beautiful. After dessert, we said good-bye and drove around downtown Portland. It was about 9pm. I didn't see many people on the streets at all, so we went back to the hotel and called it an early night.

Apizza Scholls was featured on Tony Bourdain's PNW episode that aired recently. I thought their pizza looked incredible, and I don't even eat (or enjoy) pizza very much. I remember Bourdain saying that they knead the dough by hand everyday. Wow. They open at 5pm, and apparently there's a line out the door everyday. We parked the car at 4:42 pm outside their door. No line. We decided to go poke around in a vintage shop across the street. 5 minutes later, we walked back outside to see a line of 15+ people outside Apizza Scholls. WTF? I ran across the street and by the time I got there, another 15 people appeared from nowhere to line up behind me. We met up with Nick and Pam and shared the following: Caesar salad with anchovies Tartufo Bianco...gorgeous! This is the best pizza I've ever eaten. The crust had a delicious chewy-airyness and every bite of crust was perfectly crackly-crisp. Absolutely delicious, and probably the most memorable thing I ate on this trip. I previously thought I just didn't like pizza that much, but now I know I just don't care for mediocre pizza! We also got the Amoré, which is hot capicollo, mozzarella, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, fresh garlic, tomato sauce, and basil. We each had 3.5 slices of pizza. If you know how big these slices are, you'd know that this is quite a feat. With dinner done, thoughts turned to dessert...

Sagahun was up next! Sagahun is a tiny, very charming shop with a pretty small selection of truffles. They also do hot chocolate that's apparently very different (lighter and frothier) from what Cacao serves. Alas, I didn't know this at the time and decided to skip the hot chocolate at Sagahun when I noticed they were using the same Arriba chocolate I drank 3 minutes ago at Cacao. My selection... The one with the hazelnut on top is their salted caramel. It was my favourite of the bunch. The shell was very thin, and the caramel was very fluid and much saltier than I expected it to be. It had probably twice as much salt as any salted caramel I've tasted in the past. I enjoyed it a lot. The other truffles are jasmine and chilli. The original plan was to hit a third chocolate shop (Alma), though I mistakingly thought it was located near Sagahun. So we'll have to visit Alma on our next trip. This is the new Stumpton coffee location in the Ace Hotel. A lot of places serve Stumpton in Portland. I've had it in Vancouver (BC) once as well. I got my usual 3 shot Americano in a 12 oz. cup.

Henry and I thought we'd celebrate our one-year anniversary doing what we do best--eating. And what better time than spring to check out a brand new (to me) city that's known for their local produce/meats? We rolled into downtown Portland at 12:30pm, then got lost on the freeways on the way to Pok Pok. We got there half an hour later. Henry was pretty grouchy because he was about to pass out from hunger. For those reading along who aren't from Portland, Pok Pok is apparently one of the very few authentic Thai restaurants in the U.S. They've certainly cultivated a loyal following of food-lovers and chefs (the entire kitchen staff at Clarklewis, for example, is in love with Pok Pok's food.) I believe they started out as a take-out shack, then expanded to the Pok Pok Whiskey Soda lounge when business exploded. This is the menu for the shack. People can get take-out here, or sit at one of the outdoor tables. The menu inside the Soda Lounge is more extensive. The flank steak salad comes highly recommended on the food boards. It's billed as a "spicy and sour Cascade Natural flank steak salad with dried chillies, shallots, lemongrass, toasted ricepowder, fish sauce, lime juice, mint". Henry liked this dish, but I didn't enjoy it quite so much. It tasted full-on spicy to me, and I didn't get much complexity from the fish sauce and other aromatic ingredients...so I thought the flavours were a bit off balance. Here's their signature game hen/papaya pok pok. The hen was very moist and the sticky rice we got was great as well. Overall, I would say it was an enjoyable lunch, but I think I've had more flavourful green papaya salads and similar flank steak salads in the past. The portions aren't huge, but appropriately-sized. So we had no trouble finishing everything. We checked into our hotel, and walked over to Cacao and Sagahun, two of Portland's best-loved chocolate shops. Cacao offers a dizzying array of chocolates. You've got your usual suspects like Pralus, Valrhona, and Michel Cluizel, and then some that are harder to find in Seattle, like the Amedei line. The only thing they make in-house at Cacao is a selection of hot chocolates, including three that are European-style (very thick.) I got the spicy one with Arriba chocolate, various spices (ginger, cinnamon, etc.), and coconut milk. Here are the chocolates I chose from the case. I got one each of John DePaula's chocolates (he's on EG as well). They were offering his brandy, his grappa, and his hazelnut chocolate. I liked the brandy one best. I also got an olive oil chocolate (the one with the gold brushstroke) from another Oregon chocolatier, and an apricot chocolate (top right) from Chocolat Moderne in NY. The apricot chocolate was my favourite of the bunch, but Jesse also gave me another coconut chocolate (not pictured) from the same manufacturer that I didn't enjoy so much. Also, I bought a bunch of Valrhona bars that aren't easily available up here (Récolte from Venezuela, Ampamakia, Gran Couva, and the Chuao). We talked to Jesse, the owner, who used to live in Seattle. (He used to work at Fran's, then moved down to Portland to open Cacao.) He recognized us from the "No Reservations" show.

Hey everyone, we had an incredible short trip in Portland. It was lots of fun meeting some of the local food geeks. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to stop by Superdogs (sidetracked by Powell's.) But we'll be by to say hi to Ellen next time, and there surely will be a next time because there's so much we enjoyed down there. I'll start a new thread for the pictures now. BTW trillium, I saw your post about the brisket, but couldn't reply since the Wifi at the hotel was acting up. We did indeed get the brisket and it was delicious. I liked it even more than the prime rib (though I liked that a lot as well. And yes, we got the smoky end!) I wish we had Podnah's up here!