eG Foodblog: Genkinaonna (2011) - Carts, Cakes, and Coffee in and arou

[Genkinaonna]

Toolprincess-I don't know if I could do bubble tea and pho in the same trip! My bladder couldn't handle it!

Patti- Thanks! I'm really enjoying sharing it with everyone!

I'm sorry I'm slacking on posting, we were running around the city this afternoon. I decided to be proactive and ensure a pleasant trip for everyone involved by starting at the girl's favorite lunch spot, Burgerville. We generally don't go out for fast food, and I avoid big chains especially (I'm talking about you, Clown and King...) but I do love me a Burgerville burger. Their slogan is Fresh Local Sustainable, which are three things I'm a fan of. They have seasonal specials, for example, right now it's strawberries in sundaes, smoothies, and milkshakes, and fried asparagus spears with garlic aioli dipping sauce or in several sandwiches. As summer progresses, they'll have blackberries, cherries, portabella mushrooms, pumpkin stuff, and hazelnuts near the end of the year. They had some awesome rosemary shoestring fries, but they were replaced by the asparagus spears ...I also like that they use Oregon Country natural beef, which has no antibiotics or hormones and is vegetarian fed. They've also got a pretty extensive collection of non-meat sandwiches. I particularly like the Yukon Gold and White Bean Basil Burger. It's not a burger, but it comes slathered with pesto mayo and the patty actually tastes really good, although in no way does it resemble an actual burger. And if I get a veggie burger, I can eat an entire basket of fries and drink a cherry chocolate milkshake with a clear conscience, so it all works out! They also have a rewards card that gives you like 5% back on all your purchases that you can use towards meals. I think we've got like $30 on there now, which shows how often we eat there...

Here's the outside:

And the inside:

I totally meant to take pictures of the food, but the kids weren't the only ones who were hungry, and I spaced it until my meal was just about gone...

[Genkinaonna]

After we left Burgerville, we cruised over the river to Milwaukie, Oregon (not to be confused with Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is close to where I grew up and where I still have friends) and made a stop at Bob's Red Mill. For those who don't know, Bob's Red Mill makes specialty flours and baking mixes, which are distributed nationwide. They're headquartered in Milwaukee, Oregon. I was a little annoyed that we couldn't tour the factory, but they apparently only do them once a day and we'd already missed that day's tour. But I managed to wash away my sorrows in about 20 aisles of specialty flours, baking ingredients, seeds, nuts, and kitchen gadgets, both pre-packaged and in bulk. Here's the view from the outside:

And a couple of shots from the inside:

I left with some pastry flour, a bag of dried apples, conveniently prechopped into little cubes, perfect for muffins, and some graham flour for making graham crackers with the kids. All in all it was a productive trip. I wish it was closer to my house, they have any kind of flour and specialty grain stuff a baker could ever want.

[heidih]

Wow those items at Burgerville sound pretty tasty.

For the garden challenged I advocate a kiddie pool like this - just a 6 pack of garden center zuchini- many good things to come from this simple set up and your kids and their friends will brag about eating flowers at your house (fried zuke flowers rock)

[Genkinaonna]

Hmm...that kiddie pool idea looks great, I'd just have to figure out where to put it...do zucchinis need a lot of sunlight?

[heidih]

They are sun hogs but so hardy that a bit of shade would probably just tame them down a bit

[Genkinaonna]

The last place we went yesterday during the day was, I think, my new favorite place in Portland. I know that's a pretty big statement, but it's true. And it was kind of a serendipitous find. I mentioned earlier that the offspring requested ice cream today. So I was Googling around on the interwebs, looking for an eGullet-worthy ice cream place, and came across Fifty Licks Ice Cream. And lo and behold, it was in a food cart pod. And one I hadn't been to! Happy day! The children could have their ice cream and I could continue to practice my love of all things food cart-related. It was meant to be, clearly. So after Bob's, we made our way over to 43rd and Belmont, to the Good Food Here Foodcart Pod. And it WAS good. I knew I was in the right spot when I read the menu of the first cart I saw, which was called, creatively, Eurotrash:

Oh yeah, baby. That's right. You didn't misread it, your eyes are in fact working. That's foie. On a FOOD CART MENU. On housemade potato chips with parsley and a creamy garlic sauce, no less. Can I get a hallelujah? I mean, come on, it's hard enough to find foie on ANY menu in PDX, it's kind of a "we love the animals" type of city. And don't get me wrong, I do love animals. But foie is like meat flavored butter. And if I see it on a menu, I order it. 'Nuff said. So clearly I ordered it. The owner, an extremely nice man named Charles, said his culinary goal was to create "odd and interesting food for the masses." A noble endeavor, in my humble opinion. I ordered the foie and chips and while it was being made, I meandered over to:

AKA Creme de la creme, for some of their french onion soup. I'd heard good reviews, and it really did hit the spot since it was kind of a rainy and cold day. Here's the rest of the menu:

The girls opted for sweets over savories (what a shock, I know...) and took their pick from items at Sugar Cube.

.

Mina got a chocolate malt and Aria opted for the chocolate caramel potato chip cupcake. When I pointed out that we had cupcakes at home and maybe she should try something different, the woman made an error that almost got her banned from my blog. She said that HER CUPCAKES WERE BETTER THAN MINE! I know, totally out of line, right? And not true, once I tasted them...I mean, they were tasty and all, but at the very most, I'd say they were AS good as mine, not better. Although the potato chips dipped in caramel and chocolate ganache were pretty nummy. But she did lose one Nom on my Heather rating scale of deliciousness based on her (in my mind) totally unfounded and unappreciated Heather's cupcake hate

This is what the (maybe as good as, definitely not better than mine) cupcake looked like:

As the girls sat down to eat, I heard my name ring out through the air, calling me back to Euro Trash, for this:

Tell me that's not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Well, unless you're a vegetarian, then it's probably not even in your top ten, but for me, it was up there, trust me...After I ate, the sun came out for a little so I shot a couple of pics of some of the other carts.

Despite the fact that it's on the other side of the city and about 35 minutes from my house, I will definitely be returning to this pod. I saw lots of other things I want to try, although they'll be hard pressed to top Euro Trash. Ironically enough, the food cart that initially drew me to this food cart pot, Fifty Licks:

Was actually closed. Go figure.

[Genkinaonna]

After the kids were safely squirreled away in their beds, with the requisite visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads, Mr. Genkinaonna (AKA Jon) and I headed out for dinner at Beast. Naomi Pomeroy, the chef and owner, is something of a celebrity, having been on both Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters. However, she's been a favorite of the local food scene for quite a while and Beast is a very well known and respected restaurant in the city. Since this blog is all about me, I'll keep the focus there , but if you want to read a bio of Naomi Pomeroy, there's one here. Beast has two seatings a night, and everyone eats the same thing. The menu changes weekly and is posted on Wednesdays. This means that since our reservation was for Wednesday night, and they sometimes don't get the menu online updated until really late in the day, our meal was a surprise until we walked through the door. Generally I'd find this a little annoying, as I'm one of those people who likes to know what I'm getting myself into, but the food at Beast is so good I wasn't particularly worried. The other thing about Beast that can be a little offputting is the communal seating. There are two large tables, one seating 8 people, and the other seating about 14, and that's it. No bar, no individual tables. But everyone at our table was really nice, one group was here from LA on business and one couple from Montana looking into moving to Portland. So, on to the food:

Our first course was a spring chicken and onion soup with a cheese toast. It was pretty good, but the cheese on the toast was goat cheese, and I think that it's somewhat barnyard-y flavor dominated a little too much. It was also really really hot, which is understandable, but a couple of the people at the table complained of burnt tongues, which can kind of impair your enjoyment of the rest of the meal...

The next course was, I think, my favorite. I do love plates with multiple meats, and this one had them in spades. Clockwise from the top, foie gras bonbon with sauternes gelee, fleur de sel, and peanut shortbread, chicken liver mousse with pickled onion, pickled carrot and beet, beef tartare with quail egg on brioche, pork, chili, and fennel pate with cornichon and grainy mustard, and duck proscuitto. The salad in the middle was fennel and radish. Everything was amazing, but my favorite was the foie gras bonbon. It was both cute and tasty. And since my husband doesn't like foie, I got two of them. It was a good day to be me.

Our main was a Cattail Creek lamb loin chop with lemon creme fraiche smashed potatoes with cherrywood smoked bacon and peas mixed in, and a peashoot and mint salad dressed with warm bacon fat. I'm not a big fan of lamb, but this was delicious. It was perfectly cooked, the bacon added just the right amount of salty smokiness, and the salad was really clean and bright, a great contrast to the meat. The server mentioned that Cattail Creek was going out of business, so this would be the last of their lamb served. I was suprised, you see Cattail Creek lamb on quite a few of the upscale restaurant menus here. But upon visiting the website, it seems that it's an interpersonal issue, rather than a lack of demand, which leaves me hope that we'll see it again soon!

The salad course was an asparagus, porcini, and morel salad with parmigiano, browned butter and a poached egg. Not a big asparagus fan, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, but this was really good. So good, mixed with the runny egg yolk and the browned butter drizzled over, that I totally forgot to take a picture. Luckily, one of the other people at the table volunteered to let me take a picture of his...

Our cheese course was next. I unfortunately didn't get the names of the first two cheeses, and they were ones I was unfamiliar with, the first was a french sheep's milk cheese, it kind of reminded me of a manchego, and the second was a really nice goat's milk cheese, perfectly ripe and really creamy, with almost none of the funk I associate with goat's milk cheeses in general. However, the third cheese, Grayson, from Meadow Creek Dairy in Virginia is a washed rind cow's milk cheese. The flavor is almost meaty, the texture is slightly resistant and then just melts on your tongue, and the smell is pretty strong. Like feet-y strong. One of the other people at the table (the same nice guy who let me take pictures of his salad, as a matter of fact) compared it to "the worst bus stop bathroom I've ever smelled, you know, like when you really have to go, and then you walk into the bathroom and you wish you'd waited..." I thought it smelled more like unwashed feet, but hey, it tasted good, and that's what counts, right? The accompaniments were a champagne poached apricot, local wildflower honey, marcona almonds and anise shortbread. Pretty tasty all around.

Dessert was a strawberry parfait with a graham cookie base. It was good, really light, and very springy. The only complaint I had was that the cookie was pretty difficult to cut through with a fork, you should be able to get your fork all the way to the plate in one push, but this one took a little work. And the extra force kind of made it so you had to chase the dessert around on the plate a little bit, but as I said, it was yummy, so I won't give them too much grief .

When we staggered out, we were so full we went right to bed. Food coma. I didn't even eat breakfast. That's a good meal!

[Pam R]

Wow. Everything looks so good. But I have to tell you that one of my secret (maybe not so secret?) dreams is to have a food truck. We don't really have them here, but i'm fascinated by them. Are there many 'pods' in your area? What exactly is a pod? Looks like a back lane . . . And before yesterday, what's been your favorite truck?

Oh -- are some of those converted school buses? (Does your area need a kosher deli truck? )

[Genkinaonna]

I haven't committed to making any birthday or special events cakes this week, so I thought I'd share the ones I did last week. The first one was for a 4 yr old birthday party, her theme was Fancy Nancy. There were also fancy cupcakes with fondant flowers and pink disco dust (edible glitter-LOVE that stuff!) on top...

The second one was for a two year old's party, he requested a rocket. This one was just enough for one person, everyone else got green glitter topped cupcakes with either alien heads, ufos, or mini rockets made out of fondant...

Both were quite successful, the kids really liked them. And since I got to eat some of the Fancy Nancy cake and the cupcakes, I enjoyed them too!

[Genkinaonna]

Pam- Yes that waa a converted school bus...pretty cool, huh? I too am in love with the idea of a food cart...a kosher deli cart would probably be successful, something different! There are quite a few pods of food carts in Portland, not so much out in suburbia, but we do have individual trucks here and there, mostly tacos and tortas though...

The pod i was at was actually on a big open lot with parking next door, bathrooms, and an atm. Not all of them are that well organized. The area around the other big pod close to that one is notorious for getting cars towed and ticketed. It would be amazing to have one out by us but I'm pretty sure there'd be zoning issues.

Edited May 27, 2011 by Genkinaonna (log)

[pastameshugana]

Food pods?!? What is this wonderful atrocity?! How is it that I've never heard of such a thing, and doubly so: Why on earth aren't there any near me?! I demand answers!

A fascinating idea: Are they squatting or do they usually get permits? I'd imagine each truck has it's own permit, but what about the whole?

[Marya]

Another treasure in that food pod is Lardo. The food is amazing! They have the requisite pork belly sandwich, broccoli rabe sandwich, Lardo fries with parmesan and fried herbs, and a grilled asparagus sandwich with preserved lemon that makes me go back for more. Highly creative and delicious.

[Genkinaonna]

Pastamashugana-they're not just squatting, they have permits for the pods...it's really nice when you have a pod like that one since there's covered seating, which is a must when you have small people in tow. The one across the street from my husband's office has great food but no seating, which is problematic at best.

[Genkinaonna]

Marya- I wanted to try lardo but I ran out of stomach space!

[Nina C.]

Thanks so much for this peek into your world! I'm really enjoying the blog so far, especially seeing what one does with a passion for pastry and baking when it hasn't been your career. You do such a nice job of showing a relaxed approach to enjoying great food without pretension.

I think I would rather have had the foie and the chips separately (although leave on that delicious looking garlic sauce please!) especially in a situation where one lacks a proper table or utensils. What did you think of how the combo worked together?

[Genkinaonna]

Nina-Thanks! As far as the foie and chips goes, it was a good combo, although it was really rich. The crunch of the chips played off the softness of the foie very well.

I took the pork coppa roast that I bought last week out of it's brine yesterday (I left it in for about 24 hours) and vacc'd it. It's been in the SVS since about 12:45 pm yesterday, it should be ready at about the same time today. However, I'm hoping that this was, actually, a tough cut, and not a tender one, because by now it's pretty much going to be pudding if I'm wrong. Anyone care to weigh in?

I got a slow start today (Jon's home to wrangle the kids) after last night's foray into the world of Portland Cocktails. Thanks to Chris Amirault, I got some great recommendations for bars to try, and ended up going to Teardrop Lounge and the bar at Zeus Cafe. I'll be posting pictures once I get back from breakfast.

[heidih]

The menus at the food trucks sound pretty impressive and delicious. I have been lax in exploring the ones here in Los Angeles.

Those cakes! Do you take a shot of the child when they first lay their eyes on your creation? That would be a super advertising tool. Do you have art training or are you a natural artist?

[Genkinaonna]

Heidi-Thanks! I have no art training, just a lot of practice in making mistakes until things turn out how I want them . Most of my clientele is families with children right now, and kid's cakes are so much fun. I haven't gotten too many pictures of kids seeing the cakes for the first time, but when Jameson saw his rocket, the first words out of his mouth were "I want to EAT that!" Can't ask for a higher compliment than that! As for the food carts, we're pretty lucky here to have a great variety. Portlanders tend to pride themselves on doing new and inventive things, we're a creative lot! It shows in the food carts, you get a mix of really traditional food from unexpected places, like Filipino and authentic Thai food, fusion stuff like Mexican-Korean and Mexican-Hawaiian, and stuff that's completely off the map, like Cheeseburger dumplings. It's a blast to try a bunch of new stuff. And there are always new ones popping up, so it's kind of cool to feel like you've "discovered" a new place that no one else has tried yet.

I've returned from my donut hunting and gathering expedition. The place I went (where we go to relatively often, as a matter of fact) is called Every Day is a Donut Day, aka just Donut Day. It's about 5 minutes from my house, and the donuts there are amazing. First of all, they're huge. The buttermilk bars (what I'd have called a crueller back in WI) are about 4 inches wide and 6 inches long. And the apple fritters are a blob about 5" across, filled with chunks of cinnamony apples. They also do blueberry and raspberry fritters as well, but I'm a traditionalist and stick with the apple ones. It's so nice to bite into one, fresh from the fryer. I think their donuts are so much better than Voodoo, which is the city's darling donut place. And I don't have to drive for 20 minutes to get there!

Here's the menu:

And one of the aforementioned apple fritters, wielded by the owner, who's, coincidentally, a super nice guy.

And my haul:

My kids were quiet for a whole 20 minutes after I brought them home...

[Darienne]

That apple fritter in the man's hand...oh...oh...oh. I'd kill for a good apple fritter. Well, not kill really...but something drastic.

[Genkinaonna]

So I promised I'd come back and talk about my cocktailian experience last night. First we went to Teardrop Lounge, where we were greeted by the amazingly nice and easy to talk to owner, Daniel Shoemaker, who clearly knows his way around a bar. I told him to surprise me with a drink, and he proceeded to serve me this:

Lovely, isn't it? Tasted lovely too. It's called a Sweet Basil, and it's made with Lillet Blanc, Plymouth gin, thai basil syrup and orange flower water. It was sweet, but not too sweet, herbal without being soapy, and all together delicious. I could have had lots more, but in the interest of trying new things, I then moved on to this:

I love the glass that it's in, it's so cool looking. I want a set of them. I'd LOVE to tell you what the drink was called, or what was in it, but all I can say is there's tequila in there, plus something citrusy, egg white for froth, and topped with orange peel. It was wonderful. If I hadn't had both drinks on an empty stomach, I'd probably remember what it was called, too...I did email Dan to get the name though.

At that point I thought it prudent to order some food, lest dancing on the bar ensued...I got a lovely charcuterie plate, with various salumi, bread, and pickled strawberries, rhubarb, chili flake brussel sprouts. I also got an order of garlic fries, which were devoured before I could take a picture. Here's the charcuterie plate:

Both my husband and friend opted for the buffalo brisket sandwich with aioli and arugula. It looked wonderful but no one shared with me so I don't know for sure...

At that point we decided to head to our next location, Zeus Cafe. Based on my experience at Teardrop, I'll definitely be going back. It's a wonderful atmosphere and all the staff clearly could teach me a thing or twenty about mixing drinks. And all the little bottles of tinctures and bitters lined up a fancy kid's chemistry set definitely bear investigating...

Zeus Cafe is a fairly new addition to the Portland bar scene. It's part of the McMenamins restaurant group, which owns quite a few brewpub type restaurants around the city, as well as some historic hotels with restaurants and various other amenities like pools, spas, movie theaters, etc...Zeus cafe is kind of a departure from their usual style. It's a much higher end, fine dining type establishment, although being in Portland, you could still wear sandals and crummy jeans and be right at home. The man running the show from behind the bar, David Shenaut, was extremely easy to talk to, and the whole ambiance made me feel at home right away. As a matter of fact, the whole bar staff was great, very knowledgable but totally non-pretentious, which is important to someone who's still in the "I'll have a Bacardi and Coke" phase of drinking. When I asked what his thoughts were on a good place to start, David recommended this beauty:

A Vieux Carre, which was one of the more interesting-looking drinks I've ordered recently. The ingredients are (as you can see from the menu) Hennessy VS, Rye Whiskey, Noilly Pratt, Benedictine, Angostora, and Peychaud's Bitters. It was deee-licious. And pretty, too, the ice ball in the drink was pink from the bitters they freeze into the ice. And when I finished it, Dave topped the ice off with some really nice whiskey, since, as he said, the glass was already seasoned...it'd be a shame to let a perfectly seasoned glass go to waste! Quite a few of the other drinks on the menu looked interesting as well, we'll have to go back and sample some more, though, just to make sure. We also ordered some food, I got beef carpaccio, which was served with an arugula salad and black garlic aioli, and my friend got a halibut and papaya ceviche. Both were delicious, and waaay above any other food I've had at a McMenamin's in terms of taste, quality, and presentation.

All in all, both Teardrop and Zeus Cafe made me want to start going out for cocktails on a much more regular basis.

[Genkinaonna]

Since I'd been snacking but hadn't actually eaten dinner during all my drinking, my husband and I decided to head to one of our favorite late-night places for an actual meal before heading home. We go to Duh Kuh Bee almost every week on either Friday or Saturday night after the kids are in bed for their amazing hand-pulled noodles, dumplings, and generally awesome Korean food. The fact that it's open until 2 in the morning is a pretty cool bonus, but we'd go even if we had to get there early. As per usual, we got a dish of pickled radishes and kimchee along with our water when we sat down.

This time, we opted for the dumplings, egg fried rice, and mild-spicy chicken noodles. Here they are:

As it always is, everything was delicious. They were also super cool and pulled some noodles just so I could take a picture. Yet another reason this place rocks! I wish the pictures I'd taken were better, but the light was low and he works FAST!

.

It's one of those places I could eat every night. Pure comfort food, Korean-style.

[haresfur]

Is Edgefield the McMenamins distillary?

[prasantrin]

I vote for a Donut Day vs Annie's Donuts apple fritter taste off! That apple fritter does look delicious. . . I can't wait till my next trip to Portland!

BTW, are you planning to visit Clear Creek at all?

[Genkinaonna]

Prasantrin-That donut taste-off might have to wait for another day, I don't think I could eat another donut right now, but I'll definitely put it on the list and post results in another thread when I have them .

For some reason I thought Clear Creek was in Bend...so happens they're having an open house today, which they only do twice a year. I'll be there with bells (and camera!) on, just for you!

Haresfur-Yes, there's a distillery at Edgefield...I'm not sure if they do any distilling anywhere else as well.

[Genkinaonna]

I am, alas, behind a day. Yesterday we went to some really cool places on Mississippi Ave, which is in North Portland. It's one of those areas that's really experienced a renaissance in the past several years, and there's lots to see and do. The reason I initially wanted to visit was a place called The Meadow, which is a really cool salt store with chocolate and an amazing selection of bitters. There are also some really good restaurants and some interesting non-food related stores, including two children's clothing stores, which happen to be my financial downfall...

So when I walked in to The Meadow, the first thing that hit me was the smell of flowers. They also sell specialty flowers, but it's not set up like a "floral section" off to one side, they actually have a giant table in the middle of the store with all these incredible flowers in vases, like a totally oversized and over-the-top centerpiece. It's really gorgeous and smells amazing.

The salt is in little jars on two walls, and there are samples of each to smell, and presumably taste, although I opted to just smell them. The variety was amazing, I didn't think there were so many salts in the world! Here's one of the walls:

And another:

Here's an example of one of the specialty salt sets that they had for sale:

And some more salts:

The pictures of the chocolate wall:

And the bitters! Oh my goodness I've never seen so many interesting little bottles in my life! The fact that I have NO IDEA what to do with any of them was the only reason I didn't go on a gentian-fueled rampage. And they had open bottles of almost everything to smell and contemplate. One that I found particularly interesting was the peppercorn and bacon bitters. Not sure what they'd be used for (maybe in a bloody mary?) but I thought they were pretty interesting.

And the staff were super helpful. I have a feeling if I'd had a specific question, they could have given me exactly what I was looking for, but it was pretty overwhelming, and I figured requesting them to "tell me everything about everything in the store" would be both time consuming and difficult to record. I'll be going back there, without my children, preferably, to do some more research.

Edited May 28, 2011 by Genkinaonna (log)