Daddy-A's Excellent Portland Adventure II

[Daddy-A]

Armed with the experiences from last year, my wife "J" and I made a return visit to Portland for the annual Oregon Brewers Festival over the July 29th weekend. Portland has fast become one of our favorite cities, not only for dining, but for it's character and ease of navigation by feet.

Before the brews, a BBQ stop was in order. We met Amy Anderson and her BBQ team at the Canadian BBQ Festival in Vancouver, and promised to visit her restaurant The Road House just outside Olympia, WA. The drive alone was worth it. No offense to the fine people of the Pacific Northwest, but the I-5 has to be the dullest stretch of road I have ever driven.

Notice the competition pits out front and the obligatory hog parked out front.

The place had that wonderful smell of cherry and apple smoke, combined with meat. The restaurant itself is a decent size with a beautiful garden patio out back. We grabbed a table outside and ordered up a combo-platter.

L to R: Brisket, Chicken, Ribs, Butt. Sides: Potato Salad, Slaw, Corn Bread

All in all it was excellent BBQ. Nice subtle smokey flavour, and very moist. Personally I like the vinegar dressing on my butt, but this was served naked. Being a recent convert to smoking, I appreciate the naked approach and know it means they feel it tastes fine on its own. The chicken and ribs were both excellent too, but if I had to eat a couple pounds of just one thing, it would have to bee the brisket. Aboslutely fall-apart tender with a perfect amount of smoke. Something for me to strive for.

Pecan Pie

Dessert! Not as dense a filling as I like in a pecan pie, but the shortbread crust was frikkin' amazing! It was nice having a full stomach for the rest of the drive.

I'm not going to spend much time talking about the Brewfest. Not that there's anything wrong with it ... it's just that after 5 or 6 beers, any notes I made were garbled at best and certainly not to be trusted. And since these are micro-brews, you need to go visit their local brew-pubs to get most of them. Bottom line? Get ye to the Oregon Brewers festival next year. PM me if you'll be going 'cuz we'll definitley be there.

After night number 1 at the festival, we were a little hungry. Not too much thanks t the BBQ feed earlier, but enough that we decided to partake in something Portland does very well IMO - Streed Food. I truly wish city hall in Vancouver, BC would lighten up on the food-reg's because the food you can pick up from the street vendors in Portland can be truly inspired:

Chicken Tacos

Day 2 saw a return visit to the Portland Farmers Market at PSU. You guys are so lucky to have this market! Even though this was my second visit and I knew what to expect, the market was still impressive. Some images:

Lunch: Tomale w/ Chicken

Thanks again to extraMSG for meeting up with us again and showing us around the market. Hopefully we can return the favouor one day!

We returned to the Beer Fest with a picnic basket full of items from the market. The best item we picked up?

Dungeness Crab

You should have seen the looks on peoples' faces as we unfolded our picnic blanket and spread out the feast of cheese, fruit, bread, and CRAB! BTW, I find the wheat beers go best with crab, and that the rosemary panini from the Pearl Bakery taste really good with the crab liquor.

We had dinner reservations for 9, so a quick stop at the On-Deck Sports Bar & Grill (910 NW 14th Ave. / 503.227.7020) a gave us a chance to rest from the heat and watch a little beach volleyball on one of the dozens of plazma screen TV's (I was in HEAVEN!). Not much to note about the food. It wasn't bad ... pretty standard pub food ... but the onion rings were a stand out.

Dinner that night was The Park Kitchen which we enjoyed so much last time we just had to come back. I have no pictures as I refuse to use a flash in a restaurant (kinder, gentler diner than I am), but this post from our trip last year shows many of the same items we enjoyed this year. The Deep-fried Green Beans with Bacon was a stand-out ... I mean, what ISN'T beter with bacon? We had the Flank Steak again, Crab (?) Ravioli and a salad of Tomato, Cucumber and Toasted Wheat. We shared a bottle of 2002 Viognier from an Oregonian vineyard. I can't remember the name, but no worries, it's no longer available.

One small point from our Park Kitchen experience: when we sat down, our waiter told us the kitchen would be closing in 30 minutes, so if we wanted anything from the "hot" menu, we should order it sooner rather than later. I have nothing against kitchens closing at a reasonable hour. However, it would have been nice to know this detail when I made our reservations as I might have made them earlier.

Sunday was spent touring Portland on foot. Books purchased at Powells, wine purchased at Whole Foods (bottles unavailable in Vancouver) and general window shopping. Dinner was at Jakes Famous Crawfish:

Do these Crawfish look famour to you?

Dining in Portland on Sunday is slim compared to the rest of the week, so I'll admitt that Jake's wasn't our first choice. A couple people had mentioned it to me, and I do like crawfish ... and it is famous right?

Other than the crawfish ... meh. It was okay, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. The service was accpetable. Our server was polite, informative, but not very engaging, "J" had the Rockfish and I had the Sturgeon (which I was convenced was chicken for a bit). Good sauces, not sure I like mashed potatoes with fish though. I'll definitely opt for clarklewis next time (we couldn't get a reservation for the time we were there )

Another place I want to mention is Vino Paradiso (417 NW 10th). A new-ish wine bar with a really cool wine cellar, and a couple of owners who really love what they do. Excellent wine list. Can't really comment of the food as we only had some loives and a charcuterie plate. We stopped by twice for a break from walking and beer and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves each time.

On the way home (Monday) we wanted to stop in Seattle for a sandwich at Salumi. Saddly, Salumi closes on Monday ... which I'm sure I knew, but was still disappointed. We made our way up to the 5 Spot on Queen Anne.

Gaspacho w/ Shrimp Salad

Calle Ocho Arepas (sweet corn pancakes with cheese) and Plantain Chips

I had no idea this place was so Cuban or I would have visited much sooner! The Gaspacho was a little to chunky for my liking ... flavours were great, texture not so much. The Arepas were terrific but would be even better on a damp morning in November.

Thanks for reading!

A.

[Abra]

Dude, you were in Seattle and didn't tell us! 5 Spot changes its ethnicity every month, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. It might be Polish the next time you're down here.

[Daddy-A]

Dude, you were in Seattle and didn't tell us!  5 Spot changes its ethnicity every month, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  It might be Polish the next time you're down here.

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Abra ... it was more like we were "through" Seattle than in it! We'll be back. Must do Salumi when it's actually OPEN!

A.

[ExtraMSG]

It was nice to see you again. Great to see the pics! (DA was too eager to devour that tamal and only got a half picture. ;-) ) Jake's is just a McCormick & Schmick's with a bit more character. We still need a good seafood restaurant. If you're looking for Sunday eats next time, I'm try to keep up a useful list here:

http://www.extramsg.com/uploaded_misc/port...heet.html#sandm

I think Vino Paradiso used to be Vigne which many wine lovers (which I'm not) lament the loss of. From the sound of it, they were too ambitious.

[JasonTrue]

I actually like the nearly unpopulated stretches on the I-5 corridor best, since I don't have to see the scary thought of the week from the uncle-sam-billboard RV dealer guy, or another darned casino or McDonalds, and I can just enjoy the scenery.

If you're looking for more "character" you could always take the old highway 99, though it can certainly slow you down a bit. It comes out of the era of the roadside attraction. A lot of miserable stuff along there if you are turned off by kitsch, but certainly more dramatic.

[Eden]

Wow, I'm going to have to go visit my friends down in Olympia & have me some Barbeque! How was the Cornbread?

I was at the 5-Spot yesterday for brunch and it was too early in the AM to order the Calle Ocho Arepas, but now that I've seen your photo I MUST go back for lunch before the menu rotates! My friend had the Tortilla (fritatta) on cuban toast & was blown away by it.

Obviously we need to compile a list of places (like DiLaurenti's) where you can get Salumi's meats on Mondays for when people need an emergency "fix"

[malarkey]

I was in DiLaurenti just the other day and they only had ONE type of Salumi salami. ONE?! Either they sell out frequently, or they aren't carrying enough variety.

edit: what a great idea to take a picnic lunch to the Brewfest, Daddy-A. I'd really like to go to that thing again... maybe next year...

Edited August 10, 2005 by malarkey (log)

[SeaGal]

I was in DiLaurenti just the other day and they only had ONE type of Salumi salami. ONE?! Either they sell out frequently, or they aren't carrying enough variety. 

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A couple of weeks ago they had several: the regular salami, the fennel (sorry, can't remember the Italian name ) and at least one other. Maybe they were just sold out..?

[Daddy-A]

Wow, I'm going to have to go visit my friends down in Olympia & have me some Barbeque!  How was the Cornbread?

I really recommend this place. And the corn bread was good. Not too dry.

edit: what a great idea to take a picnic lunch to the Brewfest, Daddy-A. I'd really like to go to that thing again... maybe next year...

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Well, the food in the festival is pretty average. The crab was a perfect way to have a break (you can't pick a crab clean QUICKLY) and run out for more beer between claws.

We go every year ... keep in touch

A.

[jbonne]

damn -- that's not gazpacho, that's salsa.

good tip about the Road House. sorry for the I-5 thing. deadly boring, even in a hot car. it's slightly better north of Everett, though still pretty boring. (Hwy 20, otoh ... )