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Portland Sandwiches: Michael's Italian Beef & Sausage
Posted by extramsg on Friday, March 06, 2009 @ 03:21:51 PST
Michael's Beef & Sausage Combo -- Wet
Perhaps Clint Eastwood's sleeper Gran Torino was overlooked by the Oscars for non-PC exchanges like this:
Barber Martin: There. You finally look like a human being again. You shouldn't wait so long between hair cuts, you cheap son of a bitch.
Walt Kowalski: Yeah. I'm surprised you're still around. I was always hoping you'd die off and they got someone in here that knew what the hell they were doing. Instead, you're just hanging around like the duop dego you are.
Barber Martin: That'll be ten bucks, Walt.
Walt Kowalski: Ten bucks? Jesus Christ, Marty. What are you, half Jew or somethin'? You keep raising the damn prices all the time.
Barber Martin: It's been ten bucks for the last five years, you hard-nosed pollock son of a bitch.
Walt Kowalski: Yeah, well keep the change.
Barber Martin: See you in three weeks, prick.
Walt Kowalski: Not if I see you first, dipshit.
PC or not, though, it has a certain authenticity. And I've lived it at Michael's -- just substitute the racial slurs for political rants.
Last time I was in, Michael saw one of his regulars sit down and he emerged from the kitchen to announce to the entire room that Obama was taking our country down the road of Nazi Germany. In between bites, the regular responded that Michael must have heard that from his buddy Rush Limbaugh while he was selling him oxycotin. Another customer across from me got up in disgust, moving to the other end of the restaurant. A lady from behind the counter came out to tell Michael to, "Shut up and go home," while another customer started going off about how it was Bush who was the Nazi.
There was thumping of chests and busting of balls, but it was all for show. I'd heard about Michael's rants, but never really seen one. I always assumed that he was a bit of an asshole, but worth putting up with for the food. Now I think it's just a wonderful schtick from another place and another era -- a welcome anachronism in a blue collar neighborhood undergoing a lot of change with the addition of Le Pigeon, Biwa, Simpatica, and Noble Rot.
And if you can't handle the schtick, get the food to go, because they make some great sandwiches.
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Valentine's Dinner 2009: Food for My Two Loves -- Wife and Work (cough...cough)
Posted by extramsg on Monday, February 16, 2009 @ 05:41:25 PST
Seared Halibut with Crab and Butter Braised Leeks and Apple on Curried Green Lentils with Blood Orange
This was the meal I cooked for my wife (and the Kenny & Zuke's staff) for Valentine's Day this year. Step-by-step pictures can be found here and a more detailed description of the creation process can be found here. I love how the citrus balances the earthiness of the lentils. Keeping the lentils room temperature seems to maintain the vibrancy of the blood oranges better than if they were warm. It also adds contrast to the warm elements and allows the curry flavor to come through more. Fennel would be a good substitute for the apple, but the apple adds a complimentary fruity sweetness to the meaty sweetness of the crab and the oniony sweetness of the leeks. The butter braised leeks and the crab make the dish seem luxurious. Many fishes could work instead of halibut. Scallops would also work well. Oysters, bacon, or sausage might work as substitutes for the crab, though making it a more aggressive dish. The lemon wedge is necessary to add brightness to an otherwise ultra-rich dish.
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 45 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
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Portland Sandwiches: Little T American Baker
Posted by extramsg on Sunday, February 08, 2009 @ 18:31:22 PST
Grinder
Ed Levine, perhaps the foremost authority on pizza in the United States, likes to point out that pizza is really just bread, so you can't have good pizza without good bread. The same certainly should be the case for sandwiches, which are just meat and cheese stuffed into bread. Thus, in looking for a good sandwich in Portland, the artisan bakeries deserve special focus.
In tasting sandwiches at all of Portland's best bakeries, none better shines a light on the importance of good bread and the way that bread can give character to a sandwich than Little T. The fillings are fine, but the breads are the star of each sandwich.
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Portland Sandwiches: Bunk Sandwiches
Posted by extramsg on Thursday, January 29, 2009 @ 01:00:19 PST
Bunk's Meatball Hero
"You can't judge a book by its cover."
~ 20th Century American Idiom
"Beauty ... is but skin deep."
~ Sir Thomas Overbury, 1613
"Food all looks the same coming out."
~ Some Smart-Ass
Often suffused with smoke with a dinky storefront, there's not much to draw you to or in Bunk Sandwiches except the line of people out front. Their sandwiches don't often photograph well for whatever reason. Neither does my wife. But I don't eat a photograph of a sandwich from Bunk anymore than I kiss a picture of my wife. The sandwiches may not be pretty, but they sure taste damned good. Thus, the line.
On the continuum of sandwiches from traditional to gourmet, Bunk's give the impression of something traditional and comforting, yet the menu indicates, and the patient palate discovers, something creative and distinctive. But somehow, the flavors are never unexpected.
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Taste of Jakarta, Memories of Java
Posted by extramsg on Saturday, January 03, 2009 @ 00:36:14 PST
Yogyakarta street art
The weather got progressively cooler as I moved south from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and finally to Yogyakarta, the medium-sized city of artists and students near many of Java's most famous archeological sites. Each night along the main drag, the three-wheeled bicycle taxis of Indonesia lumbered in figure-eights while their drivers yelled out to potential customers by the name of their transport: "Becak, becak, becak." Young kids and their friends on scooters zipped between the pedal-powered people movers, as if to thumb their nose at the 3rd world. Warungs -- street stalls, most with open-sided canopies and blankets to sit on -- would slowly emerge and illuminate, signs advertising nasi goreng, rendang, gulai nangka, and, of course, the favorite, ayam goreng. A mile of bubbling cauldrons and fragrant spices, each vendor imploring you to give them a try, insisting their makanan (food) is the best. Finally, Portland has a restaurant, Taste of Jakarta, that perfectly captures the flavors and style of these warungs.
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Caesar Salads (Part 3): Alameda Brewhouse, Basta's, Cafe Castagna, Heathman, Ken's Place
Posted by extramsg on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 @ 03:13:26 PDT
Cafe Castagna's Caesar
When I recently told a friend that I'd be renewing my caesar reports, revisiting places I had backlogged from when I started the surveys, they asked, "Why do you bother with such a boring dish?" For them, the reports I do on eyeball tacos and raw vegan lasagna are what they look forward to. For them, it's more about entertainment than information.
Caesar salads are simple. They're easy. They're ubiquitous. Not that exciting, sure, but they are a great indicator of how committed a restaurant is to quality. There's no excuse for a bad caesar.
Caesars are like a canary in the coal mine, for lack of a less tired metaphor. If a restaurant can't prepare a balanced, uncooked dressing with only a few ingredients, what can you expect from a complex sauce? If a restaurant does something special with a common $9 salad, how much more will they do on a $30 dish with an exotic ingredient? If a restaurant gives you wilted, rotting greens, what is their fish like? In Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential he warns that if a restaurant can't be bothered to keep their bathrooms clean -- a place their customers will see and smell -- they almost certainly won't do better with their kitchen, an area generally hidden from their customers.
So, yeah, caesars aren't the most exciting thing on the menu. But they taste good, many restaurants around town have them, and they're a cheap way to compare what's coming out of Portland kitchens.
For this report, I've included five restaurants: Alameda Brewhouse, Basta's Trattoria, Cafe Castagna, the Heathman, and Ken's Place. While Ken's Place is closed, I decided to include it anyway, which I explain below. One of these salads has changed over the years, was one of the best in town before, and has possibly even improved. So click on...
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Cooking with the Enemy: Impromptu Vegan Meal
Posted by extramsg on Monday, August 27, 2007 @ 02:27:06 PDT
Rushing to a business meeting Saturday, my wife called me to say that her brother would be coming over that evening with his family for dinner. She wanted to know if I wanted to cook or if we should just order pizza. We live in Vancouver, so "ordering pizza" means something like Bellagios -- or at best -- Pizzicato. Blech.
Normally the choice would be easy: I'd cook. Despite all the restaurant reports on this site, I usually cook much more than I eat out. But my wife's brother and his family are vegans -- people who don't just believe meat is murder, but those who stand up for the rights of cows, chickens, and bees to be released from their indentured servitude. Green beans without bacon is a disappointment. But green beans without butter is a damned shame.
I told my wife I'd have to think about it. Could I get excited about cooking a vegan dinner? My friend, Scott, has been surveying vegetarian fine dining in Dallas. He calls the restaurant ahead to give them an opportunity to prepare something, assuming they don't have vegetarian options on their menu (which is usually the case in Dallas). I've wondered what I could come up with on such short notice. Also, I'd eaten at Nutshell recently and had my complaints without having much firsthand knowledge of the demands of vegan cooking.
I decided to take on the vegan meal as a challenge. I called my wife after my meeting and told her I'd do it. I'd only have about four hours until they arrived to do my shopping and prepare the meal. I decided on four courses, and here were the results:
Chilled poblano-avocado soup. The roasted peppers added a modest amount of depth to the dish, plus a bit of spiciness, which was mitigated to a large extent by the richness of the avocado. The avocado also provided the elusive creaminess so difficult to achieve in most vegan dishes. Crostini kept the texture from becoming tiresome. A nice chunky salsa, perhaps made of diced tropical fruits and onion might have been a good contrasting bright flavor.
Heirloom tomato and bread salad. Fairly classic and straightforward, this was really all about the wonderful bread from Pearl Bakery and the terrific seasonal heirloom tomatoes from New Seasons. After that, it was just a matter of trying to enhance, but not overwhelm, the flavors with a simple vinaigrette, capers, olives, basil, and nuts. The lucques were a good choice because they're more sweet than briney in contrast to the capers. This was tied for favorite dish along with the next one.
Vegetable terrine. The zucchini, onion, and potato create a mild base flavor for the corn puree, which is sweet, garlicky, and rich. This came out very subtle, but balanced. The peppery fruitiness of the olive oil rounded out the more direct sweetness of the corn and the caramelly sweetness of the garlic. I'm torn on whether this would have been improved with something tart like a drizzle of reduced balsamic.
Watermelon-peach soup. I like very few vegan pastries, so this allowed for an uncompromising vegan dessert. It was also a light, refreshing end to the meal. The plucot makes for a tart accent against the mellow soup. I had planned on serving it with some Valrhona manjari chocolate, a nice fruity dark chocolate from Madagascar. However, our guests brought vegan brownies and they worked well with the dish. The brownies were a little oily and gooey, but had a great flavor.
Photos and recipes follow.
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Portland Mexican (Part 6): Taco Truck Directory
Posted by extramsg on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 01:23:17 PDT
3 Hermanos (moved and renamed La Chiquita)
Last December, Robb Walsh, a Beard-award winning food writer from the Houston Press, contacted me about a project he was working on. You'll notice one of his books has regularly been featured on my site in the left column. I own several of his books and respect his work a lot, so I was honored to have him contact me -- to even know who I am.
The project? Taco trucks outside the southwest, how they provide "formerly virgin taco territories" the opportunity for some truly authentic comida -- an article for Gourmet Magazine. Would I like to help? Hell, yeah.
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Beaverton Farmers Market Late Spring 2007
Posted by extramsg on Friday, July 06, 2007 @ 13:03:25 PDT
Clockwise: garlic spears, strawberries and tomatoes, spring veggies, cherries
The Beaverton Farmers Market is clearly one of the largest in the area, on most days the largest. Only during a festival does the Portland Farmers Market challenge Beaverton's on size. And it's still a very good market. While the percentage of produce vendors may be lower than some markets, there are no craft booths like in Vancouver, Gresham or Eugene. It's truly a farmer's market.
I rushed out on Saturday about a month ago before heading to judge a BBQ competition in Aloha. I was hoping to taste bagels from a fellow PortlandFood.org member, "Krunchky", but he was at a wedding. It was drizzly which made for fewer market-goers, easier photos, and an opportunity to talk with a few of the vendors.
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