lpfaf's Profile
(pdx) Al-Amir Lebanese Restaurant, Marrakesh or Pasha
If you're looking for the whole experience, food = entertainment, I'd recommend Marrakesh. Work on your core strength (pilates?) beforehand, because you sit on tuffets on the floor, which does not lend itself to american eating habits or posture, but the food is classic and pretty good, and there are definitely belly dancers. I had a ton of fun the one time I went there with a bunch of virtual strangers, so certainly I can say it's amusing, touristy, facilitates conversation, yet the food shouldn't be discounted. Really good, very traditional, though it won't knock you off that tuffet. (Watching a ten-year-old stuff money in the belly-dancer's skirt might, though...)
Affordable Awesome in PDX?
Okay, I'm sure this topic gets addressed at least monthly, but there are so many topics to wade through that I'll never find it, so I'd love folks' help on this:
What is your absolute favorite combination of stellar food and won't-make-me-commit-harakiri prices in Portland? I'm taking the new boyfriend (who seriously appreciates good food) out for his birthday, and while I'm not looking for ultra-cheap, I don't want to pay Paley's Place prices for a guy until I know he's going to last, you know? He's only been in Portland a couple of years, so either old-skool or latest-hot-thing could be equally novel and exciting. For reference, we did the bar menu (not the dinner menu) at Higgins for my birthday last month.
Charlottesville [Moved from DC/Baltimore board]
I can agree with a lot of this (I left Cville in 2003, so my info isn't recent at all). I'd recommend Marco and Luca's for a gorgeous lunch of little perfect pork chinese dumplings. No dumplings will ever make me truly happy again after eating there (I found them in a little closet before he could speak enough english to make change, and when I was back in town last year, he remembered me as one of his first customers several years before).
Brix is also awesome for lunch. I also loved eating lunch at...oh crap, the wrap place. Consistently creative, healthy, and flavorful, and portions enough for leftovers. And just about across the street from the wrap place, there was a (yeah, it took me a while to get on board with this, but once I did, it was totally worth it) gourmet gas station. Bellair. Stellar sandwiches and high-end accessories like gourmet chips. Another gas station on 29 at Barracks Rd was affiliated and made similar great sandwiches. Boar's head meats, good bread, excellent condiments and cheese.
Southern Culture was closed when I was there in May '07, did it ever re-open? I used to go and just hang out at the bar there and drink Abita, maybe get the gumbo for dinner. It was so good, and they were so friendly with awesome service.
Tokyo Rose has some stellar sushi, the best ramen I've ever had, and great indie/punk music in the basement.
There was a place that wasn't the White Spot (way better than the White Spot!)...further along Main St, near the Blue Moon, an old school Barbecue joint, totally southern, with the best black-eyed peas anywhere. Anyone know what I'm talking about? The BBQ was damn good, plastic tables, a few inside, mostly outside.
I'll second the sandwiches at Bashir's...since eating there, I've made a chicken breast-brie-apricot jam combo a standard at my house. Yum!
Bodo's is...eh. Okay. It's basically a small-town version of any big-city bagel, with all the required flavored cream cheeses.
Is the marvelous central-and-south-american place still there in a weird strip-mall-behind-a-strip-mall on north 29 near (but across from) Wal-Mart? They made amazing pupusas, and I haven't had better since.
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The Best Dumplings Anywhere are in Charlottesville
I never skied in/around Charlottesville, because I grew up in the midwest with no vertical but real snow, and moved to the northwest with crazy vertical and pretty good snow. The Blue Ridge was always terrible snow/okay vertical, and everyone I had talked to had broken a bone skiing on the ice. I'll admit that for a town of that size, Cville's got some great history and architecture (after moving from Cville to Portland, Or, Jefferson and the Lewis and Clark teams are all my buddies), and some pretty good food. But if anyone asks me where to eat driving down through VA, I'll tell them Marco and Luca, every time.
I wasn't doing the weekend away from DC thing, though, I actually lived there for four years. Doll, I can totally see where you're coming from, but multiply that weekend by...um...:calculator: 730 (4 years times 365 days divided by 2 days per weekend) and I'm sure you can imagine how it might be harder to live in than DC or another big city.
Three bucks, UVAH? Oh no! And with airline prices going up exponentially, next time I'm in cville, I might have to eat at...oh shit. Nope, can't even eat at Wendy's for that. Hooray, Marco and Luca's! (I may have to pick up a babysitting shift with a professor's kids, though.) ;)
The Best Dumplings Anywhere are in Charlottesville
I know this is a bit out of your range, but the "Mid-Atlantic" board seems to be all about New Jersey.
Charlottesville, Va doesn't have a lot going for it other than Jeffersonian history, but there was this tiny closet (literally four feet by four feet with a window to the sidewalk) that a guy from China and his wife from eastern Europe turned into a take-out dumpling spot. You could get pork dumplings, two noodle salads, and sodas. When I first discovered the place, they were such recent immigrants that he barely had the English to ask me to help him make change for my five dollar bill. This was in 2002 or so.
They moved into a full-sized restaurant spot in the spring of 2007. I was in town briefly after a few years away, and after discovering that my beloved "dumpling guy" had moved into a real restaurant, I had to eat there. The menu might have two or three things more to offer. He remembered me (it was his opening weekend! I was flattered as all hell), welcomed me back to town, thanked me for being one of his early, loyal customers. But it wasn't loyalty on my part--I've just never had chinese dumplings anywhere ever that have been that good--small, crispy, puffy, tender, juicy, well-seasoned. And still two and a half bucks for what's supposed to be half a dozen and is often seven or eight little morsels of perfection. The place is called Marco and Luca, after the couple's two sons, who probably wait tables now but were stroller-age when they opened the little closet.
Please eat there if you happen to be in Charlottesville or driving through town. I've never had as much joy for as little money as I've had from a half-dozen little fried pork dumplings from Marco and Luca in Charlottesville, VA.
Natural meat farms Portland
I'm not strict about my requirements. I don't care if they've paid their giant fee to the USDA for organic certification. I'm not looking for Kobe-style beef. I don't want anything special. I just want what I had nearby in small-town Virginia (about the only good thing going there except the guy who sold chinese dumplings out of a closet): The little farm not too far outside town where I can show up and buy a couple of pounds of more-or-less naturally-raised, unquestionably local beef stew meat plus a steak or two, or a handful of local thick-cut pork chops (poultry would be nice too). I live in an apartment by myself, so I just can't manage the half or even quarter animal many farms offer. I want reasonably-priced, locally grown meat I can buy somewhat close to direct from the producer in portions that I can eat in a week.
What is your useless kitchen gadget?
I know this wasn't the question, but I have two gadgets I love. I feel bad for the person who listed their crockpot as the most useless. I have marvelous recipes that go far beyond my (admittedly beloved) midwestern pot roast with potatoes and carrots. Or the corned beef and cabbage I make every year for St. Patrick's Day (which means that as we speak I have amazing corned beef leftovers sitting next to rye bread and swiss cheese, just waiting for sandwiches). Surprisingly, chicken breasts (my favorite crockpot recipe involves balsamic, potatoes, and artichoke hearts) do quite well in the crockpot if you use only the low setting. I love any tool that prevents me from overcooking low-fat meat.
The thing I own that seems like a ridiculous gimmick but is actually amazing is an egg-shaped thing that goes in the pot with boiled eggs. As the eggs heat, the egg-shaped thing changes color, and it has marks indicating soft-boiled, medium, and hard-boiled. Since my grandma found me one at a garage sale (Restoration Hardware is reproducing them...sadly, they're like eight bucks...my grandma bought her first one in the fifties or sixties), I've never overcooked a boiled egg.
What is your useless kitchen gadget?
I use the stick blender a few times a year to make soup (usually squash soup, though sometimes some sort of veggie-cream soup or bean soup). These are things I'd never make if I had to transfer some or all of it to a blender. I also use the stick blender when I make my I'm-not-a-vegetarian-it's-just-so-good tofu chocolate mousse. For 9.99 at (I hate to admit it, but I was living in the middle of nowhere) WalMart, it was totally worth it, especially since it takes up all of four square inches of cupboard space, when stood upright. And Andy, your vinaigrette use sounds awesome.
The purchase I'm having trouble justifying is the set of cast-iron skillets, because for the few times I need to transfer a skillet to the oven, I don't use them often enough to keep them adequately seasoned.
Portland: "foodie-est" neighborhood?
Definitely hit the food carts downtown if you stay at the Ace. I'd recommend Ziba's Pitas (fluffy, custardy, souffle-like Bosnian pitas) in the 10th/Alder cluster, and I also love The Whole Bowl because of that sauce I just can't parse out...certainly olive oil, garlic, and turmeric...but what else? Someday I'll figure it out. There's another cart-land cluster at 5th and something, but I'm not as familiar with the options there.
I agree that it's worth the walk/bus/taxi across the Burnside Bridge to the many excellent eastside eateries, but I feel like the homeless population here is getting short shrift. I've lived in and visited a number of large, medium, and small cities across the US, and found that the homeless here are remarkably polite and generally non-threatening. If you can look someone in the eye and say, "no, sorry," you'll be left alone, and probably thanked. There is no reason other than the distance to be concerned about crossing the Burnside bridge on foot.
Looking for Best Beer & Food Joints in PacNW
I'm one of the few McMs apologists around here. I believe beer should be as variable as wine (it amazes me that the same people who believe that a good wine should be vintage and vary from year to year and from block to block in a vineyard think that good beer should be as invariable as Coors, and complain about McMs' inconsistency...), so I'll totally back you up on that. And I'll call the food bar food-plus. Another plus about McMs is that they have an interesting site in Centerville, WA (the Olympic Club), in that vast wasteland between Oly and Portland. If you're driving from Seattle to Portland or vice versa, it's nearly impossible to time that drive to miss both the morning and evening rush hours in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Portland, so it's nice to have a haven in the middle.
But Rock Bottom is simply a nationwide chain with average bar food and a big beer list. You can get that anywhere. For that kind of thing, Henry's has a bigger beer list and some sort of local connection (although it's still part of a chain, it's a chain based here), and the food is comparatively creative.
I don't know about the food...heck, I don't even know if they have food, but Belmont Station is the absolute best place to go to get a beer in town. Local, regional, national microbrew, international...it's beer Mecca. They used to be right next to the Horse Brass, almost a part of them, but they've moved.
The Laurelwood has excellent beer and usually better-than-acceptable food.
I usually tend toward the "great beer, good-enough food" spots, though, because I live here and I'm cheap. You'll have to look to others to find the "great food, beer's good too" spots.
bbq or soul food in Portland
It really depends on what style you're looking for. What's the typical bbq style in Georgia? After spending a few years in Virginia, I've been looking for a good Carolina barbecue in Portland, and I've discovered that just about every barbecue or southern restaurant I've set foot in in Portland has given me Texas barbecue (or worse yet, Kansas City). Even more disturbing, they'll call it all sorts of things. But what they call Carolina barbecue has no vinegar, and has ketchup!
I'm not a Southerner--in fact, except for the barbecue, my few years in small-town Virginia were mostly torture. But what I've discovered is that the Hawaiian places make meat that tastes more like what I'm looking for than the "barbecue" joints around here, which often emphasize the sauce, and don't always do the meat right. Kalua Pork cooked outdoors for 12 hours is a lot closer to Carolina barbecue than anything that has a sweet, red sauce.
Does anyone know of a place that makes good Carolina (vinegar-based, no tomato) barbecue in Portland? I'd sell an organ to find a place like that.
Best Biscuits & Gravy - Portland
Oh, that's awesome...it's right by my new job! Thanks!
Any local Charcuteries in Oregon or Washington?
Oh, you have just totally made my day. I just took a job off Powell, and I was marveling at all my lunch options to the east (bahn mi galore!), but I had utterly forgotten about Edelweiss to my west. Mmmm...I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!
"Quiet" dinner w/ parents in PDX?
One complaint I've heard consistently and repeatedly about Clarklewis is how noisy it is.
Best Biscuits & Gravy - Portland
I definitely gotta concur with Pine State Biscuits. Did I hear they recently opened an actual space (I've only had them at the Portland Farmer's Market, and then I have to get up early or they run out), or was I just dreaming of things I wished were true?
I've had Biscuits' biscuits and gravy. Dull. It's basically a chain brunch diner. Biscuits and gravy are such a secret love of mine that most of the time I keep it a secret from even myself. When I do actually order them, I usually fall in love all over again, and wonder how (and why) I ever tricked myself into believing I don't like sausage. So when biscuits and gravy actually disappoint me, they must be pretty poor indeed.
Sliders in Portland?
barflymag.com is another good resource for figuring out happy hours and other things about local watering holes. Of the 1986453204418 things (okay, I exaggerate...a little) you can filter bars by, though, I'm not sure "sliders on the happy hour menu" is one of the options.
Three days in Portland
One of my favorite "prepared foods for an effortless picnic" stops is Elephants Deli/Flying Elephants Deli. The 'flying' version is the one that's downtown, 812 SW Park (right on the Max light rail line), but if you happen to find yourself in the hoity-toity boutique shopping district near downtown (23rd/Nob Hill) there's another one at 115 NW 22nd, just a block or so north of Burnside. And as a bonus, if you stop in within an hour or two of closing (after about 5:30 or 6, getting supplies for a hotel-picnic dinner...) a bunch of their prepared foods, both cold and hot, are half off. The cheeses, deli meats (oh, the salami selection!), and desserts are also lovely.
Portland ice cream
Pix Patisserie makes their own (sometimes? all the time?) that's stellar, though sometimes a bit wild on the flavor choices.
What's so special about Burgerville?
Burgerville, to me, is fast food for people who don't like fast food (that'd be me) for whatever reason. The burgers aren't all smooshy and funky-smelling like fast food burgers. It's real food--you can trace the beef, and the chicken, and the halibut, and even the cheese back to the source, and you know it's high-quality stuff that's generally local (important in the days when beef is recalled from across the entire bleepin' country because some irresponsible huge cattle factory sold us downer cows...ew). Special things are seasonal--you only get the onion rings when Walla Walla onions are in season. Ditto the sweet potato fries, the various milkshakes, and so on. And the wind power doesn't hurt.
It's not something extra-special, it's just a step or two above anywhere else you can drive through in the area. I can think of a dozen burgers in town I've enjoyed more, but not for three bucks out of a drive-thru.
You may want to eat at a BK again before giving them some sort of credit for being better than McD's. They're both smooshy grey stuff inside a bun. I keep finding myself dating men who think that's actually edible food, and think the refillable soda means they've GOT TO GET THEIR MONEY'S WORTH (and then genuinely wonder where that belly came from), so sadly, I'm more familiar with these places than I have any desire to be. If anything, Burgerville gets some credit from me for smelling like something other than freezer burn and bleach.
Is Kecap Manis Available in SEA?
This seems obvious, but have you tried Uwajimaya? I was planning to make a recipe that involves kecap manis, and I just assumed I'd find it at the Uwajimaya in the Portland suburbs, though I haven't been out to look yet.
Seriously cheap food (pdx)
I do love some of the happy hours in town...thanks for the reminder on the DF! I always forget which happy hours turn out to be worthwhile and which end up being kind of a ripoff.
Kenny & Zuke's has a happy hour? Oh, that's awesome news.
White Beer
I will definitely second the recs for Hitachino Nest (though I've found it's often crazy expensive, here in Oregon a local grocery store sells it by the 12-oz. bottle for four bucks and change...but it's not necessarily so, I've found six-packs in other parts of the country for a reasonable six-pack price) and definitely the Allagash White. That's probably the best combination of widely available, affordable, and really damn good white out there.
I really wouldn't recommend the Lost Coast Great White, which I thought was bland and funky-tasting. Though if someone else has had a great bottle of it (or a great tap), I'll quickly admit that my local grocery where I get most of my beer seems to treat the great majority of their beer pretty badly, and it could be awesome if not stored by the boiler in the basement for months
I actually kind of like Blue Moon, and I think it's a decent introduction to the Wit style, even if it is a Coors product. It's got some decent belgian White Beer flavors but somehow still pleases a crowd.
Seriously cheap food (pdx)
I actually kind of like Schmizza for their flavor combos, though that taste you refer to is definitely a super-garlic-under-the-heat-lamps funk that I'm not all that fond of. Bahn Mi is an absolutely excellent suggestion that I need to get on...the only place I've had a bahn mi is the asian market out on east 82nd, and it was damn good. I love the taco truck suggestions...unless it's one I know and love, I'm wary without a strong recommendation. I live downtown, but I'm willing to explore any part of town for great super-cheap food.
Inexpensive grocery items that are surprisingly good
Kroger makes some good pasta for remarkably cheap...my favorite is their orichiette for both great quality and super-cheapness (99 cents), and the orzo comes in close second. Overall, I think Kroger does a good job with generic foods, as well as things like freezer bags and aluminum foil. If you're cooking super-cheap (in the past few years, I've been a grad student and I've been unemployed, so I know my cheap basics), any beans-and-carbs meal you can put together with kroger generics is going to be good and cheap.
Another cheap-cooking-but-impresses-folks favorite of mine is Trader Joe's pizza dough. It works out to about $1 a pound, in white, wheat, spinach, and another flavor or two, and makes great other things like focaccia or calzones, too.
A great trick for cheap meats is buying at a huge bulk place where you wouldn't really buy most things. WinCo in the northwest has chicken breasts in huge quantities for $1.19 a pound...freeze them two breasts at a time and they're still pretty damn practical for a single person. In the midwest, Cub is the same company (and Rainbow is comparable). In the mid-north-east, Food Lion is where I'd look first for similar deals. I can't find a great pot roast deal here in the NW, but Cub/Rainbow/Food Lion frequently offered cheap beef roast prices, too (for the marvelous crock-pot cheapo-extravaganzas).
Interestingly, the cheapest butter I can get where I live (Portland, OR) is $3 for a pound at the farmer's market. I go through butter really slowly, but if I keep it in a freezer bag, it never gets funky-tasting in the fridge.
There is really no better cost savings than buying spices in bulk rather than in a bottle. Whether you go to a Fred Meyer (kroger-owned) or Whole Foods or your local (otherwise super-expensive) co-op, when you pay $12 or even $18 a pound for spices, it's like paying twenty cents for a typical grocery-store plastic bottle that would normally cost you six bucks. If you don't already have a plastic bottle from the last time you bought the spice, you can spend $.99 for a decent glass spice jar at World Market or even Pier One.
I also love getting bacon out of the meat case, not because it's cheap, but because I eat so little of it at a time. If you're buying three thick slices for clam chowder or for chili, go to the meat counter and not only will it be cheap, but it will be great, meaty bacon worthy of your chowder.
I always have a huge bottle of Knorr's chicken broth powder in the cupboard for quick use in recipes where the broth isn't highlighted. Don't get the low-sodium stuff, you have to use twice as much which makes it twice as expensive. Their Spanish-language spicy chicken broth is also really good. In fact, lots of basics can be super-cheap at Mexican markets if you know the comparison prices (some things are also much more expensive).
Dried beans are rarely a huge savings over canned, especially given the soaking time.
If you end up with a lot more tomato paste or pesto than you needed, freeze it in ice cube trays, then once frozen, toss it in a freezer bag. I love getting the big, $2.19 tub of fresh basil from TJ's, using what I need for a recipe, then making the rest into pesto that lasts me for months. TJ's extra-virgin olive oil is also a great deal, and while not the top-of-the-line EVOO you'd use to drizzle on a great italian meal, it's better than anything else you can cook with for the same price.
What's your favorite water?
A little bit of sodium acts as an electrolyte, and will make you less thirsty (this is the premise behind gatorade, and it actually works, though I can't stand the taste of the stuff). It's only a high concentration of sodium (greater than the salinity of blood, maybe?) that causes the body to expel water.
wedding menu help
Depends on the season...if by soon you mean early spring, stuffed mushrooms or something with asparagus would be seasonal and fun. Baby greens are also a good early-spring seasonal, as are baby peas. Fresh spring peas and mint make a lovely, elegant soup.
If you're looking more at late winter, beets (red and golden) have a lot of possibilities, great visual appeal, and cheap, too. Winter squashes like butternut, acorn, buttercup, turban, and delicata have a variety of looks and tastes and are inexpensive through the winter. Also consider parsnips, either sauteed/roasted with another, prettier winter vegetable, in a mash with potatoes and/or carrots, or as chips with beets, carrots, and/or squashes sprinkled with good herbs.
Bread is always cheap--consider crostini with something seasonal like garlic and kale, balsamic-herb mushrooms, white bean spread with rosemary, or asparagus and parmesan. It's not too much more expensive to stuff puff pastry with similar ingredients. Spanikopita is simply spinach, feta, and onions in phyllo. A little good applewood bacon or prosciutto, and/or a little flavorful cheese like a good parmegiano would really make any winter/early spring root veggie or greens a real stand-out. It's easy to make amazing ravioli with super-cheap wontons, seasonal veggies (squash, asparagus, spring peas, baby spinach), a little cheese (feta, parmesan, ricotta), and a simple cream sauce. Polenta is also a cheap base for a variety of flavors. Fresh rosemary and/or sage make any winter dish stand out. Mint, flat-leaf parsley, watercress, and arugula are going to give a more spring-like flavor.
Late winter is also good for citrus in California. Orange-cornmeal cake, greens with citrus dressing, even just pretty-and-edible satsumas in the centerpieces, lots of possibilities.
Scene stealers: Preferring the condiment to the main ingredient?
Gari, pink for sushi and red for garnishing other foods...I could eat this plain all day. Sweet, spicy, a bit salty, and very tart...perfect on everything. Hit an asian market, and you can get a tub of it for a couple of bucks. But it inspires me to make good Bento with a chicken or noodle dish to garnish with the shredded red form.
What's your favorite water?
I hate water. I drink the occasional filtered tap water, but filtered, bottled, special spring water, whatever, they all taste funny to me. I drink my water mostly flavored to hide the non-water taste, mostly with emergen-C or something pre-flavored like VitaminWater (I love the orange, grape-50, and XXX). Otherwise, I love bubbly water without sweetener (the bubbles lower the pH, which means a tart flavor to cover the water-impurity flavors), though on the west coast that mostly means Perrier--I really miss H2Oh in bottles from the midwest.
Favorite IPAs?
Wow...I've never seen the goose island ranked so high on a list like this! When I lived in the midwest, the IPA was only okay, and the Hex Nut brown was much easier to find. I'm glad they've come so far!
I also think Mirror Pond is only okay, too sweet/malty for (my tastes for) a really great IPA. Ninkasa Total Domination (probably a double IPA) is a great one out West Coast way, and for available-widely-in-bottles, I really truly love with all my heart the Widmer Broken Halo. Lagunitas is also pretty damn good. Both decent contenders for challenging the Dogfish 60. Sierra's damn good, but harder to find than the regular 'ol' green label pale ale, which I consider my this-is-a-good-beer yardstick.
What are you drinking right now?
Currently drinking the Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter. A little sweet for my taste, but how can you complain about getting a 12 of this on super-cheap-ass sale at a minimart? For what I paid, it's the best. beer. ever. About a buck cheaper for the 12 than what I paid on sale last week for plain ol' Sierra Nevada. Thank you, Oregon Liquor Control Commission! (May the record reflect that the Black Butte Porter is a really good porter, just a little bit sweet.)
