Important safety tip from yesterday: If you’ve been off caffeine for a few years, don’t have a chocolate-cappuccino shake with dinner. EVAR
Just sayin’. No particular reason.
Posted: 6:45 pm Wed August 18 2010 | Comments(1) |
the_child, calendula_witch, tillyjane and I went hiking this morning. At the last minute we redirected from the Leif Erikson Trail to Kelly Point, where the Willamette flows into the Columbia. We spent an hour and change out there, then dropped tillyjane off at her place. After that, the_child and calendula_witch briefly hit a couple of resale shops while I loitered in the Genre car. Then we headed over to Foti’s on East Burnside for a gyros-and-fries lunch.
One problem. Foti’s isn’t open on Sunday.
Right across the street was a pub we’d never heard of, the EastBurn. Not wanting to drive further for lunch, we wandered in.
ZOMG.
The decor is hip with an emphasis on interesting rather than self-involved. (The basket chairs at the front of the main dining area fascinated the_child and gave me a serious 70′s flashback.) The menu is innovative, strikingly so, nouveau American with a northern European inflection. The service was pitch perfect, just the right amount of waiterly attention without being up in our grill.
We ordered Brie tempura with marionberry jam and sliced apples for an appetizer. That may have been the best fried cheese I’ve ever eaten. (It could have come with half a dozen more baguette slices, but this is a quibble.) the_child and calendula_witch both had steak salads, which included cranberries and diced apples amid the copious greens, very nicely dressed. I ordered the “Über Sondvich”: char-grilled Carlton pork medallion, potato pancake, scallion sour cream, caramelized onions and bourbon-apple chutney on grilled ciabatta. With their trinity fries on the side (sweet potatoes, russets and leeks fried together).
This is what people in Texas call “granny-slapping good”, meaning food so good you’d slap your own granny away from the plate. I think that was the best sandwich I’ve ever had.
The rest of the menu ranges from quirky to fascinating, including items on the Happy Hour menu such as pork-and-elk meatballs, and spaetzle sautéed in duck fat with pancetta, shallots and fontina. Loads of regional microbrews, for them what drinks, an ambitious wine list, and some rocking lemonade for those of us currently eschewing alcohol. All priced quite reasonably, only slightly more than a burger-and-fries at your neighborhood bar.
We are so going back. If you’re anywhere in greater Portlandia, I suggest you make haste to the EastBurn. I know I am in restaurant love.
Posted: 3:27 pm Sun August 15 2010 | Comments(8) |
I will be in Philadelphia next week, on a work trip. I am declaring an open dinner on Wednesday, August 4th. We will meet at a Burmese restaurant at 7 pm.
Rangoon
112 North 9th Street
Philadelphia, PA
Feel free to come if you’re in the area. You don’t need to be a personal friend, or even have met me before. I always like finding new people at these things. See some, all or none of you there.
Posted: 4:54 am Wed July 28 2010 | Comments(5) |
I’m still just getting back into cooking, post-chemo, especially when I am alone and have to do my own dishes. (Peripheral neuropathy and wet plates are bad a combination. Just sayin’.) But this morning I made one of my favorite breakfast meals.
Mmm, breakfast tacos. Mmm mmm mmm. Almost like being back in Texas. I sure do miss Austin’s food.
Posted: 7:29 am Sun July 18 2010 | Comments(2) |
Yesterday we had a post-party party at calendula_witch’s new digs, Witchnest Manor. Some of the out of town JayCon guests, some of my family, and a bunch of food. I supervised the making of momos, which were prepared with five different fillings: yak meat, beef, lamb, turkey and vegetarian meat substitute. Much work was put in by many people to make it all come out right, but serious yum.
shelly_rae then took over the kitchen and made fried olives, per my recent dream. The best version was kalamata olives, stuffed with fontina, wrapped in prosciutto and fried in olive oil with a panko crust. shelly_rae will be posting the recipe soon.
And the house. Mmm. Witchnest Manor is gorgeous, and calendula_witch is already amazingly well moved in. The place is so nifty, and she is definitely queen of her hall.
Photos to come…
Posted: 11:39 am Mon July 05 2010 | Comments(1) |
Quick post via iPhone, as I am at Witchnest Manor, and the broadband is fubar. As a result, Link Salad and Zen posts will be delayed until this afternoon. I plan to write this morning instead of blog.
Breakfast was a bit of baguette sliced lengthwise, buttered and then fried, sort of French Texas toast; along with an egg whipped with white wine and heavy cream, and some sage, garlic salt, shredded prosciutto and St. Agur Bleu cheese thrown in, then scrambled in the buttery frying pan. Mmm.
Now I write. Y’all play nice.
Posted: 6:40 am Mon July 05 2010 | Comments(1) |
Here at this blog, we subject ourselves to heinous tortures and food crimes so you don’t have to.
Today’s edition of “Where’s Jay’s Cardiologist” is brought to you by the KFC Double Down. This is perhaps the most American of sandwiches, reinvented without any bread whatsoever! Yes, 540 calories of carb-free goodness…
The Double Down lurking in its lair, like a rabid weasel after a night huffing duct sealant with disbarred sorority sisters:
I bravely attack the vicious beast, throwing myself on the altar of the crunchy-fried-brown food group:
Wounded, the Double Down retreats into its crispy shell:
With God as my witness, I shall never eat another one of those damned things again, but it truth, it wasn’t that bad. About like eating a plate of chicken tenders with cheese sauce and bacon. Mmm…bacon. If you like crunchy, salty, fried things, this may be nirvana. If you like your arteries free-flowing, not so much with the Double Down.
A nutritional disaster? Sure. Still, quintessentially American to the point of wretched excess, and rather tasty to boot. My inner twelve-year old was all over it. I think the noise I heard as I bit into it was my cardiologist shrieking.
Photos © 2010, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 4:59 am Wed April 21 2010 | Comments(4) |
Even after ten years here, there’s several things I can’t find in Portland that I’d really like. I’m looking for recommendations from other Oregonians (or visitors) about where to find the following:
Fried Pickles. This would be battered, Southern fried pickles. I prefer dill chips, but spears are okay. Big Daddy’s used to serve them, before the place folded. I used to eat them at Threadgill’s in Austin.
Austin-style Tex-Mex. Damn, I miss Chuy’s, and the Hula Hut. Chevy’s comes sort of close, but it’s a chain. Does anyone know where to get Austin-style Tex-Mex, with freshmade flour tortillas, here in Portland?
Midwestern Pork Sandwiches. The White Horse used to serve these, but it folded years ago. I get them several places in Omaha, but I haven’t found anywhere else in Portland to enjoy battered pork goodness on a burger prep bun.
Thoughts? Recommendations? This is high end junk food people, it requires dedication and deliberation.
Posted: 2:43 pm Sat January 09 2010 | Comments(2) |
Single recipe (plus/minus 2 doz rolls). These are stupidly tasty, as well as being rather simple, as yeast breads go.
Posted: 3:55 pm Fri November 20 2009 | Comments(2) |
I made lasagna, for some value of the term “lasagna”. This originated with a meal I had somewhere in my recent travels (possibly in San Jose) where I was served a deconstructed lasagna. Ie, big flat pasta in layers with sauce and whatnot, but simply built loose upon the plate rather than laid down in a pan and baked. This seemed kind of neat, so I went for it, using no particular recipe but random inspiration.
My sins:
Chopped and lightly sauteed in butter an entire head of garlic, which I mixed with about a tablespoon of finely chopped fresh oregano, then with a stick of butter to make garlic butter for the baguette and pugliese I bought fresh this morning.
Made a salad of arugula, mixed greens, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and chow mein noodles. (This was not particularly heinous, but did serve as a grace note of plausible deniability for the nutritional blast crater that was the lasagna.)
Chopped and lightly sauteed in butter another entire head of garlic, which I split into two portions. Cooked down a pound of sliced cremini mushrooms in butter. Lightly sauteed in olive oil a red bell pepper and half a purple onion. Combined all of the above in a plain storebought red sauce base with the garlic set aside from before, along with about four tablespoons of minced cilantro and two tablespoons of finely chopped fresh oregano. Let that sit and steep for a few hours.
Meanwhile, I sauteed in olive oil eight green onions chopped down, and four serranos. I melted a pound and a half of fontina cheese in heavy cream, added the onions and serranos, the balance of my garlic, a quarter cup of green olives sliced in half, a tablespoon of truffle oil, heavy black pepper and moderate paprika.
Also for giggles I pan fried a pound of chopped prosciutto.
I then boiled a large pack of lasagna noodles, laid them down flat on four plates, spooned out a generous helping of red sauce, a couple of tablespoons of ricotta, and a portion of the prosciutto. Another layer of noodles, a generous portion of white sauce, more ricotta, and more prosciutto. Another layer of noodles, an artistic mix of red and white sauces, then topped with grated parmesan.
Served hot with garlic bread from the oven and the salad on the side. I’m not sure why all four of us didn’t wind up in the cardiac ward, but zomg was it good. Deeply heinous, but stupid tasty. Pretty sure I should be banned from kitchens for life, or at least for a while.
But I ain’t sorry. Nuh uh.
Posted: 3:23 pm Sun November 15 2009 | Comments(0) |