Archive | July, 2013

Honeymoon: Portland, OR – Mother’s

22 Jul

Our last morning in Portland, Oregon took us to Mother’s Bistro, a highly recommended breakfast place.

We were informed that we HAD to order the wild salmon hash. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Salmon. Hash.

It came with leeks, potatoes & a touch of cream, served with two eggs any style (we went poached).

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Now this was very good.  But it wasn’t mind-blowingly good.  I think it was hyped a bit much.  But it was definitely delicious.

We also tried the bacon, which was oddly… chewy… Hmmm… Good but not great.

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Our favorite part of the meal actually wound up being the Mike’s Special Scramble that came with with prosciutto ham, roasted garlic, fresh tomatoes, basil & provolone cheese.  The roasted garlic and basil in the eggs was GREAT. Will be trying to recreate this myself very soon.

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I’m glad we tried Mother’s since many people mentioned they loved it, and the salmon hash was very good (and the scramble, I thought, even better). But I don’t know if I need to go back.

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

nomscale- 06.5

Honeymoon: Portland, OR – Le Pigeon

19 Jul

One more round of applause for Mike for his restaurant research for our honeymoon. Our last night in Portland (after an awesome whirlwind drive along the Oregonian coast) brought us to Le Pigeon, whose chef won best chef of the Northwest from James Beard this year. Mike had read about him in Food & Wine and they were getting a good amount of buzz.

Le Pigeon had an open kitchen and I was envious of those around the bar who had a great view of the action.  (We were in the center of a 6 top communal table, but neither of the other 2 couples were very social, so we just observed their reactions to the dishes, made fun of the ridiculous date going on beside us, and enjoyed the food).

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Here was the menu for the week:

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And the specials of the day.

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We opted for the Five Courses where the chef selected what would come out (though I made a special request for the beef cheek bourguignon to be included since that seemed right up my alley).

We decided NOT to do the wine pairings after our delicious yet unfortunately over-indulgence at Kingdom of Roosevelt.

Our meal started with the trout lox which came with raspberries, fennel, crème fraîche, and roe.  This was delightful.  A great, light entry into the meal and the raspberries tasted like they were grown especially to be paired with trout lox for the rest of time.

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Everything was so insanely fresh.

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Our next dish was grilled pork belly with peas and carrots, and strawberry jam.

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This was cooked very well and the sauce went marvelously with the pork belly.  It was a hearty portion too.

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Then we were served the braised rabbit (rabbit again!) which came with shells and cheese, truffle vinaigrette and crispy spring onions. Once again, we really enjoyed the rabbit here.  Everything went so well together and the rabbit was enhanced by the creamy shells and cheese, truffle, and the crispy of the fried onions.

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And then came the beef cheek bourguignon. (Apologies for the dark photos… I tried to bring over the candles but it got quite dark in there).  This was packed with flavor.  There was richness from the meat (which was as tender as could be but still a bit of char on the outside) over a potato puree which may or may not have had pears in it (Mike thinks he heard that, I don’t recall).

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On the side there was a roasted root vegetable (maybe parsnip) that we very much enjoyed.

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And then came dessert: Foie gras profiteroles (yes, seriously) with caramel sauce and sea salt.  This was a masterpiece.  On the side was a roasted (?) fruit dish in a white chocolate cup.

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The profiterole was incredible. The foie gras somehow totally worked with the sweet and it didn’t seem at all weird to be a dessert the moment you tasted it.

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And then they came out with one last bite, a “spicy” chocolate.  I asked the waitress what kind of spice and she immediately said not to eat it and gave them both to Mike.

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And brought me out a most perfect dark chocolate cookies (which I believe had some salt on it) and was a perfect final bite.

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When we walked away from our meal at Le Pigeon, we were raving.  It was only a few weeks ago, but I really remember loving it.  Incredibly, however, when stacked up against the delicious and well served meal we had at Canlis and the original and fun meal we had at Kingdom of Roosevelt, it falls ever so slightly behind.  But that is not to say it wasn’t an incredible meal. It was just in very competitive company.

I’m very glad we tried it and I highly recommend it.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

nomscale- 08.0

 

Honeymoon: Portland, OR – Kingdom of Roosevelt

17 Jul

Mike did a lot of great restaurant research for our Honeymoon, and one place he was excited to try was Kingdom of Roosevelt. He read about them, yet again, in our great resource for all things dining out: Eater Heat Map. The description mentioned that the menu “features an adventurous, foraged menu teeming with game animals. Vegans need not apply, but rich flavors abound.”

Once again… sold!

The place is pretty far out of town and the cab driver wasn’t quite sure how to get us there. But GPS prevailed and we found our way to this hip version of a hunting lodge (check out the antler chandelier).

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And the fox and game bird.

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And the table stands.

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Even though we had been drinking at craft breweries with some friends all afternoon, we (stupidly yet gleefully) opted for the wine pairing along with the 6 course menu. Apologies in advance for the slowly degrading story through this meal as we got drunker and drunker.  This was not our finest hour, but thank goodness I took notes!

We started with “bread and fat” which was local bread along with duck fat that had potato and herbs in it.  Awesome.

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Next up we had oysters, which were Netarts Bay oysters with mignonette sauce and microgreens.   (We actually wound up at Netarts Bay the following day when we went to see the coast… loving local)

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The greens and sauce were complimentary without overpowering the delicate oyster flavor.

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And the shells were absolutely beautiful.

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It was paired with a wine that was from Southern Oregon. I believe it was called an Albariño. Great pairing.

Our next course was beet cured Chinoock salmon with pickled beets, steelhead roe, yogurt and a bit of fresh horseradish.  The horseradish was not at all overpowering (which I usually find it even in small doses) and it all went very well together.  The beets were cut into different sizes (shaved, quartered, and cubed) which led to a differentiation in textures and mouth feel. Very nice.

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The wine pairing was a Rose Pinto Noir from the Patton Valley. This went very well with the salty roe, sweet beets, and salmon and brought out new flavors in both the dish and the wine when paired together.

Our next dish was confit (!) rabbit with an asparagus puree and veggies (asparagus, carrots, radish).  This dish made me finally “get” rabbit. We’ve had it before (a few times actually in different forms: ragu, terrine, terrine sampler, and braised) and were underwhelmed.

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But this was different. I didn’t know rabbit could taste that good.

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And it was paired with a gruner veltliner from Johan Vineyards.  It was a bit heavier than the gruner veltliner we have had in the past and, again, paired incredibly well with the rabbit, each bringing out flavors in each other that enhanced the dish overall.

Up next was quail stewed with morels, allium, acorn dumplings, and quail egg.  The acorn dumplings were a lot like gnocchi and I loved the earthy flavor.

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I was picking quail feet out of my teeth… and enjoying it.  I wanted to suck every morsel of quail off of that leg I could.  This dish was just great.  We asked for more bread just to be able to lap up the sauce.

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It was paired with a sour ale, which, again, was great.  They told us it came from a brewery in Southern California and was a wheat beer that was barrel aged to have a sour finish.  This dish tasted like it was made for this beer.

Our final dish was wood pigeon liver custard.  It was topped with elderflower jelly, pickled huckleberry, and lettuce.  I am very sad that I had overdone it as much as I had at this moment and have very little recollection of this amazing part of the meal, but I did write myself one very telling note, all in caps: “WHY IS PIGEON LIVER SO GOOD??????”

I guess that says it all.

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This was paired with a dry hopped cider from Square Mile Cider Co.  I forgot to write down what we thought of it, but I trust it was as good as the rest of the pairings.

Our final dish (surprisingly not a dessert, those are separate from the Tasting Menus) was deer saddle wrapped in lettuce with birch syrup baked beans and porcini syrup with mustard seed.  You will notice something missing from this review… I have no idea how I managed to take pictures of every last thing (including the candles, the water bottle, the floor… which I didn’t include since they were simply boring photos) but not this last dish.  I have a feeling that the amount of alcohol I had up until this point was the reason.  I wrote down that we loved the baked bean texture and that it was paired with an Omero Pinot Noir, but sadly, the rest is lost.

At this point… I’m not going to lie… things were very blurry.  I had far too many beers before starting on this adventure and while these pairings were some of the best I ever had, my head was swirling.  I did have the wherewithal to note 2 more things, however:

1- The soundtrack at this restaurant was fantastic

2- How on earth was this amazing restaurant empty?

This was the only time I really overdid it on the honeymoon, and it was not a pleasant experience, but the meal was worth every uncomfortable moment.

I am still shocked that this place wasn’t packed.  Sure, it’s on the outskirts, and sure “game meat” is a scary thing, but this was so damn good and so damn different than I can’t imagine why a place like Portland wouldn’t be all over it. I’m pretty sure it’s only a few months old, so I’m going to assume that the reason is that this is a well kept secret, but I highly recommend that you head to the outskirts and try some amazing, flavorful, incredibly paired, and well cooked dishes that you have never had anywhere else.

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

nomscale- 08.5