East India Co Grill and Bar

May 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Ever since I moved here, I have noticed on the way back on the Portland Streetcar, there has been this really nice looking Indian restaurant along the way. The stop I get off to walk across PSU and then home is still another stop away, so I never got off early to take a look. I remedied that last week.

Inside East India Co Grill is a very contemporary restaurant- they have a list of interesting (and strong!) cocktails. I would say although the presentation is modern, the food itself tastes very traditional, though not the "home-cooked hole in the wall" that has been the current Indian restaurant fave, Tandoor. East India Co certainly does have a classier atmosphere going for it though, and beautiful looking food, even if the complexity of flavor, in my opinion, really varies. I think I've been spoiled by my experience at Rasika in Washington DC, as East India Co seems to try to do something similar but isn't quite up to par.

To start was the Papdi Chaat- mini crispy poories filled with potatoes and spiced with chaat then topped with yogurt, tamarind, and mint chutney. This looked great when presented, though it gets destroyed when trying to cut it up to share. The flavor of this one was very good. Along with this, not pictured, was papadum along with the red tamarind sauce and mint chutney. The papadums were perfectly fine (who could possibly mess that up?), but I wished the two sauces had more kick. My cocktail, a Sharaabi Lassi (Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka and Mango lassi) was giving me more of a kick.

My main dish was Begam Bahar Ratan of baby scallops and chopped asparagus cooked in an aromatic sauce with cashew nuts, lemon, ginger, green chilies and cilantro, accompanied with rice and the lentil stew of the day. The stew was great, and I think if they had held back just a bit on the cream the taste of the scallops and asparagus and other seasonings would have come through instead of being muddled. Look at that cute little pyramid of rice…

The naan and garlic kulcha was warm and fluffy and slighlty doughy, definitely fresh, which was great. The side of dahl (slow cooked lentil) was a bit on the blander side though (and it doesn't have to be prepared that way), and the other main dish of Aloo Gobi of cauliflower with new potatoes, stir fried with ground spices & tomatoes garnished with cilantro, was ok, nothing special. My second cocktail of Rangpur Chill (cucumber and Indian green chilies muddled and shaken over ice with Tanqueray’s Rangpur Lime Gin) was pleasant but could have used a bit more chili though the combinition with the cucumber was a brilliant idea. We finished everything off with pistacho kulfi, which was a soothing mix of flavors and textures that ended the meal on a high note.

So the theme was- I liked it a lot/it was just ok. I would go back again since it is a short walk away, rather than necessarily going all the way to the other side of downtown, if I wanted Indian food, though the prices here are also reflective of the atmosphere here being crafted rather than a hole in the wall that plays Indian music videos on a TV during the meal. I can't help it, those music videos and Indian soaps mesmerize me. Sometimes you want a classy ethnic meal though, and this place doesn't hit a home run, but it definitely has some base hits.

On the other hand, there are also two Indian carts around the corner that I want to try. They offer all vegetarian chaats, which are snacky appetizer bites, but I also am drawn in by their War of the Roses type story.   

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And then there’s the view

April 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It's true that Portland isn't sunny everyday. But, its not so dark and dreary and rainy that it's really that different from winter in the Midwest. Oh, except it isn't as chillingly cold! It's chilly, but not uncomfortably so like the temperature is below zero or anything.

Maybe I was lucky because my first winter here happened to be unusual. We got lots of snow (as seen in previous post during December) where for two weeks, Portland had several feet of snow and it was a winter wonderland where the city closed down and kids were off school and snowman-making and sledding excitedly. The other winter days yes, had cloudy days, but at least once a week, there were sunny days too, or glimpses that were enough to hold onto and brighten the week from being depressing. Even though there was sometimes rain, it was drizzly not hard rain most of the time that cleaned everything up so it was fresher. It barely got below freezing this winter. The worst part was just ice- which was pretty to see, but not great to walk on trying to get from place to place. Fortunately, since it wasn't below freezing very much, the ice was only annoying for a week or so before it was gone.

I work in Beaverton, so I go west everyday, away from the city, and to the other side of the West Hills. In fact, my train (and cars) goes through the huge Robertson Tunnel that is 3 miles long, and the stop inside the hill is the second deepest such station in the world, according to Wikipedia, passing through basalt up to 16 million years old (samples are in that station on display). The hills pretty much blocks all of my view of the downtown of the city and its surroundings.

Once in a while though, as I go down from the house towards the Max station at Goose Hollow, or before the Max goes through the tunnel on the way back home, I might see a glimpse of a snowy white peak. This past weekend, with the weather sunny and approaching the 70s, on Saturday I finally got a chance to hike up to from NW Burnside to the International Rose Garden and past the Japanese Garden along the Wildwood Trail to Pittock Mansion  to get a better look.

From the Rose Garden, where Mt Hood started to tease me. Here are the highlights of from pictures of the day:

Between the Rose Garden and Pittock Mansion on Wildwood Trail, we came across a pleasant, unexpected sight:

and then the full reveal at the backyard of Pittock Mansion:

 

The trail was very hilly up here in Washington Park, but all those squats I do during the week and my daily walk home up the hill definitely helped keep me going. It was much easier doing those 3.8 miles on the way down than up. The really muddy parts of the trail- the kind where when you step in them you sink down and the mud makes this sort of burping sound with your foot- were not great. On the other hand, I also saw joggers run past and then back- and one of them was a girl who was chatting non-stop as she ran, both times she went past me. I was a little stiff that evening after sitting anyplace too long and the morning after, but I'm fine now. You can totally do both these views by driving and parking mere yards away without the hike. The sequoias though- would mean you'd have to at least put in a little walk to that. 

 

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Waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge

April 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment

You can see a lot of waterfalls along the Historic Columbia Highway where you can just drive past them, or pull over (the smarter thing to do I think) and take a short walk (not even long enough to consider a hike- it might be the equivalent of walking from the parking lot into and to the back of a Sam's Club or Costco distance-wise) to a better view.

For instance, there are seven main ones that are essentially in a row in one short area: Bridal Veil, LaTourell, Multnomah,

We were looking for Bridal Veil, but found this instead. You can see from the first picture how cool the road and bridges are.

The view was great from just the street as you can see, and we decided to park and get just a little closer… in fact, you can walk practically right up and get a face full of cold watefall mist.

We backtracked along the road and discovered Bridal Veil could not be seen from the road, but if you park and walk maybe 15 minutes, you would be able to see it. The walk is along a path that is completely paved, and is .75 mi from the parking lot.

This is how easy it is to see Multnomah Falls. These are taken… from the car.

Multnomah is a double tier fall.

The waterfalls we didn't have a chance to see are Horsetail Falls, Wahkeena Falls, and Shepperd's Dell… and these are just the waterfalls with easy walking of less than a mile. There are more waterfalls within short hikes.

 

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why to visit Portland

April 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Things I would advertise to potential visitors of Portland…

1. Waterfalls- a mere 30 minutes from downtown Portland, you can visit the Columbia Valley Gorge area all the way to the Dalles where you can view cliffs 1500 feet above the water, all following the Historic Columbia River Highway. The highway was built with the scenery in mind and echoes classic Italian masonry- you can see 75 waterfalls, includnig Multnomah Falls and a few others that you literally can drive only a dozen yards or so away to park and take a short walk to the thundering water.

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2. Mountains in the horizon- there aren't many places you can visit a volcano… much less be able to really see the before and after of nature since its eruption in 1980. But yet, Mount St Helens is only 2 hours away from Portland. St Helens is not what you see in the many shots of the city looming in the distance though (fair warning, on clear days)- that's Mount Hood, and sometimes we also glimpse Mount Rainier. The shot below is probably taken from the International Test Rose Garden in Portland (which contains more than 10,000 plantings of more than 500 varietals), or the lawn of Pittock Mansion. The Japanese Garden is not far from the Rose Garden so you might want to stop while you are up there, but I actually prefer the Portland Classical Chinese Gardens because you can have tea and Chinese snacks while perhaps listening to classical chinese musicans in the old fashioned teahouse (which is almost like in those old fashioned chinese movies- the buildnig in the background in the photo below is the teahouse!).

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You can also get a great view on a clear day on the Aerial Tram that is only $4 roundtrip from the Oregon Health & Science medical offices at the bottom to the OHSU University campus at the top. You should have at least visited here Dr. Lynn… 

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3. Oregon Coast- sandy beaches with rocky outcroppings catching tide pools of ocean life, and stone bluffs with pounding waves threatening the lighthouses: beautiful, see for yourself by visiting the Oregon Coast Visitor's Assoc' image library of more than 1200 photos.

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4. Touring the country- Napa and Sonoma Valley are not the only areas to enjoy touring wineries. The Oregon Wine Board notes that Oregon Wine Country includes 15 winegrowing regions and more than 300 wineries! Willamette Valley is fairly close at a little over an hour away, and has a lot to offer. For those looking for fruit in another form than liquid, drive an hour the other direction and follow the Fruit Loop for 35 miles or farmlands and orchards – there's still wine, but also fruits, lavendar, and….alpacas.

5. Opposites, all in one state. I've never been, but I've always wanted to go to Crater Lake. It looks beautiful, even though it is a caldera- it is a collapsed volcano that has filled with rain and melted snow, and there is no inlet or outlet to it so its water is pretty pure- and thusfamous for that surreal blue as well as being the deepest lake in the US, and 7th deepest in the world.

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On the other hand, did you know there are deserts in Portland also? Just go to Central and Eastern Oregon deserts, including the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument for the Painted Hills as shown below. Check out this flickr set– why go to the southwest when it's right here?

 

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And of course, there's also my wonderful ability to find good eats and drinks everywhere I go. Maybe that's my superhero power.

 

 

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Saucebox, again

April 14, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The original plan was to go to Bailey’s Taproom for Friday, and then the Spring Beer and Wine Festival on Saturday. I had been ancticipating the Spring Beerfest for a while, but not really for the beer. Instead, it was the Tour de Cheese that excited me, where five cheese companies and Whole Foods knowledgable cheese peeps would spoil me with slivers of cheese. All of this still occured, but as a bonus, I got an email from Saucebox the day before touting their new drink of the season. I couldn’t help but add to my plans with a stop at Saucebox after their advertisement.

“Saucebox Innovation brings ETERNAL YOUTH

Introducing the new Saucebox GojiBerry cocktail:
Eternal Youth made with sun-dried, all-natural goji berries from Heaven Mountain in Central Asia. This delicious “super-fruit” is the world’s most-powerful anti-aging food, rated #1 on the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale. We muddle housemade Goji-ice with kaffir lime infused gin, lilikoi and lime for the perfect drink you can enjoy while treating yourself well. This specialty cocktail is exclusive to Saucebox and is available in limited quantities.”

What better way to celebrate a birthday (not mine- mine is April 29, so still a couple weeks away). I grabbed a table when they opened, and started the celebration. Though the drink pictures looks red in the email campaign, it was orange when I received it.

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails

It is an excellent drink, with a refreshing taste, some nice texture with the crushed ice, and packs a nice alcoholic buzz with it, so food was needed if we were going to make it to Bailey’s across the street. Hello $1-5 happy hour menu of perfectly crispy and salted frites in a generous bowl, crispy Sweet Potato Spring Rolls with lettuce, cilantro, and sour lime dipping sauce that more than made up for the perfectly cooked but blander rolls, peanut noodles, and the super flavorful pulled pork udon noodle with egg. The amount of fries you get for $1 puts McD to shame, and that udon is perfect drinking food.

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktailsSaucebox, happy hour, cocktails

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails

And that food was needed, because besides the Kickboxer drink I had last time (with the Thai chile vodka with passionfruit puree and citrus juices, topped with raspberry puree- still a great drink, but shouldn’t be had with the pulled pork noodle because it’s too much flavor for any tongue to handle without being overwhelmed), we continued the birthday celebration after the Eternal Youth with the ridiculously pretty and fruity pineapple for two. Admittedly, I would never come here and pay full price for entrees here though- these happy hour prices and offerings are all you need to accompany the real reason to be here, the drinks!!

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails Saucebox, happy hour, cocktailsSaucebox, happy hour, cocktails

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