A Trip to Toro Bravo

I've heard of the urban legend of the deliciousness of Toro Bravo, similar to Pok Pok, ever since I first moved to Portland. It is raved about by the local press and web bloggers and foodies in the area, as well as some people I know at work. However, I haven't had a chance to visit because 1. They don't take reservations unless you are a group of 7 or more, and I don't have the patience to wait 2. It is tapas, which is generally limited veggie-friendly and small-dish focused, which means you have to really be willing to share or pay as much as a medium-end restaurant but for tiny plates to get full.

Fortunately, I finally had the opportunity to dine there with a group, and got to taste a lot of the dishes. My summary would be that the food was great- full of flavor, the atmosphere was charged and fun. But, it was also noisy- the room not having good sound proofing is one thing, but did the music have to be so loud on top of the echoes of people and the open kitchen and their pans prepping food right there? We also had a disastrous experience with the check and the waitress insisting she could not divide up the check, and then running one charge at a time and bringing an updated check, and then running another charge an an updated check… and then losing the cash because one of the check clipboards obscured a bunch of $20s. It was ridiculous, especially for a party of 14 people, on a Sunday evening so it wasn't crazy busy (though still hopping, even on a Sunday!).

But let's focus on the food. They charge $1 for bread with butter and olive oil. I thought this was stupid. Tapas come to the table family style and as they are ready, which means that at any given time, you might only have one dish devoured by the 5 people in just 4 minutes, and then have to wait another 10 minutes and suddenly have 3 dishes put down. Since people order different tapas, someone who doesn't eat dairy products or red meat other diet restricted may have to wait until the next round of dishes to appear. Bread tides over the uneven timing of food for a smoother dining experience, and I don't think the restaurant should have charged the customer for it.

I didn't try the bread plate in protest of this. My first bite of food ended up being the Tortilla Espanola with nettles. I always get a tortilla as a tapa because it is one of the ways I judge a tapas restaurant. Tortillas should be firm but not too solid, and cool to room temperature but not chilled. Because this is a cold tapa, it usually comes out immediatly too, which I appreciate (especially with the lack of bread). In fact, my tortilla was passed out at the same time as the bread plate another diner ordered at my table. They were really generous with their sauces on the tortilla, and it was a chucky pie size with a creamy mayo sauce and a spicier red sauce (but not very spicy). It was a tasty start, and I wouldn't mind ordering it again to start a tapas experience again here, though definitely be prepared to share this portion! In the photo, the other side looks exactly the same but with the red sauce instead of the white, that's how big this thing was. Another diner thought the nettles would be bitter or sharp, but they added just a subtle counterpoint to the egg and potato. The fact that they can make this simple dish so outstanding is a real testament.

I did get to try two pinchos (the tortilla is actually a tapas dish, though the bread and butter/olive oil is a pincho). One was the Manchego and Paprika Fritters with spicy salsa roja. These fritters are very small- think the size of the dime. I tasted more of the friedness than the manchego and paprika, and they were timid with the salsa, sadly. Disappointing. Thankfully, at the same time these fritters arrived, so did the Griddled Bacon Wrapped Dates with warm honey. At $6 and 3 dates in the dish, you're talking about $2 a piece for a date with its bacon wrapper and drizzle of sweet honey. But, this delicious complexity of flavor is worth ordering every time.

In terms of Tapas, I tried quite a bit of different dishes, thanks to the sharing nature of my dining friends.

The passable and mediocre tapas plates: The Crab & Chicken Croquettes with samfaina were piping hot when they arrived at the table, and had good chunks of crab and chicken inside that burst as you bit in. The samfaina, the cut up vegetable sauce that came with them, could have used more juicy vegetables to compliment the croquettes as the veggies seemed a bit dry and were more like a diced vegetable side than a sauce. The Harissa Stewed Butternut Squash with crumbled sheep's cheese wasn't bad- lots of flavors on the tongue, though the texture was overall mush but tasted good- the cheese is barely there. I think an extra touch of another type of texture would have really elevated this dish. The Sauteed Spinach with pine nuts & golden raisins was unremarkable but good to add some veggies and non-battered plate to the mix. I was surprised the amount of sauteed spinach was so small- probably only a fistful, and you probably know how spinach shrinks when sauteed. When I saute spinach just for myself, I probably make twice as much just for myself (usually two handfuls).

The Oxtail Croquettes with spice roasted chili mayonnaise- you end up with 3 croquettes for $14. The flavor is good, very savory and rich, but there is another beef dish which you would get better bang for your taste, and value for your stomach portion-wise, for the same price: the House Smoked Coppa Steak with olive oil poached potatoes, chopped olives & salbitxada. I only had a little bite of this steak that was the entire length of a palm, and you didn't even need the rest of the sides because the steak itself was so full of flavor. It's like a whole entree, for the same $14 price that you would have gotten the below oxtail croquettes.

The really amazing tapas plates: The House Smoked Coppa Steak I mentioned previously that has steak that is so good just plain and on its own,, and the Tortilla (as well as those bacon wrapped dates). Also, the Spicy Octopus & Prawn Stew was crazy good. It's actually so much flavor packed into a single spoonful that I don't know how you can finish a bowl by yourself and not have your tastebuds be numb from overstimulation. At first acquaintance on your tongue, you taste the vegetables, and then the seafood blossoms flavorfully until you rae kicked by the spicy heat at the end. And that's the experience with every single spoonful. Wow.

Although my review sounds mixed above, I really do think they have a lot of success with their flavor profiles, though there was also a bit more grease then I liked. I definitely would not recommend having so many fritters and croquettes no matter how good they sound in the description as it is a bit overwhelming. The dishes I highlighted are truly amazing, and I admit I have been spoiled by tapas in Chicago at Cafe Iberico and Cafe BaBaReeba, but Toro Bravo definitely is a cut above that. One thing I should also note is that I didn't notice anyone ordering paella at all here, nor sangria pitchers, which would have been the course in Chicago. I think that at the heart of it, they are very like what you would expect if you had tapas in Spain, and so expecting 100% perfection on what is essentially drinking food is holding it to a high standard.  I guess I'll have to drink more next time 🙂

Next door to Toro Bravo is this adorable little bar with little bites called The Secret Society. They have lots of wonderful drinks and a few teeny bites to tide you over- we went here for the after the bill paying fiasco for a little breather, and it was lovely. I didn't try any bites except for one cheese straw to go along with my brandy champagne cocktail, but the cheese straw was a tasty morsel to go with the even tastier drink that packed a surprise punch. If you do find yourself coming to Toro Bravo, make sure you stop here afterwards to unwind from the more hectic atmosphere of Toro Bravo.

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Let me squeeze some bacon on that…

Oh… wow.

 

From ThinkGeek:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/squeez-bacon.html?cpg=93T

 

"The World's Most Perfect Food

A few years after WWII ended, a young man working in a small restaurant in Sweden developed a new way to process bacon. By precooking it and blending it in a special way, he was able to make a fully cooked 100% bacon paste that could be squeezed from a tube. Knowing he had discovered something paradigm-shifting, young Vilhelm Lillefläsk quickly went into business. That, dear friends, is when Squeez Bacon® was born. And this delicious delectable from Sweden has finally been brought over to the USA – now with American Flavor!

We've been working for months now with Vilhelm Lillefläsk (yes, he still runs the company!) to bring Squeez Bacon® here, and boy are we proud. Why? Because Squeez Bacon® is simply the tastiest bacon food product ever made. Did you know that it's rumored ABBA met while eating Squeez Bacon® sandwiches? And even IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad (we've heard) never travels without a case! He loves it on his American style meatballs. Ojojoj!

Vilhelm Lillefläsk's Squeez Bacon® is fully cooked 100% bacon. Due to the patented electro-mechanical process by which Squeez Bacon® is rendered, it requires no preservatives or other additives. Each serving is as healthy as real bacon, and equivalent to 4 premium slices of bacon! You can put it on sandwiches, pizza, pastas, bacon, soups, pies, eat it hot or cold (warm Squeez Bacon® on toasted rye is to die for), substitute it for bacon in your recipes, or even eat it right out of the tube like we do! If it's edible, it's better with Squeez Bacon®. In the immortal words of Vilhelm Lillefläsk, "Aldrig kommer att ge dig upp!" Once you get a taste of Squeez Bacon®, you'll know exactly what he meant.

 

 

Product Features

  • Each tube contains 21oz (595g) of Squeez Bacon®.
  • 16 servings – equivalent to 64 slices of bacon!
  • Bottled in Sweden, made from U.S. bred swine.
  • Shelf Life of 12 years.
  • No refrigeration needed.
  • Jätte gott! "

 

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Perfect Pok Pok

I'm happy to announce that finally, I found a Thai restaurant in Portland that just blew me away. I finally was able to get a driver and dining friends to Pok Pok. Pok Pok is pretty famous in Portland and is on the "Best Restaurant" local list, but is a bit more of a pain to get to via public transportation. I know that the chef is known for specializing in Southeast Asian street food, not the fusion stuff of Typhoon or the regular cooking found in a myriad of many other Thai establishments offering pad thai and fried rice, and non-spicy curries which have been tamed with coconut milk.

And most exciting for me, there is a lot of Northern Thai cuisine offered. So when I went, my eyes went immediately, after trying to understand the english transliterations of the Thai food dishes, to Kaeng Hung Leh, a curry withsweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry with ginger, palm sugar, tamarind, turmeric, Burmese curry powder and pickled garlic. It was marinated just to the right falling off the bone tenderness, and the curry was very savory and rich- more rich than I had in Chiang Mai, but I had no problems with this upgrade.

My drink of choice, a bloody mary with Thai chili vodka, didn't have the fruitiness of the Kickboxer from Saucebox, but did have the tell-tale recognizable taste of those little Thai hot peppers, so it was good enough for me. I would have liked a bit more tomato though.

As for the Het Paa Naam Tok, a Spicy Isaan forest mushroom “salad” with soy sauce, lime and chili powder dressing, shallots,lemongrass,mint, cilantro and toasted rice powder (basically the vegetarian equivalent of the traditional Waterfall Thai Beef dish), it was ok. The Khao Soi with tofu, a vegetarian version of my usual nothern style curry with egg noodle dish, was described as being made with their "secret curry paste recipe, natural chicken on the bone and house-pressed fresh coconut milk. Served with pickled mustard greens, shallots, crispy yellow noodles and roasted chili paste. Chiang Mai specialty, with Burmese origins." The curry itself had great flavor, though I admonished my companions for not using the sides, but the noodles were not fresh egg noodles (though the crispy noodles were right on), so I will have to look elsewear for Khao Soi. I have noticed that other normal Thai restaurants also offer this dish, not just ones that specialize in Northern Thai style food, so there is still potential for me to find a substitute for my fix back in Chicago that I only got from my favorite Thai restaurant Sticky Rice. This dish would taste a lot better with the chicken too instead of being vegetarian (the soup itself of the curry is good), but the noodles are too important for me to forgive.

The Khanom Jiin Naam Yaa, a ground fresh fish curry with krachai, lemongrass, chilies and glangal, served over rice vermicelli with herbs, pickled mustard greens and boiled egg, did not have enough daring fish parts and I was able to tell. Passable, but not remarkable.

A nice surprise was a Vietnamese dish of Ca Muc Nuong, with nice squares of large calamari, grilled whole over charcoal, chopped and served with lettuce and herbs served with a spicy lime/garlic/chile dipping sauce. That dipping sauce was awesomely spicy.


 
I tried to challenge Pok Pok by ordering a dessert which sounded like an improvement of normal breakfast food: Pok Pok Affogato, which they offer as condensed milk ice cream drowned in a shot of Vietnamese coffee, served with a Chinese fried donut. I thought the donut was fried too crispy rather than being doughy on the inside and crisp on the outside-it would shatter as we tried to break it, almost like a chip. But it tasted perfect, and the bowl of ice cream and coffee was perfection.

I also tried the Coconut Ice Cream Sandwich, which is coconut – jackfruit ice cream served on a sweet bun with sweet sticky rice, peanuts, condensed milk and chocolate syrup. The sweet bun was not sweet enough though, not like what you would get in Thailand. But, I was still impressed by the Pok Affogato and am ok with it. I smile because they did get the size of the scoops of ice cream right!

Next time I go, I already have ideas on what I want. I would try the Kai Yaang (roasted chicken), Papaya Pok Pok (which is one of their specialities and namesake because of the sound made when mashing ingredients with morter and pestle), the Sii Khrong Muu Yaang which sounds like its been fancied up slightly (Carlton Farms baby back ribs marinated in whisky, soy, honey, ginger and Thai spices. slow grilled over charcoal and served with 2 spicy dipping sauces), and Yam Khai Dao, described in the menu as a salad of crispy fried egg,Thai chilies, Chinese celery, onions and carrot with lime, palm sugar and fish sauce dressing. Yams are all based on their balance of acidity, so it is delicate mixing and not just a salad of ingredients thrown together.

Until we meet again, Pok Pok…

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Saucebox’s Happy Hour

I have found my favorite happy hour in Portland so far. At Saucebox, their happy hour from 4:30-6:30 T-Fri and 5-6:30 on Sat, boasts a 2 page menu of bites from $1 to $5, ranging from taro chips and spring rolls to udon noodles, burgers, and spare ribs. They also have a lot of really interesting drinks. I went for the Kickboxer- house infused Thai chili vodka with passionfruit puree and citrus juices and then topped with raspberry puree was delicious! Your first mouthful gives the sensation of delightful fruit juices, but then you get kicked by the chili! I loved it, it is my new favorite drink in Portland.

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland

Their happy hour menu is incredibly impressive- three $1 items, three $2 items, six $3 items, eight $4 items, and four $5 items does not leave you wanting for what to order. The food is most Asian, though they also offer some normal bar favorites like a whole deep cereal bowl full of fries, and quarter pound sized burgers. They have a dozen really interesting signature cocktails, or you can go for the house red or white for $5, or a small little carafe of warm sake for $4. A great deal.

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland
Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland

I was able to try the pork sarong, which is two meatballs with deep-fried noodles and a tamarind dipping sauce, was ok, but for that same $3 you would be better off with the crispy sweet potato spring rolls another person ordered at my table. Saucebox’s $5 happy hour special (their upper end) included crispy pork spareribs with a orange ginger bbq sauce. The meat was so good I didn’t even use the sauce. It was tender and falling off the bone meat, but thanks to the quick deep-fry the outside was super crispy crackly. This is better shared because 3 ribs was little too much for me- have one and get another dish or two (sorry for the blurred picture- the Kickboxer and the sake definitely affected me) and share the fatty deep fried-ness! Another dining friend had the pulled pork udon for $4, which was a great burst of flavor and is also recommended, though a bit hard to eat with the slipperyness- don’t be afraid to ask for a fork instead of using the chopsticks.

Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland Saucebox, happy hour, cocktails, downtown, Portland

Tables filled up quickly between 4:30-5 with trendy hipsters making for some interesting people-watching in the atmosphere of dark wood and huge mirrors. This is just down the street from the Big Pink building, and so I am already itching to go back and try some more.

 

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Unveiling the “Sixth Sense,” game-changing wearable tech

It makes me happy to know people like them are out there, being smart and creative, and bringing technology and people together. Obviously this is still a work in progress- I am sure they don't mean to always project information out in the open and ignore privacy concerns- but it's a taste of what may be coming, hopefully this decade.

This demo — from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some. At the MIT Media Lab's new Fluid Interfaces Group, Pattie Maes researches the tools we use to work with information and connect with one another. Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

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