DIY Smoothie Bowl Party

July 10, 2018 by 5 Comments

Earlier in the spring, I attended an event sponsored by The Feed Feed and Bob’s Red Mill. It was a brunch event that included a DIY Smoothie Bowl Bar, and I loved this idea! I can’t imagine anything more suitable as a theme for a really memorable and fun summer party then a DIY Smoothie Bowl Party – no more having to stand in front of a hot grill with burgers (although that can be good too). For really hot summer days though, and/or for a healthy party, here’s how to put together a cool summer brunch! This idea would be so original for a wedding or baby shower too.
DIY Smoothie Party with The Feed Feed, Bob's Red Mill, and Lauren Chandler

The setup is simple: two pitchers, and two squeeze bottles, each filled with a different colored smoothie. In this event, we had a Rhubarb Smoothie as one option, and a Spicy Greens Smoothie enriched with Vanilla Protein Powder Booster, but it’s your choice what flavors and colors you would like for your two smoothies. The intent of the two smoothies is to offer two options of contrasting colors that can make it more fun for each guest to decorate their smoothie bowls.
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Carts on the Square: Pioneer Courthouse Square Food Carts

July 6, 2018 by 3 Comments

If you haven’t been to Pioneer Courthouse Square, you may not know that recently the construction from the Parks Bond Renovation has been completed to add refurbish the old bricks, add new bricks (where you can purchase personalized bricks) and now as parts of Carts on the Square, there are also 5 food carts close to the eastbound Max stop offering a sample of Portland food flavors. Unlike the other food cart pods in downtown Portland, thanks to the location in Portland’s Living Room, you’ll find plenty of places to sit and eat, be it on the amphitheater like setup or at some tables and chairs, depending on what event may be scheduled at the Pioneer Courthouse Square Food Carts.
Pioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square during the 2018 Festival of Flowers during the first half of June

The view can’t be beat dining here either – al fresco, great people watching, and who knows what may be installed in the main square? Sometimes you’ll find a farmers market (Mondays), music concerts (Tuesdays and other days), movie showings on summer Friday evenings, or you may find people attending an Italian festival, or like next week, an Oregon State Fair Flash Fair on July 12 for a brief lunchtime preview of the Oregon State Fair. You should check the Square Events calendar to know what events are coming (many are free), but for now, here’s a look at the individual offerings of the Carts on the Square.

Pioneer Courthouse Square, the Carts on the Square are the 5 food carts located in the upper level of the square

The five carts that are located here at Pioneer Courthouse Square have been curated by Feast co-founder Mike Thelin as a consultant, and you can trust that each and everyone offers fresh, tasty food that can be trusted. All the carts are equipped Square payment so can take credit card as well as your cash of course. All are open for lunch, with one open for breakfast and one open as late at 6pm. The only question is, what do you feel like eating? Disclosure: some of the photos are from a tasting at their grand opening where I was able to sample some of the menu offerings, but I also had already visited some of the carts before, and also went back and visited them to taste most of the menus
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Carts on the Square food cart pod

Pioneer Courthouse Square, the Carts on the Square are the 5 food carts located in the upper level of the square Pioneer Courthouse Square, the Carts on the Square are the 5 food carts located in the upper level of the square

Fried Egg Sandwiches

If you are looking for breakfast, the only cart you’ll find serving it up bright and early is Fried Egg I’m In Love. This cart has an original location on SE Hawthorne that has been serving up its famous fried egg sandwich with punny names for more then six years and helped elevate the breakfast sandwich scene in Portland when it opened. They are open 7am-3pm Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm Fri, and 8am-6pm Sat and Sun. You can even get your food faster by calling ahead to order.
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Carts on the Square food cart pod, Fried Egg I'm In Love cart offering fried egg sandwiches for breakfast and lunch

All of their sandwiches are either served on toasted sourdough bread from Portland French Bakery or New Cascadia gluten-free bread (except for their burritos), eggs are sourced from local farms, cooked over-medium, and sprinkled with their special magic egg dust spices. The signature is the pesto kissed Yolko Ono, but I’m also a huge fan of the sandwich Free Range Against The Machine with fried egg, avocado, tomato, and havarti cheese. Sandwiches can also be made vegetarian and they have a house vegan patty.
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Carts on the Square food cart pod, Fried Egg I'm In Love cart offering fried egg sandwiches for breakfast and lunch Fried Egg I'm In Love Food cart specializes in toasted sour dough bread egg sandwiches with local bread and eggs. This is their signature sandwich, Yolko Ono with fried egg, homemade pesto, parmesan, and a hand-pressed house sausage patty.

Rice Bowls

If you are looking for a healthy option especially if you are vegetarian or vegan, this is a great cart to make your go-to. It’s extremely popular and successful- this downtown location is one of eight around the city. You’ll find them open 11am-3pm Mondays through Saturdays.

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Snackdown 2018

July 2, 2018 by 6 Comments

As in the previous 2 years, the sort of closing party of the Portland Beer Week was a beer and food pairing event called Snackdown. 10 teams of brewers and chefs put together a pairing of a beer and a snack bite, and then the audience got to vote as they tasted all the pairings while teams also each had a little time at the mic to smack talk each other, old school WWF style (often completely with costumes). Here’s a look at this year’s beer and food pairings for Snackdown 2018 to give you an idea of the event to encourage you to attend next year, or as ideas for beer and food pairings in general!

Loyal Legion/Dirty Pretty + Breakside

Spicy Pork Tostada. Crispy corn tortilla, spicy pulled pork, pineapple salsa, slaw, lime crema
Call Me Hazy Pale
Snackdown 2018 pairing of Loyal Legion/Dirty Pretty + Breakside brought together Spicy Pork Tostada. Crispy corn tortilla, spicy pulled pork, pineapple salsa, slaw, lime crema with the Loyal Legion/Breakside collaboration beer Call Me Hazy Pale

Although hoppy style beers are not my preferred beer, I appreciated how some of that hoppiness was tamed here by the spicy pulled pork along with the creaminess of the lime crema and brightness from pineapple salsa. The negative though was that this was just messy to eat as the crispy corn tortilla would break apart from bites.

Afuri/Wayfinder

  • Snack: Hidden Handroll – Capicola-wrapped Asparagus, Chasu Don Pork Belly, Spicy ‘Hidden Sauce’
  • Beer: Hidden Hand Dark Lager

Snackdown 2018 pairing of Afuri/Wayfinder brought together Hidden Handroll - Capicola-wrapped Asparagus, Chasu Don Pork Belly, Spicy Hidden Sauce with the Hidden Hand Dark Lager

It was very cool to see these handrolls being made before us, including getting the pork belly seared with a blowtorch and rolling the asparagus and capicola together and the smear of the “spicy hidden sauce) on the rice in the seaweed before finally rolling the handroll. Though you wouldn’t normally thing to pair a dark lager with a handroll, I was impressed with how it worked here with both strong flavors being an equal match for each other.

Danwei Canting/Buoy

  • Snack: Scallion Bing with Oregon Bay Shrimp, Crispy Garlic and Lime Vinaigrette
  • Beer: Sour Blonde with Pomegranate, Grapefruit and Citrus Zest

Snackdown 2018 pairing of Danwei Canting/Buoy brought together Scallion Bing with Oregon Bay Shrimp, Crispy Garlic and Lime Vinaigrette with theSour Blonde with Pomegranate, Grapefruit and Citrus Zest

Although what looks like a fried wonton here may not appear to be much, the shrimp inside and topping of the crispy garlic was tamed well by the sour blond’s fruity acidity.

Lardo/Pono

Snack: Smoked Pork Burger, American Cheese, Dirty Mustard, Grilled Pineapple
Beer: Pineapple Kölsch
Snackdown 2018 pairing of Lardo/Pono brought together Smoked Pork Burger, American Cheese, Dirty Mustard, Grilled Pineapple with the Pono Brewing Pineapple Kölsch Snackdown 2018 pairing of Lardo/Pono brought together Smoked Pork Burger, American Cheese, Dirty Mustard, Grilled Pineapple with the Pono Brewing Pineapple Kölsch

The pineapple slaw was being freshly grilled outside on the sidewalk outside Loyal Legion to make this slaw fresh, and not surprisingly, this ended up being the winner of the Snackdown belt for 2018!

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Aramsey Spiced Brunch

June 14, 2018 by 3 Comments

I’ve been a fan of Ruchikala, the name of the food business of Kusama Rao, for years. Unfortunately with her time divided between Arizona and Portland we don’t get access to her food as nearly as much as I and many of her other fans would like given that was the main feedback from this meal (and pretty much all her others) from multiple guests. So, whenever you see an opportunity announced on her social media, be sure to jump at the opportunity!

For this particular popup she collaborated with another all female owned business, Public Provisions, who provided cocktails to go with the four courses for this Aramsey Spiced Brunch. Public Provisions  which is a traveling bar service run by partners Melanely Schmidt and Malia Meyers. Lucky for all of us, Public Provisions is also opening a bar where you can reliably enjoy some of their creative and fun drinks – more on this at the end!
Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions  Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions: Rogan Josh, a spicy lamb curry. Here, the long simmered spicy lamb curry is combined with black cardamom, kashmiri chili oil, salt cured lemon coconut mustard polenta with yogurt, saffron, clove, nutmeg and other spices.

For now, let’s take a look at this special Aramsey Spiced Brunch I enjoyed with four courses and four paired cocktails.
Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions

Course 1

The Bengali Breakfast Sando, with Panch phoron maple sausage, habanero carrot halva butter, and Kumi’s house sourdough english muffin with all sorts of spices like nigella seed, fenugreek.
Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions: Bengali Breakfast Sando, with Panch phoron maple sausage, habanero carrot halva butter, and Kumi's house sourdough english muffin with all sorts of spices like nigella seed, fenugreek Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions: Bengali Breakfast Sando, with Panch phoron maple sausage, habanero carrot halva butter, and Kumi's house sourdough english muffin with all sorts of spices like nigella seed, fenugreek
This was paired with an Indian spiced Bloody Mary that included sarina pudi, carrot, lovage, blistered jalapeno, sesame oil, and more spices as picked out by Kumi included toasted cumin. Of all the courses, all were spectacular but this was probably my vote for favorite if I had to choose.
Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions: Indian spiced Bloody Mary that included sarina pudi, carrot, lovage, blistered jalapeno, sesame oil, and more spices as picked out by Kumi included toasted cumin Aramsey Spiced Brunch with Ruchikala and Public Provisions: Indian spiced Bloody Mary that included sarina pudi, carrot, lovage, blistered jalapeno, sesame oil, and more spices as picked out by Kumi included toasted cumin

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First Look at Outer Darkness Donuts

June 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment

From the creative minds who delivered deliciousness with fun and the embracing of wanting to try multiple tastes on the sample plate via Hunnymilk popup brunch is a new popup, Outer Darkness Donuts. They just launched last weekend on Sunday June 3, and here’s my first look at Outer Darkness Donuts. Similar to Hunnymilk, there are no reservations and it’s best for groups of 2 or 4 or no more then 8 maximum. Outer Darkness Donuts pops up only on Sundays, at Jacqueline (2039 SE Clinton St), from 8am-4pm.
My first look at Outer Darkness Donuts, which on offer here only on Sundays are dark roast drip coffees, fun mimosas, loose leaf tea, and only one food dish you can order: a flight of mini-donuts. My first look at Outer Darkness Donuts, which on offer here only on Sundays are dark roast drip coffees, fun mimosas, loose leaf tea, and only one food dish you can order: a flight of mini-donuts.

On offer here are dark roast drip coffees, fun mimosas, loose leaf tea, and only one food dish you can order: a flight of mini-donuts. You will get both savory and sweet bites, and I was very impressed by how each mini donut was a strong statement of flavors and beautifully presented like this is their regular restaurant, not that they are just taking over for part of a day.

Don’t be intimidated by the dark roast coffees – they had a great variety of sweeteners including local honey of course, but also find salted caramel, local honey, agave syrup, corainder dulce de leche, chocolate rum syrup, and nutella! Make any of these Irish coffees with an upgrade of Jameson and Baileys.
My first look at Outer Darkness Donuts, which on offer here only on Sundays are dark roast drip coffees, fun mimosas, loose leaf tea, and only one food dish you can order: a flight of mini-donuts.

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