$3 each.
Pine State Biscuit at the Farmer’s Market- pron pic of the Reggie
Ah, Pine State Biscuit. You tempestuous guilty pleasure of a too rich breakfast that can get scarfed down in 10 minutes it’s so delicious, even though it contains probably half my calorie allotment for the whole day.
Get thee there to the Pine State Biscuit tent at the Portland Farmers Market on Saturday by noonish- they always sell out to the lunchtime crowd of shoppers so 1pm is probably too late, unless you go on a lucky day (like I had yesterday) where the market wasn’t as crowded- perhaps everyone was at Pinot in the City or the Belmont Area Street Fair.
I had my order in a mere 7 minutes or so, with only a handful of people in line before me. Of course, you can also go to one of their two brick and mortar locations- that way you can go at a more flexible time for your schedule. I prefer the Farmers Market so I can picnic enjoy it in the Park Blocks as a pre-reward for carrying the farmers market goodies back up the hill to the house.
They sure work hard at that little stand on Saturday- they have physical locations now but still dish this yumminess up the original way on Saturday at the Portland Farmers Market, and manage the inevitable crowds amazingly. The dude multitasks admirably while executing the food- frying eggs in a pan, meanwhile, there are two pots of gravy (mushroom or sausage) to stir, and the bubbling cauldron of fried chicken on the right… all this in the 7 minutes it took to get my Reggie. Faster and better than any fast food breakfast or wait-for-brunch-joint can pull off- thanks Pine State Biscuit for the quickie and super satisfying breakfast/lunch.
If you want to enjoy the biscuit, as I have recommended before, I like to get it simply with pimento cheese and let the butteryness of the biscuit play with the smooth bite of the spread. Or use it as a means to get their savory gravy. That slathering of every bit of pimento cheese or generous pour of gravy makes it because the biscuit can be a bit too flaky dry.
But they have an awesome fresh fried chicken, which brings me to the Reggie. It is so awesome I cannot do it justice in explaining how the fluffy but firm biscuit and savory meaty gravy sauce and crisp and moist still hot from the fryer chicken and salt of the thick bacon all swirl together and are heavenly on your tastebuds. This is the star of Pine State Biscuits. Pine State Biscuit’s Reggie: Fried chicken, bacon & cheese topped with gravy between a buttermilk biscuit O.O Look at that chicken, look at that beckoning bacon
September Portland Farmers Market at PSU
It was nice to visit today and see it refreshingly not crowded. There wasn’t even really a line at Pine State Biscuit (I’ll post those photos separately). The offerings at the various stands were full of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, eggplants, peaches, and berries. I have been craving tomatoes to put in caprese salad, and in preparation for a tofu tasteoff between Thangh Son Tofu and Bui Tofu, I grabbed some other ingredients as well with tofu in mind. The theme for this week is tomatoes and tofu and mushrooms (I got baby portabella and chantarelles).
There was a lot of garlic at the market which afterwards made me think of all the tips from Caprial and John on roasting garlic for dips- maybe for a weekend where we don’t plan to see or talk to anybody. Perhaps with fava beans, that I can make into hummus? What really caught my eye were kohlrabi- I’ve never made them before, and I hurried home to look up recipe. If I can find them next week, I think I’m going to try them out! I also was tempted by the eggplant but decided to go with the corn on the grill instead for this week… for next week which eggplant should I get to grill, look at the selection!
And maybe at another time trying out those edible Nasturtium flowers in a salad (I’m a little sick of salads after buying pounds of spinach and mixed greens the past month so am on a lil break right now)… and as a reward I can go get one of those little custard tarts, but I’m afraid they won’t be as good as I remember the custard tarts I got in Hong Kong. Overally, it was a relaxing visit to the market with F today as I usually am doing the shopping on my own, so we also enjoyed a picnic lunch thanks to some of the food stall vendors and yay, someone else can carry the reusable bag of stuffs back up the hill for me!
Pea Shoots and Portland Farmers Market Pickles
Most of the time when I cook, it’s pretty simple- saute is my most frequent technique (although I flip with a spatula, no pan flip to toss food in the air… Hey the pans are heavy) or stir fry- otherwise I am often blanching or roasting in the oven- not much steaming, baking or grilling typically. The other important part for me is getting really good fresh ingredients from the Farmers Market, and trying to be open minded about the kind of vegetables I use, based on what is in season and attractive at the market, and then coming up with meal plans from that as my base.
So far, I’ve mentioned baby bok choy, fiddlehead ferns, stinging nettles, and brussel sprout rapini. At this last weekend’s market, I walked by and decided I just had to try pea shoots and also purple rapini. F has been a pain as even as a vegetarian, he doesn’t like a lot of cooked vegetables (picky PIA vegetarian…), so my approach to the pea shoots was to have them as a salad, and to elevate it with great ingredients like a cheese from Jacob’s Creamery, add some Freddy Guys hazelnuts and pickled beets from Zoe… The beets and cheese gave it some tang and richness so that I didn’t even think dressing was needed, while the hazelnuts gave it some crunch. I really enjoyed having the pea shoots. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that saw those pea shoots and got a little crush.
At the Saturday Portland Farmers Market, there are several vendors offering pickled items, and although none of them look like grandma (well, my grandmas never did this anyway) apparently they have felt the calling to take various foods and treat them to the pickling process and accumulate lots of glass jars. But, don’t expect these to taste like your grandma’s pickles either- even if the process is something that has been done for centuries, these flavors have often been updated into new exciting combinations.
The most traditional vendor I visit is Zoe’s Favorites Pickles and Preserves, where you can find asparagus, spicy carrots, green beans, garlic, and Michelle (Zoe is her daughter) has small and large jars of her famous pickled beets. You can take a tablespoon or so to brighten up a salad by tossing it in, or add to any dish at the end. She also offers jams- this past weekend she has raspberry- if you want to top some cream cheese or chevre or use it on its own with some bread.
Bringing Korean traditional for pickling to us is the new booth to the Portland Farmers Market this year of Choi’s Kimchi Co, with the kids selling their mom’s fifty-plus years of homemade kimchi making They offer lots of different veggie takes beyond the traditional green cabbage, such as napa cabbage white napa, radish, and my favorite (for the texture), bok choy.
Another stop you should take is Sassafras Catering. I’m a big fan of their sunchoke relish- I think it will be a great and constant addition when the summer grilling season starts as a side accompaniment to add as relish to a burger or hot dog or potato salad. They also have brought watermelon rind pickles from the south up here to the northwest, thank you, as well as chutney such as apple or peach cranberry, and a beet and fennel relish. Their offerings are in the smallest jars, so you may find yourself hoarding them a little bit because the price for the amount is more dear then the other picklers.
For the most nontraditional take on pickling, try the unusual flavors in jars at Unbound Pickling, including my favorites, “bacon pickle” (pickle with added hickory smoke flavor) and “beatnik pickled beets” which are roasted beets in pomegranate and beet juice, as well as several other artisan offerings. Great accompaniments on a cheese plate, or to put a modern surprise twist on a dish because it always packs more flavor punch than you would think when you first see it in the dish presentation. They are the fanciest flavor pickles I’ve found- I think they have recently been picked up by Whole Foods, I hope they really catch on. Check out their website- they have some really beautiful pictures of their various products there, all I have is a picture captured during a chilly rainy market day.
Ok maybe Rose City Pepperheads isn’t really a pickler, but since some of the other vendors offered something in a comparable market, I think it’s a fair mention. The number of jellies she and her aunt make is astounding- I think there were almost 20?! – so you should probably buy one of their little variety packs. Flavors vary from “hollerin huckleberry”, “pomegranate with pizazz”, “marionberry blast” to “rage n red jalapeno” “Hawaiian jalapeno” and “smokin margarita”, all which are arranged from “Mild” to “Wild” which you might choose to spread on its own or with cheese or yogurt to soften to use as dips or spreads, or you can use it as part of a marinade or fruity finish of a topping after grilling something. They don’t use gelatin (pectin is used instead) so they are all veg friendly.
May 7 Portland Farmers Market Finds
It’s May now in Portland- even though it doesn’t quite feel like it yet with the cooler weather and gloomy days where a crack of sunshine then turns into rain or even hail! The leeks are still at the market- which I still haven’t quite gotten myself to actually use yet as my perception is what a pain they are to prep so I stick to my regular onions. However, just because I don’t want to work with them myself doesn’t mean I don’t want to enjoy them. At last weekend’s market, Tastebud Farm not only successfully tempted me with me an interesting rhubarb lemon soda (which I was so swept away by enjoying that I didn’t take a picture), but also leek bagels (I’ll be taking those to work this week) and leek on pizza.
This past weekend’s visit continued last weekend where we were looking for some good starts to plant. I discovered this at one of the booths- I love how I always see something new every single time I go to the market.
I specifically was craving some asparagus to grill, but I also was looking for brussel sprout leaves… but settled for some brussel sprout rapini. A quick 2 minutes in boiling water which I then used to cook the wheat rotini after I retrieved the rapini. Then add rapini to chopped garlic heated in oil. Add 2 cups of vegetable stock, simmer for 5 minutes, and then add garbanzo beans and let it have 2 minutes being softened by that. Add red pepper and salt/pepper to season to taste, and have with pasta- the recipe I had called for orecchiette but all I had was my wheat rotini. For more color I would recommend some diced tomatoes, or roasted red pepper added to the mix but I didn’t have these on hand that night. Sprinkle as much grated cheese as you would like when about to eat- you can eat this hot or cold, so it’s a great leftover to take to work for lunch.