Dining out in Portland, Oregon and other Food Travels
Can you tell that it just maybe, maybe it is tomato season and berry season in Oregon? It’s been very hot and dry this summer which is a little hard on the humans but has been wonderful for the tomatoes. Here’s a look at what I found at the Hollywood Farmers Market.
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Are you feeling like it can’t be the end of summer already, because you haven’t been able to do all the travel and vacation you had hoped for? I’m definitely feeling that way. How can I have still not gone to the Coast yet all year? It just keeps getting put off for other things going on.
On my bucket list has always been to visit Italy. I hear that it’s hot and tourist season, but they also have a lot of festivals and outdoor events. I guess it is going to continue forward on my list of to dos for sometime in the future. In the meantime, might I recommend to you a mini mental and culinary escape to Italy without having to pack any bags or sit on any planes?
The movie The Trip to Italy is opening to pretty strong reviews already, with its official open on August 29 at select theaters, find your nearby theater using this link here: http://thetriptoitalymovie.tumblr.com/find-a-theater.
I am giving away FREE tickets to attend an Advance Screening of the movie The Trip to Italy at Cinema 21 in the trendy Nob Hill neighborhood in Portland at 616 NW 21st Ave. This free screening will be held on Monday August 25, 7 PM
I haven’t seen this movie yet, but given it’s current 88% critic / 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I think this is still an enjoyable movie to cool off from the summer heat. A positive review from NPR here and Sundance review from Variety here seems to back up that gut feeling I have, as do snippets such as snippets like “Brilliantly funny, hilarious, and touching” – Entertainment Weekly and “A hilarious tasty treat” – USA Weekly.
Also, I find bromance/watching guys hang out extra amusing, maybe because I’m not a guy so the things they talk about are fascinating and boy, these two just go off on tangents and keep going and going and going. They really embody that what makes the experience of a trip and memories is not only about where you go, but who you are going with. Particularly, this pair is witty and smart but also dorky. Adorkable.
With the money you are not spending on the movie, can I recommend getting a nice Italian dinner afterwards at nearby restaurant… for instance, Cafe Mingo or Serrato only a block or so away. Other favorite Italian places I like in Portland include on the east side of the river Ava Gene’s, Accanto, These other restaurants close earlier so maybe you do date night part 2 the next night at options like Grassa, Nostrana (which also has a convenient parking lot), Tabla or a Cena.
Michael Winterbottom’s largely improvised 2010 film, The Trip, took comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—or semifictionalized versions thereof—on a restaurant tour around northern England. In this witty and incisive follow-up, Winterbottom reunites the pair for a new culinary road trip, retracing the steps of the Romantic poets’ grand tour of Italy and indulging in some sparkling banter and impersonation-offs. Rewhetting our palates from the earlier film, the characters enjoy mouthwatering meals in gorgeous settings from Liguria to Capri while riffing on subjects as varied as Batman’s vocal register, the artistic merits of “Jagged Little Pill,” and, of course, the virtue of sequels.
Winterbottom trains his camera to capture the idyllic Italian landscape and the gastronomic treasures being prepared and consumed while keeping the film centered on the crackling chemistry between the two leads. The Trip toItaly effortlessly melds the brilliant comic interplay between Coogan and Brydon into quieter moments of self-reflection, letting audiences into their insightful ruminations on the nuances of friendship and the juggling of family and career. The result is a biting portrait of modern-day masculinity.
I will be traveling out of town for work so won’t be attending the free screening, but don’t let that hold you up and I still wanted to present this opportunity to you!
There are 28 tickets I can give away, so in your only mandatory task (commenting on the blog) to enter, list how many tickets you would like – if I have more than 14 or more entrants I will give them away as pairs only, but since this is last minute maybe you’ll get lucky and do a double date?!
Seating is first come first serve, but if you get a ticket you should arrive at 6:30 as you will be let in before the general line!
Are you going to see the movie?
Did I miss naming your favorite Italian restaurant- tell me about it! Are there other movies that combine food and travel that you love and want to recommend to me?
Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post – I just thought this was a wonderful opportunity to give something away to you readers out there! I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.
I’ve dropped by Addy’s Sandwich Bar now and then since 2010, from when I first got to know them as a food cart. I think that they opened in 2009, which is also the year they also made the Oregonian’s 2009 Top 10 Food Carts.
Since then, they’ve gone and grown up from that cart into a little brick and mortar shop located at 911 SW 10th Street… conveniently right by the central branch of the Multnomah County Library, which I still stop by to get real books to read. It’s all just the perfect walk – walk about 1 mile from my house to the library, return/retrieve more books, stop 1 block south at Addy’s to grab a baguette sandwich, walk the mile back and read while eating my sandwich and maybe a glass of wine.
Their storefront is bright, cheery, and still has the colors of black white and red that they brought from the food cart.
I know it’s easy to just download a book, but I still prefer being able to turn the pages of a physical book, so I’m at the library usually twice a month. I also think it’s important to support your local libraries because they offer an important service to the community as places to meet and making resources free/cheap to anyone and everyone. I have good memories of being dropped off at the library when I was a child with my siblings and we would be there for a couple hours, just reading and reading. Sometimes I would just wander down a book shelf aisle, reading the spines, and pick a book here or there to peruse- something you just can’t do virtually.
So sometimes as I’m eating my Addy’s sandwich, I may be reading a novel that involves food. I may be reading a mystery. I may be reading a book as I plan a trip to get me in the mood for that location, or something for my book club, or something for the plane that’s a fluffy light summer fun read (which I read all year round!). Since it’s free, there is no reason I can’t just pick anything and everything, there is no cost except the time to browse.
Similarly, I have really browsed through all of Addy’s sandwiches. They are perfect to eat one-handed while reading with the other, and would be perfect for picnics or hikes and road trips as well. They are always cutely swaddled so you can gently put them in your backpack to eat in the park like I do with a book, or take it on a hike or in your picnic basket.
The sandwiches I usually get are the ones on Little T Bakery mini baguette, which means they all about 8 inches long I think, and arrive swaddled and ready to eat (like this one with chickpea spread , pickles, and romaine)
They also have a handful of paninis though, as well as some on a kaiser roll, and a handful of salads and yogurt parfaits on top of that. They have a rotating soup and salad as well as breakfast sandwich option.
Example sandwich combinations:
As I said, I’ve had all of these sandwiches. My favorites are the turkey brie cucumber creme fraiche, the country pate with cornichons (which I will often add brie to, and which is also pictured below), and the duck confit with cranberry relish and shredded cabbage. Also, did you notice that chocolate sandwich?
When they opened up their brick and mortar, I rejoiced when I saw they added lots of drink options: two pressed juices (Red Juice with beets, grapefruit, ginger, lemon and carrots or Green Juice with kale, cucumber, lemon, parsley, jalapeno, celery and apple) and a handful of smoothies made with fruit, yogurt, and coconut water. Now if I want to not walk all the way back to my house and maybe read in the South Park Blocks, I can do that with a healthy tasty drink in hannd.
Make sure you also check the butcher block paper on the right side, which may list special sandwiches like this one I once got with brie, radish slices, mint parsley pesto on baguette. Simple, vegetarian, and delicious.
They use all high quality local ingredients- which they all list individually at their store and website. I highly recommend stopping by to grab a sandwich before a day trip to go hiking or to the coast or to snack on al fresco in the Park Blocks or Pioneer Square.
Addy’s is open 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday and 10am to 5pm Saturdays.
Have you been to Addys? What do you think about reading physical versus virtual books, and do you ever go to the library?
Here’s my recap of the Nodoguro August themed pop-up- which this month was themed after the author Haruki Murakami, a famous post-modern literature author. I attended this dinner on 8/12/2014.
For next month, September, the new theme will be Totoro, from the animated move My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki!! Buy your tickets now for this pop-up of Nodoguro PDX that pops up at the Evoe space. The menu changes every month so it is only for a special 6-8 time culinary performance by Ryan Roadhouse and partner in crime behind the kitchen Mark Wooten of Phantom Rabbit Farms. At least, it seems, until they are ramped up to take over the Evoe they have been popping up in permanently!!
This time, because of where I was sitting by the counters, I took some special edition photos of our two chefs Ryan in the hat and Mark ready-for-a-shampoo-commercial preparing and plating the dishes. You will also get a glimpse of hostess and pop-up atmosphere curator Elena assisting in serving and explaining the dishes.
The Nodoguro Haruki Murakami theme this month meant creating dishes as described from various books by Haruki Murakami inspired a diverse journey of flavors, and yielded my most favorite sunomono yet from them. Each dish came from a description of the book listed with the dish (shown in bold italic), and spanned across 5 novels.
For the optional beverage pairing, I shared a bottle of Ippongi Denshin Yuki Sake with my two dining friends, though I was tempted by the Wind Up Bird cocktail (The Wind Up Bird is another Haruki Murakami novel).
So now, come take this visual journey…
From Hotel Lobby Oyster
From 1Q84
Bonus photos of some of the prepping of the tofu cream mixture by Mark
And here is the super tasty dish, which I think surprised many guests in its interesting flavors.
From Kafka on the Shore
Ryan Roadhouse and Mark Wooten prepared these dishes on the cool fish plates while Elena Roadhouse explains something to a fellow guest diner
From Norwegian Wood
It smelled sooo good when Ryan opened this oven door. Sure, the handle fell off a little later, but it did the trick for this melt in your mouth fish with its crispy skin.
Definitely one of my favorite dishes of the evening.
From Norwegian Wood/1Q84
I liked this sunonomo the most because it’s been more substantial then previous ones that were more palate cleanses, this one felt much more like a course that just happened to have refreshing acidity (and which I still picked up the bowl at the end and drank the rest of the vinaigrette). I liked that this time it had egg which gave a little creaminess to it as well.
From Norwegian Wood
The teamwork continues…
And the artsy plating of the dish
From 1Q84
The wasabi was grated with this shark skin paddle:
I never get tired of fish eggs and sashimi cut fish on rice.
From Norwegian Wood
From Hear the Wind Sing
You can see past recaps of Nodoguro dinners I have attended here for July and here for June and here for May!
Wake Up! It’s time to go to the market. It’s another Saturday in August at the Portland Farmers Market PSU. Open 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. – March thru October. Farmers Market Day is my favorite day.
Pechluck's Food Adventures
Enjoying deliciousness in Portland & wherever travels may lead me.
My name is Pech, short for Pechluck. I enjoy adventures in eating - dining out and cooking and imbibing for local Portland deliciousness or wherever travels lead.
Disclosure: There may be at times sponsored posts where the ticket to an event or meal or sample product to review was complimentary, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.
Links to books on the blog often are Amazon Affiliate Links.
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