A Lunch in Beaverton

January 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The first time I went to Hall Street Grill, it was when I had flown in for an interview at the company I currently work at. After a few interviews with 1 or 2 people at a time, I went out to lunch with the peers who would be part of the user experience team. Hall Street Grill is in Beaverton so is one of the few places in the suburbs I know about- after all, I don't own a car. Actually, every single place I've been to eat in Beaverton has been related to my work- either a lunch or happy hour- and I can count them on two hands. Hall Street Grill is one of the top 5.

The proof of this is that while at that lunch with my possible new co-workers, after I ordered the $10 or so lunch special of sandwich with housemade chips, when the sandwich appeared it looked so delicious that I knew it would be delicious, and I pulled out my camera. Whether or not I got this job, I was going to document this deliciousness.

So here is my top recommendation for this place: lunch. the lunch special. The crab melt: crab cakes made from regional crab with the local Tillamook cheddar cheese and a fresh tomato. I've been there a couple of other times and tried the quinoa risotto and squash ravioli, but they were not memorable. Just looking at this sandwich, you know this is one of the best thing, if not the best thing, on the menu.

But perhaps you want to go someplace that has a bit of variety of goodness to choose from, instead of only one guaranteed slam dunk. Then I would direct you to Pho Hoa Hong or Best Baguette. Simple Vietnamese- and for $5 or less at lunch (Best Baguette is always less then $5). The bread at best baguette is a fresh french bread that is the perfect merger of crunchy toast outside and soft inside, and the perfect frame around their pork in any form (grilled and marinated, shredded with pork skin, etc) and accessorized with pickled carrot, daikon, cilantro (so you feel like it's healthy although you are about to finish this huge foot long of bread because you can't help yourself) jalapeno for a kick once in a while in the tastebuds, and a little house mayo, salt, pepper, and splash of soy sauce. It sounds really simple, but it's really really good because you can tell everything is fresh. It's banh mi, but the cleanest I've ever had it.

Pho Hoa Hong next door in this strip mall is also owned by the same family. Unlike other pho places I've tried with their Americanized blander versions, this bright secret offers what I could imagine eating plastic seats and card tables in Vietnam. Maybe it doesn't have the daring complexity if I had gotten it from a food cart on the side of the road in Southeast Asia, but for the atmosphere where at least they understand and speak English well and doesn't intimidate you with everything all in Korean on the menu and walls, and for the price, I'll definitely definitely take it.

 

 

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Grillz Chz

December 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday we had a surprise snowstorm, and my choice of Savor Soup House’s homemade soup (a cup of Tomato with Fennel and Orange, a vegan soup with chunks of tomatoes, garlic, fennel, and a touch of orange supposedly (I didn’t taste the orange) that was topped with croutons and parmesan, was the perfect choice to warm me up. For a tomato soup, I didn’t mind the chunkiness but I did wish it had less of a pure puree tomatoes taste. There is a thin line between a soup and what would be a great tomato pasta sauce, and I agree with some who said this leans more towards pasta sauce. A soup allows you to add more complex flavoring (like roasting the tomatoes or adding some sauteed mushrooms), and despite the chunky parts I also wanted more cream in it- though I guess then it wouldn’t be vegan anymore. Savor is very vegan/vegetarian friendly, so I can give them an out on the cream- if they would try to experiment more with this soup recipe to make the perfect mix of tomato and grilled cheese. If their grilled cheese choices are evidence, there is more potential with this standard daily soup offering they should explore.

To accompany their soups, they have a few grilled cheese standards, a grilled cheese special of the day, and a “make your own” with the ingredients they have, varying from classics like tomato or smoked bacon, to more interesting options you might not have thought of, like giardiniera or homemade pesto. Although I was tempted by their special of  a grilled cheese with the additional touches of apple slices, goat cheese, and truffle oil, I went for my own mix. It starts with the Tillamook cheese as the base, and added apple slices, caramelized onion, and apple butter. It was cooked perfectly. This is a really really good grilled cheese. As you can see, they even burn some of the cheese so it’s crispy on the grill and the caramelized onion was perfect. The apple butter and apple gave it a bit of sweetness.

I would definitely try this again- perhaps with another type of soup. Also, I would ask them to cut it in half- I personally like triangles, but I had to tear this in half down the middle since they had no knife, which was a little difficult and would have been harder if I had larger ingredients like any of the meats- the apple slices were small enough that I had to find the right break inbetween. They give eco-friendly spoons with their soup, so maybe pairing that with a knife in a cup that those who are dippers like myself can use if they are worried about contaminating their knives might be a soultion. Given the size of the soup container, these sandwiches definitely need to be cut to make them dip-able!

Savor Soup House, food cart, Portland, grilled cheese, soup, Tomato with Fennel and Orange soup

From Adventures of Pech 2009

 

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You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox

December 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The last time I had visited the food carts of Southwest 5th and Stark, this cart had not existed. However, one day while having lunch with some friends downtown, after lunch we walked by this street and lo and behold, this cart that I had heard as having the heart attack cheeseburger is right here! I vowed to come back, and after doing some cardio with a Jillian Michaels DVD in the morning and briskly walking all the way here (and then to all my errands, and back home) to make up for the calories I was about to ingest, I made my way to Brunchbox.

Their cheeseburgers have been well-reviewed, including making it to Portland Monthly’s top cheeseburger list. There are lots of good burgers in PDX, thanks to the happy hour culture here which has made a $5 housemade made with local burger pretty ubiquitous. Although I generally don’t eat beef, besides my In and Out exception I also will eat beef if it’s local, and especially if it’s organic and/or free-range. Brunchbox’s policy is to use local ingredients whenever possible, so I decided their burger would make my list. Well, especially because some of the other carts I wanted to try, like Asian Station Cafe’s soup dumplings (permanently closed! No! Just like Sidecart, another missed food cart opportunity because I got there too late!), and Euro Dish and Stella were closed by the time I got there after the lunch rush.

I was too scared for my heart and arteries to order the “redonkadonk” (Egg, ham, spam, bacon, American cheese between two Texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich “buns”), so I settled for the “youcanhascheeseburger!”:
burger between two texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich “buns”. Despite the scary looking photo in Portland Monthly, as you can see from my photo below it actually puts together into a burger you can actually fit into your mouth rather then dislocating your jaw a la Dagwood. In other photos you may find online, you may have seen the Texas toast a lot bigger- in fact, I’ve seen them make these with the bread not so thin as mine- I wonder if they did it because I look like a small young thing that needed help so they smushed down the grilled cheese more, because the bread is really Texas toast- the best bread for grilled cheese because it crunches up and doesn’t get soggy from the oily middle of cheese (or burger). Yes, its’ a great grease sponge!

The grilled cheese bun, unlike the sweet small Voodoo Doughnut bun that the Original Dinerant a couple blocks down uses for their burger, adds to the cheeseburger experience by providing a nice toasty crunch from the Texas Toast and more cheeziness (but not overwhelming), and this way the extra toppings like lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, pickles, ketchup, mayo, mustard can do their work directly with the meat without interference from any of the richness of the melted cheese. The burger meat is hand formed and juicy and was perfectly medium- I am ashamed at how fast I scarfed this warm melty burger down on that cold bench. I felt pretty good after I ate the first half, but after momentarily considering saving the other half for later, I didn’t want to lose the toastyness of the bun and was able to finish it without a struggle, amazingly, and no side effects of feeling like I just ate half a stick of butter from a greasy joint. don’t kid yourself, Brunchbox is a greasy joint, but it tastes so good you don’t notice all the grease (heh, only some of it). Isn’t that a compliment? The only room for improvement I could think of was a bit more lettuce to go with all the grease and give it a bit of a fresh crunch and not just grilled toast crunch.

You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart
You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart

You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart
From Adventures of Pech 2009

And it’s just $5! I’m not sure how any of the fast food burger joints even get by in Portland.

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I love Fancy Fast Food… except at French prices

December 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I love these mashups of disgustingly cheap fast food (how can it have gotten so cheap! I don't eat it anymore, but seriously… the prices are insane for a meal at these joints. I'm afraid to know what's really going into their ingredients making up those things) and cooking in order to make a fancy feast that you might see at some of these flash in the pan trendy restaurants.

I confess I've never actually tried to recreate anything (because I still won't eat fast food- well, maybe In and Out Burger if I visit someplace that has it), but I find myself drawn to read his masterpieces whenever I get a Facebook update that he's unleashed a new creation on his blog, Fancy Fast Food. He has some bizarrely good execution skills to go with his culinary imagination, and he seems like he'd be really fun to hang out with. I can't account what the stuff he makes taste like with the fast food, but I would think that if he wasn't using fast food as his staple ingredients he wouldn't be a bad cook. This past year he's finally gotten recognition for his genius, and I'm happy for him and wanted to share. I'm surprised he isn't being sponsored by Cuisinart to advertise the miraculous fancy dish you can make and fake slaving in the kitchen to, all with a food processor. Also, I like his website design skillz and writing style on his two other sites- keep it simple and let the content stand on its own, yay.

Youtube of Fancy Fast Food
Slideshow of what Fancy fast food does…

Last week I wasn't working and intended to visit some of Portland's downtown food carts since I usually can't make it there and back when I work in Beaverton, but UPS' calls to me that I needed to be home to sign for some packages kept me home most of the time. I did go out for a progressive happy hour that included Blue Hour, Oba, and Fenouil.

Of these three, I liked Fenouil the most for the good range of drinks and savory happy hour menu offerings. Blue Hour was a close second- I would have liked to seen more breadth in their cocktail menu though their Autumn drink was both beautiful, tasty, and sophisticated (all their drinks fall into their category)- but not necessarily creative and fun (except for the Autumn drink). This is something which I thought Fenouil did offer. Blue Hour's food wasn't bad, but not as full of flavor and potential as Fenouil. I like the old-fashioned drinks as much as anyone into the cocktail trend now does, but I also like new inventions, and I want to be able to enjoy both nostalgic classics (though we aren't old enough to remember them except for in movies and TV shows) and new takes with those original ingredients plus a twist of something new. Perhaps I just came in on an unlucky night- I think they rotate their cocktail specials just like a seasonal food menu. 

I've walked by Fenouil many times but never gone in because their dinner prices are pretty steep, and yet every time I am walking by I stop to look at the menu. I wish it took on more of the spirit of some neighborhood Parisian brasserie that you could stop into anytime to get hearty good food at decent prices (not cheap and simple like a bistro. but decent moderate prices with a certain level of food above simple but not fancy). Well… because it's French in the Pearl District it's not cheap, For those prices it should be fancy, darn it, it's not a brasserie (well it is because the menu and atmosphere reflects it), but it should be fine French dining if entrees are all close to $30, geez. Ah, at least there's happy hour for me to play out that dream. Fenouil is one I would definitely go back to, and perhaps Blue Hour to end a happy hour tour on a high, sophisticated note.

Yes, that means I was again not too impressed with Oba- ok, I would go again if asked, but I would rather suggest Andina instead by far. There's so many places in the Pearl to choose from, and Oba's entry wasn't quite up to par IMHO. The drink was just so-so and watered down and seemingly generic, the atmosphere was dark and noisy but also in a commercialized way rather then fun or sexy. The happy hour food I would have liked to seen be more tapas-like then a plate of say, a single taco which prompted my fellow happy hour friend to immediately order another. I don't know why none of the pictures I took were on my camera memory card, so no pics to share this time. I saw on Food Carts Portland that Sidecart, one of the carts I was planning to visit last week, has already closed, so I am determined to get out there next week.

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An evening at Urban Fondue

December 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Urban Fondue/Bartini's Spicy Mango Martini, using their house infused chili pepper vodka muddled with fresh cucumber, and shaken with mango and lime juice, was a nice drink while perusing the menu and waiting, but I'm not sure how any of their martinis on their regular menu go with the food. I suppose that's what their happy hour menu is for… it seemed to fit in more with their Bartini front (connected, and just next door to this fondue restaurant part but with a bar feel rather then plushy booths).

I picked the starter of Ruby Port Fondue of white cheddar, Swiss and Gruyere cheese finished with caramelized sweet onions and port wine. Served with local hearth baked bread to dip in the cheese, and we also ordered (for additional prices) the sauteed button mushrooms and fruit plate (willamette valley fresh pears, apples and ruby grapes). This is always my favorite part of the fondue experience, cheese! I make a pretty good fondue myself, but the flavor of this port and onion and cheese simmered together was complex and very enjoyable, more then the typical fondue recipe would give you- now something else to think about adding to enhance cheese fondue besides upgrading the cheese or wine or beer (Guiness or interesting microbrews). The fruit and doughy bread were good accompaniments, and the sauteed mushrooms were great though a bit on the small side.

When Urban Fondue begins to prepare the table for the entree, they hand you this cute lil timer. Behind, you can see how plush this booth for 2 is!

Since it takes a while to cook your food (as evidenced by the times on the timer) and you only have 2 fondue forks a piece, you really need a side to share to eat while you are waiting. The side we ordered to share while waiting for whatever was on the end of our fondue stick to finish was the Gratin Yukon Potatoes with parmesan, black pepper, and gruyere. It was a creamy soggy mess, despite the visual tease of the oven crust, it wasn't there. Oh well… I don't like making gratins because it's time consuming to prep, but this shouldn't even count as a gratin. Potatoes are great base for flavors, but texture is so important.

The vegetarian came with these six dipping sauces for us (starting from the back, L to R) Blackberry Ketchup (yum!), Pesto, Apple Chipotle Relish, Sun-Dried Tomato Aioli (also yum), Lemon-Garlic Butter with Parsley and Caper, and Chili Vinaigrette. One thing I didn't like is that other fondue experiences I have had, such as Gejas in Chicago or the chain Melting Pot, you get a lot more per person in terms of dipping sauces to try. Since their cost is so low (just prepping ingredients and cleaning the pots which is definitely a pain), these sauces and the raw ingredients are the main differentiators that can make a fondue experience great Only the Blackberry Ketchup and Sun-dried Tomato Aioli stood out at all.

The broth we used for our entree was a tomato fennel broth, a flavorful composite of vine-ripe tomatoes, fennel, parsnips, and sweet peppers finished with flat leaf parsley and cracked pepper- at least this was delicious, we kidded about just drinking it if it hadn't been so hot. Urban Fondue's vegetarian platter includes these for dipping:  tofu, marinated tomatoes, artichoke hearts, grilled sweet onions, sweet carrots, mushrooms,and asparagus. None of these "dippers" stood out- sad, especially given the local bounty here, and except for the tofu, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and onions, nothing more then a bite worth and minature sized. The onion was hardly grilled, and the artichoke hearts mushy, leaving only the tomatoes and tofu to try to hold up this platter as some sort of "entree".

Chocolate Martini with the Banana Foster fondue with house made caramel with a hint of banana liquor topped with caramelized bananas foster and vanilla whipped cream, then served with this plate of seasonal fruit (pineapple, strawberries, banana), cheesecake, cookie dough (peanut cookie and chocolate chip cookie), mini-cream puffs, and pound cake. In the back was a nutty wafer. The trick with cooked fruit is that if it is overcooked, it turns a bit sour and gets very mushy, so you need to counterbalance it. This fondue really needed more counterbalance, unfortunately. The stuff on the plate was fine plain, fortunately- a interesting mix, much more then for the veggie entrees.

In summary of my experience, the fondue concoction of cheese and broth were great, though the accompaniments were not. Dessert-wise, the banana foster sounds better then it tastes- maybe go with the traditional chocolate to give justice to the dippings for dessert.

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