Chefs Week PDX 2017 Hearth Dinner Recap

This is my Chefs Week PDX 2017 Hearth Dinner Recap. As I mentioned at the other Chefs Week PDX Heritage dinner earlier this year that I recapped, this year Chefs Week PDX has scaled back this year to two events instead of being the namesake week long collaboration. This Hearth Dinner included 7 dishes from 7 participating chefs, and this time was hosted at Han Oak’s backyard and open dining area.
Chefs Week PDX Heritage dinner 2017, at Han Oak Chefs Week PDX Heritage dinner 2017, at Han Oak: Craig Thornton, Wolvesmouth dish of Albacore, Dungeness Crab, Green Papaya, Kaffir Lime, Charcoal Chili Broth, Coconut Aracini

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Of Roots and Blooms Vegan Food

Of Roots and Blooms recently made an announcement that they are working on two cookbooks and unspecified future projects TBD so if you haven’t been before, it’s only a few weeks before they are changing their schedule. Up until end of September they will pop up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont, and up to end of August they will finish popping up Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. After that, who knows what will happen: apparently not even owners Nick and Carina, who only share that they don’t have anything solid except knowing “this while operation is about to morph into a new incarnation and life phase”

So hurry in now to try some of the best vegan food I’ve ever had! Here’s a look at some example greatness Of Roots and Blooms vegan food I’ve been able to enjoy to entice you to try it, and that vegan food isn’t all raw or dry food – it can be luxuriously rich too in the right hands.

This grilled cheese with cashew fromage fort, cheddar, spinach, toasted levain and side of chips reminds me when I first fell in love with them as a Cheese Plate cart.
Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This grilled cheese with cashew fromage fort, cheddar, spinach, toasted levain and side of chips reminds me when I first fell in love with them as a Cheese Plate cart. Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their grilled cheese with cashew fromage fort, cheddar, spinach, toasted levain and side of chips reminds me when I first fell in love with them as a Cheese Plate cart.

I’m also a fan of their Brussels Sprout Grilled Cheese with butternut squash butter, sage aioli, and melty cheddar
Of Roots and Blooms Brussels Sprout Grilled Cheese with butternut squash butter, sage aioli, and melty cheddar - completely vegan

And just as you would expect, this mac and cheese is so rich and creamy that you can barely tell it’s not real cheese but vegan cheese. This is their IPA Mac and Cheese, made with Culmination’s Phaedrus IPA and topped with rushed pretzels and chives.
Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their IPA Mac and Cheese, made with Culmination's Phaedrus IPA and topped with rushed pretzels and chives Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their IPA Mac and Cheese, made with Culmination's Phaedrus IPA and topped with rushed pretzels and chives

Here’s a closeup of their vegan Lobster Mac and Cheese with sharp cheese sauce with seaweed “lobster” stock, chopped vegan lobster meat, chives buttered Old Bay breadcrumbs baby spinach.
This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Lobster Mac and Cheese with sharp cheese sauce with seaweed

One of the things that really impresses me though beyond that is how incredible and inventive they are at creating vegan adoptions of East Coast seafood, like New England clam chowder, shrimp scampi, clammy linguine, meatball or cheesesteak sandwiches. This is their surprisingly evocative of the sea but vegan and so velvety Vegan Oyster Stew with cashew potato cream and oyster mushrooms, served with oyster crackers
Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Oyster Stew with cashew potato cream and oyster mushrooms, served with oyster crackers Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Oyster Stew with cashew potato cream and oyster mushrooms, served with oyster crackers

Or how about when they made Vegan Lobster Ravioli with vegan lobster meat, chives and almond ricotta stuffed into red bell pepper pasta with tomato saffron cream sauce with Calabrian chilies and almond ricotta topped with arugula and peas.
Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Lobster Ravioli with vegan lobster meat, chives and almond ricotta stuffed into red bell pepper pasta with tomato saffron cream sauce with Calabrian chilies and almond ricotta topped with arugula and peas Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Lobster Ravioli with vegan lobster meat, chives and almond ricotta stuffed into red bell pepper pasta with tomato saffron cream sauce with Calabrian chilies and almond ricotta topped with arugula and peas

Don’t miss out on desserts either – which can vary to mousse to cheesecake and more. This is the Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake with rhubarb sauce, and their vegan Pecan Bar.
Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake with rhubarb sauce Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake with rhubarb sauce Of Roots and Blooms pops up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont and Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. This Of Roots and Blooms vegan food example is their Vegan Pecan Bar

You can follow OfRootsandBlooms on Instagram to see what will be their menu of the week – they change every week. As mentioned, they are at noon to 8 pm at Culmination Brewery (2117 NE Oregon) until end of August and Wednesday at 3-10 PM at Bottles (5015 NE Fremont) until end of September and after that it’s unclear.

Have you heard of Of Roots and Blooms vegan food before, what do you think of some of the dishes they offer, what would you try?

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Ssshaved Ice offers Portland Japanese Shaved Ice

With the heat wave, I thought it was an appropriate time for me to have this post where I highlight SSshaved Ice. I included SShaved Ice, a pop up on which offers Portland Japanese shaved ice on announced Saturdays at Courier Coffee, on my Eater PDX article The Hottest Portland Pop-Ups Right Now, Summer 2017. Here are some more detailed photos of some of the amazingness that you can find. You can find out when they are popping up by following their Instagram, @ssshavedice, usually it is Saturdays at Courier Coffee at 923 SW Oak from Noon – 4 PM (or until run out!).

Ssshaved Ice, a pop up offering Japanese Shaved Ice, this is the Ssshaved Ice Strawberry Milk Kintoki with Ricotta Caramel.

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Total Brewclipse Festival this Saturday!

If you haven’t heard the news, it is going to a hot week- possibly record breaking on Wednesday and Thursday. And you’ve also probably heard that in just a couple weeks will be the August 21 Solar Eclipse. But did you know that Portland Monthly is throwing a special party, Total Brewclipse PDX, that takes into account the heat by cooling you down with beers from their recent July Beers of Summer issue highlighting the best Portland brewed suds for hot weather sipping? A portion of the Total Brewclipse festival proceeds will benefit OMSI’s crowdfunding campaign to refurbish 25 year old Planetarium.

Total Brewclipse 2017

The entire event is taking place this Saturday, August 5 at The Redd on Salmon Street from 8 – 11 PM (early admission for VIP ticket holders at 7:30 PM). A ticket grants you unlimited beer tastings and access to everything from food trucks by Olympia Provisions and 1927 Smores, live music, to entertainment like the spacey photo booth and astrological chart readings / fortune-telling.

You can see the full 20 Beers of Summer picks at Portland Monthly’s article, and the 12 beers for the event include

  • Rosenstadt Helles Lager, a beer of German influence with malty, clean golden classic Munich Biergarten flavors.
  • Laurelwood Golden Ale, a crisp river beer (it helpfully comes in a can too to take to the river!).
  • Ex Novo The Most Interesting Lager in the World, a beer that combines Germany and Mexico. If you aren’t already, you should be a big supporter of Ex Novo, a brewery where 100% of profits go to charity and they have been doing so since 2014.
  • Zoiglhaus Zoigl-Kölsch, balanced sessionable beer from a German classic brewery in Lents
  • Gigantic Kölschtastic, light and smooth and a “liquid ode to sunshine”
  • Fat Head’s Goggle Fogger Hefeweizen with wheat and banana flavors
  • Base Camp Pilgrimage Saison, a slightly spiced wheaty beer
  • The Commons Petit Classique is slightly funky and is brewed with pink peppercorns
  • Burnside Sakura Gose, a floral with slightly sour beer that does include cherry blossoms with bit of salt per the gose style
  • Sasquatch Barbarella, a rhubarb ale!
  • Ecliptic Starburst IPA combines Northwest IPA flavors and a name inspired by astronomy (as per all the Ecliptic beers)
  • Great Notion Ripe IPA, a juicy hazy IPA

Guests can also expect a Crispin Cider, Portland Sangria, and Reyka Vodka Moon-inspired cocktail. Tickets are $25 ($35 for VIP tickets that provide swag bags and earlier admission and access to a chic VIP lounge area) and are available now! The event is open to 21 and over. I’ll be there (along with a rare appearance of F with me!).

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Best dishes at Afuri

Afuri Ramen opened to great fanfare towards the end of 2016 after articles about how this famous Japanese chain picked Portland as their first location outside Japan because of the water here. They still don’t take reservations, although the location is pretty big that if you don’t hit a busy weekend evening prime time you will probably find a table often without a wait (I recommend grabbing a beer at Commons Brewery next door). Now with the wonderful weather they also roll open their garage door walls so it almost feels like a patio. I’ve visited several times – here are my recommendations for the best dishes at Afuri.
Afuri door to the location in Portland, the first location outside Japan for this famous Japanese ramen chain Afuri place setting  [Read more…]

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