Tastebud Farm Porcetta Delight

I had to go to the dentist, and on the way to work afterward stopped at the Portland Farmer’s Market. it was a rainy chilly day, I had no cash so had to walk to the only Wells Fargo I know downtown which was 1 mile away, I had been working through work emails before I left for the dentist and was irritated at some miscommunication that was causing a “work fire” situation that I had hoped would have been put out… and I had just been at the dentist.

It was the last day of the Farmer’s Market this year at Pioneer Square. So, there weren’t very many booths, only one aisle’s worth. But, when I saw Tastebud, and their offering of a porcetta and chanterelle bagel, I reached out for the comfort.

And boy, did it comfort. I left in a good mood even! On my choice of wood fire oven baked bagel (I picked wheat), pesto was liberally smeared all over both halves. Then it was covered with fresh arugula, and sweet onions, and topped with huge juicy slice from their sausage stuffed porcetta and topped with chanterelles and sweet caramelized onions. Super messy, but I didn’t mind as I sacrificed my umbrella to keep my food dry and I would take the raindrops. Look at how huge the bagel sandwich is, well worth the $6. They had the whole porcetta masterpiece behind the glass at their booth and it looked soooo good- it was wrapped almost like a giant meatloaf, and I wish I had photographed the crispy skin goodness followed by tender meat that was showcased in the cross-section.

If you can make it to the Farmer’s Market at PSU (the last of this year) on Wednesday, check them out! Tastebud is always a safe bet.

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Pine State Biscuit

Besides, Tastebud, one of my favorite booths at the Portland Farmers Market is the Pine State Biscuit stand. Instead of having to go to the physical location on Southeast Belmont and wait in line, staring at other people who are comfortably seated and enjoying their breakfast/brunch, and then finally getting a chance to be one of the stared, the PSU Farmers market gives me the food without that stressful atmosphere. There have been times I have waited 20 minutes in line, sure, but other times I walked right up to put in my order.

Their menu at their booth is of course more limited then their restaurant, but it has the most important ingredients (biscuits, gravy, fried chicken) and the historical plus of this is where and how they started out.

When I just want to enjoy the biscuit, I might order it with the pimento cheese spread to give some tang to the creamy softness of the biscuit

 

When I want to just drink the gravy, I get the biscuits just with gravy. I use a a spoon to scrape my plate clean of this savory richness. Their gravy has lots of chunks of meat and is thick: almost like a meat juice chowder which sounds weird but is outstanding.

 

When I want to enjoy the chicken, well I get the biscuit with fried chicken egg and cheese. I don’t get the Reggie because it has the gravy which is delicious, but overwhelms the goodness of the crispy chicken and the biscuit. And, it’s messy. This is usually what causes the wait in line as you have to sometimes wait for freshly deep fried chicken, but it’s worth the 10 minutes. The meat is juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside: perfect each time despite being done in a booth in a questionable looking deep fry bucket that looks like it’s got plenty of experience.

All three of these are delicious, just depending on what you want to highlight. Mmmmm.

Unfortunately, this shortcut only works as long as the PSU Farmers Market is open, which is mid March through mid December. Around this time of year, most people seem to mistakenly think the market is closed, which is when I enjoy no lines, and the warmth of this homey food is even more satisfying in the chilly air.

Shhh, don’t tell this secret to too many people!

 

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Pretty Peonies

It is unfortunate that will be out of season in August… because look how gorgeous these are! I picked these up from the Portland Farmer's market yesterday for $10. Big, beautiful, but soft and sweet!

 

 

I missed out this year, but next year I would love to visit the peony farm on a lil road trip, such as Adelman Gardens.

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Craving some carbs…

I can't wait to go to the Portland Farmer's market again come Saturday. Although I'm a little surprised out by some bread and meat offerings (which I still purchased and ate anyway) that I've seen. Examples? A lamb sausage from the wood-fire baked oven bagel vendors Tastebud (the bread was great, the meat was too chewy and hard).

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Or the mysterious meat muffin (the muffin and meat were both dry, but the muffin so dry I actually was wishing the meat was greasier to help me out), I am still always a sucker for bread at a farmer's market. Also, being to say "I'll take a meat muffin".

I think I mentioned before some great seedy cheese bread that I had there that made a nice Sunday breakfast the first time I had it. I bought it again the other week so I could have it for breakfast on Sunday and I had it at work on Monday. And I want it again.

Also visited another brewery, this time Rogue Distillery & Public House (PDX). The beer was great- I liked the selection better than all the others, and I didn't even get a sampler tasting. Gotta respect a place that offers you a leather bound book akin to what you would usually see a wine list presented in and say "this is our beer album". Each page was dedicated to the story of a beer they brew. This location actually is a distillery as well and it sounded interesting, but more then I could handle for a Sunday brunch/lunch.

But, the bread here (what's with the breweries having such great house-made bread here?) was really great: a fresh warm loaf of bread baked with Hazelnut Brown Nectar Ale. The bread and the beer were so delicious, we overlooked the salty hummus and dry Kobe Bleu Balls (ok, I ordered it just to say it. Meatballs stuffed with Rogue Creamery Oregon Bleu cheese). And the fries were nice and crispy, just how I love them. Seriously, look at that bread for that sandwich. It was soft and warm and fresh.

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We took our favorites, the smokey ale (which really was super smokey- like enjoying the charcoal you've been barbecuing on during a summer Sunday afternoon. Would be good with so much food) and rich chocolate stout, to go. Sitting where we could see the bathrooms, we also enjoyed observing what other patrons would decide was the correct door.This place is a bit divier than the other breweries in the neighborhood (Deschutes and Bridgeport) since it's not fancied up with beautiful wood or a loft-style interior- just benches, booths, and good beer.

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Portland Farmers Market on Sat

The Farmer's Market on Saturday is even closer than the Wednesday one- it's on the most south part of the South Park Blocks, so I don't have to go to the other side of the South Park blocks. And, it is many times bigger. At one of the vendors, Tastebud, I had wood fire baked brick oven bagels. I think I showed the picture of the brick oven ported to the market on Wednesday, but on Saturday they didn't have the oven, just the bagels… and they make bagel sandwiches, and pizzas. Although I was tempted by the lamb sandwich with roast leg of lamb, pesto, tomato, and arugula, I knew this was only the first few stands of the market. So, I got just a simple tomato sandwich. The bagel was smoky and chewy. I think this coming Saturday, since I have now walked the whole market and had all the samples, I can go get my lamb! I also won't let F hold onto the raspberry lemon soda because it was all gone before I could even taste it. And he didn't even offer to get me another one! 🙁

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Another thing I really want to go back to the market for is some bread. I already had purchased a loaf of bread earlier in the week to make peanut butter sandwiches (with crunchy and roasted organic peanut butter of course) and cheese sandwiches for lunch. But, as soon as I finish my loaf, I want some of Dave's Killer Bread! Not only does the guy actually look sorta like the illustration which I think is awesome, but the 21 whole grains bread was really good! I don't think I've had bread that good since high school. I also think the sprouted seed peace bread would be great with a little butter (say my honey pecan or black truffle butter from Zupan's that I got the other day) alongside some wine for a picnic. 😀

 

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Other great finds was a stand that just had roasted peppers. The roasted peppers were sold in ziploc bags with numbers to indicate how spicy they peppers were… and freshly roasted in what you see below. The bags were still steamy and warm. Along with the rainbow of tomatoes at another stand and a pickle stand, you could come up with quite a cold plate! I did get some of the peppers, which was only $5 for a pound of blackened peppers. It took me 3 days to eat them though since I was eating them by myself and there were only like 5 peppers in it for one person to eat, and one of them was supersize. We passed on the tomatoes and pickle, and I was able to convince myself to not get more greens since I already had asparagus and spinach at home, though they looked great. But I finally was too tempted by the various baked good stands to not get something (I got a cheese and sunflower seed bread which was amazing- the first time I walked around there were like half a dozen, but the second time I circled to make purchases and got the very last one!). F was the one that got us to get the Sol Pop which I had successfully resisted the first time around- I got the basil lemon and he got raspberry nectarine. Mine was better because of the tartness. The cart guy was happy the sun had come out (it was cloudy and cool for quite a while- many people had sweatshirts, sweaters, and coats on), telling us it was easier to sell the pops with sun. 🙂

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For dinner that night, I had some of the roasted peppers, since they were so fresh. I also made asparagus which I shook in a ziploc bag with olive oil, and then drizzled with a bit of truffle infused oil and then sprinkled with roasted hazelnuts.  A couple nights later we made our own broccoli pizza on wheat dough. I like the baby broccoli trees. So far, the pizza is the only thing we have eaten together besides the Sol pops.

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All that food were really good. I still have a lot of hazelnuts left, but I am going to try to save them for the pancakes. F brought this over to me at the Fred Meyer and we laughed at it… and then I wanted it just to try and see what would happen. He's been mocking me about it ever since, asking when I'm going to make pancakes. I just want to say for the record that he started it though- I don't even know where he got it from and I had probably walked right by it. And I laughed at the pre-made pb&j sandwiches before with him- but I wasn't the fool who lifted it off the shelf and brought it to the cart like he did.

 

 

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