Portland Oregon Archives - Pechluck's Food Adventures

Nodoguro Izakaya in the Canaries

June 6, 2022 by Pechluck 2 Comments

The best popup in Portland is Nodoguro, offering incredible creative kaiseki (Japanese fine dining) that combines the meticulous techniques and artful playing with highlighting seasonal sourcing, hospitality, and thoughtfulness and personal style of whatever is Ryan and Elena Roadhouse’s chosen inspiration theme. The theme of the current dinner series is “Izakaya in the Canaries” from their trip to represent the Pacific Northwest at the Volcanic Food Forum in Lanzarote, Spain. The menu is designed to combine love of Izakaya cuisine, the Spanish Tavern, and some Pacific Northwest volcanic flair.
Nodoguro popup themed Izakaya in the Canaries

I’ve been a customer of Nodoguro for many years – just do a search for Nodoguro to see multiple other recaps of dinners I have experienced. I was heartbroken when they closed their space when the rent ended and because it didn’t make sense as we approached the 2nd year of the Covid-19 pandemic. So imagine my thrill when I saw they would at least for a few months, be taking up the space vacated by Nonna and then Yakuza temporarily, at least until August. Follow them via their newsletters and on social media follow Nodoguro or Gary the Foodie for the news when prepaid reservations are available because they will go fast! Sometimes you may luck out with canceled seats. For me it was via texting to coordinate and buying a spot immediately upon hearing the news to get my late May Friday night seat. It was such a reunion to dine with the Hungry Broads at my table and see the Roadhouses presenting their dinner experience again, but with the added bonus of daughter Sasha also helping.

Also as a long time fan while not trying to be a creeper I was crushing hard watching the daughter dad duo plating the sashimi courses with the same intense focus in their eyes.
Nodoguro popup themed Izakaya in the Canaries

The Setting

Here’s a look at the space they are temporarily occupying on NE Portland.
Nodoguro popup themed Izakaya in the Canaries

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: Black Cod and smoked Almond, Black sesame tofu, Izakaya in the Canaries, kaiseki, Kanpachi sashimi, Kinako Honey Cake, King salmon and Asparagus Rice with Ikura, Miso Truffle, Modern Kaiseki, Mushroom soup, Nodoguro, Nodoguro PDX, Nodoguro popup, portland, Portland kaiseki, Portland Oregon, Satsumaimo Waffle with miso and chicken liver mousse, Seared Eggplant and tomato salad with herb miso, Tako conserva, Tonguekatsu

Tito’s Taquitos is Back!

May 12, 2022 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

Tito’s Taquitos which was highlighted by Kat at Portland Monthly last year as Portland’s Must-Try New Taco Cart has re-opened, moving from a small parking lot shared with a few other businesses on SW 46th to a 76 Gas Station parking lot on Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway that no longer has that teal color but offers more space for parking and a small covered eating area and catchy music as you await your crispy taquitos.
Tito's Taquitos

The potato taquitos come by default with Avocado Sauce and toppings of Cabbage, Cilantro, Queso Fresco, Pickled Onions, Radish. Then add on Birria Style beef braised low and slow for hours like you see here…
Tito's Taquitos: Crispy potato taquitos with Avocado Sauce and toppings of Cabbage, Cilantro, Queso Fresco, Pickled Onions, Radish, then add on Birria Style beef braised low and slow for hours.

Or choose Shredded Chicken Thighs or Garlic Shrimp or Garbanzo Bean Al Pastor (marinated in a sweet and lightly spicy sauce topped with pineapple) or Mushroom Asada. They offer salsa de arbol, salsa de habanero, and avocado sauce – they need to start bottle that habanero because it was everyone’s favorite! Each order comes with four hand rolled taquitos.
Tito's Taquitos: Crispy potato taquitos with Avocado Sauce and toppings of Cabbage, Cilantro, Queso Fresco, Pickled Onions, Radish, then add on Mushroom Asada

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Food Carts Tagged With: beer battered fish taco, Best taquitos, Best tres leches, Birria, Birria Taquitos, Crispy potato taquitos, Garbanzo Bean Al Pastor, Garlic Shrimp, Garlic shrimp taco, Mexican chocolate brownie, Mushroom asada, PDX Food cart, PDX food carts, PDX Oregon, PDX Tacos, PDX taquitos, Portland food cart, portland food carts, Portland Oregon, Portland Tacos, Portland taquitos, Taco cart, Tacos and Taquitos, Taquitios, Taquitos cart, Tito's Taquitos, tres leches cake, Vegetarian taquitos

Spring Dinner at Gabbiano’s

April 13, 2022 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

I’ve been enjoying some lovely spring dinners at Gabbiano’s. This is a relatively new entry on the Portnad restaurant scene, a neighborhood Italian-American red sauce restaurant where old school with an east coast viewpoint meets Pacific Northwest local sourcing and housemade ingredients sensibilities. Go early because they will run out of the fried mozzarella, get the pastas and chicken parm to share, and all the cocktails are tasty. My favorites are the Espresso Martini and the Young Rebel Genius so far, though I so plan to keep eating and drinking my way through the menu. Here are all the highlights I’ve enjoyed so far.
Dinner at Gabbiano's

I’ve been a fan of David Sigal and Blake Foster from attending many of their pop-ups in Portland during the years, from my first introduction with Mian to Zoobar to Sunshine Noodles and even an incredible baller Gulp Fiction/Pulp Fiction inspired Halloween party, everything has always exceeded my expectations. Now they are emerging with true adulting, moving from being part of the crew at established restaurants to being owners at a brick and mortar restaurant that opened recently in mid-January 2022. Even though it’s taken over a space where to its left and right you can also find some pretty incredible pastas on the same block, Gabbiano’s has it’s own strong perspective with its menu of food and drink that set it apart in its own unique way. The PDX Eater article on it covers some of the details on more of the names and inspirations and this Willamette Week article the vibes if you’d like to know, I just want to get to my food and drink.

Cocktails

You will find a good wine menu of Italian wines made by Italians, but given their start of bold fun cocktails at Zoobar, I have intentions of drinking through the entire cocktail menu. I’m already behind because they’ve already updated some of the drinks from winter to spring, but I recommend you start light and citrusy with their dangerously easy to drink libations. For instance the Neat-o-Venito! starring aperol, grapefruit liqueur & juice, cherry, white wine, and sparkles, a recent addition for spring. Meanwhile, the throwback Lemon Drop and traditional limoncello combine powers here thanks to Gabbiano’s Limoncello-Drop crafted with roasted lemon vodka, Gabi’s saffron limoncello, lemon, and a generous lemon-salt rim. You might even want to kindly request the saffron limoncello to try on its own and the story of how it’s created.
Dinner at Gabbiano's- don't miss out on the fun cocktails, like the Neat-o-Venito! starring aperol, grapefruit liqueur & juice, cherry, white wine, and sparkles

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: carrot cavatelli, chicken parm, chicken parmesan, dungeness crab pasta, Espresso Martini, Fiancée Pasta, fried mozzarella, fried mozzarella shot glasses, Gabbiano's, Girlfriend Pasta, Italian American restaurant, Limoncello-Drop, Neat-o-Venito!, Negroni Caprese, PDX restaurant, Portland OR, Portland Oregon, portland restaurant, red-sauce Italian-American restaurant, restaurant review, spicy pasta, spring pasta, Young Rebel Genius

Amazing world influenced flavors at Grace Cafe

September 24, 2021 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

Grace Cafe has taken over the space formerly occupied by Delores and before that Smokehouse Tavern. Some of the remnants of Delores remain, most noticeably with the flamingos that the namesake mother Delores loved that are still seen on the walls. But, unlike the protein heavy Smokehouse Tavern, or rich heavy food of Polish inspired Delores, Grace Cafe is a gluten-free kitchen that sets the stage with a vegan or vegetarian preparation that you can optionally add proteins like Carman Ranch hanger steak, szechuan spied pork belly, Mad Hatcher chicken thigh, or Korean cured salmon. The stars now are the surprising combinations of global influences built upon the foundation of chef and co-owner Brian Han’s Korean heritage, merged with the health consciousness of California upbringing and restaurant experience in the Bay Area and Los Angeles until his move to Portland in 2020. The world influenced flavors at Grace Cafe really make it unique.

As an example, a signature dish found on both the lunch and dinner menu is the Purple Reign. This dish offers okinawan sweet potato with seared oyster mushroom, shiso chermoula, salted plum tzatziki, market greens, and avocado. That’s right, you can find Japanese sweet potato and shiso and salted plum combined with North African chermoula and Greek tzatziki sauce concepts.
Grace Cafe in Portland, Purple Reign. This dish offers okinawan sweet potato with seared oyster mushroom, shiso chermoula, salted plum tzatziki, market greens, and avocado. That's right, you can find Japanese sweet potato and shiso and salted plum combined with North African chermoula and Greek tzatziki sauce concepts Grace Cafe in Portland, Purple Reign. This dish offers okinawan sweet potato with seared oyster mushroom, shiso chermoula, salted plum tzatziki, market greens, and avocado. That's right, you can find Japanese sweet potato and shiso and salted plum combined with North African chermoula and Greek tzatziki sauce concepts

Meanwhile at dinner, where you will find more entree dishes then the bowl-centered lunch menu, the King Carnitas offers Thai green curry carnitas, yellow corn, rainbow chard, Mario’s sope, daily salsa. Somehow the different spicy layers of Thai green curry with Mexican works, tickling the tongue in different but complimentary ways.
Grace Cafe in Portland, King Carnitas offers Thai green curry carnitas, yellow corn, rainbow chard, Mario's sope, daily salsa.

We also tried the Kabocha! a vegan dish with roasted kabocha, miso mole, black lime cashew cream, pickled red onions, pepitas. We both immediately thought how great a dish this would be during Thanksgiving. Thankfully the Grace Cafe team is two steps ahead of us. They are already thinking of sharing the immigrant experience by offering a Korean-American Thanksgiving with items like white kimchi water brined turkey, korean fried chicken with perilla ranch dressing, miso potato gratin, goji-cranberry sauce, miso potato gratin, Japanese curry green bean casserole, japchae inspired stuffing, black sesame coconut cream cornbread, and kabocha pie. YES I’M DROOLING ALREADY SIGN ME UP. Seriously where is the sign up sheet, I’m ready.
Grace Cafe in Portland, Kabocha! a vegan dish with roasted kabocha, miso mole, black lime cashew cream, pickled red onions, pepitas