restaurant review Archives - Page 12 of 13 - Pechluck's Food Adventures

Chinese New Year 2009- cleansing day

February 18, 2009 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

When Chinese New Year started, I noted that the Chinese Classical Garden here in Portland was going to have a special event on the last day of Chinese New Year celebration. I got there early enough to see the tai chi demostration, and saw little kids making paper lanterns, coloring pictures of dragons, and writing Chinese characters. I opted for Chinese tea and snacks in the teahouse while listening to the Portland Orchids and Bamboo Chinese Ensemble perform traditional Chinese music. – mooncake (which is only edible with tea) and my favorite, turnip cake!

Unfortunately, as you can see below, shortly before the floating lantern and dragon came out, it got very grey, and it was a bit soggy and sad for the floating lanterns. However, the little boy next to me getting soaked was soooo cute, though shivering by the end. He was looking a little spacey. Reminds me of my brother. Heeee.

Earlier when Chinese New Year started, I of course ate noodles, and chicken, and potstickers. I still needed some fish though. I wasn't sure what Chinese restaurants in China Block (it's the Chinatown downtown, but I wouldn't call it a town… sure it has the gates, but it's only like 3 blocks!) were good, so I ended up at Typhoon again. At least I had a steamed fish instead of a deep fried one like last time… though that was tastier deep fried. Well, it was a healthy start to the new year at least! And, I had more tea- my favorite tea is the Toasted Rice Flower tea. It smells great, and has a light taste. Another strikeout with the vegetarian dish though- the eggplants were fine, but the tofu salty as if taste was overcompensated for by salt. Well, the three times I've had meaty dishes I've liked them all.

And look how pretty those are… as opposed to these veggie dishes at Paradox Cafe, which is 90% or more vegetarian/vegan. I didn't even bother to taste the vegan sloppy joe there in that third photo. I had the Solstice Corn Cakes, which are corncakes with apples and toasted walnuts in the mix (I had them with quite a big pat of butter, and the next day with lots of syrup. The parts with the apples were best, the rest needed help with the dryness. Or maybe I was just adding fat. Let's not be picky) and the half portion of "Biscuits and Gravy HOB version" which is herb and onion bread with almond gravy. The gravy was good. The bread was a bit hard, but had some potential in flavor if it hadn't been overdone- and it definitely still needed that gravy. Other offerings here include a sandwich called a Tree Hugger which you can add tofurky to, Tempeh Reubon, Asparagus Sandwich, and Curried Tempeh Tacos, Tempeh Gyro, and 8 kinds of salads, among many other items.

Filed Under: Festival Event, Food and Drink, Portland Highlights, Restaurant Review, Weblogs Tagged With: chinese classical garden, chinese new year, paradox cafe, portland, restaurant review, typhoon

Cravings for Asian food

December 13, 2008 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

I'm not sure if it's because I know I'm going to Thailand soon (from the 29 of December to January 11), but this week I really had a craving for some Asian food. I didn't try anyplace new- instead, I went back to two places to see if I ordered something else, would I still like the place.

For dinner one evening, I returned to Typhoon and had the "Three Flavor Fish"- a flash-fried halbut with a spicy sweet and sour sauce. Unfortunately when the waiter put it down the stacked fish fell over, but you can see the delicious crispiness all the same. It's quite a bit of fish, and I ate all of that up. Maybe I was straining myself for the last third, but that crispness wouldn't be there if I saved it and took it home. Another thing I like there is there large selection of teas to choose from, so I had a pot all by myself practically.

I also went back in Beaverton while running my first Zipcar errand to Petco and Fred Meyer to a dinner at Jin Wah, which I have also blogged about earlier. This time, I remembered to capture the Joy Yee-ness of the place in their photographed food examples, and the largeness of their menu. This time, I somehow noticed the oilyness that I missed the first time- or was willing to overlook because of their drug-like control of me when I have their chinese sausage fried rice. This time, when I tried their noodles, it was a fail. No crispy burnt parts at all! Fail!

And… Zipcar? What's that? Well, I recently joined Zipcar, which is a membership car coop program in which I pay a small annual fee, but otherwise it's about $10 an hour to rent a car (or $70 a day) and there are several cars nearby in walking distance just sitting in designated rental parking spots (for instance, 8 within half a mile of my house alone). I use my card to just open the car after making a reservation approximating how long I would use it, either doing so online or via phone. I don't pay for insurance, or for gas (there is already an insurance card in the car, and a gas card I can use as well). The use of the car card is pretty cool- it scans it from the windshield, which unlocks or locks the car. The actual key to the ignition is permanently attachedf with a cord in the car. Thieves don't steal the car because unless you activate it with the card, the engine doesn't even work.

I also got a discounted annual fee by buying a coupon book from Whole Foods, and that book has lots of coupons for groceries and restaurants. I've already made the money spent on the book back on savings through my membership savings of not paying an application fee and getting some driving credits, and that's without me using the grocery store coupons in the book. I have often thought of joining ZipCar, but since I know of 3 ZipCars within a 5 minute walk of me (one is only 2 blocks away) and with the addition of that coupon book and the fact that some of the bigger stores like Target, Petco, and such are farther away and would be a pain to go to public transit wise, it just makes sense for me to have a Zipcar.

So I own a car now! Sorta.

zipcar

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: chinese food, jin wah, restaurant review, thai food, typhoon, zipcar

Dinner at Le Pigeon

November 22, 2008 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

The menu changes at Le Pigeon weekly, but only slightly to account for the seasonal ingredients and what is best on the market. So, it should be no surprise that perhaps the staff when it's time for them to eat, turn to ramen or… a girlfriend delivering Burger King! Ha! At least, that's what we learned from a fellow diner is what she saw the previous time she visited. She thought it was scandalous, while I just thought that if someone ate like this all the time, it wouldn't be that healthy… since I'm not cooking, who knows what butter/lard/cream/etc is in this stuff. Who cares! We're eating out, which isn't everyday! And bad things make food delicious. Several tablemates said they wish they could eat like this all the time, while I was thinking it was an interesting treat but even too rich for me to imagine dining like this daily. I guess the problem overall I had was that I was quite cognizent of the richness, rather than complexity of flavor and texture, or simple good ingredients. I still thought it was an interesting experience, but perhaps my expectations were too high coming in.

Take the starter course- the healthiest offering was probably the beets, walnuts, endive, and toast. The others probably were quite savory- a flatbread with lamb, pecorino, and caramalized onion was tempting to me, as was the pork belly with gribiche and cabbage (I was not interested in the foie gras with apples and cinnamon roll or the mackerel with broccoli, prosciutto, and croquette), but I ordered the sweetbreads with fallen porcini souffle and truffle. The sweetbread was great- the souffle was good for the first few bites, but then was sorta mushy- not sure if that was a casualty of the large party of 13 at our table since I was with a dinner group. The truffle was ok, but it is hard to be impressed with truffle shavings anymore when I see them offered at the Portland Farmer's Market at $15 an ounce and I can shave them myself on whatever I want (which in fact, I did the next day with the truffle I had bought earlier that day). One great thing with living in a dark damp northwest is the mushrooms! Perhaps the dish should have used truffle shavings and truffle oil to really push the flavor profile.

Entrees, the cornbread stuffed onion with butternut squash and pear had an execution problem- dry at the top, but getting moister as you continued down the onion, but then greasy at the bottom. The part that was in the middle was good, but sadly, the salad that accompanied it ended up being the star on the plate. M

My monkfish with lobster and leeks had a great broth which flavored the lobster wonderfully, and my only small complaint is that the monkfish, though perfectly cooked and moist and tender and delicious, did not pick up that great flavor and I had to keep sopping it back and forth in the broth- if only it had transferred to the fish as well. Not that the fish wasn't fresh and tasty- like I said, it was cooked just perfectly, I just wanted some of that broth to have transferred onto it as well as it did the lobster and vegetables, which were amazing. That broth really was wonderfully flavorful. I could have picked up the bowl and drank it.

Also looking around the table, the only entree I was jealous of was the beef cheek bourguignon- I stole a picture taken by Joanne, the delightful group organize, to share with you. If only it had been organic beef, but as you can see, it was quite a meaty dish…

The dessert board teased me from the moment I sat down. What would I want, the foie gras profiteroles with caramel sauce and sea salt, or the honey bacon apricot cornbread with maple ice cream? So torn! Eventually I asked the waiter to break the tie in my mind, and went with the latter. I also got a bite of the chocolate date cake but I thought it couldn't compare to the great chocolate dessert that I had had at Belly. The cornbread was generously bacon-ed, and all I could wish for was more butter for the cornbread or some tabasco (which is how I usually like my cornbread) to add a bit of kick to it. I barely noticed any apricot, and really… some spice would to contrast with the honey would have made this so much better. But, I did eat the whole thing up, so not like it was bad either. How can I say no to bits of warm bacon bits?

And, as a surprise treat, Joanne took pictures of the table, so you can actually see me for a change since I am not behind the camera. As you can see, the kitchen is directly behind the table (if you don't have reservations and don't have to wait, you can sit at the counter and actually watch them cook right there before you- like a sushi bar but it's an actual restaurant kitchen), and I would turn to strain my neck once in a while. This place is teeny- besides the 10 seats at the kitchen bar and the table I was at which fit 14, there were only two other eight-top tables (if I recall correctly) to support the communical dining setting here. Here's a glimpse at me beyond the food!

Overall, I wasn't unhappy- but I did not feel it was necessarily a five star experience. Maybe three and a half or four stars. As I mentioned, there were little things they could have done which would have brought them up to the level I've seen in Chicago, such as Shawn McClain of Spring and Custom House (as well as Green Zebra, but I prefer those two other restaurants of his), but this didn't even compare to Chicago's Sweet and Savories for me, though I felt like Le Pigeon was trying to fit in a similar niche. I tell you, I'm a bit spoiled from other experiences, that's all, and because of the hype, I was expecting that level, and it just wasn't there, though it wasn't a bad restaurant. Just didn't meet my expectations: it need a bit more finess in execution, but I can see the potential in the creativity of the menu created.

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: le pigeon, restaurant review

Later Boss…

November 15, 2008 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

It's been pretty hectic on my front the past two weeks. Little did I know that when I had my one on one with my manager on the night of Halloween, that it would be my last. We chatted about the work I had been doing, and particularly that morning I had led a meeting that aired out some undercurrents and by doing so, made them confrontable and what I theorized, solvable. The meeting outcomes met my hypothesis, and helped solidify us in the direction of my vision of where I wanted my work and the team's work to go. After chatting with him for a while about this, we also turned to discussing what I had been exploring in Portland which as you probably noticed in my previous posts, just happened to be alcohol related. In fact, I was going to a beer meet up the next night at Bridgeport. My manager was more of a sake enthusiast though, and chatting with him on a local sake, it put me in the mood for sake and to Dragonfish I went, again.

As it turned out, on Monday morning, my manager ceased to be my manager because my team was laid off… except for me. I was moved into what was previously our internal client's team and now reported to one client instead of being in a central services area. That Monday was pretty surreal- I had come in with a list of things to do since I was going on a trip to gather customer input the next day and I wanted to have a paper prototype. Instead of working with my team, I ended up building that prototype that late afternoon after some of my former co-workers had already left and that evening before my flight by myself. Instead, the day became one of trying to help the people I had chosen to join in a team make their exit, and also transfer as much as that knowledge to me as possible so it wasn't lost. One of my coworkers had been with the company for 30 years, and it was the only employer she had ever had. Keep in mind that I had only been with the company for 5 weeks.

So as you can imagine, these past two weeks have been busy days in which I am trying to understand my roles and responsibilties- both what is expected of me, and then also trying to carve out the space so that I can continue doing what I intended to come to the company to do in the first place. It has taken two weeks, but I think I have basically regained the foundation that I thought I was establishing two weeks ago- now it's on to the planning how to execute the work and getting buy-in from the next level up in the chain on that plan now that they are warm to the concept at least.

Here are photos from that dinner at Dragonfish that Halloween night though. I found the sushi rolls disappointing, the guacapoke had too much avocado and needed more tuna, and the dessert was disapointing. You'd think that they would realize that after a dinner of cold to room temperature food, dessert should be either a really cold temperature like green tea ice cream something or a oven-warmed tart to finish, and with the dessert we ordered it seemed a perfect combo of the two, but the tart was room temperature and the bananas inside slightly chilled/room temperature instead of being warm and gooey inside.

I should have tried the Lobster Roll, which is the only thing left on the menu now that I am curious about (lobster salad and cucumber wrapped with tuna and avocado, with blood orange sauce and lemon mayo). But on the waitress' recommendation I tried the other roll that had caught my eye, the Dragonfi Roll (tempura shrimp, enoki and shiitake mushrooms, and asparagus wrapped with eel, tuna, orange and green tobiko and eel sauce and lemon peel mayo). Unfortunately, this turned out to be a flavor mess- I was hoping it would be a cool twist on the rainbow roll which also has quite a medley of ingredients but winds up being like a neopolitan in sushi form, but… well, it wasn't. At least F's spicy mushroom fried rice was delicious! Also per my ex-manager's recommendation, I tried the Momokawa Flight, which consists of Ruby, Silver, Diamond, and Pearl, and I really did like that. The Ruby was described as "soft and lightly sweet with hints of honeydew", Silver as "smooth with a dry tart green apple finish" (this was our favorite), the Diamond as "dry with a crisp favor and granite aroma" (much sniffing and tasting was done trying to figure out this granite description), and the Pearl, the cloudy one pictured, is "unfiltered and sweet with a coconut undertone" which I didn't find too bad either.

Tonight I am going to Le Pigeon, which was Portland Restaurant of the Year in Diner 2008. I've also volunteered in one of my dining groups to host a dinner meeting once a month, so there will be more food reports!

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review, Weblogs Tagged With: dragonfish, restaurant review

Craving some carbs…

October 30, 2008 by Pechluck 1 Comment

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).

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".

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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.

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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.

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.