Feed Me Portland!

Nearly a month after ordering the new albeit cheapo Kindle, it is set to arrive today. Which also happens to be the day "Freedom" arrives in bookstores. I have been to Powell's twice to buy it, once when I mistakenly thought it was already out, a second time on the chance that it had been rele

I was in New Orleans recently and I had the opportunity to try out some of your recommendations from a while back. Very impressive in general, the eating and drinking in the Crescent City, but you already know that. Just a cou

OK, so you've coveted the cheeses, now purchase them. CHEAP! If you've wondered what they do with all of the thousands of pounds of cheese...

I dined for the first time at Pok Pok on Monday with Rusty and our old friend Caleb. Arriving at 7 pm, I was told that there would be a 30 minute wait and I was directed to the Whiskey Soda Lounge across the street to wait (which is owed by the same person that owns Pok Pok). 30 minutes turned into a little over an hour.

When someone drops an opportunity in my lap, I grab it. Especially if it involves pork products.

Back in 2007, NPR’s

It's been very hot lately in NYC. I don't mind it so much, actually. I prefer very hot to very cold. On a super hot day recently I decided to light the grill and attempt to smoke a hunk of pork shoulder. I know that sounds kind of odd - hot day, several hours of hot grill. But

I was given a free sample of Vega's new line of

We seem to run into a lot of familiar faces around the neighborhood, all inquiring where and when we

As I was saying in the last post, there was discussion at the table about the contents of the old Vallana Spanna wines we drank. Were these wines made purely of Nebbiolo? Were they reconditioned - re-bottled and perhaps topped up with some newer wine?It's tempting to say that the answers don't matter - these are

The Nell Burger, a Bistro Burger Behemoth The burger started as fair food. It was actually co

Look for the Oregon Craft Beer Month pull out in the Oregonian around Portland. Want to read the Oregonian’s OCBM pull out online? http://bit.ly/OCBMOregonian Willamette Week in the Dish section out June 30th 

I was given a coupon for one free French Meadow

From EcoSalon, a for those people new to the whole farmers market scene. This article was written about California, but holds true for just about anywhere.

Violetta is holding its grand opening this afternoon June 18th, from 3:30-6:30pm. If the sun hold, that might be a pleasant place to wind down the afternoon. According to the press release, the event will be held on the “Violetta terrace”, with a happy-hour celebration. “Join us for discou

When it comes to the seasonal foods of the Northwest, contributor Jim Dixon of

It’s time for the 2nd annual Beer Haiku Contest! “T

Hell yes, as long as you shop at the bodega! Apparently not everyone in New York City shops at Whole Foods. If you live in the outer boroughs, you know about the bodega. I don't. I live in Portland, so this tutorial in nourishment on the cheap from bloggers/budding video stars Dallas Penn

Paneer Pakoras I’m using

Think you have menu design skills, or do many restaurant menus annoy you? Many years ago I took a menu design class, and then spent a year writing them in exchange for free meals. The basic principles of menu construction haven’t changed much since then. There is more thought behind layout than you may realize. Her

Urban Spoon, the popular restaurant rating site, has launched “Urbanspoon Rez”. It

From the NY Times,”In Chicago, the Chef Grant Achatz Is Selling Tickets to His New Restaurant”. Grant Achatz, the highly praised chef of Alinea in Chicago, has asked himself the same question. Now, he says that with his next restaurant (called, naturally, Next Restaurant), that’s just w

Please allow me to quote Lila Byock writing in the New Yorker, May 17th issue, p. 20, in the "Tables for Two" feature in which she reviews the new ABC Kitchen, a restaurant inside the renown furniture store :Jean-Georges Vongerichten's latest venture (his second this y

The Dining Report – Gruner Portland Mountain High When I was in my teens, my father and I used to go out to dinner a great deal. Portland was not the gigantic dining mecca it is now, and there were the cheap neighborhood places, the moderately nicer places, and the places that were extra fancy, [...]

Portland is a mecca for microbrews, artisan espresso and local coffee roasters, chocolatiers, pizza, breads, pastries etc. Oregon also has an established wine industry and an agrarian economy for ingredients just meant to be distilled – local fresh fruits for brandies, grains for whiskey and vodkas, and nuts and he

Some wines sell themselves. Consumers know about and want these wines, and do not require any discussion with sales staff in order to buy. Not being in the business myself, I don't know for sure which wines these are, but I'm guessing things like high end Bordeaux, cheap Malbec or rosé, or most any California wine in the $

Vegetarian Dim Sum House, Brief Review Overall Service Food Quality Atmosphere Vegan Options 8.5 7 9 8 10 Location: 24 Pell Street New York   NY 10013 (212) 577-7176 Recommended Dish: Adventure! Hours: 10:30am-10:30pm Times Visited: Too Many to Count ~ The Stumptown Vegans Travel! A Travel Guide. My pilgrimages to NYC in

Snapped at cheap pint night earlier this week at the Hawthorne Lucky Labrador. Note rearview mirror still in place.

While I agree that NW 23rd is in desperate need of reconstruction, the impact of the rotating closures i

Is it possible to drink great wine on a daily basis if you're not rich? I'm talking about wines that cost between $8 and $12 a bottle? I think it it is possible, yes. I've been thinking about this lately because my wine buying budget has been cut in the past year, but also because

Torta Ahogada from 7 Estrellas Forced to choose, I would rather eat the rest of my days in the subur

GSNW contributor and chef Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans (below left) has been collaborating with Springwa

Bun Bo Hue Minh's fabulous $7 bowl of bun rieu Willamette

I had some of the fellas over the other night to have dinner and drink red wine from Savigny-lès-Beaune. Why Savigny-lès-Beaune? Well, a top bottle (not counting Leroy's Narbontons) costs about $50, a good villages wine should be in the mid $30's. That's real money, but it's pretty cheap as far as Burgundy goes. I wanted

Pizza in the oven at Depokos Food carts

News has reached me that Karen Brooks, dining editor for the Oregonian was laid off this week.

Squid is a creature I like to order in restaurants, but have never cooked, so this recipe from c

I loved the look of this restaurant when I passed by. It just seemed like the type of place you'd

We needed sunblock and diapers, so we drove to CVS, what I think of as a pharmacy, but I now understand is really a grocery store in San Diego. They sell everything, from lawn chairs to perfume to wine.

I've been to the Rheinlander in the past, but it's been at least 10 years since my last visit. I went at the suggestion of a friend recently on a nice Saturday evening, expecting to take advantage of the early dinner menu, which really isn't much cheaper than the real menu but is presented as a bargain option.I

This is it! The biggest list of Valentine’s Day events you will find anywhere West o

This just scares the crap out of me. From Associated Press and Yahoo news - Call it pork in a petri dish — a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that scientists say could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock, help alleviate world hunger, and save some pigs their bac

I am in love with salty ume, those puckery, pink Japanese pickled plums. We picked up a big vat of them for cheap at Anzen Hiroshi’s, an old-school Japanese market in Portland. I can’t stop eating them out of the jar. Too bad two plums (actually closer to our apricots) have about 40 percent of [...]

Roasted Chickpeas with Nutritional Yeast, Oregano and Sea Salt As usual, my history with using dried beans is linked to the Post Punk Kitchen.  I remember a blog post years ago, challenging people to soak their own beans and base meals around the outcome.  When I finally had the balls to soak my own, I was [...]

Most of us think of popcorn when we think of dried corn kernels, but Anthony B

The other day I was reading an excellent article in the current issue of T

I was lucky enough to be invited to the recent Blaufränkisch tasting and luncheon at Gramercy Tavern, organized by David Schildnecht. First of all, let me tell you that there are a great many worse wa

Can you say $2.99 to $3.99 per pound for cooked crab on sale?

This morning I was perplexed at what I would eat for breakfast. I was out of my