The Endless Road Trip


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Endless Road Trip: Have a Little Heart

So I’ve talked a lot about how good Portland is at street food and sandwiches, but here’s another thing that makes this city amazing. On a recent Wednesday evening, I walked into Portland’s best-reviewed, most-hyped restaurant—Le Pigeon—sans reservations, looking like my normal grubby, travelling-for-weeks, t-shirt and jeans self…and asked if I could get a meal. Not only did they seat me immediately at the small bar space overlooking the open kitchen, but they didn’t seem to be the slightest bit put out by it. This may be the New Yorker in me—just assuming that I’m going to be treated snobbishly everywhere—but it’s so great when you go to a restaurant that could get away with being jerks, but aren’t.

OK, on to the food. I started with the smoked rabbit pie and hot mustard ice cream because…well, because I have a crazy addiction, and that dish sounded downright batty. But Le Pigeon had my number on this one. I asked for crazy, and I got even crazier. When the server returned with my dish, she set the rabbit pie and savory ice cream down in front of me, and casually mentioned that the artfully presented sauce-like substance spread across the side of the plate was in fact a remoulade of rabbit heart. Well done. Love how she just threw that in at the end there…oh yeah, and there’s some rabbit heart on your plate.

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in Food Travel / Red Meat / Restaurants 1 comments
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Endless Road Trip: Pastrami in Portland?

We know that Portland does pork well…and ice cream, and of course weird food and breakfast. One thing I was not expecting to find in this foodie wonderland was a decent pastrami sandwich. Even more so than bagels or pizza-by-the-slice, pastrami is a food that rightfully belongs to the east coast, and to New York in particular. Just like West Coasters complain up and down that you can’t find good Mexican east of the Mississippi, there is now way I was gonna find a pastrami sandwich in Portland that beats those from somewhere like Lansky’s, right?

Except I did, and it is the best pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had.

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in Cheese / Food Travel / Red Meat / Restaurants / Sandwich 0 comments
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The Endless Road Trip: Put Some Ink on It

These days, you don’t have to look far to find people serving their French fries with craziness like duck fat or rosemary salt or balsamic ketchup. Yes, the most plebeian of foods has gone gourmet. And not surprisingly, Portland wins this contest.

Foster Burger in SE Portland serves their perfectly-sized, crispy “black and white fries” with: died garlic, truffle oil, parmesan, and, for dipping..black squid ink aioli. Yes, these spuds are dipped in seafood spray. Brilliant. Ridiculous. Also, tasty.

Also on The Endless Road Trip: Portland
1. Porklandia
2. All That’s Euro is Not Trash
3. Salt and Straw
4. Blue for Breakfast

in Cheese / Restaurants / Trends 0 comments
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The Endless Road Trip: Blue for Breakfast

Portland is no stranger to meaty, overstuffed sandwiches (see Big Ass), but what do these crazy folks eat for breakfast?

Thankfully, the same thing. From the Brunch Box Food Cart, the Black and Bleu breakfast sandwich: two thick slices of Texas Toast stuffed with sausage, bacon, grilled onions and Cajun spices. Oh, and obviously they had to do something outrageously foodie here, so there’s a thick layer of bleu cheese spread across the bottom slice of toast. Love it. Who says you can’t get funky at breakfast?

Also on The Endless Road Trip: Portland
1. Porklandia
2. All That’s Euro is Not Trash
3. Salt and Straw

in Bacon / Breakfast / Cheese / Red Meat / Sandwich 2 comments
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The Endless Road Trip: Salt and Straw

We’re no strangers to crazy ice cream flavors here at ES, and let’s be real—in this brave new dessert world where salted caramel sundaes and olive oil ice cream have become the norm, a chef putting something insane inside your cone is not really newsworthy. HOWEVER, when I heard there is an ice cream shop in meat-mad Portland serving bone marrow ice cream, clearly I was there in a New York minute.

The bad news: Salt and Straw did not have the bone marrow flavor in stock on the day I visited, but really for the very best reason possible: they were waiting for cherry season to start, so that they could make a bone marrow-black cherry ice cream. Obvi.

The good news: I had enough friends with me to order up a smorgasbord of outrageous flavors: honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper, sea salt with caramel ribbons, coffee-bourbon, blue cheese and pear (!), honey-lavender, blood orange, and blueberry with key lime marmalade. All head-over-heels amazing. the sweet-and-savory balsamic-strawberry-pepper took top honors for me.

The better news:

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in Desserts / Food Travel / Red Meat / Restaurants 4 comments
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The Endless Road Trip: Not All That’s Euro is Trash

Portland is known for its incredibly diverse food cart scene, with over 700 of them clustered around town in various Food Pods. As I browsed one of the larger pods downtown, Brett Burmeister of Food Carts Portland (the definitive expert on Portland street food) strongly recommended one called Eurotrash. While it wouldn’t have been my first choice based on the name, I had to give the inventive menu—Portugese-influenced with pan-Euro touches, a hint of Indian spice, and a generous helping of good old fashioned American gluttony—a chance.

And glad I did. Above: “chorizo and chips,” a serving of thinly-sliced, golden-brown fried potatoes mixed with slivers of grilled chroizo, cilantro and a creamy curry aioli. Yep—potatoes, curry and pig—all that’s good about food in one bite. Alternatively, they’ll top your chips with a heaping serving of foie.

More after the jump.

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in Featured / Fish / Food Travel / Pig / Sandwich 0 comments
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