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The first half of this year saw a raft of new cafés open all across town. Like any good citizen consumer, I decided to try a few of them. It’s very strange, bouncing from café to café—as dumb as it always sounded in my long-ago stint as a Starbucks employee, the café is truly unlike […]
Light, refreshing summer seasonals have already made their debuts, while heartier fall beers are now arriving. But what should one drink when summer refuses to die, and the sun’s still being a giant jerk? Here’s a six-pack of (un)seasonally appropriate Oregon beers that made their debut in cans or have reappeared after a short absence. […]
I have feelings about salad rolls. So often they’re bland, and the thin rice paper roll shreds as you try to eat the unseasoned shrimp, tofu, or pork packed within. Or the ratio of vermicelli noodles is too high, or it’s served inexplicably with sweet and sour sauce. A good salad roll, however, is a […]
Being pleasantly surprised on a second or third visit to a place might be more satisfying than being pleasantly surprised from the get-go. Last week, with a small group of friends, I had dinner at Palomar, award-winning bartender Ricky Gomez’s slick Cuban cocktail factory on Southeast Division. Most of us had been before, so we […]
Portland is fortunate enough to have more than a dozen restaurants to score incredible ramen. Some of these spots are even helmed by skilled ramen chefs straight from Japan, where ramen is venerated as an art. But in Japan, ramen isn’t all high craft and honorifics; it’s also a basic subsistence food enjoyed by all […]
Maybe you feel differently, but when fall comes along, I’m ready to go bonkers on some food. The air turns crisp, the leaves start to fall, and I need to get some fat on these bones, stat. After all, winter waits for no one—and neither does Portland’s world-class food scene, which shows no sign of […]
Deepak Saxena says that when he opened his DesiPDX cart at Northeast 15th and Alberta in 2015, he knew the corner—with a Bamboo Sushi and a Barista not far away—was ripe for redevelopment. So it didn’t come as a surprise when he was told the land was for sale—although learning he had just six weeks […]
Deepak Kaul wasn’t supposed to go into the restaurant industry. And, as a middle-class Indian American, he definitely wasn’t supposed to go into the Indian restaurant industry. “Cooking as a profession was never an option,” Kaul says. “That’s how Indians roll. We don’t do that. Not middle-class Indians.” His family, he says, had other plans […]
After an ill-fated pizza spot appeared and disappeared next to the Eagle on North Lombard, if you’d have asked me what could survive in that largely residential no-man’s-land between I-5 and MLK Boulevard, I would not have said, “$24 ceviche and $14 pisco sours.” If a recent Saturday night at Casa Zoraya is any indicator, […]
If you doubt that I’ve always been passionate about food, please ask my mother to tell you about the times (yes, more than once) that I threw a temper tantrum over being denied Chicken McNuggets. To this day, I love me some nugs, and have molded my fit-pitching ability into the more reasoned written format […]
There’s a reason the word “dumpling” is a term of endearment—we love them. A version of them exists in nearly every culture—from gyoza to pierogi to ravioli. The act of wrapping dough around a filling and applying heat turns ingredients into a universal thing humans would very much like to eat… except when those dumplings […]
Here’s some O. Henry-level classic irony for you: I love breakfast, but I’m not a morning person. I know, I know—it’s a tragedy. I’m not asking for your pity, though. Two months ago, you bet I’d want you to cry for me. But now, Blackheart exists: a punk rock bar where it’s always brunch. “Brunch” […]
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