Is My Neighbor the Suburban Sniper? It’s an old truism that no one likes to get shot in the head, so it’s no wonder that everyone is a little jumpy about this whole “unidentified sniper” thing. Who is this guy? Why is he so mad? Who is he going to shoot next, and is he […]
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Enchanted Vietnamese Food
Inside a Hidden Place
Thai Binh 6700 NE Broadway 252-7710 I admire Gargamel. Not only did Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” accompany him around the forest, but here’s a guy who will never give up on his Sisyphusian quest to find and eventually cook and consume the ever-elusive Smurfs. Sounds like a true chowhound to me. Not unlike Gargamel, I tirelessly […]
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Party Platter
Great Catering For the PDX Set
Sure, at most parties you’re just going to throw out a bag of chips, maybe some dip, and if you’re real fancy, a Safeway veggie plate. But then, of course, there are those rare occasions when you need something special, something delicious, something that befits an event that will not soon be forgotten Well, that’s […]
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Your Neighborhood Bistro
Buckman Adds Bustle
Three does make a crowd. Until a month ago, the stretch of storefronts along SE 12th was easy to drive past. Sure, Three Friends Coffee is popular with nearby residents, and the adjacent upscale restaurant, William’s on 12th, has its steady clientele–but somehow that wasn’t enough. Sandwiched between industrial warehouses and Sandy Blvd, those two […]
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Self-Hell
Analysis for
People on the Go
How Hep am I? You know him. The sharp dresser. The cat’s meow. The bee’s knees. The hep cat. You would like to be hep, too, wouldn’t you? You’ve watched him with his shiny shoes and his record albums and you’ve thought: that could be me. I could comb my hair like that, and learn […]
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Izzy’s
Izzy’s: Fast, Fresh, and Fun for the Whole Family
Izzy’s Pizza Bar and Classic Buffet 9919 SE Sunnyside Rd Clackamas 503-653-4010 Whenever the kids get rowdy, and I don’t have enough time to cook dinner, we hop in the car and head straight to Izzy’s Pizza Bar and Classic Buffet. Izzy’s salad bar has unlimited choices, from fresh kidney beans and cottage cheese, to […]
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Laff Riot
Thai Food, Plus Comedy
Sivalaya Thai Restaurant 4806 SE Stark 230-2875 Even though I consider Southeast Portland to be played out, it does have its advantages. If you live in the heart, near Belmont or Hawthorne, you have a million places to walk, the bus takes five minutes to downtown, there are tons of good parks, and (here’s my […]
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Butchering Molly
I Bought the Chicken, I Killed the Chicken, I Ate the Chicken
It was my first time killing anything, and my victim was to be a chicken named Molly. My friend Rob, who grew up on a farm and killed a lot of different birds, was giving me a tutorial as we progressed. He brought the knife over to me, took it out of its sheath, and […]
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Savor the Flavor
Cañita’s Got Cajones
Cañita, an oasis of bright green, pink, and turquoise on an otherwise scary and disgusting stretch of urban blight, is a promising addition to the world of Portland nightlife. Trouble is, there is no nightlife in Portland. The night I ate there, the joint was hopping from about 5:00 to 7:30, and then started to […]
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Small World Cafe
My New Favorite Place
Small World Cafe 722 N Sumner (inside Big City Produce) 265-0024 Having recently completed Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, I’m suddenly having a hard time eating out; I’m unable to eat a hamburger without thinking of the hormones used in the beef, unable to order chicken without imagining cages and cages of sick, E.coli-filled chickens, […]
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SELF-HELL
Analysis for People on the Go
Am I a Hippie? After receiving many reader letters surrounding a recent column by Ann Romano, editors at the Portland Mercury have been forced to face an unsettling question: Are some of our readers hippies? After struggling with the notion and its implications for several days, the editors have asked the Self-Hell Institute in Helsinki […]
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A Spicy Sparkle
Authentic Korean at Be Won
Be Won 1203 NW 23rd Ave (at Northrup) 464-9222 Korean food is eerie and mysterious, even to many Korean Americans. At the same time, restaurants that serve ethnic food in ethnicity-deprived locales (like Northwest 23rd Avenue) often take such bold steps to demystify their cuisine, that the end result is a cowardly, though friendlier, version. […]