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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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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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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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. […]
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Cheap Meets Elite
Time to Try Out the Ringside
Ringside Steakhouse 2165 W Burnside Walking into the Ringside bar is like walking into an episode of The Man Show. Thick-necked men in suits sip tumblers of bourbon. Boxing gloves dangle from the ceiling, sports hero autographs hang from the wall alongside comments like, ‘I loved the steak.’ There is a plethora of dark wood, […]
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SELF-HELL
Analysis for People on the Go
Am I America? Many folks here at The Helsinki Institute (located in downtown Madison, Wisconsin) have been talking about President Bush’s economic forum. (We have a lot of time to watch CNN while waiting for lab results.) This has led to some confusion. “We’re America,” the president told a group of 240 carefully chosen, mainly […]
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Beirut Now Portland
Abu Rasheed’s Tasty Lebanese Cuisine
Abu Rasheed 1921 SW 6th Ave (between Hall St and College St) 274-4412 Lucky for us some of the tastiest cuisine of the Arab world, the Lebanese, is now firmly rooted in the Rose City. Supposedly, the Portland area is quite similar in climate and topography to that of Lebanon (they even have a cedar […]
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THE AARON PLAN
I’m Fat, and That’s That—Or is it?
It’s hot. It’s damn hot. It’s hotter than a half-fucked fox in a forest fire, and I’m way too fat for it. You see, for the last couple years, my combination of diet and “exercise” has lead to a combination of my waist and inflated fat cells. And if you’ve ever seen fat cells on […]
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THE EXPERT’S GUIDE TO AREA GROCERIES
Had enough of Velveeta and Iceberg lettuce? Leave your Safeway Club Card at home, and head out to any of the hundreds of specialty markets in town. Don’t know where to find bible tripe? Ask the expert!
Where to shop if you’re RICH: Many of Portland’s well-heeled have never seen the place, but their maids and personal chefs are well acquainted with the luxury-packed aisles of Strohecker’s, 2855 SW Patton. Typical of the old money folks, who care not for fancy décor and the latest trendy products, Strohecker’s is about as elegantly […]
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Pass the Nutcreem
A Decadent, Vegan Sugar Freakout
While I am not a vegan, I will only consume vegan dessert products. Part of this is due to the influence of my meat-eating boyfriend, whose neuroses are such that any fat-filled/processed sugar dessert sends him into a state of frenzy. This attitude, as you might imagine, is quite contagious. Another reason I only consume […]